To Become

In the “nightmare” room, Kylie sat curled into herself trying to sleep but not able to. She began to talk to herself to keep her mind sane. She needed to remind herself the rules of the room anyway before she messed up again. “I’m not allowed to talk while I’m in here unless Ryan says I can. That’s a stupid rule. It’s already gotten me in trouble though. There was another big rule…” She paused a moment to think then she remembered it. “Oh yeah, I’m not allowed to stand. I have to crawl everywhere. I hope he at least lets me drink from a cup or a water bottle this time instead of a stupid dog dish. He did say he wanted to humiliate me though for what I did…He wouldn’t really bring customers in would he? What am I saying? It’s Ryan of course he would.” Without even thinking her voice grew louder and she yelled. “Ryan! I hate you!”



Walking down the hallway heading toward his room, Ryan heard Kylie yell. He smiled to himself. Perhaps he should check on her since she was still awake even though he had just left not too long ago.



He opened the door to the dark room and turned on the lights. Kylie tensed. He just shook his head at her. “I know you hate me, but people are trying to sleep. Can we save the yelling until tomorrow morning?”



She stayed quiet, not daring to speak to cause more punishment to come upon her. Looking down at her feet, she nodded in a silent answer.



“Good. It’s your last chance before I go to bed. Do you need to use the bathroom?”



“No sir,” was her short reply.



“Close your eyes and get some sleep.” At that moment, Ryan’s cell phone rang. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out, looking to see who was calling. “What the hell does she want at this time?” Kylie gave him a strange look at the mention of the word ‘she,’ but he ignored it as he flipped the phone open and answered. With a concerned expression on his face, he turned off the lights and left the room.



Ryan waited up for about thirty minutes before a knock was heard on the front door. He went to answer it and there she stood, the woman he had been talking to on the phone. She was partially beat up and bruises were already forming on her pale face and arms. A bit of blood lay partially dried in her light auburn hair. He pulled her in gently and sat her down on the sofa before waking up Greg and having him take a look at her.



“Mel, he did this, didn’t he?” Ryan held her petite frame in to himself once Greg had finished bandaging up her arm.



Nodding, she told him, “Yeah. You have to make him stop Ryan…” She started shaking in his arms as tears wracked her body.



“I’m going to kill that bastard.”



“No! You can’t kill him. I don’t want you to go to prison because of me. Just let me stay here with you.”



“I’ve already told you that you can’t,” he said sighing. “I really wish you could, but you just can’t Melanie.”



“And you’ve never told me why!” Melanie then turned to Greg. “Why is it that I can’t stay here? What’s the big secret with you four?” Greg patted her thigh softly before leaving the living room and going back to bed. “Why won’t you tell me?”



Ryan stood and helped Melanie up next to him. “If I tell you, you’ll run away from me. That’s why. I love you Mel. I really do, and I don’t want to lose you because of you finding out.”



“Finding out what?” she asked confused. “You’re not running drugs out of here are you? Is that why you never want me to come over and we always meet up in Faribault?”



“We’re not selling drugs. It’s something different than that, but you don’t need to concern yourself okay?”



“And here I thought you trusted me. If you really loved me, Ry, you would tell me everything. There wouldn’t be any secrets between us. I told you about Christopher, didn’t I?”



“That’s different. He’s hurting you, and we need to get you out of that situation. If you didn’t have to stay with this bastard cousin of yours—”



Ryan was suddenly cut off by a scream from down the hall. Melanie looked up, her eyes wide. “What was that?”



“Dammit.” Turning to leave, he said, “I’ll be right back. Stay here.”



Angrily, Melanie grabbed him from behind. “Ryan Lorenson, tell me what the hell is going on here right now!”



“Calm down. Stay here for just a moment. I’ll tell you in a minute, okay? Just promise me you’ll stay right here.”



“You swear to tell me? I don’t want to be left out anymore.”



“I swear. I’ll be right back.”



Ryan opened the door to the backroom and saw Kylie backed against the cage. With the lights on, he suddenly saw why she had screamed. There was a good sized spider crawling in front of the cage. It was a daddy-long-leg so it would not cause any harm, but he thought best to dispose of it anyway. He did so then told her to stay quiet and that he would be right back with some clothes. He kept his word to her and brought in a pair of old clothes that fit her which he had in his closet for her to change into later on. He opened the door to the cage and ordered her to dress. She did, and then started to go back down on her knees, but Ryan held her up. When he began to leave, he motioned for her to follow him. Hoping that he was taking her back to the basement, she followed him without complaint. Right outside the door, he stopped. “I’m going to introduce you to someone and I swear, you utter one word about me hurting you in anyway, I’ll kill you before the night is over. Do you understand?” His eyes bore evilly and directly into hers.



“Yes sir,” she quietly and fearfully answered. Her hands shook slightly not knowing what he was planning or who she was supposed to meet, but she would be obedient.



Leading Kylie down the hall, he grabbed her hand gently. When the reached the living room, Kylie saw a young woman perhaps in her early twenties staring shocked at the two of them. “Ry, who is this?”



“Her name’s Kylienna,” he answered Melanie.



“Kylienna? That’s the name of that girl who disappeared a while back. Oh god Ryan, you didn’t…”



He took a deep breath. It would be hard to explain to her exactly what he was doing with this young girl. He knew there was a chance of her even going to the authorities on it, but fortunately, they had cops on their payroll. “Yeah, this is her.”



“You kidnapped her?” Melanie instinctively reached out for Kylie and pulled her into her arms. Kylie’s eyes were wide in confusion.



“Mel, you have to understand. There’s a good reason for it.”



“Yeah, well what is it that you had to take an innocent girl from her family? What is it Ryan? Tell me!”



“Well, maybe it isn’t a good reason, but Mel, I can’t tell you why. I want you to just drop it.”



Melanie brought Kylie over to the sofa with her and they sat together on the cushions. “Has he hurt you sweetheart?” she asked carefully, not wanting to frighten her.



“Come on Melanie! You think that little of me now?”



Kylienna once again curled into herself. She knew Ryan was angry and she was going to be the one to feel it once this woman left. Crying, Kylie stood and ran down the hall as fast as she could and slammed the door to Ryan’s room after she went in. She locked it. She would be safe for a while until he decided to break down the door just to get to her.



“What did you do to her Ryan? What did all of you do to her?” Melanie questioned him.



Ryan was at a loss of patience and he grabbed Melanie by the collar of her shirt and raised her up to his level. “Do you really want to know what’s going on here?”



“Ryan stop…”



“We’re running a nice little business here Mel. There are seven other girls downstairs, and they just love doing whatever they can to please us. It’s not only us that they please Melanie. I guess you could possibly call this place a small little brothel.”



When Ryan dropped her back to her feet, Melanie could not believe at all what she heard and started to back away from him. “You’re selling these girls off for sex just to make money!”



She turned to run out the door but Ryan grabbed her by the waist. “Where do you think you’re going? If you’re thinking about going to the police, you can forget it. We have cops on our side. They won’t do anything about it. If I were you, I would just keep my mouth shut!”



“You raped that little girl Ryan! How could you!”



“Just calm down Mel,” he said trying to calm his own anger. “Look, I’m sorry for yelling at you, but this can’t get out.”



Tears of anguish were running down her eyes as she moved to stare back at him. “Why? Why would you even do this? What are you, some sort of pedophile now? And here I actually thought I knew you, and then this?”



“I’m quite far from a pedophile. I’m not into girls their age, but they’re easier to control.”



“I can’t believe you. I can’t believe any of you.”



“Look,” Ryan started with a deep breath hoping he would not regret what he was about to say, “you can stay here tonight, alright? I don’t want you going back to Chris. He’s going to end up killing you one day.”



“I don’t want anything to do with this illegal business of yours. Just let these girls go Ryan. I can’t…I can’t trust you like this. Not now. I can’t love you knowing that you’re doing what you’re doing,” Melanie told him.



“Right…Then just leave. Like I said, there’s no point in going to the police. They won’t help or even listen to you.”



“We’ll see.”



Ryan grabbed her arm and jerked her back towards him when she began to move away to leave. “I’ll just make you stay here tonight then. Do you want me to tie you up or are you going to be a good girl?”



“Please let go…”



Laughing at her, he started to remove her clothes and she shivered from slight fear, yet in her heart, she knew he would not hurt her. She knew that he loved her, but how could she ever love him?



When her clothes were removed along with Ryan’s top, he laid her on the floor and crawled on top of her. He slid off his pants easily and pulled her legs apart, shoving into her with no preparation. The sex lasted for about an hour and they were both out of breath. All she could do was gaze into his eyes. “Why?” Melanie asked him.



“I told you. It’s because I love you.” Ryan rolled off of her and dressed while she sat up and dressed herself. “Stay with me tonight.”



How she could let herself feel this way about him after she heard what was being done in that very house strongly confused her. The sex with him had still felt amazing even though she knew that he had admitted raping the one girl she had met and probably even the other girls he had mentioned. She guessed they were kept in the basement where she was never allowed when the rare chance came that she was able to go to the house. With nothing else to say, she replied, “Okay.”



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A/N:

Wow...a twist...heh...well where will this go now? Maybe I\'ll dream something up. (Yes, this chapter came to me in a dream like most of these chapters do.) I hope you enjoyed it. Don\'t forget to R&R. I love my Nila-sensei.