Warnings: torture and sexual assault
Theresa and Vinnie hurry into the station, looking for Charles. "I want to report a kidnapping," Vinnie says before even reaching the front desk. "My girlfriend was planning to come over, but she hasn't shown up, her sister hasn't answered me, probably busy at work or with a friend, but I'm freaking out!"
"I went to pick up my daughter and her girlfriend from the mall, but they were never found there! I called Maritza's mother, she's out of town on business, but she's taking the next flight home. I went into every goddamn store, and neither of them were there! I even had each one of the managers call them to the cash register, but they didn't come! I looked everywhere, even the men's bathroom!" Theresa shrieks.
"Ma'am, please calm down. You too, kid."
She turns away from the useless receptionist and faces Charles, putting her hands together in prayer motion. "Where is my baby Marisol? Where's Maritza?" She drops their purses on the counter. "Apparently, they were stolen from the parking garage, I found these while ringing them both."
He sucks in a deep breath. "I'm going to look into it right now! Did they go on their own, or were they meeting someone?"
Theresa nods. "Lorna. You know they trust her, she's their friend. I found it weird that she wanted to go at dusk with them, but I allowed it since they'd be safe inside and staying together." She huffs. "Or at least I thought..."
"Lorna was gonna see me tonight," Vinnie insists. "She wouldn't have made other plans unless she told me she changed her mind and wanted girl time! She loves me, I know she's not afraid of me! She's aware that she can do what she wants, but she always tells me if she can't make it or if she'll be late or whatever."
"Then why would..." Charles rubs his forehead, appearing to be tired. "Someone hacked into her account."
"No, I-I looked at the messages on Flaca's computer, they were legit. They sounded like how Lorna talks. Unless her kidnapper forced her to...¡ay dios mío!" Theresa places a shaky hand over her mouth. She squeezes back tears and Vinnie sinks down into a seat, burying his face in his hands, rocking back and forth.
"It seems like it's all connected..." Charles shakes his head. "Many others have been snatched against their will tonight, too. My girlfriend, Aleida, Gloria, Blanca, Alison, Lourdes, and now your daughter, Maritza, and Lorna. I think it's a group of 'em, working together...if that's true, maybe all of them are being held hostage in the same place."
"Christ almighty..." Theresa mutters. "Pero, ¿por qué?"
But why?
"I really think Gloria's ex has got something to do with all this, do you know where Arturo Cazador lives?"
Theresa purses her lips and drums her hands on the counter. "No, but he sure lives up to his last name. It's hunter in Spanish. Gloria doesn't bring up her past much, so she wouldn't talk about the place of nightmares, as she called it."
"Found Desi Piscatella's fingerprints on this." Donna hands Charles a baton. "Then Carlos Litvack's." She holds up a hijab, probably Alison's. "The blood belonged to a Miss Blanca Flores, according to the witness, Karla Córdova."
Theresa notices Franny and Lida come in with worried looks on their faces, and then more of her daughter's friends, plus Fahri with Michaela and Gloria's boys, Margarita, RJ, Trina, Ms. Basara, and Celeste Chapman. They all exchange hugs and sit down on a bench together. Karla is crying against Trina's chest as the woman holds her and rubs her back in soothing circles. Diablo looks just as upset, as he's covering his face with his hands and his shoulders are shaking with quiet sobs. Michaela, Benny, and Julio snuggle up to Fahri, both in his lap and sucking their thumbs as they whimper. Everyone is in emotional turmoil, and Theresa shares troubled glances with her fellow mothers, including Margarita, who is also Trina's cousin.
"I just want my daughter back," Trina mumbles, and Theresa nods in agreement.
"My little sister...why would someone take her?" Franny wonders aloud, a tearful inflection to her voice.
"It's so sad..." Lida murmurs.
"There are more suspects." Charles mutters. "We just gotta find all their friends and relatives. Send an APB out on those three assholes I just named!" he tells someone in passing.
Theresa bites her fingernails and chews on them anxiously. She's glad she ate dinner already, because she can't eat right now.
"Thank you for being my little helper tonight," Arturo says condescendingly as he stands on a ladder and ties a gray cage resembling a jail cell to one of the ceiling pipes. He then lets it hang down a bit and double knots the rope on both ends. "Alright, get up here." Lorna nervously glances between him and the cage. "Come!" he barks, and she startles. "I don't have a need for you anymore, you were just the bait. You'll see the others soon. Flaca and Maritza are in the bathroom with Humps. They're probably having a threesome." He chuckles, but Lorna continues staring at the steps she's climbing. She doesn't look down, so she won't lose her footing.
He brings up Facebook and goes to Maritza's profile. "I need her and the other one tonight, along with many others, but these two are your personal captors. Access your own account and invite them to the mall." He clicks where it says to log out, and sits her trembling body down into his big stiff orange chair. "Hurry up!"
"I...I don't even have a Facebook," Lorna stammers, feeling tears creep out of her eyes.
"Liar! Of course you do! Get into it!" he growls as he pulls a handgun out of his pocket, and she complies with the order out of fear.
Arturo gestures. "Go in, prisoner. If you bang on this to try getting out, the rope will fray and you'll come crashing down, probably to your death."
"I...I'm afraid of heights..." She wants to push him off the ladder, but it would harm and maybe kill her, as well, so she doesn't.
"You've always wanted to swing in midair, you dream about it frequently." He holds the cage steady and she begrudgingly climbs in. The pipe creaks with her weight and she lets out a short shriek. He narrows his eyes at her as he locks her up and throws the key on the floor.
"Sorry..." She clutches onto the bars and her knuckles turn whiter than they already are as Arturo duct tapes her mouth shut, goes back down, and removes the ladder from her view. It's hard for her to breathe well through only her nose and her sobbing is muffled.
A few seconds later, Blanca, Maritza, Flaca, Alison, Diane, Aleida, and Lourdes appear. Their eyes are round as saucers and she can see they've been crying as they stagger into the room with their individual kidnappers behind them. Arturo hands Flaca off to Stratman and he slowly walks back and forth across the room, his hands clasped together behind his back. He proudly extends his hands, as if showing off a masterpiece.
"Well, now that I have you all here, the party is just about to begin! Only one is missing...and that's Gloria. She is mine, and I will be fetching her."
"Of course, 'cause you're a dog and she's the poor mangled-up tennis ball. Except, she ain't! She'll fight your ass! She's stronger than you think, motherfucker," Aleida snaps. Her eyes flash with alarm, but she was still brave enough to speak out against Arturo. Nobody else says anything; Lorna can tell they're too afraid.
"You're the first one in confinement," Hellman snarls at Daya's mother as he forces her into a sitting position. He wraps duct tape around her wrists and ankles while the other captors do the same thing to their respective hostages.
"What's she doin' up there?" Blanca points to where Lorna is hanging just before Juarez pulls her remaining free arm back and ties it to the other bedpost.
"Yeah, how come she ain't down here with the rest of us?" Maritza asks, holding ice to her bottom lip.
"She seems hella lonely," Flaca comments gloomily.
"She won't be once she begins watching me torture you cunts! She rendered herself useless after she brought you and your teenybopper bitch to the mall. Also, she was the only one who really loved my deceased girlfriend Barb. Daya did too, but I still want her to sit home alone and worry about her mommy and all her friends and be in the dark since she's guilty by association." Arturo wags his finger at Aleida, who glowers at him. "Now...I am about to pick up Gloria. Does anyone else have questions?"
"Mm-hm, besides threatening me and my daughter at the bus stop and posing as some weirdo named Franco, did you take my hijabs, too?" Alison wants to know, her tone harsh. "They're missing, and I know you've been stalking everyone here, including me, because I'm Fahri's niece, right?"
Arturo winks at her. "You're an intelligent young woman."
"I wish I'd castrated you along with sending you back to Santo Domingo!" Lourdes hisses something else in Spanish that Lorna doesn't understand. "I'll die before mi sobrina gets hurt again, lizard lips! I'll protect her and the rest of the ladies and girls you're holding captive, you evil son of a bitch!"
my niece
"Dean and Carlos, my favorite ICE agents, just love me, and Kubra pulled some strings, too. He was my boss before he was shipped to his home country." He turns to Flaca. "Not only did you call the cops on me, but you also attacked Kubra, when all he did was take your mom's earrings and break her flimsy heart. So, Aydin will be coming for you later, unless I beat you to death first."
Diane grits her teeth and blows her tangled side bangs out of her eyes. "You're a fucking good-for-nothin' scumbag, you know that?! I'm dating a cop! He'll find where you and your minions are keeping us! My daughter's probably calling him right now!"
"Oh, really?" Arturo laughs mockingly. "You're using up my time and energy. You seem to forget how we keep being released." He takes out his gun and waves it around. "I'll shoot the next cunt who stops me from leaving with their inane chattering!" With this, he storms out and slams the door behind him.
"You're awake...thank god," Adarsh says from his position beside Daya's hospital bed. She's in a nightgown and her thigh feels like it's on fire. She glances around the room and finds that he, Taystee, and Adeola are surrounding her.
"Where's my mom...Leon...the kids...and Araceli..." she asks faintly.
"We couldn't reach your mom, sorry, D," Taystee apologizes. "We all rode with you in the ambulance and you were wheeled in here on a stretcher...the surgery took like, one hour, but you gotta stay here for another six days or so."
"Araceli was captured by police, she goin' down for self-defense," Adeola chimes in. "Hope she gets outta that, since she saved your life!"
"I called Leon right away, he's getting some snacks with the children...we've been taking care of them the whole time you were being operated on," Adarsh informs her.
"Oh, thanks, guys..." Daya mumbles tiredly. "I gave the doctors permission for Leon to see me. How's my baby?"
"You're still pregnant," Taystee assures her and she breathes a giant sigh of relief.
"Yeah! Also, the bullet didn't hit a femoral artery, so you'll survive. There was an exit wound that they had to patch up, though," Adarsh lets her know.
Daya grabs his hand and squeezes it softly. She smiles up at him and he returns it while skimming his thumb over her knuckles. "You're kinda cute when you speak like a doctor." She blushes slightly at her own words.
"Thanks! I'm so glad you're okay, Daya."
"Me too..."
"Sorry, I made a mistake and said the wrong address," he admits.
"It's fine, at least they were able to reach me in time!" From her blurred vision, she can see Leon entering the room with Christina and Emiliano following him. They have mirroring sullen expressions on their little faces. The girls on the other side of her move over to make room for them. "Hey...for some weird reason, my mom wasn't answering...where...where is she, Leon?" Christina climbs up and snuggles into Daya's side. "Careful of my leg, sweetie," she murmurs, hugging her sister close as best she can.
"I hate the bad man!" Christina exclaims and starts sniveling. Emiliano joins her and Leon does his best to soothe the little boy.
"This isn't easy for me to say, Daya...but she's in captivity with Gloria, Lourdes, Diane, Blanca, Alison, Flaca, Maritza, and Lorna," Leon answers, much to her shock and dismay. "Charles is sending me updates every few minutes."
"Oh no..." Daya starts panting heavily. "So many of them...it was Arturo, I'll bet you anything! He's the one behind all this...he's been tormenting us since Ma said we got that stalker!"
"Yeah, and he's got friends helping him, too. Charles is working hard in his search for them, he's putting together a team of rescuers..."
"They just better hurry up!"
"I know...but Charles will find her and the others alive, I can feel it in my heart. Aleida's a fighter, they all are..."
"Mm-hm..."
Taystee answers a call in the background. "Jesus, Cindy, what do you need?" She sighs exasperatedly. "Well, I can't help with Suzanne right now! I know her grandma died, okay? We were with her through it...why not ask Pennsatucky for assistance? Yeah, I know she's strong and Penn is a stick, but...Suzanne has her parents!" There's a pause. "Of course her dad's on a business trip and her mom and Grace have to be at their wit's end! Look, I'm with Daya, she was...no, you listen to me, bitch! Daya's got a gaping hole in her thigh and half her crew just disappeared, including Alison! I know there's nothing I can do, but...Suzanne's needs just aren't as important right now! She's freakin' out and fuckin'...lookin' for heaven!" Taystee explodes and rubs her forehead. "Damn, you and Suzanne are givin' me major headaches...nah, I ain't even with Poussey, she's with her girl. Just do your best!"
"You can go, it's fine." Daya waves her away. "Be the mom friend to Suzanne. I've got some peeps here."
Taystee holds her phone away from her ear. "I want a break from her and Cindy, too...desperately. They been gratin' on my nerves lately!" She returns to her call.
"'Aight...see you later, Cindy...bye." She hangs up and exhales slowly. "Cindy dismissed me, she's got it handled, apparently."
"That's good!" Adeola comments.
"So...how did you learn to defend yourself so well?" Daya asks Taystee.
"Last year, some kid from high school came to Storky's with a gun and demanded that I give him cash register money, but it was gonna set off an alarm, so I gave him my fake Jordans instead. That scary experience just prepared me for anything."
"Oh, wow!"
"May I present to you all...the lady of honor!" Arturo announces as he brings Gloria out of a closet. She has a gag along with duct tape, which is binding her wrists and keeping her mouth shut. She's hunched over, shivering in her bra and underpants, feeling so degraded. She really thought she had him this time, but he'd stripped her of all her dignity. Her tía, friends, and the girls on the floor with their bound ankles and wrists all look so scared. Maritza is weeping softly against Flaca's shoulder. Diane is hyperventilating and everyone's gaze is fixed to the ground. Each of the masters holds a single captive down like they're unruly preschoolers at circle time. "So, you really thought you could beat me?" Arturo hisses in Gloria's ear. "Guess again." He pushes her to the ground and she lands hard on her hands and knees, probably bruising them, too. He rips the tape off her lips and she coughs out the balled-up sock that she'd previously been choking on.
"Ay..." Gloria's in an immense amount of pain as if she wasn't already. He flips her over and ties her wrists and ankles together. She shields her face as he towers over her. She cries out when his foot rams into her side over and over. Their audience is begging for him to stop, but he won't. "Por favor, Arturo, no más..." she keeps repeating between panicked gasps. She's frozen with fear when he finally quits, and then he drags her to Lourdes, holding her up by her hair in front of her aunt.
"You see this, Lourdes?" he growls, shaking Gloria. "This is your fault! You should've taught your niece to be more obedient, but you didn't! Your little Florecita's a piece of trash because of you, bitch!"
"Leave her alone, you scumbag!" Lourdes shouts at him and winces when Piscatella grips her upper arms a little more firmly. Gloria bites her lip to keep from sobbing out loud as she lays her head in her tía's lap.
"Yeah, asshole, you're an abuser, you hurt Gloria all the time, so why would she ever respect you?!" Blanca chimes in. "I know mi Diablo would never treat me the way you're acting towards her. Fuck you!" She struggles in Juarez's grasp. "We all hate you, pendejo!"
"That's enough, cunt spic," Juarez snaps. "I know from Stratman that you pissed yourself twice...maybe you'll do it a third time when I'm done with you!"
"You for sure are gonna do that," Stratman taunts her, and the men around them chuckle.
"¡Nunca lo haré!" Blanca insists defiantly.
I will never do it!
The kidnappers soon make quick work of chaining the girls and ladies to each other and plopping them down on hard wooden chairs. "You have such pretty faces, it'd be a shame if anything happened to them!" Arturo taunts Gloria and her fellow hostages.
"My boyfriend's gonna capture your ass soon enough!" Diane hollers.
"Oh, like he didn't last time? That bumbling idiot doesn't even know I escaped again! You see, I kept getting let out by Officers Clarke and Herrmann. My boss Kubra made a deal with Dean Juarez and Carlos Litvack over here not to deport me." Arturo cackles. "So I'm like the almighty Dios!"
"You're nothing like Him!" Lorna shouts from above them all, and Gloria can see that she'd torn duct tape off of her lips. "He's a good being...you are pure fucking evil!"
Alison glowers in his direction. "Damn you to Hell!"
Aleida wrenches herself away from Hellman and spits at Arturo. "What they said, cabrón."
He jerks her chin up to face him. She looks truly afraid for her life by the look in her eyes, but Gloria can tell that she's trying to remain strong. "You know why you're here, you little bitch? You started a friendship with my fiancée and caused her to pathetically invite herself and my sons into your home, and you and your stupid boyfriend stole them from me! You let her stay in your apartment and actually hid her and her boys...like I was a Nazi soldier!"
"You are like the Gestapo, you bastard! Gloria's sons have my man wrapped around their little fingers, and he and Daya and Fahri and Charles are searching for us! So are the rest of our family and friends!" Aleida snaps back.
Arturo steps toward Gloria, his hateful eyes boring into hers. She quivers in disgust. "I don't blame you for Fahri, I really don't...those cunts who called the pigs on me and Crazy, who lured them here, they're the ones who deserve the punishment! They devised the plan on getting you and him together...they should know not to make you cheat on me!" He undoes Flaca from her confinements, gets her to kneel, and then bangs her face into the floor. All of the captives scream in horror at once, the sound reverberating through the room, and both Flaca and Maritza start sobbing. Everyone takes turns begging for him to stop, but he just yanks Flaca up by her hair. The poor girl's nose is now at an odd angle and blood drips down her mouth and chin. Bruises form on her face and she's developing two black eyes. "You see? This is what happens when you snitch!" He keeps his tight grip on her arm and doesn't let her move, instead, showing her off like a brand new toy.
"It's not her fault!" Gloria shrieks as she sits up, gasping and wheezing, her bound hands clasped together tightly. "Flaca was protecting me! That's all, she didn't want me to get hurt anymore!"
Arturo just ignores her. "After she and her midget lover got me arrested..." With his other hand, he pulls up Maritza and shakes her. "They got that one up there to help them with a special project that I will never forget." He makes Flaca point at Lorna in the cage. "Will one of you three bitches please tell the rest of the class what you did?" When no one answers, he punches Maritza and she staggers back. Humps stands up and slaps her bottom. She tries wriggling away from him, but he drags her to another area in the house. Her high-pitched squeals and cries for him to stop are breaking Gloria's heart. She lifts herself off of Lourdes and gets up to try saving Maritza from being violated, but Arturo trips her. She falls to the ground again, feeling so helpless and defeated.
"Where is he taking her?" Blanca asks in a desperate tone.
"Oh, he's just having his fun, he's horny and we don't need her right now." Arturo sniggers. "Probably tearing off her clothes as we speak, though."
"Noooo!" Flaca cries and presses her hand against her chest while sobbing some more. The others look just as heartbroken.
"Mr. Piscatella trained me well for this moment." Arturo grabs Gloria and shoves Flaca away. The tall girl stumbles, but then Stratman gets her into a seated position again. Arturo brings Gloria over to her wooden chair and makes her sit in front of everyone. He sniffs her hair and chills race up and down her spine. He begins gnawing on her neck as he rips her bra open in the back, breaking the clasp as he does so. He removes her top undergarment and his hands slither around her to dig his nails into her bare breasts. "Does Fahri touch you like this, huh?" He pants in her ear like a rabid dog and snakes his hand down her underpants. She squirms and turns away from the others as he pinches her clitoris. She shrieks out loud. "I bet he fucks you hard, too!"
"No, he doesn't...we're not together in that way, but I know if we were, he'd be so gentle! I fell in love with him, though. He treats me better than you ever did and my sons see him as a father figure!"
That's what gets him angry, and she really wishes she hadn't said it, but she needed to speak her truth. He backhands her immediately, pulls the chair out from under her, and jumps on top of her while stripping, his knees trapping her beneath his looming shape. His dick dangles over Gloria's face as he mauls her like a wild animal and makes blood spill from different parts of her body. He'd sharpened his fingernails into claws and when he growls, spittle drips from his mouth, as if he's a hungry beast. The torture that she's going through makes her want to die, and she tries her best not to look at the wounds he's inflicting on her. He rolls her over, plucks a razor blade from the front pocket of his polo shirt, and skims it along her waistline. She whimpers and she can hear the rest of the abductees letting out terrified squeaks.
Arturo viciously cuts her underpants off of her, not caring that he's also slicing into her thighs. "You know that I spied on you two on your first date? You wore such a dazzling blue dress...and it showed off the shape of your body so good. Damn, I could've feasted upon you right then and there." He licks his lips in a disturbing manner and then rams himself into her. "I enjoyed watching you grow up, too...from the time you were ten. I had to kill your parents so I could have you all to myself, but then your brainless tía stepped in and I needed to wait until you were an adult..."
Gloria shivers at him mentioning that he'd been stalking her for two decades and he'd murdered the two people who had brought her into this world.
"Then the boys got locked in a freezer, but you got them out...they were trembling with the cold, thanks to your irresponsibility," he continues. "Your friends were on a triple date gone wrong, and you weren't even with them!"
She spaces out as she's sexually assaulted repeatedly. It hurts so much and she can't move; he's so heavy and huge. A while later, her violent rapist looks up from her crotch hungrily, his teeth gleaming and her blood dripping from his mouth. She gasps and wheezes as she lets her eyes close again.
"My buddies and I are either a half a foot or an entire twelve inches taller than you," he brags. "That means you're weak and small, like a mouse. We can all take turns stepping on you if we feel like it!"
"Why do you hate me so much?" she's finally able to rasp out.
"You'd always tell me how successful you were at work, and no matter how hard I slaved away in the drug cartel, you didn't consider it a job!"
"That's because it's not, you dumb shit! Gloria has a fine career, two of them, in fact!" Blanca shouts.
"You're going to dig your own grave along with Maritza now, bitch! Up and at 'em!" Juarez barks. Gloria's eyes widen in horror as he, Litvack, and Stratman all force Blanca out of the room, despite the girls and women protesting.
Alison twists herself around. "Leave her alone, you creep!"
"They didn't all have to be on her like that, she's super skinny!" Flaca speaks up as she rocks back and forth.
"Shut up!" Arturo wags his finger at them. "I've heard enough from you cunts! I'll knock ya both in the hole if you say another goddamn word. I know Piscatella's got no problem cutting tongues out of whores' mouths, he'll start with Aleida, since she couldn't keep her trap shut at first! Then you, Diane."
Gloria sucks in a labored breath. "Arturo, por favor...just listen to me...you started thinking low of me and hitting me when I got ¡un frasco de salsa para pasta abierto para ti! You couldn't get it and you got angry when I succeeded! That's not what a real man does! No wonder I couldn't be with you anymore! Your masculinity was challenged!"
a pasta sauce jar open for you!
"So the truth comes out!" Lourdes says triumphantly.
"Shut the fuck up," he tells Lourdes warningly, wrapping his hands around Gloria's throat and shaking her. "Would you stop it?!"
"Damn thing won't fuckin'..." Arturo grunts as he struggles with a jar of pasta sauce and shakes out his hand.
"Let me help," Gloria offers in a giggly voice. She wiggles her fingers and holds them out toward him.
Arturo scoffs. "There's no way you can, but go ahead."
Within minutes, Gloria's able to open it using all her strength. She sets it on the table and smiles at him proudly. "There! You see?"
Fury flashes in his eyes as he stares at her. His fists clench at his sides and he grits his teeth. She hadn't expected him to hit her, but for the first time in their relationship, he did, and she's lying on her kitchen floor, wondering why he would do this. She's gasping in pain as tears come to her eyes. "Don't ever do that to me again, slut," he reprimands her in a dark tone and storms off.
"Qué...what did I..."
"Now you and I are gonna get married tonight in front of our guests," Arturo says briskly as he finally releases her. She coughs a few times and writhes on the floor. "I've picked out a lovely gown for you to wear. Then, we're going to leave the country as husband and wife."
Although she's afraid, Gloria nods slowly. An idea dawns on her all of a sudden. "That sounds...wonderful," she forces herself to say.
"Florecita, no..." Lourdes murmurs.
"Don't do this, Glo!" Aleida and Diane tell her in unison.
"Yeah, what are you, ¿loca?" Flaca asks.
"Hey...um, Arturo?"
She swallows her fear as he fondles her breasts. "¿Sí, mi mascota?"
"¿Nuestros invitados también pueden vestirse bien? Con joyería...y for me to be your loyal bride, we should, um...casarse en un altar con velas de santería would make it official." She exchanges a meaningful glance with Lourdes, who looks like she's slowly getting it. However, the others appear to be so confused.
Can our guests also dress nice? With jewelry...and getting married on an altar with Santería candles
"Sí," Lourdes joins in. "I'm ordained."
"Good!" he booms. "Aleida will be your maid of honor, Gloria...las otras serán tus damas de honor."
the others will be your bridesmaids
The savages then lock the captives in the dank, dusty room on their uncomfortable chairs that are bolted to the floor. They leave them there while they go out shopping. Gloria is still naked, and she turns around as best she can so nobody has to look at her, but she can still see them out of the corner of her eye. She's freezing, even with the ratty blanket that Arturo had given her. She focuses on bouncing her knees up and down to keep the blood flowing, and she closes her eyes so she won't pass out. The cloth slightly covering her has sopped up most of the red crimson splatters on her skin.
"What's your plan, Glo?" Aleida questions her.
"Yeah, why are you marrying that sleazebag?" Diane asks.
"We each got a piece of shit to ourselves, right?" They nod at Gloria's words. "So, we gotta outsmart 'em and use what we got on us as weapons...the rings I brought with me are sharp and can cut through flesh. The candles can burn a lace curtain and set the whole house aflame...but we gotta do it near a hallway that leads to the exit...like, the front door, so they're on the other side of the fire and trapped. We gonna torch these motherfuckers. I know how to get us outta here...this is Arturo's uncle's house, he used to bring me all the time."
They grin. "Nice," Alison comments. "Are you going through with the ceremony, or...?"
"Yeah, I gotta kiss him as a distraction and squeeze his nuts as hard as I can...just try to twist 'em off!"
"That's perfect!" Lorna says from her cage. "Also, the girls outside got shovels to hit those coozes with."
"Mm-hm..."
Seeing her girl motionless is really scaring her. Shani begins crying when she sees Nicky being carried into an ambulance, strapped to a gurney with a hole in her shirt where her abdomen is. Aydin had been pronounced dead at the scene, which everyone is thankful for, but there isn't any word on Nicky's condition yet. "No, no, no!" Shani screams, burying her face against Red's chest. "Oh my god, Nicky...I can't lose her again, I can't..."
The older woman squeezes her tightly in her arms, appearing equally upset. "I know, Shani, I can't imagine her gone either...but the medical professionals will do their absolute best when operating on her," Red murmurs soothingly while stroking Shani's hair. "Take it one breath at a time, sweetheart. I'm here..."
Shani can tell that Red is just trying to stay strong, but she takes solace in the lady's wise words anyway. "We just have to hope and pray that the bullet didn't hit any vital organs...and that she's gonna be okay. She has to survive this!"
Red sniffles and wipes her nose. "Yes, I agree. We have to remain calm for her sake."
Poussey, Franziska, and Michelle are standing nearby, while a traumatized Alex struggles to respond to the police officer asking her things. She rubs her eyes under her glasses and stammers through her words. After she doesn't fully answer a few questions because she's unable to, Michelle takes her place and explains what happened with Aydin, why Alex needed to protect herself, and how he'd shot Nicky just before taking his last breath.
Alex runs to the other girls and Red, and they envelop her in a group hug. "I'm so sorry, Shani and Red," she apologizes, sounding shell-shocked.
Shani just sobs into Alex's shoulder.
"It wasn't your fault," Red assures the tall bespectacled teen and then dials a number. "I have to call Tricia, she's just texted me."
At Red's apartment, Tricia answers her phone. "Hey, not that I enjoy the freedom, but shouldn't you be here by now? You can't leave me home alone for more than three hours, I'm eleven! It's been over fifteen minutes..."
"Oh yes, I'm so sorry, honey...but it's going to be longer than I thought it would be, because the pig-fucker Alex was hanging out with actually turned out to be dangerous and your sister was going to see for herself if she was right on her suspicions, she even brought a gun, and...when Alex stabbed him, Nicky hugged her...and then she was shot with her own weapon!" Red explains drearily.
Tricia gasps. "Oh my god! Is she..." She can't bring herself to say dead. She never wants to think of Nicky cold and unmoving, all the life drained out of her.
"I don't know," Red admits, her tone broken. "I really hope she pulls through. Poor baby..."
"Can I come and see her?" Tricia asks. "In-in the hospital..." She dissolves into whimpers between shaky breaths.
"Of course you can, sweetheart. Go ahead and call Lida to bring you, alright? We need each other, little girl."
"Okay..." Tricia sniffles. "Goodbye, Ma. Love you. Give Nicky a kiss on her cheek for me if I'm not there yet!"
"I will if they let me! I love you too, Tricia. See you soon."
