Moving right along here. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter!
And just a heads up, for you AU Caryl fans out there that's itching for a new story to read, sweetkiwi604 is writing a multi chapter AU called Madness Takes Control. I read the first chapter and you know me. I don't do a lot of reading anymore, but it's awesome and any SPN fans out there will especially love it, even though it isn't a crossover. Anyway, check it out! She's an awesome writer and a super sweet chick =) Spread the love around, you know! Anyway, again, thanks for reading and hope you guys had a fantastic Monday! I know I didn't ;)
Chapter Seventy One
Ed didn't stick around. He came in simply to let her know that he had helped these men and then had stepped out like the coward she knew he was. She knew she was in serious trouble. The man was a vile bastard and told her exactly what it was that was coming to her. She had tried to hold them back but tears had started leaking from her eyes the more the man talked. He explained that he was a member of a different kind of club than her families. All she knew, from what she had heard was that Buck and the others dealt in the illegal gun trade. She knew nothing else. But this other club dealt in drugs and women.
They sold women.
She learned that it was easy. They took girls off the streets. Sometimes they were girls that were pretty much strung out anyway and would do anything for another hit of whatever drug they were on. But these girls didn't bring in as much money because most of them were already used up. They weren't worth as much as the more wholesome ones. They would take other girls, girls that were like Sophia, and feed them heroine. They turned them into addicts and then they "sampled" them before putting them up for bid. Sophia was a special case. Someone had already bought her and was on his way right now to pick her up.
"He could just wanna use you up for a while before he kills you," the man explained. The other two had left the room when Ed did.
She didn't say a word. She simply wiped her eyes and stayed very still.
"Or he might have clients of his own lined up. You know you could be subjected to ten, fifteen different men a day?"
She felt her gorge rising in the back of her throat. She didn't bother telling the creep that she was a virgin since that would probably just make her that much more expensive. Instead of gagging, like she wanted to do, she decided to keep the man talking because if he was talking then he wasn't touching her and she was still terrified that this unhinged man was going to touch her. "Do you really think Daryl is stupid enough to fall for any of this?"
The man laughed, causing her to flinch. It was an ugly sound. "Yeah, actually, I do. Daryl is stupid enough. He doesn't think. He acts. He's always been like that. And don't hold him up as some sort of hero. He isn't. You probably don't know half of what that man's done."
"What could he have done that would make you think that doing this to me is okay?" She snapped, feeling anger flash through her. Good. Anger was good because it felt better than the terror that threatened to have her curling up on the floor.
"He killed my dad. Buck Dixon took him out with him and he let Daryl kill my dad. He was a kid but he knew what he was doing. How would you feel towards a psychopath like that? You'd do whatever you could to get back at the son of bitch that did it. If not then you're stupid and you're weak."
Sophia shook her head. "He wouldn't do something like that. Buck wouldn't either."
He laughed. "Is that right? You don't know the half of it. And you probably wouldn't care because you're just as fucked up as the rest of them aren't you? As soon as Dave Henderson's family got in touch with us I knew it was time to do something about the Dixons. What they do ain't right," he yelled, causing her to flinch.
"Daryl wouldn't have done it unless he had a reason to do it," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. This was a mistake. He crossed the room and slapped her across the face so quickly that her head snapped to the side.
"They lied. They lied and said that my dad did all sorts of things to Daryl's mom and they killed him for it! And you know the worst part? The worst part is, my own mom believed them. She thought all those lies were true and she ended up killing herself! The Dixons take and take and it's time. It's time for somebody to take from them."
Sophia tasted blood in her mouth and wanted to spit but she didn't dare. The force of the blow had her head wound scraping painfully against the concrete she was pressed against and she could feel fresh blood on the back of her neck. She didn't believe anything this man was telling her. If Daryl and Buck killed his father it was because his father had been the one that killed Daryl's mother. She didn't know the details of what happened because no one would talk about it. All Sophia knew was that she had been killed when Daryl was nine years old.
The door opened and another man, unfamiliar to her, stepped inside. "What the hell are you doing?" He snapped, closing the door.
The guy that had hit her stepped away from her. "She was running her mouth."
"Baker wants her untouched. We hand her over with her face all messed up and he isn't gonna pay full price," the new man said as he approached her. He reached out and turned her head gently, his thumb sliding over her cheek. She refused to look at his face. He stepped away and she was glad. "Bring Tyler down here. I can trust him."
"No, you can't. He didn't want to be involved in any of this!" The man that had slapped her said angrily.
"Yeah, well, you obviously can't control yourself." Both men left the room and she nearly sagged in relief. Her headache was coming back and her face stung and she was starting to realize that there was little hope for her to get out of this. Even if she was strong enough to fight all of them before, she was too weak now. She had lost blood, was only losing more, and she already felt dizzy with fear. She had been sold like a piece of meat. She was going to have to endure losing her virginity to a stranger who would just rape her if she didn't cooperate. She started feeling a cold numbness in her chest.
When the door opened again she was sitting on the floor but her back was still to the wall. She hadn't even realized she had slid down. She glanced up, dread filling her at the thought of having to deal with some new stranger. When she saw his face she blinked.
He was young. Maybe a few years older than her and she knew that she knew him. She couldn't place him but she knew she had met him before. He shut the door behind him, avoiding her eyes for a moment before he finally looked at her. He frowned and took a few steps closer. "Son of a bitch," he muttered, looking her over. To her horror he pulled his shirt over his head.
She was filled with panic and leaned heavily into the wall to pull herself up off the floor. Why the hell was this guy taking off his shirt if he wasn't planning on doing something to her? "You keep your hands off me or I swear to God..."
He held up his hands, his shirt clenched tightly in his fist. "I ain't gonna hurt you, I swear. There's blood on the wall from your head, I'm just gonna stop the bleeding, okay?"
She watched him, trying hard to figure out where the hell she knew him from. "I know you," she said, her voice cracking.
He nodded and crossed the room. "Yeah, you kinda do. Let me put some pressure on that cut so it'll stop bleeding, okay?"
She swallowed but didn't move. He gripped her elbow gently and pulled her a few inches away from the wall, just enough so he could get his shirt behind her head.
"Here, hold it there for a few minutes. It ain't really nothing to be too worried about. Head wounds bleed like a bitch."
"Where do I know you?"
"I've seen you a couple of times. You drank a bunch of my beer one time when you were pissed at your boyfriend. Tyler," he said, crossing the small room and then actually sitting down on the floor against the wall across from her.
She gasped as she remembered. He had seemed nice but as soon as she had mentioned that Damon was her boyfriend he had forced her away so he wouldn't end up fighting him. "Why are you here? Why the hell would you let them do this to someone?"
He shook his head. "My brother brought me here. Why the hell couldn't you have just stayed with your goddamn friends? I didn't want any part of this."
"Who's your brother?" She asked, holding his shirt against her head and sitting back down. She felt like she had ran for a very long time. Her legs were weak and she was shivering again.
"The guy that apparently slapped the hell out of you."
She felt a flash of fear. If that was Tyler's brother then he must have had the same Dixon hate. She remembered how he had been adamant about not having anything to do with Damon. But why was he offering to help her? At least help her stop the bleeding in her head. "So, you hate my family too then?"
He met her eyes and she could have sworn that she saw remorse there. They stared at each other for a long time before he slowly shook his head. "You think I asked for this shit? I know what my dad did to that woman. I know what they all did. My brother don't believe it but I'm not stupid. I don't want any part of this shit but I don't have a choice."
She refused to feel sorry for him, even though she wanted to. "But you know what's going to happen to me and you aren't going to do a damn thing about it. You are a part of this."
He pulled his legs up and draped his arms over them, shaking his head. "There's fifteen fucking club members up there. What the hell am I suppose to do? I tried to talk them out of this but I'm one guy."
"You could have warned us that they were planning this in the first place."
"And get my brother killed?" He shook his head. "Besides, I didn't know anything about it until tonight."
She felt her eyes grow hard. "You think for a minute that they won't kill you all for this? You're putting nails in your coffin!"
A strange look came over his face. "You think I give a damn?"
She blinked. "What's that suppose to mean?"
He looked away, his head falling back slightly, leaning against the cold wall. "Do you have any idea how long he's dragged me around? How long he's been waiting until he was sure that he could hit the Dixon's where it really hurts? I'm tired."
"How old are you?" She asked suddenly.
"Turned twenty last week, why?"
"Why didn't you just try to get away when you turned eighteen?" She asked. She asked the question because she was genuinely curious but also because she knew that if she had a snowball's chance in hell of getting out of this place then he was the one that was going to be able to help her do it.
He sighed. "You're so fucking naive, kid. You don't just get away from this shit. You deal with it until it finally gets you killed."
"Help me get out of here. Please," she whispered after a long silence.
"I want to," he said, pulling himself up off the floor. "I swear I do."
"Then do it! Get me the hell out of here and then leave. Go start over somewhere! You aren't a bad guy you've just been sucked into bad situations. I'll even help you once we're out but you're my only hope."
He shook his head, his eyes defeated. Sophia was finding it hard to feel sorry for him now. She was feeling disgusted. Even her mom had gotten out of a bad situation eventually. She'd always held onto hope that she would leave Ed and finally she did. Tyler didn't seem as though he had any will to do anything at all. He would do what his brother told him to do. And she was going to be the one to pay the price for his cowardice.
She was about to tell him as much when out of nowhere, there was an explosion that shook the walls.
Suddenly there was a commotion upstairs that had them both looking up. The sound of many feet running in the same direction sounded above them. She looked back down, meeting his eyes and a feeling of relief washing through her. Somehow, Daryl was here. She didn't know how. She had no idea how he could have found her when she didn't even know where she was, but he was here.
"Looks like maybe you got yourself a get out of jail free card," he said, a measure of relief in his eyes.
Sophia didn't dare say a word for fear of jinxing this.