TRIGGER WARNING: MATURE, DISTURBING CONTENT

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Daisy applies another coat of red lipstick. She smoothens the texture by dabbing her lips a bit, just as her mother does. The mirror is hazy and stained, and her wheatish face looks like a chubby ball of dough. Her nose squinches at the obvious reflection- a rotund walking board with appendages. Gritting her teeth, she smothers herself with a third coat and then groans. The person on the other side gladly reciprocates.

At this point, Daisy is at the receiving end of her wits, no matter how hard she tries she fails to emulate her mother. It's not like she hasn't attained puberty, it isn't even that her breasts haven't protruded, of course, she has a vagina. It's just that somehow her overall appearance falls short.

But, Pee weighted her mounds himself, and..to be honest, he was satisfied, wasn't he? Pee's never silent, his mouth is sharp- razor-sharp with dripping sarcasm.

Daisy examines her silhouette in the mirror, her fingers outline the drooping shoulders then the not-so-slim arms, descends towards the waist. She halts right there, continuing the perusal internally. It's neither trim nor fleshy, hangs somewhere in between; and definitely not curvy. God! She requires some desperate magic. Men like thinning waistlines and growing bustlines, don't they? She squeezes the narrowest part of her belly, an inch or half above the navel and observes. They look better- flattering even. However, the problem lies with her lower abdomen- the way it bulges like a balloon is what..she leaves it at that.

Since Pee hasn't supplied any derisive remark, it musn't disconcert her either, he's learning from his father, after all. He has pimped so many women over the past decade, or so Daisy has heard. Pee may just trail his success.

Done with procrastination, Daisy clips her skirt, it's faux leather and has a shy shimmer with a cheap matte effect. Set against a synthetic strappy top, it often threats her modesty by rising up; Daisy quickly adjusts the length but, how long? Rather, how often?

'Patience, patience..things like these are best practised over time', she pacifies herself to relief. It's quite funny in a way, how she has still managed to hang onto that tinge of innocence. Her and innocence? She thinks she left it all five and a half years back, ever since..ever since..well, ever since they took her panties off.

She remembers quite well what she asked her mother right away after. "How do you earn money?" She had enquired even though she was quite certain of her ways.

"I take my panties off", she had said and Daisy had pondered upon it for days, later saying to herself, "Maybe I'll do that too."

Back from a brief jaunt to forgotten memories, she gives her hair a final brush, the strands protest and hugs the comb in tattered curls. Daisy utters a crude curse and throws it away. She, in turn, bends and tightens the laces of the shoes Meera gave yesterday. In stark contrast to the bare metres of cloth in the name of clothing, the high-end heels look freakish and funny. Of course, Daisy isn't bothered.

"Just squeeze your toes in and it will fit", Meera had winked. "Who goes to a temple wearing heels and that also new like this?" Both of them had laughed at the brandish display of wealth. "Rich people and their nonsense. Serves them right", Meera had jested, her facial muscles contorting in unbridled mirth.

Daisy has always liked her- the air of nonchalance she carries, somehow it makes her feel that her hopes, if at all she has any, aren't caged. She remembers the day she was sold, the year was 2017 and the sky roared slicing through the clouds like a knight's sword. In the dead of night, a girl was hurled into one of the corners of Kotha 30, howling and in a bloody mess. A week later, she was put to good use.

In Kothibari, each serves a purpose; nothing is wasted, none is a spare.

And thus, the 'Finger Girl' was born. Each day, she would stand in front of the road dressed in all things shiny. "Walk in, walk in", she would scream and make a circle with her thumb and finger and rapidly thrust the index finger of her other hand in and out- a live demonstration of what's for sale. Besides, on a decrept building posters of naughty films like Virgin Sells or Fallen Angels stood bright.

Meera was eleven.

Daisy has it easier though, being the Madam's niece has its perks, no matter how negligible it is. Meera, like the others, isn't that lucky. Two weeks back she was stripped naked, beaten, starved and paraded in underwear to the 'Babus' in an age-old ritual of 'Conditioning', apparently those three men raped and readied her for the years to follow. A week later, she capered around and picked pockets and quite obviously spread her legs.

Daisy's case is different. For those born and bred in Kothibari, it's guaranteed you're broken. There's no need to de-mould you.

With a final look in the mirror, Daisy cuts an appreciative smirk and whistles, her legs sauntering down the room at the right where her mother's expletives repress the grunts of a new customer.

"Motherfucker, get your grizzled balls out of here", she screeches and kicks the senile pervert out into the corridor. The man makes a desperate lunge for the door, steadying himself as his nose jams against one of the wooden flaps. Daisy rolls her eyes and watches the grey-haired weirdo dash out with his fly still open. Her mother ambles along the walls, rearranging the pleats of her saree and tucking them inside her belly where a hint of a bump has started appearing. "Asshole's a sagging canon", she throws her hands in the air dismissively; asks further, "And where're you off to?"

Daisy doesn't respond. Instead, she flicks her thumb in and out of her mouth while keeping the rest of her fingers straight up- a silent gesture of 'screw you'.

"Bitch!" her mother cries out. She leaps forward and snatches the bag out of her hand. "Will I clothe and feed you for eternity? Use your hole for a dam purpose?"

But, Daisy's cadence remains nauseatingly cool. Retorts don't perturb her anymore. If Kothibari considers you as one of its own, you're inevitably at the very bottom of morality. Her head tilts towards the older woman and her voice cuts deep. "I would if you hadn't been screwing even at five months pregnant, bitch!" She spits, emphasizing the last word for a more dramatic effect and then, flipping her hand, walks away, whistling the merry tune as usual.

Her limbs stroll along with the balcony- dirty and littered with broken wine bottles and used condoms. The floor stinks of rotten dry semen and a suffocating smell clasps the air- of booze, sex, sweat and drugs. The light's dim considering most of the broken windows are crammed with makeshift wood patches but, Daisy dawdles, back and through the crowd of bargaining pimps and whores, often getting hit by running children. "Asshole", she loudly curses at a boy who has shown her the middle finger. She puts on a tacky sunglass and chuckles at Meera who knees a 'gentleman' in the crotch before shutting the door right on his face. Moans and grunts fill the air and often children's hollers reverberate through the stairs. Like Daisy, none knows who their father is.

But, Pee does; his parents are married. Unlike the others, they have a thriving income. His father hand-picks the top customers; the bastard prostitutes his wife. Daisy has often seen Pee steal money, she knows he secretly attends classes. What she doesn't understand is what's the use. At the end of the day, he too will sell women. Maybe she will be one of them.

She stops for a second. The thought clenches her lower belly and her heart judders. She realises it isn't one she would like to dwell upon. The putrid smell grows stronger as she hops down the steps, the worn-out walls showing red bricks, clenching their teeth from behind the falling plaster.

Crunch!

Her heels step on pieces of broken bangles, there're drops of blood splattered nearby. Daisy's nose puckers up. It must be another unwilling woman/girl dragged across or a male stabbed or wounded. 'But, wait', she ponders. 'If someone's hauled right through this passage, there wouldn't be drops.'

'Why am I even worried? Maybe some perv wanted to fuck the shits out and got beaten', she scoffs and carries on. Scenes like these aren't the first and definitely won't be the last.

Careful to avoid getting detected, Daisy minds every step, now that the corridor meanders towards the back. Narrowly bypassing arguing customers and quarrelling kids, she scouts roving eyes; her aunt's men snoop about everywhere, alert and vigilant- especially of young teenagers like her or the trafficked females at the rear. They're paid and trained to be the very eyes and ears of Kothibari, mainly Kotha 30. "These fetch most money, you're our prized possessions", they always say.

Last month Saira fled at the earliest strike of dawn, for four days there wasn't any news. A rumour circulated of her having an affair with a volunteer from 'Gudia'. She too, like Daisy was fifteen and on steroids. Curvy girls are higher in demand- the younger the merrier. On the fifth day, she was back, beaten to a pulp with purple bruises creeping up on every inch of her bare skin. A portly policeman had thrust the semi-conscious girl on the floor, uttered a range of expletives, took a stack of notes much to the chagrin of The Madam and left. "Your trophy fought too much", he had said.

'Trophy cases'- that's how they're known here as if names matter. At the end of the day, they're nothing but, a bunch of 'pussies', 'hustlers', 'harlots' and 'cunts'. Daisy knows her time is up, any moment she'll be gang-banged. That's the first requirement of the 'Breaking Period'.

Her eyes fall on Saira's tear-stained face, how she limps behind her customer- the third for the day and it's just hours past afternoon. Saira and Meera are as different as chalk and cheese, one vibrant as the fiery morning sun while the other placid as the depths of an ocean. This stirs up Daisy's thoughts and makes her wonder where she stands amidst all these. She's neither of the two, maybe dangles somewhere in between and to be frank, she has never had an inkling it may crowd her conscience even once.

She's been through it all, she's born into this, witnessed these girls' unbecoming but, can she withstand when it will come to her own? Does she possess the stamina or shall she wither like Pinky who consumed rat poison?

Daisy chooses not to be discomfited. She has done this before- turning a blind eye, that is. In Kothibari, everyone does that. "You won't survive otherwise", they say. It's true and none knows it better than her. She has turned blind eyes since childhood: every time her mother came to bed bloodied, every time a 'babu' slapped and beat her like a rag doll, every time her mother had only water for dinner yet, gave her a chapati. She was blind even when last year she overdosed because someone put drugs in her vagina! She has been blind for so long that she doubts whether her eyes work at this point.

But, how long?

Try as she may, this time Daisy is perturbed and the feeling seems quite foreign. She's unaware of how to combat this, for anything outside the world of Kothibari, be it the towering buildings, the people or the emotions is foreign and her natural urge towards aggression fails to be efficacious.

Feather-light steps take Daisy to the very end of the ground-floor corridor, the humdrum lessens here and fades to quiet solitude. She's wary of every bottle crunching under her foot, each stone that rolls to the left or of her deep breaths in general.

Creak!

A pebble groans in protest, it pricks her bare soles and Daisy bites her tongue. By this time she has taken her heels off and her feet are smeared in dirt. She scans the ambience: the doors are locked, the ones without flaps cave into dingy spaces with years of accumulated soot. This part of the building is more than a century old and even the bricks have fallen off. The plaster has given away leaving a skeleton of torture and exploitation behind. 'A living proof of lifelong slavery', Daisy concludes.

The closed rooms- windowless and almost devoid of ventilation, save a small opening at the very top, have life on the other side. This place is every girls' walking nightmare- the dreaded 'Breaking room'. Daisy feels a slight shudder, the hair on her arms rise. She spots two men leaning against a wall- the guards lulled to rest with bottles of half-emptied alcohol. It's merely the third time that she's here and never before has she ventured this far, the stories told are enough to scare the hell out of people.

But, today's different, today she has to. Pee will be waiting. "Be discreet and take the back entrance", he said. "Nobody should know..I repeat, nobody", he whispered.

And Daisy is trying to stick to his words the most closely she can. As their debts to Pee's father or the other procurers increase, it's getting increasingly onerous to crawl out of the hand-to-mouth condition. Surging ration prices don't help either. STDs have become a close companion and her mother's decline from being the sought-after whore to a crack 'hussy' is quite alarming. At the ripe age of fifteen, Daisy is in line to replace and she's as acquainted with this business as she's with her body parts. Once past the twenties, you're no better than five-hundred rupees and above twenty-five, it fast dwindles to three-hundred and two-hundred or even just a hundred!

What will she do after that? If any profession provides even a scant hope of sustenance, this may well be the last.

Mr Das refuses to come anymore and while she cares little about the man, it's his notes that she misses. Out of all the snitches whose feet have carried them to the ghastly grounds of Kothibari, if anybody can be called a 'gentleman', it has to be that person. At least in Daisy's eyes, he comes close. Though she has never laid her thoughts on those, neither will, the frequent money ripped off his kurta pockets have settled to an all-time low. And poor Daisy was barely left with a few spare coins when Pee offered a deal.

"There's this guy", he had said the last time they met. "He wants a disease-free young chick. Will pay handsomely. Are you in?"

"Madam will be furious if she comes to know", she had replied.

"It will be taken care of. If you're sure, call me", he had stated in his usual laid-back attitude- blowing tendrils off a cigarette and leaning against the wall. What other businesses he engages himself, Daisy isn't aware, but, he has connections, lots of them- most are downright shady.

Over the next week, she has thought and thought, continuous without a resolute. And only when her piggy bank refused to dole out further cash, did she make up her mind.

"I'm in. Is the offer still open?" she called. Pee went silent, for an instant Daisy thought her balance had run out but, his confirmation the second after raised hopes, though; and with that, her fear too.

Keen with attention, Daisy walls by the guys- drooling and escapes into the dilapidated Kotha 31. Her hands search for a knob or any means of support while her feet clamber for stability. The light from the fissures and the untended rickety ceiling with monstrous cobwebs and centuries of overgrowth have turned this place into a region lost in time. Daisy gasps and covers her nose. The sheer rancidity of this area coupled with mouldy walls is grimy even to her standards and she can't help but yelp when a large mouse scurries over her toes.

'A little more and I'll be off', she consoles herself. As her limbs trudge through the shabby passage and up a flight of crumbling stairs, she swivels to take a second look.

Swish!

In the obscurity of distance and the hide-and-seek of the sun's rays, a figure zooms out of the darkness. Daisy freezes in place, the stones beneath whimper as she shifts weight from one foot to another and staggers back. The man gives a sinister chortle and leaps forward. Engulfing her body with his bony frame, he grinds his erectness against her buttocks. Cornered against the wall, Daisy can feel the uneven rocks poke into her flesh and she attempts to scream but his calloused scaly hands clasp her mouth while another sneaks inside her top and gives her breasts a good squeeze.

"Finally I got you, jaan", his filthy tongue salivates around her ears.

An urge to retch invades her senses, she elbows and curses yet, they come out as muffled moans. As the snitch pinches her nipples, in one swift motion, Daisy strikes him down with an arm. The momentary lapse in control gives her an edge to turn back but, the bastard instantly recuperates and dodges the next blow.

"I'm not your jaan, dickhead!" she spits on his face.

"What?" he pulls at her hand and rounds it at the back. She cries once the strain shoots right up to her shoulder, numbing her forearm. "Who's the dickhead now?" he smirks and increases the pressure; twists it to sadistic measures. Writhing to be freed, Daisy tears with both anguish and torment. The leech's fingers have now found their place well inside her underpants and his nails dig inside the soft folds of her sex. She whimpers with pain and shakes her body vigorously. Eyes popping out of their sockets, Daisy hears a taunting whistle and her head springs in the direction of the door she had earlier taken. To her bewilderment, it's that girl- the one of the twenty females trafficked a couple of months back. A fortnight ago, both Meera and Daisy had beaten her after she was caught repeatedly stealing from either or sometimes both of their rooms.

The girl smirks and gestures by drawing her hand across her throat. "Enjoy, Daisy" is her parting statement as she saunters back with a menacing chuckle dying within the murk.

The guard licks, pumps his finger in and out and Daisy can very well sense her insides shredded to pieces. The tears have jammed her sight and she doubts how long she'll last. Through the dimming consciousness, she hears frantic footsteps and her mind journeys past into the days bygone when..when..

Thud! Thump!

Agh!

Daisy stands perplexed at the flurry of movements, the guard has been hauled off her and is lying sprawled on the floor.

"If you dare touch her anymore", Pee's voice booms in the space. "I'll chop you to pieces."

All she hears are myriad sounds- smashes and scuffles. She supports herself by leaning against the wall and observes Pee smack the hell out of the lanky guard. "Stay within your limits", he fumes by seizing his collar. "Else you'll be fed to the dogs. This is Kothibari, remember that."

The place from where rarely people make it out alive- Daisy completes the sentence to herself.

"Understood?" Pee grounds out, squatting on the man.

Another squeak and the guard scrams off in a flight of leaps.

Daisy exhales and her breath comes out deep, she realises she has been holding it for too long. Pee turns towards her with a ferocity of a tiger and she reels in astonishment. The scar by his jaw is partially visible in the transient light and the other half of his face is concealed in darkness; from Daisy's point of view he looks terrible and a different kind of frightening.

She has known him since they were kids, have literally played together until he started shunning female company and by the time he was twelve, they were only seldom talking. Her ten year old self couldn't quite come to terms but, as time rolled on things made sense.

Pee's eyes glint with an animalistic intensity and without a word he pulls Daisy in and drags, pacing in front of her with the speed of a galloping horse and once they reach the small aperture in the wall that opens the extreme rear end of the building into a dingy alleyway, he throws her to the ground.

"What the hell were you doing with that fucker?" Pee screams savagely.

Unable to recover from the ordeal and after running behind Pee for solid two minutes, Daisy pants and chokes up on air. But, his rant provokes her and she springs up and slaps him- hard.

"You son of a bitch", she yells. "How dare you think I was screwing? The asshole wanted to rape me, bastard!"

Pee puffs like a raging bull, he grits his teeth and his palms curl into a fist; Daisy regrets ever raising her hands on him. A tinge of distress crawls into her abdomen. For a second, she hesitates to tell him anything, even, 'I'm sorry'. It's as if his wrath is hot, molten magma that can reduce everything to ashes and it isn't the one Daisy's used to.

She has seen women get kicked and smacked, she has witnessed her mother being punched unconscious, rape is obviously nothing and so is starvation. But, this..this wasn't in her experience- the kind of wrath where a person is still, wound tight as if he may snap to pieces. And she realises it isn't always the uncontrolled fury that one need be wary of, rather the controlled one that Pee has. There is an aspect of alarm and intimidation to him that hasn't been ever manifested and this makes her wonder about the carefree stance he always possesses.

'Which one is the real him?' she questions herself.

A second flies by in silence, Daisy opens and closes her mouth. She looks at her watch, the tiny hands stand at three-fifteen. She remembers her appointment is at four.

"Pee?" she calls.

He doesn't answer.

"Pee?" she calls again and touches his forearm. This time, he jerks away and turns with such speed that she flinches backwards.

Holding her wrist in a vice-like grip, he barks, "Make sure it doesn't happen the second time. Don't you dare pull a stunt again."

Daisy stares at him with vacuous eyes, for her it's as new and fresh as a school textbook. The scene is unfamiliar and so are the emotions. She doesn't know what she feels or if she feels anything at all. She inches closer to Pee and stands mute- at a loss of words. A second later, after mustering some courage, she speaks. "I..I'm sorry..but.."

Pee closes his eyes for a moment, then opens them, clearly anticipating her to complete. "..but..y-you said..by four-"

"Say it!" he bursts.

"Y-you said we have to reach there by f-four." She blurts out and swallows.

Pee whips around and the look he gives makes Daisy quiver to the very core; she immediately doubts her use of words. 'It's better to shut my mouth', she reminds herself.

The hot afternoon air is thick with tension and the alleyway reeks of stench from decaying matter. Decomposed animals and dumped bodies of dead foetus have formed a fetid carcass swamp. Water leaks in drops from rusty pipelines- the musty smell is claustrophobic for a normal human being. Daisy gags and cups her mouth but, Pee is stolid.

The next minutes pass in a brisk walk as Pee draws Daisy away from the grungy backway, they skip through the alleys surrounding Kotha 31, striding past the adjoining buildings snoozing in ruins. They do not stop for a breath and continue pacing until they're well above danger and in the safety of an open field that sprawls for acres overlooking the rear of Kothibari.

The vast expanse of greens is a far cry from the slimy black mess the brothel is and the crisp, cool air, laced with a flavour of flowery fragrance works Daisy's face into an aura of placidity. She rubs her legs on the grass and twitches at the recollection of the guard's assault. It isn't as convulsive as she hoped nor is it something that can be easily discarded, which is astonishing and compels her to ponder- hard.

It takes her back to the question that flickered previously- of where she stands in all these.

Her friends' faces flash briefly and she grimaces at the reflection: the battered Meera, the limping Saira, the cuts on their skin, the thousand bruises, the painful lacerations, the screams of agony, the innumerable pleadings to be left alone and finally Saira's desperate call for rescue. She winces at the onslaught of memories and swallows the discomfort when, for a fleeting moment, her friends' features replace hers. The idea chills and she thaws at the sudden gush of terrifying sensations.

Chak!

Pee lights a cigarette, it flickers and startles Daisy; the white plumes muddle her conviction. Today's incident has whipped something within her- something unsettling, something that was bound to happen sooner rather than later and yet, she accuses herself of fomenting wrong notions.

"You want a puff?" Pee raises a brow and extends his arm towards her. Daisy observes him- his face and hands, her eye darts from one to the other.

Pee shrugs, and leans back on an elbow, stretching his legs. The casual vibe is back and his gaze is focused on the horizon. He takes another smoke and exhales patiently as if they've got all the time in the world. This disconcerts Daisy and she snatches the stick from his hand and inhales. The heat radiates and burns but, her eyes close in a momentary repose. Daisy isn't a chain smoker and her indulgence is seldom yet, this time she spares some seconds to consider the happenings with a clearer intellect.

"Why are we here, Pee?" she asks.

"Weren't we supposed to?" he shrugs, again.

"Surely there wasn't any appointment, ever. Was it? You lied." Daisy's tone cuts sharp.

Pee doesn't respond. He seems to be there but, not entirely as his eyes always hover on something or someone in the distance. The earthy aroma and the natural candour vibes well with his aura and Daisy observes how different it feels than the acrid confines of kothibari. She has hardly been outside and given this limited scope of access, she wishes to make the most out of it.

"l'm going", Pee says at last.

Daisy squints. Something in his statement fails to add up and she turns towards him. "What?" she asks, utterly bemused.

"I'm leaving", he blows hearts of smoke. "I've had enough of this place."

Daisy cannot believe her ears. Pee? Of all people? Pee, really? To her, he appears mad.

"You're insane if you think you can do that!" she snorts.

'Someone has to be absolutely nuts if he thinks he can pull this off', she murmurs. 'No, this can't happen.'

"No, this isn't ppossible", this time she says it out aloud. "Your father won't leave you alive. No one escapes from Kothibari, Pee. No one!" her voice chokes.

She shakes his arms as if he's some naïve child who's determined to go to the moon. But, Pee's composure vexes her, what's more annoying is the calm determination he radiates which is a far cry from the way she has pictured him to be. To her, he's that randy rascal who loves nothing more than getting into girl's skirts and spends his days smoking pots and pipes, not to forget the thousand abominable connections to the local gangs.

"I told you because...well, I don't know exactly why. May be because..we're friends?" he quirks an eyebrow, there's a hint of amusement in his voice.

Daisy scoffs. "We were friends, Pee. Long time back, we were. I'm not sure if we're." She stops for a second before continuing. "Didn't you see what happened to Saira? Or have you become such an asshead you forgot they're going to inevitably get you back?"

She looks at him with concern, there's also latent fear- something Daisy chooses to never acknowledge. Out of all the emotions, fear is to be avoided, at all costs- this much was made clear right from her childhood. But, then again fear isn't something that drops from outer space, it's what we concoct in our minds. And the human mind is a devil's workshop.

"Pee, I think you should drop this idea." She says.

"And I think you should follow me too", he fires back.

"Are you even in sense?" Daisy yells. "Do you want me to die? Will they let us be, Pee? Tomorrow or the day after somebody will find us and then, we'll be prisoners for life! This is Kothibari for heaven's sake!" her voice cracks with intense emotion. She doesn't understand if the sheer magnanimity of the consequences is familiar to Pee. If it was, he couldn't be so bold, so foolishly desperate!

But, his idiocy won't let her stop. She brushes her moistened eyes and howls. "Where will we stay? What will we eat? How long can we evade them? Madam will bury us alive!"

"Shut the fuck up", Pee grunts and gets up. Daisy follows.

"From where will the money come? I'm still underage and-"

"Shut up!" he hisses. "Are you so keen on spreading your legs that you can't take a single chance?" shoving her away, he throws the cigarette butt into the grass and stomps on it with the might of an elephant as if pouring all his anger and exasperation on that single stick will alleviate the danger.

"Look at you", he points. "I just told someone wants to fuck and there you're, dressed as..dressed as-"

"As your mother? As mine? A whore? Say it!" she challenges and darts forward, backing him against a tree. "It's what we're Pee, not just what we dress like. And you're no better than your father. You're but a pimp."

"And this isn't which I wish to be", he shouts smacking his knuckles against the tree trunk. "I want to do something in life. I don't care what, but not this!"

Daisy flinches at the vehemence of his reaction. For some solid seconds, they both don't speak. Until she chooses to break the silence.

"And what if they try to kill you?" Daisy whispers.

Pee sneers. "Sometimes, you get two choices. Kill or be killed. I will gladly take the former."

Complete quietness descends on the two. Daisy's clock reads four. She's in a daze, still unwilling to believe they're having a conversation..on..escaping? Kothibari?

"Why do I have the idea that you asked me out not just to tell this?" she questions.

Pee chuckles, pursing his lips in conceitedness. "I always knew you're quite wise, Daisy." He takes a long breath and continues. "We came here to meet someone who has the proper network to help us."

"We?" Daisy enquires.

"I guess so", he shrugs one insolent shoulder. "A hunch, you can say. To be honest, I'm not even sure why I discussed these. It's just..it's just..I felt you too may want things other than this? I've no idea if I'm putting it right. I thought we could.." he pauses for a second.

"We could?"

"...we could do it together?" he completes. "Go back, Daisy, think about it. In the end, it's your call. Mine's decided. If you're in, I'll gladly help you. That's a promise."

But, for the first time Daisy's clueless. And clueless she wishes to remain. At this point, it acts as solace and sometimes, people seek solace rather than a solution.

Her eyes skip to the distance where a figure is fast approaching. Dressed in a burka, the woman's legs take long strides across the field and the more she nears, the faster Daisy's heart beats. As her form zooms into view, she notices the badge clipped onto her chest. 'P for Precious'- it reads.

"There she is. Let's go", Pee says and darts forward.

                            *********

Daisy feigns sleep. The air boils and the cramped inside of her muggy room blisters like the desert. Dawn is about to break and the thinning crowd outside the door lays the perfect opportunity. Daisy wounds a light scarf around her and tiptoes to get her phone. She doesn't know what the future awaits, in Kothibari, they make sure there's no future.

But, Pee's words resonate within her.

"We've all got blood on our hands. Something somewhere had to die so we could stay alive."

It's true. She cannot succumb to this generational slavery. If a chance at survival insinuates she'll have to kill, then be it. It's better than being killed. Girls in this place are bred to die, Daisy was born to die.

'Let's change some fucking destiny', she assures herself and calls Pee.