"Ugnh"
Ami groaned in pain as she opened her eyes and tried to move her head.
"What the heck happened?" she mumbled out loud as she reached behind her head to discover the huge bump forming back there.
"Oh, she's awake," she heard the voice of the woman, she recognised from within the alley.
"Come on pretty thing wake up" she felt thin hard hands grip her and shake her.
Groaning yet again Ami opened her eyes and looked up into the cruel green eyes that were staring down at her. It was the same prostitute she had met in the alley.
"What did you do to me?" Ami said loudly, wincing slightly when her voice echoed in her ears and the woman's face blurred.
"Well, well she has a bite after all," this time it was a male voice behind her gripping her attention. Turning her head around slowly she saw a man of average build and nondescript features. But it was the club in her hand that her eyes rested on while rubbing the bump on her head.
"Yes I did hit you with it, but it was only a small tap," he said, while gesturing lewdly to her figure sprawled over a bumpy couch, which smelled like stale beer and food.
Moving slowly so to stop the waves of dizziness that threatened to send her back under, Ami propped herself up and made to get up.
Not surprisingly she found sat back down heavily and looked up at her captor, "What do you want from me?"
"Nothing much just your body, you can keep your soul," he said,
"By the way I'm Joe your new owner."
"You can't keep me here," Ami said softly and looked up into the Joe's dull brown eyes.
"You sound so certain of that," he grinned "But you will bring in a fair sum. The way I see it is that you're new to the city and obviously lost and broke so you'll need a place to stay"
When he said those words Ami reached instinctively to her waist where she had a hidden pocket stashed with her life savings but it was gone.
"As I said, you're mine," Joe reached for her bringing his face close to hers while running his hand up her cheek "and for me to take care of you I need payment, so you'll start working tonight."
Getting up he turned to the red headed woman "Beryl make sure she's ready by later tonight. I'll be bringing a client by."
"Sure Joe" the woman smiled lustily at the man as he smacked her on her ass before walking out of the door closing it behind him.
"Well sweetie I think I have some clothes that would suit you. Joe keeps his girls well dressed for the customers and by the looks of you you'll have a lot of those, but not as much as me," she laughed nastily as she rummaged through half a dozen plastic bags that were laying on the nasty floor.
"Why are you doing this?" Ami asked softly watching the woman.
"Don't worry about it sweetie, you'll learn to love it." Beryl answered.
"No I don't mean why you are doing it to me, I mean why are you doing it at all."
Pausing in between pulling out skirts out of one of the overstuffed bags, Beryl turned her head to look at Ami, "You know for someone who's just been kidnapped off the streets, you sure aren't making a big deal about getting out of here."
Ami just shrugged "I won't be here long"
Beryl dropped the clothes she had been checking and strode over to
Ami grabbing her roughly "You'd better not try to escape cause when Joe catches you he'll make you wish you were never born."
Wincing against the pain in her head Ami looked at Beryl defiantly feeling only the harsh slap across her face before the darkness claimed her once more.
Dropping her back on the musty couch Beryl watched to make sure the girl was still breathing and barely heard when she mumbled, "He'll come for me. He always does."
------------------ Memories------------------
It was when she was five Ami first started having the feelings, feelings of someone watching her. At first it scared her but then she realised the person whoever it was, was no threat.
But it never became clearer to her than on that afternoon when she stumbled into a hunter's trap when she had just turned twelve.
She had been exploring a deep part of the woods surrounding her family home when she had caught a small despondent noise coming from further in.
Walking along she came to a section of the forest her father had taught her never to enter. Disobeying the rule she headed into this section realising the trees were so thick it was almost like if it was permanent night within.
Moving swiftly nevertheless through the thickets and brush, she jumped over a fallen log only to find herself slipping on a slope covered with wet moss right into a large hunter's trap.
Hitting the bottom Ami got up and smiled at her luck at not being injured. Looking up at the opening she had just slid through she saw it was about eight feet from the bottom and being four feet nine and a tomboy she knew it wouldn't take much to get out of it.
However that was when she heard the plaintive sound behind her and turning around she saw the reason she had been in the predicament in the first place.
A young doe lay on her side bleating plaintively obviously she had fallen in and couldn't get back out.
Crouching over the animal, she ran her hands over the shivering animal noticing its fur was wet and slick but could feel no injuries which became apparent as the doe stood up, leaned over and licked her on her cheek.
Smiling Ami said "Let's see if we can get out of here ok?" Getting up Ami made for the less steep section of the trap and tried to make her way out of it slowly.
After twenty minutes of near misses she slid right back down to her doe friend. "It's too slippery. So I guess when they make it a trap, they really meant for it to trap stuff," she said humorously.
Looking at the deer Ami made her mind up "Well it makes no sense both of us, being stuck down here huh girl."
Standing Ami picked up the animal and started to push it up towards the hole's opening.
The deer realising what Ami was doing dug her hoofs into the side of the trap trying to propel herself the rest of the way out. After three tries the deer was running through the forest trying to find its herd leaving her helper behind.
Sighing Ami sat down and started to hum, knowing it might take awhile before she conserved enough energy to make it all the way out of the trap.
Sitting there she suddenly felt the presence she had felt most her life and looked up to see a shadow being cast over the already dark hole.
Before she knew what was happening she saw the wall she had been trying so diligently to climb straighten into an angle she could walk out of.
Making her way out of the trap she looked around to see if she could find her guardian angel but no one was there. Looking back at the hole she was not surprised to see that it had been the same way it had looked when she and the deer had struggled to get out.
Smiling in thanks to her protector she made her way out of that section of the forest, feeling its eyes on her as she made her way home where her father had taken one look at her dirty and torn clothes and had grounded her for the month for disobeying his orders.
-----------------------
Waking up once more Ami realised she felt better than when she had woken previously even as her situation hit her full in her face.
Moving off of the couch, she gasped as she realised her ankle was securely tied onto a metal hook on the wall held together by a heavy-duty lock.
Tugging the chain with her hands Ami knew it was to no avail and made her way instead to look carefully at the lock.
'Combination lock with added key spring,' Ami realised as her fingers worked deftly over the combination dial.
Listening carefully for the releasing clicks, she turned the dial "33 right,.... 14 left...9 right and...... she bit her lip as she heard voices approaching her door 'Dammit' she crawled back to the couch and lay there opting to bide her time until she could find something to pry open the remaining lock.
The door opened and there stood Joe with a bunch of parcels in his hand "Honey I'm home" he laughed at his own joke and brought the parcels within Ami's reach.
"These are for you." He dumped the bags in front of her and sat on the small card table across from the couch.
Knowing there would be hell to pay if she didn't she opened the bags finding in them a few denim and leather skirts, as well as scraps of cloth which were supposed to be shirts that left nothing to the imagination. The last bag however contained make-up and to her consternation a red teddy as well as lace thongs and garters with stockings.
As she looked at these he said "Those are for my more higher paying clients, which by the looks of you, are going to be paying even more"
Throwing the bags away from her she looked at him "You need to let me go" she said sternly.
Joe laughed hard "And now why would I want to do anything like that?"
Mumbling softly Ami said "Because if you don't he'll kill you," she raised her blue eyes to look at him with sure certainty.
Feeling a slight shiver run down his back at the look in her eyes more than the words, Joe laughed again though noticeably not as loud "Sweetie no one is going to come for you as I said you're mine. Now get dressed in black leather." With that he left the room and slammed the door behind him.
Ami noted he did not look the door and probably thought the chain was enough to hold her.
Snorting, she muttered 'Idiot' and headed back to open the combination lock. Feeling its release she then turned to the bags around her looking for one of the many pins included in the clothing.
'Guess I should be happy that he went shopping for me' she smiled to herself as the pin slid into the key lock.
The door opened quickly, too quickly for Ami to realise to move from her position and Beryl strode in.
"What the hell is this?" she shrieked.
Looking at her Ami realised the fact that she had been about to escape had been missed by the woman who was staring incredulously at the bags scattered around Ami.
Dropping to her knees she picked up the red teddy, "He bought you this?! Bastard I've been telling him about this little number for two months but he bought it for you instead?!"
Turning to Ami she made to slap her across her face again but Ami grabbed her hand before it could connect to her already stinging cheek.
"You only get to hit me once," Ami said pulling on the woman's hand surprising the red head with her strength.
"Let her go!" she heard Joe's voice command her from the door and releasing Beryl she looked up to see him and behind him stood a tall, well groomed man.
As Beryl moved quickly away Joe stepped into the room with the man in tow.
"She was supposed to be ready for your visit" Joe cast a meaningful glance at Beryl who cowered in the doorway.
The man chuckled "No matter, the clothes would have to come off some time. It's what's underneath that keeps my attention and by the looks of it she's a fighter and I'll just have to break her in."
He handed Joe a wad of bills, which the man took greedily. Indicating to the chain around her foot Joe said "You want it on or off"
"Let it stay. It will bring out her more animalistic nature," the man said.
As Joe shut the door as he left, Ami found herself fearing about her predicament.
The man was now discarding his clothes with no apparent haste but for her it was too soon that his body came fully into view.
"Now darling. What do you say we get rid of some of the formalities and just get down to business, hmmm?"
As he advanced towards her, Ami found herself screaming for blue murder.