Chapter 35 – Mariah
The room I woke up in wasn’t the one I’d passed out in after the car had taken us from the airport. I only remembered a vague impression of it, and the wallpaper and carpeting were the same, but certain things were different enough that I knew I was somewhere else.
I waited for a moment for my eyes to adjust to the brighter light and then I looked for my captors. Travis wasn’t a client and this wasn’t a job. They had taken me against my will and left no doubt about what they wanted to do to me. I shivered at the thought of what was going to happen. All I could hope for was that I would somehow be able to get home. If I did, I was going to stay as far away from Elie and the club as humanly possible. I’d learned my lesson.
There was no one in the room, though. I looked around and I didn’t see anyone. My things were not there, and neither were the bags of tools that Travis had brought with him. I was trying to figure out what to do next, but getting up didn’t seem to be on the agenda. My mind told me to just get out of there as fast as I could, and I wanted to, but the drugs in my system made it hard to move, let alone run away.
I could feel the draw of sleep coming back to me. I wanted to sleep more than anything else. I needed to get out of there, but where would I go? I was in a foreign land and I didn’t even have my passport. Would I even be able to leave?
The problems compounded and before long I was exhausted just thinking about it. The need to leave was beaten by the need to sleep. I didn’t think about the consequences if I stayed. All I could think about was how I needed to close my eyes for just a little while longer.
***
“Come on, baby! You need to get up, Mariah. We have to get out of here now!”
The voice got through my foggy mind and I woke up to see Scott sitting on the edge of the bed next to me. He looked worried, about as worried as I felt, and I couldn’t figure out what he was so upset about.
“How did you get here?”
“There’s no time for that. We need to get out of here right now. I’ve got a car waiting downstairs. Can you walk?”
I hadn’t even attempted to get up in a while, so I wasn’t really sure about that.
“Come on, Mariah. I hate to rush you, I really do, but if we don’t get out of here before the police come, I don’t know if we’ll be able to.”
The mention of police had me waking up a little faster. I wanted the police there, didn’t I?
“How did you find me, Scott?”
Scott didn’t want to talk about details. He wanted to talk about me getting up and getting dressed. He practically dressed me when he realized how tired I was. “What the hell did they give you?”
I shrugged. I really had no idea. The more I thought about what could have happened, the more I couldn’t stop the tears that were rolling down my eyes. “I can’t believe you’re here, Scott. I didn’t think I was ever going to see you or my country again. Travis brought me here drugged. Elie sold me to him for the week. He drugged me and dragged me to a car and the next thing I knew I was on a plane.”
“We’ll talk about this as much as you want later, Mariah. Right now we have to get out of here or we may not see America again.”
He was worried, and that made me move a little faster. Scott was always so calm, but he didn’t look calm anymore. I looked down at the hands that were pulling back the covers on the bed. They were bloodied and looked like they hurt. He had blood on his shirt, as well as a few drops on his face. I wanted to ask what had happened, but I was too afraid. I didn’t want to know at the moment. I just wanted to get out of there.
I moved as fast as I could, but I was still rushed and helped along by Scott. He pulled me out of the room as soon as I was covered up, and we started towards the stairs. Everything in me felt sluggish, and even with my heart slamming in my chest, I wasn’t able to keep up.
“I’m sorry, Scott. I don’t know what they did to me…”
“It’s okay. Don’t think about it. Let’s just think about getting out of here.”
I did as he said and made sure there wasn’t any room between the two of us. I didn’t want to know what happened if we didn’t get out of here in time. I could hear sirens in the distance. They sounded different from the ones I was used to, but I was sure that it was the police he’d told me about. I was convinced that they were heading in our direction. Relief washed over me when we reached Scott’s car and got in.
Scott told the driver to go to the airport right away. He was a little calmer, but there was still something in his voice that made me sit up and take notice. Scott was not the type to get overwhelmed easy. What had happened that made his face so pale and his hands shake a little as he sat next to me?
My hand went over his to try and calm him down. I did my best to make sure that I didn’t touch any of the wounds, but that was hard, because they were all over the tops of his hands.
“What happened, Scott?”
His eyes met mine for a moment and then he just shrugged. Scott wasn’t going to tell me. Not now and maybe not ever. I had to decide if that was a bad thing or a good thing.
“Let’s just get to the plane. Once we’re in the air, I’m not going to worry about this as much, but let’s get out of here first. I want to get off the ground. The laws here are a mess, and I don’t want to get dragged into anything.”
He was talking in riddles as far as I was concerned. It didn’t set my mind at ease at all. I just sat back in the seat and closed my eyes, sending up prayers of thanks that I was going to go home. I still didn’t know how it was possible, how he’d found me and why he’d done it all, but it didn’t matter. I was going home, and I was well aware of how lucky I was. I was finally going home.