The bride,his business 4
I knew this was wrong. How many more girls would he continue to bring here? How many more young, innocent girls would he deceive through marriage?
I wanted to put an end to it, but how? The security there was very tight; we couldn't even go to the toilet alone. I knew I had to do something—even if it meant calling my family.
I couldn't just sit back and give myself up to fate. These men were doing wrong, and they needed to be punished.
As night drew closer, my fear grew. Who would take over now? What man would I meet tonight?
My fake husband returned and asked me to follow him with two other girls. He assigned us to different rooms and shut the door.
I was in my own room, scared, watching the door handle, anticipating the moment it would open. And it finally opened not long after. A man, probably in his mid-fifties, entered and sat on the bed.
"I want an obedient woman. I don't want the stubborn ones. If you are stubborn, get out this minute," he ordered.
My first instinct was to kneel on the floor and burst into tears, begging him. I told him I was just a young girl who could be his daughter. I begged him to help me.
He nodded, and I thought he was about to help me, but he walked out of the room and never returned. Instead, my fake husband came back and shouted at me for being rude to my client.
I thought that was the end, but I was punished for it. I was starved for three days—again and ;locked alone in a room.
After the three days, I was warned to comply or face the consequences. But I was already hatching an escape plan.
One of the girls in the dormitory, who was clingy and trying to become a friend, telling me everything that was happening, said I shouldn't go ahead.
"What if they catch you? Do you know what they can do to you? Not only starving you—it goes beyond that," she warned.
But I didn't come this far with my plans just to ditch them. We needed to run, and when we are out, help other girls in there, and punish these men.
When she saw I wasn't ready to give up, she decided to join me. The plan was to happen on our free day being Saturday—one month after I came to that place.
And we were waiting for night. That night, when everything would happen. We already had a guard holding the keys, whom my instinct told me wanted to taste us but couldn't because of the rules guiding the place: their duties were just to safeguard the place and nothing else.
The guards were not allowed to touch the girls. But I knew this particular guard wanted me as well because I had caught him stealing glances at me.
I whispered for him to meet me that night in the toilet. He caught the sign and snuck in.
As he entered the corridor, he was knocked out by my friend, who was standing by. Then we grabbed the keys from him and started to move around the dark corners, heading out, hoping not to get caught.
To be continued...
*This story is fictional and aims to shed light on issues many young women face. Let's keep raising awareness.*
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