Chapter 1

I was captured while on the run and was taken to a prison whom you can’t even call it a prison because they treat prisoners as beggars or even worse.

The other prisoners eyes me as if I were a piece of tender meat. I was someone new to distract their boredom, and small enough that I couldn't stop one let alone four from doing what they wanted. It was only a matter of who would be the first one to enjoy me.

"He's mine." The prisoner's tongue darted out through his tangled beard and licked what I supposed were lips, hidden beneath all that with black hair. "Come here, boy."

I shuffled away from him but instead of the brick wall of the cell, I smacked into a soft body. "Looks like he wants me, Zhu. Don't ye lad?" Large hands clamped around my arms, and thick fingers dug into my flesh through my jacket and shirt. The man spun me around and I gaped up at the brute grinning toothlessly at me. My heart rose and dove, rose and dove, rose and dove and cold sweat trickled down my spine. He was massive. He wore no jacket or waistcoat only a shirt stained with blood, sweat, and grime. The top bottons had popped open, most likely from the stain of containing his enormous chest, and a thatch of gray hair sprouted through the Gap and crept upto his neck rolls. Hot, foul breath assaulted nostrils.

I tried to turn my face away but he grasped my jaw. The wrenching motion caused my hair to slide off my fore head and eyes, revealing more of my face than I had in long time. A new fear spread through me, as sickening as the man in front of me. Only two prisoners seems interested in a boy, but if they realized I was a girl the other would likely want me too.

"Anyone ever tell you, you're too pretty for a boy?" My tormentor chuckled, but it didn't seemed like he discovered my secret. "Pretty boys can get themselves into trouble."

Girls even more so. It was just my I'll luck to get caught stealing an apple from the costermonger's cart outside the cemetery and wind up in the overcrowded holding cell at Highgate Police Station. The irony wasn't lost on me, but it wasn't in the least amusing. As a twenty-one year old girl, I should be separated from the men, but i'd been passing myself off as an eighteen years old boy for so long it hadn't even occured to me to tell the policemen. With my half starved-body, and mop of hair covering most of my face, nobody had question my gender or age.

The big brute jerked me forward, slamming me against his body. My nose smacked into a particular filthy patch of his shirt and I gagged at the combined stenches of sweat, vomit, excrement and gin. I wasn't too clean myself, but this fellows odor was overpowering. Bile burned my throat but I swallowed it quickly. Showing weakness would only make it worse for me. I knew that from my past experiences.

"Come here and keep old Linong warm."

Warm? It was summer and the cell was hotter than any furnace witt four adult men and myself crammed into a space designed for one.

"I'm next" said the bearded Zhu, closing in to get a better look at me.

"If there's anything left of him after old Linong broken him in." Linong chuckled again and fumbled with the front of his trousers.

I closed my hands into fists and clamped down my on my fear. Shouting for the constable wouldn't help. He'd told other prisoners to "enjoy", when he'd tossed me into the cell. It has only been a few minutes since he'd walked off, whistling. It felt like hours. I had to fight now. It was the only way left not that I stood chance against them, but they might beat me unconscious with any luck. It was best not to be awake while they took their liberties.

I swung my fist, but Linong was faster then he looked. He caught my wrist and sneered. "That ain't going to help you." The sneer banisher and he shoved me into the wall.

I put my hands up and managed to stop myself smashing into the whitewashed bricks, but my arms and wrist jarred from the force. I gasped in pain but smothered the cry that welled up my throat.

"Leave the boy, alone"

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