I. Ophelia

As Swindle H drove in silence, Ivory popped the big question. "The man seemed shocked that I work for Blue. Do the other prostitutes know that they work for him?"

"The girls work for Roxie and Fox. Fox is a pimp. Blue and Red own the place, but they're kind of like corporate. Fox is the CEO, and Blue and Red are the big bosses. No one sees Blue and Red unless they know them personally, or do something terrible."

"Really bad? Like what?"

"Well, a few years ago, we had this teenage runaway. The runaway wasn't cooperative with Fox, no matter how many times he yelled and hit her, she got worse. Fox told Blue and Red, they picked her up, and well, no one ever saw her again."

"No one saw her again? What did they do?"

"Honestly, Ivory, I have no clue. I think that they may have brought her to the basement, beat her to death, or took her to room thirteen. Blue and Red have brought a few prostitutes into room thirteen before."

"Just to teach them a lesson, right?"

Swindle H shook her head and made a right turn. "No, Ivory. When you're brought into room thirteen, you never come out. They kill the people they bring in there by torturing them slowly to the point where the victim wants to die."

"Have you ever seen one of them tortured?"

Swindle nodded her head. She was reluctant at first but deemed Ivory trustworthy.

"When I started as a prostitute, my best friend ran away from her home. My best friend, Ophelia, wasn't getting along with her parents. I mentioned prostitution and how much she'd make, and she joined me. I may be cunning and slick, but I do my job and get it done. My friend was different; Ophelia did what she wanted and tried to cheap Fox out by taking most of the money she made. It doesn't work like that. You see, the pimp gets most of the money. Depending on how long prostitutes have been working or how much is made weekly, a certain amount is given. One day, she punched Fox in the face —"

"— She punched him?" Ivory asked, shocked.

Swindle H nodded and turned onto a deserted dirt road, no buildings or cars seen for miles. Ivory guessed they were right outside the city. "Yup, he beat her good, I'll say that. He made me watch as some of his men held me down to watch him hurt her."

"He punched and kicked her, I'm guessing?"

"He raped her," Swindle H said hoarsely as Ivory felt shocked and nervous. Ivory was happy that she wasn't a prostitute.

Flashbacks hit Swindle H, she remembered the day vividly, "He beat her after forcing himself into her for nearly fifteen minutes. I'll never forget the screams that came out of her mouth. Blue and Red came after to get her. Blue told us to get in the back with them. He had a driver take us to base as he held a gun to my friend's head. Red held me to make sure I couldn't do anything, and you know Red, he's a pretty big guy; I'm pretty sure the dude is on steroids. That's the first time I saw the base. Blue dragged my friend to room seven, the room where they do sadistic things."

Swindle H was silent for a moment as Ivory watched her tense up. Swindle H looked uncomfortable but took a few deep breaths, her heartbeats were heard. She held onto the steering wheel tightly.

"Red held me and made me watch as Blue tied Ophelia up and whipped her so much that she began to bleed. After, Blue electrocuted her with rods for two hours. By the time he was done, my friend was crying and begging for him to stop. He didn't say a word to her, he didn't acknowledge her. He was silent unless he was saying something to Red. He smirked the whole time while he hurt Ophelia, he enjoyed every aching minute of it.

"She was tortured for almost four hours in that room, and I had to watch, screaming and crying for Blue to please let her go, but it made him hurt her longer. I came to the conclusion that he wasn't going to stop and that telling him to would make it worse. Blue likes inflicting pain on others, and I was egging him on accidentally as my friend cried in agony.

After, he brought us to room thirteen and tortured her there. Red made me watch that also. I vomited when Blue took her body parts. She died on the table with her blood everywhere, burn marks all over her, body parts missing, and her tongue cut out. She was unrecognizable; I never knew a human could do that or look the way Ophelia did."

"Swindle...I don't know what to say," Ivory said after a long silence.

"Don't say anything. It was a long time ago. I miss Ophelia, but I wish that she learned something from the first time she was hit by one of Fox's workers. The incident made her rebel more. Ophelia hated authority. Fox is violent, but he is nothing compared to Blue. Red can be worse; Red is sadistic. He'll take long videos of torturing people in the most horrific ways and post them on the dark web."

"Wow, so that's really a thing?" Swindle nodded. "Why does Red take body parts?"

"Red doesn't; Blue takes the body parts and then sells them through the black market. Body parts cost a lot, especially if people need them for a transplant. That is where Blue gets a least a third of his money."

"Does he torture people often?"

"No, Gerald does. He's the torturer. Blue will mostly have Gerald kidnap and torture the homeless or the mentally ill, only the ones that no one is missing. Gerald's even tortured runaways who think that they have it all figured out. No one looks for runaways."

"Does Blue hurt other girls often?"

"Not really. Blue takes anyone that no one is looking for. That's what they all do; go after those with nothing to go back too. But in his ten years of running the gang, he has tortured five or six that thought they could get away with whatever they did. When Blue tortures people, he does it until the victim dies, but still cuts them up ever after they've perished. Personally, I think Blue's a psychopath. Something is wrong with him; there's something wrong with the three of them. People don't go around torturing and killing others the way Blue, Red, and Gerald do unless they have serious problems."

Ivory took in everything, but something hit her mind. She decided to ask Swindle H because she felt that she could confide in the older girl. "Swindle H, why didn't Blue have Viper and me tortured when we were brought to the base? We're orphans, no one was looking for us. You even said that no one searches for runaways and that sometimes Gerald kidnaps them."

The strawberry blonde stopped at a red light. "I've questioned that myself. I think Blue needs you for something, and that's why you're alive."

"That man, Chris...he said the exact —"

"— same thing? That's why you want to see him?" Ivory nodded. "Well, I don't think he'll help you. Everyone that works or has worked closely with Blue knows that they aren't allowed to reveal anything about him, even if he doesn't tell them anything. Blue has a lot of secrets, too much if you ask me. And you know what they say, those with the most secrets have the most to hide."

"It doesn't seem like the foster home has been looking for us," Ivory concluded. "I know that Viper and I ran away, but Ms. Campbell likes me, two boys tried stopping us."

"Blue has connections everywhere. He'll make sure they aren't looking for you. You mean something to him. Blue definitely needs something from you. If you were anyone else, you'd be dead, I can promise you that," she said as she pulled into the club.

Ivory felt like the ride this time was much longer than it was last time.