Thank you for beta'ing, A Star In My Universe! Welcome to my new story! (don't worry, I'm not dumping The Calming Neon Lights In Our Dark Stormy Skies!)0

Summary: Nine years ago, a woman and her young daughter vanished. After being tortured for so long, she gets rescued and returns along with the dark secrets she's harboring, as do her child and eleven other missing girls a while later. She's afraid to love again and new complications arise because her best friend is keeping a deadly secret from everyone, which may just destroy the strongest bonds between friends and lovers. The parents will go to great lengths to protect their kids. Very AU, ships: Nichorello, Flaritza, Alex/Michelle, Daya/Adarsh, Maria/Yadriel, Blanca/Diablo, Pennsatucky/Nathan, Poussey/Franziska, Aleida/Leon, Gloria/Fahri, Diane/Charles, also includes Taystee, Ouija, Pidge, Alana, Margarita, Red, Lourdes, Frieda, Claudette, Tricia, Allison, Zirconia, Cindy, Janae, and other parents of the kidnap survivors. Very dark and OOC, the Litchfield ladies aren't in prison.

Any guesses of who the woman in the first two scenes could be? Hint, none of the 'young' looking inmates ;)

Warning: abuse, mentions of neglect, violence, and torture, hostage situations, dark and graphic themes.

A young woman was standing on an overpass and blankly staring at the traffic below her. Cars zoomed left and right. Horns honked. It was a busy day in Northampton. She put her hands on the ledge and closed her eyes. She was about to swing her legs over and push herself off, but she hesitated.

There were people she loved in the world, older women she looked up to, her best friends, and her baby girl. She tried to think about them and she wanted to see them one last time to apologize for being so stupid. Then she remembered that they had their own lives now. He'd taken her back there and the house was filled with people at a party. They were having fun without her. Why would they want her back now after she'd basically abandoned them for him?

Her friends, daughter, and her mom and aunt figures might have been finished mourning her, but they would be pleasantly surprised if she showed up at any of their doorsteps suddenly. Maybe they had a faint belief in the fact that she was still out in the world, somewhere. Maybe there was hope. Maybe she backed away from the ledge and brushed her suicidal thoughts away before running to the police station as fast as she could with her long blonde hair flowing behind her. The fact that she ran away due to strength was simply a figment of her imagination. Really, she was frozen with fear on the overpass and was afraid to get down. Now, she was way past freaking out; she'd moved on to the brink of insanity.

She saw police cars and ambulances below her. A man was climbing up a ladder and she put her hands up to stop him. In her moment of panic, she forgot about appearances. She shook her head and ran down the steps, all the way to the ground. She didn't want to attract attention, but she'd already made the mistake of doing so. It was known that she could only see shadows, so hopefully, her husband wouldn't be too angry.

Her sunglasses were sliding down her nose and she stopped to gasp for breath. She heard people talking all around her. It would be on the news. The seemingly high-class beauty who was perfectly happy despite her two disabilities, tried to end her life. Nobody knew why. She was Lee Dixon's wife, for Christ's sake. Who wouldn't be happy with a handsome and friendly guy like him? It just didn't make sense. The thing was, he wasn't handsome at all, on the inside or out-at home, he'd take up the whole couch with his massive body and order her around.

"Lola?" His voice startled her. She jumped and was afraid to look behind her. He hugged her tightly and kissed her cheek. "Damn it, don't ever do that to me again! I swear to God, I was so worried about you!"

Reporters were crowding around them now, and she felt his grip grow painfully stronger. "Alright, we need some privacy!" he yelled at the crowd. "You can see she's all right! If anyone puts this on the news, I will sue them!"

That seemed to scare everyone away.

She shivered in his grasp. "I'm sorry, Lee. I don't know what I was thinking."

He roughly shoved her into his car and glared at her. She shrank into herself as he drove them home. They lived away from society to not risk any neighbors reporting him to the police. He would shoot a witness anyway, she knew that, but he still wanted to protect himself, in case a witness outsmarted him.

"You embarrassed me, you fucking whore!" he ranted at her. "It's bad enough that the public knows you've got Helen Keller syndrome, minus the deafness, but now they know you're bipolar! What the hell else is wrong with you? You know we are the most popular couple in Northampton. You know that people pity you and envy you at the same time. You smile and wave at them, but you're unavailable because you belong to me! My friends are yours. My house is yours. I buy you everything you've ever wanted, and this is what I get in return?" He swung his fist into her face and her head hit the side window. She was dizzy and she could feel blood seeping out of the flesh below her eye. "Fuck you, woman!"

She knew what was coming. It wasn't just the usual nightly beating and rape; it would be like all the other times she tried to run away. He would act like a gentleman to her, make her serve him and his friends and then drug her with an alcoholic beverage while he let his friends, a disgusting gang, have turns with her. She didn't know why she even bothered thinking about getting out. It would be impossible, since gossip spread about her and him and he knew everyone and whoever saw her in a dangerous situation would tell him. She had once left the house while he was on a business trip, and his secretary ratted her out. She had once broken the tracking device he kept on various places of her body, and it shocked her so she couldn't move for a week. She had seen her friends when they traveled to the Bronx in New York, but, of course, they had not recognized her. Her disguise was flawless and her husband unknown to them. More than once she inwardly kicked herself for having never mentioned a word about him to them and then eloping. Now, because of that stupid mistake, all they saw was a handsome man with his wife. They never saw their friend and neither did anyone else. She knew there was no way out after three failed attempts. Even they couldn't save her.

She found herself naked and locked in a basement hours later with duct tape around her mouth and her wrists and ankles bound with ropes. To ensure that she would never leave him again, he chained her to a pole in the basement. She cried desperately and struggled, but it was no use. She was trapped.

"How did you get away from her?" Felix Rikerson asked his partner.

"It was easy. I finally got up the courage to control that bitch and break up with her. I was surprised she let me leave her. Then again, she threatened to ruin my career by telling everyone I cheated on her, and she's racist. That's a deal breaker for me; the woman I fall for cannot be a Nazi or a bigot. She is not fit to be a good girlfriend. She always seemed too evil...it was foreboding whenever she complained about anyone who wasn't straight, white, or Christian. I thought she loved me…and I was different. She used me. All she wanted was sex, no strings attached."

"The divorce is final, then?"

"Our lawyer thought it was best that I put a restraining order on her because she would follow me to work, call me every five seconds, and hurt herself so she could tell people that I was abusive. She was stalking me, so I had to put a restraining order on her. I haven't heard from her since she ended up in prison."

"Thank God. I'm glad you're okay now, buddy."

"Now, we've got some more cases to solve, right?."

"You are so out of the loop, Ford."

"Three years of being in a bad marriage does do that to you."

The men were driving down the road darkened by late night shadows, when they saw a man setting fire on pieces of paper that were coming off of tree trunks and metal poles.

"You better go check that out, Charles. That is not normal what he's doing...he's destroying missing person signs!"

"He's gonna get arrested for arson." Charles turned on the police sirens and the arsonist stopped in his tracks. He dropped the match, stomped on it, sprinted to his car with the burnt pieces of paper in his hands, and sped away. Charles and Felix quickly followed him to an empty area with a single house. They were quick to recognize the house as Lee Dixon's. He was, after all, the wealthiest military veteran in the city. So why then would he feel the need to commit a crime?

"When Dixon goes in, we knock," Felix told Charles.

"How could anyone look up to him?" Charles asked himself, but Felix answered anyway.

"This city is probably too damn naive to see his true colors."

"To me, he's just a stuck up bastard dying for attention and using his poor wife to get it all." Charles groaned and they prepared to arrest the guy.

"People are instantly attracted to a blonde, blind-mute woman. They want to help her, and they want to impress him. So they try getting close to her, but all anyone knows about her is that her name is Lola Dixon. She just sits next to him with this..."

"Fake smile," Charles finished for his friend. "Her world is dark. She's got a pompous ass for a husband and he's the only one who really talks to her. He doesn't seem to let anyone else in their lives."

They knocked on his door, and Lee let them in with a smirk. "Evening, officers, what can I do for you?"

"You're under arrest for arson," Charles muttered.

"I didn't even see you guys!"

Rikerson ignored him. "Are you intoxicated?"

"What?" he spluttered. "For fuck's sake, no!"

They heard thumping in one of the rooms below and then a scream. It was a woman's shrill shriek that echoed throughout the house. The banging continued while the inspectors looked at Lee quizzically.

"Where is your wife?" Charles asked.

Lee suddenly got defensive. "In the basement! She's trying to find something and she must have felt a rodent or whatever."

"Aren't you gonna go help her?" Rikerson asked.

"I thought she was mute," Charles said plainly.

"She is, but she can make noises. She figures things out on her own. Don't worry about her."

"Please help me," the woman faintly begged. "Oh God, please, please...I'm stuck down here..."

The voice was muffled and scratchy, like she had a cold or something was blocking her mouth, and talking at all did not fit Charles's or Rikerson's definition of mute. She never spoke, but she was saying full sentences now. They saw Lee sweating and he took a few full swigs of his whiskey before he offered another explanation.

"She knows all the rooms in this house, even if she can't see. She's not completely mute, as you can tell, but that's her voice. It's like a sick person's."

Charles recognized the voice for some reason. "Mind if we meet her in person? I've been out of the state for quite a while, and Rikerson has been so busy covering my shifts that I have no idea what she looks like. I've just heard nice things about her and she sounds...interesting."

"Get out!" Lee suddenly barked at them. "She can't use stairs and I need to help her, just get out for a minute!"

"I'll handle him, you check out the scene. This sounds bad, very bad," Rikerson whispered.

"You think he kidnapped his own wife?"

"Hey, it happens. He was trying to get rid of the missing person papers, and there's a woman down there screaming her head off. The pieces connect."

"You can't go down there! She's scared of everyone except me! If you search my house, I can sue you!"

"No, you can't, because I have a search warrant." Charles held it up as proof.

Rikerson handcuffed Dixon and led him to the back of the cop car while Charles followed the whimpering sounds to a closed door.

He wanted to kick down the door, but so he wouldn't scare her, he unlocked it, felt around for a light switch, and walked down the stairs when he found one.

There were footfalls. Heavy footfalls. The kind that boots made when stomping down a staircase. A light was now on, and she squinted. When she saw the man's pant-covered legs emerge, she covered herself as best she could with her folded-up legs and held herself together. She leaned her forehead against the cool metal pole and her sunglasses clanked on it. Her back was facing the stranger and she was shaking all over.

"Don't hurt me..." she cried beneath the duct tape.

"Oh my God..." she heard behind her. Whoever it was took in a sharp breath of air. A calloused, warm hand softly touched her shoulder, and she yelped in surprise.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," the mystery man apologized. "I'm here to help you." He got in front of her and started unbinding her. He cut the ropes with a knife while staring at the ground intently. When she got one of her wrists free, she ripped the tape off her mouth. It stung like hell, but at least she could talk more clearly.

Wait, she wasn't supposed to talk. This may have just been a trick, one of his friends she'd never met, was here to have his way with her, and he needed her unchained, but then why would he respect her privacy and have a certain familiarity to his tone of voice? Nothing made sense.

She clamped her mouth shut and continued breathing through her nose. He turned around and excused himself. Five minutes later, he came down with a blanket and covered her with it. He lifted her small body into his arms and carried her up the stairs. He sat her down on her bed and took his own place standing beside her.

"Where do you keep all of your clothes? I can help you pack up. My partner has already arrested your husband, so you're okay here, unless you'd rather stay somewhere else?"

Finally, she dared a look at his face. Tears slipped down her cheeks when she saw him. She hadn't seen him in ages, eighteen years to be exact, and he was here, of all places. She knew then that she could expose her secret. She wriggled her arm out of the blanket he had her snuggled in and took off her sunglasses and wig in one move. His eyes widened and he put his fist to his mouth. Her sunglasses and wig were hiding two black eyes and a huge gash on her forehead. She had bruises all over her body and he wondered how anyone could hurt such a lovely, sweet woman.

"Gloria and I's childhood home."

"Look at the new girl," Nicky Nichols mumbled. "I hate that we had to lure her here! She was just trying to enjoy a walk in the peace and quiet."

Alex Vause stared sadly after their freshest piece of meat, which is what their captor and his buddy enjoy calling young girls they'd just taken away from civilization. The tiny girl with brown hair and smudged red lipstick and black eyeliner, was curled up on the cot, whimpering and writhing around, trying to get out of the handcuffs which were strapped to either side of the cot. Minus the makeup, she could pass for about eight or nine. "Yeah, I know. Poor kid didn't even put up much of a fight. She scratched Taystee and Blanca a few times, but that was it."

"Yo, she hasn't even said a word since we got here," Maria Ruiz pointed out. "At least we got each other..."

"Yeah, we do," Blanca Flores agreed. She gestured to the brunette who she and Taystee Jefferson just kidnapped under the orders of their master. "We need to get her undressed except for her bra and undies. That motherfucker's gonna come in soon and call us for dinner, and you know what happens if we don't do as he says."

"Alright." Nicky sighed regretfully. "Maybe I should, ya know...try to calm her down before doing it?"

"Well, sure, explain what you doin' first," Taystee told her. "We've all tried to talk to her, but she could do better with one of us, then she won't be so overwhelmed."

The blonde nodded her head yes. She went over to the smaller girl and gently sat beside her. "Hey kid...uh, don't struggle, please. It'll be worse and you'll get all kinds of nasty cuts on your wrists...they'll swell up-"

"Why didn't you just leave me alone?" she asked so softly that Nicky could barely hear her. "Or at least warn me...the black girl was nice enough to apologize."

"We wanted to, alright? Our...our master was watching us and we couldn't. Last time we tried, he captured the girl instead and cooked her for us to eat and whipped us so bad it scarred us for life!" Nicky pointed to a harsh red line across her side, and the other girl gasped in horror as her face went pale. "Literally."

"Are you serious? I mean about the...the cannibal thing?"

"Yes, unfortunately. What's your name?"

"Lorna," she mumbled timidly. "Who are you?"

"I'm Nicky." The blonde pointed to the other girls who were cuddled up against each other for warmth, as they're all almost naked except for a black bra and a pink thong. "The one in glasses is Alex...then the Latina who put her hand over your mouth is Blanca, and the other Latina is Maria, and the girl who's wearing dreadlocks is Taystee."

"Oh...hi, girls," Lorna greeted them.

"Hey..." they replied in unison.

Nicky unlocked the handcuffs that were binding Lorna. "I'm not releasing you, sorry...but I need you out of these and then your clothes since the monster in charge requires us to strip down to our undergarments...that's our only outfit."

"No, please..." Lorna begged. "I get cold easily! I could die of frostbite when it's gonna snow!"

"In the dead of winter, we're allowed one blanket, but it's usually ratty, smelly, and stiff. It doesn't provide a lot of heat, but it's better than nothing. Uh...should I remove your clothes or do you wanna do it yourself?"

"I will." Lorna exhaled loudly and then turned around to face the wall with her back to the girls. "I didn't even like changing in the locker room..." She took her shoes and socks off, pulled her long sleeved shirt up and over her head and wiggled out of her jeans. "Are you sure there isn't a way to escape? How long have you even been in here?" She rubbed her hands up and down her arms as a chill went through the air. Nicky shivered as did Lorna.

"Come sit with us!" Alex beckoned them over and patted the spot beside her. "Our bodies squished together generate more heat."

Once they joined the others, Lorna scooted so close to Nicky that the smaller girl was practically in her lap. Nicky immediately hugged Lorna close while she leaned back into Alex's arms. "To answer your question, kid, it's hard to escape. Trust me, we've all tried...and failed miserably. Even when he's not here, he has his minions watching us...and no cops have ever come around to investigate. He never lets us out, not even to go to school. Nobody, except the people who live in this house, has ever seen us since we've disappeared," she began to explain.

Lorna trembled. "So...so my parents and my sister, Franny and my brother, Mikey...and my friends...they'll just think I'm dead? I would be reported missing after twenty-four hours, right?"

"Our people presume that we gone for good," Taystee answered. "My fam don't give a shit, but for the others, it's been hella rough."

"Yeah, and he makes sure to rub her nose in it, too," Maria continued. "He does that to all of us...shows us the news with our loved ones cryin'...sometimes, they'd say our names and that's when we'd break down."

"He's taken us in our most vulnerable moments," Blanca went on. "Every two years, he's kidnapped some poor girl who was by herself someplace."

"Yeah...starting with me," Alex mumbled, and Lorna stared at her with widened eyes. "I was just a toddler when he attacked my mother and stole me from her. I must've screamed bloody murder. I don't remember where it happened."

"Just horrible! How old are you now?" Lorna wanted to know.

"Twelve. All of us are...he likes that we're the same age for some odd reason."

"Me too..."

"I was four and having fun at the fair, but then I got lost. Next thing I knew, I was in the trunk of his car and I started bawling. My parents can't stop blaming themselves. He also claimed my mom committed suicide from grief, but I'm not too sure, 'cause I don't trust anything that comes out of the asshole's mouth," Blanca muttered.

"Oh, no!" Lorna placed a shaky hand in front of her mouth.

"It's all my mom's fault I was kidnapped...on Mother's Day, of all days. Last thing I remember was brunch at the Four Seasons with my ungrateful bitch of a mom...fuckin' Marka didn't care about me at all! I had made her cookies and a card at six that morning and she didn't pay attention to any of it. My nanny, Paloma, was instructed to put me in a blue dress from Bergdorf's and then she went home to her own kids, which was completely understandable. Then, Marka took us to this fancy hotel to meet my grandma, but between the spa and the shrimp cocktails, she didn't notice me going to the bathroom, nor me never returning. Alex and Blanca led me someplace...and I got no fight skills whatsoever back then, but he had apparently trained them to use knives, and they got me into his grip...by knifepoint, since we were all the same size. Alex was a bit taller, but she didn't have enough muscle. Their weapons made up for it. I begged for help, but of course, nobody heard me." Nicky snorted. "Marka was frantic, but only because it would spoil her reputation to have a lost child and she'd seem like a terrible mother who had neglected her child...which was exactly what she did! She was great at seeming like an awesome person in public, just like that motherfucker!"

"That's awful!" Lorna cried, nearly in tears.

"I ain't never had nobody lookin' out for me growin' up...been only in bad foster homes," Taystee informed Lorna. "At eight, I was in the after-school program, but nobody picked me up...the staff believed me when I said I lived near the place and could walk home myself...but it was farther than I thought, and once it got dark, shadows blended into nothin'ness...and I'm on my own and kinda gettin' scared, passing the mouth of an alley. Three kids, you know, Blanca, Alex, and Nicky...jump me from behind...and I'm freakin' out, man. I'm like, this is it. I'm fucked. I tried kickin' em off, but the punk in charge takes over. Then, I'm done for."

This time, Lorna didn't speak-she merely gulped while her face turned whiter than it was before.

"A few days after my tenth birthday, I was bowlin' with Sirena, my friend. Then...it got real late. I knew my dad was doin' deals again. So...I had planned to sleep over at Sirena's, and her parents were about to pick us up because the place was practically empty." Maria looked up at the rotted ceiling and pressed her lips together while shaking her head. "Yo, this car...it slammed into her, distracting her folks while I was dragged into the stranger's vehicle. She ain't dead, I saw her on the news...they called it a hit and run. Nobody ever caught him."

Lorna sniffled and a tear ran down her cheek. "I'm sorry, girls," she told them, and her voice cracked. "I'm so sorry. I...I guess y'all know my story of how I was captured. Why did only two of you get me, though?"

"You a pipsqueak," Taystee stated.

"Yeah, you don't got much meat on your bones," Maria put in.

"Taystee and me are the strongest out of all of us," Blanca added.

The door burst open all of a sudden and Lorna nearly jumped out of her skin. A huge gorilla-like man clomped into the basement and he smirked at them. "You got the runt of the litter to comply, huh?"

"Yes, sir, we did," Alex responded politely with no traces of fear in her tone. Nicky could detect it in her girlfriend's eyes, though.

"Very good. Dinner is prepared." The beast grabbed her hair and yanked her up by it. She stood to her feet immediately as the rest looked on in horror. "Lead the line, cunt. You're lucky I let you own glasses," he growled at her.

They came into the room, handcuffed to each other. Michelle Carreras gazed longingly at Alex, and the last girl who sat down is one who Michelle doesn't know. She wasn't surprised, because she and the others she was trapped in this confined space with, had also grabbed a terrified girl named Alana Dwight off the streets tonight after she'd wandered out of her house. She was an orphan and in hysterics, since her parents were dead within a week.

The twelve girls didn't converse, but their silence and staring at each other spoke volumes. Each one of them is in pain, and they all knew it. Michelle noticed Flaca Gonzales and Maritza Ramos holding hands under the table. They'd been close for years, four to be exact. Carmen Aziza and Ramona Contreras, also known as Ouija and Pidge in private, were another pair of best friends, since they were four. Michelle played footsie with Alex under the table until she felt a giggle come on and Alex stopped.

The brainwashed cooks set out dishes of disgusting looking food, such as liver, porridge, dead worms, flies, and baby mice. Alana and the other newbie appeared as if they were about to pass out. Nicky put her hand comfortingly on the small brunette's from across the table and squeezed it.

"Don't think of it as anything. You'll get used to the taste," Alex whispered to Alana.

"Easy for you to say!" Alana replied just as softly and then started crying into her hands. "Oh my god..."

"Close your eyes and just eat it," Ouija snapped when a dangerous look appeared on their master's face. He had the resemblance of a mailman, according to Maritza, and he was also a violent cannibal who fed the girls the bones and meat of people he killed as a form of punishment. Except for the two recently kidnapped girls, they all munched upon their meal.

"Yeah, you don't want the alternative," Pidge chimed in between spoonfuls of porridge. "It's even more inhumane."

"Rotting dead bodies with maggots," the sadist hissed loudly into Alana's ear and grinned creepily. A chill went up Michelle's spine and she flinched involuntarily.

"I was afraid at first too," Flaca sympathized with Alana and the other girl. "Then I found out it ain't as bad as...that...or being tortured." She pointed to the tiny girl with brown locks. "What's your name, yo?"

"Lorna."

"Oh...I'm Flaca." They shook hands and then the rest of the girls who Michelle stayed with introduced themselves to Lorna.

"Nice to meet you," Alana told Lorna shyly.

"You, too."

Maritza almost gagged when she swallowed the mouse whole and she turned away when Flaca started picking flies out of her teeth. They swished their mouths with porridge and gulped it down. Michelle chewed on a piece of liver until her jaw turned sore and she choked on the dry meat as it dribbled halfway out of her mouth. She quickly wiped it away with a napkin and her cheeks burned with humiliation. She couldn't believe she had done that in front of Alex.

Blanca and Maria ate the worms like it was no problem, but when they finished, they vomited right on the floor. Taystee held her nose as she slurped the porridge. Lorna and Alana took a few sips of porridge and dipped small pieces of liver into it. Michelle's stomach churned as they reluctantly ate it, but she didn't puke.

She simply held it in.

"She's not taking any of my calls...it's been almost two hours!" Dayanara Diaz reported to her best friend's sister. "Are you positive she ain't home?"

"Yes, very! She told me she was going for a stroll and then...your apartment!" Franny Morello answered. "We're all panicking over here!"

"So am I!" Daya breathed in and out heavily a few times. "I didn't know she was gonna swing by...you think we oughta call the police?"

"Of course, and arrange a search party. When was the last time you saw her?"

"I dunno...last night? I literally just talked to her three hours ago!"

"I've been working at Starbucks all evening...but I came home as soon as Ma rang me to see if me and Lorna were together. We weren't, obviously."

"Could she be at church...seven somethin' mass?" Daya asked hopefully.

"No, I checked there," Franny responded, and Daya's heart sank. "I even spoke to that fuckin' Christopher's mother, she's not with him neither."

"Okay, well, thanks for letting me know. I'll gather some people."

"Sounds good. Bye."

"Bye!" They hung up and Daya massaged her temples. Her headache grew bigger by the second and her insides were in knots. Her phone vibrated with a text and she groaned in disappointment when she saw that it was just the older boy that she'd been texting with back and forth. "Not now, John," she muttered while rolling her eyes. She dialed Zirconia Cabrera's number and told her to spread the word. Soon enough, there were a bunch of tweens with flashlights who were helping Daya look throughout the neighborhood and surrounding areas, and even traveling on buses.

Thirty minutes later, Daya tripped on a stick, fell against a tree trunk, and slid down it while sobbing helplessly. "Lorna, where the flying fuck are you..."

"Hey." Daya glanced up to see a girl in a hijab and another girl with a slight mohawk and earrings. "We'll find her. She can't have gone far," Allison Basara assured her.

"Yeah, your girl might just be at some dude's house, kickin' it and not wanting to tell you," Poussey Washington tacked on.

"Franny tried Christopher, and Vinny is here, looking for her. I don't know what the hell's going on, but it ain't nothin' good. I just got that gut feeling, you know?"

"I had the same one myself," Zirconia said from behind them, and they turned to face her. "You know when Maria Ruiz went missing two years ago?"

"Missing..." Daya echoed her. "No..."

"Michelle Carreras did at the same time, and I know that because those two were my close chicas."

"Oh yeah, and four years ago, Taystee Jefferson and Maritza Ramos. I had just started to get to know Tays that day," Poussey remembered solemnly. "I regret not asking my pops to take her home with us. I just didn't think of it."

Allison frowned. "Sounds like a pattern. The perp must have gotten another girl besides Lorna."

"Yeah...and my mom's best friend and her daughter disappeared when I was two...it's a shame I never got to really meet them," Daya said sadly.

Cindy Hayes folded her arms over her chest. "We ain't gonna give up."

"Mm-hm," Janae Watson agreed. "Even if she an annoying ass white girl, nobody deserves to be gone off the face of the earth."

"I'll help, too," Tiffany Doggett volunteered.

"So will we," Allison and Poussey chorused, and Zirconia nodded in concurrence.

Adarsh Khanna went up to the girls with Diablo and Yadriel Garcia in tow, one on either side of him. "Count us in," Adarsh told her, and his boys seemed to be on the same page as him.

Daya beamed at their support and wiped her eyes while sniffling. "Thank you so much, guys."

Adarsh gave her a cute smile. "You're welcome."

Hope y'all enjoyed it!