He seems to be talking to someone, someone we don’t see, because he is still in the van.
“There’s no one here,” David growls at his partner. “We said fucking 10:00.”
I can hear mumbling from inside, but nothing audible. David doesn’t say anything. He just pulls himself out of the van window. He’s standing next to me, taking out a pack of cigarettes. He extracts one, puts it in the corner of his mouth, pockets the rest and pats himself for the lighter. A few seconds pass and he realizes he’s got none. He leans back into the van through the open window and at that moment the girl makes a run for it.
Without thinking, I follow. My legs are heavy. My mind is a blur. Our chains clink together, making horrific music and I hear an enraged voice shout after us.
“You bitches! You better get back here now!!!”
His voice is hard, like thunder and I know if he catches us, he will kill us. I breathe heavily, as I try to keep up with the girl. She isn’t turning around to see if I’m following her, or if David is following her. To her, it seems the same. She is running alone, for herself. I’m not sure if given the chance, she would even help me. But I keep running because that is the only thing I can do now. My shoes are making it harder to run on uneven ground. Soon, we reach the woods to our left, but the girl doesn’t go in. Instead, she runs to the right and after thick shrubbery opens up before us both, I realize to my horror, that we’ve reached the end.
A vertical rock exposure. I almost laugh at myself for remembering the book explanation of a cliff. The girl stops right on the edge, but she still doesn’t turn around. I stop a few steps behind her, barely able to take a breath. A few moments later, I hear someone’s footsteps behind us. Yes, we’ve reached the end.
“Get back to the fucking van,” I hear David growl at us.
I don’t turn around. My eyes are focused on the girl. She is standing on the edge of the cliff, as if she is about to fly off of it and transform into a bird. I dare not move, even though David’s voice assures me he’s not messing around. At that moment, the girl turns around and looks back at me. I see she’s taken something out of her pocket, with trembling fingers. Something that looks like a photograph, but she is too far away from me to see it clearly. The wind is blowing wildly, as the girl’s hair flies all around her face, like an enchanted, dark spider web. She looks like a forest nymph, who had the misfortune of being caught by humans. Her entire existence is now in question and she doesn’t know what to do. I’m taking short, shallow breaths, afraid to move. I think I’m more scared than she is.
“Tell my son I love him,” the girl finally speaks, kissing the photograph that she is clutching with her fingers.
A thin veil of relief washes over her pale face, as she turns around, lifting her arms over her head. It looks like she is about to fly away, far away from here and leave me behind. For a moment, I want to fly, too. It seems like a fate better than the one we would have with these people. Escape has already become a distant hope, a memory which is dissipating slowly, but surely. Maybe the girl is right. Maybe we should just fly away.
My eyes are fixated on her, as she takes only two steps and then disappears from view.
“Stop!!!’ David rushes after her, but we both know she is gone.
He stops right at the edge and for a second, I contemplate pushing him over. I just need to take a few steps, silently and push. How hard can it be? But, I’m too far away and he turns around to face me immediately, as if he’s able to read my mind.
“Fuck!” he shouts again angrily.
He stomps over to me in an instant and grabs me by the elbow. We start walking back to the van and I don’t dare say anything. Dry, scorched dirt crumbles underneath our feet. He is breathing heavily. The grip he’s got on my elbow doesn’t loosen, not even for a second.
“You fucking bitches always have to make it hard,” he says out loud, not even looking at me.
I think of the girl who was just standing next to me, a minute ago. I realize, with sadness, that I don’t even know her name. How will her boy know that he was the last thing on her mind, the last word on her lips and to him belongs the last breath she ever took? I can only hope that he already knows how much she loved him. But it crushes me that he will never know what happened to her. Her death will remain a mystery. Tears start streaming down my face, not because of what will happen to me, but because this girl was braver than I am. I would never have dared to jump, never…
It takes us a few minutes to get back to the van and I see that the driver is out, leaning against the van, smoking a cigarette. We’re the only ones there, still. Whoever was supposed to come, wasn’t late. They aren’t showing up.
“Where’s the other one?” he asks, spitting out the remainder of his cigarette.
“The bitch jumped,” David snorted, angrily, letting go of my elbow and pushing me right onto the other guy.
“So, we’re just left with her?” the guy asks.
“Do you fucking see anyone else!?” David is mad as Hell now.
Their plan is obviously not going as they expected it to and I don’t know what I’m afraid of more: being sold to someone or going back to that horrid basement.
“Give me the phone!” David growls at the guy, who extracts his phone from his pocket and hands it to him.
David dials a number, then waits. My hands are still bound, but no one’s got their hands on me. And yet, I’m not even considering running again. I tried and I failed miserably.
“I know you said not to call, but we’re here and we’ve been fucking waiting for the last half an hour!” David shouts into the phone so loudly that a small flock of birds get startled and fly away from a nearby tree.
There is no one else around us. There is nowhere to run to. Maybe I should have jumped and now, I would be free.
“Fine!” David growls again over the phone. “You better be there this time!”
He hangs up the phone and shoves it to his partner, who looks at him questioningly.