For the ten days that followed, young Maggie spent her nights satisfying clients and her days nursing Shana. Shana’s feet were healing, and she was on a constant high from the hillbilly heroin. In her eagerness to numb herself to the pain caused by the burns, Shana quickly became addicted to the drug. Shana was callous with Maggie, reminding her at every opportunity that if Maggie hadn’t stolen Myles from her, she never would have been burned.
Cali and Max were annoyed that Shana was so thankless to Maggie, who had slaved and watched over her. The two older teens sat on the floor next to Shana’s cot. “You know, Shana,” Cali said. “You could be nice to Maggie. She didn’t do this to you. The kid has done nothing but help you. If you want to blame someone, blame all these fuckin’ crazy pervs.”
“I don’t care what you say, Cali. I know what Maggie did. The minute she met Myles, she threw herself at him so that he would want her. You know it’s true too!” Shana accused.
“Come on, Shana. Be real,” Max chimed in. “She didn’t even know Myles. He was the one who picked her, just like he picked you. Remember? We don’t get to pick anything around here, and you know that. So knock off the shit, OK? It’s just making it harder for all of us.”
Shana shook her head but kept quiet.
“What happened, Shana? What did they do to you?” Cali finally asked.
Shana stared at the ceiling of her cell. Just thinking about the horrible things the man had done made her insides rattle. “It was a crazy older guy. He was into hurting me. At first, he was slapping me around the room. Then he took a brick out of his backpack. I thought he was going to bash my head in with it, but he just kept grating it all over my body. It fucking hurt like hell. He stopped and left the room for a while, but then he came back. He was carrying two plastic buckets, and I could see steam coming off the water. He started dancing and laughing when he saw how scared I was.” She stopped and began to sob.
“Then he stuck your feet in the buckets of water?” Cali asked, unable to process the violence and cruelty that Shana had endured.
Shana nodded, but said nothing more.
“We have to get the fuck out of here,” Max announced tearfully.
Cali looked at him, wishing it was possible but knowing there was little hope. She leaned over and pulled his head to her chest. She let Max cry until his last sob ended. She looked up at Shana, who was lying perfectly still on the cot, and wondered if any of them would make it out of there alive.
Maggie sat in her cell, reading a home-remedy book to Seth. He looked up at her with puppy dog eyes. “Aggie, I love you,” he said with sweet innocence.
Seth adored Maggie; she was the person he turned to when he was scared. Seth and the others didn’t know it, but it was his fifth birthday. Up until then, he’d been too innocent for sex trafficking, but now John William believed he was perfect for kiddy porn.
“I love you too, Seth,” Maggie answered, feeling a tug at her heart for the small boy who she now felt belonged to her.
“Aggie? How comes you’re crying in here at night sometimes?” Seth asked.
“Because I still miss my mom and dad a whole lot and I wish I could go home,” she explained.
“But if you go home, are you going to leave me here?” the child asked with a pout.
“There’s no way I’m leaving you here, Seth. You and me, we’re family. We stick together, right?” Maggie stated.
“Yep. We stick together forever and ever. But when will we be able to go outside and play like you told me?” asked Seth, with the attention span of a gnat.
Maggie laughed at his abrupt shift to another topic. She pulled Seth closer to her and stroked his hair. “I don’t know how or when, but I know something is going to change. I can feel it in my bones,” she explained, more to herself than to Seth. “When we get out of here, we’ll start our lives all over again. We can go to the park and sit on big blankets and eat ice cream. I bet our parents will be really good friends, and when we get old, we’ll still be together every Christmas. We’ll have a bond so strong that no one will be able to stand between us. I can see our kids growing up together. We’ll never tell them about what happened to us in this rotten place, but we’ll always know that we survived something horrible. I might even call my first son Seth. How does that sound?” Maggie finished, looking down at Seth.
Seth had fallen asleep in her arms, the rhythm of Maggie’s sweet, soft voice allowing him to feel safe enough to let his eyes close. Even the five-year-old was keen to the evil that prowled throughout the prison.
That night, John William came for Seth. He took the young boy upstairs for the first time since he’d arrived in the godforsaken, abandoned building.
Seth was about to have his first photo shoot.