From Cage to Belly

Chapter Two

SOMEWHERE IN THAILAND

A young red haired girl sweats under the hot Thailand sun, being forced to pick tobacco on an industrial farm. She doesn't seem to remember how she got here nor who brought her to this hell hole. She doesn't even know her last name. She does remember that her first name is Erza, but that's it. Erza tends to her part of the field and guards yell and whip them all to make sure they don't fall out of line. As she is doing her work, she begins to recall what happened that got her here...

BAALBEK SLUM, LEBANON. TWO DAYS AGO.

Young Erza was from a slum in Lebanon. Her mother, Irene, was a prostitute working around to earn some money. Their one room shack is cluttered in litter and boxes. The smell of alcohol and urine plagues the shack, and boxes line up against the walls to cover the holes and cracks. Erza sits in a corner of the shack wearing a ragged and filthy dress. She is hungry for she hasn't eaten anything today. They can't afford much food since all of their money goes to rent and her mom's alcohol, sometimes they go a whole day or even a week without food. Her mom is on a couch watching on a very small and broken television. She lazes around all day, taking to the streets to sell herself at night just to earn some money. She often tasks Erza to go out and find food and beg for money too. Irene is not a good mother to Erza, often lashing out on her and taking the money she earns.

"Erza" Irene says, "come over here". Erza walks up to her skinny mother on their worn-out couch. Unlike Erza who wears a ragged dress, Irene is just wearing a literal rag, covering only her front, back and only one side. Her scarlet hair extremely messy.

"Erza, you're hungry aren't you?" She asks her. Erza nodded in reply.

"Well why don't you get off your lazy ass and get out and bring some money, or food. I don't give a crap".

"B-but" Erza shyly says, until her mother slaps her right in the face, causing her to fall on to the ground.

"Are you defying me you little bitch" Irene says in a harsh tone. "I ordered you to make money. And don't you dare come back until you made a lot of money". Erza didn't want to fight back. She knew they needed money, but she is scared to go out there, with all the crime, spontaneous battles on the streets, and the people she feared most, kidnappers. She has heard too many stories of children on the streets taken away to some mine in Africa. She doesn't want to go out, but she's afraid of her mother more. So with no objection, Erza takes to the streets to search the trash for food and to beg for money on the streets. She spends hours digging through trash cans for anything edible to eat, or the massive trash heaps scattering the streets. Not being able to afford shoes, her bare feet is prone to being cut a lot from whatever sharp happens to be on the street. She walks around the streets of Baalbek, begging from strangers for money.

"Please sir" Erza begs, holding her hands out to a stranger, "I haven't eaten anything in days".

"Sorry, I don't have any change". Erza continues on to other strangers.

"Spare some change sir".

"No. Go away".

"Some money ma'am, so my mother won't beat me tonight".

"Stay away from me you filthy street urchin". The sun comes down and she hasn't made the money she was suppose to make for her mother. Her stomach growl for all she has eaten today was a moldy roll she found in the trash. Scared of going home, she sits down in an alley and tries to go to sleep. Unknown to her, a man creeps up behind her. In just a few minutes the man grabs Erza and chloroforms her to try and prevent her from fighting back. The next day she finds herself on a cargo ship being transported to who knows where, at this point she doesn't remember who she is or where she came from. All she knows now is that she is taken from her home, where ever it may be.