by Naomi West
She filled a glass with water from the tap and returned to the bedside. Thankfully, she closed the bathroom door, and I was able to breathe once more.
“Here,” she said.
I took the glass, but I was hesitant about drinking it. Like everything else, it looked absolutely disgusting. Strange little particles floated around.
“It doesn’t get much better than that,” she said. “So, it's either stomach the sludge or die of dehydration. It’s your choice. As for me, I’m not planning to let this place beat me. I’m getting out of here.”
I took the girl’s advice and drank the water. It tasted as horrid as it looked and then some. I nearly spat it all out, but my parched throat soaked it up like a sponge.
“Better?” she asked.
“Hardly.”
“You’ll get used to it.” She took the cup and placed it on a nearby dresser.
From there, she opened up a drawer and rummaged around what appeared to be clothing. I itched to put something on and cover up my nakedness. I didn’t even care if it meant putting on a clown suit. She threw a bundle my way.
“Those should fit you. Just dresses and skirts around here. Easy access, you know?”
Her words and the casualness of her voice sent a shiver up my spine.
“Try them on, will you? I don’t want to stand here all day and wait to see if I need to find you something else.”
“Right,” I said.
I almost wanted to ask if she would turn around and grant me a bit of privacy, but that was just downright dumb. I wasn’t at home with my girlfriends, trying on my newest dress. Here, modesty wasn’t a word that existed. So, I tossed on the loose-fitting blouse. It fell off my shoulders, and if it weren’t for my rack, it would have fallen right off my body. Somehow, I felt even more exposed with it on, but it was better than nothing, and the knitted pattern was surprisingly warm. Next came a denim mini skirt. It was a bit tight around the thighs, but I managed to button it up, and it was actually a pretty decent fit, all things considered.
“That’ll work,” Martina said.
“Panties?”
She laughed. “Yeah, we don’t wear those. Easy access, remember.”
“Right.” Suddenly, I wanted another glass of water because my mouth was incredibly dry. “Um… thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. I don’t really swing that way, so I’d rather not stare at your tits all day, you know?” Martina had a sweet heart-shaped face, but her tongue was crude. Has she always been this way, or is it a side effect of “working” here? “Anyway, there was something that you wanted to ask, wasn’t there?”
“Yeah.” I tugged at the hem of the skirt, but it wouldn’t go further than covering my ass cheeks. All I had to do was bend over, and everything would be on display. “What is this place, and who’s Lorenzo Brocato?”
Her eyes widened with surprise as she raised both her eyebrows. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
She shrugged and tossed her curly brown hair over her shoulders. If I had to guess, she was from Mexican descent with that sun-kissed skin all year round. Under different circumstances, I bet she was strikingly beautiful, but here? She just looked run down and tired.
“Lorenzo Brocato is the boss in this town—mafioso, you know?”
“So, a member of the mafia?” I asked, trying to recall the last time I had watched The Godfather.
“Exactly,” she said with a nod. “Everyone else works under his dictatorship.”
“Including us.”
“Especially us.” She leaned against the dresser and crossed one ankle over the other. She had extremely long legs, and they appeared to be silky smooth like she spent a painstaking amount of time maintaining them. “This ‘club’ is where he entertains his biggest clients. He could just buy them hookers and satisfy their ‘needs’ that way, but instead, he uses slaves.” She stopped to gesture at the three of us. “He thinks he’s got more control this way because, with our lives on the line, we’re more willing to do whatever he tells us to do.”
“And do you…?” I almost didn’t ask the question because I was afraid of the answer I would get.
“Yes.”
I tried to read her expression, but it was as smooth as marble. She gave nothing away, even as I studied her eyes.
What is she thinking? Is she as afraid as I feel? Or is she much stronger than that?
Martina stepped forward and eyed me up and down, much as Lorenzo had done in his office. She circled around once and then stopped at my backside. At this point, she was making me incredibly uncomfortable. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other.
“Um, what are you doing?” I asked once the weight of her gaze became too much for me to handle.
“Appraising you.”
“Appraising me?”
“Mhm. You’re pretty—I can see why they picked you up. Lorenzo has a soft spot for curves.”
“For some reason, I don’t think that’s a good thing.”
“Beats being one of those skinny drug addicts you usually see on the streets.”
“I guess…” I said, but I wasn’t wholly convinced. If I were Lorenzo’s type then wouldn’t that mean he’d be more eager to rape me?
Yeah, don’t think about that.
18
“So, how long have you been here?” I asked, wanting to gather up as much information as possible.
“Personally, I’ve been here for about two weeks.” Her eyes darkened slightly, and she turned towards the window. “Two whole weeks and I haven’t stepped foot out of this stupid barbed-wire prison.” Her voice was laced with venom. Given the chance, I think Martina would have murdered every last person in this place.
I could almost taste her anger, and it made me angry too. I couldn’t fathom how Lorenzo and his men could be such pigs. Why on earth did they think that making women their slaves was an okay thing to do? Then again, it was the mafia we were talking about. Maintaining high morals wasn’t really a part of their concern. But fucking helpless women? Yeah, that was number one priority right there.
Assholes.
“But I shouldn’t be complaining all that much. Two weeks is nothing compared to what Alice has been through. She’s been here for two months.”
“Two months?” I repeated. “And no one has come looking for her?”
“Ha.” Martina scoffed. “If you think that the authorities are gonna show, you’ll be waiting here for the rest of your life. Oh no, if you want to bust out of here, then you’ll have to do it all on your own. This is a fucking nightmare, so don’t expect a knight in shining armor either.”
Martina was doing wonders for my morale — not. Was there really no way to get out of this place?
She turned back around and started to braid her hair in a slow, methodical fashion. “Alice was the first.”
I shuddered and imagined being here all on my own for that long. It must have been terrifying for her. I glanced over and saw that she was still facing the wall. It seemed like she hadn’t moved a single inch in all this time.
“And she’s stopped caring about getting out.”
“Oh…”
“There used to be another girl — Nadia — but one of the clients bought her for himself.”
“Do you know what happened to her?”
“Does it look like we have the luxury of a telephone in here? Hell, I’d be happy to have a telegraph machine if it meant I could tell my loved ones I’m still alive. But there’s no way that’s going to happen. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, we’re just another missing person they’ll never find.”
“But you haven’t given up hope, have you?”
“Hmm?”
“Of getting out,” I clarified. “I mean, there has to be a way for us to bust out of this place. There has to be a kink in their armor that we can take advantage of or something.”
“Perhaps, but I haven’t found it yet—but I will.”
I nodded. “And just so you know
, I’ll do whatever you need to help.”
She popped a smile. “I’ll keep that in mind, new girl.”
“Cora,” I reminded her.
“Right.”
Just then, the lights were turned off.
“What’s going on?”
“Time for us to go to sleep.”
“Sleep?”
“We work at night, which means we sleep during the day. Don’t bother to argue with the schedule because there’s no changing it. Just be grateful that we get to sleep at all.”
And with that, she climbed onto the top bunk and slid under the covers.
It took me a moment to be able to do the same. I had so much information inside my head that it was difficult to process it all. It didn’t help that I still had a migraine from all my crying earlier. But somehow, I managed to climb into my bed.
The mattress was incredibly hard, and metal springs kept digging into my back. I tossed and turned, but I couldn’t find a single comfortable position. In the end, I settled on my side, away from the window so the light wouldn’t bother me. I was exhausted, there was no doubt about it, but I couldn’t possibly fall asleep.
What’s going to happen to you? Are you going to end up like Alice who stays here for months and winds up a broken woman? Or will you find a solution to this mess with Alice by your side?
I replayed the night’s events over and over in my head. Most of it was a blur, but those punctuated with pain were still red and raw in my mind. All the touching and the groping by lustful men. The way that guy from the car had almost raped me. The whipping—the spanking. Standing under those bright lights while men fought over who got to take me home...
How was any of this real? Why kind of hellish world had I fallen into? And what did I need to do to get the hell out of here? I had the chilling suspicion that I would need to throw my pride aside and do everything and everything just in order to survive.
I squeezed my eyes shut to keep my thoughts from venturing towards the worst of scenarios, but of course, that’s exactly where they ended up. I imagined giving Lorenzo a blow job just to stay on his good side. Or enduring a gang bang because, well, that was just what they wanted me to do and I had no say in the matter. Rejecting them would result in a bullet to my head—or worse.
Feeling utterly alone, I hugged the pillow to my chest. It was then that I remembered the well-dressed gentleman and the way he had nodded when I had asked him for help. Why bother to do that if he didn’t really mean to help me?
But who was I kidding? He wasn’t my Prince Charming, and I wasn’t his damsel in distress. If I wanted salvation, then my only option was to save myself.
Easier said than done.
19
That night, I woke up feeling even worse than I had before falling asleep. My head was killing me, and my back was sore. I struggled to get off the mattress and down the rickety ladder attached to the bed. As I made my descent, I felt a draft creeping up my legs, making me hyper-aware of the fact that I no longer wore panties.
Then, my skirt hitched up, nearly exposing my ass. I dropped down and fixed myself in the hopes that no one saw anything important, but Martina and Alice didn’t pay me any attention. Alice was filing away at her nails while Martina was sitting in front of the mirror doing her hair. They both looked a bit more dolled up then I remembered them being.
Are they preparing for something? The thought caused a cold sweat to cover most of my body.
“Uh… morning,” I said even though it was pitch dark outside. Had I seriously slept the whole night away? It certainly did not feel that way.
Martina turned around. “Welcome to the land of the living, Sleeping Beauty. We were starting to think you had died in your sleep.”
“Oh…” I mumbled. “Well, I’m glad that didn’t happen.”
“Sleep well?”
“Not exactly.”
“These beds are a different kind of torture, aren’t they?” She ran her brush through her curls.
“Luckily, they don’t expect us to fuck on these things.”
I flinched at the word ‘fuck’ because I knew what it implied. I was going to be raped by some stranger, and all I could do was wait for it to happen. My stomach tightened into a knot. I wrapped my arm around my abdomen, feeling like that was the only way I would be able to keep myself together. I felt like a cloth doll about to unravel.
Martina rose off the ground and opened the top drawer of her nightstand. From it, she retrieved a pill bottle and tossed it my way.
“Ibuprofen,” she explained. “I figure something has to be hurting you. Hopefully, that’ll help. Use the glass in the bathroom for some water or swallow them back dry, whatever you want. Though, I wouldn’t suggest the second option because I’ve literally seen someone choke to death trying to swallow pills without water.”
“Uh…”
She shrugged. “I used to be a CNA before I was brought here. You see some pretty gruesome things in the ER. Choking to death doesn’t even make it to the top of my list.”
I really had no interest in listening to Martina’s horror stories, so I excused myself and stowed myself in the bathroom. I had nearly forgotten about the smell, but it slammed into me like a
brick wall.
Fuck, did something die in here?
Actually, I didn’t want to know the answer to that. So, I held my breath as I turned on the tap. At first, the water spurted out as a deep, brown sludge.
“The hell…” I swore as chunks of something came rushing out. I watched them swirl down the drain, but I really had no idea what they could be. Floating pieces of turd?
I glanced at the pills Martina had given me and considered swallowing them dry, but I really did not want to become the second person she saw choke to death. I would rather stay far, far away from that statistic.
Thankfully, the water cleared up a bit. It was still pretty nasty looking, but I figured it wouldn’t get much better and I didn’t want to risk the return of the shitty water. I tried not to think about what I was doing as I popped the pilled into my mouth and downed the glass of water.
“God, that’s putrid…” I whispered to myself as I leaned against the sink.
In the mirror, I saw my reflection for the first time. I looked like someone had thrown me into the dryer and put the tumble setting way too high. My hair was tangled and looked like it was ready to house a family of baby birds. My eyes were wide and bloodshot.
Unable to stand the smell any longer, I freshened up as best I could, took care of some personal business, and got the hell out of there.
“I’m surprised you lasted that long in there.” Martina was adding some beading to her hair. She didn’t bother to look up at me. “I nearly threw up the first time I was in there.”
“Yeah, it was pretty nasty,” I said with a nod.
“I think it’s the septic. I doubt they’ve ever thought to get it pumped.”
“Right. I can’t imagine that’s on the mafia agenda.”
Despite the circumstances, we shared a laugh. I was thankful for that moment because, for one single moment, I was able to forget the nightmare we were in. But then I looked up and saw the lifelessness of Alice’s face, and my sickening reality came crashing back into place.
“Anyway, food should be here any minute.”
“Should I expect a five-star meal?” I found that humor was helping to cope with the situation. It took some of the edge off and made my shoulders feel a little less burdened.
“Oh, definitely. As for me, I ordered some filet mignon, and if it’s not medium rare, the chef is going to hear an earful from me.”
I liked Martina. She was the kind of girl I would have been friends with on the… outside. Alice, on the other hand, hadn’t shown much in terms of personality. She just seemed to damned… broken.
Abruptly, the door swung open. Two hulking individuals came into the room carrying some food and coffee. The food looked colorless and bland—like something you might find at a
soup kitchen during peak season. Yet, my stomach rumbled. I was starving, and that might be the understatement of the year.
The goons placed everything on the dresser without saying a single word. They turned on their heels and looked like they were about to leave, but then the younger of the two stopped and turned his attention towards Alice.
“Why the long face, baby? Aren’t you happy to be here?”
Alice, of course, did not respond. I was starting to wonder if she was a mute or something.
Maybe these monsters ripped out her vocal cords…
“I could show you something really funny if you’d like!” He grinned like a madman as he reached for his accomplice’s dick.
“Fuck off, man. Touch me, and I rip your hand off.”
“Hmm, bummer. But I doubt you’d want to see his cock anyway. You’d have a much better time worshiping mine.” He cackled like some kind of hyena as he whipped out his dick. He waggled it right in front of Alice’s face as she sat on the edge of the bed.
If it were me in that situation, I would have scrambled towards the wall and gotten as much distance as possible, but Alice didn’t even respond. She just sat there with a blank expression on her face like the pervert in front of her didn’t even exist. I had to give it to her; the girl had nerves of steel. I would be freaking out—big time.
Suddenly, he grabbed her hair and pulled her head back.
“Open your mouth, you fucking bitch. Or do you think you’re too good to suck my cock? Hmm, is that it?” It was painful to watch as he jerked her hair so hard that the corners of her eyes started to water. “Open your fucking mouth!” It was clearly a threat, and yet, Alice didn’t so much as move. Her lips were sealed into a tight, unwavering line. “So, that’s how you want it, huh?” He pushed his hips forward until the tip of his cock was smashed against her mouth.
He tried to force his way inside.
Do something! I screamed at myself, but I was rooted in place. Help her, you coward!
I tried to will myself to move, but it was impossible. How could I just stand there and watch this abomination? The answer? I was much more concerned with saving my own skin right then and there. And I felt horrible about it.
