Stealing Grace Read Free Page A

but not all. Some stray men were wandering the halls too, most wearing business suits and loose ties, eyeing them like they were next on their agenda.
    Elena knew exactly what was going on behind those curtains. Oh, God, No! We’re being sold as sex slaves! I’m a virgin! I can’t. I can’t! She felt bile coming into her throat and knew she was going to be sick. She passed a trash can in the hall and was sick over and over in it as she felt her stomach heave violently causing hot tears to prick in her eyes. One of the men stayed behind with her and told the others to keep going.
    He told her gruffly to hurry up. She tried but how did you hurry up vomiting? He pressed his groin against her rear and pulled her hair back, licking her cheek, and told her if she didn’t hurry up, he’d take her to a room and make use of her right then and there. That got Elena up and going. She practically sprinted down the hall to catch up with the others.
    They pushed the girls into a room with nothing in it. Elena could still hear the beat of the music from the hall they’d just come through. There was a stack of clothes in the corner placed on an old dresser drawer, the only furniture in the room. They were instructed to find something closest to their size and put it on.
    After the strange men were gone she heard one of the women say “Why did they have us strip? Why give us more clothes to put on us again?”
    Elena wondered that herself.
    She was eager to get clothes on before they came back and found a pair of jeans and tank top with flip flops, and from the look of the other girls that must’ve been standard issue. Elena couldn’t think. She couldn’t pay attention. She couldn’t cry. She couldn’t speak. She could barely breathe, waiting for something to happen. Her skin itched and burned but wasn’t red or splotchy and Elena thought that was weird.

    * * *

    After a while a few more girls were brought in and told to get dressed as well. The men had been in and out several times. Looking them up and down. Not sexually, but like they were a car they were inspecting. Writing down things on pads of paper and checking their teeth.
    Most of the men looked tan, foreign, a couple scruffy Americans also. None of them said names or said much of anything to the women. The one woman who did ask what was going on was slapped in front of them without a moment’s hesitation - an example to the rest - so the women were so scared. They didn’t speak another word.
    They were baffled as to what could be going on. Apparently they’d all been warned as Elena had in the van. ‘Don’t move, don’t scream, don’t try anything and you might live to see daylight’.

    * * *

    That first night passed slowly. The men hadn’t fed them or given them anything to drink. The women had slept on the concrete floor, the little bit they could sleep. Staying close to each other, trying to find comfort in anything they could, like somehow huddling together would keep them alive and safe. Most were too scared to sleep.
    There was a disgusting toilet in a little closet sized room with no door, sink or faucet. No windows in there either, nothing. Elena’s thoughts ran wild as to what could be the cause for this. She wasn’t anything special. She was a nobody with nobody. Or could that be the reason?
    She had no family. She wasn’t important so no one would miss her. People quit the concert hall all the time with no notice. They wouldn’t think anything of it, especially since she picked up her paycheck last night.
    The next day was much of the same. Not fed, not given anything to drink until that afternoon when they placed a big bowl of water in the room with no cups. They also gave them a plate of plain sandwich bread slices, like they were feeding dogs. The girls were all so hungry that they rushed it and chomped it down like it was the best thing they’d ever tasted.
    They took turns with the huge bowl of water and all got a few gulps in.