That night, I was dragged from my home. At the age of eight, I was forced into being a slave for a gang.
Once we had left my house, there was another man waiting outside.
I decided not to fight it anymore. The big man was scary and big and I was little.
The other man was scarier and bigger.
He was leaning against the big van that was outside our house. He had a big knife in his hands and he was rubbing his big fingers along it.
I wasn't sure what was going to happen.
But I walked with the man who was still grabbing onto my arm.
The other man opened the door and I just got in, I felt my whole body shake but I daren't say anything.
I was then taken to a massive house, it was beautiful and I remember every corner of the mansion.
I had never seen such a big house, on the walk from the van to the house, nothing but wooded area surrounded us.
It was a beautiful sight. I would've enjoyed it more had I not been taken against my will.
***
The first night was the worst.
Couple nights after and I started getting used to it. I remember crying every time.
On the first night after the leader took his turn, Lance was his name.
I began bleeding, it was so painful.
I'd never felt anything like it, to me at such a young age it had seemed so wrong.
I never understood then.
***
After a very long time, of the same thing. I got free for the first time.
It had been twelve years since I was taken. Being there was my normalcy.
I barely remembered any different.
Lance and the other gang members had been trusting me more.
I had earned their trust.
On that day, Lance stumbled into my cage. Drunk as usual, but this time he was high on something new.
He was disoriented and I decided to take this as my chance, I wanted to get out of there.
I was done with this.
If I died, I died. I didn't care, anything would've been better than living this life.
After Lance crawled into the cage, I elbowed him in the head.
When he went down, luck was in my favour when he hit his head against the cage bars.
I made a run for it.
Luckily all the gang members were in the den, drinking and doing drugs.
I took that as my chance to run.
I made it outside for the first time in twelve years, I saw the outside world again. I almost forgot what it looked like.
My eyes took a while to adjust to the sun. It was beautiful, I remember the feeling of the cold win hitting my skin.
I didn't hold up any longer.
I ran, it felt as if my skin was splitting while running barefoot and wearing nothing apart from a thin under garment. That was all I was allowed to wear.
I ran for what felt like hours.
I finally had let myself rest. I slid down a tree and gave my body a rest. My body throbbed and tingled.
I was fearful that the men would be looking for me already.
Nothing but forestry was around me.
It was pitch black out. I had been running for a couple hours when I decided to take a break.
After moments of silence and trying to calm my breathing I heard voices.
I was afraid that it could've been Lance's men. I didn't want to risk my newly found freedom, but I had to be sure that it wasn't someone who could help me.
I followed the voices and stopped behind a tree to see if I was safe to show myself.
I glanced around the tree and saw two men standing above a man on his knees.
The man on his knees was a member of Lance's gang. And the two men who were standing above him had tattoos on their arms. They were from another gang.
I decided that these people couldn't help me. Before I turned around one of the men shot Lances man.
I gasped and turned away.
"What the hell was that?" I heard. My body shook, I didn't want to get rolled up in another gang.
"It's nothing lets go." My body relaxed again.
I went to walk the other way when I stood on a twig and it broke.
My eyes glanced over to see the two men staring at me.
I took off in a run again as the men followed close behind.
As every horror movie ever, I turned around and tripped. As I fell to the floor, the two men stood over me.
"Grab her." I was pulled to my feet, this was a horrible feeling that I remember all too well.
"What's your name?" One of the men said.
"Cassidy." I said quietly.
"Let's go, we can't leave her. Unless we shoot her." The other guy said. At that moment, I panicked.
I punched the man in the nose and went to run again, "Stop or I will shoot you." I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to face then with my hands in the air.
"To the car."