Chapter 30 TRAFFICKING
Warning: This chapter contains disturbing, horrifying scenes including child trafficking, child rape and death. Read with caution or pass.
The bullet tore through Diva’s leg. She collapsed with a strangled scream trapped in her throat. Erica flinched— ust for a second, but then her eyes went cold and steady.
“Really? This is a fvcking hospital,” she snapped.
Aaron only smirked and leaned back against his pillows like he owned the place.
Dr. Ethan burst in. “Is everyone oka—” He froze mid-sentence when he saw the blood pooling around Diva.
“Good heavens! This is a hospital! Stop bringing your private gunfights in here, there are two hundred patients who don’t need a heart attack!” he scolded, kneeling beside Diva.
Taking her out.
Erica followed them into the hallway, though her mind was already drifting toward Emily and Jolie. She stepped into the elevator, head bowed. The image of Giselle’s blood still clung to her mind. Honestly… Erica wished she had hit her harder.
The elevator doors were seconds from closing when a hand blocked them.
Aaron.
He stepped inside, ignoring the fact he should not have been out of bed.
“You followed me?” Erica asked.
“Yes,” he said shamelessly.
“I heard about the accident.”
A small smile tugged at her lips, but it didn’t reach her eyes. It was only pain wearing a smile. “Well, life is weird,” she muttered. She didn’t know what else to say.
Aaron’s hand lifted, as if to pat her hair, but he stopped himself, tucking both hands into his pockets.
“Are you going to let them go scot-free?” he asked.
“Tsk.” Erica turned to him with a smile so cold it didn’t feel human. “Death is the only punishment for them.”
The elevator dinged. She walked out. Aaron watched her, a faint, approving smirk touching his lips.
He admired loyalty.
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HUMAN SLAVERY SITE
“Move it!” a guard barked, snapping his whip. Children stumbled under its lash.....kids as young as seven, no older than sixteen—each of them forced to carry crates of illegal cocaine to the trucks. Fifteen trucks through endless labor.
This place wasn’t a factory. It was a slaughterhouse for innocence.
A trafficking hub where children were sold, tortured, and used as toys.
Ruby, sixteen but looking barely thirteeyn—was a ghost of what she once was. Her skin was pale and thin, lips cracked and bleeding, eyes hollow like a broken doll. Her mother had handed her over like garbage. Ruby had begged on her knees, sobbing, but her mother never even blinked.
She had been here fifteen days.
Hell, she realized, existed on Earth.
“Danny come on. If they find you sitting, they’ll kill you,” Ruby whispered, shaking her friend.
Danny’s eyes were red and empty. “I can’t… I can’t do this anymore,” she sobbed, voice cracking. “Just let me rest.”
Ruby bent to lift her, but a guard saw them.
“HEY!” he shouted, cracking the whip.
Ruby threw herself over Danny and took the strike across her back. The razor-spiked whip tore into her skin. She gasped, her muscles twitching.
All the children froze as the guard “Black” dragged Ruby away from Danny.
“Touch her again and I’ll kill you!” Ruby screamed, voice trembling with fury.
Black grinned. “Kill me? Let’s see you try.”
He reached into his belt and pulled out a gun.
Ruby went still.
“Wait....please, don’t....”
Danny looked at the gun, then at Ruby with a soft, broken smile. “Make it out. Free everyone,” she whispered, as though it were her final wish.
Ruby lunged toward her, but a guard looped a muscled arm around her throat, choking her. She could only watch.
SPLAT!
Danny’s skull exploded open.
Her body dropped like a doll whose strings had been cut, blood and brain matter splattering the dirt. Ruby stared frozen, her face soaked with her friend’s blood.
They killed children often. Anyone who couldn’t work, didn’t obey, or simply fell ill became an example.
“Slack like them and DIE like them,” the guards always shouted.
Ruby had watched dozens die. No one ever came to help. Men picked girls at random to take as “toys.” Some never returned.
Black holstered his gun and leaned close to Ruby.
“Let’s see if you escape alive, sweetheart,” he mocked.
Tears streamed down Ruby’s face, but her eyes—her eyes were burning red.
“I’ll kill you,” she whispered. “Mark my words.”
Black laughed and lit a cigarette. “Drag the body to the pit,” he ordered. Two boys rushed forward and carried Danny’s remains away.
Ruby collapsed to her knees. She didn’t even get to say goodbye. Her stomach twisted with guilt. She should’ve begged harder. She should’ve protected her.
But guilt quickly turned into hatred.
Black grabbed her chin. “The only reason you’re alive is because I spared you,” he said, blowing cigarette smoke in her face. “Take her to my room.”
Two guards grabbed her by the arms and dragged her away.
Ruby didn’t fight. She couldn’t.
But as she was pulled across the dirt, her fingers curled around something: a rusted dagger half-buried in the sand. She slipped it into her sleeve.
They shoved her into Black’s room and slammed the door.
Ruby hit the floor hard. She knew exactly why she was here.
Danny used to come out of this room crying, every time, refusing to tell Ruby why. Only last night… she finally confessed. Every detail.
He had raped her. Over and over.
Now Danny was dead. And Ruby was the replacement.
A laugh slipped out of Ruby’s mouth—broken, shaky, unhinged. Her shoulders rose and fell.
“Good,” she whispered. “I’ll get to avenge Danny.”
The door opened.
Black entered with a smile that made her skin crawl. His eyes traveled up and down her body slowly, hungrily.
“Get on the bed,” he commanded, removing his belt.
Ruby didn’t move.
“Did you hear me?” he yelled.
She got up, walking toward him. He grabbed her head and shoved her onto the bed. “Stop moving like a damn snail. Undress!”
She laughed—mocking him.
“Why would I?”
His hand cracked across her face, a slap. She tasted blood.
He tore her shirt open. Her chest was exposed. He leaned forward, licking his lips, lowering his mouth.....And Ruby struck.
She seized his neck—
STAB!
The dagger plunged deep into the soft flesh beneath his jaw.
Blood erupted outwards, spraying Ruby’s face. Black staggered back, choking, hands clutching his throat. He collapsed, gasping on the floor. His breath vanished, stolen clean from his throat. His eyes rolled back, twitching like his skull couldn’t contain the pain flooding it. Heat burned down his chest, seething through his ribs, wrapping around his dying heartbeat.
Ruby calmly stepped down from the bed and approached him.
“Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it?” she whispered.
She raised the knife to finish him.....
“GUARDS!!” Black rasped, eyes wide with terror.
Footsteps thundered down the hall. Ruby didn’t hesitate, she plunged the dagger into his skull.
The blade sank deep into his skull He stopped moving.
“GET HER!” someone roared outside.
Ruby stood over the corpse, drenched in blood.
And she smiled...