«22» Voces de niños

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"Leroy," I stammer, looking guiltily down from his eyes to Danny, who looks up at us, curious and confused at the same time. 

"What did I tell you?" He hisses. His hand, wrapped painfully tight around my upper arm, trembles slightly. I open my mouth to say something, but my tongue is paralyzed. I can't object, I can't even manage to breathe properly, so afraid of how he will react now. 

Let him be angry with me, even though he really has no reason to be, just let him leave my parents out of it! 

"Deja esta habitación!" He suddenly murmurs in Spanish, whereupon I frown in confusion. Why is he speaking Spanish to me? But as Danny hurriedly leaves the bathroom, I realize that it wasn't directed at me. Instead, his next words are for me. 

"What were you going to do to him? What, did you think you could get away with it and no one would notice that you were hurting him?" He yells in my face and grabs my hair to pull my face threateningly close to his. I shake my head indignantly and notice his right eye reddening with anger as tears gather in it as he doesn't blink once. 

"N-no," I whisper breathlessly, grabbing his hand that's wrapped around my hair. 

"No? No what?!" He growls and as if on purpose, his grip tightens, only allowing me to close my eyes. His anger already ensures that I can't make a sound, but the one grip around my upper arm and the other in my hair, now also ensures that I can't even move. 

"Don't you dare go near him again, or I'll rip your throat out with my bare hands!" As if to demonstrate, his long fingers wrap around my neck, squeezing the air out of me for a moment. Gasping, I reach for his hand, shaking my head, and try to remove it as tears spring to my eyes and my vision blurs even more.

Before I can lose consciousness, however, he lets go of me and roughly grabs my arm, preventing my fall, before ruthlessly dragging me behind him until I am standing in front of the cages again. As soon as he lets go of me, I fall to the ground. 

He disappears without a word. 

Sobbing, I brush back the hair he has pulled out of my braid by his grip and rub my aching arm. I knew that spending time with Danny was going to be a bad idea! I should have been more careful, but it was so nice with him that I even forgot where I was for a short while. What a stupid asshole! Where did he get the absurd idea that I could hurt Danny? Why does he even see me as a threat? I'm the only one here who keeps getting pushed around and hurt! 

I shake my head and calm down a little. Maybe it would be better if I distracted myself with the dogs, for now, do my work and maybe use the time tomorrow to have a sensible conversation with him. 

I would prefer to never see him again! 

Sniffling, I get up and wipe the tears from my cheeks. Racer immediately rises and looks up at me with his cute beady eyes, whereupon I open his cage with a slight smile. 

What I don't expect, however, is that he throws himself at me, barking. 

I fall onto my elbows, gasping, and immediately feel a sharp pain in my right arm. A pained groan escapes my lips as I stare at the shepherd's sharp teeth. Before I can scream in shock, Racer is already being pulled away by Leroy's men. 

"Are you all right?", Pablo asks me. Absently, I nod and look at my right arm, which seems to be shaking inside. It just hurts so much that I can only stare at it with an open mouth until I suddenly feel two arms under my armpits lifting me to my feet.

"Let me help you, please." It's Pablo who helps me up. I don't notice that he hurries to do so and immediately lets go of me in a hurry as if he were afraid I might eat him. They all seem to think that I'm a monster, even though they are monsters. Inside I sigh, outside I freeze as I watch Racer get locked up again. I think it was probably only because of Danny that the shepherds were so sweet before. If only I had known, I would have slowly lured him back to me with food.

But maybe it's because they saw and sensed exactly how little Leroy - their master - could stand me and that's why they attacked again. 

At least he didn't bite me... 

"Pablo," one of his co-workers clears his throat as he asks me if I need help to the room where Yang is about to come to see what she can fix. I turn to them to find that it's the one who threatened me not that long ago, that he would strike back if I struck first. 

"What's wrong?", Pablo enquires as the guy just squints his eyes in one direction. Pablo can't follow him and neither can I because somehow he keeps squinting nervously in all directions. 

"The patrón is standing there on the roof. I don't think he liked you touching her." 

I can understand everything, although he whispers. I snort inwardly. Hard to believe! He doesn't even want me to be helped now, but what do I expect of him? I'm sure he wanted to watch me get really mauled here. 

"What's he doing up there?!" Pablo hisses now, a little nervously. 

"He's up there with Diego, fixing the weapons. He did say he wanted a position there from now on, now he's making room and getting everything ready," he mutters apologetically and clears his throat again. 

"All right then. If he approaches you about it, tell him that he will talk to me about it. I will explain to him that I was only doing my job - protecting her." Pablo now turns away from the guy and looks at me again. Frowning, I avert my gaze. His job is to protect me? I doubt it. 

"I'd be happy to escort you to your room," he turns to me now, but I shake my head. I don't want him to get into trouble in the end. Besides, I can manage on my own.

"That won't be necessary, but thank you." 

Pablo nods and pulls back carefully as I now plod into the house. Hissing, I inhale, as finally, no one is watching me. Why is Leroy doing all this? Why is he throwing me to his dogs? As if that wasn't enough, he has also grabbed me so roughly by the hair!

Whimpering, I grab the back of my head as the memory flashed through my mind. It's only a matter of time before he pulls out the gun. 

In the room, I sit down on the bed and try to calm down a little. There is no sign of Yang. Sighing, I close my eyes. When will this horror end? No sooner does something heal than the next one is badly injured! I've got rid of the splint on my ankle, but my gut tells me that my arm will now get one, the way it hurts. 

I let twenty minutes pass, but Yang is still not there, so I now decide to go and look for her. Not that she fell down the steps or hurt herself somewhere? I hope not! I should have just told Pablo that I don't need Yang's help. The poor woman is stressed all the time and I'm really not making it any easier for her. Shaking my head, I leave the room and listen for a moment. 

It is so unusually quiet...

When I go downstairs, I don't see anyone. Neither Yang nor anyone else from the staff. I frown in amazement. Where is everyone? It feels like I'm the only one in the house. I walk to the front door and look around cautiously. If no one sees me here, then I could just...

I pause and listen again into the silence. Nothing. This is too weird for me! Everyone was here before, where did they go so quickly? And Leroy would never leave me alone. I wonder if Danny is in his room. I'm sure he is.

This man also said to Pablo earlier that Leroy and others were fixing something on the roof, so it's more likely that they're all in the garden. Maybe to help in some way?

That means I could possibly open the door now and run away! 

But before I can put this thought into action, I hear a noise. A little startled, I hold my breath. What is that? And where is it coming from? It sounds as if someone is pulling a chair back and forth, which therefore scrapes loudly across the parquet floor.

I shudder and don't move. 

The sound comes from downstairs. And down there is only the basement. Slowly, I turn around and I can already feel my heart beating up to my throat, as if my subconscious believes someone is behind me, but only the basement door is there.

No one else. For a moment, I shake my head. No.

If Leroy finds out that I went down there, there will be mighty trouble! Most likely there is someone from the staff down there who has to get something for Leroy. So if I go down there, I'll just run into his men anyway, or maybe Yang.

Anyway, I just wait for Yang to come to my room, but I can't and won't face Leroy again today! Determined, I turn around and am about to go up the stairs when the noise finally stops. Nervously, I bite my lower lip. 

Go on, Rina! 

I take a deep breath and put one foot forward when suddenly someone starts crying. Startled, I stop and listen one more time before I realize in horror that the voice is coming from the basement.

God, who is that sick asshole keeping locked up?

Or is he torturing someone? 

Gasping, I close my eyes and lean my head against the wall. 

I can't leave. I can't just walk into the room and pretend I didn't hear anything. Like I didn't hear anyone crying in such torment that my heart seems to break just thinking about it. I'm hoping for help too...

I'm sure the person in the basement does too, so how can I ignore that? 

Oh, I'm going to so regret this. 

Slowly, I approach the door and push down the doorknob. My hand shakes a little and also my throat suddenly feels so incredibly dry that my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth for a little moment. The voice gets louder. 

Oh, my God, is that a...? 

It is actually a childish voice that you can hear crying. My heart skips a beat. He is seriously holding a child here!

Determined and in a hurry, I go down the stairs to the basement. I take the right corridor this time and do not hesitate as I open the first door.

In front of me stretches a long dark blue carpet and on it lies a chest. Nothing else. A white, large chest. An ice chest perhaps? Slowly I approach, unable to prevent my thoughts from wandering to chests of corpses. As my heart hammers loudly and wildly against my chest, I slowly open the chest. Sighing, I slump my shoulders. 

Cold drinks. 

Okay, come to yourself, Rina! There are no corpses, just cold drinks... 

So I keep walking and this time, I follow the voice. 

"We are here," I suddenly hear. I tear my eyes open because it really feels like someone is standing behind me, and I turn around in a flash, but there is no one there. Who said that? And did she just say 'we'? How many are down here! God, I can't believe that Leroy is such a monster! 

"Who is there?", I ask. 

An answer follows. 

"I'm Stacy. Please, get me out of here!"

"I'm Katrina, Stacy. Calm down, I'll try to find you," I call out immediately and can't stop my voice from sounding hysterical. My God, there really is a little girl trapped in here! 

"There are several of us. But we're all in different rooms. Please, help us before the bad man comes again! I want my mommy," she cries, tearing my heart apart. I absolutely have to find her and free her before Leroy finds out. I just hope that Yang hasn't gone to my room by now and found out that I'm gone because then they'd be looking for me. 

"Okay! Okay, I'm coming," I reply hastily, not waiting a second longer, but this time running and moving around the basement rooms, but I can't find them! No matter which door I open, the rooms are always empty. How is that possible? I can hear them! All of them by now. They cry and plead with me so that in my despair I too can't help but cry. This is so cruel.

How can you hurt children so much?

God, and where are they? I have already looked through all the rooms in the basement. 

"What's happening here?" I breathe, completely distraught, and leave the next room, which I find just as empty. At least that's what I want, but the door now won't open. 

"Oh no, no, no!" I tear my hair in despair and sit down exhausted on the floor after jiggling at the door for minutes - in vain.

It won't open. 

What have I done?



☼ ❅

Deja esta habitación- Leave the room

Just Rina trying to open a damn door:


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