CHAPTER THREE

ALICIA

Everything that I was scared of and wanted to never happen was happening. I didn’t know what to do or how to react. It felt like my soul had just left my body.

Numb.

Anxious.

Horrified.

This is how I felt when I heard his voice.

“Welcome to Colombia, my dear cousin.” He wore an evil smile. I used all the courage and strength that was left in me to walk away from John but he grabbed me by my wrist, forcing me to face him, then pushed me so hard that I fell to the ground.

Son of a bitch.

“Just let me go.” I tried to hide how scared I was.

“Not so fast, bitch.”. I got up and faced him.

“What do you want from me?”. I knew what was coming was bad.

Extremely bad.

“I’m a fucking fugitive because of you. You have to face the consequences for making me mad.” He wasn’t smiling anymore, he was pissed.

“You ruined my life. Your mom stole everything from me. You tried to rape me, and now this? You are stupid if you think you’re the victim. You deserve to rot in jail, you son of a bitch.” I expected him to slap me but he just chuckled.

“How did you find me?”. He smiled and came even closer to me.

“It was easy because you’re a fool. Your first mistake was telling that dumbass friend of yours, Megan, about your stupid plan about coming to Colombia. She told me everything after fucking her, and that’s when I came up with this astonishing idea. The email that you got was from non-other than me.” I felt like a fool.

“And when you called to confirm if the job was legit, one of Smash’s workers answered your call and you believed her because you’re a fool.” He was a monster. I didn’t know what to say, everything made sense to me.

“You and your mom ruined my life, what more do you want from me?”. It was hard to believe that my own cousin would cause me so much pain.

“I want money, and that’s what you'll make me. You’ll be working here for a good friend of mine. The only thing that you have to do is obey him and shake your ass on the pole…easy, right? ”. He laughed.

A short, fat man —who I believe was in his late 50s came from the first door that was next to the entrance. He was wearing a white sweatpants, an oversized white T-shirt, and red sneakers. He had a huge chain on his neck, diamond earrings, and a lot of rings on his fingers. He was bald and had a huge scar that covered most part of his left cheek. He had a round belly and beard that was mostly covered in grey.

“This is Smash, your new boss.”

He handed over the briefcase that he was holding to John and started to scan me with his eyes from head to toes. John quickly opened the briefcase, and his lips formed a satisfied smile. He was happy with whatever that was in the briefcase.

“If I find that she’s not a virgin, voy a matarte, mi hijo.” Smash said. “Amigo!, you won’t have to kill me, she’s a virgin…go and check her, you’ll see.” He let out a fake laugh.

“I’m going, my dear cousin. Be a good girl, okay?”. He wiped a tear that was rolling down my cheek with his thumb and left me with that creepy guy. Luke grabbed my arm and forced me to enter the room that was at the back on the first floor. I tried to fight him, wanting him to let go of me, but I was fighting a losing battle. He was way too strong.

The room was too dark although the TV and lights were on.

“Don’t try anything stupid if you want to live.” He left, and the sound of the door getting locked followed. I was left alone in that dark room. I was terrified and couldn’t predict what was to happen. I cried myself to sleep.

The next morning, when I woke up, I was confused, not knowing where the hell I was, until it rang in my head.

Shit.

The flashbacks of the previous night played in my head—like a horror movie that I had watched over and over again. I tried to cry but there were no tears coming out of my eyes—that’s how numb I felt. I examined the room. It wasn’t dark anymore. The small window at the corner allowed some sunlight to enter the room, making it a little bit brighter. It had a double bed, a TV that was placed on the wall, a grey couch, and a black door, which led to the bathroom. It was a decent room. I tried to open the door, but it was locked.

I then tried to open the black door; it wasn’t locked. There was a bathroom behind the door, it had a new toothbrush, toothpaste, towels, and a robe. It looked like the room had been prepared for me before I even landed in Colombia. I took a cold shower and brushed my teeth. When I went back to the room, I found Luke sitting on the couch. His eyes were fixed to the TV.

“Eat your food.” He pointed to the plate that was placed on the bed. There were two slices of bread and some eggs on the plate.

“I’m not hungry.” I was mad at him. I thought he was a good guy but turned out to be a son of a bitch.

“You will need energy to entertain your clients tonight. You better eat.” His eyes were still fixed on the TV screen.

“I don’t want your filthy food. I thought you were a nice guy, but no, you’re so evil!”. He finally turned to me.

“Alicia, I’m really sorry that you’re going through this because of me. I thought you did something bad to John, I didn’t know that you were the victim.” He showed some sympathy.

“If you feel bad, then why don’t you just help me escape this place? I have to leave, please.”. There was nothing that I wanted more than to see myself out of that building. I was ready to do anything just to see myself out of that building.

“Smash won’t hesitate to fill my head with bullets if I ever betray him. It was so hard to earn his trust…I can’t. He took me in when I lost my parents.” He shook his head in disapproval. I knew that he was the only guy who could help me escape. It was written all over his face—he wanted to help me.

“Please…”. He got up and left without saying anything. I sat on the floor and cried, I knew that without his help, it was impossible to escape or even survive.

Few hours felt like a whole fucking year in that small room. Smash came to my room and forced me to go with him to the red room—where all the strippers did their jobs. The room was massive and was red, everything inside was red. I didn’t want to be there, watching girls, some were younger than me, throwing their ass in the air. It felt awkward and annoying. From the strippers that were making out in the corner to the young teenage girl who was doing a dance to a guy who looked old enough to be her granddad—it all made me sick and so uncomfortable.

The red lights made me sick and felt like I was in a dream. I fought with Smash, refusing to sit with him and watch the strippers but I finally obeyed him after getting some punches on my face.

“You have to learn all these moves. Next week I’m going to sell you and my client expects you to dance like those bitches.”

I only had few days to escape because there was no way in hell I would allow that fat man to make money out of me. His words pushed me to want to escape even more. We spent about two hours watching the strippers, then I was sent back to the dark room. I sat on the bed and watched TV, trying to forget for a moment about all the shit that I was in. The sound of the key unlocking the door forced me to stand beside the bed, scared of not knowing what was about to happen to me. Luke came in and closed the door behind him. He gave me a rusty key.

“This is your way out. You can’t use the front entrance…it will be easy to get spotted. You have to use the back entrance.” He was shaking, making it clear that he was scared and if we were to get caught, we were going to die.

“We won’t get caught?” God, I was so scared. “No, there are no guards at the back. Plus the club is crowded and very loud right now. This is your only chance to escape.”

We left the room and went to the back exit door without getting spotted. My heart was beating so fast and I was sweating like crazy. It took Luke close to a minute to finally open the steel door because his hands were shaking. The door finally opened; I could smell my freedom.

“Adios, Alicia. I want you to know that I’m not a bad person. Take good care of yourself.” He winked at me and closed the door, leaving me outside. It was hard to believe that I was able to escape so easily. It felt too good to be true. I ran as fast as I could and only stopped running when I was far from Smash’s club. I was tired, hungry, and sad. I had nowhere to go. I had no job and a place to stay. I was homeless in a foreign country. I asked some of the people that I came across to help me, but they didn’t because they didn’t understand English. Some treated me like shit because they believed I was a homeless girl. I walked around the city for some hours. I was scared, thinking that maybe Smash noticed that I wasn’t at his club anymore and maybe he had sent his men to come after me.

I saw a train station and felt like it was the only place that was safe enough for me at that moment. I went to the ladies' room at the train station and locked myself inside. I closed the toilet seat and sat there. The only thing that I wanted to do was kill myself. I swear if there was a rope, I would have hung myself. My life was over, and there was nothing to live for. I dozed off while sitting on the toilet seat.