She ran for her life.

“Angela,” Andre shouted. “There’s nowhere to run. The gate is locked, and the street is deserted. Nobody’s going to hear you scream and even if they did, they wouldn’t care. They would simply close their windows and pretend they didn’t hear you. You’re on your own. No one is coming to rescue you.”

Her legs stopped working, and she fell on her hands and knees. Gravel bit into her skin.

“This can’t be happening,” she whispered. The enormity of what Andre had said slammed into her gut. She could hear her mother’s voice warning her about the bad men out there, who would do horrible things to her if they had the chance, and they would only have that chance if she was a stupid, silly little girl. Andre was one of those men, and she’d been a stupid, silly girl who had trusted his easy smile.

Whatever they had planned for her was not going to be pleasant. She wondered what the chances of coming out of it alive were. Probably slim to none. There was a chance, though, she tried to convince herself. She tried to hold onto hope. Instinct told her she was probably going to die badly, although there were apparently worse fates than death. Maybe they would rape her and sell her into slavery. She’d heard that human trafficking was big business in South Africa. Maybe she would get out alive if she kept her wits about her. Angela wasn’t sure life as a sex slave to some warlord in central Africa or the Middle East was a life worth living.

She made a decision about how she was going to react. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she stood up and brushed the gravel off her hands and knees. Angela turned to face them, adjusted her shoulders and walked tall and straight. She walked the way her mother had been trying to get her to for years. Her mother would have been proud. It was the longest walk she’d ever taken. Standing in front of them, her body shook with fear, a fear she’d hoped she would never know.
“So,” she said in a voice she didn’t recognise. “Should we get on with it?”

They laughed.

Angela stared at them, each in turn, and didn’t say anything else. She promised herself no matter what they did to her, from that point on, she would remain silent. She would not give them the power they wanted over her. She would not scream or beg for her life.

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