I tapped my fingers on the metal table, thick steel. The sweat dripped down my back in my thin tank top and the make up on my face had smudged. I couldn't stop tapping my foot and my fingers as I stared the well dressed lady in the face while she gave me a puzzled look. It must be nice to have money. "So I need you to tell me what happened Miss Copeman." She said calmly. Copeman? I'm not his daughter. I'm probably in the system as his daughter, as much as he bailed me out. She sighed and walked around the table. "What do you do at home? You and your father seem very close." She said slyly. "He's not my father." I said to myself. I dared to say it out loud. "We're fine I guess." She nodded her head. I couldn't say much more or else I will get in trouble.
"Trisha, how did you find your sister?" She asked. Her eyebrows raised as she crossed her arms. I don't remember how I knew to got to where she was, but I just knew something was wrong. Dahlia and I had a connection, and when I was in trouble she showed up right away. My stomach began to ache and I could feel something was wrong. I walked into that hotel room and had emptied my stomach on the floor. My sisters dead naked body, slashed and lifeless. I flinched. "I don't know why she was there I just felt something was wrong " I replied. I tried to keep my replies simple and short not to give off anything that would ruin Copeman's business. "I guess you mean sister sense." She said. She slid a Manila folder across the table and nodded for me to open it. "I don't want to see her body." I raised my voice and slid the folder back. "Trisha, why was your sister meeting up with some stranger in a hotel? Was she dating someone older than her?" My heart began to pound as I remember Copeman instructing me not to speak too much until he got here. "I don't know anything about her social life okay? Can I please go now." I tapped my fingers harder on the table as I begged to be released. "Your sister's autopsy came back ruling it a homicide, don't you want to know more about her?" I shook my head "She's dead, and I've seen enough." She nodded and opened the folder although I told her I didn't want to know. "Trisha, your sister had very high HCG levels." She said. I shrugged, as if I know all about this doctor and body health stuff. She took a deep breath "Your sister was pregnant."
My eyes must have popped out my skull as I trembled with fear, that not only was my sister killed but her unborn child. "She was five weeks along." The lady said nodding. I tried to think back to where Dahlia may have been five weeks ago and who she had met up with. Just as I began to open my mouth to release everything running through my head, Copeman barged in. He rushed over to me and put his firm hands on my shoulder, they were cold. "Honey I'm sorry I wasn't here faster, is the questioning over?" He looked the lady in the eyes in a way that told her it was over. She closed the folder and nodded her head. "You may take Trisha home."
The car ride back was silent. I watched out the tinted windows trying not to cry. Copeman stopped the car in an alleyway. "What did she say?" He said. I stared at him with tearful eyes and tried to mutter the answer. His face grew red as he came across mine with an open hand. He grabbed my neck and shook me a little. "What did the tramp ask you?!" He threw me back as I began sobbing. "Dahlia was pregnant!" I screeched out and put my face into my hands. I looked up and saw how his face grew pale as if he was going to be sick himself. He pulled out of the driveway and drove along the highway. "Put the blindfold on." He instructed. Whenever Copeman had drove back to his house, all girls were instructed to wear a blindfold so he would never get found out about where his house was. Sometimes I got a chance to peek a little and I saw signs like "Red Dove" and "Dolers Street." I remained blindfolded for the rest of the car ride which I assumed was at least an hour.
When he turned off the car I removed the blindfold and got out of the car. I walked along the gravel path towards the shaky house that shouldn't even be standing anymore. When I walked in Copeman had grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. "Dahlia wasn't taking the birth control was she?" He said. His body shook with anger. "Did she?! Doesn't that girl know she could've caused a lot of trouble not taking those damn pills?" His face grew red as he grabbed my hair and hauled me onto the couch. He put my face into the cushion and I gasped for air trying to breathe. Everything was turning black and I knew this was going to be it for me and that I'll see Dahlia again. I heard him unbuckle his pants and removed his belt. Not again, please not again. He lifted my shirt and began to hit me with the belt buckle. I cried out and screamed as I felt the stinging and feeling of blood dripping down my back. He grabbed my hair and pulled my head back as I took a huge gasp of air, which I felt would be like my last. "No man is going to pay for a marked up girl! No man!" He screeched as he threw my head back down on the couch and walked upstairs. I waited until I heard his room door shut to crawl into my usual corner and sob. I didn't cry because of the pain I was in or because I was bleeding, I cried because Dahlia was gone. After sitting there for what seemed like hours a hand had grabbed mine. It was Charlie. "It's going to be okay." She said laying her head onto my knees. Charlie was two years older than me. Dahlia and her had always made the most money and were the most popular buys. Charlie told me she ended up here because her parents were high off drugs and she slept in the park to avoid being in the house and that's when Copeman picked her up. She seem so calm telling the story of being kidnapped by this man, and it irritates me. Living here wasn't right but we all gave up on escaping after our first attempt. Copeman had the doors blocked off and locked and chained and there was no way in or out unless you were with him.
Soon Malaysia came down the steps and cuddled up beside me. She was younger than us but not much younger and spent most of her time here unless she had gotten a request. She was the tiniest of all of us and tries to find positivity in everything. It's almost as if her mind is gone. Malaysia was actually sold to Copeman. Her mother was looking to get "shot up" and gave away Malaysia willingly. I remained on the floor as I let Malaysia wipe my back with a warm cloth to stop the bleeding and help soothe my skin. Charlie was making dinner and starting up the fireplace. Copeman came down in his fresh suit and sat down at the table waiting for us to join for dinner. We were all Copeman's girls. We belong to him now, because our parents didn't want us anymore. Or because our parents had died. And now we are apart of Copeman's business. Almost every night at dinner he describes so vividly how he plans to bring more girls here and make more money off of young girls. After dinner I cleaned up because it was Charlie's night. Her night with Copeman. We tried draining out the noise, the disgust that we felt knowing this was our lives. But, we knew it was going to happen anyway. Yesterday was my night. I was here, while Dahlia was being murdered. And when Copeman dropped me off to go and get her and I found her dead, my world had crashed. The reason I lived was gone and if I could take any chance at death, I would.
