2.5 million men, women and children are currently being trafficked against their will.
2300 people go missing every day in the U.S.
900,000 a year.
Nearly 100 children a year are reported missing by abduction. Most are never found…
The five Boroughs that make up New York City inhabit 8,214,426 people.
Manhattan is home to 1,611,581.
The island of Manhattan is 13.4 miles long. At its widest point it is 2.3 miles wide. In total the island is approximately 23.7 square miles.
The boy lay in the darkness, huddled and shivering in the cold dirt. He didn't know how long he'd been there. He couldn't remember how he'd gotten there. He only lay there curled into himself and listen to the soft sound of his own breathing. Often he heard noises. Low wary thumps as of someone moving about in the blackness. Hovering. Savoring him. And then the quickening of his own breath. In this kind of darkness your mind played games.
Sometimes his mother sang to him. Sweet songs he begged her not to sing because he thought he was too old. Yet here they were, blindly comforting him. Mothers are like angels, he thought. Did God in heaven know the Devil was the Keeper of the earth?
The boy whimpered and cried. He cried until there was nothing left but the exhaustion of his shuddering soul. Did God here him now?
His stomach tightened and spoke. He dreamt of milk, rich and cold. Sweetened by puffs of cereal and marshmallows. The boy opened his eyes to the surprise of a shaft of pale blue light. Beautiful and so heavenly he involuntarily convulsed. It cast down across the crawlspace and exposed his filthy bare legs. The boy pulled himself up against the dirt wall and brought his knees into his chest.
'Please… I won't tell,' he shivered.
The wisp of light dissolved in the shape which crouched before him, ghosting into a pallid haze around the figure's shoulders and head. Reflected blue veins of an indecent hand reached forth and gently stroked the boy's arms. The boy trembled violently and urinated through his Spider-man Underoos.
'Please… I miss my mama… Please don't hurt me…'
The dark figure passed into the light and went up through the opening of the crawlspace. There was no sound save the beating of the boy's heart. He began to softly cry. The bluish light from above fizzled and vanished. The boy shuddered in the cold dark. He pulled his thin legs closer. He thought of a fluffed snowman pillow his mother had once made to comfort him. The smooth softened fabric with the colorful print and animation of a blue vest and black top hat and orange carrot for a nose. She had lovingly stuffed it with his treasured blankets. He remembered the warm smell when squeezed. It smelled like her. Like them. Now he had forgotten where it was. He searched his mind but it was lost to him. He thought maybe it still carried his smell. As if a part of himself might still exist outside of his darkness. Maybe she still had it… him, he thought, and then he felt the sudden warmth of rusted stale breath on his face.