Page 11 of Red Waters

“So, in trade, for keeping him from experiencing what you recently overheard—”

The man being raped. I grabbed my stomach as visions of Link being so mistreated pelted my already debilitating guilt.

“I want, no, I need to witness your sacrifice.”

As if my future now belonging to Yury wasn’t enough to make me want to die, I realized I was being watched. I swallowed more bile rising in my throat. “How do you know what I heard?”

He pointed to a hidden lens in the ceiling. “All rooms are monitored.”

All rooms? How many? I’m going to be sick again. My bent legs swayed from side to side as I tried to find some release from the building anguish. I was beyond desperate to figure out how to protect Link without losing myself. Then it dawned on me. I warned, “Link’s father has him very well protected. Plus, Link’s at Harvard.” I threw the reputable school name into the air as if it meant something to a human trafficker.

It didn’t.

Gleefully, Yury pulled back out his torturing device. “Expecting you to believe this, I have another video for you.” He held it up for me to watch.

If hearing Crash being ruthlessly beat made me violently ill, what I saw next was going to put me in the grave. No doubt. My whole body shook as the video showed Link in various places: swimming across our lake, at college, walking upstairs to enter a building.

The outside shots fooled me into false hope. They can’t get to him. But then the video went dark. I could hear water running and Link singing “Time After Time”. As the person filming turned a corner, entering a college bathroom, I could see Link alone in a dorm shower, soapy water dripping down his back, clueless to his impending danger.

I cried out before I could muffle my terror with my palm.

Then the video went quiet again. It was still dark, but the surroundings were different. The person filming was sneaking into a dorm room where Link slept. He looked so peaceful, his head resting on a clean pillow… as a gun was pointed at his head.

Reaching for Link, I couldn’t get air in. My lungs froze in terror. The video ended.

Yury and I sat in silence for some time, staring at each other. Maybe he was giving me time to swim in my newfound hell, letting my imagination become my worst enemy. My thoughts were so active they practically crackled in the air.

Resting his elbows on his knees, Yury took on a serious manner. “I give you my word that no harm will come to him if you obey.”

Fatigue was the result of my torturous, emotional overload. In my mind, I was watching Crash’s eyes close in the water the night I failed him… “Your word means nothing to me.”

“Yet, you are still willing to try to protect Link?”

I dare say I heard a glimmer of hope in his tone, and it sickened me. “I’m lucky, Yury. I do have a heart. Of course, I will protect Link to the best of my ability.”

At the gruesome moment in my life, Yury chuckled. “I’d hardly call your present circumstance lucky.”

I kept staring into the cold and haunting blue eyes of the man who now truly owned me.

In some sort of illusive awe, he shook his head. “These sacrifices truly mystify me. I can see it in you, as I have before with Crash. Your situation is worse than hopeless, yet you are willing to stay in it for another.”

My sight drifted from Yury. I wanted to stare at anything but him.

“Do you wonder what I will ask of you?”

“I do, but it doesn’t matter.” I thought of Mr. Jones and repeated his words. “I would relive or live any horrid event to have Link… safe.”

“Bewildering.” After a moment of dismay, Yury returned the iPad to his pocket. “Threats are most effective in my line of work. So many pets are willing to do anything to protect their loved ones. It is why chains are not needed for most. We know where they used to live and how to find anyone important to them, yet their devotion doesn’t compare to Crash’s for you. He gave the ultimate sacrifice. Too bad it was for nothing.”

In a stoic state, I said, “You don’t look like the monster you truly are.”

He shrugged. “Appearances are a façade we profit on hourly. Young girls believe our lies, then we sell their bodies.”

“Am I to be sold?”

“You already have been.”

My shoulders drooped as my soul begged for mercy.