The Dark Journey
Chapter 20 - Slavery: Second Run
Part 1



crows gather
cawing
raucus laughter
push
knees burned
sandwiched
sudden pain
reflex
jaw clamp
shout
bottle crash
jagged glass
blood gouts
crows caw laughter
taped gauze
reddened sight
he shouts
'let the party
continue'
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I was kept chained in the basement now when Jaker wasn't home. He provided me with a small wooden box that I could sit on. I could just barely sit down on it with my arms stretched above my head. He decided to give me a little incentive not to foul my space other than his method of cleanup: If there was a mess, first the sex, then he would smoke an after-sex cigar burning me with it over various parts of my body, mostly the tenderest places. Inner thighs, the underside of my breasts, under my arms, on my stomach. If I made any protests I was beaten and the burnings continued. Then, when he was finished, he would leave me there for a bit to 'cogitate upon the error I had made' before I was released and made to clean up.

He still invited his friends over to watch sports on t.v. and to 'get a little action'. One night I made the mistake of dragging my teeth on one of them and he broke a beer bottle against the side of my head. Jaker taped a strip of gauze on it so it wouldn't make too much of a mess. And the night went on.

I was also forced to have sex with a labrador retriever that one of them would bring over now and then. I thought that was the worst that it could get. I had to get away from this or go completely mad. I had begun to work the eyebolt back and forth standing on the box and using the chain for leverage. I thought that I could maybe get it loose. If I could do that, and if I could find the key to the cuffs, I figured that I would have a pretty good chance at running again.

I had been trying to keep track of the times when he was gone, getting a feel for how long I would have before he started looking for me. If things went right with the eyebolt, I would probably have a little more than 6 hours lead time. One day in early July, just after he left for work, I began my task.

I would turn the bolt a full turn, then I had to turn around on the box to untwist the chain. It was slow going as the bolt was very long, but after about an hour of steady twisting and turning I had the bolt out. I went upstairs and rummaged around through his desk drawers for the handcuf key. Nothing. I searched the dresser and nightstands. Still nothing. I felt my time slipping away from me. I had passed the 2 hour mark, and was growing more and more frantic. In desperation I began going through his laundry, praying to a God that I had no trust in to please let there be something there. There was nothing. I did find my own clothes, however, and got myself as dressed as I could.

I happened to look up at the wall near the door and saw a key rack. It couldn't be that simple, could it? There were several sets of keys on various rings hanging there and some looked like they might fit the cuffs. The fourth one I tried worked. My hands were free! I knew I was running short on time, so I finished dressing and slipped out the back door and worked my way through the alleys and back streets heading mostly east. I went up into the hills and, keeping in a more or less easterly direction, I walked as fast as I could.

I was very hungry, and very smelly, 9 or 10 days later when I came down into a tiny little town called Prospect.


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