Aria stood there, a sobbing, pathetic witness to her own first rape that started her six month hell where her teenage self was kept behind and below the stage of a dinner theater that was secretly a large sex club and illegal brothel. Her days were spent hidden underground from police and any concerned family members in soundproof rooms to be used by the rich and middle class to be able to do whatever they wanted to any woman or man in a secluded, high class, exclusively secret sex prison below the theater. They even had a full time doctor on board to treat any wounds, broken bones, or unfortunate deaths that came with this kind of illegal activity.
After being sexually abused by Uncle Joe and his bodyguards, they got Teenage Aria's arm put back into its socket by the in-house doctor. After being treated, she was moved to a much smaller room underground just next to the secret, backstage entrance to the illegal brothel. After trying the door, the air-conditioning vents, and beating against the walls and floor for any sign of weakness, it became very clear that the only way out was through the door and out the secret passage hidden behind an actual functioning pulley system used for raising and lowering backdrops for the stage above her.
It was looking impossible, to say the least. After having only an hour to herself to figure this out, she was bought and paid for for one night by a group of new navy recruits about to be deployed the next day. Wanting a cheap fling before they were shipped off overseas, Uncle Joe had sold her off to do a massive gang bang in one of the bigger, empty rooms with a nice, luxurious bed for the clients to use. The ordeal left her feeling helpless, bruised, and very bloody after she almost bit off one man's dick in a violent fit of rage!
She was so badly beaten after that that Uncle Joe had to have her physically carried out by Mack and Butch to be hosed down on account of how much of her own blood covered her body. After hosing her down in the public shower used for sexual encounters and cleaning the merchandise, she was sent back to the hidden med bay to again be treated for her wounds. The new navy recruits gave her two black eyes, a split lip, nasty cuts and bruises all over her body, there was a chunk of her left ear missing, spewing forth the worst amount of blood, and another bite-sized chunk had been taken out of one of her womanly folds.
After Teenage Aria was carried to the in-house doctor, he told her point blank to stop fucking around or he'd be carrying her dead body out the back because of her needless bullshit! Aria still couldn't tell if the doctor had said this for her own benefit or for himself. Aria was just left to her own conclusions as she watched while her teenage self was treated for her many wounds before she was left alone in her tiny room to cry out in pain and horror for what she'd just gone through. Lying as still as she could on the one, tiny mattress she was given to lie on, Teenage Aria finally fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion, but her dreams were fitful and full of nightmares, making it very hard for Teenage Aria to sleep peacefully.
She was blissfully left alone for eight hours before she was rudely awoken by Uncle Joe, who beat her and raped her to within an inch of her life for what she'd done to his client! If it had been any of the higher clientele, he would've dragged her out of the back and shot her himself, but he gave her a flicker of hope as he told her that she wasn't dying that day. The only thing that saved her from death was that the client she'd almost made into a eunuch was given the go ahead to be sent overseas once he was examined by a doctor and deemed still fit for duty. If the client she'd maimed hadn't passed his examination, Teenage Aria would've found herself with a bullet in her head.
Realizing she'd narrowly escaped death, Aria watched as Teenage Aria fought hard after that to reign in her rage and fears to stay below the surface as she found other ways to rebel and undermine Uncle Joe and his diabolical, underground business. However, despite her best efforts to stop her clients from abusing her by citing scripture and the words of the living prophets, it backfired tremendously on her. The more she verbally fought back, the more turned on a lot of the clients got as they raped her doing so. She became so popular with so many clients because of this that Uncle Joe bought her a whole set of scriptures himself, laughing at her bewildered expression as he told her to feast on the word of God so his clients could feast on her screams of Christian protest as they fucked her.
It seemed that her sermons on repentance and her strong disapproval of what the clients were doing to her was fun to listen to as clients would then dominate her ruthlessly and verbally abuse her for her views every chance they got. It had started as a biting need for Teenage Aria to remember that what was happening to her was wrong and she needed to keep that idea alive while she was left to the mercies of her jailors and their clients. However, after some of the clients would rape and beat her for her words and goad her into saying more, Aria witnessed Teenage Aria begin to doubt wither saying anything was better than saying nothing at all.
Word must've gotten around about her beliefs as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because Aria then had to watch Teenage Aria become a play thing for some of the local, twisted clergy who frequented The Stage. Three weeks into being locked away by Uncle Joe, Teenage Aria got an upside down cross burned into her back by a red-headed, catholic priestess in the hidden, functional dungeon underneath The Stage. The priestess ranted and raved about how there couldn't be any new scripture except the Holy Bible, that God no longer called prophets today, and that God's power had been given to women and men alike in the catholic church through Peter, the rock that God said the church would be built on.
Teenage Aria knew that the woman either didn't read her scriptures, or if she did, she didn't understand them. When Moses went to receive the law by God's hand, which would be known as the Mosaic Law and the ten commandments, the children of Israel were witnessing a living prophet amongst them gaining revelation from God Himself. Would that mean only Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's words would be the only viable scripture while Moses lived and talked with God? No. Teenage Aria knew that the words of living prophets were to be more diligently sought after than just the words of the ancient prophets alone.
She also knew of the warning at the end of The Bible concerning the consequences of adding to the Lord's word. Teenage Aria knew that many Christian churches took this to mean that God no longer gave revelation to men or women and that there could be no more scripture. However, the same warning is written in Deuteronomy in the fourth chapter, which begs the question of what both prophets meant. Did they mean that God would give them no more of His knowledge, even though He'd always answered the prayers of the faithful in the past, or did it mean that wicked men shouldn't add their own thoughts and false teachings to what God had commanded to be written? Teenage Aria knew from her own personal witness from the Holy Ghost that God still spoke to His children and that no one should assume that He'd changed His mind concerning giving them new scripture. Teenage Aria knew that the warning in Deuteronomy and at the end of the book of Revelations meant that no one should just add to the scriptures with their own ideas of what should be doctrine, but that only the revelations of God ought to be written. She'd prayed about it and knew for herself that this was what the warnings meant.
The priestess was also wrong about God not calling living prophets, anymore, and that her claim to God's authority was false. The whole reason Joseph Smith was opposed so strongly by other Christian philosophers was because he declared that he had not only seen God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ, in answer to his prayer to know which church was right and found out that all were wrong, but he was also visited and given the holy priesthood of God, or the official authority and power of God, by Peter, James, and John as ministering angels, the same three apostles Jesus Christ had given His holy priesthood to when He'd lived upon the Earth. Joseph sealed this testimony on the reality of God the Eternal Father and His son, Jesus Christ, and his authority to wield the power of God by the holy priesthood granted to him by Peter himself, with his own blood as he was murdered for his beliefs and he refused to deny what he knew he'd both seen and heard.
Teenage Aria knew God was the same yesterday, today, and forever. God had called prophets in ancient times and God had called a prophet on the Earth once more. Despite the burning brand against her back and the threats of more of the same, Teenage Aria refused to denounce Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Aria stood, amazed and deeply moved as Teenage Aria testified through her pain of the profound witness of the Holy Ghost she'd received about how Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God and that he was called of God to restore God's true church upon the Earth. The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ was proof of that, and she begged the priestess to read it and pray to know for herself if it was true or not. All she got in response was the exact same brand right back on the exact same burn mark, making her scream out in agony as Aria wished she could stop it from happening.
Aria then had to witness a different event a few weeks later when Teenage Aria got all her hair shaved off by a supposed teacher of Islam. The man was a tall, thin white dude with blonde hair and thick glasses who went on and on about how she needed to be humbled because she was a heathen woman, she sold herself into sexual slavery, she didn't cover her body and head in the hijab as described in the Quran, and he insisted on calling her an adultress and a fornicator. Aria insisted that she wasn't even married, that she was being sexually abused, and that she was being held against her will, but the guy was more interested in punishing her than listening to her.
He also denounced her testimony of Jesus Christ and the need for a Savior because of the fall of Adam and Eve. He drowned out her words by quoting verses of the Quran, rejecting the notion of fallen man and that Adam and Eve's choices only affected themselves and not mankind as he then dragged her to the dungeon and whipped her one hundred times for her sexual sins. With each stroke, Aria would cringe with the memory of that horrible lashing as tears ran down her own cheeks as he then proceeded to rape her as her back bled profusely.
To this day, she couldn't understand why she hadn't died from it. She had lost so much blood from the ordeal that, after the guards came in when he was done, they took one look at her, and shot the guy because they thought he'd killed her! Aria believed that God Himself had kept her from dying that day, especially after the doctor told her that she'd lost enough blood that she should've just died from it! She'd eventually find out much later that fornication was forbidden by Muslim law, making Aria realize she'd probably been raped by either an impostor or a Muslim extremist psychopath!
Yet, what really hurt Aria the most as she was forced to stand there and watch was when most of Teenage Aria's body was tattooed against her will by a former member of her own faith. Her body was restrained on a table designed to lock a victim into place within the dungeon, the well-placed straps making it easy for the black, bearded man in a loose, plaid shirt and ripped jeans to force her to stay still as he marked up her skin with foul language, lascivious acts, and derogatory phrases. The man wanted to make sure her "temple" was marked up, which was against the teachings that modern-day prophets had warned against doing to her body. His prevailing motivation was to somehow make her unclean and unfit to enter the temples of the Lord her people built to worship Him.
Teenage Aria knew that being worthy to enter the temple of God had a lot more to do with what the individual did to their body and soul, and not what others did to it against their will. Aria tried to correct the man and open the scriptures to him to make him see reason, but for all her efforts, he only pushed his needle harder into her skin! He spouted a whole lot of lies about Joseph Smith, his nature, and credibility as a prophet of God. He insisted The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ was written by Joseph Smith, which was impossible, given he had a third grade education throughout his short lifespan, and there are entries in The Book of Mormon that the most well-educated mind could never be able to re-invent even if they tried. What hurt Aria most, however, was how maliciously he lied about the nature of the temples as being some sort of hidden, exclusive brothels painted up as holy spaces! Aria and Teenage Aria were very angry at this incredibly malicious lie as they shouted out their vehemence despite Aria knowing the man couldn't hear her.
Aria was just grateful she'd been given the ability to erase all her tattoos and physical scars after her violent death as Jesus had gently led her by the hand into Heaven. Seeing them reappear on Teenage Aria, however, filled her with a deep sense of righteous fury and a terrible, biting sadness for what these men and woman had done to her, knowing they did it intentionally to hurt her and they'd enjoyed every moment of it. This kind of betrayal from one of her own, however, had been far worse than all the others and Aria could feel the pain of it still wrack through her soul even now despite it having happened so long ago.
Aria had to admire her teenage self and her strength as a person, though, as Aria was forced to watch every encounter that hurt her, pulled her to her limits, and pushed her to the brink of madness! As three months passed in the blink of an eye, Aria watched her teenage self struggle to keep her worth alive. The constant torrent of lies yelled at her from countless clients about her worth as a woman, a person, and a child of God took its toll as her voice began to dwindle under the constant, unending strain of abuse. Still, Aria could make out the inner dialogue of her teenage self behind the growing doubt and fear. Again and again, Aria heard words of hope, defiance, and an unrelenting prayer for help to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ echoing from the confines of Teenage Aria's heart.
It was when the pole-dancing lessons started in the fourth month of her illegal enslavement that started an interesting series of events. By this time, Aria was done being used and abused by people. She'd had enough of having her body being tortured and marred by evil men and women. Understandably, given she saw no way out unless something changed, Teenage Aria began to have a death wish, hoping against hope that God would make a way for her one way or another.
It all started when Aria watched as Teenage Aria boldly refused to take her clothing off once she was good enough to do her first show. Making up a song secretly with the music she'd practiced with, she'd belittled the audience and took a jab at herself for how she was a "Plain Jane," so really, no one was missing much if she refused to take her clothes off. Uncle Joe got so mad at her mocking performance that he'd beaten her and raped her himself on top of scheduling her for forty eight hours straight for non-stop sex with paying clients without food, little to no water, and no sleep for what she'd done.
However, it didn't stop Teenage Aria as she relentlessly did the exact same thing the next time she performed despite knowing she was probably pushing her luck. If it hadn't been for Gloria, Uncle Joe's best pole-dancer and known favorite of him and The Stage, Aria knew Uncle Joe would've killed her that day. Aria had to watch helplessly as Uncle Joe ranted and raved like a mad man as he pulled out his hidden revolver and waved it around at Teenage Aria. After he dared ask her why he shouldn't just kill her right then and there, Gloria spoke up and told Uncle Joe about her unprecedented success after both of Teenage Aria's poor performances.
Gloria was able to point out the unprecedented amount of money she received for her performances right after both fiascos by Teenage Aria. After crunching the numbers, Uncle Joe realized that because Teenage Aria's performances were so bad, it made Gloria's already high-end pole-dancing seem godlike in comparison, earning her four times as much money as she usually did. It stood to reason that if Teenage Aria continued to perform as she'd been doing just before Gloria's performance, The Stage would be making far more money than if Aria's teenage self actually tried to perform normally, given her mediocre skills.
Uncle Joe was still royally pissed off at Teenage Aria's flippant attitude towards him and his clients, but after seeing the unusual sum of money laid before him, he grudgingly let Teenage Aria continue to perform her pole-dancing farce on one condition. If Gloria's continued success dropped any lower than it was now with Teenage Aria performing her little skit, he'd shoot Teenage Aria without a second thought and be done with it. Feeling the warm presence of the Holy Ghost in her heart to take the deal and, knowing she'd rather be dead than willingly expose herself in public, anyway, Teenage Aria agreed to Uncle Joe's terms.
Aria was sure as she watched Uncle Joe's face while her teenage self performed that Uncle Joe had expected Gloria's unusual success to falter back to normal levels after only a few shows. It made sense to her, knowing the guy had to have the easy way out to save face sooner rather than later as the jeering, angry taunts, rude comments, and boos filled the air as Teenage Aria refused to strip while pole-dancing. It's why Aria had chosen to pull that daring move back then. If she was going to die under this hellish enslavement, she would willingly mock and tear down Uncle Joe's self-importance no matter the cost.
Of course, Teenage Aria had known what Aria knew, too, but she'd felt no fear as she blatantly mocked herself, Uncle Joe, and the audience in her cocky performance. Aria remembered the strange peace that rested over her teenage self as she took every insult and biting remark hurled at her in the show and used it to make her pole-dancing joke even more gratuitous for herself. Aria knew back then that the Lord was blessing her, letting her know that he supported her actions as she unapologetically threw all the assumptions of the audience right back at them in biting prose and lack of exposed skin.
A day went by, and then two, and Aria began to smile for the first time watching all this unfold as Teenage Aria successfully performed for a week without incident. By the end of two weeks, Uncle Joe's temper began to rise. Gloria was still making four times the amount of money and after a month went by, to his chagrin, Teenage Aria began to gain a cult following of clients who started actually giving her money after her performances.
It was a pittance compared to Gloria's success, but it drove the nail into the coffin for Uncle Joe's scheme to off Teenage Aria and save face. Aria watched, smiling broadly as her teenage self grew in success even more as clients began to ask questions about her and her beliefs after the show when they'd buy her for the night instead of just fucking her. By sharing her beliefs, she actually succeeded in getting several of her die hard fans to question their life choices and begin to grow very interested in becoming members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She got to see a lot of success and by the time the fifth month being stuck under The Stage arrived, the majority of her die hard fans were taking the missionary discussions on the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
Uncle Joe was so angry at this, because many of her clients began to stop coming back to The Stage, that he took the scriptures away he'd gifted to her five months ago and burned them right in front of her. It nearly broke Teenage Aria as she was held back between Butch and Mack as she was forced to watch the one book she'd been allowed to read and help her keep her sanity just turn to ash right in front of her. Aria remembered how dark that night was and how she struggled with herself to even want to get up the next day as she remembered sobbing for most of the night.
The next morning, Gloria came to her room with two of Uncle Joe's guards the next day with the cheekiest grin on her face. Once left alone with Teenage Aria, Gloria told her to choose any costume she wanted from her collection for her performance that day and really rub it in Uncle Joe's face at what a fucking ass he was. Apparently, Gloria had heard the guards talking about what had happened to Teenage Aria the night before when they'd brought Gloria her breakfast. Hearing this, Gloria was inspired to come to Teenage Aria's room with the excuse of talking about that night's performance to plan an even greater mockery of Uncle Joe and the audience.
Teenage Aria wasn't so sure she wanted to perform her pole-dancing skit, anymore. It broke Aria's heart to see her talk about herself like she was so small and insignificant in her own eyes. Aria could tell that the drive for decimating Uncle Joe's ego was growing dim inside Teenage Aria at the loss of her beloved scriptures. That massive book had meant everything to her and now it was just gone and Teenage Aria had no clue if she would ever be allowed to ever have another one again. How much longer would she have to slog through this living hell and how could she do it without the scriptures that helped her remember who she was and why living through all this was so important? Trying to face her future without those words of life...it utterly terrified her!
Aria would never forget what Gloria had said to her when she heard her pathetic declarations of giving up after all this time. Gloria flipped her long, blonde, curly hair back, strutted over to her in her skimpy, Asian-style, red dress with the slit of the skirt opening all the way to her hip to expose her curvaceous, white legs, and looked Teenage Aria dead in the eye with that icy, blue gaze of hers as she posed to her this question; "Are you really going to just give up now, after all you've fought for and all you've suffered, just to become the disgusting, little slave Uncle Joe has always wanted you to become just because you lost your stupid, little book?"
Aria watched grimly as Teenage Aria lost her temper! Angry tears rolled down Teenage Aria's face as she yelled at Gloria for being such a heartless bitch! Gloria didn't know what she was talking about and even if she did, Teenage Aria had already had enough of this hell that she wasn't about to take her worthless bullshit! Teenage Aria insisted that someone like Gloria, the slimy frog's favorite, didn't understand what the hell was at stake! Teenage Aria asked the blonde point blank how she was supposed to keep her fucking sanity!? That book meant everything to her and now she was terrified of losing herself, her very soul, to the darkness of this place! Of course she didn't want to be Uncle Joe's little bitch, but what was she supposed to do!?
Gloria laughed at her, then. It was the cruelest laugh Aria had ever heard by this point. Gloria called her a spineless coward and congratulated her on already becoming his stupid bitch after today, since she was going to throw away her reputation as some sort of Christian martyr over the loss of her fucking scriptures. Wasn't she supposed to be braver than that? Wasn't she supposed to be some sort of fucking beacon of hope, like she kept spouting over and over again to her stupid clients? Gloria called her a joke and a sham as she left her there feeling like she'd just gotten slapped across the face by someone who was supposed to be her friend.
Teenage Aria didn't move from where Gloria had left her for hours after that, not even when clients came in to fuck her as they were left to move her on their own as her heart and mind suddenly closed off from the world. She just laid there like some sort of sex doll, her mind and body feeling frozen and lifeless as she fought to understand how to move on from this terrible, mental state. It felt like she was lost inside her own body as she felt events unfold around her like she was underwater or like it wasn't happening to her, but to somebody else.
It was very hard for Aria to watch as her courageous, teenage self closed herself off from the world as she refused to speak more than one or two words when pressed to interact with anyone. Aria witnessed her younger self being beaten and raped by her guards, Uncle Joe, and the clients for refusing to respond or because it wasn't enough for what the clients paid for. She watched as Teenage Aria barely ate or drank, she no longer cared about herself or anyone, and she stopped doing her pole-dancing routine, leaving her to Uncle Joe's whims on whether she'd live or die.
This lasted for most of the fifth month as Aria had to watch Teenage Aria lose herself in the day to day Hell as she stopped caring what her fate was, anymore. It was incredibly painful to watch and Aria shouted at her teenage self to snap out of it as tears ran down her cheeks. This was her darkest moments under The Stage as Aria watched herself grow thinner and thinner as her clients began to dry up. Uncle Joe began to smile and act cocky around her as he taunted her with threats of killing her off if she didn't start producing better results with his clients by the end of the month.
It grew even worse as Teenage Aria began to hear rumors from the guards when they'd "take" her at the public bathing area that a few former clients had tried to sue The Stage. Come to find out, Teenage Aria's insistence on sharing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ had given some of her former clients ideas about saving the illegal sex slaves and shutting the place down. A few had been bought off, she'd heard, and a few had been blackmailed to keep their mouth's shut. However, two had insisted on staying the course and, to Teenage Aria's horror, Uncle Joe had succeeded in arranging the death of one of them and painted it as a suicide. That left the one remaining loose end and the guards were confident Uncle Joe could silence him just as easily.
Of course, Uncle Joe got wind of the rumors flying around under The Stage, and so one evening, after scheduling every sex slave in the brothel to be beaten thoroughly by the guards without warning, they were all rounded up and lined up naked inside the public bathing area. It was here that everyone was told in no uncertain terms by Uncle Joe that no one was going to rescue them. The slimy toad insisted that the spreading of these rumors and ideas of regaining their freedom to anyone, even to each other, would cease and desist right now or they would be shot for their insubordination.
To make his point clear, he said he'd prove it right then and there as he suddenly pulled out his pistol, turned towards Teenage Aria, and fired his pistol three times! Aria still got terrible chills from the near miss as the beautiful, naked form of Gloria crumpled forward beside her, a gurgling sound escaping her as she lay still before them all. Teenage Aria stared, dumbfounded, as she took in Gloria's lovely face, which held a defiant, angry look in its vacant expression as her cascading, curly locks framed her face beautifully even in death.
Aria was forced to watch the only woman she'd ever gotten close to, and who she believed would be forever the favorite of Uncle Joe, and therefore out of reach of his wrath, be gunned down in an instant in cold blood. Uncle Joe revealed that Gloria had been the worst offender in spreading rumors, reports, and sensitive information to several of her own clients in hopes of bringing him down despite all the privileges and freedom he'd given her as his greatest asset to The Stage. He looked genuinely disappointed in what a waste it was to have to kill her for her rebellion, but he'd be damned if something like this would ever happen again under his watch.
After the impromptu, brutal orgy that insued afterwards in the public bathing area as the guards and Uncle Joe took and raped every sex slave and made everyone watch, the slaves were forced to wash afterwards and be led back to their tiny, locked rooms to resume their "normal responsibilities" to their clients. Teenage Aria was expected to conform to any request from the clients who wanted her just like always despite her swollen, right eye, sore jaw, and battered, thin body that hurt just by touching it lightly. She was beaten again that night and raped by her guards when a few of the clients that bought her voiced their dissatisfaction. As horrible as it was, this had become routine after just a few weeks of going numb about everything happening to her.
That merciless night, however, woke her up. The routine bit into her and everything felt far worse after witnessing Gloria's death. It made her feel all the more terrified at whether or not she was worth keeping alive as a renewed need to live suddenly blinded every other need that night for the first time in ages!
That new sense of need, that need to live despite the horror of what she was living through, grew into an obsession! As she was locked back into her tiny room, her mind played Gloria's heartless murder again and again in vivid detail. She could never unsee her beautiful, but dead face looking up at her vacantly from the ground as Teenage Aria huddled on her tiny mattress thinking of when Uncle Joe would be back to finish her off.
She hated that she couldn't just leave and escape, but there was more to this, now. For the first time in a long time, Teenage Aria thought about someone else as she wished more than anything that she could've saved Gloria as tears ran down her cheeks! As she wept for someone else instead of just for herself since she'd arrived under The Stage, Aria watched and felt something change deeply inside her heart as she watched her younger self start to plot and pray for the beginning of the end.