Chapter 19

Nyah and Tubby rode together in silence for the next two hours. The city disappeared behind them and they drove into a forested area. Nyah had not realized there were wild areas this close to the city. They turned off the interstate onto a state road and then onto a county road. Their next turn was onto a dirt road that wound its way deep into the wooded area.

She was nervously watching the sun as it sunk closer and closer to the horizon, but lost track of it once they entered the forest. She could feel it, though. She didn't have long left; thirty minutes tops. If she started screaming in the SUV, she had a feeling Tubby would just taser her long enough to deliver her, so she waited.

Soon, they turned off the gravel road onto a narrow dirt track. It was dark enough that Tubby had to turn on his headlights to see the rutted-out path. A few minutes later, a cabin came into view. Tubby stopped and tapped the horn for attention, and a tall, skinny man came out to greet them. He went to the driver's window, which Tubby rolled down.

"Took you long enough," he said, eyeing Nyah.

"Traffic on the turnpike was a bitch," Tubby answered.

"She give you any trouble?"

"Naw, I tasered her before we even got in the car," Tubby smirked.

"Huh, smart. Let her know whose boss right off the bat," he nodded with approval and handed over a fat envelope. "Here you go."

Tubby thumbed through the money inside, then handed him the key to her cuffs to him. "She's all yours. Have fun!" He laughed.

"Oh, we will, that's for sure!" He came over to her side and pulled her out of the SUV.

Looking her over from head to toe, he said, "she's even better in person. Come on." And he pulled her towards the cabin.

Instead of going inside, though, he led her around to the back of it where there was a tornado shelter buried in the ground with just the door exposed. He unlocked the padlock on the door and shoved her down the stairs into the small, dark space below.

"See you in the morning," he grinned at her from the doorway, then slammed it shut, sealing her in the darkness. She listened as he locked the padlock and walked away. Soon she could barely hear his truck start and drive away.

So, he left her here alone for the night. Lovely, she thought. Just lovely. This was what she got for getting involved in other people's problems.

She sat down on the floor to wait for the inevitable.

Matt and Foggy got back to the office just after dark. Karen was thrilled that he had saved the five women, but seriously worried about Nyah. Not even both the guys assuring her that Nyah's intent was for them to save the women.

"No, her intent was for us to catch who is doing this and put them out of business," she stubbornly told them.

"Well," Foggy told them, "that's where I come in. You will never in a million years guess who Maroney met with and handed an envelope full of money to." He waited expectantly.

Karen rolled her eyes. "Just tell us, Foggy!"

"None other than the New York District Attorney, Silas Montgomery!" he announced with a flourish.

Karen and Matt were quiet for a moment, then Karen said, "you have got to be shitting us!"

"Nope!" Foggy told her. "The head honcho for human trafficking out of Hell's Kitchen is the one person we would need on our side to prosecute this crime."

"Shit," Karen said again.

Nyah could feel the sun setting in her bones. She had frantically searched the cellar looking for anyway out or anything she could use to pry the door open, but to no avail. All she encountered was concrete walls and spider webs. She had been in similar situations over the years and knew what to expect, but still wasn't prepared for it.

When the curse was new, she had tried to resist the urge to seek out someone in need of saving. The urge had become overwhelming and she had given in over and over despite her determination not to. Then she had the brilliant idea to restrain herself. That is when she discovered the consequences of not obeying the curse. If she did not follow the urge of the curse, her body slowly tore itself apart throughout the night, only ending when it dissolved completely at sunrise. It was not a way to die that she would recommend. Even being burnt at the stake was more merciful.

Only twice in her long existence had she been force to endure such suffering. Once she had been imprisoned for witchcraft and had been left to rot in a cell in the catacombs under the city. Another time, she had been locked up waiting to be shipped off to a concentration camp during the second world war. The first time, she had screamed in vain all night long before dawn came, and her misery ended. The second time, a soldier had shot her sometime around midnight just to shut her up. She didn't think she would be that lucky this time.

Sure enough, the urge to go somewhere gripped her, but she had nowhere to go. She was reduced to pacing within the small space, like a restless tiger in a cage. Eleven steps were all it took to make a complete circle. She played out fond memories in her imagination. Most of them times she had spent with Lei, but there were a few new ones with her friends in Hell's Kitchen.

Before long, the headache and ringing in her ears started and her extremities started to tremble. She meditated for as long as she was able, then recited poetry, but as the night wore on, the pounding in her head eventually made it impossible to focus on anything. The ringing in her ears drowned out the sound of her own breathing.

The first muscle spasms put an end to her pacing. After that, all she could do was curl up in a ball on the floor, shaking between them and cursing the old woman that had hexed her, her father for denying her a future with the man she loved, and Lei for allowing her to fall in love with him. She cursed the universe and every god she had grown up worshipping, then branched out to other deities. Most of all, she cursed herself for loving so selfishly. During one particularly strong spasm, she clenched her teeth so tightly, one of them cracked. The taste of copper filled her mouth and she spat out the fragment on the concrete floor. More were sure to follow.

She almost made it to midnight before the first scream was torn from her throat. After that her world shrunk to just the pain. Blood poured from her nose and dripped from her eyes like tears. Her muscles contracted so strongly that bones snapped, tendons popped, and still there was no relief. She screamed until her throat was raw, then screamed some more. She clawed at the floor, ripping off fingernails and tearing the skin on her hands. She pulled fistfuls of hair out of her head and scratched ragged grooves on her face. And still she screamed and screamed, no sound coming from her open mouth.

It would have been a blessed relief when she first felt the molecules of her body start to break apart near dawn, but she was completely beyond coherent thought or reason. When the first arc of the red orb broke the horizon, Nyah's body dissolved into its basic elements, then even those dissolved, leaving no trace of her in the cellar. Not a single drop of blood, no scattered tooth fragments, no hair or broken fingernails. Nothing. She was gone and would remain gone for the next three days. Until the moon returned to the night sky.

The next three days were excruciating for Matt. Foggy and Karen took turns digging through the computer, but it quickly became apparent that a true expert was required to gain access to most of the content it contained and the three of them argued heatedly over who that expert should be. They finally tabled the discussion after Matt punched through one of the walls in his apartment. The discussion about their next step didn't go much better, but they did agree to wait until Nyah came back to discover what she had learned before making a decision.

Matt had called 911 and reported suspicious activity at the warehouses but hadn't waiting on the police to arrive. The news and papers remained suspiciously quiet about it, though, so the three friends figured it had been successfully covered up. This didn't require much of a stretch since they had discovered the DA was running the trafficking ring.

That left Matt with a lot of time on his hands; time that he used at night to follow Maroney and his partner around, waiting on them to make a mistake. But the detectives were careful, even more so since both the warehouses had been compromised. During the day, he tried to immerse himself in the few cases he and Foggy were working. Unfortunately, two of the cases were missing persons associated with the trafficking ring and they were at a standstill on them until Nyah's return.

His mood became foul to the extent that both Foggy and Karen banished him from the office on the last day of their wait. As he made his way home, he wasn't paying his normal attention to where he was going, and his dark thoughts were interrupted when he was rudely jostled by another pedestrian.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," a vaguely familiar feminine voice said as her hands flew to his arms to steady him. Then, "Oh, sweet Jesus!"

When she stepped back away from him like he had a contagion, Matt recognized her voice.

"Juanita?"

"It IS you," she breathed. "But I don't understand. You're blind?"

Shit, Matt thought to himself. Out loud he said, "I thought I told you to get out of here and not come back? Are you trying to get caught again?"

He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the mouth of a nearby alley.

"All my stuff is here," she told him. "I wasn't going to just leave it all behind. Plus, I got this." She reached into her purse and pulled out a gun. The smell of the gun oil and powder irritated Matt's sensitive nose.

"Put that away before someone sees it!" he hissed at her.

"Okay," Juanita sniffed as she stuffed the weapon back into her purse.

They were only a couple of blocks from the office, giving Matt an idea. "Come with me. We need to get you off the street."

Juanita, surprisingly, followed him quietly back to his office, where he introduced her to Karen and Foggy. Juanita told them how Mrs. Williams had tricked her and everything she had seen and heard while in captivity. They also got her contact information and the names of the other girls that Matt had rescued. Juanita promised to testify if it came to a trial and was sure most of the others would do so, except Becky.

Together, they came up with a plan to get Juanita her stuff and get her safely out of the city. By the time they got her belongings and she was on her way to New Jersey, it was late afternoon. It was time to go, wait for Nyah.