Four years ago:

Cries of pain and sobs came from deep within the secluded warehouse. Hundreds of cages were lined up in rows on the first floor, about half of the size of a twin bed. Young women were curled up inside of the cages, shivering against the cool, metal bottom with only a small bowl in the corner barely filled with water. The only clothes they were wearing were dirty and ragged, just like mine were.

My head was heavy, feeling as if lead had been poured into it. Every part of my body ached from being curled up in a tight ball in this small cage for days. A rancid smell filled the warehouse. The several hundred girls, all kidnapped from their homes and people they cared about, were forced to live in these cages until the right person came along to buy them.

We rarely ever left our cages, only when we were bought or the smell became too much for the assholes, who were in charge of this whole sex-trafficking warehouse. They would clean out the cages and then throw us right back inside. Food was only given to us every other week and water was every three days, just enough to keep us from dying.

They made us weak, incapable of ever fighting back. Worst of all, they get us addicted to painkillers within the first two weeks they kidnap you. We become numb to everything around us and everything we are feeling.

It wasn’t uncommon for deaths in the sex trafficking business. Several girls died every month, most from giving up on everything and their bodies too weak to live anymore. The thought was tempting, yet I managed to hang onto the little light I had within me to stay alive. There was only one thing in this world that kept me from giving up.

Tommy.

A year had passed since I was taken from Oliver’s bedroom back in Starling City. A year since I had seen my family, most of all my older brother. If they knew where I was now and what I was forced to do, they probably wouldn’t recognize me. Hell, I barely recognizing myself anymore.

Shouts and gunshots filled the warehouse from an adjoining room. My eyes snapped open at the sound of guns firing in the distance. The assholes who ran this place never fired their guns inside of the warehouse. That was one of the rules established between them.

Something big was happening.

A large part of me hoped the warehouse was being stormed in by a SWAT team to rescue all of the women, but I knew better than to wish for a rescue mission. No one ever found us here. The one time I tried to escape was a couple of months ago and I only caught sight of a body of water surrounding part of the warehouse before I was hit in the back of the head.

If it wasn’t for my last name, I would have been murdered by now from my many attempts of escaping within the first few months I was kidnapped. The punishments got worse every time and, eventually, they broke me down to a point where I didn’t care what they did to me anymore. The less I fought back, the less it hurt physically, but it destroyed me mentally.

The gunshots grew louder and echoed off of the walls. Soon enough, scraping noises were heard from the cages around mine as the girls struggled to see what the commotion was about. My head barely lifted off of the metal flooring of my cage, wincing from the pounding headache going off inside of my head.

A man went flying through the air, landing on the concrete ground with a loud thud about fifty feet away. His gun clattered to the floor near him. Several men shouted out in Spanish, too fast for me to comprehend or understand. The man clambered back to his feet, stretching his arm out for his gun until his fingers latched around the base of it. He took off running in the direction he came from and disappeared behind a cage, where I could no longer see what he was fighting against.

“What’s going on?”

“What’s happening?”

In every direction, girls were mumbling to themselves, curious to know what was happening inside of the warehouse. I, myself, was quite intrigued to know what was causing this large scene. Nothing like this ever happened in the warehouse, not even when someone escaped.

I weakly crawled across the floor of the cage toward the bars. Every part of my body screamed out in agony as I slid across my cage, bruises and cuts painted on my skin, like I was some extra in a horror movie.

The shouting became louder as a man, dressed in black from head to toe, stepped out from behind a cage up ahead, aggressively fighting against three men, who all had guns in their hands, while he had a bow and arrows placed in a quiver on his back. He moved gracefully between the group of men, effortlessly fighting back with just his hands and the bow without using any arrows.

I shrunk back against the wall of my cage when several bullets throughout the air. I watched in a mix of fear and awe of the man. His leg flew up in the air, kicking on of the men in the chest away from him and drew back an arrow within seconds. The arrow sliced through the air and buried itself into the man’s chest, resulting in him screaming in pain.

Several other men ran up on the fight, determined to take down the strange man. The man fought against all of them with no struggle, only taking one or two punches. He blocked every bullet and punch sent his way, either with his bow or the other men he could grab onto and use as a shield. Once they finished serving his purpose of a shield, he dropped them to the ground, never failing to fight against the other men that surrounded him.

One by one, the men collapsed on the ground, either dead or unconscious. I wasn’t sure whether to believe this man was here to kidnap us again or to release us. Either way, I had not expected for the man to lower the black hood over his head to reveal his true identity. He straightened up, holding his head high as his dark brown eyes scanned the warehouse, avoiding stepping on the bodies on the ground.

From this far distance, I would not had been able to see his eye color, but I knew they were the color of dark chocolate. I gawked at the man from behind the bars of my cage, unable to tear my gaze away from him. “Dad?” I breathed in disbelief.

There was no other way I would had believed it was him if I hadn’t seen his face. He looked the same as a year ago, except he was more agile and built than I ever thought he could be. Growing up, he was always a businessman. He never showed signs of being a killer-- or whatever he was today.

He drew back another arrow, instantly killing another man on the second floor stairwell. The man tumbled over the railing and landed on the concrete. The sound of his body hitting the ground echoed throughout the warehouse.

Dad came for me.

“Da--” My voice cracked when I tried to gain my father’s attention. I haven’t tried to talk in over two weeks, leaving my voice crackly and dry.

He kicked over a man’s body and snatched up a pair of keys from the jacket.

I threw myself at the bars, fingers latched around the metal bars as I tried to yell out again, “Dad!” My voice was louder than before, yet not loud enough for him to hear, or so I thought.

His head whipped around in the direction of my weak yell. Dad’s eyes settled on the cage I was locked within. A hint of a relieved smile played on his lips as he raced through the rows of cages to get to mine. Tears gathered in my eyes while my grip on the bars tightened.

“It’s time to go home, sweetheart.” Dad announced as he crouched to the ground. He set the black bow on the ground by his feet and began testing the keys for the right one to unlock my cage.

“You came for me…” I whispered, silently crying, feeling more relieved than I had ever felt before.

Dad jammed the third key into the padlock, successfully unlocking my cage. “I’ve been searching for you since the day you went missing, Hensley. Of course I came for you. His words sent a wave of relief and love throughout my body. He swung the door open. “Now, come on. We need to get you out of here.”

Weakly, I climbed out of my cage and stood up with shaky legs, that made it nearly impossible to stand on my own. I grasped onto my father’s arms, breathing in slowly through my mouth. This was the first time I was standing in days.

“Can you walk?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. My legs feel weak.”

All of the blood in my body rushed to my head, suddenly making me feel dizzy. My nails dug into his long sleeved jacket as my body began to sway in the air. As my eyes started to flutter shut, I could hear my Dad calling out my name and my legs gave out from underneath me. My body fell unconscious before I could even collapse into my father’s arms.

XXXX

I was always unsure of how I would start this chapter, so I kind of put it off for a while because I thought I would epically fail at it. So, that's why it took me so long to write this chapter, otherwise, you would have had it a while ago.

I always knew Malcolm would be the one to rescue her. I've had that planned since the very beginning. It was very important for that to happen and you'll find out why in the next chapter.

The next chapter will, also, include a reunion between Hensley and Tommy.

I've been catching up on Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow, which really inspired me to finally kick out this chapter. And when I watch those shows, I imagine how Hensley would react in certain scenes and all that.

Question: How did you feel about this chapter?

So, yeah!