Kristin had just told me and Lori that she was snatched from a cab with one of her cousins. She said that no one came looking for her.

"Did your aunt not report you and your cousin missing?" I asked Kristin.

"I don’t know," Kristin said with a shrug. "The night I was abducted, we drove out of the state. We were in the car for hours with three men who ignored us unless we got too loud or unruly, then one of them would reach back and hit us or yell at us to shut up. When we finally got to our hotel as the sun was rising, the men shoved us into a room and locked us in there."

"Did you try to scream for help?" Lori asked Kristin.

"The men had guns," Kristin told her. "They were next door and they told us if they heard anything out of us, they would shoot us."

"They didn’t try to touch you, or hurt you?" I asked Kristin.

"Girls will sell for higher amounts when they’re not abused," Kristin said. "They didn’t want us to arrive with bruises and sexual abuse because they get less money. They made sure that we were fed and safe, and in return, they just asked us to be quiet and do as we were told."

"Did they tell you anything about what was going on?" Lori asked Kristin.

"Nothing," Kristin said. "We asked them where we were going and why they kidnapped us, but they just told us to be quiet and not to cause any trouble. My cousin and I were terrified, and we cried until we couldn’t cry anymore. But, when the men took us to the warehouse it was actually really comforting to be around other girls and women. They knew what was going on and they told us what to do and what not to do. I was even a virgin at the time, but my cousin was not, so the conversation about what was going to happen when one of the men bought me was terrifying." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"What did they tell you?" I asked Kristin, feeling the discomfort in my stomach as I thought about a 16 year being taught that she would have a forced sexual experience that could be very unpleasant.

"They told me to pretend I was someone else," Kristin said. "I was told to disconnect from my body and to do as I was told during sex so that it would be over quickly."

Lori was shaking her head in disbelief. "That should never happen," Lori said to Kristin.

"I absolutely agree," Kristin said, "but it does, and it’s awful. I was terrified my first time on ’The Block’ and I know I was 16 years old, but I felt like a little girl who had gotten lost in a store. After I was torn away from my cousin and those other women who gave us advice, I had no one."

I could taste the bile rising to my throat. "Were you able to take the women’s advice?" I asked Kristin. "How did you survive?"

Kristin was silent for a moment in her thoughts. "The man who bought me for the first time wanted a young virgin," she said. "He was in his late forties, gruff, serious, and not very friendly. On our way to his home, he didn’t say anything to me. I just remember trying to focus on tangible things like the houses passing as we drove and the feel of the leather on the seat. He had a large home and when we got inside he took me to the bedroom that would be mine for the next few months. He told me to undress and once I was completely naked with tears streaming down my face, he walked around me in a circle and looked at me like I was some sort of art exhibit. Finally, he told me to lie on the bed while he took of his pants. I remember lying there and crying the whole time. He never tried to be gentle, so there was a lot of pain and I screamed that he was hurting me, but he just held me down and had his way with me. When he was done, he put his pants back on and left me lying on the bed naked, crying, and in pain."

"Oh my God," Lori said, covering her mouth with her hands.

Kristin nodded. "He was like that the entire time," Kristin said. "The door of my room was locked until it was time for me to eat or shower, or whenever he wanted to have sex with me. I thought I was going to lose my mind and I cried often. Mealtimes and showering were predictable, but he was not. He would want sex in the early morning, or in the middle of the day, or in the middle of the night, sometimes twice a day. I never knew and that was the most emotionally and physically stressful part of the situation."

"Did you ever try to run away?" I asked Kristin.

"The first time, no," Kristin told me. "It was a completely new life and a new experience, and I spent my time in a deep depression trying to understand what was happening to me and why. But, I did try twice when I was bought later, on two separate occasions. After the first attempt, the man beat me so badly that I had a hard time walking for a few days. The next time I tried to run away, I had been bought along with another girl my age and having her with me made me more confident. When we chose a night to run away, we had planned to go through the basement and out a side door." Kristin paused for a moment, her eyes focused on the coffee table in front of her, but she seemed to be gazing through it, back to that fateful day when she had tried to run away with the other girl. "She got to the door first and opened it, but before I could follow her the man who bought us grabbed her. He had been waiting outside. We thought we had been so clever, but he knew. I watched in pure horror as he wrapped his hands around her neck and choked her. She struggled for what seemed like an eternity until she went limp. I didn’t know if she was dead or not at the time, but looking back I’m sure that she was dead. After she had stopped struggling, I ran straight back up to my room and I was terrified for days, but the man never said anything to me about it. I still don’t know to this day if he saw me or not in the basement at all. He bought another girl and life continued on for me until it was time for me to be resold."

"You watched a girl die," I said to Kristin in shock. "You saw him kill that girl with his bare hands.

Kristin nodded. "I saw other women killed too," she said. "A couple of the women were victims of violent anger, and I don’t think they were meant to be killed, but they died. The others were intentional to teach us or patrons a lesson. One patron bid for a girl and didn’t have the money in his account, but instead of taking her back, he kept her at his home. A few days later, the girl was found dead on the man’s property, and he went to jail for her murder. But, I know for a fact that it was someone working for the boss who lured her out of the house and killed her." Kristin’s eyes were shiny with tears and I could feel my own eyes stinging, yearning to release the emotions I felt at the senseless kidnapping, rape, and killing of those women.

I pulled Kristin into a hug. "I’m so sorry you went through that," I told Kristin as hot tears slid down my cheeks. Lori leaned in, wrapping her arms around both Kristin and me. We sat there holding one another and sobbing. "I’m so sorry," I said to her again, unable to hold back my tears. We cried together and just held one another. I did need to hear Kristin’s story. I was no longer ashamed of being rescued from the world of human trafficking by my husband. No one deserved that life, but those who had to live through it and who survived were strong in ways that many people could not even imagine.

"You’re so amazing," Lori said to Kristin between sobs. "I’m so glad that I met you."

"I’m glad that I met you both too," Kristin said. "Neither of you truly had to learn about human trafficking the hard way, and I hope you’re both thankful for that. But you both know enough now to want to fight for women who are living that life and to want to bring down the men and sometimes other women who make it possible." I decided then and there that I would be braver, I would try harder, and I would do my part to help Marcus and Ed with their mission to take down The Auction House for women like Kristin, her cousin, and women like me, too.