In the morning, she stayed perfectly still on her cot. From within the dark and damp walls of the prison cell, she had no sense of time; she didn’t know whether it was night or day. Her thoughts wandered to the day prior—the day she’d made the biggest mistake of her life.
Maggie was still lost in morbid thoughts of the pictures they’d taken of her just hours before. A light went on in her cell, and she bolted upright on her cot. She looked up at the round, globe fixture on the ceiling that was protected by a steel cage. It cast a dim light over the tiny cell. She looked around. The cell was barren except for the cot and a toilet. The toilet looked like a large, white tree stump with a hole in the center. She walked to the toilet and squatted over the hole. She peed quickly; afraid something gruesome would come out of the black hole in the center and suck her down into it.
Then the cell door opened, and John William stood staring down at her. In the dim light, she was finally able to get a good look at him. Her eyes slowly wandered to his neck and lingered on his Adam’s apple, which protruded from his throat as if a hard-boiled egg was caught there. He had a very long, narrow face, and his black eyes sat too closely together. Limp, shoulder-length, greasy, blond hair hung around his skull like yarn, making him look as crazy as he was. He was over six feet tall, and his shoulders seemed permanently hunched. His long arms stopped just above his knees, and his hands were as big as Frisbees. He appeared to be dim-witted and creepy—the type of man who gave grown women the heebie-jeebies. Maggie realized that she’d been so focused on the puppy that she hadn’t really looked at John William, the most horrid man she’d ever seen.
John William threw Maggie’s clothes at her. “Get dressed fast. It’s time for breakfast,” he stated.
John William watched as the beautiful Maggie studied him. He saw the look of revulsion that he had grown accustomed to seeing on the faces of girls and women, including his own mother.
Maggie’s expression brought back memories of his childhood. John William’s parents never allowed him to play with the neighborhood children, repeatedly telling him, “The other kids hate you. They make fun of you because you look like a goon. You are the ugliest person who ever lived. You get your nasty looks from your grandfather.”
When John William was nine, his parents punished him for misbehaving by forcing him to remove all of his clothes and tying him to a metal chair that they kept in a small closet under the stairs in their home. They would leave him there for hours.
Because of the verbal and physical abuse his parents subjected him to, John William was deeply depressed at a young age. He was an outcast among his peers and, by middle school, he was a love-starved, confused boy who was the focus of his peers’ ridicule.
At school, children teased him mercilessly, but he never dared to fight back, fearing that his parents would tie him to the chair in the closet. As the years passed, he grew increasingly resentful toward his parents and the other kids at his school, especially the girls.
After being widely rejected by the various cliques in high school, John William began spending his free time alone in seedy areas of Philadelphia, where he learned that people who were feared got respect. When John William met a lunatic who convinced him to kidnap a nineteen-year-old girl, he got a taste of power, and for the first time in his life, he felt like he fit in. The children he kidnapped needed him for basic survival, and that purpose in life was validating. He had finally found a way to get the respect that he deserved.
In the narrow hallway between the cells, also illuminated by dim overhead light, Maggie looked around at the children who had gathered. They all appeared to be like robots. They were despondent, as if someone had stolen their souls. The dark circles under their bloodshot eyes revealed that pain and despair were the overarching themes among them. Maggie wondered how they all got there, and she hoped it wouldn’t be long before they could all go home.
Maggie waited with anticipation as John William opened the cell of the young boy who had been brought there with her. The child staggered into the hallway, saw Maggie, and threw his arms around her legs. She bent and picked him up, holding him tightly as he put his head on her shoulder and began to cry softly.
“Let’s go,” John William instructed.
The group walked down the hall in silence to another steel door, which John William opened. Inside was a long room containing a large metal picnic table and benches. Each child took a seat. Cali motioned for Maggie to sit next to her, and Maggie slid in beside her, still holding the small boy tightly.
“Now listen,” Cali whispered. “It’s important that you pay attention to what he tells you to do. After we’re done eating, he will take us to the showers upstairs. We all shower together so it’s no big deal.”
Maggie looked over at the teenage boy, Max. He nodded to acknowledge her. She looked back at Cali, her eyes filling with tears.
“Look, Maggie, none of us care that we see each other naked, OK? We are all in the same boat here, and the more you resist what they want from you, the worse you’ll make it for all of us. You’ll get used to it, I promise.”
“But I don’t want to get used to it. I can’t stay here. I want to go home,” Maggie said, stating the obvious. She concentrated on her breathing, not wanting the other kids to think she was a baby. “How old are you guys?” she finally managed to ask.
Cali answered for all of them, “Max is fifteen, Shana is twelve, and I’m seventeen.”
Then Maggie asked the question that had been stuck in her throat since they spoke from their cells the night before. “How long have all of you been here?”
“Too fuckin’ long!” Shana blurted.
Max gave Shana a scalding look. “Five years,” Max offered.
Shana looked Maggie over. “Three years.”
Finally, Cali spoke. “I was thirteen when they brought me here.”
As Maggie did the math in her head, a small gurgling sound escaped her lips. Cali quickly put her arm around her. “You have to be quiet. John William gets really mad when any of us cry.”
“Yeah, he’ll let you cry when you’re with the clients upstairs. He says they like to see us scared. But when we’re down here, he gets really pissed. So if you’re gonna cry, do it without making any noise,” Shana offered.
Maggie looked down at the small boy in her lap. “What’s your name?” she asked with as much courage as possible.
The blond, blue-eyed child looked up at her. “Seth.”
“Seth, my name is Maggie.”
“Aggie!” the young boy managed with a big grin.
“Do you know how old you are, Seth?”
Seth held up four chubby fingers.
“Wow, four years old. You’re a big boy.”
Just then, John William came back into the room. He motioned for Cali to come over to where he was standing. Maggie watched as he slid his hand over her breast. He turned and took the padlock off the large cupboard standing against the far wall. Cali quickly pulled plates and spoons from inside and rushed back to the table, where she gave the children one of each.
Cali raced back to where John William was standing and stood before him. The other children watched as John William put his hand on her ass, pulled her to him forcefully, and kissed her with an open mouth. Shana and Max had both lowered their heads, but Maggie watched, unable to rip her eyes away. She was mortified at what he was doing to her. It was easy to see that Cali was scared of him, and as he groped the teenager, he looked over at Maggie, licked his lips, and pointed at her.
Maggie peed herself as fright rocked her to the core. John William looked at her wet pants and started to laugh. He loved the power and control he had over the little rodents. It made him feel important. “You’re pathetic, girl!” he said, pushing Cali to the side.
He walked over to Maggie, pulled Seth from her arms, and pounded him down on the bench next to her. “Stand up and take those pissed jeans off,” he said angrily.
Maggie hesitated for a moment. John William grabbed her arm and picked her up off the bench. “Do it!”
Maggie quickly took her jeans off. He smiled. “Underwear too.”
Maggie stood naked from the waist down with all of the other children watching her. “Now, I want you to clean this mess up. You’ll have to stay like that until your clothes dry. Look everyone, look at the baby who pissed her pants,” John William chanted.
The other kids looked on, just as they were told to do. They had all been there. They all knew what she was going through. They had surrendered themselves completely in order to survive. It was humiliating, but it was necessary.
After Maggie cleaned up the urine with her jeans, she sat down on the bench. The cold metal against her skin made her squirm. The others watched her as John William and Cali left the room. Max wished he could do something to protect all of them. He was small and thin for fifteen, no match for John William. He leaned toward the center of the table so Maggie could hear him whisper. “Look, Maggie. It’ll be all right. You can’t let that rotten motherfucker get to you. He’s going to try to wear you down. All he wants is for you to be afraid of him. It makes him feel dominant. But remember that he’s just a big asshole. You need to make him think you’re afraid of him. That way, he won’t bust your shoes as much. If he thinks you ain’t scared, he’ll fuck with you until he knows you are scared. You get it?”
Maggie nodded. She didn’t have to pretend to be afraid of John William; she was petrified of him already. She looked at Cali, her eyes pleading. “I don’t wanna be here. I wanna go home. Maybe if we all stick together, we can find a way out of here.”
“None of us want to be here, Maggie. Maybe you’re right. Maybe someday we’ll find a way out,” Max lied in an attempt to comfort her.
At that moment, Cali and John William came back carrying a large pot of oatmeal. Cali served the oatmeal, and John William gave each of them a small glass of water. “Eat up,” he told the children. “Then it’s time for showers.”
The children ate their breakfast in silence. Maggie was too hungry to realize that the lumpy, lukewarm oatmeal was tasteless. As she mindlessly ate the slop in front of her, Maggie prayed that her parents would come that day and put an end to her nightmare.
The shower room was completely open, providing no privacy. Moldy shower heads on one wall spit out small streams of water. Maggie followed the older kids, keeping her eyes glued to the floor. She helped Seth get undressed and washed his hair for him. The others were like soldiers. To them, it was just a way of life. They had been doing it for so long that it didn’t matter anymore. They seemed not to notice that their circumstances were hopeless.
After the children showered, John William took them back to their cells. This time, he left all of their doors open. It was now Cali’s job to talk to each of them and get them ready for their clients. Shana and Max knew what to expect, but when it came to satisfying the clients, each of them still needed some coaxing. She wanted them back in one piece, and she had assured John William that Maggie would be ready.
Cali walked into Maggie’s cell, where she was lying on her cot with Seth. “Hey, Maggie, I want to talk to you about tonight.”
“Why? What’s tonight?” Maggie asked, already dreading the answer.
“They’re going to bring us all upstairs, and people are going to look at us. The thing is, we’ll all be naked. There’s nothing to worry about, though. No one is going to hurt you. The clients just look at us.”
Maggie felt like she had swallowed a golf ball as terror moved from her stomach into her chest and settled in her throat. She knew there was nothing she could do to fight back. She threw herself into Cali’s arms and started to cry. Her chest heaved as she pleaded with the teenager to tell John William that she couldn’t do what he wanted her to do. Cali stroked Maggie’s hair. “That isn’t an option, baby. This is what you have to do if you don’t want them to beat you and do awful things to you.”
“What about Seth?” Maggie asked, hoping she could stay in her cell and babysit him while the others went upstairs.
“Seth will stay down here while we are upstairs,” Cali told her matter-of-factly.
“But he’s, he’s just a baby,” Maggie argued.
“I’m not a baby,” Seth grunted. “I go to the bafroom in the potty.”
Maggie and Cali ignored his protests.
“Just be ready, Maggie. Please. It will be easier for you if you’re ready to do whatever they want. We’ll all be together. That has to mean something, right?” Cali asked, trying to make the best out of a dreadful situation.
Maggie nodded and lay down on the cot, pulling Seth snugly against her body. She thought about her mother and father. They were probably going crazy looking for her. She was sure her little brother, Keith, missed her. He was the same age as Seth and always wanted Maggie to play with him. The two of them loved spending time together. Thinking about Keith made her feel better. She wondered who would read to him until she got home. Then Maggie leaned into Seth’s ear and whispered, “The two of us are going to be OK. Don’t worry. I’ll find a way to get us out of here. We just have to be brave.”
If only Maggie felt brave.
Later that evening, all of the children except Seth were taken upstairs to a darkened room. There was a four-poster bed in the middle of the room. The bed looked ominous with black sheets and large, overstuffed, dreary-gray pillows. John William led the children to a corner and told them to undress. After Maggie removed her clothes, she stood nervously, wanting nothing more than to vanish. Another man in a leather mask and tight black underwear walked into the room. He ordered all of them to stand in front of the bed. Like little androids, they lined up, oldest to youngest. The man in the leather mask walked over to the door and opened it.
Twelve people—eight men and four women—entered the room. They stood and stared at the children, a few of them smiling as if they were looking at their Thanksgiving dinner.
Suddenly, music began to play. At a nod from the creepy masked man, Cali and Max moved around to the side of the bed and got on top. They began to kiss while Maggie and Shana stood at the side of the bed and watched. Maggie’s eyes bulged out of their sockets when she saw how Max was touching Cali. He was putting his hands on her boobs and rubbing between her legs. Then Cali pushed Max down on the bed and put his penis into her mouth. Maggie was repulsed at the sight of what Cali was doing to Max.
After several minutes, Cali and Max stopped what they were doing. Getting off the bed, they led Maggie and Shana to the foot of the bed, where they stood in a line again. The strangers walked by them, looking them over, getting a better look at their faces. Each of them paused to take in the beauty that Maggie had to offer, and a few of them leaned in to sniff her hair. After the strangers left the room, the kids dressed, and John William led them back to their cells.