A day later, the box opened, and Maggie, who was sore and exhausted, looked up.
“Let’s go. Give me your hands,” Armando instructed.
With effort, Maggie raised her hands above her head and struggled to stand. Armando hoisted her out as if she was weightless. In the bedroom, she stood, but was unable to extend her body upright.
“I’m sorry, Armando,” she cried, fearing what was to happen next.
“No, you ain’t sorry. If you were sorry, you wouldn’t have done what cha did in the first place,” he snapped.
Armando unbuckled his belt and slowly removed it from his waist, purposely making time drag on. It was all about breaking her down so she wouldn’t dare disobey him again. The first lash landed across the front of her thighs. Each lash that followed was harder and left her aching. After several minutes and, with Maggie huddled on the floor, he walked over and opened the bedroom door.
Trinity and two other hookers walked into the room. Armando handed the belt to Trinity first. With great excitement, Trinity began swinging the belt at Maggie. Each thrash landed in a different place on her body. Maggie looked at her for pity, but Trinity’s expression only showed disdain and the need for vengeance.
“All right, ’nuff,” Armando told her.
Maggie’s body felt as if she’d been stung by a million hornets. It’s over, she thought. But then Armando handed the belt to the second hooker, and when she finished, the last hooker took her turn at “taming the beast,” as Armando called it.
When it was all over, Maggie was unable to stand or move any part of her body. Armando grabbed her under the arms and took her back to the closet.
“I think ya need a little more time to figure out who the boss is ’round here,” he taunted.
He slid Maggie into the box. Her legs folded under her, further irritating the fresh, pulsating welts. Maggie cried, not so much from the pain in her skin, but the pain in her broken heart. As her sobs became deeper and she let her emotions go, she felt as if all of her blood was circulating around her brain and her head was going to burst open. When she finally stopped crying, she sat in a heap at the bottom of the vertical box and waited.
The next day, Armando came back and pulled Maggie from her prison. As she emerged from the box, its rough wooden sides scraped her exposed skin. It felt as if she was being massaged with sandpaper. When she was back in the bedroom, Armando propped her up on an old chair in the corner.
“Don’t move a muscle,” he told her, as he walked out of the bedroom to execute Rock’s other idea.
Maggie was too weak to move anyway. She could barely hold her head up. When the bedroom door opened again, Armando shoved Seth into the room. He walked in behind the young boy, who was already crying and shaking. Behind Armando, the three hookers followed.
“Aggie!” Seth screamed and ran to her.
But before Seth could reach Maggie, Armando grabbed a handful of hair from the back of his head, bringing the boy to an immediate halt. Seth cried harder and reached up for Armando’s hand to try and pry himself free, but Armando pushed the child full force into a table next to the bed.
Armando proceeded to slap Seth repeatedly. As Maggie looked on helplessly, her blood started pumping through her battered body, and soon her pain was replaced with high-voltage energy she couldn’t control.
“Just leave him alone! He’s only a little boy!” Maggie screamed. Then she turned to Trinity and the other two hookers. “Stop him. What’s wrong with you?” she shouted, with judgment dripping from her words.
For the briefest moment, Maggie saw what she believed to be sympathy on Trinity’s face as she watched Seth get a beating. Then Armando turned to the three girls and told them to “let loose.”
Trinity hesitated, but Armando pulled her forward. “What’s wrong wit’ cha, bitch? You was liking it when you were beating on Maggie. Now unless you want to switch places with her, you’ll do what I tell ya,” he threatened.
Trinity turned to Maggie with a sorrowful look before she landed the first kick into Seth’s back. The girls each took their turns, doing as they were told, knowing the dire consequences of not following orders. After many minutes, Armando told the girls to leave the room.
Seth was lying on the floor, whimpering and barely able to move. It was too much for his tiny body to take. Armando grabbed him up from the floor and threw him onto the bed. He pulled a switchblade from his pocket, and the shiny blade sprang to life. Armando put the knife to Seth’s neck. Maggie looked on, helpless and full of self-loathing because her fear of getting into cars with strange men had cost the person she loved most his life.