Spain, March 5th

Within seconds of awakening, the new girl jumped upright. “Where am I?” She tried to ask, but nobody was really listening. And if we were listening, we were too far gone to even remember how to form sentences. I could sense the fear in her voice, though, the way it cracked before she even spoke. There were no words to explain the hell she was going to endure. Nobody here knew much about the past of anybody else here, but we all knew the pain and suffering of these concrete walls. I tried to make eye contact with the girl so she knew we empathized, but my eyes could only stay focused on one thing for a few seconds at a time. God though, the innocence in those eyes.

“Excuse me?” She started shaking the girl lying directly next to her. “Are you…are you okay? Maybe we should figure out where we are and get out.” The room was dark; I don’t think her eyes fully adjusted to the entire room yet. I had been vaguely awake for some time now, but the new girl, she was pushing herself into the corner and trying to wake up.

From the distance a door opened. Feeding time. Forty seven steps, that’s how long it took him to get here most days. He turned on the light from the other side of the room and immediately we all cringed. Us girls, we didn’t get out much. Most of the light we saw during the day was from that single bulb. There were no windows in this place and we weren’t allowed to leave. The door was down the hall and around the corner so we didn’t even have that sliver of light between the bottom and the ground. I wish I could tell you that we got used to it, but the things we endured there are things that we couldn’t get used to and I’ll never overcome.

Bread was our meal that day. It was usually bread. Sometimes the bread was more mold than bread, but that day it looked fine. On the piece I managed to grab I can’t say I saw a single piece of mold on it. It’s a shame, though, I didn’t want it. The meth had me so strung out I hadn’t even thought about food in probably three or four days. God and people wonder why the junkies on the street are so skinny.

I leaned over and tossed the new girl my bread. The poor thing was so frightened once the lights went on, I don’t think she even blinked. Instead, she tucked herself even deeper into the damp corner and went all wide-eyed as if that would help her see through the walls and into the outside world.

I don’t remember most girls. I don’t think I ever knew the names of all the girls I shared space with. But this girl, she stood out so boldly in my mind for a few reasons. Something just kept telling me that she hadn’t asked for this. I mean, nobody asks to join the business we do here, they just follow the same unlucky path as the rest of us and sell their soul to Lucifer under the alias Luis. Whether it’s our families or our rent, we agree to join his “team” as he called it. It isn’t until later that we’re stripped of our rights and traits that make us human. Not much later, but its distant enough that you think you’ll get out before it gets this far.

But this girl. She looked like she had no idea where she was or what was going on. The light blonde hair that you see every  small girl in feel-good movies has. Designer glasses hung slightly at an angle on her tan face. Her eyes made me think of when I was at a grocery store with my eldest daughter once. I used to tell her not to wander far, always being overprotective. One day, she couldn’t have been more than four, she kept straying away from me and it was a busy Saturday. If any of you shop for your own groceries you know what a Saturday morning looks like grocery shopping. While she ran up an isle I hid behind a stack of soda boxes in the middle of the floor. Of course my little Anya tried to come find me after just a couple seconds, and poof I wasn’t there. Poking her head left and right I saw the tears coming until she just broke down. She only thought she was lost for about ten seconds, but the fear she had was something I promised I would keep off her face for the rest of her life.

When girls come here, some of them look scared. They’re in a damp dark room with a bunch of other women who are high out of their minds. But the fear these girls show is so vague that it quickly washes away. I don’t think these girls know what they’re even afraid of. Like when you walk into a new classroom or office building and you don’t have any friends yet. You don’t know where to sit. That’s what these girls look like. The rest of the girls, though, they don’t even know or care what’s going on. They just follow. These are the girls who have been here the longest. I used to be one of them.

I started in Russia. My mother was sick and couldn’t work so as soon as I was old enough to read, I became a server in a brothel. It wasn’t until I had my second child that I just couldn’t afford my bills anymore. I told my children that I was a worker at a pub, but I began a different kind of serving. Eventually I had to send them away to their Dedushka’s house while I worked and sent him money for food and clothes and such. I was offered a raise if I lived on the premise. I had one day a week off, but I was provided food. When the depression overtook everything, though, I was becoming severely suicidal. The owner of the brothel gave me a booster one night; he had me blow a few lines of crystal. Before I long, I was hooked. My life since then has been a haze. I’ve moved from brothel to brothel so frequently. I’ve had children that I’ve never got to see again. I’ve lost children.

Most of the men don’t wear condoms. I’ve had broken ribs, I’ve had guys beat me and leave me for dead only to be found again by another pimp. After a while, I had no idea what to call it. It wasn’t work anymore; it felt more like slavery. I wasn’t allowed to go outside, none of us were. We haven’t been able to contact our families, when they decide its time for somebody to move, they’re not allowed to have a say in any of it. Often times, I didn’t even know where I was. I’ve been pregnant, given birth, and had the child taken away from me. That’s happened twice. I don’t know where they are or if they’re still alive, to this day. I’ve probably had four or five miscarriages though. I’m not sure which is worse, losing a child or having one in the world that I can’t raise.

There’s a point buried somewhere deep in there. I chose this life. Most girls are like me and did too. It may have been an accident, but we knew what we were getting into.

This girl just wasn’t like us. She was just a baby.

Miami

"Jason! Stop!" A thin blonde girl yelled from on top of a baby faced twenty-two year old's shoulders. "I'm serious! This is childish!" She screamed half giggling.

Jason stopped spinning in circles and instead stood completely still. 

"What're you doing now?" The girl asked trying to look down but obviously afraid of losing balance in her boyfriend's arms. 

"You said stop so I stopped," the young man replied.

"Oh...well you can do it again it was fun..."

"Naaaa," he said teasing her, "You're right Ash, it was childish. In fact, so is me trying to carry you like this so..."

As his voice trailed off he started to lift his girlfriend's shoulders and push backwards. She hadn't caught on in time, screaming with laughter on her way down into the water.

From underneath the water Ashley managed to wrap her legs around Jason and pull him so he fell backwards too. "Oh you're in for it now!"

After play fighting each other for over an hour the two decided to head back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the night. "I bet you the others are already there."

But by the time they left the pool and reached the hotel heavy, dark, clouds had begun to move in. "Guess we're not going to the beach tonight babe," Jason apologized. "But well find one out of a million other things to do. Remember that band ¡MAYDAY! We saw the night we got here? Somebody mentioned them having a show tonight. Maybe if it's nearby we can swing by that." 

"Actually that sounds like it would be amazing,” Jason answered his own question. “Let's go find Darcy and Alex and ask if they want to go too."

"God, knowing Darcy I bet she'll want to find another rave and take God knows what kind of drugs and God only knows what. Let's ask somebody else."

"Babe, you know the ONLY reason why I agreed to come on this whole thing was because Darcy and Alex. You girls have all your girlfriends and I think it's cool you got this many people together on one trip, but the only other people I know are them. And I'm not trying to be around all your drunk, single friends flashing their titties thinking they're 'Hardcore Bitches.'"

"Babe you know I love Darce, but since we got here she's been driving me up a wall. You know she's my best friend, and yes, I did enjoy the other night, but I'm not trying to spend my entire break high like that."

A voice from behind them chimed in "C'mon Ash, just live a little." It was Alex, dangling a bag of tiny white rocks in her face.

"How long have you been there?!" Ashley snapped immediately feeling guilty for what she had said.

"I dunno. I just heard you complaining about not wanting to get high, but Darce and I are about to do some Molly and figure out tonight. As you may have noticed, the clouds are coming in."

"Yeah, we were about to invite you guys to the ¡MAYDAY! concert with us if we can still get tickets!" Jason cut off whatever Ashley was about to say so she tightened her grab on his arm leaving claw marks behind.

"Yo I can’t believe I got you guys into them! That’ll be great! I’ll check with the wifey now. The only thing is we’re going to have to pick up Molly before the show; this isn’t enough of course.” Ashley rolled her eyes.

“You can do some too,” he joked, holding the bag up to his nose like he was snorting it. Then he did some kind of magician’s trick and suddenly the bag was out of sight. “Guess not, I must have lost track of how much I was doing….wait, wait…what’s this?” Alex started reaching for Jason’s ear, “Look Ash, Jase wants to do it so bad he’s stealing mine. Stop being such a sour puss and let loose for once. I mean, it’s spring break.”

Before anybody could protest, Jason was walking ahead of them and into the double the two couples shared. “Darce? I wanna show you this, it’s all rock babe!

“Babe? Babe why’d you leave the door open if you’re in the shower?”

The other couple tip toed into the room carefully looking around for their friend, but hoping to respect her privacy if she were naked somewhere. Ashley crept into the bathroom and turned on the light. After a delayed second or two she saw what appeared to be somebody about to talk a shower: Darcy’s pink tank top from the day before on the floor had been piled on a few other items of clothes, a leopard strapless bra tossed onto the vanity, a pair of flip flops had been kicked aside by the door, the water had been running and the whole bathroom was viewed through a thick steam.

“Darcy where are you? This isn’t funny,” the crack in Ashley’s voice indicated that she was on the verge of tears.

“Guys calm down,” Jason started. “She probably ran down for ice or something.”

“Her phone’s here. You know these girls, man! They don’t put these things down for more than a minute! And why would she leave the shower on? And the door open? I’m telling you! Something bad had to have happened! We planned to meet here after I met the guy for this stuff. We need to call the police.”

“Calm down dude, you’re high as balls right now. Everything is going to be okay. Just have a seat and we’ll figure this out. We’ll call one of the girls. Ash, start calling your friends, see if maybe Darcy is with one of them maybe. Maybe somebody needed help or advice from her or something and she’ll be back any minute.” Everybody jumped at the sound of the door to the room slamming shut.

“Was that-“

“No. We were all over here.”

“Did anybody see wha-“

“No.”

“It must have been the wind.”

“What wind? The windows are all closed asshole! Okay, I’m like, officially freaked. We need to do something now. What if somebody or something got to her or took her or what if she was high and freaked out and had one of her episodes or something and left. Has she been taking her medication? I know she thought about leaving it behind, what if she stopped taking it because of all the drugs you’re doing. What if,” Ashley started hyperventilating and grabbing her chest. Frantically she sat on the bed while Jason grabbed her shoulders firmly.

While he was trying to reassure her everything would be fine, Alex started filling in all the sentences Ashley hadn’t gotten a chance to.

Over Alex talking to himself and Jason trying to yell over Ashley’s deep breaths and hiccups, nobody noticed the door creak open.

Oooooohhhhhhhhh

Ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh!

I’m the ghost of Darcey Reeeeeeeeeed.

You guys were supposed to protect meeeeeeeeeee, but instead of left me to my horrible faaaaaaaaaattttteeeee.

A zebra print bed sheet began to saunter into the room. It stood about five foot four inches and though the voice was much higher pitched, the trio recognized it at once.

“I’ll kill you!” was the only thing muttered before every one of the burst into laughter, including the black and white ghost.

“I thought you were dead. I need to like. Calm down. What was that babe?”

Darcy let out a light giggle like a small girl. “I thought it was funny. You guys are just party poopers.”

Jason just wrapped his tattoo’d arms around his girlfriend who, though was laughing, still had tears streaming down her cheeks.

After very little debate, everybody had decided that the concert is what they in fact wanted to do for the night, and they would in fact leave it to just the two couples while the other girls and guys did their own thing.

After crawling military style for what could have been eons, Ashley glanced around one last time before standing up finally. For a quick moment everything went blurry and black. Unable to remember the last time she had actually eaten a meal, she began to slowly tread forward towards what she hoped would be a city. Blood slowly dripped from her knees and elbows, but overcome with so many emotions, hardly noticed as it painted itself onto her. The blood was a nice addition to the hair full of diseased leaves and dirt covered everything. All Ashley cared about right now was the fact that she was out. She made it. They made it. The sun was setting; this was the first sunset in months. When the cool wind blew, the girl embraced it, trying to inhale every molecule of it like this was the last time she would be allowed to breathe air.

It didn’t matter how many stumbles she made in her steps or how many beads of sweat dripped into her hollow blue eyes, the only thing that mattered was escaping this place, this country, this continent, and never coming back. After probably another mile she saw a house, and another house, and another one, and even another one.

This was the first time she made eye contact with June all afternoon. Both women looked straight ahead afraid of what the other's eyes would say all day. It had been a frightful afternoon, but now Ashley watched the corners of June’s mouth raise when she noticed the houses. Instinctively the two laced their fingers together as they marched forward. These last couple hundred steps were infinitely easier than the first thousand because there was physical proof that they could do it, that they had done it. The girls had just barely believed it could be done, when they had spoke about it at night they had spoke about it like it was a dream, the same way Ashley recalled wanting to be a veterinarian and a lawyer and a firefighter when she was a child. Though she was unable to read minds, from the tears streaming down June’s face, Ashley knew that she had to have been thinking similarly.

“What do we say? Do we wait in town and tell the first person? Do we knock on a door?”

"What would you do if you were in town and some meth head starting telling you about how they were fleeing? You'd say 'I'm sorry I don't have money,' and keep walking. We can either find a police station or knock on the first door we see and hope they help us."

"You knock." Accepting her fate, Ashley assessed the houses wondering which looked the most family oriented.

"Here it goes," barely more than a whisper as she was suddenly overcome with an ocean of sweat and trembles. Once you've been beaten on a daily, once you've been told when you can and can't do things such as go to the bathroom, eat, sleep, be aroused, once you've watched girls yo'uve become close to get beaten to near death-even to death, once all of those things happen, you should be able to conuer the world, especially if it was just knocking on a door. Suddenly, however, every part of Ashley's body regret leaving. What if they reject us? What if they don't believe us? What if they're the same kind of people and we just fuck ourselves in the end? What if they laugh at us?

"Babe, we're strong. We've endured so much. We're doing this together. I'll go if you'd like, I just need you by my side." June must have read her mind because those were the most comforting words anybody could have spoken in that moment.

"Fine," she said, revealing her smile that was still beautiful despite everything, "But I am the one who knocks." Knowing logically that June wouldn't understand the reference, but it amused her so she took it and went with it.

The couple behind the doors spoke no English, so the girls tried their hardest to communicate. In the end the word Ayudar-help-had been the only word the girls could translate to let them know they were in trouble Thinking they were beggers or something, the couple began to close the door. "Wait!" Ashley threw her hand in the doorway just as it was about to shut. Tears began to flow down her face as she tried to make eye contact with her. "Por favor. We. Dos hombres tomaron nos. We live America. Need ayudar."Ashley pointed to June's stomach. Ella has un bebé."

The couple began speaking in Spanish too quickly for either of them to understand.

"Un minuto," and the man disappeared only to reappear with a child. The child was only seven, maybe eight at the most; he had a mix of adult teeth and baby teeth, and even some missing teeth. There were cartoons on his shirt and velcro on his shoes. He looked scared when he saw the foreign guests.

The father explained to him, what Ashley assumed was that they needed him as a translator because he spoke English with only a slight accent to the girls. "My papa wants you to tell me why you need help."

"We were kidnapped. A bunch of men took us and other girls from different countries and brought us here."

"Do you not see your mama and papa anymore?"

Even more tears began coming as Ashley shook her head no, unable to speak once she started picturing her parents again.

The little boy gulped and began telling his parents what she had just said.

"My parents don't know how to help. They want to know if they could take you in their car to the policía. I don't know the word in English, I'm sorry, but they want to know if you maybe have your passaporte; they can take you to the airport, but they don't have no money to give you, they're sorry. They don't know if you have money. And they are sorry. They are very sorry."

"The police would be great, please. We don't have our passports, the bad men took everything we had. I was abducted months ago and she was years ago; we have nothing. If your parents could drive us there it would be great. Thank you so very much."

"Excuse me, I don't know what that word means. Ub-du-ub-duck-ub-duck-"

"I'm so sorry. It means taken away. Or kidnapped. I'm sorry. Thank you. You've been such a good help sir, and you were very brave talking to strangers. I think you just saved our lives."

"Okay Ash, shush," June cut her off. "Enough with the sappy stuff." The young boy giggled and hid behind his parents.