Over the next several months, Maggie was sold only to high-paying clients. Myles still came to see her at least once a week, and he was on his high horse about “teaching her things.” All of the things that Myles taught her were dehumanizing. She quickly realized that it was all just a sick game, and she was a pawn.
Dr. Barnes also visited her regularly and kept his promise to bring books to her. When he gave Maggie the first book, John William took it away. The next time he bought Maggie for the evening, Dr. Barnes asked if she had finished reading the first book. Maggie explained that she wasn’t allowed to keep it.
Dr. Barnes was infuriated and called Myles. “I’m bringing Maggie books to make her smarter and more desirable to me and to your other clients. There’s no bigger turn-on than a chick with fucking brains in her head. If you want me to keep coming back week after week and paying you all this money, then you better tell that fucking imbecile, John William, to let her read the books I bring to her.”
From then on, Maggie was allowed to keep all of the books that Dr. Barnes brought for her. Some of the books were young adult novels, and others were educational. She especially loved the books that taught her something. Each week, after Dr. Barnes was finished having sex with Maggie, they would sit on the bed and talk about what she had learned from reading. Her ability to retain information was remarkable. With each book she finished, Maggie felt like she was becoming more powerful.
Life at the prison was unbearable for all of the children. None of them were actually living; rather, they existed as toys for the wicked. Unlike the others, Maggie now had something to distract her when she was alone.
Over time, Shana withdrew. She was being trafficked to the cartel’s most sicko clients. She got all of the clients who were into sadism and derived their sexual gratification from the pain and cruelty that they subjected her to. She became more reclusive, and nothing the others tried to do to nurture her worked.
Myles protected Maggie, but the others all had to endure an occasional thumping by malicious clients. But because of Shana’s youth and beauty, the demented seemed to be lining up to get time with her. Shana still blamed Maggie for stealing Myles from her. Secretly, John William had planted that idea in her head. He told Shana that Maggie had deliberately set out to make her suffer. He said that Maggie had “come on” to Myles to keep her sorry ass safe.
“I was there, and I saw it,” John William said. “She was flirting with him. She kept telling him that she was so much prettier than you, which we all know is true. Maggie is the reason that you’re getting your filthy little ass whooped. Don’t forget that, you raunchy dirt ball.”
John William thrived on his supremacy over the defenseless kids, and the more psychological turmoil he caused, the greater his domination.
Shana was livid to learn that Maggie had set out to harm her intentionally. She never considered that John William was lying, and she couldn’t feel anything but hatred for the other girl. She wished that Maggie would die and took every opportunity to express her loathing. One afternoon, Shana stormed into Maggie’s cell.
“So, you think you’re hot shit, huh? Well, you’re not,” Shana yelled and punched Maggie squarely in the nose. Then she bent down to where Maggie lay on the dirt floor. “You’re going to tell Myles that you hate him and don’t want to see him anymore. You understand me? You should have to be with these fucking freaks, not me!” Shana fumed.
Maggie looked up at her with blood dripping from her nose and cried, “I didn’t do anything to you, Shana. Why are you always so mean? Why don’t you just leave me alone?”
Shana yelled back, “You heard what I just said. If you don’t tell Myles that you hate him, I swear to God I will fuckin’ kill you. You’re such an idiot. You’re always talking about going home and getting out of here. Well, here’s a wake-up call: you’re never leaving! They don’t let us go! They keep us and use us up until we die. This is your life now, you bitch!”
Cali heard the commotion and rushed into Maggie’s cell. “What the hell is going on? Oh my God, what did you do to her, Shana?” she asked when she saw blood streaming from Maggie’s nose.
“That’s just a taste of what I’ll do to her if she doesn’t get Myles to take me back,” Shana shot back at Cali.
“What are you talking about, Shana?” Cali asked, shocked.
“She stole him from me, and now I’m stuck with all these crazy-ass pricks that get their rocks off by hurting me. It’s all her fault, and I hate her! I hope she dies,” Shana bawled.
“Stop it! You’re just making things worse, Shana,” Cali said.
“I’ll stop it when you stop letting her think that someday she’s going home. You know that none of us are getting out of here alive. But you never tell her that. You just keep leading her on so she thinks everything will be OK. Well it ain’t gonna be OK,” she screamed, directing her words at Maggie.
That night, having overheard the girls screaming, John William purposely sold Shana to the lowest bidder to stir the shit pot a little more. Shana was given to an ex-con, with the words “Born To Raise Hell” tattooed on his forearm. When he entered the room, his contemptuous demeanor instantly terrified Shana. The man’s bloated body and ash-white, pockmarked face repulsed her. He approached Shana, placed a dog collar around her neck, and dragged her around the room by the leash as she struggled to keep up with him and avoid choking to death. His treatment of her quickly deteriorated and, that night, two floors above where the children sat quietly in their cells, Shana was brutally raped and tortured. Each time she yelled in pain, he picked up his pocketknife and cut her tongue.
When John William brought Shana back in the middle of the night, he woke Cali and told her to tend to the girl. Cali started to shake when she saw Shana’s condition. Maggie heard Cali telling John William in a panicked voice that she didn’t know what to do for her. The bruises would heal, but there was so much blood coming from Shana’s mouth that Cali feared she was bleeding to death.