Chapter 2 - The abandoned factory
Derek told me we were going to my prenatal appointment.
That was the first lie.
The second was that my phone battery had died.
It hadn’t.
He had taken it while I was showering.
The third lie came when we left the highway.
“Shortcut.”
I knew immediately it wasn’t.
We drove twenty minutes through abandoned industrial roads until smokestacks appeared beyond dead trees.
The facility looked forgotten.
Broken windows.
Faded warning signs.
Rust streaking down old metal walls.
No active company logo.
No employee cars.
Except one pickup truck.
Derek parked beside it.
“Where are we?”
“Get out.”
“I have an appointment.”
“You’re not going.”
I grabbed the door handle.
Locked.
“Derek.”
He looked at me.
The expression on his face was almost peaceful.
That terrified me more than rage.
“Don’t make today harder than it needs to be.”
He came around, opened my door, and pulled me out.
I resisted.
Not wildly.
Not yet.
One hand stayed over my stomach.
The other grabbed the side of the car.
“Please.”
He peeled my fingers away.
Inside the factory, machinery sat beneath dust and rust.
But not everything was abandoned.
Some lights worked.
A generator hummed somewhere deeper inside.
And a man stood near a metal staircase.
Forties.
Heavy work boots.
Gray jacket.
He watched Derek drag me through the building.
Our eyes met.
“Help me.”
He looked away.
That hurt differently.
Derek laughed.
“See?”
He leaned close.
“Nobody wants your problems.”
We reached a large metal processing tank filled with murky theatrical-looking industrial fluid, the kind of mixture that smelled chemical enough to frighten me even though I had no idea what it actually was.
I grabbed the railing.
“Derek, please. The baby.”
His jaw tightened.
“Maybe now you’ll finally learn.”
He forced me downward until the cold liquid rose below my chest.
I screamed.
My hands wrapped protectively around my belly.
He leaned over the edge.
“Nobody’s coming.”
The worker turned away again.
Then panic overwhelmed me.
I gagged.
Vomited over the side.
Derek recoiled.
“You’re pathetic.”
He grabbed my hair and forced my face upward.
I cried.
Shook.
Pretended I was breaking.
Then I saw something behind him.
His key ring had slipped from his jacket.
It rested on a narrow metal ledge.
May you like
Close enough to reach.
If I stayed alive long enough.
