"Once I had a dream,
Once I had a hope,
That was yesterday,
Not so long ago,
This is not the end..."
~ Anonymous

"Oh no! Not again!"  Chantal muttered to herself.

As she strode back into the house, she'd previously left, another face greeted her that she had never seen.

"Chantal you're back," a man stepping from another room said to her, "I knew I could trust you to come back. After all, you know the consequences of not returning."

"Yes, I do Sam," she replied in a timid voice.

"So what did you do while you were out?" Sam questioned making it sound like he genuinely cared.

"I went out for some coffee at the café," Chantal replied in a soft voice hoping Sam wouldn't see through her lie. Chantal actually hated coffee, she just couldn't stand the scent it gave off.

Again she eyed the man sitting at the table with his back to her.

"Ah, I see you have been staring at your new customer," at that comment Chantal's eyes shot over towards Sam's face that held something close to an evil grin.

"There's no need to worry," Sam replied reading through her masked expression, "Come on and have a seat with him and you know... get acquainted," he instructed her with a dark smile.

Chantal reluctantly obeyed him and sat next to the man. He was by no means an average sized man in Chantal's eyes, he was rather huge.

"Hey there doll," the man greeted her, "What's your name?"

"Chantal," she replied without looking at him but holding her head down.

"Ah, no need to be shy around me," he responded while lifting her chin up. She quickly glanced over to Sam but realized he was gone. She instantly felt unsettled for whatever reason unknown to her. Usually he would have waited till she and her 'customer' were in her room.

"Hey," the man said to Chantal pulling her back with her chin to look at him, "I'm not going to use you like the others have," he told her when she had looked back at him.

A shadow of fear flashed through Chantal's eyes.

"Now now, it's nothing to worry about."

"Then what is it?" she asked.

There was no point in her trying to figure out what he wanted from her.

'It's obvious it isn't the the three letter word that looks like six,' she thought to herself.

"What I want you to do," he started while snaking his hand around her waist, "is to carry some drugs to another country."

She squirmed in his hands as he gripped her side.

'All this because I wanted a better education,' she thought to herself.

She nodded her head to what the man said even though she didn't want to do it - not that she had a say in the situation. She had rather stayed there and do all the dirty and unmentionable things Sam had her doing to random guys everyday than smuggle drugs.

The man got up and left the house slamming the door behind him.

Sam upon hearing the door closed, exited his little 'office'.

"I see you're learning Chantal," he commented as he walked over to her.

With that comment she hung her head.

"It's not like I have a choice," she wished she could have said.

Sam went and stood behind Chantal and rubbed his hand up and down her bare arms. The action made Chantal shiver but she was in no way comfortable with it but the total opposite.

He then leaned down to her ears and whispered, "Tonight you are all mine."

Goose bumps started to rise on her arms and oh how she wished she was six feet under rotting with time.

♣♣♣

The following morning Chantal stood in line at the airport waiting on security to check her so she could board the plane to her destination.

The night before had been terrible.

'Not like it has ever been good before,' Chantal thought.

Sam had told her how he would wring her dry of everything she had since she would be gone for a long time. Thinking about it made her shudder.

She would be carrying the drugs all the way to China. What Chinese were doing with drugs like these were beyond her.

The man that she had seen yesterday night - which she had now called Bigga - had called Sam and told him the flight was the next morning at four thirty. At around four Bigga had picked her up to carry her to the airport.

When they had arrived he led her to the men's bathroom where he stuffed the drugs inside her. She would have to pass them out when she reached the 'drop off point'. During the process he had stuffed her mouth to prevent her screams from being heard. At the last moment she thought she would have passed out. Bigga had 'luckily' brought smelling salts with him so he passed it under her nose which revived her.

The security checkpoint line moved slowly. She turned her head around and saw that Bigga was still watching her.

"He was serious," she muttered to herself. Bigga had told her he'd watch her until she reached the point where he could not enter and true to his word he did.

From the time she had been in the line she kept her head down studying the lines of the design on the tiled floor. She looked up and saw one of the guards staring at her. At that she quickly held her head back down.

"Bad idea," she muttered to herself.

She continued studying the patterns on the floor then she saw a drop of water fall directly in front of her feet. She felt her forehead and realised that she had been sweating profusely.

She dug around in her bag and took out a rag and quickly dried her face. All she had was just one bag which would be her carry on luggage. Bigga had told her, when they reached China she would have to buy clothes - traditional Chinese attire.

"It must be the drugs," she muttered to herself again referring to how much she was sweating.

It had to be the drugs or all the thoughts that were currently plaguing her mind.

She then felt more sweat pushing through the pores in her skin covering her entire face yet again. She quickly wiped her face again.

"What's wrong with me?" she whispered to herself.

She then glanced to the left of her feet and saw a pair of human feet and four paws right beside her.

She then looked up and saw that it was the guard that had been staring at her along with a guard dog she hadn't noticed he had.

"Oh snap," she thought to herself. She looked behind her out to where Bigga had been standing but saw that he was gone.

"Miss could you please step out of the line?" the guard asked her. She stepped out though she knew it was more than just a question, it was a command.

Great! So Bigga had left her to take the full brunt of the law - alone.

In that moment she wished she had tried her escape plan which she had planned months ago but too much was at stake. If she tried to get away, Sam had warned her that he would hurt her mother and close friends. So she just forgot all about it. If she hadn't been lied to she would have been at university now possibly finishing her second year.

She was a slave in a country that those who were looking for a better future dubbed 'The Land of the Free with Opportunity". Now instead of getting opportunity she was now the opportunity.

"This way ma'am," the guard instructed Chantal, jolting her back to the present.

She held her head down as she followed behind the man who in her mind ultimately decided her fate - whether she'd spend her life behind bars with a police record in a country she didn't understand or if she'd be set free to continue her journey in the land she was now enslaved.

What are your thoughts guys? What do you think Chantal is going through? Do you think Chantal is going to be discovered? And where in the world did Bigga go?

Don't forget tooooo...
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I couldn't bother waiting until Friday but one will be up Friday. Besides I got to build the suspense 😁

One more thing, if you hadn't answer the QUICK QUESTION in the last chapter please do so because it's important in the story later on. Thanks