Fatal Mercy | h.s

2

Fluorescent lights always reminded me of hospitals. The white glimmer of rays shining in your eyes as the doctor prepares his hands with blue latex gloves, the smell of alcohol stinging your nose and causing it to scrunch up in anxiety.

I stared lifelessly at the flickering white light above me, absolutely restrained by shackles as my body was worked on like a rat in a laboratory. My eyes were burning with exhausted tears, my mouth in a split solid line as every inch of my body was examined by men, done up by men, touched by men.

When they first took me from the warehouse, I resisted. I kicked and I screamed and I prayed above for someone to come down and help me escape this fucked up nightmare. I remember the series of cuss words that spat from my mouth, an older man snickering at my helplessness as he struck me straight across the face with no remorse. I fought back as hard as I could, hoping that maybe I would be granted some sort of super strength to fight back against fifteen men. Still, all it took was a jab into my arm and I was paralyzed, lying still, my mouth numb with pleas that were waiting to be spilled.

Conscious, but absolutely useless, a man carried me over to this operating room, a room where my body was restrained down. My mind was racing with thoughts, the paralytic injection hindering my ability to do much other than endure the trauma. I was stripped down to nothing, my entire naked body exposed for people to see. My eyes twitched and my stomach gurgled at their lust, their disgustingly vile faces staring down at me. Still, right at the door, there seemed to be two men guarding with large rifles, ready to fire if anyone were to take what they valued most.

My virginity.

I listened to vile conversations, trying my best to figure out the context of the situation. Tears fell from my eyes as the realization hit me. It appeared to be a mob ran sex trafficking ring, people from multiple ethnicities, multiple names coming together to attend a gala meant for purchasing young women. I gathered more tears in my eyes as I began to think about the stories my mother would tell me when I was younger, to be careful trusting people, to carry protective devices, to always fight back as hard as I could because the world was a dark and scary place.

And this big bad dark world absolutely despised women.

Closing my eyes, I was finally able to muster up strength to mumble, my head swaying back and forth as my body was overcome with what felt like a warm blanket. I tried my best to consolidate, to disorient myself from my surroundings and remember what it felt like to be snuggled up in my bed, but as my eyes glazed over once more, I realized it wasn't a warm compress after all but a dripping needle jabbed into my arm and slowly lulling me to drowsiness.

My feet stumbled as I was dragged along a dark corridor, no light seeming to shine upon the end of the dim hallway. I heard screams and muffled moans of women as we passed an endless array of rooms shielded by a thin crimson curtain. I tried to peer into one, my divertingly slow eyes never making it to what was hidden behind. My feet halted at the sound of a woman begging for help, the pain in her voice echoing as it sounded like she was being restrained. I shivered, my drugged mind not fully being able to comprehend where I was. The man who was guiding me tightened his grip, fingernails painfully digging into the side of my bicep. I winced only slightly, my feet dragging me along once more with mimicking movements. Finally, we stood at the end of the hallway, where a room full of doped up woman stood just as bare as I did. I saw their eyes, smudged with makeup, their livelihood being drained by each passing second.

"Move bitch," a guard had demanded, my processing speed collecting information as I was shoved forcefully right into another woman.

"Mum?" She asked me, her icy hands gripping my own as she held them up to her face. I stared right at the individual, only now noticing that this was not a woman, but a girl, no older than 16 years old. I felt tears in my eyes as my thumb brushed her bleached blonde hair from her face. I traced them along the freckles on her pale skin, hushing her before the inevitable consequence came.