Authors: Callee Raye
"Look at daddy's baby girl trying to scoot around. Daddy is going to have to keep an eye on you, so you don't get into anything. Come on my little busy bee, it's time for your nap," daddy said picking Moira up and carrying her into the house.
He placed her on the cool kitchen floor right by the basement's door. Back out of the screen door he went to gather up the toys and the blanket from the yard. She watched him looking around the yard, as if he was expecting something to happen. Wow, what is that awful smell, Moira thought to herself? Moira had never noticed the damp musty smell of this place before, and then combine it with the faint smell of urine and baby powder. The smell was quite nauseating, as it filled the air. While sitting in the hallway Moira heard Barbara's voice bellowing from behind the pink door at the end of the hall. She was talking to someone, but Moira couldn't make out what was being said. She wished she could get down to the other end of the hallway, but it was too far to pretend to have crawled before daddy Joe got back. She didn't want daddy Joe any more suspicious than he was already acting, so she sat like a good little girl and listened to every sound within hearing distance. From where she sat, whatever was going on behind that pink door at the end of the corridor sounded quite busy? There was some music playing behind the pink door. Moira was able to make out the music from the song "It's a small world”.
"Awe look at my sweet baby girl, she is all tuckered out from playing outside today."
Moira had stretched out on the floor, while listening to the music playing down the hall. Daddy Joe picked up Moira and carried her down the rickety basement stairs back into the nursery. Abby was already asleep in the white crib. It had been a very long day, physically, mentally and emotionally. Moira knew that she was drained and running on empty. The hot sun was the responsible culprit for stealing much of their energy. That is the small amount of energy that they had left. Surviving only on baby formula, milk, juice, water, baby food and the occasional bowl of finger food, simply was not enough food for two grown women. They were both weak from lack of nutrition. Whatever energy they had left, they would have to conserve for the getaway. By the looks of this structure and the surrounding land, they were going to need every bit of it. The cellar had a funky weird smell to it, something of which she had not really noticed until she came in from outside. She guessed being in the fresh air had opened up her sense of smell, which was not exactly a good thing. Moira tried to keep her eyes open but they were fighting her for closure. She wanted to think and organize her thoughts while everything was still fresh in her mind. However her heavy lids won out as she drifted off to sleep. The last thing she remembered was looking up and seeing daddy Joe standing over the crib looking down on baby Abby. Daddy Joe had a strange look on his face. It was a look Moira had never seen before and that frightened her.
Moira woke up to
the sound of Abby crying in her crib. Tonight daddy Joe had left them unshackled, so she crawled over to the baby bed and sat down on the cement floor beside it. Squeezing her hand between the bars of the baby bed, she reached in and softly touched Abby's hand. Abby looked up from the fetal position in which she was in and gave Moira a smile of gratitude. There was so much pain and fear in Abby’s eyes that Moira wished she could do more for her. Moira could tell just how much this situation was changing Abby’s personality. Her morale was going downhill fast and so much of her hope had already been destroyed. Moira knew, if she was ever going to keep her own sanity, she would have to get the hell out of there or she would at least die trying.
“Abby, are you okay?” she grunted.
“I woke up and found daddy Joe standing here staring at me while I was sleeping. He didn't wake me up or say anything, he just stood there staring at me. He looked at me as if I had done something to displease him. The look on his face was one of pure evil. It was a look I had never seen before. We are never going to be able to leave this place, are we?” Her eyes pleaded for Moira to give her some small ray of hope. “I don’t want to be stuck here for the rest of our lives. This isn't fair Moira, it’s just isn't fair."
That night Abby cried herself to sleep. Moira didn't know what to tell her. She just hoped that things would look better in the morning. She stretched out alongside the crib and held onto Abby's hand
throughout the whole night. Sleep didn’t come easy that night for Moira. She watched as small fragments of moonlight seeped into the desolate room through the small crank out style windows. A lonely eerie silence seemed to fill the room. The only sound that could be heard was that of Abby breathing in and out as she slept. Some nights Abby tossed and turned in her sleep, as if she was fighting someone. Whenever that happens, Moira would simply reach her hand between the rails of the crib and touch Abby’s hand to reassure her that she was not alone. This usually worked and would calm her right down. Moira had no idea how to help her, especially when she cried out in the middle of the night, except to just be there for her. The moonlight seeping in through the windows was Moira’s only refuge. She loved the nighttime because it allowed her to dream. To be able to dream of the day when her life would be hers again. A tear fell as Moira looked over at Abby, because she knew that Abby was losing her will to dream. This place and this make-believe world was consuming her alive. She reminded Moira of a lite match that was dimming slowly everyday as more and more time passed. Moira was scared for herself but she was terrified for Abby. This place was weakening Abby’s resilience to fight back.
The next morning Moira woke up even more determined to get out. In her heart she knew it was now or never, especially for Abby. Abby was slipping fast into a deep depression. Moira knew that if things did not change soon then she would lose Abby for good. She felt such a
huge weight on her shoulders to save them both, that often made her break down in tears. At times Moira felt so alone, because she had no one to ever comfort her and tell her that things will work out. She longed to have a shoulder to cry on. She didn’t like to think of her friend, Harrison, because it only made her long for her life even more. Harrison was a new friend, she had met him right before all this happened. He was the newest resident in her building. She introduced herself and welcomed him to the neighborhood two weeks ago. They hit it off and started hanging out a few times after work. He wasn’t her boyfriend or anything like that, just simply a friend for now. They weren’t even close enough yet for him to be concerned if she wasn’t around for a while, but surely her job should have attempted to contact her by now. She hoped someone would reach out and call the police and place a missing person report. She was fairly new to the area, having just moved to the little suburban town of Knox only a month prior. She hadn’t had the chance to meet that many people yet, except for the people she worked with and the parents at the daycare. She and Abby both worked with young children in a daycare setting. Abby lived in a nearby city and was about to graduate in a few months. Moira tried to figure out if there was a connection between the two of them. Personality wise they were as different as day and night. They were close in age, Moira being the older of the two by three years. Abby was a city girl and Moira was from the suburbs, but she was the more aggressive of the two. Abby was meek and quiet and Moira well, she certainly knew how to stand her ground and fight back. Fighting back was what she had in mind, but she didn’t know what she was up against. She wanted to find out why daddy Joe kidnapped them, and why he played this game of make-believe making them dress and act like babies. What did he want from them? Moira knew there had to be some answers to her questions beyond the pink door. She desperately wanted to get a second look into that room. She had to figure out some way to get inside. That was the first hurdle she had to jump and getting over that gigantic fence would be the second. By what she had seen, the opening to the fence was locked with a key. She had witnessed daddy Joe using the key that he kept around his neck to open the gate. So the only way to get out of here was over, over the fence that is. Now that she had figured out how they could escape, she needed to find some good sturdy rope. A rope that would be strong enough to withstand their weight without breaking. She had noticed that the tire that hung from the old sycamore tree was tied with the kind of rope that she was looking for. Now she just had to put her hands on some of it.
“Good morning my babies,” daddy Joe said as he came down the stairs.
Moira heard a buzzing sound in the distance from somewhere in the house. Moira looked up at daddy, because she had never heard that sound before, at least not since she had been there. It sounded like a door bell, but she was certain daddy Joe would not let anyone get that close to the house. She watched to see if daddy’s demeanor changed, but it didn’t change at all. He remained as calm, cool and collected as always. She thought, that if she had been him and was holding two women against their will and someone came buzzing around, that she would be sweating bullets in fear of being found out.
“Who could that be?” daddy Joe wondered out loud. “I will be right back, someone is ringing the bell at the front gate. Moira watch your little sister, he said as he casually walked up the stairs.”
Moira heard daddy Joe talking on what she assumed was an intercom system located somewhere upstairs, and then she heard the metal frame of the screen door slam against the wood molding. After sitting there for a moment, Abby looked over at Moira all wide-eyed, because she too had realized that daddy Joe had not locked the upstairs door when he left. She nodded in Moira’s direction. Moira knew that she would have to move fast, because daddy Joe would be back soon. She carefully walked up the old rickety staircase leading up to the first floor, trying to keep the stairs from making any extra noise. She had not heard Barbara’s voice this morning, but that did not mean she was not lurking upstairs somewhere in the house. The stairs creaked and moaned with each step she took. It seemed like it took her a lifetime to finally reach the top of the stairs. She slowly turned the door knob, Moira’s heart raced with each breath. It truly felt as if her heart was trying to claw its way out of her chest. The sound of her heartbeat echoed in her ears “boom, boom, boom”. She cracked the door open just a little, while holding her breath she looked around. Barbara was there, she was standing in the kitchen looking for something. Moira quickly closed the basement door. Her heart was leaping at the thought of Barbara being so close and maybe getting found out. She pressed her ear up against the door, waiting for Barbara to walk pass.
Finally after a few moments of listening and hearing nothing moving about,
she eased open the door just a little and looked up and down the hallway. At the end of the hallway she noticed a door had been left slightly open. Moira knew she had to at least try and look inside the room. This would be her only chance and she had to take it. Something was going on in that house and she was determined to find out what it was. She knew daddy Joe could possibly come back at any moment so she would have to be swift. She inched her way down the hall, slow and precise, just like a cat stalking its prey. Her ears were perked and alert to any and all noises surrounding her as she moved closer to the door. Sweat poured down her face. She was scared beyond anything she could ever describe. Easing up to the door, she slide along the floor moving inch by inch, until finally she was able to peer inside. The room was white, with rows of bassinets all neatly lined up along the perimeters of the wall. There had to be over ten bassinets inside that one room. Moira heard something moving about inside the bassinets. She was afraid, but she knew she had to take a look inside. Crawling her way along the floor, she could see Barbara on the other side of the glass partition that separated the two rooms. The setup of the room seemed so familiar to Moira, but where had she seen it before. A noise came from one of the bassinets and when she turned to see where it came from it, the answer came to her. This room was set up like a hospital’s maternity ward baby nursery. Moira froze, as she peered back through the glass at Barbara. Moira hadn’t noticed it before but Barbara was wearing a pair of blue hospital scrubs. Moira was too scared to move and too scared to look inside one of the bassinets. She didn’t want to look, she just wished she could go back downstairs and forget she ever entered the room but she couldn’t do that. She owed it to herself to find out the truth about this house and what daddy Joe was actually up to. When Barbara turned her back to the glass partition, Moira took a look into the nearest bassinet. Clasping her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming out loud. Moira couldn’t believe what she had just seen. She slowly backed out of the room and practically sprinted to the basement door as fast as she could. Her eyes filling with little pools of tears. Her body shook and trembled from fear. Her mind was whirling a mile a minute. What kind of place was this and what kind of animals were these two people?
Moira couldn’t even think straight. She had no recollection of how she even got back downstairs. The next thing she remembered was looking across the room at Abby. Abby hadn’t said anything and actually she didn’t have to, because her eyes did all the speaking for her. She just stared at Moira with tears in her eyes. She was terr
ified and for the first time Moira realized why. Moira knew right then, that Abby already knew what Moira had seen upstairs behind the pink door. Moira closed her eyes trying to block out the image, but it was no use. It was already imprinted on her mind. The back door slammed shut and they heard daddy Joe walking across the floor. Suddenly he stopped. They heard nothing for a few minutes, no movements and no sounds. They both tried to wipe the tears from their faces and appear as normal as possible. Moira feared that maybe he knew somehow that she had been upstairs snooping about. She didn’t want Abby to get in any trouble because she had been so nosey. That was one of her biggest fears that her curiosity would get someone else hurt. They could hear him just standing outside the basement door, but he was not moving, then they heard the door knob turn. He stood at the top of the stairs, looking down on them. Moira was scared shitless, way too scared to even look up at the door for more than a second at a time. When daddy Joe’s foot hit the first step, Moira’s bladder released a stream of urine down her leg. She stood in the puddle unable to move. Every fiber in her body screamed a silent scream. An internal scream that only she and Abby was aware of. Now she clearly understood why Abby had begun to lose her will and hope. Their future rested inside the room behind the pink colored door, if they did not find a way to escape out of this hell. Those bassinets were filled with women, at least at one time they had been women. Vibrant young women, women who had probably been right where she and Abby were now. Now those women have been reduced to being objects, living breathing objects.