his powerful arms.
The men spoke to each other, but once again she could not understand them. Why couldn’t they just speak English? They went down several narrow walkways surrounded by the huge containers. It had to be at some kind of shipyard or something.
Looking down at the ground made her nauseated. Her body jerked up and down over his shoulder.
After a while, the men made a sharp left. The guy dropped her to the ground, slapped her on the bottom, before he pushed her forward over a metal grated walkway that led to a huge ship. The ship was full of the same type of containers they had passed by.
The ship was dark, and their footsteps echoed loudly. Her legs shook with every step, and her heart felt like it was going to jump out of her throat. The ground was freezing on her bare feet. Silently, she thanked Tony for allowing her to put on the flimsy gown.
The corridors were long and narrow with low ceilings. The space was so small and confining, even though the ship itself was huge. Bigger than anything she had ever seen before. Loud clanking and hissing sounds only freaked her out even more.
There was nowhere to run. They were trapped like mice in a maze. She would never remember all the twists and turns they had taken.
A chill spread through her when she noticed a large metal door looming ahead. Her steps faltered. Once the door swung open, the overpowering stench hit her immediately, causing her stomach to heave violently. It smelled like sewage or rotten food.
Aaliyah froze. Any bravado she had left evaporated.
“Oh, shit,” she whispered. Before her stood rows and rows of cages. Filled with humans. She couldn’t tear her eyes away. Most of them were young, dark skinned, naked and filthy. She twisted and tried to run, but the large man just laughed and grasped her arms tighter. If she didn’t know it before, she knew it now: they were in trouble, very bad trouble.
The man next to her pulled Darrius forward. Her brother turned to look at her, even though he couldn’t see through his swollen eyes. He didn’t even cry out. She was proud of him for being so brave, but also devastated that he had to grow up so quickly. Panic surged through her.
With every ounce of energy, she twisted and pulled trying to get from the man’s tight grip as she watched Darrius leaving the room and going through another metal door.
“No!” she yelled hysterically.
The door slammed shut and Darrius was once again gone from her sight. The only sounds were a loud scraping of metal against metal.
She heard herself whimpering, pleading for him not to take her brother away, promising she would do anything he wanted her to.
The man laughed loudly.
He handled her casually, as if she was nothing more than an inanimate object, which made the cruelty that much harder to bear. Slowly, he untied her wrists.
She knew she only had seconds to act. She whirled around, and with all her might, threw a punch, but before it could connect, he stepped back and grabbed her arm. He twisted it violently behind her, causing her to cry out in pain.
“Tsk, tsk.” He said something else, but since it was in another language, he might as well have been speaking gibberish. She groaned, as he eased her arm back down. She’d failed. Again.
Clumsy fingers racked her back as the man tried to untie the gown while holding her in place with his other arm. The gown floated to the floor and the cool air hit her bare skin. Instinctively, she tried to cover herself, but she was pinned against him. A loud sob escaped as the man ran his free hand over her body.
Please, no. Not again!
After a few rough grabs, his hands stopped roaming. The man pulled a key out of his pocket and opened one of the cages. Her body stiffened. She couldn’t go in there. There was no way in hell she was going to let him put her in that cage. It was already overfilled with other young girls. She threw her head back, but he had anticipated
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