Jade solemnly followed Will, as instructed. They rode to the base in silence beside a few words for water and such. The base had logs for walls and many tents inside. It smelled of whiskey, men’s sweat, smoke, and beef. The tents were slouchy as the men were, polls stood straight up though with leather straps at the bottom of each one, blood stained the stakes like they stained Jade’s heart…what she wanted for those men was unexplainable. Cast iron pans clattered like Jade’s heart shook. She saw many things that day as the pushed her down and tied the leather strap around her hands and left her to feel the pain by herself. They ate beef and drank whiskey as the flames of the fire rose above their heads into the night. Jade struggled with the strap, but it was strong, and it would not break no matter how hard she tried, will came over to her a few minutes later.

“You know, your father owes us a lot of money, and your mother and yourself never knew about it…why do you think that was?”

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“How would I know?” Jade replied bitterly as she took in all the overwhelming emotions.

“I think that he was too scared to tell you the trouble he was in.”

“My father was not a coward!” Jade jerked to him but came to the reality she was still tied to the poll.

“Woah, easy there, Jade. Now, we don’t want issues do we?” He looked at her an unwavering evil spread across his face like a cloak of the night.

“No.” Jade put her head down…her feet turned inward, and she felt she could throw up…she was a pitiable fool…just a weakling.

“Good, Jade, good.” Will got up and left to drink and eat more than his share. No one cared about the cold and scared and hungry girl in the back…she was just a prisoner. She let a few tears fall down her face and into her dirty sleeve as she looked at the stars hoping for someone…something that loved her, but there was nothing to meet her plea.

“Is there a God? No…there can’t be, not with this much pain, I am on my own.”

Jade wrestled with herself, with no one to help her because she did not believe in the one thing that could help her.