24

Kaki

Saturday, January 7

Kaki could never go home again. Too many people knew about that night, and now there were too many people looking for her.

Damien had picked her up on Friday night and had taken her straight to The Diggs. He hadn’t spoken to her on their drive there, and as they had approached the place, she got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Batman and two other gang members had turned the shed that once stored lawn mowers into a party pad. There were curtains with cartoon characters on them hanging in the window, and someone had spray-painted one whole wall of the cinderblock structure to look like a Rubik’s cube. The walls were covered with graffiti, and there were a bunch of old, dirty beds and some tables with ashtrays. Pornography covered some of the graffiti.

A lot of the new girls were brought to The Diggs first.

Kaki dreaded seeing them—girls who’d come to this country thinking they were to work as a waitress or a nanny, and then they ended up here. Most of them didn’t speak any English and they were really, really young. Those girls were treated the worst. They were beaten, abused, repeatedly raped.

That night, Kaki was treated like one of those girls. Damien didn’t even supply her with the little blue pill. She didn’t remember how many men came through the doors. After a while she’d passed out anyway. That night, something inside of her died.

The next morning, sick, in pain, and in the throes of withdrawal, she practiced her mental mantras. Numb, numb, you are nothing; you don’t exist.

“If you behave yourself and do everything I tell you, then I’ll give you your stuff. Maybe I’ll even give you a little whiskey to wash them down.”

Some other guy was talking…something about packing up.

“We leave tomorrow for Pennsylvania,” said Damien.

“You taking her with you?” asked the other voice.

“Have to. Either that or I have to kill her.”

Kill me. Please kill me. I’d rather die.

“She won’t talk now. I can still use her. We’ll see how it goes.”

Saturday passed in a hazy shade of pain and sickness. As she lay in that dirty bed in The Diggs, she traveled in her mind. She went back to the time when she was a little girl, when her dad used to take her to the movies or out to dinner. Just the two of them.

Once Micah and Celia came along, that hardly ever happened, but she still remembered those times as some of the best. There were other times of family vacations at the beach, eating fries on the board walk in Ocean City, and taking selfies with the figures in the wax museum at Virginia Beach. Holding Celia when she was born, and dressing her dolls with her old baby clothes. That was back when her dad used to call her “Kaki.” He didn’t call her that anymore. She didn’t even think that person existed anymore.

~*~

Damien dragged her out of bed early the next morning. “Come on. Get up. We’re leaving.”

As he pulled her into a sitting position, she groaned. Her jaw hurt from where one of the guys had hit her. There was a stinging sensation on her arm as well—at the juncture of her wrist and hand. She looked down and tried to make her eyes focus. It was a brand. A tattoo of a dragon. And just under it the letters—M-O-S. The skin around it was red and puffy. She vaguely remembered now. Someone—maybe it was Damien?—had done that last night. She recalled a scratching sensation, a stinging. Now she really was property of the gang.

Her stomach roiled with nausea. She wished she could be sick somewhere, but there wasn’t time.

Damien grabbed her sore wrist and pulled her off of the bed. They seemed to be in a hurry as they moved outside where Hubby and one of his new girls waited.

“Let’s go,” Damien instructed. “Get in the car.”

Damien pushed her, and she fell against the passenger door of the car. Grasping her arm, he jerked her back while he opened the car door and ratcheted the seat forward. Then he pushed her again so that she fell into the backseat, banging her shin.

The other girl climbed in beside her. Like Kaki, the girl had long, blonde hair, and she was tall and skinny. She didn’t look or speak to Kaki.

Damien and Hubby climbed into the car and revved the motor.

“Where are we going?” the girl beside her asked.

“We’re making a stop at the grocery store, then we’ve got an appointment at the motel. Then we’re off to Pittsburgh. Don’t worry about the rest.”

Kaki stared out the window, imagining ways she could die before ever reaching the motel. If only she could jump out of the car, but she was trapped in the backseat. Maybe they’d be hit by a semi. Maybe the end of the world would come.

They pulled into the grocery store parking lot and stopped.

“Come on. Get out.” Damien pulled the seat forward and grabbed her arm.

Like drones, the two girls followed the guys into the store where they bought miscellaneous food items, sodas, toothbrushes, and shampoo.

Before they reached the check out, Hubby turned to Damien. “Oh, yeah, we should get some stuff to wash our clothes. Think that place in Pittsburgh has a washer-dryer?”

“I don’t know, man,” Damien said, irritation creeping into his tone. “Hurry up, though. We’re supposed to meet Antoine at the motel in ten minutes.”

Panic flooded over Kaki in a tidal wave. Something told her that if she went with them to Pittsburgh, she would never see her family again. For that matter, she didn’t think she’d live much longer. Maybe that was a good thing.

They trailed through the line behind people who paid no attention to them, checked out by a cashier who never looked up. She was being kidnapped and no one cared.

As they made their way across the parking lot, Kaki heard someone say her name.

“Katherine?”

The blood drained from her face as she locked eyes with Molly Wolf. Suddenly, any thought of escaping dissipated. If she spoke to Molly, Molly would be in danger, too.

Kaki waved at Molly and forced a tight smile. The frosty wall of resistance was her only hope. Don’t talk to her. The others moved quickly toward the car.

Molly seemed to be assessing Kaki’s companions. She stopped a few feet away from the car, her gaze on Kaki. “How have you been? Josh and I keep hoping you’ll stop by.”

Kaki shrank back and forced the words. “I’m fine.”

“A lot of people are looking for you—wondering where you are. I know your dad is worried.”

Kaki tensed. “I’ve had a lot going on.”

“Where are you staying now?”

“At a friend’s.”

“I see,” Molly said.

Damien moved up beside her, his feet apart, his arms crossed.

A shiver ran through her.

“Who are you?” he asked, his tone deceptively calm.

“I’m just a friend,” Molly said.

“Yeah, well, she doesn’t have any friends anymore. Come on. Let’s go.” He turned to Kaki and grabbed her elbow.

A rush of shame surged through her. Molly was smart. She could probably see what was happening. She might even go home and tell Josh…or her dad.

“You don’t scare me.” Molly’s tone was confident.

“Yeah, well, you should be scared,” he said over his shoulder as he pushed Kaki against the car.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Molly insisted. “Wait a minute. Katherine…”

Damien opened the door of the car and pushed Kaki. “Get in.”

Kaki pushed back, fighting him. She looked up at Molly in desperation.

“I said get in!” Damien shoved Kaki into the backseat.

Her hands clutched the side of the door, as she looked up at Molly. “I can’t. I’m sorry, but I can’t.” She didn’t have the strength. There was no fighting Damien. Anywhere she ran, he would find her. She would just go with him. Less people got hurt that way.

Kaki collapsed in the backseat helplessly, distress flooding her heart as the other girl climbed into the backseat as well. Hubby plopped into the passenger side of the car.

Damien shot Molly one last warning before he climbed into the driver’s seat. “Look lady, if I were you, I’d get out of here. Now.”

As they drove away, Kaki looked out the back window.

Molly got into her car.

Memories—random and disconnected—entered her brain these days. Sometimes they were from childhood; others were scenes she’d watched in television shows or movies. This one was from something she had read in English class. She couldn’t remember the title. One line stuck with her, and as they drove down Elden Street and turned off and away from the town center, it replayed in her mind. “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”