But there was no response; maybe she'd dreamed it, Cali thought.

Just then, Seth, who had slept through all the commotion, called out, "Aggie? I'm scared. I had a dream about a monster that was gonna eat me."

Seth's voice broke through, and Maggie's mind began to swim back to the surface from the deep place it was hiding. "Seth," she whispered. "I'm right here. It was only a dream."

"Mags? Oh my God! Mags, you're alive!" Cali squealed.

Then the others heard Maggie as she dry heaved. She hadn't eaten anything in days, and she was dehydrated. On the second day of isolation, Maggie had squirted a small amount of urine into her hand and had drunk it. That was the extent of her intake in the three days they kept her from the others.

Maggie made animal like noises as her stomach rose and fell in violent spasms. "Try to crawl toward my voice, Maggie," Cali instructed. "Come over to me. Let me help you."

Maggie's fingernails dug into the dirt floor as she pulled herself toward Cali's voice. Cali stretched out against the chain link fence, slid her hand through, and began to stroke Maggie's face. As she drifted back to sleep, Cali stayed awake, never taking her hand off Maggie.

In the morning, when John William went to the basement to awaken the children, Cali begged him to let her help Maggie eat. "She's going to die, John William."

Myles had instructed John William to make sure that Maggie lived. But he acted as if he had to consider Cali's request. "What are you gonna do for me?" he asked dryly.

"Anything you want! Just let me go in with her," Cali pleaded.

John William took Cali by the arm, unlocked Maggie's kennel, and pushed Cali forward. He came back a few minutes later and threw down two bowls of oatmeal and two glasses of water. Cali rushed over and grabbed the water. She put Maggie's head in her lap and got her to swallow small amounts of water. Then slowly, with the patience of a saint, she fed Maggie the oatmeal.

It took several days for Maggie to regain her strength. Seeing the improvement, Max and Cali set out to understand what had happened to her.

"Maggie, what did Myles do to you? You know, they kept you away from us for about three days," Max offered from his kennel.

"I can't remember everything, Max. I know they took me up to the attic. I remember some of the stuff they did. There were a lot of men; all of them had sex with me. It wouldn't end. Most of them hit me and..." Maggie's voice trailed off at the memory.

"And what, Mags?" Cali pressed.

"And they brought me out to a barn in the middle of the night. First, they put chains on my hands and hung me by my wrists. After a long time, I couldn't stand the pain anymore. I thought the chains were going to cut my hands off my arms. After a while, they hung me from my feet. They jabbed me with lit cigars. That's where the burns are from," Maggie explained, pointing to her hips and lower abdomen.

"When I woke up, I wasn't in the barn anymore," Maggie continued. "I was in a small cage. I could barely move because it was so tiny." Maggie began to shake. "After that, every time they had to pee, they would do it into the cage I was in. They said I was their toilet. The last thing I remember is them throwing a whole bunch of snakes in the cage with me. I couldn't get them off me. I was freaking out. All the men were laughing at me. Some of the snakes bit me...and then I woke up here," Maggie said. She sat on the dirt floor, grabbed fists full of hair on either side of her head, and rocked back and forth.

Cali grabbed Maggie and held her tightly.

"I'll n-n-never do a-a-anything to try to g-g-g-get away a-a-again," Maggie stuttered.

Cali looked at Max across the room. Then, she turned and looked over at Shana, who was lying in a fetal position on the dirt floor of her kennel, scared that what had happened to Maggie would happen to her next.

Chapter Twenty-Six.

While Myles still saw Maggie regularly, he also opened her up to more clientele. He didn't trust the girl any longer, and as a result, her days of being sold only to his high-paying perverts were over. On the main floor of the house, the original homeowners had built a study with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. The cartel converted the study into a waiting room for clients. For entertainment, they had erected a pole in the middle of the floor.

When John William informed the three girls that they would dance and strip for the waiting clients, Maggie pursed her lips, and her eyes bulged as if she was about to go into a full-blown seizure. Shana, on the other hand, no longer cared what she had to do. She was constantly high. Shana took pills from John William and any of the clients who offered them to her. Drugs weren't a problem, in the eyes of the cartel, if it meant the kids would be more desirable. That's exactly what drugs did for Shana. She was willing to perform sexual acts without the slightest trace of resistance. She gave herself over to them completely.

"Cali, I can't dance," Maggie confided, when John William left them alone in the basement. "What am I supposed to do?" She was always on edge now, fearing they would severely punish her again.

"Well, I'm going to teach you how, so don't worry about it. Besides, Maggie, you can do anything. Never forget that," Cali assured her.

Cali had loved gymnastics as a young girl. Before she was kidnapped, she'd dreamed of going to the Olympics and winning a gold medal. Those skills would come in handy now in her fucked-up life.

While Maggie had recovered physically from the trauma of her punishment, she had lost her sense of independence and confidence. Cali wanted Maggie to regain her spirit, and she was determined to teach her how to dance. She would have done anything to help Maggie. She knew that the young girl was special. Cali didn't know why or how, but she was certain that Maggie's life would have meaning.

Maggie was processing the new information. "If I can dance, does that mean I won't be sold for sex anymore?"

"No, baby. It means that you'll be able to dance for the clients while they are waiting their turns. I'll teach you how to dance and strip," Cali explained.

"Strip? I have to strip?" Maggie whined. She already hated what she was doing with strange men.

"Really, Mags? What's the difference? You have to strip when you're alone with these assholes. It just means there'll be more guys watching you, that's all. Hopefully, the guys that are willing to sit around and watch won't be as crazy as the assholes that blow in here, fuck us, and leave," Cali said, trying to present the "bright" side.

"OK. I guess so, Cali. What do you think, Max?" she asked, knowing he was listening to their conversation.

"I think it might make things easier for you. Like Cali said, the guys who are willing to sit around and wait could be less violent," Max told her.

"I hate this," Maggie declared, but she was resigned to doing what was expected of her. "But you swear you'll show me everything you know? I don't want to piss Myles off. I never want them to punish me again."

That same afternoon, John William took the three girls up to the second floor. They all stood around the pole, looking at it as if aliens had just plunked it down in the middle of the floor. John William turned on the music. "Let's go. I want to see what you got."

Cali quickly stepped up and began dancing with one hand on the pole. She used some of the moves from the gymnastics routine she had memorized for competitions in middle school. Then she put her left hand on the pole above her head and placed her right hand at waist height. In one swift movement, she swung her legs up, clamped the pole with her knees, and let her head hang.

Maggie watched in awe as Cali manipulated her body in different ways. Cali was fluid and graceful. It all looked so easy. Cali's feet were back on the floor, and she began to shimmy up the pole as if she were a monkey. As soon as her feet hit the floor a second time, John William stopped the music. "You are supposed to strip, you brainless tramp!"

When John William turned the music back on, Cali began to strip, and when the song finished, he seemed somewhat satisfied with her performance. Then Cali walked over and put her hand on Maggie's shoulder.

Maggie flinched at her touch. She couldn't imagine doing all the things that Cali had just done. Not without looking like a complete fool.

Cali leaned in closer to Maggie. "Come on, Mags. It'll be fine. I'm gonna show you everything."

Chapter Twenty-Seven.

Maggie awkwardly held onto the stripper pole and danced at the same time. She was embarrassed and doing everything in her power not to break down and cry. When she looked over at John William, his eyes narrowed and glittered with malicious amusement. Seeing this, she straightened her back and closed her eyes to hear the rhythm of the music. She allowed her hips to sway; she bent her knees and elegantly waved her arms, as if they were wings. Maggie hated John William, and deep inside she suspected that he knew that she was far smarter and wiser than he would ever be.

Cali instructed Maggie on how to work the pole. She talked her through all the movements until the music stopped. The two girls looked at each other when it was over, both feeling victorious and sharing the exhilaration of achieving something in the face of John William's skepticism.

Witnessing their excitement, John William said, "That sucked, Maggie. You dance like you have a stick shoved up your ass. You better learn to dance, little girl, or I'll tell Myles you can't do it. Then you'll be completely useless to him, and who knows what he'll do to you."

At the thought of making Myles angry, Maggie's blood starting pulsing faster through her body, and she felt like she was going to faint. She stared at the wall in front of her and remembered what she'd read in one of the meditation books that Dr. Barnes had brought for her. Block everything out and concentrate on breathing evenly. Empty your mind and don't think about anything but your breath. Inhale, exhale. Within a couple of minutes, Maggie was able to slow her own heart rate and suppress her anxiety.

Maggie scooped up her clothes and dressed quickly. She stood back against the wall as Shana walked up to the pole and began to dance. Before she grabbed the pole, she lifted her shirt with her thumbs, exposing her belly as she danced, and then finally removed it. She unbuttoned her jeans and slid them over her flat hips, exposing the tiny panties she was wearing, and then leaned back against the pole and started sliding down as she spread her legs apart.

John William began to feel a sexual stirring. Shana was blitzed out of her mind, which contributed to her sleazy performance. She was sitting on the floor, leaning against the pole, with her legs spread wide. One hand was in her panties, and she rubbed her own breast with the other. She masturbated until she came. John William, hormones raging through his gargantuan, beastlike body, walked over to Shana and undid his pants. Cali and Maggie had no choice but to stand on the sidelines and watch him fulfill his sick lust for Shana. His movements were jerky as he rammed himself between her legs. He gritted his twisted, yellow-brown teeth, and his fleshy eyelids fluttered until he twitched and convulsed as if he was having a full-blown seizure. It was the most repulsive scene the two girls had ever witnessed.

John William stood as Shana slowly got dressed, still groggy from the dope and the orgasm she'd given herself. She smiled at Cali and Maggie as she staggered over to them. "Who needs a fucking pole when I got a hole," she chanted in a sickening voice.

"Stop it!" Cali threatened, her teeth clenched.

"Why? Why should I stop? If you can't beat 'em, you might as well join 'em. I'm tired of getting my ass kicked all the time. At least I know how to fucking please a man," she said, raising her voice.

"Just because they are treating you like a whore, doesn't mean you have to act like one," Cali threw back at her.

"Whatever, Cali. I really don't give a shit what you think. All you ever worry about is little Miss Wonderful here," she said, and gave Maggie a sternum poke.

Instinctively, Maggie took a step backward and covered her chest. Her eyes dropped to the floor. She didn't want to fight with Shana, who was clearly stoned. Maggie felt sorry for her. They were all unhappy with their circumstances, but inside, Shana was a simmering pot of oil just waiting to boil over.

"Let's go, maggots, back to your kennels," John William ridiculed.

That day marked a significant passage for Maggie. She had finished her first lesson in pole dancing and stripping. She didn't know it then, but those lessons would someday save her life.

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

"Did you find her?" Lorraine snapped, as she flung open the door after seeing Detective Harker through the peephole.

"Lorraine, I have something that I want to show you," Rae Harker explained.

Harker reached into his pocket and removed a small plastic bag. Inside was a white, flat stud earring with a purple and green daisy painted on the surface. He handed the small bag to Lorraine.

She looked at the bag closely. She focused on what was inside, allowing her eyes to adjust and take in the small object. A slow smile came to her lips as the realization of what she was seeing sank into her whole, physical being. Then her stomach squeezed into a tight knot, and her heart felt heavy. She didn't know what he was going to say once she revealed what she knew.

Lorraine looked up at Detective Harker with a perplexed look. "This earring belongs to Maggie. Where did you find it? She's dead, right? You're here to tell us she's dead," she accused.

Harker knew the earring belonged to Maggie. He had seen the earrings a million times as he gazed at the picture of Maggie that was propped up on his desk.

"No, Lorraine," Harker said sternly, grabbing her arm to steady her. "We didn't find her, and we don't know that she is dead. The FBI sent local police to all of the abandoned prisons in the state to see if we could find anything. We checked out an abandoned prison close to here. It looks as though people were living in some of the cells. In one of those cells, our team found this earring."

"An abandoned prison?" Lorraine asked in disbelief. "What are you saying, Harker?"

"I'm saying that if our theory is accurate, Maggie could have been one of the people who was living there. Remember that woman from the FBI I told you about? The one we found murdered?" Harker asked.

Lorraine nodded.

"Well, we think the cartel realized that she was an undercover agent. They probably killed her and moved their captives somewhere new," Harker explained.

Lorraine moved over to the sofa and plopped down on it. She ran her hand through her hair several times, thinking about what she just heard. "How...how many other cells were lived in?" she finally managed.

"It looks like five of them," Harker said.

A gurgling sound escaped from Lorraine's throat. "She isn't alone. That means she's not alone. I have gone to the brink of madness thinking about her with some maniac all by herself. But now I know she isn't alone. There are others with her?" she asked desperately.

"Lorraine, all this earring tells us is that there's a strong possibility that Maggie was kept there. We still don't know if she's alive and if we will ever find her. We'll keep searching, I promise you that. But I want you to understand that none of this means shit until we actually find her. OK?" Harker asked with heartfelt concern.

Lorraine nodded and let her head rest on the back of the sofa. It finally registered with Lorraine that her beautiful, intelligent daughter was being sold for sex. Her child was a sex slave. Images of Maggie being fearful and alone played in her mind's eye until she couldn't stand it a moment longer.

Then Lorraine shut her eyes and had a long, sorrow-filled cry.

Chapter Twenty-Nine.

Over the next several weeks, Cali, Shana, and Maggie took turns dancing for the clients. Cali was a superstar, although most of their clients wished she were younger. Shana was sloppy, but her overtly sexual moves kept her afloat. It was Maggie who drew the most attention. She was learning new moves from Cali. She was beginning to take control of her body as she got lost in the music. Her stunning beauty made up for her inexperience at dancing and her lack of athletic ability on the pole. Despite her awkwardness, it wasn't long though before Maggie became the featured dancer.

In his late teens, Max was beginning to show signs of becoming a man. His body had filled out, and he was sprouting facial hair. Both he and Cali were "outgrowing" their desirability to clients. Because of this, Max was often sold to men who liked to dominate. Max began to grow intolerant of being trafficked. His clients had become rougher with him, and it became more difficult for Max not to strike back.

It was a Friday night, and the house was packed. Men were littered throughout the main living area, all of them drinking and smoking heavily. The cartel had brought in six other kids for the weekend. It was the beginning of spring, and the cartel had circulated word of a special weekend to its clientele.

Max was bought at auction for a measly two hundred dollars. The man who bought him for the evening stood six feet tall. He had a thick head of matted, white hair. His brown eyes were barely visible under his drooping eyelids, and his left eye rolled off to the right while the other eye looked Max over with hunger. The blubber of his neck swallowed his chin, and rolls of skin flapped over the top of his collarbone like a turtleneck sweater made out of flesh. He hoisted his massive body from the chair and followed Max and John William into one of the bedrooms.

Max had been with some ruthless clients over the years. But this man, that the cartel called Marsh, had an insatiable appetite for young boys. Marsh was heartless. He was born without the ability to feel empathy or sympathy. He was the worst kind of predator. He never viewed any of the children as human beings; they were merely a way to satisfy his sexual needs.

"Let's go," Marsh ordered. "Take those clothes off, rodent."

Max had a really bad feeling about Marsh. His teenage hormones, which had lain dormant for the last couple of years, began to awaken. The fight-or-flight instinct was building inside him. His muscles began to tighten as he battled against his own desire to indulge in combat with Marsh.

Max forced himself to undress. His body stiffened as he looked at Marsh, who then ordered the teen to help him undress. When Max didn't do what he was told, Marsh took a few steps toward him and slapped him across the face.

"When I give you a command, I expect you to obey me, BOY!" Marsh yelled.

When Max still didn't move, Marsh reached into his coat pocket and took out a billy club. He placed the strap around his wrist and turned back to Max, who saw the club.