by Anna Zaires, Pepper Winters, Skye Warren, Lynda Chance, Pam Godwin, Amber Lin
She had ended up finding the Liberty Inn, and it pretty much matched the scenery she had experienced thus far. It was a dump, plain and simple, but it had a roof and four walls, and the older woman at the front desk had been nice.
She tossed her bag on the floor and looked around the room. There was a full-sized bed in the center of the room with a brown and what she assumed was once white comforter. A TV that looked twenty years old sat on a scarred dresser across from that, and the bathroom was on the other side of the small hallway. She took the bag of fast food to the bed and sat down. Her mother would have already realized she wasn’t coming home, or maybe she was too drunk or high to notice. Either way, she’d know eventually that she was all alone now. But Ruby knew that if her mother did care she wasn’t there, it was only because she wouldn’t be getting any more money. After she finished eating she spread the paper out on the mattress and grabbed a pen. Looking over the classifieds didn’t show much, mainly positions that she wasn’t qualified for. But she did see a couple secretary jobs, some positions for flipping burgers, and one for a maid. She circled all of them, set the stuff on the ground, and went over to the window.
The parking lot was riddled with potholes, a few rusted cars and trucks sat in some of the spots, and in the distance she could see the tall buildings that made up Fort Hampton. She was about to close the drapes, but the sight of something flashing on the main road had her glancing that way, and what she saw had her heart momentarily stopping. A black, gleaming stretch limo sat across the street. Cars moved back and forth, obstructing her view partially, but she could clearly see the limo. Was it the same one that creepy guy from the bus had gotten in? The likelihood of that was slim, but Ruby couldn’t help but feel the tightening of her skin, and a very strange sense of familiarity washed through her.
She closed the drapes and checked the locks on the door. She was tired from walking for so many hours this morning, and from the long bus ride. Sleep sounded heavenly. It would get dark soon enough, and with that limo out there, even if she knew it most likely wasn’t the same one she had seen this morning, Ruby didn’t want to put herself in a position that made her feel uncomfortable. She went over to the bed and lay down on it. For several seconds she just stared at the cracked and water-stained ceiling, but soon her eyes grew heavy, and she submitted to the temptation of sleep.
What woke Ruby was a soft clicking sound, but when she opened her eyes the room was dark, and she passed off the noise as a dream. She closed her eyes again, and soon the heaviness of relaxation took hold once more, but a noise right beside her, and the feeling of another presence in the room had her eyes opening and her heart racing. Before she could react there was a stinging pain in the side of her neck, and then a flash of fire following that. She opened her mouth to scream, but someone clamped their hand over her mouth and nose. She struggled, God did she struggle, but even with her eyes wide open she couldn’t see a thing with the thick cloak of darkness. Flailing out her arms, hoping to connect with the intruder, she was able to slam her fist into the side of his face. There was a masculine grunt, and then he pressed his hand down harder on her mouth until her air supply became cut off and she felt on the verge of passing out. She couldn’t get any oxygen in, and it felt as though her heart would burst right through her chest. But then her limbs started to feel like they were filled with lead, and her head felt like it was becoming detached. This had nothing to do with the lack of oxygen, and everything to do with whatever he had injected her into her neck. Right before the drugs in her body completely claimed her, Ruby realized that her life before now would most likely seem like paradise.
* * *
A jarring motion roused Ruby, and she tried to blink but she quickly realized something covered her eyes. Her head felt funny, her stomach roiled, and every muscle in her body ached. Trying to move her arms proved they were bound behind her back, and when she tested her legs she realized they were in the same type of restraints. Everything came rushing back to her, and as if her memories brought the pain to the surface, her neck throbbed. Ruby took note of her surroundings, as much as she could with one of her senses diminished, and she knew instantly that she was in a vehicle. Given the fact she was laying on a hard metal ground, she assumed she was in a van or truck. She listened, but all she could hear was the vehicle moving. No one talked, and so she didn’t know how many people were in the vehicle with her, but although she couldn’t see, and knew someone was obviously driving, she also felt someone very close to her. That presence surrounded her, had fear slamming into her over and over again like a sledgehammer, and had her feeling sick.
Sucking in a great lungful of air only caused her belly to cramp even more, and she knew she was going to throw up. Ruby rolled onto her side and emptied the contents of her stomach. There was shuffling beside her and she tensed when someone jerked her over and forced her to sit up. The sound of something being opened preceded the feel of something being pressed to her mouth. Ruby turned her head, not knowing what they were trying to give her.
“You’d do good to behave.” The voice was deep and slightly scratchy. Whoever spoke was right next to her, and he grabbed her chin harshly between his fingers and jerked her head back around. “It’s water. Now drink it.” He pressed the bottle to her mouth again and tipped it back before she even had her mouth open. Some of the water got past her lips, but a lot of it spilled down her chin and covered her shirt. It went down the wrong tube and she coughed and gagged. She felt water spray out of her mouth, and when she heard the man curse she knew she had spit it all over him. Good, the bastard. “You fucking cunt.” Ruby braced herself for the hit that was inevitable, but another male voice, much sterner and filled with authority, came through.
“Don’t lay a hand on her. You mark up the merchandise and the price decreases. You already bruised her jaw, you fucking idiot.” The man beside her grumbled, but didn’t harm her. He pushed her back down on the hard floor, and fear kept her immobile. She didn’t know how long she lay there, keeping her mouth shut and just trying to listen to anything that would give her an idea of what was happening. Maybe she should have screamed, struggled more, but all she could think about was getting drugged again. After what seemed like hours the vehicle pulled to a stop, and the car doors opened and closed. There was a moment when all she heard was the sound of her frantic breathing. She felt the man’s presence still in the back with her, and knew he was watching her despite the fact she couldn’t see.
“Where are you taking me?” Ruby had no idea where she got the strength to actually ask the question, but it had been tumbling around in her head, and apparently just spilled free. She clamped her mouth shut, expecting pain for speaking, but only heard silence. She felt the man’s eyes on her even though all she saw was darkness, but he didn’t respond, and her fear grew. “Are you going to hurt me?” It was a foolish question since they had already hurt her, but pain was a very real fear, as was the unknown, and she knew that they could cause so much more of it. Her tears came out hard and strong, and their saltiness soon soaked the cloth that covered her eyes. The sound of deep murmurs right outside the vehicle was somewhat clear, but she could only grasp at parts of what was being said. She strained to hear more without looking like she was doing just that.
“She should fetch at least five digits. She’s got a good body, decent face, pretty young. If she’s still a virgin that price will jump exponentially, but she needs to be checked out thoroughly before we put her on the block.”
The voice was muffled, but Ruby could hear him clear enough. It didn’t take her long to realize what her fate was. She had seen enough shows about human sex trafficking to know that must be what they were talking about, and what they planned on doing with her. Something in her snapped as fear, survival, and adrenalin pumped through her veins. She cried harder and started straining against her bonds, kicking out even though her legs were bound. She probably looked like a fish out of water, but she didn’t care. All Ruby had on her mind was esc
ape and survival.
Hands grabbed her upper arms, but she kept moving. She had to get out of here or she’d die. If this was what her life was, then she wouldn’t go down without a fight. Kicking both of her legs out again, Ruby renewed her strength when she came into contact with the man holding her down. She opened her mouth to scream, but the sound came out garbled. He smacked a hand down on her mouth hard enough that her eyes burned from the pain.
“You stupid fucking bitch.”
She continued to struggle, but he moved his hand from her mouth to her throat and pressed down hard enough that she struggled to breathe. It was the same sensation as when she was taken from the motel bed, and she tried to scream, even though the sound came out strained. With her hands tied behind her back she was helpless, and her crying only made the suffocating feeling worse. He tightened his hand on her throat, and a low laugh came from him as she struggled. The sound of a door opening came through her distress, and then suddenly she could breathe. Ruby sucked fresh, cool air into her burning lungs. Over her gasping she heard the distinct sound of flesh hitting flesh. It was only seconds later that someone grabbed her bound feet and pulled her down. She cried harder and kicked out, but whoever had her jerked even harder until she was no longer in the van, but on the hard ground. The air whooshed out of her from the impact, and then she was violently hauled up. Her head was tugged back by the hair, and then someone gripped her chin and turned her head from side to side. A moment of silence passed.
“Decent body, if on the thin side, but she’ll look good with the others on the stage.”
“Please. Just let me go.” No one spoke after her begging, and instead she was thrust forward and into the arms of another man. “Please, just let me go home.” Ruby cried, begged and pleaded, but there was silence. “I won’t say anything to anyone, I swear.”
“Little girl, your home will be with whoever purchases you.” That had her blood chilling and her body tensing. She had assumed as much, but actually hearing it out loud made it solidify inside of her. There was a low, sadistic chuckle. “That’s right. You have no life anymore, and are just an object up for bid.” Before she could say anything else there was another sting in her neck, but this time the drug slammed into her fast and hard.
“Put her in the cargo hold with the others.”
That was the last thing she heard before she slumped forward and darkness was her only companion.
Chapter Three
Ruby hung her head and shuffled forward with the other females. She didn’t know where she was or how long she had been in captivity. Time had run together until she didn’t know if it had been days, or even weeks. All she knew was that after she had woken up the second time they had drugged her she no longer had the blindfold on, but was now bound and gagged, in what appeared to be a storage compartment on a plane, and with a handful of other females crammed inside, all in the same restrained manner.
After what felt like hours on the airplane they had finally landed. They had been blindfolded and hauled out as if they were nothing but worthless cargo. They had kept all of the women in one large room with no windows, only one exit that was always guarded, and a hole in the ground to be used as their toilet. They were made to sleep on stained and nasty-smelling mattresses on the floor, eat disgusting food that didn’t even look edible, forced to drink brown-tinted water, and wash in a communal shower room. The men that stood guard over them never touched or hurt them, just barked orders like they were dogs. They had taken her away once, drugged her, and restrained her to a table. But she had blacked out after that. She didn’t know what they had done to her and had woken up back on the disgusting mattress in the room with the other females. Images of them touching her while she was unconscious, of violating her had played through her mind. She hadn’t felt any differently, wasn’t sore, but she couldn’t shake off the feeling that they had done something very wrong to her.
Even now, as she slowly moved forward in line, all she could hear was the screams of one of the girls that had dared to speak out. She had scratched and kicked at one of the men until they had taken her away, but it hadn’t been very far because Ruby had heard the woman’s screams as she lay there at night. It had seemed like forever before they brought her back to where the other girls were, and when they did Ruby had known that whatever they had done to her had broken a part of her. She had a distant look in her eyes, an almost lost expression. It was one of the most frightening things Ruby had ever seen.
Maybe Ruby should have fought harder, tried to connect with the other girls being held captive, but they were always watched, ordered to stay silent, and the fear of her situation and of pain kept her silent. She felt weak, as if she was a coward, even though she knew she had simply been trying to stay alive. Conflict ran high inside of her, the tug and pull of doing something to retaliate, or being meek and submissive to survive. They didn’t hit her, and for that she was thankful, but the words she had heard when she was first taken played in her head over and over again.
“You mark up the merchandise and the price decreases.”
So she stayed quiet, did as she was told, and knew that this wasn’t her last stop. There had been enough cryptic conversations from the men guarding them that Ruby had understood they would be sold, even if she hadn’t already come to that conclusion the very first night of her capture. To whom they were being sold was still a mystery, but Ruby had seen enough documentaries that her imagination on the depraved things that would be forced upon her ran through her head like a horrifying movie reel.
Now here she stood, in a line wearing nothing but a shift and a rope binding her wrists together in front of her. She glanced up and saw a thick curtain blocking her view from where she was ultimately headed. All was silent aside from the few girls that were sniffling back their tears. She looked to the side and saw the men on each side of the line that had their eyes trained on them. Ruby shivered from the chill in the air, even though she wore a very loose fitting shift that looked more like a pillowcase than an actual dress. It was clean though, and in fact all the women had been forced to wash very thoroughly right before they bound and gagged them once more and thrust them into the back of a van.
A man stepped out from behind the curtain. She had never seen him before, but he looked like he had money. Maybe he was the one that controlled this whole sick operation? He wore an expensive-looking suit, a shining gold watch, and had a diamond stud in his ear. He looked far too old to be wearing an earring, maybe even closer to a grandfather’s age, but there was a very cold expression on his face as he looked over each girl in line. He didn’t say anything at first, and when he had looked at all of them he moved back to the curtain and clasped his hands in front of him. For several seconds all he did was stand there, and a few of the girls started crying harder.
“This is your last stop, children,” he said, and those words held a lot of meaning, but they were also cryptic. The older man tilted his chin to someone, and the men on either side of them stepped forward. In the blink of an eye they produced needles and proceeded to inject each girl. The ones that realized what was happening struggled at first from surprise and then fear, no doubt, but whatever they injected them with worked fast and soon the women were making low sounds and slumping forward. Whatever was in those needles couldn’t have been too strong, though, because the girls were able to stand up still. All of this happened within seconds, and Ruby turned and glanced at the man now moving toward her.
“Please, I’ll do whatever you say. I don’t need that.” He didn’t even meet her eyes, and instead snatched her arm in a firm grasp, stabbed the needle into her, and depressed the plunger. A burning sensation started at the point of contact, and tears formed in the corner of her eyes.
“You need to behave, and to appeal to the bidders, hence the little chemical persuasion we gave you.” The old man spoke without a hint of remorse, but then again Ruby didn’t suspect any person that was involved with kidnapping and selling women would have any mora
ls or empathy toward the human race.
She started to feel herself grow lightheaded, felt her arms become too heavy to try and hold up, and weaved slightly. She had been drunk once in her life, and the effects were similar, but more pronounced, more relaxing, and she knew that right now they were nothing more than droids for these men. She could still think clearly. But it seemed like it took a very long time for her mind to process the information.
The first few girls were pushed forward. There was a shove from behind her and she stumbled into the girl into front of her. Her mouth became unbearably dry, and her tongue felt thick. She couldn’t stop the tears, couldn’t even force herself to do anything but put one foot in front of the other. Shaking her head to try and clear it only made the room spin and her stomach churn. There were a few steps that led up to the curtained-off area, but once she cleared those she stepped onto a platform. Lights beamed down and she had to close her eyes momentarily from the harsh glare. Ruby tried to lift her arms again, but they were just too heavy, and every step she took felt like she was trying to move through thick mud. When the girl in front of her stopped, hands grabbed Ruby’s arms and moved her into the position they wanted. She tried to cover herself, even if she did wear the god-awful dress, but she couldn’t find the strength. She wore no undergarments under the gown, and knew her nipples and the small patch of her pubic hair could be seen clearly through the paper-thin material. Although she didn’t hear anything aside from the occasional shuffling sound, she felt so many eyes on her that a light sweat started to form along her forehead. No one spoke, but each girl, starting at the front of the line, was pushed forward for a few seconds, and then immediately pulled back, as if someone discarded them. Ruby turned and glanced sideways, trying to focus, but her vision went from clear to blurry repeatedly.
