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“Let’s go,” said Gaspar. Nine, Trak, Gaspar, Ghost, Ian, Raphael, Baptiste, and Angel crowded inside the triage room.
“Seriously? All of you?” smirked Gabi.
“It’s alright,” said Christina. “I wanted to thank you all for finding me. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold on.” The men chuckled, shaking their heads at the teenager.
“Honey, you were holding on just fine. I’m sure you would have done great.”
“Let me tell you what happened before I lose any of the details,” she nodded. They all stared at one another, shaking their heads. This was a remarkable young woman. “I got that stupid tattoo, and it wasn’t what I wanted at all, but it looked pretty cool. I met my friends that night, and we went to this club. I know what you’re going to say. We’re all underage, but I had a fake ID, something I’m very happy to relinquish.
“Anyway, I was dancing with this really cute college guy, and he looked at the tattoo and then asked how old I was. I got nervous and lied to him, but he knew. Turns out, I got lucky. He was a good guy and didn’t want any trouble. Before he left, he said that tattoo doesn’t say what you think it does. I thought it said ‘luck.’
“I asked my friends to leave, but they wanted to stay. They all agreed to take a ride-share or taxi home. I was walking to my car, and this guy grabbed me and said I belonged to him. He said my tattoo indicated that I was his possession. I kicked him and ran but got turned around and couldn’t find the club my friends were in.
“I heard him coming behind me and ducked into another club, running into the ladies’ room to hide. A girl went to find the manager, but before he got there, the guy took me out the back. Next thing I know, I’ve got a hood over my head, and I’m in that room. The same guy who took me grabbed me and pulled me out to put these node things on my head.”
“Did you get a good look at his face?” asked Ian.
“Definitely. I thought he was older at first, but he was maybe twenty-three or twenty-four. He was wearing a Loyola sweatshirt, dark brown hair, brown eyes, kind of nerdy. At first, I thought he was big, but seeing you guys, he was a pee-wee.” The men all chuckled, nodding at her to continue.
“Anyway, he kept telling the older dude, ‘There’s nothing. She’s afraid of nothing.’ Then the old guy…” She stopped, looking up at their faces. “Sorry. He wasn’t really old. He just looked older than the other guys. He was maybe thirty-five or forty.”
“Ancient,” smirked Angel.
“To me, he was,” she smiled. “He pointed to something on the screen and said there’s a blip there. Next thing I knew, they opened the door and let a rat come in. I knew that he was trying to scare me, so I just kept saying to myself, ‘It’s a hamster. It’s a hamster.’ The rat was obviously trained. He came right into my hand and let me pet him.
“I think that pissed them off. Suddenly, I hear loud squeaking and scratching sounds, like there are a million rats in the room. Except my little friend wasn’t reacting at all. I know enough to know that he would have gone toward his friends if they were really in there with us.”
“Did you hear anything from the others, the other rooms?” asked Baptiste.
“Only when he opened the doors. Then I heard others screaming, yelling for them to stop. This was a game to them. When he got the reactions he wanted, he would record them, and the next thing I knew, my neighbors were gone. Sometimes, there would be new kids come in, but he was seriously out to get me.”
“Because you weren’t afraid,” smiled Nine.
“I was. Kind of. I mean, I was afraid that I wouldn’t see my parents again or my friends. But I wasn’t afraid of my little rat king. They wanted him back, and I refused. That really made him mad,” she laughed, shaking her head. “He’d get all red in the face, and his head would start sweating. I did hear them say that one of the other men was killed.”
“Yes, he was,” said Ian. “They dumped one of the kids not far from here, and then he was in a head-on collision.”
“Not to be cruel, but serves his ass right.”
“Christina, you are an anomaly,” smiled Gaspar. “Most young women or young men would be seriously traumatized by all of this. You seem to be taking it in stride.”
“No. I just know the difference between reality and make-believe. That man was playing at mad scientist. He referenced a Dr. Duarte Vieira, who claimed that torturing prisoners was against the laws of man, peace treaties, accords, the UN, everything. He said the man was a ‘wimp,’ and he would prove that psychological torture could be used to get the information you wanted and to make soldiers stronger mentally.”
“You might have disproved his theory,” said Gaspar.
“No. I’m different. I’ve always been different. When I was little, my parents took me on this swamp tour to see the alligators and snakes. This alligator came out of nowhere and climbed into our boat. I was only eight or nine but grabbed him by the tail and pulled him overboard. Everyone just stared at me. The doctor said I don’t feel fear like others do.”
“I think the doctor is right,” said Ghost. “That can be a good thing and a bad thing.”
“Can I see Leif, Walker, and Forrest? Drs. Riley and Gabi said that they were the ones who got you to come find me. I’d really like to thank them.”
“I’m sure they’d like to see that you’re alright,” said Angel. “I’ll go see if they’re in the waiting area.”
“Christina? Were you aware that they were filming you the whole time?” asked Raphael.
“Definitely. I thought it was sick and creepy. We weren’t allowed to shower, but if you had to pee or the other,” she said shyly, “you had to do it in the room. I didn’t think anything of it the first day, but by the second day, I started recognizing the sounds.
“Even the best video equipment emits a hum. I also noticed that although it was black in the room, the ceiling was a different kind of black. I was able to climb up the brick and feel that it was glass. That’s when I knew for sure they were watching me.”
