‘Lacie what happened?’ asked Sophia.
‘Sophia go away!’ said Lacie burying
her face in her hands.
‘I'm not going anywhere,’ replied
Sophia sitting down outside the door. ‘I’ll be waiting for you, if want to talk
just shout. Or even whisper.’
Sophia sat outside the bathroom door
for over an hour before she eventually heard the lock being slid across and the
door opening. Lacie stumbled out and collapsed into Sophia lap crying. Sophia
put her arms around her and embraced her warmly.
‘I’ve never don’t that before,’ sobbed
Lacie. ‘Alik forced me.’
‘What did he do to you Lacie.?’
‘I tried to stop him Soph,’ chocked
Lacie. ‘I really did, but he just kept going. I couldn’t do anything.’
‘Lacie it’s okay,’ said Sophia gently.
‘IT’S NOT OKAY!’ screamed Lacie
wrapping her arms tighter around Sophia. ‘I feel…I wish I was dead.’
‘Don’t say that,’ said Sophia stroking
her hair. ‘Some things are best not wished for.’
‘He cut me Sophia,’ cried Lacie. ‘When
I refused him he put the knife to my back and cut me. I screamed and he cut me
again and ordered me to be silent. I begged and pleaded with him but he put the
knife in my mouth and said if I didn’t smile then he would make me smile.’
‘Lacie what happened?’ urged Sophia.
‘He bent me over,’ cried Lacie. ‘I’m sorry Soph I don’t want to talk about
this.’
‘It’s okay sweetie,’ sighed Sophia.
‘Just stay with me.’
Bryce Donogan stood outside of Sarhoş talking to a
source that had promised to give him some information concerning The Angel Wings. Asad as he was known had once worked as a crew
member aboard The Angel Wings.
‘What exactly do they bring in on the
ship Asad?’ asked Bryce with his note pad and pen in hand.
‘There are only two things,’ replied
Asad. ‘Drugs and girls.’
‘The girls in the bar?’ asked Bryce.
‘Yes,’ nodded Asad. ‘They are always
young, when they are young they are easier to addict to the drugs, they are
raised on them, that’s why they never try to escape.’
‘Because they can’t go without the
daily dosage,’ said Bryce. ‘What happens if they get sick, or old?’
‘The sick ones die,’ said Asad looking
around to make sure they weren’t being watched.
‘And the old ones?’ asked Bryce.
‘There’s a place just on the city
outskirts,’ said Asad. ‘You drive for two hours on the main road until you come
to a quarry. Explore there and you will find the answers you are looking for.’
‘What will I find?’ asked Bryce
quickly writing everything Asad had said.
‘I must go,’ said Asad walking away.
‘Trust me go the quarry.’
‘Wait Asad!’ called Bryce but Asad
climbed into his car and sped away from Sarhoş.
Sophia helped Lacie off the floor and took her into the shower. When she
started taking Lacies gown off she struggled but Sophia talked to her and eased
her into agreeing to be undressed. When she got the gown off and she saw Lacies
back for the first time, she was horrified. Lacies back was covered in long,
deep cuts all of which were still bleeding.
‘Lacie we have to tell Andrei,’ gasped Sophia. ‘You need a doctor.’
‘You can’t tell him!’ pleaded Lacie.
‘Why not?’asked Sophia turning on the hot water and testing it with her
hand.
‘Have you ever seen any sick or injured girls here?’ asked Lacie. ‘They
kill them Sophia. It is cheaper and easier to put a bullet in me than it is to
explain to the police and doctors why I have no papers.’
‘We can’t just leave these wounds,’ said Sophia. ‘You wil bleed out.’
‘Bryce can help us Sophia,’ said Lacie. ‘He is a good man, but not Andrei.’
‘Ok fine,’ sighed Sophia. ‘But what about Alik? He obviously knows.’
‘I will take care of that,’ said Lacie.
Detective Ariyo
was lying on his couch relaxing whenhis phone rang, he rolled his eyes and
answered it.
‘Ariyo,’
‘Sir, its Annabeth,’
said Annabeth.
‘I trust theres a
good reason for this?’ asked Detective Ariyo.
‘Sir we found
Sarah Hartley,’ repled Annabeth.
‘You have her in
custody?’ asked Detective Ariyo sitting up quickly.
‘No sir,’ repled
Annabeth. ‘Shes dead.’
The next morning Sophia watched Lacie
very closely, her cuts were still untreated and bleeding. She winced as she
pulled herself out of bed.
‘Are you okay?’ asked Sophia getting
up to help her.
‘I’m fine,’ lied Lacie waving her help
away. ‘I just need some water.’
Before she could reach for her cup the
door opened and Alik walked in looking very happy.
‘What do you want?’ asked Sophia
getting up and standing between Lacie and Alik.
‘Get out of the way girl,’ ordered
Alik stepping forward. But Sophia stood her ground defiantly. Alik smiled. ‘I
admire your courage.’ Quicker than Sophia could see he drew up his hand and
back handed her across the face so hard she fell to the ground and hit her head
against the concrete floor painfully. Lacie tried to stand up but her back was
too sore for her to do anything but lean forward.
‘What do you want Alik?’ she asked.
‘Andrei does not accept damaged
goods,’ he said. ‘You are to be ready to leave tonight, but you are not going
with the other girls.’
‘Whats going on?’ Lacie asked. ‘The
only reason I'm injured is because of you!’
‘Who will Andrei believe?’ smiled Alik
just be ready on time.’ He walked towards the door and stopped with his hand on
the handle. ‘I suggest you say goodbye to Sophia, it might be a while before
you see her again.’ Alik banged the door closed behind him.
Sophia got up slowly rubbing her head.
‘Lacie what’s going?’
‘I told you Soph,’ said Lacie her
voice beginning to break down into sobs. ‘Do you see any sick or injured girls
here?’
‘Lacie,’ groaned Sophia. ‘What happens
to them?’
Lacie wiped her eyes on her blanket.
‘I have seen it many times. Any girl who falls sick with anything that requires
serious medical attention is immediately picked up by the green van.’
‘Whose van?’ asked Sophia. ‘And where
does it go?
‘No one knows Soph,’ replied Lacie
‘But they never come back.’
‘That’s not gonna happen to you,’ said
Sophia firmly. ‘We’re gonna think of something.’
Lacie smiled and picked up her bath
robe. ‘I know Soph. I’m going to shower.’ Lacie walked slowly out the door and
stopped in the corridor. ‘You know I think of you as my sister Soph, without
you this place would have been unbearable.’
Sophia smiled. ‘We’re gonna figure
this out Lacie. I promise.’
Lacie nodded and walked down the corridor
to the showers. Sophia lay back on her bed and tried her best to think of a way
to help Lacie, soon her thoughts turned into dreams and she was sound asleep.
When she woke it was getting dark and she could hear the sound of people going
to the showers. She rolled over to see Lacie and saw that her bed was empty.
Sophia knew she had been sleeping for a few hours now so Lacie should’ve been
back from her shower long time ago. As she sat up she heard a loud, piercing
scream from outside, she jumped out of bed and ran outside. The commotion was
coming from the showers, there was a big crowd of girls surrounding the
entrance to the showers, Sophia ran forward and pushed her way through all of
them until she was in the front. At first she thought that somebody had spilt a
can of red paint on the floor. But as she walked into the showers and followed
the red liquid to the source, the last shower cubicle. Sophia stretched out her
hand slowly pushed the door open. The door swung open to reveal Lacie, sitting
on the floor with her back against the wall and her head bowed down on her
chest.
‘LACIE!’ screamed Sophia throwing
herself into the cubicle and wrapping her arms around Lacies body, but she knew
it was too late, her body was cold and the colour had all but drained from her
flesh. In Lacies hand was a blood stained glass shard. The tip of the shard was
buried in her thigh, a few inches above her knee. The cut to the femoral
artery had bled her out in minutes.
Sophia lay on the floor with Lacie crying, she refused to let her go even when
Andrei and Alik came to investigate the source of the commotion.
It had been two months
since Lacies suicide. Sophia had help onto her body until eventually Andrei
ordered Alik to take her back to her room so they could take care of the body.
Sophia had kicked, punched and screamed at him all the way down the hall and
into her room. As soon as Alik had thrown her in the room and walked away she
got up and tried to run back to Lacie, Alik had caught her and thrown her back
into her room and made sure to lock the door behind him. Sophia kicked and
threw herself at the door until she was too sore and tired to continue. She
collapsed onto the floor next to the door and wept until eventually she had no
more tears to give and crawled into her bed and fell into a deep uneasy sleep.
Sophia lay on her bed
facing Lacies bed. Those last two months had been hard on on her without
Sophia. Andrei had wasted no time moving a new girl into Sophias room, but she
was not Lacie. Sophia treated the new girl Skye kindly enough but she knew she
would never have the same relationship with Skye as she had had with Lacie. Sophia climbed out
of bed, grabbed her towel and headed for the showers. When she had found an
shower cubicle she turned the water on and turned to examine herself in the
mirror while she waited for it to heat up. Sophia had changed over the last two
months, her skin had become pale and her once beautiful blue eyes had sunk into
her now sickly thin face, and blue colour seemed have dulled and now longer a
had a shine to it. She opened her mouth and examined the underside of her
tongue; the fat blue veins were littered with pin pricks where the candy had
been injected daily. Sophia stripped down and entered the hot shower. She
closed her eyes and the warmth of the water.
Bryce stepped out of the
cab and paid the driver. Bryce had spent the last two months trying to gather
as much information as he could about the quarry Assad had told him about. But
after weeks of meetings with shady characters and other questionable people he
had eventually decided that the only way to discover what exactly went on at
the quarry he would have to go there himself and investigate. Bryce had taken a
cab to the outskirts of Mogadishu; from there he had followed a narrow dirt
road for six kilometers until he had eventually arrived at the quarry. The
quarry was relatively small, Bryce approximated the perimeter to be about two
hundred by three hundred meters, and the inside was littered with holes, some
were covered with planks and a few were open. The perimeter was fenced off with
a three meter high wire fence topped with barbed wire and every couple of
meters there was big sign that read; ''Private Property Keep Out.''
Bryce shook the lock on the gate pointlessly and
walked around the fence trying to find somewhere he could get in. The only gap
he could attempt to get through was between the top of the gate and the fence a
few inches above it. Bryce threw his backpack over fence and started climbing,
he just managed to pull himself through the small gap and landed with a thud on
the ground inside the quarry. Bryce dusted himself off and shouldered his
backpack and went to the nearest hole and peered in.
‘You miss her?’ asked Miranda taking the stool next
to Sophia in the bar. ‘Lacie.’
‘Think about her every day replied Sophia ordering
another drink. ‘It’s not the same without her.’
‘I won’t pretend to know how you feel,’ said
Miranda. ‘But if you want to talk, I'm here for you.’
‘Well that is a touching sentiment,’ said Alik
before Sophia could reply. ‘But you are not here to be each other’s personal
shrink, you are here to work so I suggest you separate yourselves and focus on
attracting customers.’
‘See you later Sophia,’ said Miranda standing up
and walking away from the two.
‘Your little friend was lucky,’ said Alik. ‘Threw
her body in a small ditch, had she not been dead I would have thrown her in
there alive.’
‘Shut up!’ snapped Sophia starting to walk away.
Alik grabbed her wrist. ‘Do not forget who you are
talking girl!’
‘A killer?’ asked Sophia politely.
‘Yes,’ whispered Alik. ‘Now unless you want to be
next I suggest you watch yourself.’
The dead bodies in the hole were floating in water.
The water did a decent job of ensuring the stench was not strong enough to be
detected outside the quarry. Bryce stared at the floating bodies, they were
girls, young mostly, some in their teens, some as young as ten maybe eleven.
Bryce stepped away from the whole and went to one of the closed holes and
raised the wooden cover off and almost dropped it again when he saw what was
within. This hole was full of dead bodies too, but instead of water it the bodies
were floating in a sea of maggots. The short fat maggots were everywhere, they
were crawling in and out of eye sockets and mouths and ears, Bryce gasped
loudly and slammed the lid shut, he collapsed on the ground and threw up
violently for the next couple of minutes.
He got up as quickly as he could and tried to run to the gate but he
slipped on his own vomit and fell head first into an open hole. For the first
time in over two months he was face to face with Lacie.
Bryce practically ran into Sarhoş and looked around for Sophia. He had
come straight from the quarry to Sarhoş he had to tell Sophia what he had seen.
He finally spotted her comig out of the rest room and he pushed his way through
the crowd until he reached.
‘We need to talk Sophia,’ he whispered urgently into her ear.
Sophia looked at him and gestured to his filthy cothes. Bryce shook his
head, grabbed her hand and pulled her with him out the doors and and into an
dark alley two roads down.
‘Bryce,’ gasped Sophia. ‘You know we can’t be here.’
‘I know,’ he replied licking his lips nervously. ‘But its important. Its
about Lacie.’
Sophias sharp intake of breath was followed by silence as she waited for
him to continue.
‘I went to the quarry,’ Bryce said glancing over his shoulder. ‘I know
where the sick and wounded girls go Sophia.’
‘What quarry?’ asked Sophia. ‘A van picks up the sick girls.’
‘That van takes them to the quarry!’ said Bryce loudly. The quarry is full of these pits, and they
are full of bodies.’
‘What bodies?’ asked Sophia.
‘The dead bodies of girls Sophia,’ replied Bryce. ‘They kill the sick, and
they stuff them down a hole to rot.’
‘And Lacies there?’ said Sophia with tears forming in her eyes. ‘Lacie is
stuffed in a pit?’
‘Yes,’ mumbled Bryce putting his arms around. ‘I saw her.’
Sophia cried into Bryces chest. ‘She didnt deserve that, she deserves a
proper burial.’
‘I know Sophia,’ whispered Bryce. ‘And one day she will get one, but right
now we need to focus on getting you out of there. It wont be long before you
join her and the rest of them.’
‘What about the others?’ asked Sophia. ‘I can’t just leave all the others
there to suffer.’
‘You can be more help to them when you’re free,’ replied Bryce.
‘I can’t just leave them Bryce,’ said Sophia shaking her head. ‘They dont deserve
this any more than I do.’