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it would have been better for the girl to say nothing at all. The man turned suddenly on his heel and without warning blew a hole through the girl’s head. Liberty felt the blood splatter onto her face and she stood frozen, her heart beating like a drum as she heard the girl’s body hit the floor. Too afraid to look beside her, Liberty found a spot on the dirty wall in front of her and kept her eyes there. Tears fell down her eyes and mixed with the blood as it created crimson trails of sorrow on her cheeks. I have to get out of here. It’s only a matter of time before that girl on the floor becomes me, she thought. Trixie squeezed Liberty’s hand, but neither of them spoke a word.

“Clean this bitch up,” the man ordered one of the other men. “And put the rest of them in their cages. Nobody eats tonight. Everybody meets quota . . . no exceptions . . . and until everyone does so, no one will be fed!”

As soon as Liberty was inside her closet-sized room she fell to her knees while frantically wiping the blood off her face. She knew that she could not take much more of this. It was only a matter of time before she would lose herself in this world. Her breaking point was nearing, and as she curled up on her cot she closed her eyes as the heroin lulled her back into a restless sleep.

EIGHT

“GET UP! EVERYBODY OUT OF BED!”

Liberty heard the voices of the shepherds on the other side of the steel door as they walked throughout the warehouse waking the girls. Liberty was still shaken from the events that had taken place the night before. It wasn’t the first dead body she had seen. Over the years she had witnessed many gruesome things, but something about feeling the girl’s blood on her face set off an intense fear within her. Anxious and weary, she was overwhelmed. As she opened her eyes, she instantly felt the itch to use. The crawling sensation that crept over her body caused her to dig her nails into her skin. She was on E and definitely needed a pick me up. The tumbling nausea building in her stomach wasn’t from a lack of food but from a lack of heroin. She was jonesin’ so bad that she could barely control her bowels. The shepherds kept the girls doped up most days, but on occasion they would make them go without the drug just to show their dominance. Liberty hated those days. The type of pain that she experienced from withdrawal was unbearable and she would do anything to feed her habit. She prayed that today was not one of those days. Liberty silently wondered why she was being disturbed. The girls never worked the boulevard in the daytime. They were creatures of the night so to be forced out of bed aroused Liberty’s suspicion. The locks clicked on her door and she was wrangled out into the hallway, forced into a moving line with the other girls. She noticed Trixie ahead of her and she pushed her way to the front until she was directly behind her girl.

“What is going on?” Liberty whispered.

“What do you mean? This is the one day every year that we have a chance of getting out of here. They are choosing new girls to work the brothels today. How did you forget that?” Trixie asked.

Mixed emotions filled Liberty. She knew not to get her hopes up. Year after year she had been overlooked and bypassed. It only made her bitter to know that other chicks were moving up in the ranks while she was left to rot.

“This is a waste of time,” she shot back with an attitude.

“Maybe, but at least you get to wash your ass for the occasion,” Trixie stated. She knew that she would never be one of the girls to be handpicked for the brothels . . . she would never be more than a street walker. Lack of beauty was not the issue for Trixie because she was more than gorgeous. Her flawless looks rivaled those of any world-class super-model. It was the tool between her legs that kept her at the bottom, but she still welcomed the selection process . . . using it for what it was, a chance to take a real shower. Something as simple as that was a luxury.

They were herded