The Forgetting (23 page)

From the outside, it looked like nothing. An abandoned warehouse, windows with duct-taped cracks, and a dim light above the front door that flickered on and off. If I'd thought Annabel's old corner at the cemetery was the loneliest place I'd ever been, I was wrong. The Warehouse was far more desolate, a place whose gray brick walls told people to stay away.

Nate and I stood across the street, tucked into the corner, our eyes glued to the door with the flickering light. Even in its on-and-off dimness, I could make out a figure standing guard.

We went around the block and into the alley that ran behind the Warehouse. Darkness stretched the length of it, the only light from the pale moon. We picked our way down, skirting around broken crates and crushed boxes and piles of rotting wood. Every sound made us freeze, every movement deliberate and careful. Nate guided me around a tall stack of crates. As I passed them, my coat snagged on a loose splinter of wood. Without thinking, I tugged it free. The crates teetered and fell with a deafening clatter against the cobblestones.

We froze, Nate's hand so tight on mine that my bones crunched. He shoved me into the shadows against a slanted set of basement doors that rose up out of the concrete. We huddled into the little corner it provided, hidden from the side of the alley where the guarded door was, but if the guard walked down far enough, we would be seen.

A long beam of light swept over the alley, followed by footsteps. Closer and closer…the bright light fell on the toppled crates… I shrank into Nate, trying to make myself smaller.

Tires squealed on the street at the end of the alley, a heavy bass beat reverberating over the cobblestones. The guard swore and turned, and the light bobbed away from us as he jogged down to meet the car. I crawled on my hands and knees as far out as I dared. A silver Porsche idled at the curb. The guard opened the passenger side and three men in suits stepped out. They headed for the door, followed by the guard.

“Come on,” Nate whispered and pulled me back to the basement doors. A rusted padlock held them together with a chain. Nate pulled out his little lockpick. It didn't take long for the padlock to give way. I fixed my gaze on the end of the alley as Nate bent over the doors and unlooped the rest of the chain with quick, sure fingers.

The doors groaned in protest as he pried them open wide enough for us to slip through. I activated the flashlight feature on my phone and pointed it down into the darkness below the door. A set of rickety stairs descended from the alley above. They shook when I placed my foot on the top step, so I crab-crawled down them on my hands and feet. Nate closed the door above our heads and followed me to the floor.

The flashlight gave off a small circle of light as I swept it around the room. Empty, dusty boxes were piled in the corners, and cobwebs hugged the rafters. Finally the flashlight illuminated another set of stairs on the other side of the basement. We headed up them. At the top, Nate cracked the door open an inch and peeked through.

“Clear,” he whispered. We slid into the hallway.

My stomach bottomed out. It was exactly the same as Annabel's memory. Remembering it through her eyes felt so much safer. Now that I was here in the same place, standing where she had stood, the fear crept into my bones and lodged there. Eerie orange light glowed along the hall. I looked up and down the hall, trying to reconcile the reality with memory. In a breath-stopping moment, they synched up. I gripped Nate's hand.

“This way,” I mouthed with a jerk of my head.

We tiptoed down one hallway, but when we turned the corner in the direction I knew we had to go, a guard stood at the opposite end. He faced away from us and I could see the dark outline of a gun tucked into the back of his pants. I backed up into Nate. His heart beat rapid-fire against my spine. We eased out of sight and back into the labyrinth of hallways. Two other corridors led us to dead ends. The third had another guard and we whipped away just before he turned.

I stopped in a pool of shadows and sank back inside Annabel's memory, where I heard the distant music pounding out a heavy beat from a room down the hall. My eyes flew open. I could hear it now, pulsating from the center of where the three guards stood. We had to get to the room with the music.

I pulled Nate back up the corridor. He tugged my arm, pointing to where the guard stood. I set my jaw and lifted one shoulder. He pressed his mouth into a thin line and followed me down the corridor.

At the end, the guard stood, looking out a set of double doors with paned glass windows. The music was so close that it shook the walls here. I squinted. Ten feet from us and ten feet behind the guard was another hallway. Streaks of light slanted onto the floor from that hall. The room was there.

I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled, hugging the wall where shadows lingered. Nate followed so close behind that his fingers brushed my legs. My eyes were fixed on the guard, the fear that he would turn around so thick inside me that I almost choked. When we got closer, I saw the white cord dangling from his ears. He was listening to an iPod. I tried to exhale but tension wrapped my body like a steel corset.

Music ripped through the air, screaming wails that didn't even sound like lyrics. The rhythm thumped into my rib cage, but my heart beat double time, tightening the corset, dripping steel into my veins until my blood was cold. We crept toward the room where the music blared and turned another corner so the guard was out of sight. Icy sweat trickled down my neck.

The room was a large square in the middle of the hallway and made entirely of floor-to-ceiling windows. Blinds were drawn down over the glass, but they were old and there was a peephole where they had bent. I brought my eye right up to the glass.

Strobe lights flashed inside so that the room looked fractured. Images came to me in pieces, tiny fragments of the whole terrifying picture. Girls chained against the wall, men lining up to take their turn.
Flash.
Two girls in the center of the room, their bodies slick with sweat or oil or both, something long and thin connecting them as they thrust back and forth.
Flash.
A riot of men cheering them on, like a boxing match.
Flash.
My eyes didn't know where to look, didn't know how to stop looking, didn't know how to unsee what I was seeing.
Flash.
One of the girls in the center pulled away, cowering on all fours.
Flash.
Jules's steel-tipped boot smashed into her face. She scrambled back to the other girl, and they started fucking each other again. The men roared their approval.

Flash.

I sank against the glass, my eyes still fixed on the room, but the picture had come together now, one horrifying film that I couldn't look away from. Jules was running an underground sex club, a place where these men—these monsters—could see their sick fantasies brought to life. My vision swam around the room at the faces of the girls. God, they were my age or younger… They should be at home doing their homework and gossiping with their friends. Any of these girls could be my friend or classmate or neighbor…or me. The Warehouse was my own backyard.

Against the wall, one of the men finished with a chained girl. Just before another man took his place, the girl faced forward and her hair tumbled down around her shoulders. The light glinted off the red strands, and though her eyes slid in and out of focus—she was high on something—there was no mistaking her.

Kitty.

My body revolted. Nate felt me shudder and dragged me away from the window to a door on the opposite wall. He wrenched it open and pushed me inside. It was a closet filled with cleaning supplies. I twisted toward a bucket and vomited inside.

Nate closed the door, shutting us in darkness. His hands were gentle on my back and neck as I retched. “It's okay,” he murmured. “You'll be okay.”

But I wouldn't be, not ever. I would never be able to erase those images from my mind, no matter how long I lived. They would be with me forever. After a minute, I sat back on my knees, my breath ragged.

“How?” I panted. “How can those men do that?”

“As long as men can't get what they want legally, they'll pay for it.”

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “It's disgusting. No, it's beyond disgusting. There's not even a word for it.” I leaned into Nate. When my breathing returned to normal, I pulled myself to my feet. “We have to get out of here. We have to go back to the police and get them here.” I cracked open the door. The music and flashing light brought back a wave of nausea. I took a deep breath and shoved it down. Puking again wouldn't help us get out of this place.

We skirted around the room, past the guard on his iPod, and into a darkened hallway. As we turned toward the basement we'd come up through, I froze. “The girls,” I whispered. “There might be other girls.”

Nate took a deep breath and nodded. “Where?”

“Follow me.” We fled down the long corridor that sloped downward, my eyes half-closed as I sank back into Annabel's memory. “This way,” I panted, and we turned right. The doors on either side, the flickering fluorescent lights… I skidded to a stop in front of the room that I knew held the girls. The knob was locked. Nate jimmied it open with his pick.

As soon as the door swung open, that thick smell of fear washed over me. I coughed, clinging to the wall to stay upright. The dim light from the hall bled into the dark room, but it took a moment for my eyes to adjust.

“What the hell are
you
doing here?”

I blinked. Char stood in the middle of the room. Her hands were planted on her hips, but I could see the whites of her eyes. Only one other girl occupied the room, cowering in the corner. Her wide eyes were like jewels set into her pale face, and her gaze was fixed on the hallway behind us as though the devil himself would appear there any moment. Which he would.

I stepped into the room. “You have to come with us.
Now.
”

The other girl scrabbled to her feet but Char didn't move. “If you stay here, you will be taken to another room and gang-raped,” I said. “Or you can come with us. Your choice.” I turned to go. I could feel Char's resistance behind me, but we had no time. I grabbed Nate's hand and raced up the hallway. When I glanced back, both girls were just behind me, carrying their stiletto shoes in their hands.

I led them up, up, up the endless hallway as we traced our path back to the basement. The bass line of the music throbbed, following us, tracking us. My heart pounded in answer but nothing was loud enough to drown out the images I'd seen in that room.

We skidded around a corner, but halfway down the hall, I slid to a stop. “Wrong way, wrong way,” I muttered. Everything looked the same. I pressed my hand to my heart, trying to see again the path that Annabel had taken out. My mind blurred, a mess of pictures and thoughts. I pointed in the direction I thought was right. But as soon as we'd turned another corner, I knew I was wrong.

A guard stood at the end of the hall, playing a game on his phone. He looked up as the four of us froze in plain view. “Hey!” he shouted and plunged his hand into his holster.

My scar seared as we fled back the way we came. This time, we took the right turn toward the basement. Footsteps pounded on the floors, filled my ears… They were right on top of us…they had to be… I risked a glance over my shoulder. The hall behind us was empty except for the shouts and sounds spilling into it from elsewhere in the labyrinth.

We pressed forward as the shouts grew louder behind us. Pain ached across my chest… My ribs were about to crack open… We slammed around another corner. At the end of the long hallway, the metal door that led to the basement shimmered, a beacon across a deadly sea. The guards' shouts bounced off the walls all around us; it was impossible to tell how close or far away they were.

Nate shoved me in front of him as we ran full-out toward the door. He fumbled with the knob, trying to grasp the slippery metal. “Hurry, hurry,” I whispered, whirling to face the long hall behind us. The guards' voices were getting closer…their footfalls faster… As I spun back to Nate, something red gleamed on the wall next to the door. Like it was meant for me to find, I pulled the fire alarm tab.

Bells clanged out in every direction, ear-splitting, shattering the distant music into a thousand pieces. Nate flung open the door just as the ceiling opened up and water rained down. He propelled me into the basement. I stumbled into the darkness, followed by the two girls. Nate shut and bolted the door. His hair dripping, he crept up the stairs to the doors that led to the street. The girls and I huddled at the bottom of the steps, a steady
plip-plop-plop
falling from our soaked clothes onto the floor. Nate creaked the door open an inch and froze. Even from the sliver of space, I could hear the voices just outside in the alley.

Char pushed past me. I grabbed her arm and pointed to the street and the voices that rolled back to us. She wrenched out of my grasp and stalked up the stairs. Nate turned and blocked her, his eyes furious. She backed down to my level. I faced her, my jaw tight. A sliver of light fell across her face and I swallowed. It was not defiance that filled her; it was terror. I reached out and touched her arm. She flinched and hunched herself next to the other girl.

The voices from outside slithered in through the door. I crawled up the stairs next to Nate and listened.

“—asswipe pulled the fire alarm.” Jules's voice was jittery and annoyed, his smooth confidence shredded apart. “Let's make this quick.”

“Quicker the better.” A deeper, quieter voice. “People have been sniffing around. If anyone finds out—”

Something about the voice was familiar, but whether it was from Annabel's mind or my own, I wasn't sure.

“No one will.” The sound of paper, rustling and crackling. “This oughta make up for it.”