by Paige Dearth
“I do remember what happened to them, Juju! There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Max and Cali. But what about all the horrible things Thelma will do to this new kid? Am I supposed to pretend like bad shit won’t happen to her at the hands of that bitch?” Maggie countered.
“Maybe Thelma would treat a little girl better. Maybe she just hates boys. You don’t know. If I were you, I would agree to do it. At least you’d be saving one of them. If things stay the same, then Seth and some little girl you don’t even know will both have a chance of dying. You have a chance here to save one life. If things turn out well, you could actually save two lives. Think about it,” Juju said, trying to influence her friend’s decision.
“I never thought about it that way. I guess you have a point.” Maggie sat on a bench and looked up at the sky. She willed the heaven above to help her make the right choice. Juju had made a really good point. If she could help Seth, that was better than not helping anyone.
“OK. You’re right. But here’s the deal. If I agree to do this, then you have to promise we’ll meet this little girl every day before school, just like we do with Seth. That’s the least we can do. We’d have to keep an eye on her. Deal?” Maggie asked.
“Deal,” Juju said with gusto.
Maggie found Rock before noon the following day. He was surprised that she approached him with such confidence. He’d been certain that she would reject his offer.
“Hey. OK, I’ll do it. I’ll pick the girl for Thelma, and Seth gets to live with Juju. That’s the deal, right?” Maggie asked, clearly surprising Rock with her decision.
“Yep, that’s how it’ll work. You and me will take a little trip tomorrow,” he explained.
Maggie nodded. “What time do we leave?”
“I’ll be over to pick you up at seven tomorrow morning. Be ready,” he ordered.
“Yeah, I will,” Maggie told him, and then she walked off to look for customers.
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Maggie and Rock left the house of whores shortly after seven the next morning. They drove for an hour before Rock parked his car. He leaned over to Maggie. “Take the blindfold off. We’re here,” he grumbled.
Maggie whipped off the rag that had shielded her vision. She held her hand over her eyes until they adjusted to the light. Once her eyes focused, Maggie looked around. They were in an abandoned commercial complex. The buildings looked like no one had stepped inside of them for a thousand years. Weeds and ivy almost covered the face of the buildings. She felt as if she was in a jungle except for the cracked asphalt, which seemed to go on for miles. Maggie slipped out of the car and followed closely behind Rock. He stopped before they reached a metal door on the side of the building. “Just keep your fuckin’ mouth shut. You only talk to me when I ask you questions. Ya fuck this up, and I’ll kill ya and that little bastard of yours,” he threatened, referring to Seth.
Maggie nodded numbly. Once they were inside the building, her stomach clenched at the smell of corruption. All too quickly, she remembered the retched stench of these places—a mixture of rotten men with their liquor- and smoke-ridden breath and children doused in cheap perfume and cologne. Her adrenaline began to pump rapidly, and she had an overwhelming urge to turn and run out the door.
Rock gave her a scathing look. “Don’t forget what I just said,” he warned.
He shook the hand of the man who had opened the door for them. “Hey, man,” Rock said. “Julius is expecting me.”
“Yeah, he told me. Go ahead up. He’s waitin’ for ya.”
Rock led Maggie down several narrow corridors, which had no doors or windows, until they finally came to a long flight of metal stairs. Maggie realized that if she had to run out of the building, she wouldn’t know which way to go. The hallways had intertwined and crossed over other halls. It felt as if they were rats in a maze.
At the top of the stairs, they entered a room with black lighting. Maggie felt the little hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and a chill raced up her spine. The tiniest gasp slipped through her lips; it was just loud enough for Rock to hear, and he turned to her.
“I’m warning ya. I’ll leave your nasty ass here if you screw this up. Pull yourself together,” Rock hissed through clenched teeth.
Maggie sat next to Rock on the sofa against the far wall. Five minutes later, a large door opened, and a man walked across the room to Rock with his hand extended. “Hey, Rock. Good to see you again,” Julius said with a seedy smile.
“Yeah, same here. This here is one of my bitches. She’s gonna help me pick one,” Rock explained.
Julius eyed her lustfully. “She’s pretty fuckin’ hot. You sure you don’t want to do a trade instead?”
Rock looked at Maggie and grinned. Her heart began to rattle against her rib cage, and her face felt like it was on fire as she flushed with panic.
Julius stepped closer and sniffed her hair. “How old are you?”
A lump clogged Maggie’s airway, and she stared at Julius in silence. Rock slapped her on the back of the head. “The man asked you a question, bitch. Answer him,” he directed.
“Sixteen,” Maggie whispered, forcing the word through her lips.
Julius stepped closer and pulled Maggie to her feet. Rubbing his hand down Maggie’s back and over her ass, he pulled her to him and locked his body against hers. His eyes flicked over to Rock. “Before we move on, I wanna have a piece of this fine ass.”
“Yeah, man. Go ahead. But you need to do it here,” Rock told him.
Rock wasn’t nuts about Julius taking a free piece of ass that he owned. Julius didn’t give anything away free. But Rock had called in a favor so he could get Thelma another rug rat. Still, he wasn’t about to let Maggie go off with Julius; he needed to protect his property. It was a filthy business, and deception was widespread. It was just part of the game.
Rock looked at Maggie, his eyes flat. “Let’s go, girl. Take your fuckin’ clothes off and get on with it.” Then Rock turned his attention to Julius. “You got protection with ya?”
Maggie was no good to him on the streets if she caught a disease.
Julius nodded with hungry eagerness, getting all revved up for Maggie and her powerful beauty. She stood in the middle of the room naked, and Julius looked her up and down, absorbing the perfect body that matched the stunning face. “Let your hair outta that ponytail,” Julius instructed.
Maggie let her jet-black hair fall. It had been a long time since it was last cut, and it hung to the small of her back. “Oh, yeah.” Julius breathed heavily and quickly undressed.
“Come on, bring it over here,” he told Maggie, pointing to the sofa.
Maggie glided over calmly, using her best hooker attitude to disguise her fear. The fact that Rock hadn’t left the room gave her some comfort. As she stood facing Julius, he tore open a condom and handed it to her.
“Here, you put it on me,” Julius said, taunting her.
After Maggie slid the rubber on, he spun her around, locked his arm around her waist tightly, and bent her over the sofa. He entered her from behind. Maggie held in her screams of rage as Julius sodomized her in the darkened room with Rock watching. When Julius finished, he pushed her face-first into the back of the sofa cushion. Then he turned to Rock. “All right, now we can get down to business,” he stated, with a satisfied grin.
Maggie quickly grabbed her clothes and dressed. She rushed over to Rock, conflicted that she somehow felt safer standing close to him. They followed Julius into another dimly lit room. They stood in the center of the room for the briefest moment before the room went pitch black. Maggie held her breath and then, to her surprise, one light popped on against the wall. The light was inside a glass box, the size of a large coffin, and inside the box stood a young girl.
Another light came on in a glass box to the right, with another young girl inside. In all, there were three glass boxes against each of the four walls. When all of the boxes were illuminated, Maggie looked around in
pure terror as twelve girls between the ages of nine and eleven stared back at her with big, fearful eyes.
“OK, I want all of you to stay perfectly still,” Julius told the children. “Don’t move until I tell ya to move.”
Rock dragged Maggie by the arm to get a closer look at each child. Their sorrowful expressions made her want to set all of them free. In each of them, she saw herself and the others she had lived with at the prison. Her heart ached with sympathy. They walked back to the middle of the room, and Rock whispered, “So? Which one? Which of these innocent little creatures are you going to pick?”
Maggie looked around the room; her mind buzzed as she thought about all of the things these children were being forced to do. Her vivid memories of sex traffickers made her stomach churn. She recalled her fear and feeling of worthlessness as people looked her over as if she was a piece of meat. She continued to stare in silence, yearning for her family again, just as she had done in the first months after John William kidnapped her. She wished there was something—anything—she could do to help the children who watched her with guarded anticipation.
“Hey!” Julius screamed at a girl who slumped to the floor of her box from exhaustion. “Get the fuck up or you’ll be sorry,” he threatened.
Rock looked in the direction of Julius, and while both men had their backs turned, a nine-year-old girl behind them gave Julius the finger and then quickly dropped her hand back to her side. Maggie had been staring directly at her. She was impressed by the girl’s nerve and was drawn to her instantly. She was a fighter and a little brazen. Maggie thought she was perfect. Unlike Seth, the girl had brass balls, and she’d need them to survive the wrath of Thelma.
When Rock and Julius turned around, Maggie shifted her gaze to a different box so they wouldn’t catch her staring at that little girl.
“Well? Which one is it?” Rock pressed, growing impatient.
“That one.” Maggie pointed. She walked over to the girl and stood close to the glass as Rock turned to Julius to negotiate the sale. When neither of the men were watching, Maggie gave the girl a slight nod, and the little girl raised her eyebrows in response, as if they were speaking a secret code of honor.
“How much?” Rock asked.
“Twenty grand,” Julius responded.
“Twenty grand? Ya gotta do better than that, man. I was thinkin’ more like ten grand,” Rock countered.
Julius held Rock’s gaze. The girl was worth a lot to Julius, so Rock was going to have to lose something if he wanted to get a better deal.
Julius pulled Rock over to the side of the room.
“I have an idea. I’ll give her to you for ten grand, but I’m gonna need a little something in return,” Julius stated.
“Like what?” Rock asked, visibly annoyed.
“Like that bitch of yours over there, for starters,” Julius said, pointing at Maggie.
Maggie didn’t know what the two men were saying, but it was clear she was a part of their conversation. Her mouth went dry, and she instinctively wrapped her arms over her chest. After several more minutes, the two men shook hands. Rock walked toward Maggie with a disturbing smirk.
“I got me a deal,” Rock told her.
Something about Rock’s posture told Maggie that trouble was coming her way. She willed herself to speak, but couldn’t form any words.
Finally, words erupted from Maggie’s lips. “Can we leave now?” Her voice trembled.
Rock’s face stayed firm. “I’m leaving now, but you ain’t.”
“What?” Maggie shrieked. “Rock, you can’t leave me here. Please take me with you.”
“I made myself a good fuckin’ deal. That’s what I did,” Rock mocked.
Maggie lunged forward and clung to Rock.
“Please, Rock, oh please don’t leave me here. I’ve done everything you wanted. Please don’t do this to me,” Maggie begged.
Rock laughed, pushed Maggie backward, and she fell onto the floor.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell ya not to make a deal with the devil?” Rock ridiculed.
Then he hacked up phlegm and spit on her. “Ya dumb bitch. Thought ya were so smart, huh? Thought ya could get away with your bullshit. Well, ya ain’t that smart now, are ya?”
Maggie scampered across the floor and wrapped her arms around Rock’s ankles. “Noooo. Oh, please, no. I don’t want to stay here,” she cried.
Julius had walked over to them, followed by two of the men who worked for him.
“Get her outta here,” Julius instructed.
The men pried Maggie off Rock and dragged her toward a door. The whole time, Maggie was screaming and fighting to break free. She turned back to Rock, who was leaving through the door they had entered.
“Rock!” Maggie screamed at the top of her lungs as the door slammed behind him.
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Maggie was taken down several flights of stairs to a corridor with rooms on either side. As they passed each room, Maggie noticed the various children inside. The realization of what had just transpired had yet to settle in her mind. It was as if she was living in a real-life horror film.
The two men stopped at a door, unlocked it, and shoved Maggie inside. She lost her footing and fell face-first onto the hard industrial tile floor. She rolled onto her back quickly, just as the men slammed the heavy door and threw the deadbolt.
Maggie sat up slowly, looked around the room, and her eyes landed on a little girl huddled in the corner with her knees tucked tightly to her chest and her forehead resting on them. Maggie inched her way over to the little girl until she was kneeling in front of her.
“Little girl?” Maggie whispered.
The child finally raised her head, and when she did, Maggie recognized her as the child whom she’d picked for Thelma. Stunned, Maggie fell back onto her ass. Rock had not only left Maggie there, but he hadn’t taken the little girl home with him.
“Why are you still here?” Maggie finally managed.
“’Cause that asshole you came here with left without me,” the girl hurled.
“I’m sorry,” Maggie stated mournfully. “We’re going to be all right,” she added, trying to calm the girl’s fear as much as her own. “My name is Maggie. What’s yours?”
“Joey.”
“How old are you?”
Joey thought for a moment, the memory leaving her with great despair. “Nine. My bitch mother traded me for drugs and a case of beer on my birthday.”
Oh shit, Maggie thought. Then the enormity of what had transpired pushed through her consciousness, and Maggie began to sob. Joey shifted closer to Maggie.
“Don’t cry. They don’t like it when we cry. Besides, if you’re a crybaby, they make you take pills to make you stupid. Some of the other kids have to take them all the time, and they can hardly even talk,” Joey warned.
“You’re right, Joey. Crying isn’t going to make this any better.” Maggie sniffled, forcing her emotions aside.
Maggie was struck hard by the information Joey had shared. Under John William, they didn’t force the kids to take drugs; it was a choice they could make on their own. She understood quickly that she would have to keep her wits about her to have any chance of surviving.
Maggie got to her feet and walked to the door. She peered through the window in the door and noticed a small girl looking back at her from the room across the hall. As she watched the girl, it was like looking into a mirror and seeing her past life. Why did Rock do this to me? Maggie thought. She had allowed Rock to deceive her. He had fooled all of them, and now she was back in the hands of sex traffickers.
The questions and thoughts stifled Maggie’s ability to remain calm. She told herself to breathe. Her eyelids spontaneously blinked faster, as if flicking away her horrifying reality. She realized that she had brought this situation on herself by being outsmarted—by making one wrong decision. She had been so focused on saving Seth from Thelma that she hadn’t seen Rock’s true intent. He had played her for a fool. Th
e enormity of her situation crushed against her ribs as the pain of regret surged through her body, ripping through her nerve endings like a tornado.
Several hours later, Maggie was startled by the sound of the deadbolt on her door sliding back. A white man in his mid-twenties stood staring down at her. His head was shaved, and his beard almost touched his chest. His eyes were black, and his small mouth was too tiny for his round, pudgy face.
“Let’s go,” the hideous man commanded.
Maggie slowly rose to her feet and hesitantly walked toward the door. She stole a glance in Joey’s direction, but the young girl refused to make eye contact with her.
“Move it, slut!” the man screamed.
Maggie hurried to the door. The man snatched her up by the arm and pulled her along. Maggie didn’t have to guess where the man was taking her. She already knew what would be expected as he led her back up the stairs to the upper floor of the dilapidated warehouse.
Maggie felt a heavy shroud of sorrow wrap around her soul for making the wrong decision. Once again, the urge to go back in time and recant a horrible decision consumed her, its broad tentacles latching deep inside her psyche. How could she have been so naïve? Why did she ever trust Rock? What would happen to her now that she was back with sex traffickers? What would happen to Seth? Would she ever see Seth and Juju again?
Chapter Seventy-Nine
The men who worked for the sex traffickers had stripped sixteen-year-old Maggie of all her clothes. She struggled in vain as they tied her arms and legs to the bedposts in a windowless room inside an abandoned warehouse.
“Please, you don’t have to tie me up,” Maggie pleaded. “I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”
Her begging was met with ugly laughter. The two men left the room, slamming the door behind them.
A few minutes later, four men in their early forties entered the room, which was illuminated by candles. Maggie strained to watch them through the eerie darkness. The men were whispering; they all carried beer bottles. She could tell by their staggering gaits that they were drunk.