Free Obsession by Debra Webb Page B

taller and skinnier. Older than Andrea’s mom and dad. Older than Dan. But not much older. She pressed her lips together to hold back the fear. Her body trembled violently. These crazy people didn’t try to hide their faces. Did that mean they intended to keep them forever?
    Or…when they were done, would they kill them?
    “Time for your next test, Reanne,” the woman said. She clutched Reanne’s chin and shook her face. Reanne’s eyes opened, rolled drunkenly beneath the cruel glare of the light shining in her face. “If you fail, you’ll be in trouble. You don’t want to be in trouble, do you?”
    Reanne whimpered, fell against the tall man.
    Part of Andrea wanted to jump out of the bed and fight them. But there were two of them and the other girls were in no shape to fight. Maybe they wouldn’t hurt Reanne. Macy came back okay.
    “This one was a mistake,” the man said. “She’s not like the others.”
    “I like her,” the woman argued. She turned off the flashlight. “He’ll like her, too. You know he doesn’t take after you.”
    Andrea blinked, tried to adjust her eyes to the sudden darkness. Who were they talking about? Who would like Reanne? The idea that they might have been brought here for sex wailed through Andrea, reverberating in her brain like a shriek. She closed her eyes tight. Tried to stop the thought. No! No! No!
    “What about that tattoo?” The man snorted. “I won’t stand for that.”
    The drag of Reanne’s feet and the soft clomp of the mean people’s footfalls against the dirt floor warned that they were leaving, taking Reanne the same way that had Macy.
    As much as Andrea wished they would leave Reanne alone, she was glad they were going.
    “I can fix that tattoo,” the woman said. “You’ll see. She’s a good girl.”
    The door slammed, the key twisted in the lock.
    Andrea didn’t move until the thump of footsteps on the stairs had faded. She jumped off the top bunk. The plastic bowl of oatmeal tumbled to the dirt floor. She didn’t care. They could be putting anything in the food. Since they didn’t force a pill into her mouth this morning like usual, she’d bet anything the drug was in the oatmeal. She’d eat more dirt before she’d touch anything else from those creeps.
    Water. She needed water. Andrea felt her way to the corner, braced for running into another rat. She’d heard them scurrying around during the night. She shivered, felt for the plastic and grabbed a bottle of water. She gulped down half of it, fought the urge to puke, then downed some more. She needed a clear head. No matter how hard she’d tried, some of the pill had dissolved in her mouth before she had a chance to spit it out last night and bury it.
    She moved around the room. Desperation made her want to scream. There had to be a way out of here! Andrea wanted to wake the other girls and make them help her but it wouldn’t do any good. They were too doped up.
    Think, Andrea! There had to be a way out of this hell hole. She felt around the walls again, even though she’d done it bunches of times already. Brick and wood. The door was cool like steel. She hesitated at the door. The floor was dirt.
    The rats…they got in and out somehow.
    If the floor was dirt in here it probably was on the other side of the wood wall. She hadn’t felt any holes in the wall. They had to be digging tunnels in the ground.
    Andrea dropped to her knees. The floor was packed down like it was old. She felt around the door, moving toward the corner. Anticipation burst in her chest. A hole…not very big, but it was a hole. She held her breath and started to dig, using that small hole for leverage. She had to scratch and pull at it to loosen up even a handful of dirt beyond that little tunnel. But she could do it. If she dug close to the wall next to the door on the side with the hinges, maybe they wouldn’t notice. When the door opened it would probably hide the bigger hole she made.
    She scratched with all her