Something’s wrong. I feel it as soon I open my eyes. I can’t see anything; there’s only darkness. I feel cold and I’m shivering as a draft caresses my body with a chilling breeze. My limbs ache and I’m lying on something cold and hard and the smell - it’s overpowering and I can’t breathe.
Am I dreaming? I must be because this isn’t where I fell asleep, where am I?
Something touches my leg and I open my mouth to scream, but no sound comes out. I’m screaming and screaming, but I must be deaf. I can’t hear anything; all I can do is feel. My senses are shutting down one by one, and yet I hear the soft breathing of somebody nearby - someone’s here.
A prickle of fear quickly gains momentum until I feel so afraid, I almost pass out. I feel sick and retch, but nothing happens. I try to move but can’t. Am I paralysed or worse – dead?
Where am I? The stench is overpowering me, it smells familiar but I can’t place it.
Then the pressure on my leg increases and I hear a soft, “She’s coming round.”
I try to put a face to the voice, but it all seems so distant. Then I hear a man’s voice, louder, more urgent. “We don’t have long.”
What’s happening, where am I?
Then I feel a liquid running down my leg that burns and I scream and this time my voice works, although it’s weaker than normal. A sharp voice hisses, “Shut up, we are just cleaning you up to prepare you for transit.”
Transit, what the hell is happening, who are these people?
I want to be sick; the smell is too intense and I retch. Then I feel a calm hand on my forehead and the man says, “She’s burning up, how much did you give her?”
“The usual dose; she’ll be fine.”
I feel her hands all over me now. Scrubbing, kneading, burning and torturing. They move to my stomach and I wince as the pain grips me and she says angrily, “She’s damaged; they may reject her.”
“No, they won’t care. She’ll look a lot worse by the time they’ve finished with her.”
I can’t move and I can’t talk. What the hell is happening?
I start to shiver, I am so cold, so sick and in so much pain it consumes my entire body. It’s too intense and I can’t breathe. What is that smell?
Then I hear, “It’s done, you can bring the truck around.”
I hear movement, loud noises and the scraping of a heavy object across a concrete floor. The cold is intense and the pain hurts from the inside out.
Then I hear a whisper, a soft sound in my ear as she says, “It’s time to go.”
Go where, what is she talking about?
Somebody is lifting me, but still I can’t move. Then another grabs my head and pulls it back by my hair. I cry out in pain and then the light hits me, blinding me as something is torn from my eyes. I can see again.
As my eyes focus and their faces swim into view, I stare at them in shock. “You!”
Nicola smiles. “Yes dear, only me, nothing to worry about.”
But who? I try to twist my head to see my captor and she smiles. “It’s just Angelo, he’s here to deliver you.”
“Deliver me, what are you talking about?”
My skin burns and I say in disbelief, “What’s happening?”
“Nothing personal dear, just business. You see, it was lucky you called, really. For me, anyway. I’ve had an order waiting for a while now and nobody to send. Then you came along with your tale of woe and nobody to turn to and I saw my chance.”
“What chance? Please tell me what’s happening.”
She laughs and yet it sounds brutal and cold. “As I said, just business. You see, for a while now, I’ve had a little side business that’s quite lucrative. I provide girls with no baggage to friends of Angelo’s for certain parties they arrange. They use the goods I send them and pay me well for my trouble. Very well as it happens and then I get paid all over again by the next customer.”
I stare into the eyes of a madwoman as she laughs again. “Then I sell what’s left of you for spare parts, shall we say. People that need what you no longer have use for.”
She runs her hands over my chest and says, “Heart, kidneys, eyes, oh the list is endless and I make quite a killing on the black market.”
The panic takes over and I open my mouth to scream and as I do, she places her hand over my mouth and sinks a needle into my arm. “Sleep well my dear, like I said, it’s nothing personal, just business.”