text: Disclaimer: This story contains sex trafficking and Suicide “The world is a dark and dangerous place.” That's what everyone says. That's what everyone believes. I guess that’s what happens when you live in this type of world. Let me start over. I am known as 14. We’re not supposed to talk about our birth names, I have a hard time remembering mine anyway. When I was 4 years old, I was taken and sold into the ring. The ring where we are kept in cages like animals. hung upside down for hours on end. Raped. Left shaking, cold and alone after being abused. All these awful things, but today has to be the worst. I woke up this morning shivering with tears running down my face. I had a nightmare. A nightmare that I could wake up from, only to wake up into a different nightmare, one that I couldn’t even dream of escaping. Today we are being forced to eat the remains of one of our peers. She had hung herself. I can’t help but feel anger towards her. She chose the selfish way out, now the rest of us will be punished. I wouldn’t call her a friend. We don’t have friends. We’re sold and cycled through the ring too rapidly to make any connections. The girl was named 110. I had met her briefly. She didn’t speak. I left her alone. She had a sister I'd met weeks before. They were driven mad by the idea of finding each other in the ring. Everyone knows once you lose someone they are gone. Me and the girls sat in a circle around her body. I heard girls whispering under their breaths. Curses, Prayers. Some were silent, others were crying. Afterwards we were given some grace by our handlers by being returned to our cages for a moment of rest. We were to keep silent. I feel numb, Twiddling the bobby pin I'd found on the floor while I was being moved to this unit. It is all I have. I am comforted by this object because it is mine. It is all I have. It is only important to me because I am not allowed to have it, but that’s what makes it special. I hear girls sobbing quietly to themselves. I know they’re all trying to hold their vomit in, in fear we’ll be punished for being sick. I am kept on the very top of the pile of broken girls. I feel all their pain beneath me, and I feel nothing towards them. Or maybe I just don’t want to. Being numb is the only way to survive this place. I hear the girl under me whispering. Only then I realized it was for me. “Hey, what’s that you have?” she whispered, staring at my bobby pin. Oh no “It’s nothing.” I say, quickly closing it in my hand. The girl starts rambling about a great escape, her voice getting louder and louder. “Hey, shut the hell up, Okay?!” I whisper aggressively down at her. She gets quiet, I don’t hear another peep from her. I start thinking. I know I have to get out of here. I have to try, or I'm going to end up like 110. I deserve a chance at life, so do all of these girls. I’ve had this fantasy for a while. Of being left alone without a handler, finding our way out of the underground, getting in contact with the police. Just something to get out of here. Left alone without a handler... I look to my left and to my surprise the handler has fallen asleep. You know what. “Fuck it” I say loud enough for the girl below me to here. She looks up at me puzzled. “We’re going to get out of here or we are going to die trying.” I say, I'm shaking but putting on my brave face. “It’s about time too.” She says gesturing for the bobby pin. I’m hesitant to give it to her, worried she’ll leave me for dead, but I take my chances. I don’t know how to pick a lock. She stuffs the bobby pin into the keyhole, quietly wiggling it around. After a few seconds I begin to lose hope. At last, the lock clicks and her cage slowly open. I hear a few girls gasp from below, but they are careful to keep their mouths shut in hopes the girl will help them escape as well. She slowly crawls out of her cage, careful not to make any noise that will wake our handler up. She stands up slowly, letting the muscles in her legs get used to being stretched out like that again. I hold my breath. The girl looks to be taking a minute to think. “Please don’t leave us.” I say, I feel pathetic begging like this, but she is our only hope. The girl looks worried but lets out a breath and starts picking my lock. I feel a tear roll down my face. For the first time in years, I have hope. My lock clicks, my door opens. I am free for now, but we must be careful to keep it that way. We start making our way down the pile letting girls out. The girls then wait at the bottom of the pile for everyone to be freed. The one with the bobby pin is opening one of the last cages when the lock falls to the floor, making a loud clicking sound. The handler is startled awake. He looks at us, puzzled as to how we got out. He opens his mouth to yell out, when one of the older girls snaps his neck. We all stare at her in shock as she slowly lowers his body to the ground. She looks at her hands, disgusted by what she has done, but looks up and nods at us, encouraging us to keep going. All the girls are freed. We stand at the bottom. We share our names. Our real names. I take the key from the guard and open the door to the tunnels. For once in our lives, we have a chance. We can make it out of this tunnel and be free. Or we can die trying.