BEFORE

The Two Girls

‘Jasmine and I are leaving campus early. It’s kind of scary here. There are a bunch of guys picketing with signs that say women and slaves are types of property, and they’re getting belligerent, shouting at the girls, saying things like “Your body, My Choice” and saying we don’t have rights anymore and they don’t need our permission to do stuff to us. And Jasmine got a text from some unknown person talking to her like she’s a slave. She’s really freaked out. So am I. We’re leaving now. I’ll see you at home. Love you, sis.’

Jade Palmer listened to the voice message on her way home from work for the second time. Amy and Jasmine should have been at the apartment, but neither answered their phones. The campus wasn’t far from the apartment complex and the girls walked to and from school. The fear and unease in her sister’s voice caused Jade anxiety. What the hell was going on at the college?

Sending another call to Amy’s phone, Jade drove by the park where girls walked through to get home. Amy and Jasmine were staying with Jade until they could get their own dorm rooms on campus. Jade didn’t mind; she and Amy were close, and Jasmine was like another little sister. Though Jade wondered about the girls’ relationship and if they were only friends. If there was more, Amy knew she could talk to Jade. But Jade wouldn’t push her on the subject. Amy would talk when she was ready.

“Come on, sis,” Jade whispered tightly into the phone. “Answer.”

The car rolled slowly along the south perimeter of the spacious wooded park. The girls’ regular path led around a large stand of trees, out of Jade’s view. She parked the car and got out, then followed the path. It was dusk and a low layer of fog blanketed the ground. The air was frigid, and the frosty grass crunched beneath her shoes. Jade pulled her jacket tightly around her body as her breath steamed from her mouth and nostrils.

The cluster of trees blocked the view from the street, creating a secluded “pocket” in the park. After receiving Amy’s disturbing message, she didn’t like the thought of the two girls walking home this way.

They’re fine. They’re at the apartment.

Then why weren’t they answering their phones?

Her stomach twisted and churned as she couldn’t put down the fear gnawing in her gut. Jade walked around the large stand of trees. The shadows deepened on this side of the park and the fog grew thicker. Jade used the flashlight on her phone, shining the bright light through the misty air. Something isn’t right. I can feel it. Jade’s anxiety heightened, ticking up by the second. Chills tickled the nape of her neck and skittered down her spine. Her chest tightened, laboring her breath.

Get a grip! Don’t panic. It’s all in your head—

A sound… coming from deeper inside the cluster of trees. Jade froze, straining to hear until a ringing settled in her ears. She held her breath and tried to calm her erratic, thundering pulse.

The sound again. A kind of scratchy moan. Almost animal in nature, like a small night creature… or even a small bear; there had been occasional sightings here in the park.

Another moan.

That’s no animal.

Jade rushed into the stand of trees, her phone light bobbing before her. “ Jesus!” Jade came to a skidding stop on the icy grass and her feet slipped from beneath her, dropping her on her ass. She lost grip on the cell as it flopped out of her grasp. A wailing cry welled in her throat, paralyzing her mind and body. Jade suddenly scrambled toward the form lying still on the cold ground. “Jasmine…” Jade choked on a cry. “Jasmine!”

The young girl lay in a fetal position, unmoving, and naked. Bits of debris cluttered her soft black curls and her once flawless caramel skin a mass of bruises and abrasions.

“J-Jasmine…” Jade shoved the hair from her face. “ Jasmine.” As Jade carefully turned her head, the girl’s face revealed more bruises, a bloodied nose, blackened eyes, and split and swollen lips. “Oh Jesus… oh fuck…” Jade found her phone and shone the light on the young woman. A shallow raspy moan sifted up the girl’s throat, though she didn’t appear to be conscious. “Jasmine?” Jade sobbed, tentatively touching her face—she was ice cold. Then she spotted the bloody abrasions around her throat. Rope burn . “Oh, my god… oh, my god…”

Amy—where is Amy?!

Jade called for an ambulance, screaming at them to hurry. She removed her jacket and covered Jasmine, then scrambled to her feet and shone the light around. “Amy!” Jade stumbled deeper into the stand of trees. “ Amy! AMMEEEE!!” Hands shaking badly, she sent another call to her little sister.

A few yards away in the fog and darkness—a phone vibrated.

No… no… NOO!!

Jade rushed toward the sound and located the device—amidst torn pieces of her sister’s clothes. “ AMY!!” Jade screamed her little sister’s name until her voice went hoarse. But there was no sign of Amy.

The ambulance rushed Jasmine to the hospital, but Jade stayed behind. The police would arrive soon and begin the search for her sister. Jade couldn’t wait for them as she searched the stand of trees and other sections of the park. Amy wasn’t there.

What if they took her? What if whoever did this has her now? What if they’re still hurting her?

Another terrifying thought shook Jade; what if Amy died … and they disposed of her body?

“No,” Jade hissed as tears burned her eyes. “ No. She isn’t dead. She isn’t!”

What if she got away?

She would go home.

Jade ran to her car and sped away, racing to the apartment complex. Her heart pounded like a drum in her head as she exited the car and sprinted to the second floor of the building to her apartment. The door was locked. If Amy made it home, she would’ve locked the door, terrified the attackers would come after her. Jade fumbled with the keys before unlocking the door and burst into the apartment.

“Amy!”

The kitchen and living room were vacant. Jade ran to Amy’s bedroom and threw open the door. Empty.

“Amy!” Jade cried out and checked her own room. Nothing.

No-no-no…

A distant whimper drew her to the bathroom. Jade’s heart stalled when she found Amy huddled in the shower, barely conscious… her naked body a mass of bruises and abrasions similar to Jasmine's.

“Jesus, Amy.” Jade grabbed a large, soft towel and wrapped it around her sister. When she tried to move the girl, Amy whimpered and cried weakly. Her head flopped on Jade’s arm, eyes closed. Amy’s face was hardly recognizable from the bruises and swelling. “ Fuck,” Jade choked, lifting her with some effort. Amy cried out in pain as Jade got her into the bedroom and lay her on the bed. “It’s gonna be okay,” Jade sobbed and covered her with blankets to warm her cold body. “I promise, sweetheart. You’re going to be okay.”

Jade called the ambulance then laid beside Amy and stroked her hair. Tears rolled down her face as she caressed her thumb tenderly over her sister’s swollen cheek.

“Who did this, baby?” Jade whispered thickly, rage bubbling in her chest. “Who did this?”

Amy’s head sank against her shoulder and her breath turned shallow—and stopped.

“Amy?” Jade trembled. “Amy?” No response. No sound. Jade checked for a pulse. Nothing. “No-no-no, baby… hold on… the ambulance is coming… they’re gonna take care of you… Amy… Amy!” Jade tugged the pillows from under Amy’s head, tilted her head back, and began CPR. “Come on, sweetheart! Come on! Stay with me!”

Jade performed CPR until the paramedics arrived. They took over and rushed Amy into the ambulance. Jade rode with them, crying and praying the whole way.

When they reached the hospital… Amy Palmer was pronounced DOA.

Dead on Arrival.

Jade sat cross-legged on the cushioned chair in the hospital waiting room, eyes vacant, body numb. She held Amy’s cell phone in a death grip in her lap as if clinging to her sister’s favorite thing could somehow prevent her spirit from leaving this world—and Jade wouldn’t be left alone with the nightmare once again.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not to her. Not to my baby sister.

The numbness in body and mind held the grief and anguish at bay. Jade wanted to cry but couldn’t. The tears from earlier had dried. They would return once the numbing effect wore off. Maybe this time, they wouldn’t stop until Jade drowned. She didn’t care. Amy was all she had left in this world. As much as her little sister had depended on her, it was Jade who needed Amy. At only twelve, Amy was the one who got Jade through the trauma and nightmares when Jade was sixteen and was raped by an unidentified man who still walked free.

Their parents had died in a car accident a year earlier and the sisters had gone to live with relatives. It was a tense situation as Jade and Amy never truly felt welcome in their new home. When Jade turned eighteen and graduated high school, she got a job and rented an apartment. There were no arguments from the relatives when Jade suggested Amy live with her.

As soon as they moved out, they lost contact with their relatives. It was just Jade and Amy ever since. The sisters hadn’t minded. After losing their parents, it had only been the two of them even while living in the home of their relatives.

And now there was just one of them.

Jade’s head hung down as she stared blankly at Amy’s phone… afraid to open it. Amy’s favorite pastime was taking selfies with Jasmine. Her phone was packed with smiling and laughing selfies. Jade couldn’t handle seeing those images… not yet.

Everything felt unbalanced and unfair . Amy had gotten away from her attackers; she’d made it home. But she didn’t escape.

And Jasmine…

Would she die, too? Maybe she was already dead. Jade couldn’t move or think well enough to inquire about the girl… her sister’s best friend… maybe more than her friend. Jade had felt the bond between them and saw how they looked at each other, but now… she may never know if her little sister was falling in love for the first time.

Because they did this to her; faceless men who would walk free, like Jade’s attacker, because their victims couldn’t speak up. Jade’s assaulter had worn a mask. Maybe these men had as well and even if Jasmine came through, she wouldn’t be able to identify them.

It isn’t fair—it isn’t FUCKING FAIR!!

Jade’s vision swam as the tears returned, seeping slowly into her eyes, summoned not by the anguish —but the rage.

A hard tremor coursed through Jade and an old emotion she’d spent nearly a decade trying to combat bubbled to the surface. Hate.

Raw, unadulterated hate.

She didn’t resist it as before, but let it spread through her, pumping into her veins and stimulating her mind like an alternate entity. An entity that gave her strength—and purpose.

I’ll find them. They don’t get to walk away. Not this time. Not again.

“Ms. Palmer?”

Jade flinched and blinked quickly, pulling back the tears. A female doctor stood before her; face etched with sympathy.

“I’m so sorry for your loss and I know this isn’t a good time for you, but I need to speak to you about your sister.”

Jade slowly uncrossed her legs and let her feet drop to the floor. She nodded silently.

“I’m Dr. Rita Blane.” The woman sat in a chair close to Jade. “I examined your sister’s body when she was brought in.”

“How did she… die?” Jade whispered numbly. “Exactly…?”

“Internal injuries. She was… badly beaten.”

“And… raped?” Jade shuddered, staring at the floor.

Dr. Blane paused, then nodded. “Yes. We collected three separate semen deposits.”

Jade blinked as the waiting room tilted and swayed around her. “There were… three of them?”

“It appears so. And there was evidence of…”

The doctor seemed reluctant to relay the details to Jade so soon after Amy’s death and Jade didn’t want to hear the details. But she needed to hear. She needed to know exactly what the men did to Amy.

“Evidence of what?” Jade rasped. “I want to know.”

“Evidence of multiple… penetrations. Both vaginal and… anal. The points of penetration were badly torn. She was brutally raped.”

Brutally raped… by three men.

Three men walking around free.

Thinking they got away with it.

Hate boiled in Jade’s gut.

“And… Jasmine?” Jade whispered with a tightness to her voice. “Is she…?”

“She’s alive,” Dr. Blane confirmed. “She’s in a shallow coma, caused by the swelling in her brain. But she’s alive.”

“She was… raped, too?”

“Yes,” the doctor murmured.

“Her parents…?”

“They’re with her now.”

Jade swallowed. “Can… can I see Amy?”

“Of course.”

Jade rose on numb legs and followed the doctor out of the waiting room.