“This way, you’re happy, I'm happy, everyone’s happy! When you get to bring her home you won't even have to worry about her running away. Two birds with one stone.”
The man nodded as he listened.
“True, true. You make sense, Fred.”
Fred smiled triumphantly, satisfied. “In that case, it's a deal. I’m going to head back first. When you’ve got enough money come see me.”
Fred waved his hand and the man turned to leave.
Nell watched the man leave, but Fred still stood there for a while longer until he finished his cigarette before turning to head back into the house.
She silently crept back to the back door and went in.
When she got back to the room, her heart was racing and her mind was jumbled.
Nancy had not slept yet, she was lying there waiting for Nell to come back.
She saw her come back and asked, “Is your stomach feeling better?”
Nell nodded. “Much better.”
As she spoke, Nell turned to lock the door properly and pressed her ear against the door to listen carefully for sounds. After she was sure there was no one outside, she walked towards Nancy.
Nancy had no idea why Nell was acting so strangely and just stared at her, wide-eyed.
Nell sat on the bed and whispered to Nancy in a low voice, “Just now when I went to the washroom, I saw two people standing outside and talking.”
Nancy froze and asked, surprised, “At this hour? Who was it?”
Nell responded, “One of them we know, Fred.”
“And the other?”
“I’m not sure who it is. I'm guessing it's someone from the village. You’ll never guess what I heard them say.”
Seeing that she wanted her to guess, Nancy played along.
“I assume it has something to do with us?”
“Bingo.” Nell solemnly nodded. “We were right from the start. This village deals in human trafficking, and Fred is the one responsible for kidnapping and selling off young women. I personally heard them say that they were going to sell us off. The funniest part is that each of us is only being sold for 30 thousand dollars.”
Nancy stared, wide-eyed with shock.
It felt like she was listening to outlandish conspiracy theories.
If it was not for the fact that Nell heard it herself, she would also find it hard to believe such a thing exists in the world.
Nancy started feeling anxious.
“So what do we do now?”
On the other hand, Nell was relieved. “We don't have to worry, I also heard them say that with your injury they can't sell you, so they’ll wait until your leg is healed. It’ll be about a month, so until then we’re safe.”
Nancy breathed a sigh of relief after hearing that.
Nell lay down on the bed, staring at the wooden ceiling above her. “One month. Just enough for your leg to heal. It may not be a full recovery, but for now, we don't have an issue walking around outside. So this month, we have to get a good grasp of our surroundings.”
“The good thing is that the assassins don't seem to be after us anymore. It seems that we are temporarily safe, so it's not all bad.”
Nancy listened but was slightly worried.
“But… didn't you promise Lizzy that you’d be home for her birthday? It’s in a few days on the weekend, about four days from now. We don't exactly have a month.”
Hearing the problem, Nell fell silent.
Indeed, she did promise Lizzy.
All these years, she had made good on every single promise to Lizzy.
She did not want to break her promise, but looking at their situation, it was not whether she broke it or not.
After that, she would draw the surroundings onto a piece of paper with charcoal from the kitchen.
The paper was normally stuffed into a crack in the rocks in their room. Since it was deeper inside, people normally would not notice it unless they were deliberately looking for it.
As Nell drew it out, she said, “They’re still wary of me and don't allow me to go far. But I’ll look for chances to go further out to see the area and make our map bigger.
Nancy nodded.
She was silent for a while, but suddenly said, “Nelly, actually I was thinking about something last night.”
Nell froze for a moment and raised an eyebrow.
“What was it?”
“My leg may be lame right now, but if you give me a good cane or a wheelchair, I think I can easily deal with the old couple downstairs.”
Nell stared at her in shock.
Immediately after, she started laughing, “Pffft-”
Nancy thought her laughter was because she did not believe her.
She quickly followed up with, “I’m serious! I think I can do it. If not we can always get a small knife.”
Nell patted her shoulder, amused, “Nancy, I can't believe I just realized how innocent and adorable you are. So sweet.”
Innocent? Adorable? Sweet??
Nancy was quite dumbfounded and did not know how she came to that conclusion.
Anyone that had met her said that she is a cold-blooded killer. The kind that gave you goosebumps when you looked at her.
Never had she ever heard someone call her sweet, innocent, or adorable!
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