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The thirteenth floor is the worst by far. The smell alone, even from the stairs, is enough to let me know the girls had been kept here. Probably in conditions worse than I could ever imagine, and my imagination is pretty good.
The lowest level is damn near bare as if nobody comes down here. If I didn’t know better, I would think it was just a small hall, and the door at the end was like a boiler room or storage. But based on what the girl told Zander, it should be an office.
I’m the first to the door. I walk in with my gun at the ready, followed closely by Zander, with Spencer bringing up the rear. The cops can say they swept this building as many times as they want, but it never hurts to keep your guard up. If they had missed the girl, they could have missed anything.
I call out to the guys as I do a small circle in the tiny room. To call it an office would be an exaggeration. This room is barely big enough for the desk and two chairs that I assume the slimebag used for skin trades. The thought of the business that went on in this office makes my stomach roll and my temper flare.
Zander books it for the desk as soon as I call the all-clear, dropping down and feeling around for some way to open the hatch. I don’t even make it around the desk before I hear the creak of the hinges and know he found a way to open it.
Spencer and I stand on the side of the desk, looking down into the pit as he opens it. I’m not sure what I expect, this night has been one curveball after the other, but somehow the site in front of me still finds a way to shock me.
It’s a crudely dug hole in the ground—no more than five feet wide each way and maybe eight feet deep. There’s no light and nothing else inside but a girl lying on the ground.
She doesn’t stir, even after the door is open. The small amount of light from the office illuminates the pit. It’s not a lot of light, but I imagine any light after pitch black would cause someone to stir. How long has she been here? Is she alive?
I go to express my concern to the others, but before I can, a gasp sounds from somewhere next to me. I’m unsure if it was Zander or Spencer, but it doesn't matter.
Without a word, Zander lets the door fall open against the desk with a bang before he hops down into the pit. He lands in the small space next to where the girl lies. Quickly reaching down, he puts his fingers on her neck, letting me know he had the same concern I did.
After a moment, he reaches out and shakes her. She must be alive, or he wouldn’t be wasting time trying to wake her. She doesn’t respond immediately, but after a few moments of him shaking her, she begins to stir.
She sits up and stretches in such a small space she almost smacks Zander in the face. I hear Spencer huff in amusement beside me as Zander looks back at us, utter confusion on his face.
We watch her as she blinks rapidly against the light before looking around. Her gaze lands on Zander first before quickly looking up at us, her eyes finding Spencer and then turning to me.
She may be in the pit, but she obviously had better conditions than some of the other girls. For a moment, I let myself be naive enough to think maybe she didn't suffer quite as much as I assumed when I heard she was facing isolation. But as I look her over, I know that's far from true.
She looks as though she was bathed more recently than the others and maybe even had access to a hairbrush. While her clothes are still dirty and ill-fitting, they aren't in as bad of shape as some we saw. But in this line of work, the best-taken care of probably means you are the most often called upon.
Her skin’s littered with bruises. Her bottom lip appears to be busted based on the dried blood crusted on it, and that’s just what I can see from here. There's no telling what other injuries she has, both physically and mentally.
Was she protecting the other girls from more than just time in the pit? My curiosity almost gets the better of me as I open my mouth to ask her just that. But Zander beats me to it, asking her for her name instead and I snap my mouth closed. Now is not the time for my curiosity. We need to get her out of here.
We all continue watching her as if she could disappear at any moment. Then, finally, she looks back at Zander and smiles up at him. Even covered in grim and bruises, she's beautiful, but her smile lights up her whole face. She has a petite frame, and I would guess she's probably only around five feet tall, maybe one hundred pounds soaking wet. So while they don’t appear to have starved them, they weren’t feeding them more than needed to stay alive and not be sick, either. Her hair is a light shade of blonde, and judging by her roots, it’s either freshly dyed or her natural color.
I wouldn’t put it past someone in the business of selling young girls for sex to make them change their appearance based on what sells. Her hair is pulled back from her face in a sloppy ponytail, but it’s long, almost touching the ground, even as she sits up straight from her spot on the ground.
Her smile is what gives me pause, though, and judging by how Zander all but freezes as she looks up at him, I know he sees it too. She smiles up at him like he is the best thing she has ever seen, and I mentally kick myself for not being the one to jump down and check on her. I’m unsure why I want her to look at me like that. But, instead of digging into it, I shake the thought off. That’s the last thing that should be on any of our minds.
“My name is Jade.” She tells Zander, and I watch him as a smile takes over his face. Zander’s always smiling, but very rarely is it genuine. Usually, his smiles are laced with some of the psycho energy that’s just a part of who he is, giving them a much more unsettling vibe.
He usually reserves this smile for friends, meaning Spencer and myself. It’s just pure happiness. It reminds me of when we were younger, back when Zander was just happy all the time.
I clear my throat, effectively pulling her attention to me, but her smile remains as she looks up at me and then at Spencer. I hear Spencer's breath catch as her gaze lands on him last.
Fuck.
We do not need this right now. Neither does she.
“Let’s get you out of here, Jade. The other girls are waiting for you.” I tell her as I reach my hand down into the pit to help her up. I didn’t think it was possible, but her smile grew even bigger when I mentioned leaving the pit, or maybe it was the girls.
Then, without hesitation, she pushes herself to stand and reaches for my hand. I’m unsure if I’m happy she put her trust in me to get her out of there or upset that she did it so quickly, without question. Again I let it go, telling myself if I were trapped in a dark hole, I would take any way out. Facing the potential consequences outside the pit is better than being trapped inside.
She can barely grab my hand with how small she is but manages, and I brace myself to pull her up. Again I doubt she weighs very much but with little space to brace myself and the odd angle; this could be a real pain in the ass. However, the moment her hand grips my own, she places her feet on the walls and pushes herself up, making it so she's less dead weight, and pulling her up is almost effortless. As I pull her over the edge, Zander looks up at me, confused, he’s crouched low to the ground, and I realize he was also ready to help her up with a lift, but she didn’t need it.
Maybe she's not as helpless as she seems.
She gets up and off the ground in a fluid motion and dusts her clothes off. Not that it helps anything overall because, as I noticed earlier, she’s covered in grim, but the dirt on her hands and legs shakes free from her time lying on it.
