My Best Friend Maria.

As I sit here reading a blog I am reminded of my experience. I thought long and hard on wither I was going to tell you guys about one of my deepest and most darkest memories. One that I am so grateful to have lived through and yet my dearest friend did not. Please understand I am trying to keep this post as clean as possible but the subject matter is of a non child friendly topic. But I need to let you know how it happens and hopefully it can help someone know the signs and stop it from happening to someone they love.

You see I have always had this little voice in my head that made me aware of danger long before most people. I have experienced this only a few times in my life. This sense of dread and impending doom. This sense that has made me leave an area only to come back and witness a disaster. One time I stopped in the middle of the road for no reason and decided to go back and walk around the block. There was nothing there and my friend (this same friend) said I was acting crazy. But she decided to humor me and we walked back and around the block. By the time we got to the next street over we heard a few rounds of gun fire going off. When we reached the end of the first street we saw that there was a car that had drove by and shot towards a house. At that moment I realized that if I did not listen to that voice or if she would have talked me out of it we would have been dead that day. I am telling you this only because I want you to know that when I talk about this voice I want you to understand how deeply I feel about listening to it.

About a year later I found myself in the foster care system. And I lost ties with her for 2 years. One day I was at the mall and I ran into her. And we quickly reinstated our friendship. During this time we were apart she became involved with a group of people that I really did not care that much for as they were a local gang. I was never really drawn to groups of people but I stayed around to be close to her. I felt that she needed me to be there for her as she was having family troubles. She kept running away from home, and each time she did she would contact me. There were no cell phones back than we each had pagers and we had our own language in what we called beeper code.

We spent many nights just walking around and talking. I could not help her much besides just being there to listen to her. I really wish I could have done more. But she was on a path that I did not want to go down. I put myself through many occasions that would scare anyone just so I could be there for her. At the time we needed each other. It was a strange relationship to anyone looking in but we were close.

I am sorry for the huge backstory but I wanted you to know why I would put myself into danger for someone else. Now I will tell you the last weeks of her life. From here on out it this story is NOT child friendly.

You see these guys in the gang were sex traffickers. At first they would just call her up to meet up somewhere. She was so happy they wanted her around that she eagerly went to them any time they called her. She was abused at home so any attention she got from others she would just run to. Even though the attention was bad she loved it. She would call me from the hotels they would put her up in and usually she was drunk or on some form of drugs. I will tell you that they never forced her to take anything. I hated drugs and alcohol so when they offered these to me I said no. But she loved the fact that she did not feel her pain when she was with them getting intoxicated. There were many times that I walked in and there would be 5 or more men taking turns with her. I say men because they were all over the age of 20 and she was only 15. Most of the time she was already passed out from whatever they gave her.

One night as I was there picking her up she told me that this guy Angel was going to put her up in an apartment and take care of her. She told me that she was in love with him. I did not see what she saw in this guy I thought he was strange. Being that I spent most of my time on the streets I made it my goal to understand people better. I hardly ever talked and all I did was listen and watch others. So I got really good at reading people, but this guy I could not read. I just knew there was something not right about him. But she was my friend and I was going to be there for her. So when she asked if I would come and stay with her I agreed. She said that it would be just me and her there during the day and at night Angel would be there and maybe a friend or 2. Angel was not a big guy he was almost my size so I was not scared of him. When he brought us to the apartment the only things he said were that if we needed anything all we had to do was call him and when he got home he would bring it. And not to leave the apartment. He told us that he would be kicked out if we were found there. So we agreed. We were there a total of 1 month.

During this month she became so scared to say or do anything wrong. Each night he would bring over a ton of friends never the 1 or 2 he said. They would cook food for us and usually the next thing I knew it was morning. A few times I did not eat the food and they got upset. 1 time they decided to force me to take the drugs instead of putting it in the food. And that is when I knew what was going on and I had to leave. The problem I now faced was how I was going to get my best friend to leave. I know I was raped almost daily while I was there. Twice I can recall with clear detail what happened. The rest of the time I know only because I was very sore and weak in the morning. She was very scared to do anything against her Angel so when I got that voice in my head I told her I was leaving and she really needed to come with me. I reminded her of what happened the last time I heard that voice. She was not having it, so I decided that I would just go to the corner store that we had gone to many times with Angel. She knew it was just around the corner and if we took the back alley we would not be seen. She still refused to go with me. But I told her that I had to get out of there as I had to think some things through. She said that he would be back home in a while so I needed to get there and back fast so he would not know I had left. I agreed and I had every intention on coming back for her.

As I was walking back from around the corner I saw a white van drive up to the apartment. I heard that voice tell me to hide so I hid behind the wall of another building. I waited a moment and I started to doubt my voice and that sudden burst of fear. I thought I was overreacting. Than I saw her dragged from the apartment and placed in the back of the van. At that moment I was frozen with fear and I could not breath. I knew that I needed to move from where I was or I would be seen when they drove by. If they took her in broad daylight surely they would not leave me if they saw me. So I laid down behind the bushes until the left. I knew that there was nothing I could do to help her except call the police so as soon as I was able to stop shaking I ran to the nearest door and begged the people to call the police.

Once the police got there they looked at me an called an ambulance. I was a mess and they decided to drug test me. Instead of believing my story they claimed that no one had been seen in that apartment for months, and I was so high that I must have hallucinated the whole event. I was placed in a hospital and put on drugs to help deal with my emotional issues and my drug addiction. Never mind that I never did drugs before I walked into that apartment. I spent 4 months in that hospital and no one believed my story. Until one day a detective came to see me. They had found my friend body in a ditch a few towns south of where we were. She has badly beat up and thrown out like trash. Than and only than they believed me and wanted to know who Angel was. I told them the whole story and everything I knew about him and the gang. A few months later I heard that Angel had been beaten so bad that night I left he was in the hospital for his injuries. They claim that when they went to go pick up the girls there was only 1. So he had to make payment for his mistake. That girl that got away was me but my friend was not so lucky.

These people can spot out a girl that has low self esteem and is having family trouble. Foster children are very high on this list, and they are easy targets for them.

All I can say today to Angel is this. One day you will be judged for your crimes as in the end there will be nowhere you can run.
And to my friend Maria I want you to know I cared about you and loved you. YOU are truly loved and in my thoughts.

So please spread the word that HUMAN TRAFFICING NEEDS TO STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you suspect someone you know is a victum
PLEASE HELP THEM. Their life is in danger and many are too scared to speak up.

As I fully support the #familyprotection movement 25% of ALL the SBD generated for this post will be transferred to #familyprotection.

As always Thank you for taking the time to read this post. It means the world to me to finally have a place where I can speak openly and without fear or repercussion.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The image of the girls was taken from https://www.freeimages.com/photo/light-me-on-1315714