While they waited for the tub to fill, Rude Girl opened a cabinet and grabbed different items before placing them on a low shelf on the wall. Then she opened a door that revealed dozens of silk robes in various sizes and colors. Choosing one at random, this time a deep coral, she closed the door, tested the water, and then both girls helped her inside, but instead of allowing her to soak her pain away – or better yet, allowing her to drown herself – they each grabbed loofah sponges and roughly scrubbed her tender body from head to toe, not bothering to be gentle. Hoarse howls of pain, rage, and humiliation exploded from her, and if she’d been able to think about it at all, Rachel would’ve been surprised the two girls allowed it to continue.

When they finished, they pulled her up as water cascaded down her body, wrapped a towel around her, and dried her off because Rachel’s body trembled violently, her muscles too weak to complete the job on her own. Her throat was on fire from screaming, and she felt that if someone stabbed her right now with a blinding white-hot knife, it couldn’t be nearly as painful as the way the rest of her felt. As the girls slipped her arms into the robe, all she wanted was to die.

There. She’d thought it. Never in her life had she ever considered death as an enviable option. And yet she knew that if someone handed her a gun right this second, she’d shove it in her mouth and pull the trigger without a moment’s hesitation.

…Unless she killed those bastards first. The thought came out of nowhere, and she realized her eyes were searching for… anything: pills, a knife, hell a razorblade she could steal.

The quiet girl moved in front of her clinching the belt at Rachel’s waist, bringing a crashing halt to her fantasy. She tried to get the girl to look at her so she could ask her the questions burning the back of her throat, but the girl’s eyes strayed from focusing on any one thing for more than a second. Rachel thought she detected a bit of regret and sorrow in the girl’s gaze. Who was she? How long had she been here? Had this been her life first? Was she herself destined to become a slave to washing the other captives?

The gurgling swirl of the last of the water rushing down the drain turned Rachel’s attention to the tub. Watching, she bit down hard on her lip to hold back her hysteria.

It didn’t matter how much they bathed her – she’d never be clean again.

Chapter Thirteen

Monday, May 20

It was nearing quarter to eight Monday night when Alyssa arrived home, exhausted and frustrated because few of the individuals she and Cord or Joe and Tony had spoken to claimed to know or remember much. Of the ones who weren’t suddenly struck with amnesia, three had admitted to seeing Rachel, but none seemed to know anything about this mysterious new friend, though two of them recalled seeing Rachel arrive with another girl. And now Alyssa was concerned that they might not have one missing girl, but two – three, if she included Anna.