Free Empty Bodies (Book 5): Damnation by Zach Bohannon

out and grabbed her. It was Long Hair’s.
    “Now,” he said.
    Hanging her head in embarrassment, Jessica dropped the towel onto the ground. She opened the jumpsuit and proceeded to step inside it. As she’d expected, it was indeed at least one size too big. She zipped it up, having felt all six eyes in the room on her the entire time. Once she had it all the way zipped up, the two guards turned.
    “Come on,” Lance said.
    Jessica followed them out the door, walking like a penguin. She still felt a throb in her rectum where Bruce had dug his finger inside of her. It hurt to walk, and she chewed on her lips in just taking the first few steps.
    “See ya soon, buttercup,” Bruce said. “Hope it was as good for you as it was for me.”
    Jessica didn’t turn around. She kept her eyes closed and choked back tears, trying to focus on happy thoughts to help her put the pain in her buttocks aside.
    As the door shut behind her, Bruce’s predatory laugh turned into a muffled blur that had become her life.
    ***
    They came to a door in a hallway that was completely engulfed in darkness. One of the men used a flashlight to guide them. The two men had threatened Jessica several times, to use the taser on her again if she continued to move slowly. She dug deep and fought to ignore the pain.
    A door opened and Lance said, “Get in.”
    Jessica wobbled through the doorway. When she was just barely into the room, the door slammed behind her, leaving her in total darkness.
    As the boots stomped down the hallway, Jessica heard something inside the room.
    Breathing.
    Crying.
    “Hello?” Jessica asked.
    The crying seemed to stop.
    “Jessica? Is that you?” the person said.
    Jessica gasped. “Claire?” She followed to where the voice had come from until she and Claire touched hands.
    “I was worried that you guys were dead,” Claire said as the two women found each other in the dark and hugged. Jessica pulled away.
    “You haven’t seen the others either?” Jessica asked.
    “No,” Claire said. “I woke up in some room with other women, and then they took me to some real creepy guy to get a bath. Did they do that to you?”
    “Yes,” Jessica mumbled. Embarrassed, she opted to keep how the man had violated her to herself. “Did you say there were other women?”
    “Yeah,” Claire said. “It was a classroom, and there were about six other women in there.”
    “Did they say anything? Why they were here? Why we’re here?”
    “No. I think they may have been drugged or something.”
    “What the hell is this place?” Jessica wondered why she’d been put into a room by herself, while Claire had been placed with other supposed prisoners.
    “I’m just glad you’re here,” Claire said. “Maybe that means they’ll bring Thomas and Gabriel here, too.”
    Jessica didn’t respond. For some reason, she felt as if that wasn’t likely to be the case. She couldn’t put a finger on why, but she supposed that if these people had read the stories in her journal, they’d have to realize that putting all four of them together could be a bad idea. In fact, it may have been the exact reason that they’d decided to keep her and Claire away from the other women.
    They sat next to each other, absorbing one another’s body heat. An hour later, Jessica’s half-open eyes caught a glimpse of a beam of light coming from the hallway. Jessica tapped Claire on the arm, as she’d somehow managed to doze off.
    “What is it?” Claire asked as Jessica hopped to her feet.
    “Someone’s coming.”
    Claire shuffled, standing up. She patted down the front of her coveralls and moved next to Jessica.
    The light shined through the window, into Jessica and Claire’s eyes. Jessica turned, covering her face with her forearms.
    “Turn around and put your hands on the wall,” the male voice said.
    “What do we do?” Claire whispered.
    Reluctantly, Jessica said, “We listen to him.”
    “Now,” the male voice demanded.
    Jessica