Katelyn ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Down Gwynns Falls Parkway and across Warwick Avenue, she cut across the campus of Coppin State University so quickly, track stars half her age would be as jealous as a Cheshire cat. Katelyn didn't even stop as she knocked into a group of sorority sisters from the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority repainting their bench on the college's Pan-Hellenic Row. She knew what stopping meant. She knew that pausing for even a moment meant being captured, and she was never going back there.
Not ever again.
Mudslinger was considered by many to be the Pimp of all Pimps. In fact, he was revered by all as having cornered the market on the pimp game in Baltimore's Arlington neighborhood. He even dressed like the typical pimp of yesteryear. A wide-brimmed hat, loose-fitting bell bottoms jeans and a cane in an array of hues were his usual attire.
If Mudslinger wanted you, ladies knew he'd stopped at nothing to have you; and, once he did, no one dare try and leave his employ. That was mostly due to the reputation he'd earned in the streets of Baltimore. He'd set himself apart from the other pimps who dared to question him by ruthlessly beating his bottom bitch with a wooden cane until it cracked... in front of everyone. Then, he threw her into a muddy puddle, which earned him the title of Mudslinger.
He'd taken a liking to Katelyn one afternoon as she walked through Ashburton. She was a student at Coppin State then, and she'd left her dorm room to walk to the supermarket at Mondawmin Mall one day when he noticed her. He swaggered up to her, laid some of his game down on her and from that moment, she was his. That was eight years ago. The home she once had was long gone, along with the expectations of her parents and her chances of ever having a normal life.
Now, Katelyn, an unemployed college dropout who never returned home to Philadelphia, PA with her parents, had finally seen one lousy day too many as a whore in Mudslingers camp.
On this day, Mudslinger beat one of the johns that Krystal, Katelyn's work bestie, robbed at knifepoint. See, the guy came back with a much more significant Butcher's knife and took all of Krystal's money and her blade that she usually used for protection. It was one of the first times Katelyn had ever seen Krystal scared for her life. And, it scared her too.
Mudslinger walked up to him as he stood at Stoko's Pizzeria and as soon as he got on the man, he cracked him in the head with his ring hand. He kicked the john repeatedly, spewing expletives over and over, words Katelyn had never heard. He paused for a moment; then he motioned to a few of the local homeboys, who came running over. They stomped the man into the ground. By the time the police arrived, everyone that hit the man had disappeared. Those left on the corners were dumb to the entire situation.
What finally did it for Katelyn, what made her finally find the strength to run, happened when Mudslinger got back to the trap. Krystal and Katelyn were sitting on the couch when He rummaged through Krystal's bag, then threw it onto the ground. When she bent down to pick it up, Mudslinger grabbed a wooden coat hanger and began whipping Krystal with it. Across her face, her neck, her back, her thighs and everywhere in between, he hit her as hard as he could. The beating was brutal. The yelps for pain, intolerable.
After the fifth or sixth blow, Krystal was nearly unconscious. Katelyn had had enough. As the hanger cut through the air, Katelyn grabbed it before it made landfall with Krystal's skin. She snatched it away and tossed it, and it landed the corner. Krystal lay silently on the floor, blood seeping from the gashes in her body.
Mudslinger backhanded Katelyn across the face with all his strength. She stumbled for a moment, grabbed her swollen cheek and stared at him. The other girls who worked for Mudslinger stood with bated breath to see what he would do next. But, before he could do anything, Katelyn took off out of the trap. Onto the porch and down the steps she went, with Mudslinger training behind her. She ran all through the neighborhood, zigging and zagging, trying her best to lose Mudslinger, to no avail. He was quick and was a full yard behind her before
By the time she reached Coppin, Jayce was running out of steam. She would later learn that she ran full speed 4 minutes and 10 seconds in total. Mudslinger was fast for his age. She couldn't even look back to see where he was, but she felt him on her neck, reaching for her, dragging her back into a life she knew she didn't deserve.
Mudslinger was within a hare's inch of grabbing her when Katelyn ran face first in a wall. Only this wall was living and breathing... and covered in coffee.
Detective First Grade Jonathan Peters was coming from the Coppin State Coffee Shoppe when she Katelyn ran into him. But, before that, he was having a rough morning himself. He came outside to find his car had been stolen by a gang of local street youths trying to make a name for themselves by stealing a detective's car, his Uber account was locked because of suspected identity theft and his back card dropped into his garbage disposal when he was rinsing out his sink. He literally had $15 on his person when he left the house that morning and he spent $12 of that getting to his posting on Coppin's campus that morning.
The presence of Detective Peters stopped Mudslinger dead in his tracks. Mudslinger and Lieutenant Peters eyes met. Katelyn was panting and sweating profusely, to the point of soaking wet exhaustion.
"What seems to be the problem, Ma'am?" Peters asked.
"Officer, I'm so glad to see you," Katelyn blabbered, attempting to suck as much oxygen into her lungs as possible in the short span between sentences. "I need your help..."
