We drove right past it and I thought I would cry but apparently the tears have all dried up.

Instead, we drive away from all the lights and onto back roads and highways. I can’t keep track of where we’re going. I don’t know if they’re making extra turns to confuse me, or if I’m just too shocked and tired and sick to remember them.

When the van rumbles to stop, it’s still night. It might be very early in the morning. The sun isn’t up yet. A single bare lightbulb shines down on a sign.

That sign scares me more than anything.

It’s just a regular sign with the name of the school.

This can’t be a school. The building doesn’t look like a school, and schools don’t kidnap students in the middle of the night.

But the sign could be in front of any school. It looks cheerful. There’s a logo of an open book. All I know is something is very wrong and I have no way out.

The door of the van opens, and the men climb in to pull me out.

“Don’t fight,” he grits between his teeth.

I don’t want to leave the van. My legs are numb from sitting on the hard seat and my wrists feel bruised from the cuffs, but the van seems safer than whatever this school is supposed to be.

“Where—” The men jostle me as they yank me out of the van and put me on my feet. The pain rips through my arm and it fucking hurts. They know how much bigger they are. They know they can push me around. I swallow the lump in my throat and try to keep the tears back as they surround me. Rocks dig in to my toes, scraping my skin as they hustle me across the driveway and into the school.

It doesn’t smell like a school. Every school I’ve been inside smells pretty much the same—like lockers and the polish on the floor of the gym and the warmed-up food scent of the cafeteria.

This place reeks of decay, like a building that should’ve been torn down long ago. There isn’t enough light to see much of it clearly, but there has to be mold—that wet, creeping smell like decomposing plants.

They take me to a room with a concrete floor and a drain in the middle. One man steps in and tears my pajamas off. I try to cover myself but I can’t.

“Don’t,” I shout, over and over.

He leaves me with nothing. Naked in a room with two men and then goes to the right with determination while the other two stay on guard.

I’m not ready for the hose when it hits.