From Rome To Berlin

Berlin had known that it was too good to be true. She should have known that money doesn't just fall in your lap. Especially when the money is attached to a little black book. She had watched enough scary movies to know that. Yet that didn't stop her from accepting the money and the terms. How much money do you ask? A whopping 20,000. Given that her and her long term boyfriend of 3 years were struggling financially it sounded like a good idea at the time. It was funny how quickly her mind changed after already spending a third of the money on her new living space, car, and decent clothing. She glanced over at Rome as he locked eyes with her. He knew what they needed to do. Having the book in hand he started to glance at the first thing that needed to be done on the list. Scribbled in bold letters the first sentence read as followed.

" Given that I kept my end of the bargain it is time for you to keep yours. The first thing I need from the two of you is to go to this address and engrave on the side of the door the little H. Make sure that it is engraved and then painted in with a crimson red. It has to be a crimson red. "

Berlin shook her head as she stared at the red paint sitting in the corner. Her mind was screaming that she didn't have to do this, but she knew she had too. She didn't want to know what the consequences were if she didn't. She was too scared that it would involve Rome.

" Are you ready for this?" Berlin said leaning her head on Rome's shoulder.

" As ready as i'll be." he groaned wrapping his arms around her and giving her a quick squeeze. He got up first and looked back at Berlin reaching his arm out. Slowly grazing her hand over his she hoisted herself up on her feet. She walked over to the paint with Rome's hand still intertwined and ventured out the door to find this home. The home seemed to be in a suburb area. Though the house that they were told to go to seemed to be abandoned. They thought that this just made there job easy. Not having to sneak onto a property and possibly be caught.

" It doesn't make sense though." Rome questioned.

" What do you mean? What about this whole situation makes sense to you?" She snapped exiting the vehicle they had been sitting in and making way towards the house.

" All i'm saying is it's rather strange that we are vandalizing an abandoned house. " he stated. Berlin glanced over at him for a second then focused back on the task at hand.

" Rome. My love I was given a black book and 20,000 dollars by a random old lady on the street. Everything about all of this is strange." she proclaimed. " I mean think about it. If she had that kind of money, why were you on the streets in the first place?"

They had reached the house by then and started carving the H in the side of the wall like they were instructed. Berlin quickly covered the H with the crimson red paint and hastily started moving towards the car. Rome seemed to be stuck in place studying the sign.

" Rome! What are you doing? Come on." Berlin hissed as she realized half way to the car that she was alone.

" Baby something isn't right." he said. Again, Berlin couldn't help but think that nothing about this was right.

" What about it babe? Whats up?" she said. By this time she started to make way back to him.

" I don't think this house is abandoned." he spoke. Peeking her interest she started to look at the house more clearly. The first thing she noticed was that the garbage can right next to where they had placed the sign was full. The trash didn't seem to have been there for a long time. She wasn't aware of how long this house had been unoccupied but from this it wasn't long. Not to mention the fact that they noticed a dim light coming from what seemed like the basement floor.

" Bae don't tell me you want to snoop around this house?" Berlin said watching him slowly creep by the window. She shook her head and took a couple steps back.

" What if someone's down there?" he said.

" Then they just are down there." she said boldly. He lifted his head and looked back at her. He couldn't believe what she had said.

" We are here for one job. That's it. " she said. She didn't feel bad. Clearly whatever was going on here was being done here for a reason.

" I'm just going to see what I can see." he said.

" Well, atleast give me the book and let me see what else we have to do." she said. Handing her the book out of his back pocket she began to read the next steps. That was strange. There was nothing written outside of the next step. Did that mean she was finished? No. Something wasn't right. She began flipping through the book just to find that each page after the first were just smiling faces over names that were crossed out. Continuing to flip she stumbled across her name. She was stuck for a moment. She didn't understand what this meant.

" You see your name right?" she heard Rome say. She didn't see when he had gotten up. His demeanor had changed. He held a different aura from what she had been experiencing. Changing glances from the book to him then back to the book caused her eyes to have a faint blur.

" How did you know my name was in here?" she questioned. He started to smile and giggle a bit.

" You really are a naive one." he said walking over to her. She was frozen in place as he traced his hand over her cheek. She never thought to even look inside of the book. She was so focused on the money.

" You really think in life a random old lady will just come hand you money and a book? " he said. " I understand you were desperate but at some point you have to think. You don't notice anything about those names? You don't know any of them?"

Looking back through the book she did notice these names. These were the names of all the women that had gone missing within the last year. One name in particular stuck out to me because Michele Ole is the name of Rome's ex girlfriend. In fact all of them seemed to be oddly familiar to Rome's girlfriend. Berlin could feel the chills starting to form

" Now I must admit I did love you. You had actually grown on me. " he said as she could faintly hear multiple footsteps coming towards her.

" But business is business. " he said. That was the last thing she heard before she fell unconscious. In her unconscious state all the events that lead up to this moment began to run through her head like a marathon. How could she not have seen it? How could she not have paid attention? Women were disappearing left and right that she knew and she didn't once fear or think about it. Until it was too late. That's the last thing she thought about as the world around her began to fill with darkness. No one had ever heard from Berlin again. Turns out it was a scam. The old lady wasn't random at all. She was infamous sex trafficker Natalie Combs. Her and Rome had worked together for years. Traveling from state to state abducting young women who were financially failing in life and looking for a way out. Berlin unfortunately wasn't the first or the last.