AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Instead, she was handed off to Natasha and Ivanka and brought downstairs through a massive stairway that led from the main deck to the enormous belly of the ship. Here, containers were stacked side by side in four rows, two aisles between them.
The containers were empty, the doors open—massive sliding doors connected by one bar at the top. Inside sat simple cots, all the beds made, no other belongings.
Cells?
The place reeked of sweat and rust and human waste, so a real home away from home.
One star, do not recommend.
The showers and bathroom were located at the far end of the ship through a giant metal door. The smell could buckle her knees. Maybe forty showerheads in all, and open holes in the floor for waste.
She wasn’t sure why they bothered to douse her down.
Except, of course, that now, as she walked back out into the corridor lit only by dark and dirty fluorescent lights, her woolen feet silent on the floor, small amidst the massive yaw of brutal, raw metal, it seemed as though the shower had stripped her of, well, herself.
Replaced her with number twenty-three. Small. Unknown. Lost.
Not lost. Not.Lost!
Natasha stopped in front of a container, the door open. Maybe six feet deep, the container held only a narrow cot, a striped barren mattress, a blanket and bare pillow folded on the bed.
Nothing else. No bathroom, no sink.
No light.
The woman motioned her inside, and only then did she notice that on the door was written the number twenty-three.
Right.
She stepped into the container. The floor was plywood and recently swept. But it had clearly been inhabited before, because etchings on the walls revealed Cyrillic words, and even a number.
2304.
She lowered herself onto the bed. Looked at Natasha, who said something to her.
Then, as she sat, the massive door was slid closed. It seemed all the doors were on one unit, because the entire place shuddered with the click of the doors sliding into place.
And then, darkness.
Not total darkness, but enough to throw the container into despair. A smaller door cut into the massive sliding panel contained a twelve-by-twelve barred window through which the wan light from the ship bled. But Shae could barely make out her hand in front of her face.
She got up, looked out of the bars.
The guards had continued walking down the hall, away from her, the sound of their footsteps eaten by the expanse.
Alone. Shae pressed her hand to her chest, stumbled back, and hit the back of her legs on the cot. Fell on it.
Her breathing quickened.
Stay calm.
This couldn’t be the rest of her life. Lukka would call Uncle Ian. He would ransom her.
Or Ned would find her.
Or…
Don’t. Cry.
