thing up soon as possible.’
‘Yes sir.’
Five minutes later there was a knock
on Detective Ariyos office door and Mrs Joy Mkhize walked and sat herself down
in the chair opposite Detective Ariyo.
‘Good afternoon mam,’ said Detective
Ariyo. ‘Tell me what you saw.’
Ten minutes later Detective Ariyo had
ushered Mrs Mkhize out of his office.
‘Old lady says she saw a man throwing
a hello kitty school bag into the back of his car. Apparently the vehicle had
been parked outside her shop since about eleven o’ clock that morning. She
didn’t get a clear view of the drivers face, but she did get the license
plate,’ said Detective Ariyo to Officer Lunda. ‘Take the plate number of to
Marcus and put out an A.P.B. We get that car and we get a lead on that little
girl.’
‘Yes sir,’ replied Officer Lunda.
‘Shall I notify the family?’
‘No,’ snapped Detective Ariyo. ‘Not
until we have something more to report.’
Sarah Hartley sat in her kitchen with
a cold cup of tea in front of her. She had been in the same position since
morning. Alex had pleaded with her to go to the police with her, but she had
out right refused. She couldn’t bear to see other children; all of them
reminded her of Soph. She felt the familiar sting in her eyes. She didn’t try
to stop her tears anymore. They alone knew what she was feeling. Alex came and
sat next to her. Sarah didn’t move. Alex put her arms around her and embraced
her tightly. ‘They’re going to find her Sarah,’ she whispered. ‘I promise.’
‘How was she?’ asked Arikawe.
‘A lil tight,’ laughed Peta. ‘But I
like em that way.’
‘You’re sick Peta,’ grumbled Arikawe.
‘How much you think we gonna get for her?
‘You know these Russians,’ laughed
Peta. ‘They love a tight lil hole.’
Sophia opened her eyes slowly. She was
cold. Her face hurt where she had been hit, repeatedly. The bruises on her chest
stomach and thighs were a deep, violent blue/purple. The thin blanket that had
kept her warm now had a pungent odour to it and was sticky from the mixture of
sweat, urine, semen and blood. She struggled into a seated position, leaning
her back gingerly against the cold stone wall she looked out the window and saw
the silver beams of moonlight illuminating the window. She buried her face in
her hands and cried quietly to herself.
A light breeze whispered through the window, and with a small brown
leaf. The leaf landed on Sophia’s feet. She picked it up and caressed it in her
hands. She felt the coldness of the leaf
being absorbed into her hands. The leaf was dry and scratched her fingers as
she twirled it around. ‘You can be my friend,’ she whispered. ‘I’ll call you
scratchy.’ She hugged the leaf and broke into tears once again. ‘We’ll protect
each other scratchy.’
‘The girl has been sold, ‘said Peta
sitting down next Arikawe.
‘Took long enough,’ sighed Arikawe.
‘How much did you get for her?’
Peta picked up a small syringe of the
coffee table and studied the contents. ‘Eight-hundred and fifty thousand.’
‘Haw-haw,’ laughed Arikawe. ‘When do
we make the exchange?’
‘Tomorrow,’ replied Peta. ‘Plenty of
time to get her hooked on candy.’
‘Is she not too young,’ frowned
Arikawe.
‘You never too young to enjoy some
candy,’ smiled Peta.
Sophia woke up slowly. Her arms and
chest still bruised and sore from the previous night. She gently lifted her
arms and pulled scratchy out from under them. She stroked the leaf gently for a
moment before she heard heavy footsteps coming towards the door. She quickly
got up and hid scratchy on the window sill before covering herself with the
blanket and lying down again. The door swung open and Peta walked in. Sophia
scurried back to the far wall. ‘Please,’ she sobbed.
Peta waved her silent. ‘I am not here
for that,’ he laughed. ‘Besides where you’re going, you’re gonna be having lots
of it. But no, I am here to give you some candy.’
‘I don’t believe you,’ she cried
covering herself with the blanket. ‘Please, let me go.’
‘Hush my dear,’ smiled Peta pulling
the syringe out his pocket. ‘And give me your arm.’
‘What is that?’ she sobbed. ‘I don’t
want anything from you!’
‘This, my dear is called heroin,’ said
Peta. ‘It is highly addictive, and lucky for you, it will make a lot of the
things that are going to happen you, a lot more bearable. Now give me your arm,
or I’ll take it.’
It was eleven pm in the evening and
Peta had driven Sophia to a dark parking lot. Sophia ran her fingers through
her and spat her gum onto the road.
‘We leaving, or what?’ she asked Peta.
‘I'm growing old.’
Peta smiled to himself. The drug had
had the right effect. ‘We are not leaving my dear; you are going with these
gentlemen. I fear will we never meet again.’
‘Whatever,’ said Sophia. ‘I'm getting
tired of standing.’
Peta grabbed Sophias elbow and walked
her to the other side of the road. ‘She is a little light headed from the
candy, but she will recover soon. It was necessary to ensure that we had no
complications during the transit.’
Andrei examined Sophia closely. ‘She
will do.’ He clicked his fingers in signal for the driver Alik to get her into
the car. Peta stopped forward.
‘What about my money?’ he snapped
placing his hand firmly on Sophias shoulder.
Andrei smiled darkly and nodded at
Alik. ‘Pay the man.’
Alik stepped towards Peta and quickly
pulled out his Makarov PM pistol and fired twice into Petas chest. Peta fell
backwards onto the tar and was dead before his head smacked the ground. Sophia
saw Peta drop and stood staring at his body in shock. Before she had any time
to absorb the situation Alik pushed her into the back seat of the car. Andrei
climbed next to her and the car pulled off.
The car stopped and Sophia was pulled
out and taken inside what looked like run down mansion. It had high walls that
were painted a faded cream colour. The huge double doors to the mansion were
bright red and had a large set of knockers on each door.
‘Welcome to your new home my dear,’
laughed Andrei. ‘You will be introduced to others soon.’
Sophia was walked into the building.
Soon as the door was open she hit with the over powering smell of citrus. She
entered a long corridor that was lined with what looked like and endless line
of doors on both sides. As she walked she looked inside the rooms with open
doors, the rooms were decorated slightly differently but each had the same
basic furniture; two single beds and night stand in the middle. The rooms were
dimly lit with a single hanging light bulb, the pale yellow light illuminating
the faces of the girls within. Most looked to be around Sophias age, but some
were a few years older, and all looked sickly and tired. Some lay on their beds
and barely managed to turn around and look at her as she passed them; and those
who did, looked at her with such despair and pity that Sophia felt herself
coming off her high very quickly. The gravity of her situation started to sink
in. She shook her head and tried to clear her thoughts.
‘This is going to be your room,’ said
Andrei stopping her next a room towards the middle of the corridor. ‘This is
Lacie, she will be your room mate as it were.’
Sophia shook her head again and tried
say no, but all that came out of her mouth was: ‘Okay, can I lie down now?’
Andrei pushed her inside the room. ‘Oh
yeah, Lacie, make sure she’s ready for breaking in tonight.’
Lacie nodded and extended her hand to
Sophia to come closer to her. Andrei nodded his head at them and walked off
with Alik.
Lacie sat down on her bed and studied
the new girl from head to toe. ‘So, you are one of us now.’
It was not a question it was a
statement, it was not aggressive but there was no warmth in her voice either.
Sophia sat down on the bed opposite Lacie.
‘I guess so,’ she said. ‘What happens
here? What is this place?’
‘Here we do whatever we are told to,’
sighed Lacie. ‘We are brought here at a young age, many are taken against their
will, and others chose this life because they can’t do anything else.
‘You still haven’t told me what we
have to do,’ said Sophia quietly.
‘You will find out soon enough,’
replied Lacie. ‘I will show you to the shower, time to get cleaned up.’
Two hours late Sophia had showered and
dressed up in clothes that had been provided for her. She had been given a very
short, tight red skirt, and black jacket to cover her top, with nothing
underneath the jacket she felt very naked and uncomfortable. To complete the
outfit she had been given sleek black boots that stopped one inch below her
knees. After dressing she had followed Lacie and a dozen other girls onto a bus
that had driven them into town. When the bus stopped outside a busy night club
called Sarhoş they were
dispatched from the bus.
‘Stay close to me,’ whispered Lacie taking the lead and pushing the door of
the club.
Sophia nodded and followed her closely. As soon as the door opened the loud
music exploded into her ears, she flinched and covered her ears. Lacie took
Sophias hand and guided her off to the side where they both took seats at the
bar. The music was not allowed at the bar as they were further away from the
dj.
‘Do we come her a lot?’ asked Sophia rubbing her ears and glancing around
the club. The club was full of men, the only females in the room were the girls
who had come with Sophia. ‘What is this place?’
Lacie placed her hand on Sophias thigh. ‘We come here every night. This is
where most of our....business will be carried out.’
‘Do we have to have sex with them?’ she gasped gesturing to the drunk men
in the club. ‘I dont want to be apart of
this.’
Lacie slapped her across the face. ‘Do you think any of us want to be apart
of this? We have no choice, if you even try to escape they will kill you, and
not just you darling, they will kill a girl every hour you are gone. This is
nobodys wish, but we have to perform to keep each other alive!’
‘Perform what?’ pleaded Sophia rubbing her face.
‘Each man is different,’ whispered Lacie as Alik came up to them. ‘Hello
Alik.’
Alik stopped next to the two girls. ‘Why are you not drinking? This not a
field trip, you know the penalty for meeting the nightly minimum Lacie.’ He
signaled the bartender and ordered the girl twi cocktails and then walked away.
‘See,’ said Lacie as they watched Alik striding away. ‘We must make a
minimum of five hundred pounds a night,
or else they will withhold the candy.’
‘Why do they wear those small hats on their heads?’ asked Sophia. ‘And I
dont ever want that so called candy again.’
‘They are muslim,’ smiled Lacie. ‘Most of the men in Somlia are. And you
cannot pretend that you can’t feel the hunger in your skin, once you’ve tasted
it, its impossible to stop it. It will start lightly at first, but they will
keep giving it to you until you cannot imagine living without day by day,
believe darling, you will have a much better time when you’ve had some candy,
that is why they have not given you any tonight, they want you to feel what its
like without it, so that you will appreciate the escape it offers.’
Befora Sophia
could speak again, a tall, dark man approached them and stood facing Lacie. She
smiled up at him and uncrossed her legs. Sophia saw the man run his hand along
her thigh before whispering something in her ear. Lacie nodded and took the
mans hand, he helped her to her feet and lead out out of the club. Sophia
watched her leave, and suddenly she had a terrible sinking feeling in her
stomach. She could feel Scratchy in her calf, hidden in her boots out of sight
he was able to lend her courage, it was Scratchys courage that stopped her from
getting up and trying to run from the club as fast as her legs would carry her.
Lacie was barely out of sight when another man approached the bar. He was a lot
shorter than the one that Lacie had left with, but he was a wearing one of the
small round hats on his hands and wore a very thin pair of glasses that kept
slipping of his face because of all the sweat on his.
‘Hullo
beautiful,’ he breathed into her face, her nose was instantly assaulted by the
strong smell of alcahol and cigarettes. He ran his hand up her thigh, stopping
at the hem of her skirt. ‘You ready for a good time?’
Sophia struggled
to stop herself from vomiting on the man. She desperately wanted to say no and
beg the man to help her, but after what Lacie told her about the punishment for
anything along those lines, she hesitated. The man continued rubbing her thigh.
Sophia nodded her head and turned away. The man gulped down the rest of his
glass and grabbed Sophias hand. ‘Hope yer wet,’ he burped before dragging her
towards the door.
It was the early hours of morning when
they were herded back onto the bus and driven back to the hostel. Sophia had
not said a word since she had been with the man. Her eyes were red and puffy
from crying, and from he had hit her. Lacie sat next to her and had tried to
put her arm around her, but Sophia shrugged it off, she couldn’t bear the
feeling of another person’s flesh touching her. When the bus stopped she
followed Lacie back to their room and collapsed on her bed, where she finally
let her tears escape the prison of her eyes. Lacie closed the door and sat next
to her, she placed a comforting hand on Sophias shoulder. Sophia sat up and
threw her arms around Lacie and sobbed quietly into her chest. Lacie stroked
her hair gently.
'You must be strong little one,' she
whispered. 'It doesn't get any better.'
Sophia looked up at her. 'I begged him
to stop,' she choked between sobs. 'And he hit me, again and again and again.
He forced me to turn around, said if I didn't he was going to kill me. He made
me-.'
'Don’t think about it,' interrupted
Lacie. 'It will only bring pain. I promise you it won't hurt quite like that
again. But it will never feel good.'
'How long have you been here?' asked
Sophia.
'Sixteen years,' replied Lacie her
eyes tearing up. 'I came here when I was eleven. My dad died in a car accident
when I was nine and mom, she just never recovered from it, and we lost our
house, our friends. Mum couldn’t find any work, she couldn’t support us. So I
started looking for odd jobs around town, babysitting, cleaning, anything, but
it was never enough. Then one day this man came to me and said he could help
us, he could help us as long as I came with him immediately. I was young and
stupid, and desperate. I got in his car and never saw my mum again.'
Sophia tightened her embrace on Lacie.
'I'm so sorry,' she cried. 'How have you lasted this long?'
'You become numb to the pain,' Lace
whispered. 'You forget who you were and
you accept that you will never see you family again. You get used to the fact
that you are now the property of Mohammed Al Haseed, and that foolish thoughts
of hope and freedom will only hurt you more.'
The door swung open and Alik walked in
holding a tray with two syringes on it. He smiled at the girls. 'Candy time.'
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