Las Hermanas Read online

  A confused scowl covered her face. “I can’t just forget about her.”

  “Yes, you can. And you will. You have to.”

  “But she’s with her, with La Patrona,” she said, not understanding. “We can’t just leave her there.”

  “What do you want me to do, Adi?” His voice grew louder with irritation. “You think I can just go over there and get her out?”

  She didn’t reply as she looked at the floor, arms folded across her chest.

  Omar stood up and went to the door, but just as he was about to open it, he turned. “I’m not kicking you out,” he said, his voice much softer. “But I’m warning you: if you go near her again, you’re gone.”

  But it didn’t matter what he said. By the time she heard the door slam shut behind him, she had already made up her mind.

  •

  The streets were quiet as Adi made her way east from the Complejo late Friday night. She had prepared as much as she could over the past few days, working hard to get the supplies she needed without anyone knowing. If they found out what she was doing, they’d never let her back in.

  As she rode the near-empty bus to the east side, she started getting ready. She tied her hair into a high ponytail and put on the make-up she bought from one of the girls at the market. There was only some eye shadow, blush, and lipstick, but it would be enough. Already wearing a short skirt and low-cut top, she took off her tights and shoved them into the pocket of her hoodie.

  A few hours later, she stepped off the bus and started walking. She wasn’t quite sure where she was going, but it didn’t take her long to figure it out. The east side was still wide awake and all Adi had to do was follow the noise.

  Loud music drifted out of the bars and cantinas that lined the main street, cascading over the crowd as people made their way from one place to another, drinks in hand. She had never seen such a beautiful place. The buildings were tall and made of glass and the beach was bright, lights illuminating the water. There were people everywhere, in the bars and on the street, and as she walked, she couldn’t help but get lost in all the excitement. For a few minutes, she wandered around, staring at all the fancy buildings and beautiful people. But when she saw a girl younger than her emerge from an alley adjusting her clothes, she remembered why she was there. Crossing the street, Adi followed as she turned and went deeper into the heart of the city.

  It didn’t take her long to find La Patrona’s. The girl had led her to a busy but narrow street several blocks in from the beach and Adi only had to walk along it for about five minutes before she darted into an alley, hiding against a building. There, standing on the front step of a large house, was the man from the river.

  Adi watched people go in and out, trying to find a way in without being noticed. Although the make-up changed her appearance, she couldn’t depend on that. If she got caught, she knew she’d never leave that house alive.

  She was just about to look for another way in when a group of girls entered the street, their arms intertwined with a couple of older men. Quickly taking off her sweater, she dropped it and moved in behind them, joining the group as they walked up to the building.

  Adrenaline pumped through her body as she ascended the stairs, trying to hide herself behind the others. Nearing the man at the door, Adi’s hand instinctively went to the gun tucked under her shirt, ready for whatever was about to happen. But the man did nothing, barely shooting her a passing glance, and it took all her concentration to hide her relief.

  As they entered the building, Adi couldn’t help but stare. Fancy paintings and furniture were everywhere, and pretty girls in skimpy outfits moved around the room, flirting with men and women of all ages. A large burst of laughter drew her attention to the bar on the right and she watched as the group she had entered with walked up to it, leaving her alone in the centre of the room. Realizing that she couldn’t just stand there, Adi went straight, going down a short hallway that ended at the foot of a long staircase. Unsure of what to do, she glanced around before moving up the stairs, eventually finding herself standing in a dimly lit hall lined with doors. Quietly walking forward, she approached the first door and turned the handle.

  The door didn’t budge and she moved to the next, trying to open each one as she went down the hallway. None of them opened. She was about to give up and go back downstairs when the last door on the left caught her attention. It was different than the others, sitting farther off to the side, and as she turned the knob, it creaked open.

  Adi entered the room cautiously, unsure of what was in there before she shut the door behind her. She could hear soft groans coming from the corner, but they weren’t the same type of sounds she heard in the hallway. These were ones of pain. Seeing several mattresses lined up against the wall, she walked towards them but was shocked by the sharp smell of sickness. In the beds were bruised and bloodied bodies, some bandaged, others not, and as Adi looked at them, she couldn’t tell if they were alive or dead. The groaning began again and Adi followed the noise, stopping when she found a small girl lying on the floor, gripping her swollen belly. The girl whimpered louder as she approached and Adi knelt down in front of her.

  “It’s okay,” Adi said to her softly. “I won’t hurt you.”

  When the girl kept crying, she continued. “I can help,” she said. “Tell me, where does it ache?”

  “Everywhere,” the girl moaned between sobs.

  Adi moved beside her. She didn’t know anything about having a baby but she remembered when her mother was pregnant with Benito, she was always sore. “Try to relax,” she said. She gently rubbed the girl’s back, loosening up the tight muscles.

  It didn’t take long for the girl to calm down, the whimpering slowly subsiding as she laid her head on the floor. But as soon as Adi started massaging her shoulders, the girl began to cry. Not knowing what else to do, Adi placed the girl’s head on her lap and pulled her close, saying nothing as she softly stroked her curly hair.

  After a few minutes, the girl stopped crying, and they sat there in silence before Adi said, “I’m looking for a girl named Pia. She’s my age, has black hair, and is a little taller than me. Do you know her?”

  The girl sat up, wiped the tears off her face, and nodded.

  “Can you tell me where she is?”

  With a surprising amount of strength, the girl pushed herself off the floor and walked towards the door, Adi quickly following.

  They went out of the room and into the hall, stopping about halfway down. Taking a pin out of her hair, the girl inserted it into the door handle, forcing it to unlock. She put a finger to her lips and opened the door.

  The room was dark as they entered, but it wasn’t empty. The sound of someone grunting filled the silence as they slid along the wall, hiding in a small hole stacked with clothes.

  “We have to wait,” the girl whispered.

  Although they only sat there for fifteen minutes, it seemed like an eternity. Adi couldn’t stop hearing the moaning and the more she tried to block it, the more her brain focused on it, making it louder. Desperate to get it out of her head, she looked at the other girl, but she just sat beside her calmly, hand on her belly.

  When it was finally over, a touch on her arm told her it was done and Adi uncurled from the tight ball she was in. Hearing the door shut, she stood up and walked towards the small figure sitting on the bed.

  “Pia,” she whispered.

  Unaware that there were others in the room, Pia jumped. It took her a moment to recognize her, but eventually she said, “Adi?”

  Smiling, Adi walked forward and stood at the end of the bed.

  “What are you doing?” Pia asked as she sat up, the fear obvious in her voice. “You can’t be here.”

  “We have to go,” the girl behind her said.

  Adi didn’t understand. They had waited all that time and she had just seen her.

  “Come,” the girl urged. “We have to leave now.”

  “Go,” Pia insisted.

&n
bsp; Reluctantly, she followed the girl out, sneaking back into the room at the end of the hall.

  “Why did we leave?” she asked irritably once they were inside.

  “Look,” the girl said as she held the door open just a little.

  Pressing her face against it, Adi watched as another man entered Pia’s room.

  “We have to wait,” the girl said as she shut the door and walked back to her spot on the floor.

  “How long?”

  “‘Til she’s done.”

  A few hours later, Adi woke up to Pia crouching over her.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I came to get you,” Adi replied as she stood, relieved they could finally leave. “Come on. Let’s get outta here.” The confusion on Pia’s face made her stop.

  “Get outta here?” Pia asked, the uncertainty in her voice obvious. “And go where?”

  Not expecting her reaction, Adi simply looked at her, a feeling of dread passing through her. “Does it matter?” she asked in return. When Pia didn’t reply, she continued. “This is a terrible place. Don’t you want to leave?”

  Pia was quiet for a moment. “It’s not that terrible.”

  Shocked, she couldn’t help herself. “Why would you want to stay here and do those things? Do you like doing those things?”

  Pia shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  She stood there silent, confusion and anger filling her body. She had risked everything and Pia didn’t want to leave. She should have listened to Omar.

  “It’s not so bad here,” Pia said, more to herself than anyone else. “They protect me and give me food. When my parents died, it was a lot worse. I went hungry most of the time. Now, I don’t have to worry.”

  “You’re an idiot,” the pregnant girl said from her spot on the floor, surprising both of them. Adi had completely forgotten about her.

  “What?” Pia asked.

  “You’re an idiot,” she repeated. “You think they give a shit about you, that they actually care?” She pushed herself back onto her feet. “Look around. Do you see these girls?” She motioned towards the mattresses. “Most of them were just like you ‘til they got too old or someone didn’t like the way they fucked. They don’t care. You’re just a hole.”

  Adi watched Pia contemplate her decision. To her, it was obvious, but she waited for her friend to decide. The girl’s voice suddenly grabbed her attention.

  “If she won’t go, I will.” She walked up to Adi and took her hand. “Please take me with you.”

  Looking down at her, she could see the desperation in her eyes. She wanted to say yes and take her far away from this place, but just as she took a breath to answer, the door flung open with a thud.

  Chapter Seven

  What was behind the door was not what Adi expected. She thought she was dead, that La Patrona had caught her, but when she quickly turned, she saw four girls standing in the doorway.

  “We want to come,” one of them said as they walked in.

  “Take us,” another begged.

  Adi struggled to respond. She hadn’t planned for any of this. She started to shake her head, but stopped when she saw a little girl, maybe three or four, peek out from behind the others.

  “That’s Evita,” the pregnant girl said when she noticed Adi looking at her. “La Patrona’s gonna sell her when she turns five.”

  Adi sighed. There was no way she could leave them now. “I can’t promise you’ll make it,” she said, looking at the faces in front of her. “You have to do everything I say.” As she watched their excited heads nod, she turned to Pia. “Are you coming?”

  She stood there silently, patiently waiting for her to answer. When Pia finally said, “I’ll come,” Adi couldn’t hide her relief.

  “We stay together,” she instructed. “If something goes wrong, you run.”

  “Where to?” one of the girls asked.

  “Everyone know where the river is?”

  Heads nodded.

  “Go along it ‘til you get to the south side. Wait there. I’ll find you.” When no one said anything, Adi took a deep breath. “Now, how do we get outta here?”

  No one made a peep as they crept down the hallway, following the pregnant girl as she opened the back door and snuck down a dark staircase. Stopping in front of a door at the bottom of the stairs, she turned and gestured to Adi.

  Adi cracked open the door and peered out into the alley. While it was still dark, the sky was beginning to lighten and she scanned the area, knowing that they were running out of time.

  “We go out one by one,” she told them. “Crouch down low and stay tight against the building.”

  As anxious faces looked back at her, she knew it was now or never. “Stay close,” she said, opening the door once more and slipping into the alley.

  For a moment, she heard only her own heartbeat, the sound filling her ears as she crept along. Stopping to watch the last girl leave the house, Adi cringed as soon as she saw her let go of the door, its weight causing it to slam shut behind her.

  She didn’t need to tell the girls to freeze as they stopped dead in their tracks, eyes wide with fear. Unsure if anyone had heard, she waited, but seeing no one, she raised her hand to motion to them when a voice stopped her.

  “Hey!” a man shouted from the street, his large frame taking a step towards them.

  Whipping around, Adi whispered, “Run!”

  Taking off, the girls darted out of the alley and into the street, the man now in hot pursuit. Adi ran as fast as she could without losing the others, but she soon slowed, unsure of where she was going. Finding herself in a dead end, she spun around, almost colliding with the girl behind her.

  “Which way?” she asked.

  “This way!” the girl said. She darted down a side street.

  Adi was about to follow when she noticed that two were missing. Motioning to the others to keep going, she stayed behind and waited, her anxiety growing with each second. But the relief she felt when she saw them almost instantly disappeared. The man was right behind them, and he was gaining. Tucking herself tightly against the wall, she waited in the shadows and as soon as the two girls ran passed, she stuck out her leg.

  The man tripped and fell forward, landing hard onto the ground below. Adi immediately bolted, but she wasn’t fast enough. A large hand latched onto her ankle and pulled her down.

  She grabbed onto the road, trying to stop the man from bringing her closer, but he was too strong and she felt herself being dragged backwards. Just as his hands clutched onto her thighs, she remembered the gun and pulled it out, squeezing the trigger.

  The shot made her ears ring but she didn’t hesitate, crawling away the moment her legs were no longer pinned down. Pushing herself back onto her feet, she sprinted as fast as she could after the others, not daring to look back.

  The streets were empty as she ran, trying to find her way to the river. She didn’t know this part of the city and the roads were confusing. She was about to change direction when she saw someone leaning heavily against a wall a few feet up ahead.

  “You okay?” she asked as she approached the pregnant girl, happy to have found someone she knew.

  The girl only nodded as she gasped for air, her hands on her belly.

  “Come on,” Adi said, pulling the girl’s arm over her shoulder.

  Together they made their way to the river, going much slower than Adi would have liked. It took them over an hour to find it, but when she saw the glare across the water, she shivered with relief.

  Although she wanted to wait just in case any of the other girls were behind them, she knew she couldn’t risk it. If what people told her about La Patrona was true, they couldn’t stop, not even for a minute. Quickly dousing her head in the water, she said, “We gotta keep going.”

  The pain on the girl’s face told her she didn’t want to, but she nodded, taking one last drink before following Adi down the river.

  They walked south with the shore, tryin
g to conceal their tracks as best as they could. Nothing was said as they moved, the soft croaks of frogs filling the still night air. Whenever they came across a bunch of shrubs or a pile of rocks, Adi would search it, but finding no one, they moved on. Before she knew it, they were in the south side and just as she turned to tell the pregnant girl the others hadn’t made it, she heard a soft “Pssstt” coming from a clump of bushes downriver.

  Cautiously approaching, a smile lit up her face and she entered the shrubs. The familiar faces of the girls stared back and she was surprised at how happy she was to see people she didn’t know. But her smile dropped a moment later. Someone was missing.

  “Where’s Pia?” she asked, unable to ignore the feeling of alarm.

  A couple of the girls exchanged looks before one of them said, “She went back.”

  She stood there, unsure of what she had just heard. “What do you mean?”

  The girl shrugged. “She just stopped and turned around. She went back.”

  Adi tried to comprehend what they were telling her, but she was interrupted by the tall girl.

  “We need to keep going,” she said. “Pia knows where we are. She might tell.”

  “She wouldn’t do that,” Adi replied.

  “She went back and you didn’t think she’d do that,” the girl replied. “Maybe you don’t know her anymore.”

  Before she could say anything, she felt someone lean on her arm.

  “We need to go,” the pregnant girl said, the discomfort obvious on her face.

  Knowing she was right, she forced herself to forget about Pia and looked out of the shrubs.

  The riverside was completely still, the sound of the water the only noise as the sky prepared for the sun’s arrival. Although she saw and heard nothing, she hesitated, an uncertain feeling holding her back. She was about to pass it off as being paranoid when all of a sudden, a group of men emerged from the shadows and began to slowly walk along the river. When one of the girls let out a frightened gasp, Adi knew who they were.

  “What do we do?” one of them asked.