Sanctuary

"We'll tell you everything."
I nodded my head, a sign of assurance. I wasn't allowed to talk. Let Andy handle it.
"We run the trafficking. We find the girls, find ways to get them away from whoever they're with, them bam. They're ours. We always get girls under 15, always above 4."
"Always for sex slaves?"
sick.
"Yes. Once we get the fear into them they get it. Once they turn.. Cooperative... We put them up for sale."
"Ever kept any for yourself?"
"Of course. We prefer girls around 10."
my stomach churned. I love children. This broke my heart to hear this as if it were a joke. My throat tightened as I thought of sara, but kept my face straight.
"You kept any for yourself lately?"
"Nah. Last one we sold was a blonde girl, about 10. She was a fighter. Would have done nicely."
I crossed my heart and hoped it was Goldie.
"Name?"
"What do you care?"
"where do you send the girls?"
One of the men sighed and pulled out a binder.
"Last few we've sold have gone to middle age men. a couple women."
A girl maybe 12 or 13 came over the table. She was frail. Her light brown hair limp, and she wore bruises on her wrists. They looked smooth. Couldn't have been a rope. Maybe a ligature. Her eyes were red and puffy, as if she'd been crying, and also bore a red mark on her cheek, a bruise forming around the outer corner of her eye. She was only in a pair of underwear. No bra. No shirt. No pants. Bruises and lacerations all over her body. A couple of cigarette burns.
Her voice was small and shaky.
"Can I fetch you anything to drink sir," she asked Andy. He looked to me with harsh eyes before turning back to her.
"Whiskey. Take my girl with you. She knows how to make it correctly."
I immediately understood what he was saying. I wanted to play it off to these men that he was my dominant. Which he was, Andy always called the shots in our relationship, and definitely maintained dominance, but in a normal, loving way. I wanted to make it seem now that he was one of them.
I stood with a smile and leaning over to him, covering my mouth with his hair so the gorillas couldn't lip read.
I quietly whispered, "kill em."
He nodded and smacked my ass in front of them. "I'll take care of that tonight baby," he said. Making it seem as if I said something with a sexual nature to them. I love how well we can work together.
I walked over to the bar behind the gorillas, the child following me. She looked like how I imagined Karolina would when she's older. The girl had light brown hair that went a bit past her shoulders, and bangs falling down her forehead, a bit past her brows. I put my hand on her shoulder once we were out of sight, and she flinched.
'Its okay' I mouthed to her with caring eyes. Her own sweet, matching brown eyes started to water. I pulled her to my chest, and she placed her bony arms around my back, and felt her start to silently cry into my chest. She pulled me down and whispered in my ear.
'Help me'
The gorillas turned back to where the child and I were, yelling What's taking so long?! As they turned around, they saw me with the girl in my arms, and I saw Andy behind them retrieve his bow and arrows, snap them quickly into full volume, and draw back as one gorilla reached for his gun.

Notes