Tormented: Day 5

Word Count: 30,011

Summary of Events:

Esperanza and her fellow captives were fed a meagre meal before Esperanza managed to successfully escape, except the ship's crew helped her captors recapture her. Riel was visited by a woman who wanted to interview him for a legal magazine, but he found her insufferable and managed to get her to leave; he then found out that the Mar del Plata police had closed Esperanza's case and quickly filed an injunction against them for not doing their due course and diligence in the investigation. Esperanza was woken by her captors entering the container she and her fellow captives were kept in, and after they left managed to get one of the other girls to talk to her.

Excerpt of the Day:

"Metallic noises woke Esperanza and she looked up. The door opened and two of the guards strode in. Esperanza watched as they walked by her chair toward the back corner.

"Wake up," one said roughly.

The girls moaned and whimpered.

Esperanza turned to look back at the door end when she heard more feet and saw another guard coming in with a flashlight in hand. He shone it steadily on the girls and Esperanza watched as they were hauled to their feet roughly.

Their hoods were whipped off and each face was examined. Grabbing one of the girls roughly, the one guard started toward the door with her while the other guard whipped the hoods back onto the other two.

Esperanza watched as they headed out. One guard stopped and looked at her.

"Curious aren't you?" he asked. "You'll find out what we're doing soon enough. Yours is the second last stop on the line."

She was tempted to ask why, but held her tongue instead; she had a feeling she wouldn't have been given a straight answer if she would've asked anyways.

The guard smiled and continued on after the others. The door was closed and the girls were submerged into darkness again.

"Which way do you think we're sailing?" Esperanza asked.

"Be quiet," the usual whisper was harsher.

"I think we're going north, but I don't know," Esperanza said.

"Shh!" came a harsh hiss.

"Of course, it all depends on where we started from," Esperanza said. "Did we start from Argentina? Brazil? Venezuela? Colombia? Somewhere else?"

"Oh be quiet!"

"Why?" Esperanza asked.

"We're supposed to be quiet."

"They haven't gotten me in trouble yet for whispering," Esperanza said. "I've only gotten in trouble because I've tried to get out of here and back home, something the two of you don't seem particularly interested in."

"We can't get home."

"We can if we try," Esperanza said.

"We're trapped on a ship."

"But we're all going to have the chance to get off eventually," Esperanza said. "I should think. And what if we could escape then? If we get out of their clutches and swim to land surely we could find a place to orient ourselves and find out where our home is."

"We can't swim."

"I can," Esperanza said. "But if you can't then you could wait until you get to land, and then run away."

"They'll shoot us."

"Those guns are purely for show," Esperanza said. "They wouldn't actually shoot us to kill us. They've only ever shot at me, and they only hit me once — not to mention the man who did that is dead now — they wouldn't kill us, and especially if we get away fast enough."

"When will you realise that it's hopeless?"

"It isn't hopeless," Esperanza said. "We have a multitude of opportunities we can utilise to escape, we just have to take advantage of them and forget about the fears. Besides, I think that dying would be better off than being held captive, even though it isn't the ideal.""