Jill's Story

Officer John Matthews brought the police cruiser to a stop in front of the ramshackle house. There was a body lying naked and still on the lawn. Drawing their weapons, they made their way up to the body, carefully securing the areas on the side of the house. Officer Allison Hayes knelt quickly by the body of the girl and was rewarded with a pulse, weak, but steady. She made her way back to the cruiser and radioed for an ambulance, then rejoined her partner in front of the house. The ambulance arrived shortly thereafter and four paramedics jumped out.
They rolled a gurney out of the back, and made their way to the girl.
Meanwhile, the two oers ers cautiously approached the house. There was blood on the wood, and a short distance from the front door, lay a cat. It\'s head lay at an unnatural angle, and one of it\'s ears was missing. It looked like it might have been torn or chewed off. Officer Allison Hayes fought the sickness that threatened to overcome her. The front door was ajar, and there was the heavy stench of body odor, beer, and cigarettes. Nothing could have prepared them for what lay beyond the open door.

On the floor in the living area, was an array of drugs and alcohol, the likes of which the detectives had never seen. They found themselves stepping over remnants of dime-bags, and pipes of all sizes, shapes and colors; cans and bottles of every description. They continued up the stairs to the second floor, where they found four bedrooms. Drawing their weapons, they searched the first two, and found nothing but two filthy, unkempt rooms. Moving stealthily to the third door, Officer Matthews carefully pushed it open. The first thing he saw, just inside the door, was the body of a young male, perhaps sixteen. His face was swollen beyond recognition, and his arm lay at an unnatural angle. John waited while his partner secured the room. He moved quickly, knelt beside the boy, and felt for a pulse. To his great relief, he found one...faint, but striving. He called down to the medics,

\"We\'ve got a live one here.\"

Lying in the center of a filthy mattress in the center of the far wall, was a young girl. Her long blonde hair was matted with blood, and grime…it was obvious that it hadn’t been washed in quite a while. Her china blue eyes stared blank and unseeing up at the ceiling, and she wasn’t moving. Her skin was ashen, and bruised so badly that he was almost afraid to touch her, for fear it might hurt her. Nonetheless, he gingerly felt her wrist for a pulse, and feeling none, gently closed her eyes. He had recognized her instantly, as Megan Murphy, a young girl who had gone missing almost three weeks ago. He couldn’t even imagine the horrors she had seen in the last few weeks of her young life. She was fourteen years old.
Surveying the room, he cringed as he thought of his own teenaged daughter, lying on the filthy mattress. Julie was just about her age, too. The mattress was crusted with human secretions, wastwaste. It smelled like a sewer, and looked almost as clean. There was a tray lying in the corner, behind the door, and on it lay some rotting food remnants. He just couldn’t imagine being forced to live this way for a prolonged period of time. And, the thought of his precious little girl being made to do so, and possibly to perform unspeakable acts made his stomach turn. Quickly, he turned and wretched into the corner.


The police officers had been very patient with the young girl. When they had picked her up two days earlier, she had been severely traumatized, it was obvious, but there was a stubbornness about her that they knew would help her to recover more quickly. She stood approximately five-foot five, and probably tipped the scale at one hundred seven. Her long, brown, hair, which had before been matted with mud and blood, was now clean and still slightly damp from the shower she had taken that morning. She had a small cut above her left eye, and a large gash across the top of her chest, that was sure to leave a nasty scar. Her large brown eyes, were red-rimmed and blood-shot, as they stared, blankly, straight ahead at the female officer who was questioning her.

\"Now take your time, Jill. Tell us exactly what you remember, and please stay as close to detail as you can. We need descriptions, who was involved...what do you remember?\"

The officer glanced up from his report to watch for a moment, then returned to his paperwork. \"At approximately 10:15AM, Tuesday, April 20, 1998, my partner and I were travg oug our assigned beat. We worked our way from US Highway 47, down Interstate 70 turning off onto Martendale. From there, we tu lef left onto Mockingbird, then right onto Lambert. On Lambert, we saw a form lying still in the yard of one of an abandoned house. Upon inspection, the victim, a female, was found to be unconscious, nude, as well as sporting several gashes and bruises. Officer Hayes radioed dispatch for assistance. An ambulance arrived at approximately 11:30 AM, and the victim was brought to Parkington General Hospital, where she was admitted at 11:43AM. Her statement was taken at 3:02PM, Wednesday, April 21, 1998.\"

\"Does she have to do this right now? I don\'t think she\'s really up to this right now...\" she heard her father say.

The female officer smiled at him,

\"Yes, sir. It is important that we try to get as much information as we can while it is still fresh in her mind. Before she has a chance to block it out, or the details get hazy. Now, if you\'d like to wait out in the waiting area...we won\'t be long.\" With that, she gestured for the girl\'s father to leave the room, and shut the door behind him.
Jill Parker looked beaten down, and exhausted. Her face was gaunt and pale. She hadn\'t slept much in the last few days. She had taken so many showers and baths, that her skin felt tight and dry. She just didn\'t seem to be able to wash away...anything.

\"I\'m trying to remember everything,\" she began.

“Take your time, Jill. There’s no hurry.”

She was trembling, and wringing her hands. As she gathered her thoughts, she began chewing on her nails, which were near bleeding having been chewed down to the quick. There were dark circles under her eyes and the lids appeared to be so heavy, she struggled to keep them open. Yet, when she did finally begin to speak, her voice was clear, calm and collected. She began,

\"Let me start at the very beginning...maybe it will help me remember more. I am a sophomore at Grady Shepherd High School. I remember the day. It was a Wednesday. I was walking home with my best friend, Carrie Castle. Isn\'t that a fantastic name? I always wished I had a cool name like that...better than plain old \'Jill Parker\'. Anyway, we were on our way home from Yell practice. When we reached her house, she went inside and I kept walking alone. It was only a couple of blocks, and I was supposed to be home by five.
I had just turned onto Paradise Street, when I saw this fantastic car coming up behind me. It slowed down and pulled up beside me. I wasn\'t going to look over, but I did. He was so cute! He haft bft brown eyes, and shaggy, dirty-blonde hair, probably about six feet tall, broad shoulders, looked about seventeen years old…you get the picture?”
Officer Hayes smiled and nodded at the girl. The sketch artist in the corner, sketched madly trying to capture the being she had described as best he could.
He said, \'Hey! You’re Jill, right?\' I stopped and looked over at him, and nodded. He said, \'I\'m Jack Lewis. Your little brother goes to Smith with my little brother Brandon. My mom said he was supposed to walk home with your brother today, and I\'m supposed to pick him up...we just moved here, and we live right down the street from you. Have you seen them?’ I shook my head and kept walking. He continued to follow me, \'Oh, well, they\'re probably home by now. Well, Jill...can I give you a lift to your house? I\'m on my way there anyway.\' I almost died. I agreed. I climbed into the passenger\'s seat and we drove on down the street.
He was talking. Telling me all about where they had moved from. I guess I couldn\'t stop staring at him long enough to notice that we had traveled way out of the way. In fact, we were on the highway. I started to get nervous, and asked where we were going. He smiled and replied, \'Well, I thought we\'d go get a coke or something. You\'re just so pretty, and I wanted to take you out, but I was too nervous to ask...\' I freaked at the thought of this gorgeous guy too nervous to ask ME out! I told him I had to be home by five, and he said we had plenty of time. Eventually, we came to the next town, Freemont. I knew we had gone entirely too far and I was never going to make it home by five.
When we turned into a neighoodhood, I started to get a really bad feeling. I guess I should have acted on it. The street we turned onto from the main road, Lambert, I think, was completely desolate. Lining the left side of the street, were two houses...well, \'house\' is a bit of a stretch. The first one looked like it might have once been beige or peach colored, but now was an ugly, dingy, peeling gray. The front of the structure held four windows, two of which werstedsted, the other two were boarded The The front door was painted black, and you could barely make out a gravel driveway leading up to the dilapidated porch. There were a few dead plants scattered across the floor of the porch, and a sickly looking cat teetered dangerously on the narrow rail surrounding.
I gasped as we pulled into the driveway. Turning to him, I was about to ask where the hell we were...the last thing I remember is a sharp pain in the back of my head...then darkness.
When I woke up, I was tied to what I could only imagine to be a bed of some sort, which put me in a total panick. I moved my head to try to look around, only to feel blinding pain. I assume it was from the blow to the head. There was something sticky in my hair, making it stick to my face. Later I found that it was blood.
In the dim light from a boarded up window, I quickly surveyed the room. The first thing I noticed was the chair on the far corner. Nothing decorative or fancy, or even attractive for that matter, just a chair. The thing that caught my eye, was the girl who was tied to it. She was young, as least my age, if not younger. Long, tussled blonde hair, and huge, frightened blue eyes. She had a good deal more blood in her hair…it was, like, matted with it. She didn\'t have any clothing on the top half of her body, and the skirt she had been wearing, was pretty much destroyed. She had a large gash across her right arm, that I assumed was pretty fresh...it was still oozing blood.
\'Where are we?\' I asked. Her eyes widened and she held a finger up to her cracked lips, shushing me, then she said quietly, \'I\'m not sure. You shouldn\'t talk so loud, they\'ll hear you.\' She glanced around fearfully. I struggled to pull myself into a sitting position, only to find that my feet were tied to opposite posts at the foot of the bed. I was panicked. I looked at the girl and asked, \'How long have you been here?\' She shrugged miserably, and replied, \'I don\'t know...about three or four days?\' My eyes widened slightly. \'What\'s your name?\' She answered, \'Megan. Megan Murphy.\' My jaw dropped. \'Megan Murphy? I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you\'ve been missing for almost three weeks! I just saw that story on the news yesterday.\' Her eyes filled with tears, and her head dropped to her chest. Through her sobs, she mumbled, \'They\'re never going to find us.\' My breath caught.
I could hear, faintly, a television close by. I could also hear voices. One of them, I recognized as Jack\'s. Then, I heard footsteps. \'I think I hear a whore now.\' , one of the voices boomed. The door burst open and a man entered the room. He shut the door behind him, reached up and pulled the chain on the light fixture, and the room was flooded with yellow light. I gasped at the sight of the man.
He was young, maybe early twenties. His hair was long, past his shoulders...very dirty, and very black. His eyes were a shade of blue I\'ve never seen before. There was a scar across his forehead and a sore on his lip that was oozing a yellow puss-like liquid. His torn t-shirt held the logo of, what I assumed to be, a rock band I had never heard of, and his pants were torn at both knees. In his hand, he held a beer can, and I could see the handle of a switchblade sticking out of his back pocket.
He walked across the room to the chair in which Megan sat, rigid and terrified, and he reached down, caressing her naked breast. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to stifle a shriek of revulsion. She shrank back against the chair, as though trying to fall back through it, trying to get as far from his probing hands as she could. Before I knew it, he had ripped the bindings from her, grabbed her by the hair and was forcing her down onto the floor. She was crying and sobbing hysterically. He held her face to the floor and started shouting at her.
\'You stupid bitch! I told you to zip it! If you don\'t shut your damn mouth, I\'m gonna give you something to scream about! Do you hear me?\' Outraged, he jerked her head up and backhanded her, throwing her backwards. She hit the wall with a dull thud and crumpled to the floor, where she lay still. For a few seconds, I was afraid he had killed her. Then, I heard her moan, ever so faintly. Then, he turnn men me. \'So, princess...you gonna be a loudmouth, too?\' I shook my head violently, and the room swam as my head pounded.
He walked slowly over to the bed and perched on the edge beside me. As he ran a finger down the side of my face, his mouth formed a grotesque grin. I cringed as his hand slowly dropped to the front of my blouse. I struggled, silently, with the rage and fear that gripped me. My jaw was locked in a determined scowl: I would not give him the satisfaction of a scream.
His hand had found its way into my blouse, and was tracing lazy circles on the lacy bra that was the only thing that separated him from me. \'You like that don\'t you, princess? I can tell that you do.\' I was near gagging. His face still held that macabre smile. He leaned down, bringing his face closer to mine. I prayed that he wouldn\'t kiss me...I knew I would vomit. The moment seemed to last for hours, his face inches from mine, his lips hovering a quarter of an inch from my mouth. His breath was rancid, a mixture of tooth decay, tobacco, and beer.
He said, \'You want a kiss darlin\'? You want a nice, deep, wet kiss? You look like you do...what else do you want me to do to you?\' He had unzipped my jeans and had his hand down them. He was trying to work his way into my underwear, and he began ng fng forward, closer to my mouth. I could feel the gorge rising in my throat, when a long, loud moan came from the other side of the room, jarring him from his present endeavor.
\'Well, look who finally decided to join us.\' He left me and made his way across the room to the spot where she had fallen. Did you have a nice nap, princess?\' Then he shouted, \'Get up, bitch!\' She scrambled to her feet, stumbling as she rose. She stood in front of him, mostly naked, shaking like a leaf. Her eyes widened, as he approached her, then just glazed over. He grabbed her by the arm and said, \'Let\'s show your new roomie how we do things around here, shall we?\' She stared blankly straight ahead. I knew what was about to happen, but I was still shocked at the events of the next half hour.
He laid her down on the worn rug, and began to slowly, and deliberately, spread her hair out around her head, like a halo. Then, he began removing what was left of her clothing. His hands moved carelessly over her naked body. His fingers moved quickly as he gently massaged her bare breasts. Heeredered his head and kissed the dark, pink nipples, lapping at them like a dog. She simply lay, motionless.
He raped her...right there in front of me. I watched helplessly as he violated that poor girl, again and again. And, she just lay there, silently crying. I prayed that it would end. At one point, iemedemed like he was finally finished, then he turned her over and began again. I thought I would die...I hoped I would. For a while, I almost prayed for her death...for a quick and painless end to her suffering. Then...I slept. I don\'t remember being particularly sleepy, I guess I just blacked out. I just could bare to watch him torture her any longer.
I awoke to find a different man in the bed with me. I gasped...horrified at the prospect of having been raped by this strange person. I became very still, terrified of waking him and reliving Megan\'s hellish nightmare. However, he did stir and wake. He slowly turned his head and opened his eyes. Our eyes met, and he jumped, clearly frightened. It was at that moment, that I realized he, too, had a bloody head. I thought, My God. What the hell is going on here?
I raised my head, frantically searching for Megan. It was difficult, searching in the darkness of the corner where she usually sat. She wasn\'t there. I looked over at the guy next to me, and asked, softly, \'Who are you?\' He quietly cleared his parched throat, and answered, \'Jamie. Who are you? And where are we?\' I said, \'Jill. I don\'t know where we are. Somewhere in Freemont. Did you happen to see what they did with that other girl that was in here?\' He said, \'She\'s there. Just before they bashed me over the head, I caught a glimpse of her lying just below the foot of the bed. That\'s why you can\'t see her. I can hear her.\' I listened intently, nothing. \'What do you mean, you can hear her? I can\'t hear anything.\' He was quiet for a moment, the'Sur'Sure you can, sh-h-h...listen.\' We both listened quietly, and sure enough, I could hear a faint, steady breathing as she slept.
\'Where did you come from?\' I asked. \'Freemont,\' he replied. I told him I was from Parkington and I asked him how he got here. He thought for a moment, then began, \'I was walking home from school...\' I listened quietly, as he recounted, almost verbatim, what had happened to me. I shuddered as he recalled the same blow that had felled me, as the last thing he could remember. I recanted my story, and he chuckled slightly, \'Hmmm...not very imaginative, is he?\' It was a bit funny, but after what I had witnessed, I just couldn\'t bring myself to laugh. I told him about the earlier episode with Megan, trying to stay away from too much detail. Half-way through it, I was sobbing quietly. A Apparently, the door had been open the entire time, and we didn\'t notice the man standing in the darkness of the dimly lit hallway. Then, he spoke. \'Well...ain\'t you two getting cozy?\' We jumped at the sound of the deep, scratchy, southern drawl. He stepped through the doorway, only to reveal a second man hovering in the darkness just behind him. When this man stepped through the doorway, I was startled to see Jack. His hair was all mussed and he had some blood on his shirt. He also had a small scratch across his cheek. I wondered what he had been doing.
The first man came over to my side of the bed, and reached down to touch my face. His finger slowly traced my lips, and I bit him, hard. \'I\'ll take this one,\' he grinned, then slapped me, hard. I swallowed a scream along with some blood...forcing back the tears that gathered at the thougf whf what was about to happen.
It\'s strange, you know...you always hear about things like this happening...on the news and stuff, but it\'s really hard to imagine it actually happening to you. It\'s pretty hard to believe when it IS happening to you. And, a lot of girls say that they can\'t really remember what happened...I can tell yightight now, I will NEVER, as long as I live, be able to forget about what happened to me. It was my worst nightmare, multiplied a thousand times. I have never been so scared or ashamed in my entire life.\"
Quiet teaoursoursed down the girl\'s face as she recanted the activities that followed.
\"I remember being untied and led into a small room. As I looked around, I saw a bed frame containing a dirty mattress, a plain, single chair, a mirror, and one window. The bed it, wa, was a frightening sight. It had four posts, and from each one hung a leather strap. My imagination got the best of me, I\'m afraid, and I let out a strangled sob. The chair was the same as the one Megan had been doomed to perch on, and the window was boarded up.
He pushed me hard, down onto the bed, following closely. I was pleading with him not to hurt me. All he would say was, \'Don\'t worry, darlin\', it won\'t hurt...much.\' I was lying on my sch, ch, so I didn\'t see him undress, but when he turned me over shortly thereafter, I saw that he was in fact, naked. I noticed a large tattoo on his stomach. It looked like a mermaid, but it might not have been. The lighting was very dim in there.
He pulled me roughly to the top of the bed, and started tying my hands to the posts.
I have never been so scared in my life. My heart was racing, and my mind was swimming...I couldn\'t think. I was a virgin. I mean, I\'m not stupid, I know how people have sex, but all I\'ve ever heard from girls who\'ve done it, is that it hurts like hell. My initial thought really wasn\'t the pain, it was more the humiliation. He was scratching me with dirty, unkempt fingernails, and tugging on my hair as he clumsily removed my clothing. I was so embarrassed lying there naked in front of this strange man.
I remember everything. In fact, it\'s the only thing I\'ve been able to think about since it happened. And, it did hurt. It felt like I was being ripped apart. I\'ve never felt pain like that...and I never want to again. He just kept saying, \'You like that, bitch? I know you like that.\' My mother always used to say that sex was a beautiful thing that should be shared between two people who really love each other. Well, I have to say that, \'beautiful\' is the last word I would ever use to describe it. I don\'t think I\'ve ever felt so dirty. Even after two scalding showers yesterday, one last night, and one this morning, I can still smell the sweat that poured from his body as he violated me over and over again. I can still feel the wetness of the blood that gushed when he entered me.\"
The female officer winced, muttering, \"Jesus.\" The girl grimaced, and said, \"I guess it\'s not a pretty picture, Officer Hayes. It wasn\'t great, and it didn\'t feel good...\"
Her words trailed off...as if lost in a dream, or a nightmare, it was hard to tell which. Her eyes became glazed over and she kept chanting,
\"I don\'t like it...I don\'t like it...\" she got louder and louder until she was screaming, \"I DON\'T LIKE IT! I DON\'T LIKE IT! I HATE YOU!\"
Officer Hayes slowly reached for her hands, but the girl drew away sharply, as though bitten. Her eyes were large and wild. Then, as quickly as it had come, it went away. She laid back and took a deep breath,

\"I\'m sorry, where was I?\"

Officer Hayes\' voice took on a more concerned tone,

\"Jill? Do you understand what\'s happening here?\"

Jill looked confused. The officer went on,

\"We asked you to give a statement about what happened to you over the course of the two weeks you were missing. We need your help, Jill. We need your help in finding these men. And, we need to know exactly what happened. Can you help us?\"

The girl nodded mutely.

\"Okay, please continue.\"

Jill was quiet for a moment.

\"When it was over, he just got up and left. He said, \'I\'ll be back, princess.\' I just lay there...scared...I wondered if I would ever see Megan or Jamie again. I prayed that I would be taken back to the room. I wasn\'t. At least not for a while. It went on like that for several days. I\'m not sure how long. It wasn\'t always the same guy, either. I think there were at least five different men, and twice it was Jack. I guess I was in that room for a little over a week. I was in so much pain, and I was sick to my stomach. I slept a lot. I think they drugged me part of the time. I vaguely remember being fed once or twice, but I think the food had gone bad. I threw up several times. Then, I just lay there...thinking. I remember thinking of my Dad. I thought, he would be so disappointed in me. I felt dirty. Most of all, I felt betrayed and violated. I wanted nothing more than to kill the men who had forced themselves inside me. I wanted to kill Jack for taking me there, and subjecting me to those unspeakable horrors. I fell asleep full of hatred.
It felt like I slept for days, though it was only hours. I remember feeling like I was flying...then falling. I woke up to find that I had been taken back into the room containing Megan and Jamie. I wasn\'t tied to the bed this time. I sat up and looked around. I could see Jamie in a heap on the floor in the corner, and Megan was standing against the wall. I didn\'t see them at first, but there were leather straps tied around her wrists and she was hanging from a rusty nail in the wall just over her head. Her feet were on the floor, so she wasn\'t exactly \'hung\', but it didn\'t look comfortable. It also didn\'t look like she was breathing. I went over to her and listened for her steady breathing...it was faint, but it was there. I shook her gently, \'Megan? Megan, please, open your eyes. I won’t even begin to tell you that I know what you\'re going through, but you have to try. Please, sweetie, come on. Snap out of it!\' She slowly opened her eyes and looked at me blankly.
I grinned grimly at her, and she forced a half-hearted smile. I could see that she was in pain, so I pulled the straps loose and gently took her down. She cried out in pain as I lowered her arms. We sank to the floor and sat there in the cool darkness. An hour or so later, Jamie stirred, slightly, and struggled to stand up. He got about halfway up before we heard him cursing, \'I think my arm is broken.\' He hobbled over to us and plopped down between us. Megan and I were both softly crying. He put an arm around us, protectively, and we all fell asleep...clinging to each other for dear life.
I woke up a short while later, to discover a girl standing in the doorway with a tray of food. She looked dirty, like she hadn\'t bathed in weeks. But, then, who was I to criticize: I hadn\'t bathed in a week. She was a bit older than me, probably sixteen or seventeen. Her hair was long and dark brown, almost black, and her eyes were a brilliant green. She stared at me, but she didn\'t speak. I, honestly, don\'t think she could see me. Carefully, she put the tray down on the floor near the door, then backed out of the doorway...leaving it open.
I looked at Jamie\'s watch: not only was it 5:30PM, but it was Tuesday, the 20th. I knew how long Megan had been there, I had been there since the 10th, and I guessed Jamie had been there since at least the 14th. I also knew, I hadn\'t eaten, and I was starved. I nudged Jamie, he said without even opening his eyes, \'I know, I saw her.\'
I got up quietly, and went over to the food. There wasn\'t much and it didn\'t look particularly appetizing, but hey, when you\'re hungry, you\'re hungry. Jamie gently woke Megan up, then helped her over to the food tray. We all ate quickly and quietly. It actually smelled like it was rotted. There was, what looked like some ham, and moldy bread, also one large cup full of brownish colored water. We didn\'t care. We knew we\'d starve if we didn\'t eat something.
We all sat huddled in that same corner for most of the rest of that day. The next thing we heard was several voices coming up the stairs, the door burst open and four of them came barreling in. I\'m not totally sure if there were only four. There were two holding Jamie and one was hurling what sounded like unopened beer cans at him. They made a dull thud as they struck him, over and over again. Then I heard a louder thud as he hit the floor. I watched horrified as two of them grabbed Megan and started in on her.
I started screaming as one of them grabbed me, and began ripping my clothes off, scratching me as he did so. He pulled out a switchblade, held it to my throat and said, \'I will cut you, bitch!\' I wriggled, involuntarily, and as if to prove his earlier comment, he ran the blade across my chest, and threw me to the floor. I screamed in pain and cried as I felt the blood gushing and running down my stomach.
He removed his filthy jeans, and dropped to the floor on top of me. It was quick this time. I could smell the beer on his breath, and I could feel the knife at my throat, but worst of all...I could feel him...plunging in and out of me, and I wanted to die. I just wanted him to go ahead and slit my throat. It was right about that time, that I heard a strangled, blood curdling scream.
At first, I thought it was Megan, and I thought they had killed her. Then, I saw her, standing over the guy on top of me. She was holding a long knife she had apparently wrestled away from one of the other men. I saw the blade come down and felt him stiffen as it entered his back. His eyes widened...he opened his mouth and blood came rushing out. Then, he went limp. I screamed and rolled him off me.
Megan\'s eye\'s were wild and full of hate. I moved very slowly past her and rushed to kneel beside Jamie. He looked really bad. His face was all bloody and bruised, swollen almost beyond recognition. His arm lay at an unnatural angle, I was pretty sure it was broken. He had a huge cut that ran from temple to chin, and it was bleeding profusely. I was afraid for him, I was afraid he was dead...or dying. I ripped his shirt off, and wrapped it around his head, tried to stop the bleeding. Trembling, I felt for a pulse, it was very faint and slow. I hung my head and cried, relieved.
When I finally looked up, I was horrified to find that Megan had climbed up on the bed, and slashed both her wrists. She just lay there staring out the window. She was curled up in a ball. I went to her, crying, \'Why...Megan? We\'re free! Why would you do that?\' She shook her head slowly, and said quietly, \'I could never live with myself after this. I will never be able to get rid of the stench of those men and the smell of their sex will haunt me for the rest of my life. I can\'t live with that...I don\'t want to live with it...I don\'t want to live.\' Then, she was still and quiet.
The silence was deafening. I had to get out of there. I had to go get help for Jamie. I had no idea where I was going to go, and I didn\'t care. The smell of urine and shit and body odor was making me crazy.
In a daze, I walked down the stairs and out the front door. On the way, I realized that I hadn\'t seen Jack. He wasn\'t with the crew that raided us at the end, and he wasn\'t downstairs. I haven\'t seen him since the last time he raped me.\"
It was quiet for a few moments. The officer writing the report looked up curiously. He looked at Officer Hayes, then back at the girl,

\"So, what about the girl?\"

Jill blinked,

\"What girl? Megan? She killed herself, haven\'t you been listening?”

\"No,\" he replied, gently, \"the girl who brought the food. What happened to her?\"

Jill thought about this. She had completely forgotten about her. She shrugged, and said,

\"She\'s probably still there. I\'m telling you, I think she was blind or something. She may have even been deaf for all I know.\"

While Jill was talking Officer Hayes had left the room, but now she was back and in her hand she held a photograph. She asked,

\"Would you recognize her, if you saw her again?\"

Jill answered,

\"Probably...I\'m not certain. I only saw her the once...but...yeah, probably.\"

The officer offered her the photograph. The girl in the picture had very long, dark almost black hair. What caught Jill\'s attention, was her brilliant green eyes.

Jill said,

\"Oh, yeah...that\'s her.\"

Officer Hayes\' breath caught in her throat.

\"You\'re sure? You saw this girl?\"

Jill nodded, \"Those eyes…amazing. Hard to forget.\"

Allison Hayes turned to her partner, and said,

\"I knew it!\"

Jill was confused, \"I\'m confused...\"

\"Jill,\" she replied, \"We believe the men who held you are also responsible for the death or disappearance of at least three other young girls. The appearance of Jamie Deitz is merely coincidental at this point, so I wasn\'t sure if these were the same people, but now I\'m sure of it. You see,\" she held up the photo again, \"...this is my sister, Lauren. She\'s been missing for six months. And, she\'s blind.\"

Jill responded tiredly,

\"Well, I\'m glad you found her, Officer Hayes, if you\'re finished with me, I\'m really tired.\"

The officers thanked her for being so patient, and went to the door to let her father know he could come back in, they had concluded their interrogation.

\"I hate to be the one to point this out, Allison,\" John Matthews began, \"but even if your sister did survive, she\'s been gone half a year. If she underwent even half of the things those kids went through, we\'ll be lucky if she\'s even coherent, let alone sane.\"

Allison\'s eyes filled with tears,

“I know, John, but I have to try. She\'s only a child. And, she\'s my sister.\"

He laid his hand gently on her shoulder,

\"Well, if this guy is still out there, he must have her with him. The unit searched the entire house, they found all the bodies they were gonna find there.\"

She agreed. Her sister was still alive. She knew it. She didn’t know how she knew…she just knew.


a nea nearby town, a beautiful, young girl walked home from school, alone. Her long, strawberry blonde hair blew in the breeze as she struggled to hold onto her books, while trying to keep the wind from blowing the hem of her skirt too high up her legs. She laughed out loud at her own spectacle, and continued on her way. Noticing a car pulling up beside her, she looked over to find an extremely handsome boy looking at her. He smiled and it melted her heart. He said, \"Hi, Melody...I\'m Jack. My family just moved here and I\'m looking for my sister, Rose. Have you seen her?\" She shook her head, she hadn\'t seen anyone since she\'d left the school parking lot. He frowned, \"Hmm...well, she said she was walking home from school today with a friend, and I thought I\'d pick them up and drive them home. She said her friend\'s name was Melody. I know Rose goes to school with you, I saw you this morning, when I dropped her off. Oh, well,\" he shrugged, \"she\'s probably already home. Well, you want to go for a ride anyway?\" He grinned. She thought about it: she was supposed to be home by five. It couldn\'t be four-thirty yet, she thought...why not? He\'s so cute! She smiled in agreement, and climbed in. She was so busy buckling her seat belt and thinking of something cool to say to this adorable boy, that she probably never felt the blow to the back of her head, that rendered her unconscious.