by Sara Crest
“The police look the other way?” Axel asked. “Sounds like the same deal that’s going on back home in Arizona is going on here.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised” Veronica said. “I don’t know how big this thing is but I do know it’s a well kept secret. You’re the first girl I’ve met to actually break out though, what happened to your owner?”
“Well, now he’s dead but-”
“Holy shit you killed him? Neither of us have the guts to do it, we’re afraid someone would come after us if we did.”
“I didn’t kill him actually” I said. “I waited two years for a moment of weakness and then took my chance, he kept me chained to a wall so there was nothing stopping me from making a run for it once those shackles fell off.”
“I envy you girl” she said twirling the end of her cornrow in her fingers. “I’d still get out of here if I were you, if someone recognizes you then your man will probably be shot on sight and they’ll take you back to be resold.”
“They can try” Axel said “but that’s not gonna happen.”
“Veronica, we need to find the auction house, there’s something we really got to take care of and we can’t until we find it. We’ve been looking for hours with no help.”
“You sure you want to go there? That place is guarded tighter than a bank.”
I looked up at Axel, knowing that he couldn’t fulfill his promise to me unless we found out the location.
“I’m positive, we have to get there.”
“Well I don’t know the exact place but I do know that it’s in this part of the city, I wish I could help you more.”
“What about a purple neon sign? A big one, like what you would see on a casino in the distance. Did you see anything like that when they took you out of the building?”
“I went out a different way then you I think... but a purple neon sign? There is the Purple Rock Casino that you could see from Auburn street, it’s the only place I can think of that has a purple neon sign.”
“We must have driven down every street in the area, why haven’t we seen it?” Axel asked.
“They don’t turn the sign on until 11pm, they make a huge deal about it every single night. You go to Auburn street at 11pm and you’ll see that sign light up light a christmas tree.”
I pulled Veronica in for a hug, she felt stiff at first, the same way I felt around Axel initially. I guess she was just so put off from human contact because of everything she had been through.
“I’m not leaving you behind” I told her.
“You have to, I can’t get out of here as long as I have that brace.”
“There has to be something we can do” I said turning to Axel.
“I can’t do it now, but I’ll send some guys up to break you and the other girl out of here, they should be able to do short work of your ankle bracelets… You don’t deserve to live like this” Axel said.
“Don’t make a girl a promise you can’t keep” she said.
“I always keep my promises” Axel replied to her before looking me straight in the eyes. “Always.”
37
(Axel)
I checked my phone, 10:47, we were only a few minutes away from finally figuring out where it was we had to go.
I looked at Hannah as she stared down the road at all the hotels and casinos in the distance, wish I could know what was going through her head right now.
“You know… you know I love you too” I said.
“Huh?” she said turning to me, she was so caught up in her own train of thought she didn’t even hear me.
“Earlier today, at my apartment, you said you loved me…”
I walked up to her and pulled her in close to me.
“I want you to know, I love you too. I’ve never even felt this way about a girl before I met you, I don’t know how to feel about it but all I know is I want us to be together.”
She gave me a soft little smile as she circled her finger on my chest.
“I’m sorry I ran, it probably made you feel terrible. I do love you, and I do want to be with you it’s just that-”
I put my finger to her mouth.
“You had every right to try and walk away from me, I’m just happy you’re giving me another chance.”
I leaned in to kiss her and she embraced me in a way she never had before, full of warmth, love, and longing that just made me want her more.
I put one hand on her face and another on her hip as I pulled her into the middle of the empty street. I had lost track of the number of days I had known her but I had never felt this way about a woman before. I wanted her in every way, and I’d do anything to keep her.
As we kissed in the street a purple light shined down on us, I knew we had something we had to get done but I didn’t want to let her go in this moment.
To think that two years ago this same light shined on her during one of the darkest moments of her life, now it was shining on her as she kissed the man she loved. If that wasn’t progress I don’t know what is.
She slowly broke our kiss, I could tell from the way she bit her lip that although she wanted more from me she was still a little hesitant. I couldn’t blame her. She went from trying to run away from the man she loved to have a normal life to kissing the same man just a few blocks away from where she was sold. I couldn’t imagine the range of emotional conflict that was going on inside of her.
“I love you” I told her again as the soft purple light twinkled in her eyes.
“I love you too, no matter what happens to us, or where we end up.”
She looked out at the purple neon sign for a few seconds, taking it all in.
“Purple Rock Casino… now I have words to match the light” she mumbled to herself. “It wasn’t this bright when I first saw it, I must have been further away, but not too far.”
She took my hand and began walking me further away from the light, checking back over her shoulder every few seconds to try and match the brightness to her memory.
The streets were completely empty, the outskirts kind of reminded me of our own town, Los Aves. With the exception of a few apartment complexes all of buildings were no higher than 2 stories. They were relatively close together and allowed for a few alleyways, overall the area seemed not too well off, a perfect place to bribe people to look the other way.
Suddenly Hannah stopped, looking down a dark alleyway to the right of us.
“It’s here, this is the place.”
I looked back at the neon sign and then back to her.
“You sure? You didn’t even double check the sign.”
“I don’t need to. I can tell that this is it.”
I trusted her, if she said this was the place, then this was the place.
We looked around to make sure nobody was watching us and then walked into the alleyway. As we walked deeper into it we could hear the deep thuds of a music beat, it was incredibly muffled and anyone passing by wouldn’t be able to hear it, but it was there.
Behind a dumpster we found a cellar entrance door, it was locked but after inspecting it I could tell it was rusty.
I took out my pistol, using the butt of it to hit the lock as hard as I could. After a few solid hits the lock gave way and fell off with a clank.
I opened the cellar doors to a soft reddish pink light, now that the doors were open we could clearly hear the music.
“I hope somebody in there has the answers you’re looking for” Hannah said.
“If they don’t, then I’ve come all this way for nothing.”
38
(Hannah)
I never in my life thought that I would be back here. We walked through the dimly lit pink hallway as Axel kept his gun pointed in front of us.
It smelled just like I remembered; cigarette ash, spilled beer, and sweat. Lots and lots of sweat.
The flower pattern wallpaper was stained and peeling, some areas had scratch marks where women clearly had put up a fight, guess they were braver than I ever was. To think
I just let them drag me out of there with a bag over my head.
We could hear club beats being played upstairs, they used the music the cover up any unsettling noises that might turn the buyers off. The buyers wanted to purchase the girls without being reminded that they were taking part in a seedy, disgusting, and reprehensible business.
Through the music there was a quiet yet consistent thud, for a moment I thought it was the sound of a bed hitting the wall from sex but it was too loud and slow for it to be that.
We reached some steps and slowly began to walk up, I could see the first guard at the top sitting down in a wood chair fast asleep.
“I recognize him, he’s one of the men who dragged me into the van that they used to drive me to Edgar.”
“You think he might know anything that might be able to help us?”
“Doubt it” I replied. “Most of the guards here just kept their heads down and did their job. There has to be a coordinator or somebody around here though.”
Axel nodded, taking the butt of his pistol and hitting the guard hard in the side of the neck, knocking him out instantly. He pushed him and the chair down the stairs so that he’d be out of sight, for everything that man did he deserved it.
We looked down the hallway to see room after room after room after room. They kept us in here for a few days before the auction, nothing but a bed and a toilet. It was like jail except you were constantly waiting for the inevitable.
As we walked by the doors we could hear the women inside calling out, some sounded like they had gone crazy, others were pleading to be let out.
Axel took me by the hand to comfort me, if he wasn’t here I knew I wouldn’t be able to do this, having him by my side made me feel safe despite our surroundings.
“We’re getting them out of here, all of them” he muttered as he kept his gun pointed straight ahead.
“Axel there must be at least 50 women in this building we-”
“I don’t care, they all deserve the same chance at freedom as you. I couldn’t live with myself if I just left them here to be sold off and suffer. Everyone deserves a chance to live the life they want to live.”
I squeezed his hand tight as I wiped a tear away from my eye but before I had a chance to respond we heard footsteps coming down the hall.
Axel pulled me over to the side and opened a nearby door, we both scrambled to get inside.
“Don’t close it” I said. “If you close it the door auto locks from the inside!”
“We don’t have a choice, if they see this door open they’ll investigate it and we’ll be caught.”
He shut the door and we heard two men coming closer and closer, it was then that I realized that the loud thuds I heard earlier were coming from this room.
We turned around to see a young woman in nothing but a tank top and panties flinging her whole body against a nearby wall, trying to break out. I don’t know how long she was doing this but her efforts were in vain.
She turned and saw us, her eyes widened and she backed up into a corner.
“You! You won’t take me! I refuse to be sold I’m a human being!”
“If she keeps screaming she’ll give us away” Axel said as he cautiously approached her.
“Just… just be gentle” I pleaded as he got closer and closer.
He grabbed the girl and held onto her tight, holding his hand over her mouth so he could keep her quiet.
“Relax, we’re not going to hurt you” I said looking into her eyes.
She struggled for a few seconds, even going as far as to bite Axel’s hands, but after looking into my eyes she finally calmed down.
“Where’d you learn to do that?” Axel asked me.
“I just looked at her the same way you look at me” I said giving a slight smile. “It always calmed me down so I figured it could work on other people as well.”
He smiled back at me before we heard the men walking by us talking, it was hard to hear from inside of the room but we were able to make out what they were saying.
“How the hell are we short on 18 year old girls? How many fucking times do I have to tell you that 18 year old girls are the only ones that actually sell?” one of them said.
“We have some girls in their young 20s the buyers will never tell the difference” the other replied.
“You dumbass you think our buyers don’t talk to the girls they buy? They’ll find out they aren’t 18 and rat us out to the higher ups. You want this whole thing to fall apart? They won’t just throw us in jail they’ll kill us.”
“Alright fine, jesus fuck, I’ll go out myself and get some younger girls.”
“No, send your guys to do it, they actually know what they’re doing. Last time you did it yourself you brought in a 17 year old and a 16 year old, we can’t do under 18 you should know that by now. 18 and over means we can pass it off as them just ghosting their friends and families, under 18 and the feds start looking into kidnapping. Last time you brought in girls younger than 18 I had to pay them off 10 grand each to keep their mouth shut, not to mention get one of my guys to check in on them now and then to make sure they haven’t squealed.”
Before we could hear anymore they walked too far away from us, leaving us alone in this room trapped like the girl we found here.
“One of those guys sounded like he could be the coordinator of this thing, he’s gotta have info” Axel said as he finally released the girl he was holding. I knew it was to keep her quiet but I would be lying if I said that seeing him touching another woman didn’t make me a little bit jealous.
“Well we know he’s here but we can’t get out of here now” I said.
The girl walked over to her bed and sat down, looking at the both of us.
“You can’t get out of here, I’ve been trying non stop for the 3 days. There’s not even a doorknob inside to break off, we’re stuck here until they get us.”
“Fuck that” Axel said, pulling out his pistol.
He walked over to the girl and pulled her off of the bed, flipping the bed over and waving us over to come behind it.
“Both of you stay behind this, that door is solid steel, don’t want a bullet ricocheting off and hurting either of you.”
The girl and I quickly ducked behind the bed as Axel took aim at the door.
“I only have one magazine on me so I gotta make these shots count.”
We covered our ears as he shot 5 bullets right at the three hinges that held the door. We heard the sound of metal creaking before a loud thud filled the room. We looked up over the bed to see that he had hit the hinges clean, allowing the door to come loose and fall down inside of the room.
We heard the sound of someone running down the hall and Axel motioned us to stay behind the bed.
I peeked over the bedframe so I could see what was happening and saw an armed guard run to our doorway to inspect what happened.
His eyes widened when he saw Axel and he attempted to draw his gun, before I even had a chance to scream Axel fired two well placed shots, dropping the guard before he even had a chance to fight back.
The guard writhed in pain on the ground as Axel rushed over to him, looking down both ends of the hall to make sure we were safe before motioning the girl and I to follow him.
He took some keys off of the guard’s belt and picked up his gun, handing both the items to the girl.
“Go and release every single girl you can, hopefully those keys will unlock any door you need to get into. If any guard comes after you don’t be afraid to put a bullet in them, they won’t hesitate to shoot you so you have to be quick. When you rescued all that you can meet us outside the building.”
The girl looked at both of us, I could see the fear in her eyes but she nodded and ran over to the closest door to free the girls nearby.
“Shouldn’t we help her?” I asked.
“We have to find the coordinator before he realizes that this whole operation is about to fall apart, I’m not letting this lead run dry we have to get to
him.”
He turned to me and looked me in the eye “she’ll be alright, once she gets a few girls out they’ll have the strength they need to fight back against anyone trying to throw them back in their cells. We’ve just set in motion the chance for these girls to free each other, now we need to do what we came here for, I need to do this for not just for my club but for us.”
I looked back as the girl rushed to open as many doors as she could, allowing the formerly locked up girls a chance to escape.
“Alright, alright let’s go.”
Axel looked down at the guard who was lying in pain on the ground. He leaned over and grabbed the guard by his collar, putting his gun to his forehead.
“Who’s in charge here?” Axel barked out, pressing the gun harder into the guard's forehead.
“Please… please no more don’t shoot. Mr. Frederick is in charge, he’s normally in his office. Go down that hall and to your right you can’t miss it. Now please just let me get out of here with my life, I never wanted to die for this bullshit.”
Axel dropped the guard back on the ground and grabbed onto my hand, leading me down the hall as the newly released girls began freeing as many other girls as they could.
As we ran down the hallway we heard an alarm sound, I never knew how many guards worked here but I immediately began to worry about all the girls that were here. Thing was, Axel was right, he was just one man with a gun there wasn’t much more he could do to help them in this situation. We needed to find Frederick and figure out how to save his club and in the process save our relationship.
I had one hand in his, with my other hand I kept my fingers crossed.
We were about to take one more step closer, one more chance to fulfill the promise he made to me just a day ago.
39
(Axel)