Chapter 1: They Could Not Save Her
He always wondered what he would do once he was out of jail. He would be 29 years-old, very young still with a life ahead of him. Would he go back to the life? Or would he disappear from the Earth and begin anew? He knew he could never go back to normal in his hometown, but he really wished he could.
Mel came into his mind. He always thought of her at night as he laid in his bed, staring at the wall. Her shiny long hair, her brown eyes poking through her long eyelashes whenever she got close to him. He was way taller than her, but he liked being able to rest his chin on her head. He loved engrossing her with his entire body, as if he could protect her from the world like that. She would joke he had not wanted her until she got boobs, but that was not true. He had always loved her, since they were children. She on the other hand, was always so focused on her school, he knew he was just a bad influence on her. But he loved her anyways, even from afar.
If he could whisk her away with him when he was out, if she would take him back, he would take her anywhere she wanted.
He sighed bitterly. He knew what she would say. She would cut him off and say she could not trust him not to slip. She could not trust him not to put her in danger so he could have the life of ambition he always wanted. She called it the easy life, but there was nothing easy about selling your soul to the devil.
"Aw fuck!" He heard his cellmate Jeffrey curse and shift on his bed.
"What the hell is it now, man?" He asked him as he turned from the wall to the room. He was blinded by the window on his cell door, since someone had decided to turn on the lights at full capacity.
In the blink of an eye, a monstrous giant burst into the cell and grabbed him by the neck, giving him no time to grab the makeshift knife under his pillow. The attacker trashed him against the wall, knocking the air out of his lungs.
"I wanted to kill you, but Rob had better ideas," his attacker whispered with disdain.
'James, piece of shit.'
"I didn't throw you too hard, did I? I need you conscious for this next part," James mocked with fake pity as he pulled him from the floor and threw him on the bed. He pinned Camilo with his massive body, giving him no way to leave.
Camilo attempted to recover himself, knowing he most likely would have to fight him. By the looks of Jeffrey's back, he was doing it alone. He eyed James as pulled out a cellphone out of his pocket.
He knew the Aryan gang would attack him after his gang organized a strike in retaliation to the killing of one of their members in the Aryan's multiple jail strike. He was the Familia's newest member and currently in charge of the strike against the Aryan to prove his worth. Camilo did not expect this so soon, though.
James presented him with the phone, licking his lips in anticipation for Camilo's reaction.
For a moment, everything in the world stopped. Camilo's heart leaped out of his body, and he stopped breathing. 'This cannot be.' His stomach felt cold, and his head felt hot. Nothing made sense, she could not be. 'This cannot be.' He felt his veins surging from his body as he saw her gagged, naked and bleeding. 'This cannot be. Not her.'
James laughed as he got off him. He slowly walked through the door, "You're even more of a pussy than I thought. You can't even react like a man whose woman has been fucked by several other men. Maybe they should try you next time."
Camilo's head snapped to him just as his hand went under his pillow.
"I wouldn't be so stupid if I were you," James' smile faded. He shook the phone in his direction. "She is ours now. The better you behave, the less she will suffer." Camilo released his knife and continued staring at him with hatred. He would kill them all for what they did. That was his solace. If it got him life in prison, if it pulled Mel further away from his arms, he would. He would avenge her.
"But please, don't take my advice. From what I have heard, she is such a sweet girl. She might make Jack forget she is a Mexican after all," his chilling laugh echoed across the hallways as he left. The officers closed his door again and dimmed the lights, leaving Camilo in darkness. He his eyes explode like floodgates knowing this was his fault. They went after Mel; they knew he had no one else so they went after her and he couldn't stop them.
He couldn't save her.
Days and nights passed by, and Jesse could not tell what they were anymore. The concept of time was lost to him at this point. His entire life were those four walls, that bucket and that blanket. At times he would notice the sound rain made against the tarp over his head. Other times he would hear a distant coyote or a rodent scrapping at his tarp. All those sounds were as foreign to him as the passage of time. Those sounds were part of the outside life. He was not part of that world; he wasn't even sure he was alive anymore.
For the longest time, Jesse just existed.
He was dragged by his chains to the lab to cook and cook. He was fed whatever food was lying around and by the time he was done, he was thrown into the cell again.
Sometimes something different would happen. Sometimes Todd would take him somewhere to complete a job no one else could help him on. Sometimes he felt generous and rewarded Jesse with a nicer meal, a bath or a change of clothes. Other times though…
There were times when he would get the smallest drop in purity, or he drop something or even look at someone the wrong way… Those moments meant playtime. They would have their fun with Jesse until he had learned his lesson.
He forced himself away from those thoughts. He frantically searched in his mind for something, anything that pulled him out of the darkness evolving him. It was so hard to remember but he had to. A pair of big green eyes popped in his mind, looking at him with quiet intensity. Then those eyes turned lifeless, unseeing. He scrambled away into a mane of curly hair tickling his nose in the dead of night. Then that hair turned sticky with blood. He fought hard to move away to others, to a kid smiling at him gratefully, to a bald man standing quietly next to him by a river, to a blonde woman's striking blue eyes as she sang him a song. He tried to think of them, but all turned sour. His face turned wet, the feeling so familiar it hardly felt like anything at all.
He pulled himself away from any feeling. Fighting the darkness with light was futile at this point. Nothing in his life was ever happy. Fighting the darkness with nothingness kept him existing. How could there be darkness when there was nothing at all? Jesse closed his eyes and he heard. He heard the light wind against his tarp, the occasional bird and the occasional plane. That was his familiar world withing those four walls.
Until a new sound pulled into scene: a car nearing. He involuntarily tensed, hoping he hadn't done anything wrong this time. The car got uncomfortably close, and Jesse ran to his corner fearing whatever came next. He heard the door open, paving way for a women's screams and cries. He could hear her struggling while the guys laughed. The harder she screamed, the more they laughed.
"No one will hear you here, sweetheart. There is not much for you to do other than give up and not fight it," he heard Kenny say. Jesse felt a pang of fear for this woman's life as she sobbed. He felt powerless to stop it and even more fear of what they would do if he tried.
"Throw her in already! She is starting to annoy me," Lester growled.
Someone begun removing his tarp and Jesse cornered himself as much as possible. Moonlight entered his cage, allowing him to look if he wanted to. He tried, although barely, afraid they would notice him. Matt opened the lock of his cage while Kenny pushed a woman to the entrance. She tried her best to fight it, pushing back against him while she screamed. It just made them laugh more.
"I didn't know you enjoyed being against me so much," Kenny mocked to the jeers of the rest. He kept pushing until she fell through, hitting the concrete with a loud crack. Jesse flinched at the noise. The woman let out a chilling scream.
"That happens when you're such a bitch. Let that be a lesson, you dirty Mexican cunt," Lester spat. The others laughed and left after closing the cage and returning the tarp. Jesse felt relief at their indifference to him and openly looked at the woman then. She hadn't moved, sitting with her leg sprawled and sobbing wildly.
He could barely make her out in the darkness, but he could see she had dark wavy hair up in a disheveled ponytail. She had a light tan, although it was hard to tell with all the dirt in her body. She had a partly ripped dark tank top and some jean shorts. She was short a shoe and, while Jesse didn't want to look too much at it, a very broken leg.
He slowly got up from his corner, with her hardly noticing him at all.
"Hey lady, are you okay?" He asked her in a whisper, his own voice strange to his ears.
That made her notice him. She began screaming, doing her best to get away from him in her state. "Stay away from me, please! I swear I do not know who you are! I won't tell the police! I swear it, please! I won't tell them you killed her!"
Jesse raised his hands as best as he could in his chains, attempting to look non-threating. "Lady, I am not here to hurt you. They have me hostage, just like you," he told her calmly. Neither his ragged, beaten appearance, nor the fact he was in chains registered with her. She continued to cry and ramble she wasn't going to tell anyone.
Jesse decided to step away. His heart broke at what little he could see in the darkness. He wanted to comfort her like no one had when he was first thrown in there. But he felt his presence was not welcomed in that moment. He slowly backed to his corner, completely opposite to hers, until his back hit the wall. He slid down to the floor and sat, thinking about the broken girl in front of him. She needed to fix that leg, or it would get worse.
She cowered and cried for seemingly hours; he didn't know. Time would soon cease to exist for her too. Eventually she went quiet, and he assumed she fell asleep.
He wondered why she was there. Maybe she crossed the wrong people, maybe someone in her circle had, or maybe she simply was at the wrong place at the wrong time… Gradually, Jesse slipped away himself.
The morning light brought Jesse back to consciousness. He had slept okay, no nightmares, although that brought him no joy. Waking up was always the hardest part of the day. Soon, someone would come take him to the lab.
He suddenly remembered the girl from the previous night, making him jerk his head up in her direction. She was in the same position she was the night before, still asleep. The tarp over their bars casted a green hue over her, but other than that, much remained the same. He could see her clearer though, details such as her thick eyebrows and long eyelashes distinguishable then. He guessed her to be in her early twenties or so, simultaneously looking twenty and thirty at the same time. He noticed some of the spots he thought were dirt the night before, were bruises and blood. The sight made his stomach twist.
A shadow casted over the cell and he knew it was time. Todd was there. The tarp was removed, the full brightness of the sun blinding him.
"Hey Jesse! Ready for today's cook?" Todd asked brightly.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the girl shift awake. Her eyes bulged in panic when she realized where she was and that a person was at the entrance of the cage. Jesse rushed to calm her.
"They're not here for you, don't worry. They're here for me," he whispered gently. When she saw him, she tried to get as close to the wall as possible, cowering in fear. He refrained from touching her, thinking she probably didn't want anyone to touch her for some time.
The entrance to the cage opened.
He made sure to keep some distance from her, and his hands raised in front of him where she could see them. He breathed in and out deeply, signaling to her to mimic him. She calmed a bit once she realized he was no immediate threat to her and eventually copied his breathing.
"They are not here for you. They're here for me. It's okay," he repeated. She slowly nodded and her eyes went to a normal size, finally relaxing a bit.
Jesse heard the ladder clank down against the concrete and knew he had to leave. "I will be back later." The woman nodded again, looking confused as to who he was and why was he there with her. Something was clear to her now, though, he was not with them.
Jesse went up the ladder and was greeted with Todd's unnerving smile. "Good morning, Jesse? Do you like your new friend? She is kinda pretty."
After closing the cage and returning the tarp, they began walking toward the lab, the sun hitting Jesse's face and making him squint.
Jesse hesitated at his comment. "Who is she?" He asked.
"She is just the girlfriend of some guy we need to keep in check," Todd replied, scratching his chin lightly. Jesse looked at him, as they walked next to each other.
Todd scared him more than any of the others. He was so calm, almost friendly to him. Yet he enjoyed punishing him the most out of everyone. The others were predictable, where Todd wasn't. He wasn't menacing or scary, like the others. He was also young, younger than him even, with light orange hair and no visible tattoos. His shy attitude made him seem unassuming, almost trustworthy. His dark blue eyes were a sharp contrast to his pale skin, light eyelashes and eyebrows. Those eyes were Todd's only giveaway that something dark was lurking behind.
He wondered if he should dare ask him…
"Her leg…" he stammered. "It broke when she fell through the trap door of the cage," Jesse said taking great care to not blame her fall on anyone, lest he anger them.
Todd turned to look at him curiously. "I don't see the problem with that."
Jesse scouted through his brain for ideas. "She could die from bone infection." He wasn't sure if that was true, but he had to try. "You need her alive. To keep that guy down, right?"
"A bone infection?" Todd asked with slight amusement. "Never heard that one before."
Jesse tried to not seem that affected, not wanting Todd to hold yet another life over his head.
"Why don't you look it up? You might find better information than whatever I can give you," Jesse suggested. "I just know because I have had to look up stuff before because I don't have insurance."
Todd thought for a moment, considering him with interest. He finally stopped in his tracks and turned to face him. Jesse looked at him carefully, knowing his actions could possibly help this girl. "I'll tell you what, Jesse. If you do a good job today, say you give me an acceptable purity, you don't make anyone mad and so, I will tell Uncle Jack to find us a doctor for her. Does that sound fair to you?" He smiled at him almost kindly.
Jesse nodded hesitantly and Todd's smile broke into a grin. He grabbed his shoulder with familiarity, as if they were close friends. His touch made Jesse flinch slightly, but he fought it back. He needed Todd on good terms.
They resumed their walk and when they arrived at the lab, Jesse looked down at his feet, not wanting to anger anyone in there.
Mel kept breathing sharply. 'In and out, in and out, in and out…' even long after that man was gone. There was nothing more she could do. The more still she was, the less her leg hurt. Her tears and trembles made it worse, her stable breathing made it better.
She looked at the cage she was in, looking for distractions and even a chance to escape. It was underground, with the metal bars above her head meeting the floor at ground level. The entrance to the cage was a door that opened upwards, part of the metal bars that served as the ceiling. On top of the bars was a dark green tarp that either serve to protect the cage from the weather or to hide it away. The rest of it was concrete and barren, impressive in height yet just about enough in length and barely anything in width. She roughly estimated it to be about 3 x 1.5 x 4 meters. She would never get out with a broken leg, unless she had help…
Mel looked down to the small mattress across from her. She also noticed a bucket and toilet paper to her left. She wondered if the bucket was to shit and piss, although she smelled nothing emanating from it. Her mind returned to the man she saw there before. Due to his state, Mel assumed he was not with them. She first noticed the almost healed gashes gracing his entire face, along with his unkept appearance. She also saw the chains on hands and legs, restricting his movements. He was so beaten down; he could not be with them. He was there with her, sharing her prison, although Mel had been so scared, she almost expected anything as long as it meant pain.
She wondered how long he had been there. By the state of his hair and beard, it had been months. She wondered if that was how long she would be there. Months? Years? Tears crept once more, and that was when she noticed how much it hurt her eyes to cry. She felt them with her hands and noted how inflamed they were. She cried so much last night, it physically pained her to cry more. She couldn't stop though. Once it had her, it took hold of her and didn't stop.
Mel thought of her family and how destroyed the must be. Her parents, her siblings, Keira… Oh Mateo and Keira had to be so heartbroken. How could she ever forgive herself? How could she ever face them again?
"Nothing personal. We just need to send your boyfriend Camilo a message. Loud and clear," one of them said.
"Titi?" Melody asked, poking her head thought the hallway.
Mel screamed at her to go back when they shot her. She could not save her.
She began sobbing uncontrollably, the pain in her heart too strong for her to worry about her leg. She felt herself go lightheaded as a pounding headache added itself to the list of pain. Eventually, she fell asleep crying again.
Jesse patiently awaited Todd to go take him back to his cage. He had worked hard that day, feeling the weight of that woman's life on his shoulders. He was left alone for most of the day, knowing the cameras were observing him closely anyways. He was grateful to at least not be constantly tormented.
Todd finally arrived with plastic bags on his hands. He gave Jesse a big smile.
"Hey," he shook the bags on his face. "I brought you and Melissa some food."
Jesse assumed that "Melissa" was the woman in the cage. He eyed the food with interest as his stomach rumbled. He was very hungry.
"I got you guys some nice sushi," Todd said as he set the food on and empty corner of the lab's tables. "You did a good job today; I really noticed your effort. Your purity even went up," he beamed at him. He approached him and begun unhooking him from the mechanism that held him to the lab. "I wanted to treat you. I also wanted to, in a way, apologize to Melissa for her leg. I don't want her thinking we are monsters or something like that."
Jesse had generally desensitized himself to comments like that, in which Todd said something shocking or unbelievable. Yet sometimes it would take him by surprise. Todd noticed his expression of disbelief and chuckled lightly.
"Careful now. I convinced my uncle of having a doctor examine Melissa. You have to keep up the good work for things like that to happen," Todd warned him with a small smirk. Jesse looked down at his feet, berating himself for his recklessness.
They walked back in silence. When they arrived, Todd went through his usual routine of removing the tarp, opening the door and placing the ladder for Jesse. He, on the other hand, was looking at Melissa, who was still asleep in her corner. 'Melissa,' he repeated in his head, wondering if the name suited her. He guessed it did, not having thought of what her name was before. When Todd was done, he signaled him to go ahead.
"I guess you will be the one to tell her the good news," Todd paused to give Jesse the food as he went down the ladder. "The doctor will come tomorrow morning to examine her. We will figure out what to do to fix her leg after that."
Jesse nodded at him. Once he was on ground, with the bags of food on his hands, Todd reversed the process until the tarp was back again.
Jesse looked that Melissa and was startled to see her looking at him, the panic of the morning and previous night gone. "What are they doing to me?"
Jesse slowly approached her, to her discomfort. "I asked them to look at your leg. They agreed to it," he pulled out the plastic container full of sushi and put it in front of her. He turned and went to his corner.
"Why?"
"They need you alive," Jesse said as he sat and opened his on container. He was starving. He noticed Melissa had not moved to grab hers.
"Why?"
He looked at her. She looked confused and that is when he realized she had no idea why she was there.
"Your boyfriend is on their bad side. They have you here to keep him controlled or something."
Melissa looked down at her hands and she shook her head. "I thought they were going to kill me. They said they needed to send him a message."
Jesse looked at her empathetically. The familiarity of the situation made his heart ache. The innocent girlfriend getting hurt because of an idiot's wrongdoings. Maybe that is why he wanted to help her so badly. It was an opportunity for him to make small amends for her…for Andrea.
"Hey, do you want to sleep here?" He pointed to the mattress he was sitting on. "I don't mind moving to where you are. I sleep fine either way."
She slowly shook her head. "I am fine, thank you."
"Your leg looks horrible."
"Which is why I want to move as little as possible."
Jesse considered for a second. "I can move it to where you are. That way you won't have to move so much."
Melissa thought for a second then hesitantly nodded. "Ok," she replied quietly.
Jesse put his food away and stood up. He moved the bucket and toilet paper out of the way. He moved the mattress to her side as she watched him curiously.
Mel observed him as he moved the objects in the cage around so she could sleep on the mattress. That morning she was sure he was not one of them, but the familiarity between the man that brought him back when talking about her made her uncomfortable.
"Why are you here?" She asked him. If she wanted to understand, she had to ask.
The man stopped and looked at her for a second, then proceed his task of placing the mattress next her. For a moment she thought he would ignore her.
"They have a meth lab. They are forcing me to cook it for them," he turned to her, sitting down on the mattress as he finished his sentence.
She didn't know what she expected, but that was not it. A slave drug cook? "Why you?"
He sighed reluctantly and she felt like it was an uncomfortable topic for him. She felt the need to change the subject. "Well, how about you help me get there? I can't really walk in this condition."
Mel saw a bit of gratitude before he quickly stood up and approached her. She felt her skin crawl at the thought of having another man near her, and she fought it back. He wanted to help her, and she needed it.
She noted his hesitance, so she extended her arms up to him, and when he grabbed them to pull her up, she did her best to put her entire weight on her good leg and on him. The man struggled when figuring out how to best get a hold of her without putting too much stress on her lower body. Eventually he settled to carrying her in his arms, bridal style. The only difference was that he was only holding one leg, leaving the broken one limp. She put her arms around his neck, putting the most pressure on her upper body. It was sloppy but it was the best to do, even when tears stung her eyes again. The man was as gentle as he could, and she appreciated his effort.
Mel noticed his horrible smell, although this did not matter to her, as she probably smelled badly as well. It was just helpful to focus on something other than her pain.
When he laid her on the bed, he turned to grab her food and the blanket that was previously on the mattress.
"I like this better as a pillow, since it's so hot. What do you want?" He asked her. She looked between him and the blanket as he crouched beside her. It almost felt like he was happy someone else was there with him, the way he took care of her so much. 'How long has he been here for?' She considered again, quickly dissipating the question, having felt before he didn't want to talk about his past.
"Pillow is fine," she replied with a small, forced smile. He bundled it and put it behind her head, which she had raised lightly. She could see his face much better now that it was daylight, and he was so close to her. It was mostly covered by his greasy, long hair and his thick, coarse beard. She could see the gashes more clearly, although something else stole her attention rather quickly. The man had the saddest, most soulful blue eyes she had ever seen. They were quite beautiful, and she wondered if under all that mistreatment, he was actually a handsome man. It made her even more empathetic towards him.
Once he backed off, she propped up by her elbows, looking at her sushi. She was very hungry and figured poisoned food was not a bad alternative. Mel didn't think they had had the decency to poison her food, though.
The man had returned to his corner across from her and his food once more. Both ate in silence for a while.
"I am Mel, by the way," Melissa, Mel broke the silence once she was done eating. He nodded, having already know her name.
"I'm Jesse," he said.
She paused for a bit, then asked, "Do you shit in that bucket?"
Jesse let out a laugh. He stopped abruptly, the sound catching him off-guard. "Uh, yeah, I do," he stumbled through his response. He saw a faint smile on her face, the first pretty thing he had seen in so long.
"Why don't you move up here to that corner? I can't imagine being in that corner when that bucket is full."
He had been trying to give her space, but she was right. He also was glad to have genuine, normal human interaction. Jesse wanted to see her face when she talked, when she smiled…He wanted to appreciate all of that up close.
He walked across and took the spot, still giving her a nice amount of space.
"How old are you? I am twenty-four."
Jesse was getting the impression Mel didn't feel comfortable in silence. He could understand that, after such a long time with no one to have a non-threatening conversation with. He welcomed the distraction.
"I am twenty-five, I think. I'm not sure how long I have been here, so I could be twenty-six," Jesse stared at her as he spoke. She returned his gaze, her eyes full of empathy.
"When it's your birthday? Yesterday was July 31st."
"Oh, well I must still be twenty-five," he said looking away bitterly. It had been four to five months; it felt like years. "September 24th," he responded once he realized she was waiting for the date.
"My birthday should be in a week," Mel whispered, sadness creeping into her voice. It was Jesse's turn to look at her with empathy. Who knew where she would be now if she wasn't dating the wrong guy?
"What do you do? As in work," he asked her, intending to keep the distraction going.
"Well," she began, "I am working part-time at clothing store. I was about to quit, though. Guess I won't need to worry about that," she laughed.
He liked her laugh; it was full of life and even contagious. It felt nice to hear a sound like that paired with his own. It was also nice to not feel so awful for just a little while. Mel turned to smile at him, and Jesse also noticed how her smiles were becoming more natural and more pretty.
"Why are you quitting?"
"I graduated a year ago, yet I missed my family so much I wanted to come back to them before fully committing to a job. I couldn't just go an entire year jobless, though, so I took a part-time job," she shrugged.
"Huh." It sounded like she was close to her family. He wondered what that was like. "What did you study?" He asked her, curious to see if her degree would surprise him.
"Physics teacher," she said smiling instantly.
It surprised him.
Jesse knew it wasn't the same, but his mind inevitably took him to Mr. White. Physics and chemistry were like cousins. He took a good look at Mel, especially her face. Her thick eyebrows, long eyelashes and hooded almond eyes were probably going to capture those students' attention for sure. She was beautiful. And while her features did not scream kindness as much as fierceness, he could see she could never be like him.
"That is something you don't hear often," Jesse returned her smile.
"Yeah, well I always loved physics until my high school physics teacher traumatized me. I decided then I wanted to be her complete opposite. At the end of the day, children are a 100% of our future," Mel finished. The way she said it, so full of life and motivation, Jesse knew she had made the right choice. She didn't belong there. At least he had chosen a life he knew was dangerous; she just wanted to teach children about physics. He felt the need to let her know.
"I can tell, barely knowing you, you would have been a bomb one."
She laughed at that. "Yeah, well, we'll see."
After some surprisingly pleasant silence, Jesse felt himself drowsing. He looked at her to see her plucking a feather off the mattress. She seemed much more relaxed than before.
"Hey, about tomorrow," he began, and Mel's attention went to him. "I managed to convince them to look at your leg. They told me they are examining it tomorrow to see how they can fix it."
She shuffled uncomfortably on the mattress, wincing harshly at the movement.
"Does that mean they are taking me away from here?" Mel asked him.
"I don't know," Jesse answered sincerely. She was scared they would hurt her, and he wished he could offer her comfort. The problem was he knew these men and what they were capable of. He wouldn't give her fake reassurances.
Mel nodded slowly. "I guess I no longer have a choice." With that she laid back down with great care. Jesse stared at her side for a minute, feeling compelled to do more, yet knowing it was the limit of what he could do.
He had saved her from the pain of a broken leg, but could he save her from them?