Believe Like a Child (44 page)
A
s they turned onto Dauphin Street, a petrified Alessa cringed at the memories evoked by the familiar surroundings. The car pulled up in front of a row home, a couple of blocks from where Harlin used to live. One of his boys came around the car, opened the door and yanked Alessa to her feet. Another gripped her by the arm as he pushed her toward the front door, with Harlin and Tasha following behind. The blood in Alessa’s veins turned to ice as she stepped inside. Harlin’s old gang was in the living room. They all looked up and started laughing and high-fiving each other when they saw her. Then Harlin grabbed her by the hair and shoved her down a long hallway into a bedroom.
Alessa noticed that the room’s only window had been painted black and bars had been mounted on the inside. There was a small mattress on the floor and a single black light bulb hung from the ceiling. The room was dim and stank of death. Harlin slammed the door shut behind him and flung Alessa down on the mattress. He stood in front of her and dropped his jeans, then his boxers.
“The first thing you’re gonna do is suck my dick. And bitch, you better make it good!” he growled. “Make sure it’s the best fucking blow job you’ve ever given!”
Alessa did exactly that. She would do anything not to piss him off. She knew that if she angered him in any way, Remo, Lucy and Regina would pay the price.
When it was over, Harlin got dressed and left the room without uttering another word. Alessa lay back on the soiled mattress, curled herself into a ball and cried her heart out. When she had exhausted her tears, she began to pray. She prayed passionately to God to keep her family safe. She prayed that she would get out of this somehow. And finally, she prayed that Harlin and all those who were involved in his wicked activities would die.
Since she had no way of telling the time, Alessa figured that a few hours must have gone by before she heard the door being unlocked and looked over to see Tasha enter. She was carrying a two pieces of dry toast and a glass of water.
“You need to eat,” Tasha told her.
With tears streaming down her face, Alessa gazed begging her. “Tasha, you have to help me,” she pleaded. Please!”
Tasha’s face was devoid of all emotion. She looked like a zombie in a cheap horror movie, as she turned to face Alessa.
“Listen,” she said, “I helped you once and it cost me everything. After you left, Harlin turned me out to make up for the money he would have earned through you. My parents couldn’t even protect me from him. When he was sent to prison I thought I could stop hooking. As soon as he was locked up, some guys from a rival gang killed my parents. I got stuck in this motherfuckin’ neighborhood, doing every man that Harlin’s boys could find on the street. I did my time. Now, it’s your turn, bitch. You should never have sent the police to bust the old house. Harlin was making plenty of money off those dumb, fucking kids and then you had to go and ruin it. So now you’ll just have to deal with it. I ain’t your friend and I don’t give a fuck about you!”
Alessa could see the pain in Tasha’s face for all that she lost and suffered.
With that, Tasha turned and left the room. Alessa’s mind was racing. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her again. How had it come to this? Why did history keep repeating itself? Why had God picked her, of all people, to dish out so much unhappiness? The only thing that kept Alessa breathing was her desire to get back to Remo and Lucy, where she belonged.
The next morning, Harlin came into the bedroom, switched on the light and stood over her. To Alessa, he looked like a giant, a giant monster. Before her eyes could adjust to the sudden glare of the light bulb, Harlin reached down and seized her by the neck of her shirt.
“You and me are gonna have a talk,” he declared ominously.
Alessa felt like a rag doll as he yanked her up into a sitting position.
“Tonight, there’s gonna be a party and you’re the guest of honor,” he announced with sadistic delight, flinging some exotic lingerie at her so that it hit her in the face before falling into her lap. “You’re wearing this and when the party starts, you’re on the auction block. See, after what you did, bitch, I have to set up my business from scratch and you’re the only one I have at the moment to put up for auction. You’re gonna shower and you’re gonna make people want to bid on you. You understand?”
Alessa nodded in agreement. When Harlin had left, she trembled with fear. This couldn’t be happening again. She was no longer the child whose uncle had raped her. Nor was she the teenager who had danced in the nude and offered sex for money. She was an educated woman who had put her life together. She sat on the mattress all morning, reliving the good times in her life. She thought of Ebby and how much she loved her. She imagined what it would be like when she and Remo grew older. She thought about Lucy and how lucky she was to have her. She savored the happy moments, trying to regain her resilience. Alessa was in survival mode again. She needed to do whatever it took to get her through this new ordeal so she could go back to her own people, to those she loved and who loved her.
She had no clue as to where Harlin’s men would take Remo and Lucy. Maybe they too were in this very house? Her next thought made her break out in a cold sweat. She was so spooked it felt like her skin would peel away from her body.
What if,
she mused with a shudder,
they planned to sell Lucy like they had sold Regina? Oh my God! Regina! What were they going to do to her?
Hours passed as Alessa sat and worried. Sometime in the afternoon, the bedroom door was unlocked and Tasha came in with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of water. Alessa snatched it from her and gobbled it down. She looked up at Tasha when she was finished.
“Please, Tasha. Please!” she begged. “You have to help me. I don’t deserve this and you know it.”
For a moment, Alessa caught a glimpse of the old Tasha she had once known. Her hopes soared as she saw her face soften for a fraction of a second. But within an instant, the expression of cruel indifference was back.
“I ain’t gotta help nobody, but me,” Tasha flung back at her. “Fuck that shit! You gonna need to help yourself. You better do what Harlin tells you to or you ain’t makin’ it outta here alive. Got it?”
“Yes, yes I got it,” Alessa said, retreating. But she couldn’t help asking, “Please Tasha, where are Remo and Lucy? Are they okay?”
“I don’t know nothin’ about them and you just need to forget about them anyway. That life you had is over. This is your new life till Harlin says you can have a different one. Unless you want him to beat you, you better just do what he tells you to do.”
Tasha walked out of the bedroom and locked the door behind her. Alessa sat there for hours. She didn’t know how long she waited, because she couldn’t see out the window. She didn’t even know if it was night or day. Finally, she heard someone unlock the door again. Tensed up, she immediately went and sat on the end of the mattress. The door opened and Harlin walked into the room. She could see he was high. He gripped her arm and yanked her up from the mattress. He dragged her into the bathroom and ordered her to strip. His creepy gaze made her skin crawl as she undressed. She stood in front of him with her arms folded over her bare breasts.
“Bitch, when I tell you to get undressed, I don’t want you hiding your tits or nothin’ else from me!” he snarled. “You stand with your hands at your sides.”
Alessa immediately dropped her arms to her sides. A feeling of humiliation consumed her. Harlin pushed by her and turned on the shower. Then he motioned for her to get under it. Harlin watched her as she stood under the water. He kept the door to the shower open so he could see her every move. “Wash up that pussy real good and get all that funk outta your hair. You smell like shit.”
Alessa washed, hoping she could wash away her very existence. When she was finished, Harlin handed her a towel. Walking her back into the bedroom, he said, “I’ll be back in twenty minutes. You better be done up right and wear that outfit I gave you this morning.”
Alessa quickly dried herself and applied make-up, using the cosmetics that had been placed in the room while she was showering. She put on the sleazy lingerie Harlin had got her and sat on the mattress waiting.
Harlin came back into the room and approached her. “Stand up,” he commanded.
As Alessa stood there, staring into his eyes, she searched for a tiny morsel of compassion, but could find none. The man who had once saved her from being murdered after she had been brutally raped was now the most evil monster she had ever set eyes on.
Harlin stepped closer, grasped her ass and pulled her body into his so their torsos were touching. “You remember what I said about tonight? If you want to see that pathetic white-trash family of yours again, you better do what I say.”
Alessa seized the moment. “Please don’t hurt them, Harlin,” she whined. “Are they are okay? Where are they? Please let them go!”
Harlin stepped back. “‘
Please
don’t hurt them,
please
let them go, are they
okay
?’” he mimicked, mocking her. “Listen, bitch, I ain’t here to help you. Just shut the fuck up!”
Just then his sister walked into the bedroom. She was carrying a pair of the “fuck-me” boots Alessa used to wear when she danced.
“They’re here,” Tasha announced matter-of-factly.
A
lessa walked into the living room to find at least fifteen men there. Ranging in age from eighteen to sixty, they watched her as she approached the small platform set up in the middle of the room. The lights in the room were low so she could just make out their faces, but their expressions were so fucking horny Alessa could tell that they could barely keep their pants on. Circling her like untamed beasts, each of them studied her breasts and her ass to make sure they were firm. None of them touched her, but their piercing stares were like knives plunging into her flesh.
The room was silent, until Harlin spoke. “Okay,” he said, “who’s going to give me a bid?”
No one said a word. Then a short, fat white man in his mid-fifties complained, “Listen, this bitch is too fucking old. I didn’t come here for this! You got anything younger? How fucking old is she anyway?”
“She’s seventeen,” Harlin lied.
All the men began to grumble, knowing that Alessa was much older than that.
The short, fat man said, “Were looking for that untapped stuff, man. Bring us something around thirteen or fourteen and we’ll get some bids on the table.”
Relieved, at first, that they were rejecting her, Alessa took a while to grasp what they wanted: children. She couldn’t believe her ears and wished she could have killed all of them on the spot. She could see Harlin growing angrier by the moment, because no one was buying.
“Listen, this is what we got tonight,” he said sternly. “We are putting our lineup back together. We’ll have some younger ones by this time next week. I know this bitch ain’t as young as you like ’em, but she has some experience.”
Harlin walked over to a table in the corner and turned on music. He walked back and looked at Alessa. “Show them,” he demanded.
Alessa began to dance to the music. Half the men left the room, while the rest watched the show. When the song was over, Harlin looked at the remaining men.
“Well?” he asked,”who’s gonna give me a bid?”
The short, fat man spoke up. “Like I said before, she ain’t young enough to bid on. I’ll give you fifty bucks, but I want her all night in that room of hers. I need more than one fuck, if I’m gonna pay anything.”
The other men nodded in agreement, but no one offered more than 50 dollars. Harlin pulled Alessa down off the platform. “Fine,” he said. “Here, take her back in the bedroom and do whatever you want. If the bitch gives you any trouble, just yell.”
Alessa was crying quietly as one of Harlin’s boys led the two of them back into the bedroom. Once inside, the fat little pervert sized up Alessa’s body without ever making eye contact with her.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “Since we’re doing an all-nighter, let’s take this in steps. First, I want you to undress me.”
Alessa walked over to him and began unbuttoning his shirt. He held her hand still for a minute as he removed three big, smelly cigars from his pocket. He put the cigars on the floor next to the bed.
“I’ll need them for later,” he explained.
When he was standing completely naked in front of her, Alessa felt sick with revulsion. He was so fat that he had male breasts. A roll of flab from his stomach overhung his pelvis so that all she could see was the head of a short, fat, rampant penis. He was already rock hard by the time Alessa had undressed him and he sat down on the edge of the mattress and told her to undress slowly. Alessa was twenty-three years old and had a stunningly beautiful body and as she began to remove her clothes, one by one, she could hear his breathing quicken. She took off her bra first and the moment she did so, the man sprang to his feet and put his smelly mouth on her breasts. As he licked and sucked on them, Alessa wanted to bash his brains in. After several minutes, he withdrew and ordered her to take the rest of her clothes off. When she did, he stepped right up and jammed his fingers into her crotch. Alessa wanted to scream out in pain and humiliation, but knew the consequences would be worse than what this filthy piece of trash was doing to her.
The man had Alessa lie on her back as he invaded every inch of her body. Then he picked up an unlit cigar and told her to turn over and lie on her stomach. He crawled over her and dragged her body up from the waist so that her ass was raised. Then she felt him force his unlit cigar into her vagina, moving it back and forth inside her, the act turning him on more and more with each thrust. Finally, he pulled the cigar all the way out and inserted it into his mouth, licking it as if it were a lollipop. When he was done, he tossed the cigar onto the floor and plunged his penis into her rectum. Alessa groaned in pain, which just turned him on more.
When he was satisfied, he lay down next to her, picked up the cigar and lit it. Without looking at her, he said, “Not too bad for your age. We are going to have some real fun tonight.”
By morning, Alessa didn’t care if she lived or died. When Harlin came in to get her, she was barely able to walk to the bathroom with him. Harlin merely shoved a towel into her hand and ordered her to shower.
Once that was over, he escorted her back to the bedroom that was now hers and said, “Tasha will be in with food. After you eat, get some sleep. You look like shit and we ain’t gonna make no money with you looking like shit and being an old hag. You’re useless!”
He locked the door behind him and left her standing there in a towel. Alessa had endured a lot in her early years, but she knew that the previous night had been one of the worst in her life. She had to find a way to escape and get back to Remo and Lucy.