I always wonder how I ended up in this dark space with no way to run. Six hours before I was getting ready for my best friend's 22supnd/sup birthday party. I was wearing this red long skintight dress with these glitter shoes, a small handbag, with this red and gold makeup, and my black long hair in a bun. I was walking to the uber I called to drop me off at the party because why would I want to miss this hard work up. When I arrived at the party, I had seen my all my high school friends in their beautiful dresses and suits which amazed me because it had been forever since we see each other. We all got on the dance floor and danced like it was our last time partying and we went to the bar and have four or five drinks because you know we had to turn up. But around 3:30 we had all left and got into separate ubers. Next thing I know I was passed out in the back seat of this man's car. When I woke up, I was in this dark room full of other women who look like they had been there for months possibly even years.
All I can remember was being in this car with an uber drive and me being drunk from a party that my best friend was having. The last thing I remember seeing was the weird man staring at me from the interior mirror, I saw him pass my exit when I told him to turn around, he becomes nervous. I feared for my life but that all I could remember. When I see all the women that were there, I was scared for my life because I had never seen so many women in one place at one time. I could smell that these women eat sleep and use the bathroom in the same place. As I started to panic the man walk in and he came up to me touching on me I was getting so nervous that I almost peed myself. All the other women looked so dirt and their hair all messed up. I was wondering how long these women had been down there and do they ever eat because I saw a few dead bodies around the basement but in a situation like this, I had to figure out how to escape but not get caught by this man. For weeks I was planning my way to escape this stank basement, but I would attempt to sneak around the house when he would leave for work, but I could never find my way out of the basement. One day when I finally escape out of the basement he was walking through the doors and he caught me and throw me back into the basement and he put handcuffs on me so I couldn't escape anymore.
I wouldn't have thought in 23 years of living that I would be sitting in someone's basement. I was always wondering if my family was even looking for me because I had 2 kids and a husband out there probably wondering where I was and I didn't even know myself, but I just wanted to be found. It felt like I had been down there for several years but who really knows how long I had been down there. When I finally was able to escape from this house and run to the neighbor's house, they had called the police. When the police arrived, I showed to the house where all the women were hiding. They informed my family that I was found but it was 4 ½ hours away from home but my family didn't care they were there within the hours. I was sent to the hospital immediately because I had passed out from dehydration and starvation. When I arrived at the hospital, they told me I was pregnant with another child and I beginning to cry because I don't remember getting pregnant from anybody.
My family had finally arrived at the hospital. I was crying my eyes out in my mother's arms. She had told me that had been searching for 15 months to find me, but they never stop searching for me. I had to stay in the hospital for a few more days before I could be released and home to family. My kids didn't even recognize me from all the bruises and scars on my body they couldn't even look me in the eye it made me feel like a stranger to my own kids. As we arrived home there were many cars and a new station in front of my house trying to ask me a question about what had happened to me because it was all over the news for weeks. People were donating things that they thought would help my family just for me to get back on my feet. I had to learn the basics over again. I was spending time with my kids because being gone for that long and not being killed was great but still scary.