The girl was so tense, I could see it in her shoulders, the way she gripped her fists, her clenched jaw. In all honesty this was enough evidence for me that she wasn’t a part of the Scorched Satans or any other gang. But we had already come here and my interest was piqued, I wanted to see how deep all this was.

I didn’t know what her ties to this place was, there was damage and broken objects scattered all over the house and the more I analyzed this situation the more questions I had.

She grabbed my hand suddenly, squeezing it. It caught me off guard, just two hours ago I had this girl tied up to my bed so I could question her and now she was so afraid of this house that she felt more comfortable holding my hand.

I held her hand back, if she didn’t have any ties to any of our rival MCs then I could breathe a little easier.

Our fingers interlocked, it was the first relatively intimate contact I had with a woman in two years, with a girl this pretty I wasn’t complaining. Some guys break down after a few months in jail, practically crying out at night just to feel a woman, a lot of them resorted to using whoever was unlucky enough to be in the shower alone or whoever fell asleep in their cell first. I never swung that way, and nobody ever tried that shit on me, they knew if they messed with me they would regret it in a matter of moments.

“I can’t… I can’t open the door.”

I looked down at her confused as she stared at the basement door.

I reached for the doorknob and felt her hand squeeze mine even harder.

“Before you open it, promise you’ll protect me from whatever is down there.”

I paused for a few seconds, what was she so afraid of?

“Promise me!” she said with tears in her eyes.

I hated that promise, who was I to say I could protect anyone? After I watched my friend bleed out with a bullet in my own gut how could I look this girl in the eye and say I could protect her? I had to say it anyway, not just for her sake but to figure out what was going on.

“Ok, I promise.”

I pulled the handle and opened the door to immediately hear groaning come from the basement. Hannah put her hand over her mouth as she back behind me in cover. I slowly began to walk down the steps as she hesitantly followed behind me.

“H-hello? Who’s there?” I heard a male voice call out.

I stopped in my tracks but I heard Hannah whisper “keep going.”

Despite every part of my body yelling at me to leave this place behind and never speak of this again I pushed to keep going.

I made it to the bottom of the stairs, the basement was completely dark with only the light from the door shining in. I felt my head hit a string hanging down and I pulled on it, hearing the click of the bulb and lighting up the whole room.

I stood there in complete silence as I looked to see an overweight man, totally and completely naked, laying on the cement floor of the basement. He was chained by his right arm and leg to the wall and had a small knife stuck in his thigh. Next to him was some crude bedding, just a dirty bare mattress on the floor with a few blankets scattered around. Not even a pillow or a bathroom in sight although the basement was furnished with some pieces to make it look like a young girl's room.

Hannah squeezed my hand even harder as she tried to take shelter behind me but the man already noticed.

“You! You fucking slut! What was stabbing me and leaving me for dead not enough for you?”

I could feel Hannah begin to cry into my shirt behind me as the man continued throwing his insults.

“Is this the bastard that put you up to this? Did you sell my car, my pride and joy, to him?

“Hannah, what’s going on here? Did you do this?” I asked her. I barely knew this girl but I couldn’t believe that she would break into a man’s house, somehow get him into the basement, chain him up, and the drive off with his car. I still didn’t have the whole story.

She came out from behind me, tears streaming down her face.

“19 months ago, 19 long months ago-”

“Shut the fuck up!” the man screamed, interrupting her.

I walked over to him and took my gun out, putting it in his mouth. I could only assume that a man who had this done to him by a girl young enough to be his daughter was guilty in some way.

“Hannah, as you were saying.”

She took a deep breath and gulped before continuing.

“19 months ago this man, this disgusting man, he bought me. He bought me and he kept me chained up down here. He-”

She ran her fingers through her hair and stared at me, I was about to open my mouth and say she didn’t have to say anymore but she kept going.

“He didn’t touch me, in that way, but… but every day he would make me dress up for him. He would have me dress up in these outfits that he had for me, to live this fantasy that he had for us. I screamed and I screamed but he padded the basement with everything he could to block out the noise. He told me every day about how he couldn’t wait to finally use me, to unwrap me like the gift I was to him. Every single day, he never told me when it would happen, but the build up and the anticipation. Just waiting for it to happen… I couldn’t take it anymore!”

“She’s lying!” he was able to shout through the gun in his mouth.

I rammed the barrel harder down his throat causing him to gag, making sure he couldn’t say another word.

“So when he came down last night to bring my food” she continued “and he said about how he was going to have his way with me I snapped. I snapped and I rammed my dinner knife in his leg. When he fell to the ground I took the key from his pocked and freed myself, then I put him in his own chains to make sure he didn’t follow me…”

I turned to her to see her crying, now I felt like a piece of shit for ever doubting this girl. Could you blame me though? When someone comes in pointing a gun at me, right after I’ve been released from jail, I just had to assume that she was sent here by someone. I guess my senses must have been rusty from the time I did, this girl has been through hell and back.

I stood up, pulling the gun out of the man’s mouth as I walked over to Hannah. She came up to me and hugged me, pulling me in and embracing the first real human contact she had in a year and a half. In reality it was the first real human contact both of us have had in years. I ran my hand up and down her back as I felt her pull me in closer and closer, resting her head on my chest right where my heart was.

I guess her and I were similar, we were both freshly freed prisoners, now stuck in a world that had somehow changed so much since we left it. While our situations were similar I’d be lying if I said I would prefer to be locked in this sick fuck’s basement. Give me a regular jail over this any day.

I felt anger build up inside of me I wanted to turn around and put a bullet in this man, Hannah said so herself he had padded the basement to block out noise. I could unload a whole magazine into his fat hairy gut and nobody would hear.

“You’ll both be dead, you think you’re going to get away with this? You think I don’t have my connections? She doesn’t even have anywhere to go, I know her story, it’s why I picked her out in the first place.”

I turned to Hannah and she looked up at me. “What does he mean?”

“He means I have nowhere else to go, I don’t have any family… Only my father is alive, at least I assume he is, and he’s the bastard that sold me off in the first place.”

I held her firmly by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “You do have somewhere to go, now you do. I’ll help you get back on your feet, I promise you.”

I did sincerely want to help her but part of me felt as if I had somewhat selfish intentions when I told her this. With everything that I had going on it would be nice to have a woman’s touch in my life, if I helped her out along the way then I wouldn’t feel as guilty about taking her in.

She nodded her head and I led her upstairs, holding her hand the entire way. I led her over to a couch and sat her down, I figured she needed some time to think about the offer I just gave her and make sure it was really what she wanted.

I walked around the guy’s living room, other than the things that I assumed Hannah broke the house looked like any old run of the mil cul-de-sac. It was hard to believe that he kept Hannah here for so long.

I started looking through his framed photographs, the guy was a fucking father. I looked at a picture of him with a girl that couldn’t have been 5 years older than Hannah, made me sick to my stomach.

I glanced over at one picture and did a double take before snatching it up and scanning it.

“No… it can’t be…”