A Beautiful Prison Read online

  She had never felt like she belonged back home, never thought she was anything special, and certainly never made an impact on anyone. She went through each day in a repetitive motion. It worked for her, and she had chalked up her inner loneliness to the fact that her home life was anything but filled with the love and happiness that many families experienced.

  Then there were the darker desires she had, the ones that invaded her dreams with pain and pleasure. She kept those desires hidden, never allowed them to control her, even though they tried. They were sick and twisted, and she knew they served no positive purpose in her life. Suddenly, Ruby became aware of the silence as people made their way from the bus station.

  “Hey, pretty girl.” The small group of guys walked over to her. There were three of them, and as she looked around, already knowing she was alone. She felt dread settle deep in her belly. She stood, feeling the weight of their stares on her as if they had physically reached out and taken hold of her. The bus had already pulled away, and a look in the small operator’s box showed her that it was currently empty. Ruby’s pulse increased and the flight or fight instinct moved through her with each step the guys took toward her.

  “You shouldn’t be all alone here. This isn’t the best part of town,” one of the guys said.

  “I’m waiting for my boyfriend to come. He should be here any minute.” The lie tumbled out of her easily, but the three guys chuckled and looked at each other.

  “That right?” The guy in front of the other two stopped a few feet away and grinned. He lifted his cigarette to his mouth and inhaled deeply before blowing the smoke toward her. “How about we wait with you? Keep you company?”

  She shook her head. “Not necessary, but thanks.” Her throat felt tighter, her mouth very dry. He moved closer still, and the stench of stale cigarette smoke and sweat filled her nose. He reached out to touch her, but she took a step back. The bench behind her stopped her retreat, and his grin widened.

  “The next bus won’t be here for another half hour, and the asshole dishing out the tickets took a cigarette break just a second ago.” He snagged a strand of her hair and gave it a hard enough tug that her head jerked to the side. “Girl, you got a mouth on you that was made to suck di—”

  “Hey, punks, get the hell out of here.” The deep, scratchy voice at her side had the three guys stepping away from her. “If I see you loitering around here again, I’m calling the cops.” They turned, and all but ran in the other direction, and Ruby sagged in relief. She turned and looked at the guy that had saved her, realizing he must be the one they said went on a smoke break. He wore a uniform with the bus company’s logo on it and had a cigarette hanging from between his lips. If he hadn’t shown up when he did... she shook her head because she wasn’t even about to go there.

  “Kid, you better be careful. This is a shitty part of town, and not some place a young lady like you should be traveling alone, even if it is morning.” She licked her lips and nodded. She bent down and picked up the paper, pamphlets, and her bag, before looking over at him again. He was probably in his fifties with a pot belly and a receding hairline.

  “Thank you.”

  He nodded and looked down at the stack of papers she held. “If you’re looking for a place to stay that is relatively decent, you can check out Liberty Inn. It’s about a thirty-minute walk from here. Or a cab can take you, but some of the cabbies will try to rip you off.” She nodded and offered him a wavering smile. Shouldn’t afford a cab, and certainly not if she was jerked around with the price. Walking sounded much better after being on that bus all night anyway. “Just take a left at the intersection up there.” He pointed to the main road off the bus station property. “Follow that all the way down until you see the donut shop with the giant freckled girl statue. Take a right and you can’t miss it.” He took a long puff from his cigarette. “It ain’t the Hilton, but the sheets are clean and no one should bug you.” She nodded and thanked him once more before she headed to the main road.

  It took her longer than she would have liked to find the motel for the night, mainly because she had ended up getting turned around, even if the bus station attendant had given her pretty straightforward directions. Ruby was used to crowds, used to filth in her life. She was pretty sure the few women she had seen on the side of one street corner had been prostitutes, and the numerous homeless people that had been sitting in the corners of alleyways and against the sides of buildings had looked half-dead. She had known this city wasn’t the best place to live, but it was big and had more job opportunities. She would travel tomorrow toward the better parts of the city, hoping to check out any positions she found in the classifieds.

  She finally ended up finding the Liberty Inn, and it matched the scenery she had experienced thus far. It was a dump, plain and simple, but it had a roof and four walls, and the older woman at the front desk had been nice.

  She tossed her bag on the floor and looked around the room. There was a full-sized bed in the center of the room with a brown and what she assumed was once white comforter. A TV that looked twenty years old sat on a scarred dresser across from the bed, and the bathroom was on the other side of the small hallway. She took the bag of fast food to the bed and sat down. Her mother would have realized she wasn’t coming home, or maybe she was too drunk or high to notice. Either way, she’d know eventually that she was all alone now. Ruby knew that if her mother did care that she wasn’t there, it was only because she wouldn’t be getting any more money.

  After she finished eating, she spread the paper out on the mattress and grabbed a pen. Looking over the classifieds didn’t show much, mainly positions for which she wasn’t qualified. However, she did see a couple secretary jobs, some positions for flipping burgers, and one for a maid. She circled all of them, set the stuff on the floor, and went over to the window.

  The parking lot was riddled with potholes, and a few rusted cars and trucks sat in some of the spots. In the distance, she could see the tall buildings that made up Fort Hampton. She was about to close the drapes, when the sight of something flashing on the main road had her glancing that way. What she saw had her heart briefly stopping. A gleaming, black stretch limo sat across the street. Cars moved back and forth, partially obstructing her view, but she could clearly see the limo. Was it the same one from the bus station? The likelihood of that was slim, but Ruby couldn’t help tingling of her skin as a strange sense of familiarity washed through her.

  She closed the drapes and checked the locks on the door. Sleep sounded heavenly. She walked over to the bed and lay down. For several seconds she just stared at the cracked and water-stained ceiling, but soon her eyes grew heavy, and she submitted to the temptation of sleep.

  A soft clicking sound woke Ruby. When she opened her eyes, the room was dark and she passed off the noise as a dream. She closed her eyes again, and soon the relaxation took hold once more. A noise right beside her, and the feeling of another presence in the room, had her eyes opening and her heart racing. Before she could react, there was a stinging pain in the side of her neck and a flash of fire following that.

  She opened her mouth to scream, but someone clamped their hand over her mouth and nose. She struggled, God did she struggle, but even with her eyes wide open, she couldn’t see a thing in the thick cloak of darkness. Flailing out her arms, hoping to connect with the intruder, she was able to slam her fist into the side of his face. There was a masculine grunt, and then he pressed his hand down harder on her mouth until her air supply was cut off and she was on the verge of passing out. She couldn’t get any oxygen in, and it felt as though her heart would burst right through her chest. Then her limbs felt lead-filled, and her head felt separated from her body. This had nothing to do with the lack of oxygen, and everything to do with whatever he had injected into her neck. Right before the drug in her body completely claimed her, Ruby realized that her life might not have been so bad after all.

  * * *

  A jarring motion roused Ruby, and she tried to blink, but quickly realized something covered her eyes. Her head felt funny, her stomach roiled, and every muscle in her body ached. She tried to move her arms but they were bound behind her back, and when she tested her legs, she realized they were also in restraints.

  Everything came rushing back to her, and as if her memories brought the pain back to the surface, her neck throbbed. Ruby took note of her surroundings, as much as she could with her senses diminished, and she knew instantly that she was in a vehicle. Given the fact she was laying on a hard metal ground, she assumed she was in a van or truck. She listened, but all she could hear was the vehicle moving. No one talked, so she didn’t know how many people were in the vehicle with her. Although she couldn’t see, while she knew someone was driving, she also knew there was someone else very close to her. That presence surrounded her, had fear slamming into her repeatedly like a sledgehammer, and had her feeling sick.

  Sucking in a big lungful of air only caused her belly to cramp even more, and she knew she was going to throw up. Ruby rolled onto her side and emptied the contents of her stomach. There was shuffling beside her and she tensed when someone jerked her over and forced her to sit up. She could hear something opening before she felt something pressed to her mouth. Ruby turned her head, not knowing what they were trying to give her.

  “You’d do good to behave.” The voice was deep and slightly scratchy. Whoever spoke was right next to her, and he grabbed her chin harshly between his fingers and jerked her head back around. “It’s water; now drink it.” He pressed the bottle to her mouth again and tipped it back before she even had her mouth open. Some of the water got past her lips, but a lot of it spilled down her chin and covered her shirt. It went down the wrong tube and she coughed and gagged. She felt water spray out of her
mouth, and when she heard the man curse, she knew she had spit it all over him. Good, the bastard. “You fucking cunt.” Ruby braced herself for the hit that was inevitable, but another male voice, much sterner and filled with authority, came through.

  “Don’t lay a hand on her. You mark up the merchandise and the price decreases. You already bruised her jaw, you fucking idiot.” The man beside her grumbled, but didn’t harm her. He pushed her back down on the hard floor, and fear kept her immobile. She didn’t know how long she lay there, keeping her mouth shut and just trying to listen to anything that would give her an idea of what was happening. Maybe she should have screamed, struggled more, but all she could think about was staying alive. After what seemed like hours, the vehicle pulled to a stop, and the doors opened and closed. There was a moment when all she heard was the sound of her frantic breathing. She felt the man’s presence in the back with her and knew he was watching her despite the fact she couldn’t see him.

  “Where are you taking me?” Ruby had no idea where she actually got the strength to ask the question, but it had been tumbling around in her head, and apparently just spilled free. She clamped her mouth shut, expecting pain for speaking, but only heard silence. She felt the man’s eyes on her, but he didn’t respond, and her fear grew. “Are you going to hurt me?” It was a foolish question since they had already hurt her, but pain was a very real fear, as was the unknown, and she knew that they could cause so much more of it.

  Her tears came out hard and strong, and their saltiness soon soaked the cloth that covered her eyes. The sound of deep murmurs right outside the vehicle was somewhat clear, but she could only grasp parts of what they were saying. She strained to hear more without looking like she was doing just that.

  “She should fetch at least five digits. She’s got a good body, decent face, pretty young. If she’s still a virgin, that price will jump exponentially. She needs to be checked out thoroughly before we put her on the block.”

  The voice was muffled, but Ruby could hear him clear enough. It didn’t take her long to realize what her fate was. She had seen enough shows about human sex trafficking to know that must be what they were talking about, and what they planned on doing with her. Something in her snapped, as fear, survival, and adrenalin pumped through her veins. She cried harder and started straining against her bonds, kicking out even though her legs were bound. She probably looked like a fish out of water, but she didn’t care. All Ruby had on her mind was escape and survival.

  Hands grabbed her upper arms, but she kept moving. She had to get out of here or she’d die. If this was her fate, then she wouldn’t go down without a fight. Kicking both of her legs out again, Ruby renewed her strength and contacted with the man holding her down. She opened her mouth to scream, but the sound came out garbled. He smacked a hand down on her mouth hard enough that her eyes burned from the pain.

  “You stupid fucking bitch.”

  She continued to struggle, but he moved his hand from her mouth to her throat and pressed down hard enough that she struggled to breathe. It was the same sensation she’d felt at the motel, and she tried to scream, even though no sound came out. With her hands tied behind her back, she was helpless, and her crying only made the suffocating feeling worse. He tightened his hand on her throat, and a low laugh came from him as she struggled. The sound of a door opening came through her distress, and suddenly she could breathe. Ruby sucked fresh, cool air into her burning lungs. Over her gasping, she heard the distinct sound of flesh hitting flesh. Seconds later, someone grabbed her bound feet and pulled. She cried harder and kicked out, but whoever had her jerked even harder until she was no longer in the van, but on the hard ground. The air whooshed out of her from the impact, and then, violently hauled upright, her head was tugged back by the hair, and then someone gripped her chin and turned her head from side to side. A moment of silence passed.

  “Decent body, if on the thin side, but she’ll look good with the others on the stage.”

  “Please, just let me go.” No one spoke after that, instead she was thrust forward and into the arms of another man. “Please, just let me go home,” Ruby cried, begged and pleaded, but there was silence. “I won’t say anything to anyone, I swear.”

  “Little girl, your home will be with whoever purchases you.” That had her blood chilling and her body tensing. She had assumed as much, but actually hearing it aloud made it solidify inside of her. There was a low, sadistic chuckle. “That’s right. Your life is over; you are just an object up for bid.” Before she could say anything else there was another sting in her neck, but this time the drug slammed into her fast and hard.

  “Put her in the cargo hold with the others.”

  That was the last thing she heard before she slumped forward and darkness was her only companion.

  Chapter Three

  Ruby hung her head and shuffled forward with the other women. She didn’t know where she was or how long she had been in captivity. Time had run together until she didn’t know if it had been days, or even weeks. All she knew was that after she had woken up the second time she no longer had the blindfold on, but was now bound and gagged, in what appeared to be a storage compartment of a plane, with a handful of other women, all similarly restrained, crammed inside.

  After what felt like hours on the airplane, they finally landed. Blindfolded, they were hauled out as if they were nothing but worthless cargo. They moved all the women to one large room with no windows, only one guarded exit, and a hole in the ground to be used as their toilet. They slept on stained and nasty-smelling mattresses on the floor, ate disgusting food that didn’t even look edible, drank brown-tinted water, and washed in a communal shower room. The men that stood guard over them never touched or hurt them; they just barked orders as if they were dogs. They had taken her away once, drugged her, and restrained her to a table. But she had blacked out after that. She didn’t know what they had done to her and had woken up back on the disgusting mattress in the room with the other women. Images of them touching her while she was unconscious, of violating her had played through her mind. She hadn’t felt any differently, wasn’t sore, but she couldn’t shake off the feeling that they had done something very wrong to her.

  Even now, as she slowly moved forward in line, all she could remember was hearing the screams of one of the girls that had dared to speak out. She had scratched and kicked at one of the men until they had taken her away, away form Ruby and the rest of the women. It had seemed like forever before they’d brought her back. When they did, Ruby knew that whatever they had done to her had broken a part of her. She had a distant look in her eyes, an almost lost expression. It was one of the most frightening things Ruby had ever seen.

  Maybe Ruby should have fought harder, tried to connect with the other girls held captive, but they were always watched, ordered to stay silent, and the fear of her situation and of pain kept her silent. She felt weak, cowardly, even though she knew she had simply been trying to stay alive. Conflict ran high inside of her, the tug and pull of doing something to retaliate, or being meek and submissive to survive. They didn’t hit her, and for that, she was thankful, but the words she had heard when she was first taken played in her head repeatedly.

  “You mark up the merchandise and the price decreases.”

  So she stayed quiet, did as she was told, and knew that this wasn’t her last stop. There had been enough cryptic conversations from the men guarding them that Ruby understood they would be sold, even if she hadn’t already come to that conclusion the very first night of her capture. To who they were being sold was still a mystery, but Ruby had seen enough documentaries on the depraved things that would be forced upon her ran through her head like a horrifying movie reel.

  Now here she stood, in a line wearing nothing but a shift with a rope binding her wrists together in front of her. She glanced up and saw a thick curtain blocking her view of their ultimate destination. Everything was silent aside from the few girls that were sniffling back their tears. She looked to the side and saw the men on each side of the line that had their eyes trained on them. Ruby shivered from the chill in the air especially since she wore a very loose fitting shift that looked more like a pillowcase than an actual dress. It was clean though, and all the women had been forced to wash very thoroughly right before they bound and gagged them once more and thrust them into the back of a van.