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  “Trained like a dog?” I asked him, accusing him with my words.

  “Well in her case a dog would be easier, but yes, trained to obey with discussing that is what our customers want from us.”

  “Am I being trained too?” I asked timidly.

  “No. I'm not like her owner. I like to talk to you. You are my world and not a toy. I really love you.” He smiled at me like he meant it. “Let's go for a walk, just the two of us. This is still our honeymoon.”

  “Yes, Tata,” I nodded again figuring that was what he wanted to hear.

  He pulled me back down the hall away from the cafeteria and then he pulled out a key and unlocked a door. It led outside, to the where the grass had been mowed. This was where the limousines had parked. I looked up and tried to guess which one was ours.

  “Tell me a little about yourself,” he suggested.

  “There is nothing to tell. I'm just not that interesting.”

  “Yes, you are. Besides I want to hear everything, the good, the bad and the boring.”

  “It would mostly be the latter.”

  He burst out laughing and we walked off hand in hand.

  In the end he had to ask direct questions, which I all answered. When we returned to the parking lot he knew that I had never met my father and that my mom was a businesswoman and that my grandmother had been the one to raise me. My mother had been like a weekend dad who spoiled me when she was at home.

  When I was twelve my mother sent me to boarding school. Not because I had done something wrong, but because my mother felt that my grandmother was getting too old to be burdened with me on a daily basis.

  I assured him that I had been very good and that my grandmother had been mad about losing my companionship.

  He said that he was sure that I had been really good for my grandmother. My being good seemed to be very important to him.

  A car pulled up and a man got out, throwing the keys on the seat. He came over to Tata and they hugged, slapping each other on their backs. They talked for a bit and then Tata called me over to him. He introduced me in another language and I reached out and shook the man's hand, as is normal in Europe.

  The men talked and I turned away from them. No one was paying attention to me. The men went in and Tata held the door for me. I was still holding the door and they were talking and laughing.

  I took a step back and let the door fall. I went right to the car. I grabbed the keys and locked the doors. I started the car and drove off. My heart was pounding away so hard that it hurt as I went off the way the man had come.

  I drove fast and a bit reckless, but I was sure that I had to hurry. I needed to get off of his property and reach the police. The burden of saving everyone laid on my shoulders, the other ten and maybe even the ones who had been sold. Maybe they had kept records.

  I drove to a gate and jumped out to open it. They had someone watching the gate and he tried to grab me. I darted back to the car and locked the door again.

  He was trying to open the door of the car. He pounded on the window and shook his fist at me. I started the car and slowly drove off as he swore at me. At least I think he was swearing, but he was definitely flipping me off.

  I picked up speed surprised at how big the estate had been.

  I saw a yellow sign with odd writing on it. It was probably the name of a town. The number eight was written after it. That had to mean eight kilometers. I turned that way and drove as fast as I could. What did I care if the police stopped me? I was heading their way anyway.

  I checked the gas gage. It said half full. If this town didn't have a police station I would drive on until I found one.

  I was in town in no time. The people were staring at me. I parked and asked for the police in as many languages as I could. A man and woman both pointed in the same direction. I got back in the car and drove that way.

  I cried relieve when I saw a sign that looked right. The word looked like the word polite. This was a good sign.

  I parked again and went in. It was indeed a police station. I went to a man reading the newspaper.

  He was looking me up and down. He bent his newspaper to the side and motioned over his shoulder and then he went back to his paper.

  I stepped the way he wanted me too. There was a man in an office. I knocked on his door and he looked up surprised. He stood and said something.

  “Do you speak English?” I asked.

  “Yes, a little English.” He pointed to a chair.

  I sat down and caught my breath. “Fifty-two girls were kidnapped. They are keeping us in a huge building about ten kilometers from here. We need help. Do you understand me?”

  He shook his head no.

  “Translator, interpreter?” I asked, trying to find words that he would understand.

  He responded to the word interpreter. He nodded and picked up the phone. The officer called someone and looked at his watch. He laughed which really scared me but I needed help and I couldn't be choosy in what form that came in.

  He called out to the man at the front desk then he nodded at me and went back to work.

  I sat there quietly but my legs were bouncing around with my nervousness. I wanted out of this country as fast as possible. I hated it here. Nothing but pain and violence lived here. I waited and waited. The man mistook my bouncing and pointed at a dirty looking bathroom behind him.

  I decided to go before the translator got here. When she was here I needed to spit everything out as fast as I could. I was afraid that they were moving the other girls while I sat here doing nothing.

  I returned to my chair and continued to wait. The policeman looked up at me again and again. He was trying to place me. Had we been on the news? He could end up being a hero yet today.

  I heard a couple of cars pull up and a man came in. He looked at the policeman and at me. He didn't say anything.

  “Fifty-one other girls and myself were kidnapped. They are keeping us just outside of town. I can show you where. Please, my friends need help.”

  “Save it, angel, he can't understand you.” Tata came in holding onto Sarah. His friend came in with Melina. The police officers went right to them and started fondling them.

  Tata took hold of me by the back of my head. “If you try to runaway again. I will let them have you. Would you like that?”

  I shook my head no. He slapped me hard and I flew to the floor. He grabbed me by my arm and brought me out to the car. I fought to get away from him but his fingers were pinching into my arm. He opened the door and sat me down. Then he tied my hands together with a thin rope.

  People were walking by but they were ignoring us. How could they? I was obviously being kidnapped.

  He rolled the car window down, closed the door and then tied my hands to the door handle. I started tugging the second he let go. He grabbed hold of my face and moved it so I had to look at him. “Don't,” he said in English. He let go and went around the car and got in. He sighed and then he reached over and rolled my window back up.

  Tata started the car and took off. He was driving very quickly. I had to hold onto the door for stability.

  “Why can you drive a car?”

  I shrugged. “Why wouldn't I be able to?”

  He pulled the car to the side of the road and grabbed onto my face again. He hit my head against the window behind me. “Never give me an answer like that ever again. Do you understand?”

  I nodded as best I could with his hand and fingers pushing into my face.

  “Where did you learn to drive a car?” he repeated.

  “At school.”

  Again he hit my head against the glass. Not hard enough to break the window but hard enough to really hurt.

  “Don't lie to me.”

  “I didn't. We learn at school in America.”

  “Why were you in America?” He looked like he didn't believe me.

  “I'm American. I was the foreign exchange student. I'm not from Switzerland. Honest. I'm from Vermont in the United States. I l
earned at school and I've had my license since I was sixteen.”

  He let go of me and slapped me again. My head flew into the dashboard. He grabbed me by my hair and pounded my face into the dashboard again.

  I tasted blood. It was coming out of my nose and from my busted lips.

  He started the car and drove off again.

  He pulled up and his brothers and mother came out and they were yelling. I wasn't sure if it was at me or at him.

  Tata didn't say anything as he untied me from the car door and yanked me out. He threw the keys over at his brothers. He said something to him and pulled me inside.

  Tata took me into the cafeteria. The others gasped when they saw me.

  He pulled me right up to them so they could see how terrible I looked. “Sandra tried to run away. Tell them how far you got.” He looked at me like a madman.

  “I was in a town about ten kilometers from here at the police station.” I raised my shoulder and wiped the blood off of my mouth by rubbing my face over my shoulder. I could feel more blood replacing what I had just wiped away.

  “Tell them what the police said.”

  “They didn't say anything. They just called him.” I motioned to Tata with my head.

  “That's right.” He shoved me away from them. “It's time for your punishment to start.” He picked up a cane on the way out.

  I started to bawl, to really really bawl.

  He grabbed a fist full of my hair and left the room, pushing me ahead of him. He took me up to our room and started undressing me.

  I was shaking like a leaf as he went about his work. He untied my hands and got my clothes off. Then he retied my hands in front of me and laid me over the bed. He tied my hands to the bed.

  “This is going to hurt like hell. Feel free to scream out. They should know what the punishment for trying to run away is. It's only fair for them. They can learn through you.”

  The blood from my nose and mouth was getting on the blanket under my face. The smell of blood was everywhere. I was gagging on it.

  My entire body jumped at the first blow. I had bigger problems than my nose now. He was beating at me so fast and hard that all I could do was cry. I didn't scream and I think that disappointed him.

  I had decided never to run again. I was his slave and that was what my life was now. I had to make him happy with me. He wasn't and he was showing how displeased he was with me.

  “I'm sorry, Tata,” I managed to say before I passed out.

  I woke up right where I had fallen asleep, tied to the bed. I moved as little as possible. I wanted to hear if I was alone and I wanted to know if the punishment was over.

  The movement of moving my head and looking around hurt me. My face had been sticking to the bed because of the dried blood. My face felt so swollen but the skin on my back hurt the whole way from my shoulders all the way down to my thighs. That pain was definitely worse. I couldn't remember him whipping my back but he had because I couldn't move my shoulders either. My skin was cold and hot all at once.

  It was dark out. I could hear a TV on in the next room.

  “Tata,” I called out. I don't know why, or what I wanted from him. Even if he untied my hands I wouldn't find a more comfortable position. Maybe if I laid down the long way on the bed with my feet up? They had fallen asleep and they were tingling painfully.

  “Tata,” I called out a little louder. I started to cry. I felt so sorry for myself.

  The door opened and I heard heavy footsteps walking around me.

  “Tata?”

  “Yes, it's me.” He moved to my right hand and untied them from the bed. He wasn't saying anything. His silence was scaring me.

  “I'm so sorry. Please stop being mad at me,” I begged.

  “Shh,” he said as he untied my other hand too. He moved me so he was looking at my face. “Can you stand?”

  “I don't think so. My feet have fallen asleep.”

  He nodded and pulled me on the bed the way I had wanted. “Sleep some more.”

  He got up and left again. He had closed the door and I could still hear the TV. The sounds coming from it were hard in a sing sang way. The words flowed together but they still had hard endings.

  I listened as my eyes drooped. I was still so tired.

  Tata was in bed with me when I woke up the next time. I was shivering. I tried to move so I was covered up but the blankets were under me and I was really dizzy.

  “Tata, I'm cold and thirsty,” I whined.

  Tata woke up and his fingers went to his eyes. He threw his covers back and got up. He left the room and came back with a glass of water.

  “Here, Tata has something for you to drink. Raise up your head a little.” He sat down next to my face on the bed.

  I pulled myself up on his thigh. The skin that moved with me felt like it was ripping.

  He brought the glass to my dry torn up lips and I drank as best I could. When half of the water was gone I laid my head down on his thigh with a flop as my energy gave out.

  He was petting over my hair but then he came to the spot where he had hit it against the window. He was picking blood out of my hair.

  “You learned not to do that ever again, right?”

  I nodded.

  “I hope so. Now I need you to get up. I'll have to force you if you think you can't.”

  I couldn't even hold my head up. How was I supposed to stand up?

  Tata got up and got dressed.

  He came back for me and pulled me to my feet. He walked me out of the room. I saw that the bed had blood on it again. I closed my eyes to shut out the picture of that. He walked me to the stairs. There he slowly walked me down them. I was seeing bursts of light. I was naked and cold.

  Tata walked me along the hallway and then up a flight of stairs. He pulled out a key and unlocked the door. He was bringing me to the other girls because he didn't want me anymore. He would sell me as a sex slave. I would be a miserable sex slave and I would end up getting beaten every day.

  He flicked on the light switch and turned me so I was facing his chest. “Anyone who tries to run will get double what she got. You have been warned.”

  I heard loud gasps as they looked at the back of my body.

  He pulled me out of their room and into the next one. He did and said the same thing.

  “Everyone up,” he called out, “Breakfast.”

  I looked at him and shook my head no.

  He pulled me down the stairs. I held on to him for dear life. My head was spinning and I felt so sick.

  He pulled me back to our room and lifted up the covers and helped me in. I rolled back onto my stomach.

  “Next time you wake up I'll help you wash the blood out of your hair.”

  I nodded again, wondering if my nose was broken. I was afraid to touch it to find out.

  He closed the curtains and then he turned back to me.

  I had a feeling like he didn't want to leave me.

  He reached out and touched my shoulder for a second before he turned away.

  Chapter 8

  I slept all day and night. I couldn't remember the last time I had eaten anything and the glass of water that he had given me had just been a drop of water on a hot stone.

  I was alone in bed and the sun was up really high. The house was really quiet. I slowly did a push up as a first step to getting up.

  I sat back on my heels. The skin that had started to heal was ripping open again on my back. I had to wonder what it looked like. I was so glad that I had passed out during my punishment. I would have died of the pain of it if he had done all that while I was awake.

  I moved so I was on my hands and knees. Then I let one foot slide down to the floor. I put my weight on it and then moved my other foot to the floor. I lifted my hands away from the bed and just stood there, catching my breath.

  I slowly walked over to the door. I had to take a bit of a break there. Once I was ready I opened the door and moved in an ugly and ungraceful way to the bathroom.
r />   I closed the door to the bathroom behind me and wished it had a lock. I felt with my fingers over my bottom. I felt welts and lots of dried blood. I really didn't want to sit down on the toilet. I positioned myself in front of the mirror so my back was facing it. I looked over my shoulder and saw red strips and again blood. I turned so I could see it better but in the end I was like a cat chasing its own tail and never quite getting it. The view I wanted, I couldn't see but it was clear that I was marred for life.

  I decided the best thing to do would be to take a shower and just go in there. I turned on the water and it was cold. I waited for it to warm up, but it didn't. I really had to go now so I stepped in and just went. I opened up my hair and washed my ribbon, which had blood on it too. I shivered and scrubbed it clean. I hung it over the side of the shower.

  I got my hair all wet and the water hit my back. I gasped in pain. It hurt so much that I swooned and cried out. I washed my hair and worked on getting the dried blood out but the cold water wasn't very effective.

  I leaned against the wall crying.

  The door of the shower opened and Tata turned the water off. “Sandra, I told you that I would help you,” he scolded.

  He was undressing and he did something on the wall too. He was probably turning the hot water on. I should have thought of that.

  He came in to me and wrapped his warm arms around me. I clung to him and shivered.

  “Such nonsense. Why didn't you wait for me?”

  “I'm sorry.”

  “I know, angel. Just please never do that again. You learned your lesson?” He face was filled with worry.

  I nodded. I really had learned my lesson. The police here weren't going to help me. Because of me those policemen had probably hurt the other two girls.

  “Why did you take those girls with you, yesterday.” I looked up at him.

  He was rubbing my arms. “I had to bribe them. And that they couldn't have had you was clear.”

  “But I was the one who did something wrong.”