Updated. Also this chapter has alot of graphic scenes in it, and honestly sometimes I want to take it out entirely, but it helps with a plot later on. Please do be warned though it has explicit sexual suggestions, drugs use, etc. So just like be warned. If something upset's you during this chapter please feel free to contact me! I do hope you enjoy the ending though, and thank you for reading.
The alarm clock pierced my dream that was slowly losing ground. There was warmth in the dream, as if I was away on another planet. Some place where my brother jammed out to Black Sabbath blaring in his ears, so loud I'm surprised he's not death. My mother is in the kitchen making my favorite Zorkaberry pie. It smells of sugar and tantalizing Zorkaberries that were so sweet and mouthwatering. I see my older sister with flour in her hair and laughing with my mother. It's a place I did not want to leave.
The alarm clock kept blaring. Somewhere inside me screamed 'wake up, wake up' Outside the sun begun to paint the sky with purples, beautiful pinks and butter creams. Just for a second there was no registration of the noise outside my window, or the TV talking about the numerous murders in Gotham. My step-father exists, and the most beautiful blue eyes smiled back at me.
I did say for a second.
I rose up, stretching my arms out and arching my back with a big yawn. It was only 6:30 am but I wished I could sleep in. As I do every weekend after a long night of work, although thinking back to last week, it was much better than work. I thought, a small smile spreading on my lips.
I got out of bed and tip toed out into the hall. Ignoring the squeaky step by my step-fathers door. Once in the bathroom I did my morning routine. The water took a while to warm-up, so I hummed and brushed my teeth. A knock came to the door.
"Excuse me I have to pee." Said the women's voice from last Saturday. High pitched, and whiney. She kept coming back. Why, I will never know.
"One moment." I washed out my teeth then let her by while I waited in the hall. I heard my step-fathers snores coming from his room, groaning at the trail of grim that lead up to his door. If there was one thing I did not clean in this house, it was his room. I do not want to know what is in there nor do I plan on making his living space any better than I already do.
Sometimes I believe I should just give up and live in the filth. It seemed almost every night there was vomit in the living room by him or his friends. Beer bottles and food left out, dare I even say what else I've found. I do not stop cleaning though, because he would scream, and it is honestly too gross to stand.
"Thanks, ah what's your name?" The women said. Her very curly pale blonde hair was all mangled, make up smeared and a stale smell came from her. A smell I wish I did not recognize.
"Kori," I smiled. I did not hate this women, I barely knew her. But I did not enjoy her presence. Anyone that spent time with my step-father I despised.
"That's s purty name," she hiccupped, "you wouldn't by any chance know if he has any sex illnesses do yah?"
I was not familiar with her accent. It was something between southern and New Jersey. "I am sorry to inform that I do not. Although I would recommend a visit with a doctor as soon as possible." She clearly was unhappy with my answer and shoved past me.
I undressed and the water was pleasantly hot. I stood letting my hair cast over my face, feeling the water on my skin taking deep breaths. Zoning out of the world I currently live in and tried to relive my dream to no avail. I was left feeling emptier than I had before. I decided soon enough that I should get on with my shower and headed back to my room to change.
Sporting black leggings and a dark purple hoodie and black vans, I headed for the kitchen to clean up. I switched the news to a show of cute puppies and kittens while I cleaned up the living room. It did not take too long and at 8 am I left an egg sandwich in the fridge for my step-father and his lovely companion. Heading to my room and kicking the door I leaned against my bed and breathed relief.
My phone buzzed in my pocket but I ignored it to stare at my pealing ceiling, following the cracks all the way to the bottom. Everything comes from a source and grows from that or becomes more cracks. I envisioned my step-fathers life starting from somewhere, doing some bad deed then finding my mother. She probably gave him hope, that whatever went wrong was the o and k, because you can change your life because it's your own. Clearly, he cannot live without her, his best self died with her.
I tried to not focus on him, instead I pulled my homework out, but memories of last weekend gave butterflies in my stomach. Dick and I had almost kissed twice, and we had texted throughout the whole week. I even texted during class which I rarely ever did. I let the memory of him bring a smile to his face until I heard my step-father get up.
I heard his creepy laughter coming from his bedroom, then his hysterical manic coming from his repugnant throat. "Oh Kori" he said holding out the 'y' sound in my name. "Where are you?" He sounded insane and I was frightened. My door slid open with a creak and groan as his long face appeared. "The boys and I want to have a little fun and you're going to help us."
I feared what his words meant, pushed out the horrible thoughts that arose from those words and slowly followed him into the living room. Two of his buddies Rick and Marcus were sprawled on the couch holding beers and interesting masks in their hands. I wished Rick was my Richard instead of my step-fathers, I wished for them all to go away and Dick come pick me up so we could go to his huge mansion, eating chocolate pudding and I would be safe. However, those thoughts were foolish and unrealistic, although I still hoped it would come true.
"We have a job down town, some unfinished business if you will." He grew closer to me; cigarettes and cheap ale was stale on his breath. "You're just the girl who will fix it." I backed away only to be stopped by a wall and his body coming closer.
"How will I do that?" My voice shook and lip trembled, but I stood tall.
"You know," he paused to laugh, "Just some unfinished business with some bodies that I owe money too."
"Please father, at least tell me what I am to be doing. Cleaning? I can do that, watching the children. Just tell me please." From the way he laughed, showing me he was going through of oh his episodes, none of those responses were even close to what I would be doing and I felt my throat become thick.
"Something a lil whore like you would be familiar with." He said getting closer to me, my eyes filled with fright and I turned to run away, to where? I had no idea. I just needed to leave. The window to the roof would be my escape and then I could jump down on the neighbor's railing.
But theses thoughts were useless as all at once his friends jumped me and he begun to laugh.
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Have you ever woken up and not been able to move your body? Every nerve sent signals to your brain to run but you sat paralyzed. That was how I was now, a pounding on my head and metal on my wrists. I could tell we were in some kind of a van although I was blind folded. The road was shaky and uneven, bodies bumped into me and I felt fingers creeping up my thighs.
"Back off!" I hissed.
"Sure she's the one to do the job? She might bite." Said a deep raspy voice.
"She'll like her don't worry Jack." Said one of his friends using my step-fathers name. My step-father hadn't asked the question, but he felt the necessity to only answer him. I was unsure if what was to come of my near future, whether that was the worst I could think of or some kind of other endeavor. This sadly was not the first time this has happened.
When I was fourteen years old my step-father came home for the first time in four days, he reeked of sweat, ale, cigarettes and another smell that I would later recognize as sex. "Oh pretty Kori," he had said, "you look so like you're mother," he smiled for a moment then spit at my feet. "It sickens me, but your beauty brings me fortune."
I was so young and unaware of what his words could mean, mourning a mother and siblings all too be left in a hell of his own making and no way for me to get out anytime soon; that I did not care and followed along with him. He was all had, no matter that he was cruel.
He took me to meet one of his friends who ran an underground club which sold drugs, had high end strippers, gambling and whatever else you could think of. He had run out of money I guess and needed some way to pay the guy off. Now don't worry nothing that bad happened to me, the drugged out women and some men where only comfortable with me. So, I helped clean them up and around the underground club until the man was satisfied. I hate to think that those men and women were forced to be there, but it seemed that some were, and some were not.
That's the thing about these parts of Gotham, and any other crummy city. You get paid with sex, drugs, even if you kill of someone else. Everyone is a victim to sexual desire and if you're so desperate for cash, its easy money. I prayed this was the same thing, me just talking to the people who gave themselves up for money, those who tried every drug they could. I had a fear that this was not the same thing. I was enraged for these people, angry these things existed, angry that my step father was involved in the kind of business that harbors on others. Terrified he cared about me so little that he would send me here.
The van was brought to a halt the doors were opened and light poured into the cab. Hands grabbed at me as I struggled against their strength, not being able to see where they were coming from or ways to incapacitate them either. Hands grabbed at my long hair and dragged me along dirt, rocks and concrete. My bare ankles screamed out in pain from the skin tearing from the contact of the ground, my knees became damp as I scrapped them from my twisting and turning away from hands.
"Stop moving bitch!" Someone screamed at me the punched me in the gut.
The man holding my hair stopped "don't damage her more than she's doing to herself." And a shot fired from a gun with the powerful thud of a limp body following it. I could not help but yelp in terror. "Shut up Kori." The man holding me was my step-father, he just killed one of his friends for just punching me. Was it twisted that I was grateful? That for once, in the worst circumstance he showed even the littlest bit of care.
Nothing scared me more than that.
My phone buzzed again in my pocket and my step-father yanked my hair. "Give me your phone."
"If you did not notice I do not have hands." I spat. I was slapped for it. His hands reached into the pockets on the side of my leggings and laughed.
"Who the fuck names their kid Dick?" His manic laughter fully erupting. My heart sank, thinking of him but grateful I had only put his first name in my phone and not his last. The last thing I wanted was for my step-father to abuse Dick. "Is he another boy your giving your shitty self too? What a little whore you are, but what fun!" He laughed again and threw my phone to one of his friends. "Don't lose that, her mother bought it."
He dragged me on again and pounded on a door. Someone opened it and I was dragged along this time feeling something like smooth wooden floors and soft carpets. More doors and stairs leading down, I was dragged every step and my knees tore.
The men holding me stopped and moved along a cold and damp room, then to be thrown onto a metal chair with my ankles and hands tied to it.
"She doesn't look so good." A feminine voice rung out.
"She'll be fine." My step-fathers voice hissed. "Now where's your boss?"
This feminine voice laughed "he'll be here in a moment don't worry" her heels clicked along the cement floor towards me.
"Hey sista you probably don't know what's going on, if you're scared don't worry," her voice then lowered "this will be quick but I'm sorry."
She seemed like she had no idea that I was my step-fathers step-daughter, whatever was going on I felt myself begin to put a little trust in this women I had not seen yet. Although every part of me begged me to run.
"Just where's the money." My step-fathers voice said annoyed.
"It's on its way." The women answered, her heels clicking away from me.
"I need this stuff before 10," he spat and then scuffled a little.
"Then you should have come sooner, you answered to us we don't answer to you." Her voice was cool and calm.
I heard a door slam open and heavy footsteps pounded on the ground. "Jack my man!" the voice roared. "I'm so glad to see you and oh! Who's this?" he said with false surprise.
"That's my Kori," I hated that he dared call me his of any form.
"Oh nice, she'll do very well." I heard his footsteps coming closer to mine and he grabbed my chin in his big hands to get a better look of me. I tried to bite him and he moved his hand away. "A little feisty is she not?" he chuckled.
"She'll settle down, now can I have my money." My step-father was impatient and annoyed.
"Oh yes," I'm assuming the man brought something out of his pocket and gave it to my step-father.
"Have her back by eleven she has work at twelve." He said then left me.
After the door was shut the women's heels clicked towards me and I felt the blindfold come off. The room was dimly lit, dark red walls and deep wooden beams matched the doors and the scares furniture in the room. The women had dyed her hair one side red the other black, with a pale face, heavy eye makeup and bold red lips. The man beside her was bulky and seemed very rich.
"What are you going to do with me?" I growled.
"Nothin' too bad, we just need yah to take few photos to pay for yah daddy's dope." The women said.
"So, he's dealing dope now or is he finally addicted to something other than alcohol." I guess it was money and dope got from the man. Made sense. Since he kept switching from money and stuff.
"He's under my contract." Said the rich man, his face was almost handsome with a scar on his cheek and dark black hair. He started to walk around me. "You see I'm a very good business man, you might say an entrepreneur with all the businesses I run. I work with some of the wealthiest men in Gotham, hell even the great Bruce Wayne asks me for advice on occasion." I only knew little of Mr. Wayne, but I highly doubted he dealt with this man. "So missy if you ever plan on telling the police on me, I'll destroy you," he leaned over to me his breath hot on my face, " and trust me I'll still sleep well at night." He then backed away and continued to walk in front of me.
"So your daddy here sells dope to the kids on the street, and uses my girls sometimes. I don't like that when he doesn't pay." He said venomous. "So you're going to take some pictures for me darling and I'm going to give them to those rich in Gotham, whose wives tell them to stick in a sock instead of giving them pleasure. You see, sometimes rich men only want pictures of women, a lot easier to hide some pictures then some toy they play with on their business trips. But don't think I have buyers for both.
I tried to clear up my throat "You will never get pictures from me" I said with fury.
He grabbed my throat, "then you'll be in the bottom of the river and no one is going to miss you."
"Sir, let me talk to her, maybe explain more of this." The women looked at me with a moment of panic. She seemed to have dealt with this a lot and didn't want me to be dead for some reason. He most likely had something against her to have her here.
"Very well, Harley tell Kori here what she's to do."
"It's not so bad, we just need shots of your chest and ass mostly." I shook my head.
"No, I do not want to someone's dirty work. I do not want my naked body in the hands of men I do not know."
"We can put you in some lingerie then? Something that gives the men something they want, but not too much. Make them come back for more."
"I don't want my face in them." I said understanding my only way out of this was to comply.
The women looked to the man, "she has a nice enough body they don't need to see her face." He rubbed his chin.
"Very well, as long as you agree to do everything we tell you."
I bowed my head in shame. "Yes."
Two men came in and picked me up in the chair carrying me to a room adjacent this one. Comparatively this was not as bad as I had feared. In a way it was basically my job all ready, pose for people willing to pay and look hot. I only hoped, I said with desperate need that the man stayed true to not have my face in it.
I was told to wear this one piece lace get up and do basic poses that really was only to show off the lingerie. It was not until after a couple shots that I was asked do anything crude. They zoomed in on my chest and my ass as I bent over. I hated every part of it. I wanted to cry, I wanted to kick every single one of them, I wanted to have them locked up behind bars so that no one else would have to endure what I have too. I tried to think of it as work. I was grateful that you could notsee the stiches from Friday night; I had no idea what they would do to me if they saw them. So I refused to take off any part of the outfit and told them I was only seventeen, which made the photographers uncomfortable and Harley gasped.
"No, no, no!" she said angered, "your step-father has really outdone himself hasn't he?" Harley walked up to me and threw a blanket over my shoulders. "We are running a business no matter how corrupt it may be, we can't have you posing anything without skin I will not allow it!" She then whispered to me "I know some girls come in here and they do things they don't really like, but at least they are eighteen, boss won't care about selling yah pics you look eighteen but I say your done here."
The big man got up from his chair and stood dangerously close to Harley, "you sure are going overboard trying to protect this girl." His voice was like a snakes, I practically heard him hiss.
"She's only seventeen, you've seen her step-father I will allow many things," she then looked over to me with a sober expression that hardened when she looked at the big man, "she doesn't deserve this. Most of our girls choose to do the shoot and other things, she has had no choice in the matter."
"She's not supposed too." He said with a chuckle.
Harley pursed her lips, "yah expect did nothin' other than her mom hook up with a screw up."
He sighed "I suppose you are right again." He smiled over to me, "besides I think because of these shoots she'll pay her father's debt off pretty quick."
"He's not my father!" I growled. "That man will never be my father, my mother was the fool for being with him!"
The man rose his hands up "don't be so touchy." He then smiled and walked out of the room. Everyone relaxed in an instant and Harley spun around.
"Sista you better change, the sooner you're out of here the betta."
"Thank you so much." I said running to the thin sheet to change and then followed Harley out the door.
She pointed to a black Rolls Royce, "he'll take yah were you need to go."
Just before she turned around I engulfed her in a huge hug, "thank you so much, I do hope that you will be safe." I had not time to see her expression as I jumped into the car and told the man to drop me off at gas station by my house. A sense of calm washed over me the further I got away from that horrible place, praying to X'hal that what happened within those walls would soon end.
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Midday, druggies roamed around street corners trying to get some cash by passing off as homeless. Sure a lot of them were homeless, but they only wanted drugs not food. Preteens rode around on bikes hollering and messing around, some causing mischief others just playing. The gas station was busy selling hot sandwiches and cars pouring in and out of it. I walked in glad to see that the man who usually harassed me wasn't on shift and instead a nicer lady sat.
"May I use your restroom?" I asked. She looked up with her heavily makeup covered eyes and powered evident on her nose.
"Use at your own risk, you might catch an STD." She laughed and handed me the key while I smiled. The bathrooms were gross due to no one bothering to maintain them nor people giving a crap where they (if I am to be so blunt) cramp. I was aware that you may in fact get some sort of illness from being in here, but an STD is highly unlikely unless someone wiped their genitals all over the toilet seat in blood. Even then that's not how STDs worked. Still I only was in the bathroom to look in the cracked mirror. Someone had clearly had hit it, either with their fist or someone else's head. Who knows honestly?
Starring back at myself I looked awful, my hair was a mess and my face was further bruised then before. I was able to cover up the bruises from before with some good foundation, now you could clearly see the swelling of my right cheek; purple and blue soaking up the color of my skin. My lip was cut on the side, which if I truly wanted to I could say it was a lip piercing gone wrong. Although teachers rarely asked anymore if I had bruises, it sadly seemed to be a common thing around this area.
Once I was done trying to comb my hair with my fingers and look somewhat presentable, I handed the key back and began to walk to the place I hated the most. My black pants were torn at the knees, my feet ached and my head was pounding. It was like having a very bad hangover that would not go away, I feared I had received a concussion. That was the last thing I needed to worry about right now.
Paul's Pizza was in plain view, melting cheese and burnt dough pinched at your sense the second your foot stepped on the block. People jammed inside were watching some sort of sports game, while others smoked a cigarette outside. Avoiding everyone's stares I quickly run up the steps, ignoring the shooting pain in my left ankle which was worst then the right. Hesitantly I knocked on the door, relieved that no one answered.
We left a spare key in a small box under the gutters in a makeshift hole of sorts, I grabbed it and unlocked the door. Walking in ignoring the huge mess that plagued me every time I stepped foot in this house. Heading straight to my room I locked my door and slide against it. Briefly I closed my eyes and tried to make everything go away. The scent of cheese, laughter, the aching in my head, ankles, knees, and sides. The memories of today, of every day haunted me. He seemed he did not care what have put me through, as long as he got what he wanted. I tried to forget what had just happened. Anger boiled up in me; hatred for my step-father and his clorbag friends filling my veins.
In this instant it did not matter that I promised my mother anything. I did not matter that I would leave behind the memory of what once was my home. Nothing mattered. This was a straw that broke the back of camels, no longer would I stand to live here in fear of my own life! I rose up quickly, blood rushing to my head and feeling light headed. I paused for a singular moment only then looked for my phone. Praying that it wasn't still with my step-father. Heading out of my room and into the kitchen where my phone lay on the counter. I grabbed it then half ran, half limped to my room. I tour through my dresser piling what little clothes I had into my school bag. Racheal's bracelet, my mother's silver box, and anything else super valuable to me was stuffed into a thread bare bag. In my closet, that you can barely call a closet I looked for a suit case of some sort glad to have found my purple one from when I moved her so many years ago.
I emptied my school bag, humorlessly laughing at myself for not doing so first and grabbed my blanket and pillow into the suitcase. My school books were put into my backpack along with notebooks and my laptop that I got from my mother, and earphones. I rushed into the bathroom pouring any of my belongings into a plastic bag and stuffed them into my schoolbag.
Pulling my phone from my pocket I looked for my desired contact then breathed a sigh of relief once it began ringing. They picked up and I shed a tear of happiness. "Hello yes, I'm sorry to call but I need a huge favor from you." The voice on the other side was more than happy to oblige.
"Yes I'll meet you at Gotham Memorial Library, thank you so much." The phone call ended, and I took a moment to look out on to the only room that was my save haven for so many years. Taking a moment to remember found memories before I closed the door and for the first time in my whole life I walked out on what tortured me the most.
"Please forgive me Mother," I whispered to and empty house then slammed the door and never looked back.