Chapter 2

"Yeah, I get it. I'm turning back now."

I sat in the driver's seat of the cargo van, put down my phone, and slowed down to turn back toward Copper Ridge.

Victoria had just called. She said they hadn't finished unloading the cargo, so I had to make another trip back.

It was pouring outside.

The heavy rain hammered against the metal roof of the van, making a deafening racket.

Under normal circumstances, the sound of rain would be quite soothing.

But the mountain road was treacherous.

Especially the path up Copper Ridge.

Even though it was paved, the shifting soil underneath meant the asphalt was constantly cracked and riddled with deep potholes.

The second half of the road was even worse—just one incredibly steep, hairpin turn after another.

I didn't dare go over twenty-five miles per hour.

The old van wasn't sealed well. Besides the heavy rain, a fierce wind was howling outside.

Even though it was mid-summer, it was freezing inside the cabin.

"Help... help me..."

Suddenly, I heard a woman’s voice—coming from the cargo hold right behind me!

In an instant, whether from the chill or sheer terror, goosebumps exploded all over my arms.

The van had been heavily modified. A thick, solid steel partition separated the driver's cabin from the cargo area. I had never once been in the back.

Every time I arrived at the luxury estate at Copper Ridge, I would get out, smoke a cigarette, and wait for their people to unload the goods.

Then, I would just drive away.

"Why the hell is there a woman’s voice in the back in the middle of the night...?"

Was it a ghost?

As an experienced driver, especially with a manual clutch like this old van, I could tell by the drag on the engine whether the vehicle was carrying a heavy load.

Remembering my boss's rules, I forced down the rising panic in my chest and kept driving.

The eerie voice kept pleading.

She sounded incredibly weak.

She kept repeating the same words, sending chills down my spine.

It was starting to make me anxious.

Distracted, I didn't see the massive puddle ahead. The front tire slammed into a deep ditch.

The engine sputtered and died.

"Damn it!"

I slammed my hand against the steering wheel in frustration.

I turned the key, trying to restart the engine. It cranked slowly, making a dying *whir-whir-whir* sound, but refused to catch.

"Help..."

With the engine dead, the wind and rain seemed to quiet down, making the cry for help even clearer.

It was definitely coming from the cargo hold.

There was a real person inside!

I threw on my raincoat, grabbed the heavy wrench from the passenger seat, and cautiously walked to the back of the van.

I tapped the metal door with the wrench.

The cries for help stopped instantly.

"Who the hell is..."

Mid-sentence, my boss’s second rule flashed in my mind: *Pretend to be deaf no matter what kind of noise you hear.*

A horrifying realization hit me—was I smuggling something highly illegal? Or worse?

I quickly clasped my hands together, mumbling whatever prayers I could remember from Sunday school, and turned to get back into the cab.

"Help me! I'm not a ghost!"

The rain was letting up, and the wind had died down.

The woman’s voice was much clearer now.

She definitely didn't sound like a ghost. I had never heard of a ghost speaking with a local Texas accent.

But thinking of Victoria's warnings, I hesitated.

*Buzz! Buzz!*

My phone started ringing loudly.

"Aren't you there yet? You're taking too long. Did something happen?" Victoria's cold voice came through the speaker.

"Yeah, the rain is crazy. The van stalled out."

"Victoria, seriously, can you get a better vehicle next time? This piece of junk should have been scrapped years ago. It breaks down every other day!"

I didn't say a word about driving into the puddle. Instead, I blamed the vehicle.

Rule number one of being an underpaid worker: never blame yourself.

Bosses don't actually care about you anyway.

You have to deflect the blame immediately.

"I see. Wait for roadside assistance. And remember the three rules I gave you."

"Otherwise, you might not live to see tomorrow."

She emphasized the last sentence heavily before hanging up.

Her tone made me seriously wonder: was I really transporting something dangerous?

The pay was incredibly high. When I was delivering food, I worked from six in the morning until midnight just to make about three thousand dollars a month.

But with this job, I only had to make one trip at midnight, and I got paid five thousand dollars a week.

Victoria even let me stay at her place.

When she found out I liked gaming, she even put a high-end gaming PC in my room.

Free room and board, great pay, and video games.

It seemed like the perfect job.

The only catch was that Victoria didn't wear much when she was at home. She walked around in very revealing clothes.

It made me hot under the collar every single time.

But since she always spoke to me with such a cold, professional detachment, I forced myself to ignore any wild fantasies.

As I sat in the driver's seat playing on my phone, waiting for help, the cargo hold rattled again.

This time, the movement was violent.

The entire van rocked slightly.

I heard the screech of rusted metal rubbing together.

But I forced myself to stay still.

*Boom!*

A flash of lightning illuminated the dark forest. In that split second, a pale, ghostly woman’s face appeared right outside my driver-side window.

"Holy shit! A ghost!!!"

I screamed, terrified out of my mind.

I instinctively scrambled over to the passenger side.

My stomach knotted in pain. The sheer terror had triggered my chronic ulcers.

Trembling and clutching my stomach, I pointed the wrench at the window. "Are you a person or a ghost?!"

The forest plunged back into pitch blackness.

When the next bolt of lightning cracked across the sky, the face was gone.

I swallowed hard, slowly turning my head to look at the passenger-side window.

It was too dark to see anything outside. I unlocked my phone and turned on the flashlight, pointing it at the glass.

The terrifyingly pale face was right there, staring back at me.

Her dark, hollow eyes were filled with absolute despair and resentment.

My brain short-circuited, and everything went black.

...

I didn't know how much time had passed when I finally woke up.

A violent jolting motion dragged my consciousness back to reality.

Dazed and confused, I heard voices nearby.

"He was completely passed out when we found him."

"He’s always been smart, kept his mouth shut. He’s lasted the longest out of all the drivers. Are you sure we have to do this?"

"...Yeah, copy that, boss."

I tried to sit up, but my body wouldn't move. Looking down, I realized I was tightly bound with thick ropes.

"Marcus? Marcus, what the hell? Why am I tied up?"

The man I called Marcus was the guy who received the cargo. Every night after midnight when I reached the Copper Ridge estate, Marcus would toss me an imported cigarette, tell me to take a break, and unload the van by himself.

By the time I finished my smoke, he was usually done.

We didn't talk much, but we were friendly.

A cigarette is the quickest way to break the ice between guys.

Even though we were both just working a job, Marcus drove a much nicer car than my beat-up van. He drove a brand-new Mercedes SUV.

"You screwed up, Ethan. The boss wants you punished. Cooperate, and you might still keep your job."

Marcus's voice was dead cold.

"I get it if I made a mistake, but is tying me up really necessary?"

"I’m just a guy trying to earn a living. This is a bit degrading, don't you think?"

"Degrading?"

Marcus looked back at me and laughed, a dark, unsettling sound.

We drove in silence after that.

Soon, Marcus pulled up to the estate.

I usually drove in through the back gate, but this time, he took me through the front. I had no idea how luxurious the place actually was.

Having barely finished high school, the only word I could think of to describe it was "palatial."

But the gold-trimmed hallway walls were lined with framed, explicit photographs of various young women.

Laughter and cries echoed from the rooms lining the hallway. I could hear the distinct, sickening sound of a whip cracking against bare flesh.

Marcus led the way, pulling me along like a dog on a leash.

I felt incredibly humiliated.

Along the way, we passed a few women who threw cold, indifferent glances at me.

I squirmed under their stares. I was a man, and I had my pride!

"Marcus, this is too much. I'm a human being, not an animal!"

"Too much?"

Marcus said flatly, "You're lucky to still be breathing. Don't start crying about human rights now."

He gave the rope a violent tug. I stumbled, and he shoved me hard into a room at the end of the hall.

The room was dimly lit and largely empty.

There was only a leather sofa and a marble coffee table.

A man with a short, slicked-back ponytail sat on the sofa. The tea on the table in front of him was still steaming.

I recognized him. He was the big boss Marcus had mentioned.

He had a massive black dragon tattoo wrapping down his arm. A jagged, terrifying scar ran from his temple down to his jawline, giving him a permanently menacing look.

Scarface—Leo—glanced at me with total indifference. He picked up a cigar cutter and began prepping a cigar.

"Did you find the cargo?" he asked.

Marcus shook his head. "She probably ran. I already sent the boys down the mountain road to track her."

"The terrain out here is brutal. She can't outrun a car on foot."

Leo lit his cigar, took a deep drag, and slowly exhaled a thick cloud of blue smoke.

The smoke swirled around him, obscuring his face.

Then, he reached behind his back, pulled out a wicked, razor-sharp hunting knife, and tossed it onto the coffee table. "You know the rules," he said quietly, taking another drag.

I watched in horror as Marcus's brow furrowed for a split second. Then, grinding his teeth, he stepped forward and picked up the knife.

Before I could even process what was happening, he brought the blade down and sliced off his own pinky finger.

"Holy shit..."

A wave of absolute terror washed over me.

Marcus didn't even flinch. Was I really trapped in some twisted cartel den?

Based on their conversation, the "ghost" I saw last night wasn't a ghost at all. She was a captive who had tried to escape.

What about me?

Were they going to cut my finger off too?

Marcus, incredibly, didn't make a sound. He bandaged his bleeding hand with a rag and asked Leo, "What do we do with him?"

He was pointing at me.

"Throw him in the back. Feed him to the dogs," Leo said, his tone as casual as if he were ordering a pizza.

"Whoa, hold on, man! I’m just the delivery guy! This is insane! You can't do this, it's illegal!"

Leo looked at me, a cruel smirk playing on his scarred face. "Illegal? Kid, we aren't in the States anymore."

Not in the U.S.?!

My heart plunged into a frozen abyss.

Suddenly, it all clicked. My boss’s warehouse was right on the Texas border.

No wonder I had to drive at midnight on those dark, unmarked dirt roads. I had been unconsciously crossing the border into Mexico every single night!

Leo gave a slight nod. Marcus understood immediately. He grabbed me, covered my mouth, and dragged me out of the room.

His fresh blood smeared all over my face.

For the first time in my life, I was dragged like a dog in front of a crowd.

Despite the terror, a burning rage began to swell inside me.

Marcus felt me resisting and, without warning, slammed his fist into my face.

Stars exploded in my vision, and my head throbbed.

A moment later, I was thrown into a filthy, concrete pen.

Then, he locked the gate and left, likely to tend to his severed finger.

A single, grime-covered bulb hung from the ceiling, casting a dim, yellow glow.

Even though it looked like an animal pen, I could smell a mixture of cheap women's perfume and rotting copper.

I looked into the shadows of the pen and gasped.

I wasn't alone.

Three women were huddling in the corner, their torn clothes barely covering them. They stared at me with wide, terrified eyes.

One was covered in horrific whip lashes. Another was nearly naked, her belly slightly swollen—she was pregnant. The last one had a brutal "X" carved into her right cheek.

"Are you guys..."

After a few quiet words, my heart grew even heavier.

They were the "cargo" I had been delivering all this time.

The woman with the scarred face seemed mentally unstable, and the whipped woman couldn't speak—her tongue had been cut out. Only the pregnant girl, Lily, was able to tell me what had happened to them.

Lily asked how I ended up here. I made up a quick lie. I didn't dare tell them the truth.

If they knew I was the driver who brought them to this hellhole, they would probably tear me apart.

Before long, Marcus returned with a fresh bandage on his hand.

He didn't say a word. He dragged me out of the pen and began pulling me toward the dark woods behind the estate.

In the distance, I could hear the low, menacing growls of large attack dogs.

Marcus and Leo were monsters.

I knew that if I didn't act fast, I was going to end up as dog food.

I swallowed my fear and looked at Marcus. "Marcus... look, I'm a dead man anyway. Can you grant me one last wish before I go?"

Marcus paused, turning his cold eyes toward me.

Seeing his hesitation, I pressed on. "You know I only took this job for the money because my fiancée left me. I told you about it."

"I've never... you know, been with a woman. Can I at least experience it once before I die?"

"There are three girls right there in the pen..."

"Don't think I'm a freak, Marcus. But if I die a virgin, I'll haunt this place forever!"

I was betting he would say yes.

Lily had whispered to me earlier that Marcus was a sick bastard who enjoyed watching people suffer and degrade themselves.

Marcus stared at me for a long moment, then let out a sick chuckle. "Well... I guess that’s a fair request. For old times' sake, I'll let you have some fun."

Relief washed over me. He dragged me back and threw me into the pen for the second time.

"Make it quick. I want to see a good show," he said, leaning against the bars with a sadistic grin.

"What are you waiting for? Get to it!"

Seeing me hesitate, Marcus's grin faded. "You trying to stall for time, kid?"

"It won't work. No one can save you from Leo."

When I still didn't move, Marcus lost patience. He stepped inside the pen, grabbed Lily by her hair, and dragged her over to me. "Do it! You're about to die anyway, what are you hesitating for?"

"Marcus, man, you've got to untie my hands first. How am I supposed to do anything like this?"

Marcus blinked, then burst into a loud laugh. "Right! Of course!"

He knelt down and began to untie me.

But he only untied my legs, keeping my hands bound in front of me.

As Marcus bent over, I locked eyes with Lily and gave her a desperate nod.

Lily gritted her teeth and slammed her entire body weight into Marcus.