[skjelner]

“Erin? Erin!”

Erin realized she wasn’t dreaming—the pain in her head was too real. She flicked open her eyes and struggled to raise her head to look around, wincing through the pain. It appeared she was in the same room where she had fallen, albeit in a different location. Like before, a pale square of light illuminated the area within a few feet on all sides of her, but now she could not see any walls at all.

“Erin! Can you hear me?”

It was the voice again. Isabel’s voice? Erin turned toward its source to find another beam of light shining onto the floor several yards away. She could make out the figure of a young woman lying on the floor in its glow, a mess of red hair atop her head. It was indeed Isabel—it had to be.

“I-Isabel?” Erin cried hoarsely. It hurt even to speak.

“Erin! It is you!” Isabel shouted back. “What the— how the hell did you get here? How long have you been here? Are you hurt?”

This was all very strange for Erin. Over the past day she had experienced nothing but torture and humiliation, but now she was able to speak with her closest friend.

“Isabel, I— I don’t know. I think I am hurt. My head … it hurts so bad.”

“Can you make it over here? Erin, I can’t move; I’m chained down. I haven’t been awake long either.”

“I-I think so. Hold on.” Erin attempted to get to her feet, only for blistering spikes of pain to shoot through her hips. “Isabel, I don’t think I can walk.” She began dragging herself toward Isabel with her forearms instead.
“Oh no … what did he do to you?”

“He?” Erin asked. “What do you mean? There were three me … three guys raped me.” As Erin drew closer, she could see the look of horror on Isabel’s face.

“Erin, I … I’m so sorry. Oh my god. Oh my god. That’s what this is? Oh my god.”

“You mean they—he didn’t touch you?”

“I don’t know, Erin … He took me and must have knocked me out or something, and I just woke up here. What happened to—”

“Wait, so it was just one guy? What did he look like?” The rough concrete was beginning to take its toll on Erin’s forearms, but she pressed on.

“He was tall, and bald I think.” Isabel replied. “I don’t know, I didn’t get much of a chance to look at him.”

A sinking feeling struck Erin immediately. “Isabel … that doesn’t sound like any of the three men who captured me. They all had plenty of hair. Oh my god, what the hell is all of this? What the fuck is going on?!”

“Erin, calm down,” Isabel urged. “We’ll find a way out of here.”

“Maybe you don’t understand, Isabel,” Erin shot back. “You weren’t just violated repeatedly for hours by total strangers. You weren’t just thrown down a flight of concrete steps and tortured with water. So just shut up and stop saying it’s gonna be okay, because things are pretty fucking far from okay!”

Erin had almost reached Isabel’s side and took a good look at her friend. Isabel’s eyes were watering up, and Erin realized her words had stung. Though their particular circumstances were different, they were both trapped here, and Isabel must have been just as scared as she. Her friend was indeed chained to hooks on the floor, lying face-up in a spread-eagle position with bindings around her elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles. Like Erin, she was entirely naked, though her pale, slender body showed little signs of bruising. Erin couldn’t help but notice a tuft of red hair above Isabel’s crotch, to her surprise: apparently her guess that Isabel would be the type to shave was wrong. Erin quickly averted her gaze, but her eyes were caught one last time by her friend’s pink nipples, pointing straight upward from her small yet firm breasts. Besides the shackles, Isabel’s body looked positively pristine.

“Oh god, Isabel, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that … I know you’re scared too.” Isabel breathed a sigh of relief before beginning to sob.

“I don’t know what’s going on, Erin … I am scared. I’m so scared. What happened to you? What are they going to do to me—to us?”

“It was fucking horrible, Is. There were—are—three guys: Mark, Chris, and Jason. They …. violated me. No, they raped me. And more. Oh god, I don’t want to, I can’t think about it.” Erin broke down at Isabel’s side, crying into the concrete.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Isabel offered in comfort. “Here, hold my hand.”

Erin nodded, then reached out and grasped Isabel’s fingers, interlocking her own with those much smaller. They cried together for a while before Erin broke the silence.

“So tell me what happened. How did you get here?”