Chapter 1: Decision

“This can’t be real?” I can’t believe what Emily had just said. “Buttttttt, we live in...” fuck she couldn’t really mean it could she? I mean we’d discussed the growing problem, we’d seen it coming. I just didn’t expect my wife to be so clear-cut with what needs doing.

“Love, I don’t think I’m making this up. I’m pretty sure that I’m right,” she tried to help me understand the reality.

I nodded, dumbfounded, I got it, but didn’t want to acknowledge it. Since the car bump a few months ago, we’d gradually seen this coming. I opened my mouth to start the conversation but she cut me off.

“Moving house is, now, out of the question.”

I picked up on the now, “Eh?” what had changed.

She visibly shivered, “I think it’s too late.”

“How can it be too late? What’s pushed this forward so drastically?” I wanted to stand up, I was worried and getting worked up now.

She sighed, “One of them was at my work today. I was buzzed down to reception to see him as he asked for me by name. I don’t even really remember what we said to each other, apart from the fact that he called me a bitch and a ho. Jerry called the police, I hid away in the building while he was arrested or something, I dunno.”

How the fuck was she so calm over this? I did actually jump up from my seat, hearing this. I had to go buy a gun, or we had to pack and run or something. “Emily, this is...”

She held out her hand to calm me, “Sit down Chris, there’s more.”

“What the fuck love. I can’t sit down, this is bonkers.”

“Please,” she shook her head, “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

“But love, the police...”

She shook her head again and waited. I knew what she was like when she wanted something. I needed to hear her out. Taking a deep breath, I sat back down, picked up my ipad that I’d dropped onto the floor, and put it next to me, my heart racing as I waited to hear whatever was next.

It took her a few moments to decide to tell me the next bit, “Then when I was driving home.” She paused and I felt like I was going to have a heart attack, there was more? “At the last set of lights next to the Spar supermarket.” I nodded, I knew that turning quite well. “Two guys stood in front of my car so that I couldn’t go and one of them knocked on the window, he simply said ‘Times up, come see us’.”

“Shit! What does that mean? So let’s go, let’s get out of here, fuck it.” She shook her head and passed me a piece of paper that I’d not seen in her hand. I unfolded it and my world fell apart. It was a single piece of A4, full of our lives. At the top it simply said, ‘You can’t run, so don’t bother’ and then it had our family tree with the full addresses of our parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. Next to each person was their mobile number and what looked like their sort code and bank details. If it wasn’t for the shitty layout it could have made one hell of an infographic. “What is this?”

She didn’t answer, she didn’t need to. I knew what this was. This was clearly a, ‘You vanish and we’ll squash everyone here’ message. I re-read it like 5 times, it was all so accurate. Eventually, I looked back up at my wife, “But why us, what do they want?”

She shrugged her shoulders and answered me, “I dunno, maybe they want our money?”

I laughed, “What money?” We didn’t have a real pot. Though we weren’t in debit, we did have about two thousand saved up. They surely didn’t want that? “Narrr it can’t be money, surely not.”

We both let the cogs turn in our own minds. Trying to work out what they wanted. I gave up first. “So they’re thugs, money, drugs, prostitutes, robbery, extortion I guess?” Going through the things that film and TV told me that wrong’ns got up to.

Emily nodded, “But I don’t see why us, we don’t have any of those skills?”

I looked up at her, taking in her angelic face and full figure. I gulped, “You?”, she shivered as I said it. My heart skipped too many beats. “I’ve seen them with guns for fucks sake.” I was almost shaking. “And I bet there’s drugs.”

“I think you’re right,” she mumbled looking down at herself.

I slumped in the chair when I heard her say that. We’d both heard the cat calls, the lewd jibes, and the disgusting, crude, loud comments directed at my wife. I bowed my head, looking at the floor also. Why’d we fucking move here? Why hadn’t we moved out already? This area had been going down hill for years and yet we stayed. I glanced again at the paper, we really couldn’t run away now could we?

I didn’t want to ask, as I didn’t want the answer. “Why?”

She didn’t want the answer either. “You know.”

My head spun upwards and I looked her in the beautiful dark eyes, “But I don’t want them fucking you.” Shit, I didn’t.

She shook her head, “Me neither.” A few moments of silence passed between us before she added, “God I dunno, maybe they want more,” and it was her turn now to look down at the ground.

I stood up and held her as she quietly mumbled, “They wouldn’t want me as one of their girls, would they?”

I instantly knew what she was talking about. We bought the flat that we were currently in 6 years ago, when we were in our early 20s. It was all we could afford, there were a lot of compromises made. It was all flats, social houses, kids on bikes at all hours. We gradually fit in and got to know everyone. Our street was known and the posh side of the estate but it was still just our starting home. We had big plans.

The problem was that our big plans needed big money and we’d hoped that big money would have come from big jobs. I’d done well and became a team leader in a local manufacturing plant. I was doing well and the next step up was for a management role that I was currently being trained for. However it was all just taking so long. Emily had dotted around from one admin job to another, all ones she enjoyed and a small pay bump with each move. But none of them set the world alight with money. As such our big plans weren’t really moving forward quickly enough.

It turned out that we actually liked most of our direct neighbours, they were a little basic but everyone helped each other out when needed. Some of the mothers and kids were a little loud and brash but everyone was a working family trying to survive. The streets around us were where the problems were. The volume said it all. At least once a night there was police presence somewhere around us and couples yelling at each other carried over here when the wind was right. Everyone in our street looked out for each other, trying our best to collectively keep the trash out of range.

When Emily said ‘their girls’ I knew exactly what she was talking about. When I drove home you’d sometimes see them. Coming out of cars, houses, shops, girls of all ages with clearly one mission in mind. Find a man and charge him for sex. We’d quickly worked out where they worked and hung out, we avoided it. Emily joked that she could smell them before she saw them. It was an unusually nasty comment from her, one that she kept making. I didn’t understand it and had given up challenging her about it.

“No love. Of course not.” There was no way she was even like one of them. I felt her arms grab me tighter, clearly pleased with my reassurance. Though in my mind I was worried. Emily has a very voluptuous figure, that people always took a moment to take in. The girls we’d seen were a range of shapes and ages, but none were a patch on my wife. No, that could never happen, it would be catastrophic for us.

The Approach

After a bit of an argument, we decided to go together to see what they intended. She wanted to go on her own but that was out of the question. I didn’t want to have to go to the police a few days later after my wife had gone missing. At least this way I had some idea what was going on. We didn’t have to think about where to go, everyone around here knew where their HQ, so to speak, was. We hardly said anything to each other, both clearly stuck in our own heads about what was going to happen. I wanted to re-assure her that we’d work it out, but I couldn’t. I’d never dealt with anything like this before, I never dreamed I would.

So where we stood, before him, on his porch. He was sitting in his chair as normal, surveying all around him. I turned back to look out across the large front garden, at the guys that had let us pass. I squeezed Emily’s hand before I turned back to face him.

He was simply looking at my wife, no expression on his face, but we were quaking in our boots. We didn’t know what his name was or what to say to him. I didn’t know the etiquette for something like this. I mean how would I?

I felt his eyes slowly move down my wife’s body, scanning her pale white skin, obviously pausing at her boobs. Did I see a smirk on his face before his gaze moved on downwards? We stood there, letting him eye up Emily like a piece of meat as he took in her figure. She was wearing her usual blue jeans, and a long white knitted jumper. She’s nothing like the girls we see coming and going here. God that thought made me cringe with disgust.

His eyes had done their job and taken her body in at closer quarters. He was now making direct eye contact with her. He’d almost blanked me since we’d appeared as if I never existed.

“Git that white boy to fuck off,” was his first growl, it was obviously aimed at me. It was actually an instruction to some unknown men as the door behind him opened and two skinny black blokes flew through it, quickly wrestling me down the porch. As I started to argue with them, my hand was torn away from Emily’s; I heard him bellow, “Nah, this way bitch.”

Looking up I saw my wife turn back to face him. I was still being manhandled down the steps of the porch, the distance between us was growing.

I just about heard him tell Emily, “Lose that old raggedy jumper.”

It wasn’t a request, it was an order but she didn’t move. He wanted her to take her jumper off here and now, in front of him. I was only a few steps away and I pushed back hard, trying to get through these two men. That resulted in the most scary moment of my life.

The cold hard, metal of a gun barrel was pushed through my teeth into my mouth. The metal, catching against my teeth, threatening to crack them. Of course, I stopped moving and fighting in an instance. I also stopped my yelling and moaning.

I stood there a few steps away from behind my wife’s back; the menacing black, drug dealer out of sight but standing in front of her. I was petrified that my brains were about to be blown out and splattered across his lawn. Where would that leave Emily then?

Also why wasn’t she doing what he told her. I mean, I got it, she was quite likely shit scared like me. I thought we’d talk and discuss what they wanted. But here in broad daylight he was telling my wife to strip. Instead of doing as instructed, she took a chance to try to discuss it with him. I heard her quiet voice, “I’m Emily, I’d like...”

“Get da FUCKING ragged jumper off NOW. Or I’ll have my boys bring dat honkies balls over here and I’ll ram them down your FUCKING throat.” Fuck, I pictured him doing it. I pictured me bleeding out right here, the last thing I’d see was my own balls being rammed down my wife’s mouth.

The message was clear. We were in his world now, it had already started. Whatever was going to happen was in progress. I expected that if she turned to walk to me I’d have a bullet in my face and one would probably follow into her head next.

So I wasn’t surprised when I watched my wife’s hands grab hold of the hem of her jumper and she very slowly raised it up. “Don’t ya dare.” The words spluttered from his mouth as she appeared to either start to turn to me or to stop raising it. The gun in my mouth clattered against my teeth again.

The jumper was soon over her head and she dropped it on the floor. Not something she’d usually do, just throw clothes on the floor, so he had to have indicated it to her? It was strange beyond words seeing the back of my wife, shoes, jeans, bra back and straps only. I knew the bra well, I knew my wife’s body well, I knew exactly what he was seeing. I listened for a comment. I expected something about her boobs. Something about their size, I dunno. I was very surprised when instead all I heard was,”Get in there.”

And without hesitation or an attempt to look back at me, my wife stepped to his side and walked through the door that these two men had appeared from. The door closed and she was gone. My heart sank, what did this mean?

I could now clearly see the man in the chair, he wasn’t moving. My wife’s jumper near his feet. I tried, through the gun barrel, to ask him what he wanted. It didn’t come out very clearly but he had a reply ready.

“I told ya to get that honkie gone,” and he picked up his phone. I was no longer his problem, he’d moved on. What was Emily doing in there now?

That wasn’t my problem as right now the men holding me were marching me backwards towards the edge of their property. Very quickly I was next to the original two that let us pass, moments ago. The gun removed from my mouth and probably a chipped tooth, I was faced with three black men as one of them had already started to walk back.

“What’s goin...”

One of them cut me short with a powerful, hard punch to the stomach. That had me crawled up on the floor in a ball, winded and fighting for breath. I just about heard instructions from one of them, “Shut the fuck up, and behave, or we’ll bury both of you.”

It took me a good few minutes before I’d managed to recover enough. I knelt up, taking a moment to look past the men at the house. He was still there, sitting looking at his mobile, my wife’s jumper was still there and she was nowhere to be seen.

I slowly stood up, still a little winded, taking a step back to be out of their range. “Will she be ok?” looking between the three of them.

They all sort of grinned and one replied, “As long as you’re good, yer man.” He then added, “She’ll be back later, you run along now.”

Return

I heard footsteps before I heard the door. Running I opened it, greeted at the sight of my wife about to knock it. I quickly ushered her in, it was 1am and she did not look like my normal wife. I quickly grabbed her and pulled her into a tight embrace, ignoring her attire for a moment. “You ok, love?”

“Yer,” she quietly muffled into my ear.

With her proximity to me I could smell her. She smelt of sex. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. Maybe smoke or something but I was greeted with raw sex. Fuck that shocked me. I kept holding her tightly. Shit what had they done? What had she done with them?

Eventually, we separated and I led her into the living room. Still in the dark, we sat next to each other. I couldn’t help but instantly notice that I could see nearly all of her legs. The mini skirt that she had on left all of her legs clear. She instantly noticed my line of sight and fought to pull it down to cover herself up a little. Quickly giving up as it was a losing battle. During that mini fight I would get a glimpse of her crotch, and what looked like her pussy. She had no panties on? Shit. I instantly felt my cock involuntarily throb. Shit.

Looking up at her eyes, “You ok? What happened? What do they want?” hoping that she didn’t catch me looking at her crotch. I was simply pleased to see her. My mobile dinged, I glanced at it on the table next to us. It was a message from a neighbour. I saw the name and didn’t pick it up, so I had no idea what they wanted. They never texted at this time of the morning. Fuck them for now.

“Oh God Chris.” Emily took both my hands, holding them as she took a deep breath but didn’t say anything.

My eyes then couldn’t help but notice the halter top that she had on and fuck me, she was braless. Her tits were their usual huge size, but like this they were sitting on her thighs. She always had them in a bra for that exact reason. Fuck it was quite a sight. Shit my cock was getting very hard now.

Looking back at her eyes, she saw where I was looking. I’d been caught. She shook her head a little.

“Sorry love. Tell me.” I felt bad.

She then blurted it out, “They fucked me.”

There it was, no beating around the bush. Simply out there. I didn’t know how to feel. She was my wife. She’d only fucked me ever. Now it was different. I didn’t know what to say.

She understood, she knew me well, “It’s done Chris.”

I nodded but I wasn’t really sure what I was nodding at. What was done?

As if reading my mind she answered, “I’m a whore for them.”

I couldn’t help it, an audible intake of breath from me and I nodded again. She’d fucked them. She’s let them fuck her and it was done. Jeezus. “Are you ok? Is it over?”

She nodded, “Yes I’m ok,” and she screwed up her face, “Over?”

“Is that it?”

She looked confused, “No Chris, I’m a whore for them now.”

Oh, so they wanted her to fuck them more often. Shit. “Oh,” was all I could manage.

“Oh, indeed.” Did she almost smirk at that?

How would it work, how often, when, I needed to know, “So they’ll call you to the house?”

She looked confused for a second, “No Chris, I’m to whore for them now.” WHAT, WHAT THE FUCK. She saw the look on my face. “Yes, a hooker Chris.”

I almost hyper ventilated. No way. I felt my world spinning. “No way, that...” I could hardly speak.

She nodded, “It’s done Chris.”

I shook my head, “No, no, what the hell. That’s not.”

She squeezed my hand, “What can you do?” my mind instantly flashed to the paper, the punch, the gun.

FUCK I didn’t like this at all but she was right. No she wasn’t, there had to be something. I had to be misunderstanding somehow. “But how?”

She paused a moment before she let it all fly, “They decided that they could earn good money off me and I have to do it. They’ve been very clear that no isn’t an option. They are particularly taken with my boobs.” At that she looked down at them and thrust them out a bit. “They want to use my body.”

“But what about your job?”

“I have to quit right away.”

“Fuck, how? What about me?”

She just shook her head, “You’ll be fine. They’ll leave you alone.” Phew.

“What about you?”

She swallowed, “I’ll be ok.”

Fuck how was she so calm. “I don’t get it?” She looked confused and maybe upset, I quickly fixed that, “I mean I get it because, I mean, look at you.” We both looked at her body on display in these clothes. In fact I now didn’t need to say anything. I’d made my own point. “Shit!”

“Shit indeed,” and she sighed.

“How will it work?” God, had I already accepted it? “There has to be another way.”

She answered the only question, “Apparently I’m to sleep here tonight and they’ll call me or come and get me tomorrow late afternoon.”

“Shit, are you going to be an escort or something then?” She shook her head but didn’t reply. “But what then?” I wasn’t very worldly in these sorts of things.

“I’ll be with the other girls.” My turn to look confused. “Down there,” and she nodded down the street.

I knew what she meant now. “Fuck, on the street?”

She nodded, “Yes,” and then added, “A whore.”

Fuck that sounded so strange, hearing her say that, I shook my head. “But it’s illegal, you’ll get in trouble.” She nodded. I didn’t understand. “You know?”

She shrugged her shoulders and let go of my hands, “I don’t know what else to do here Chris. I said that to them and they simply said ‘that’s right’ and ‘you’ll be fine’.” I watched her boobs ripple with her shoulder shrug. I couldn’t help myself.

“Fuck, love. Those girls.” I was picturing them. We avoided that road. It was well known. It was crazy for hookers, drugs and all sorts of super dodgy shit.

“Yup, I know.”

Then suddenly it hit me, “People here will... “ I stopped myself. This was too big to know, to work out. “Everyone we know will...”.

She bowed her head, “Yes.”

“Fuck!” my mind rolling around how to get out of this, round and round with no answer.

She then mumbled, “At least we’re not dead, Chris.”

I leaned forward and cuddled her, “We’ll get through it, love,” though I had no idea how.

First

We ended up going to bed just after our chat. She showered, we cuddled, she cried. She admitted that a load of men fucked her in the house but it was all such a blur that she hardly remembered any of it. It was like some form of emotional damage that the brain blocked out.

She slept well, but I didn’t. I kept running our options through in my head so many times. The only one that seemed half decent was to involve the police. But our last run in with them with the car bump thing that started all this didn’t go very well at all. To solve our problem the police would have to fix the entire area. That’s all the gangs, all the prostitutes, all the drugs gone. That was an impossible task. I decided that any police involvement was simply a quick route to our deaths.

In the morning I called in sick at work and Emily wrote a quit letter. She couldn’t bring herself to call them. Her hands were shaking as she hit the send button on the email. She’d worded it that something had come up, she was sorry to leave them in the lurch, she didn’t need a reference and that she appreciated the job while she was there. We didn’t really expect to hear much from them, as apparently this sort of thing happened from time to time and she’d only been there for a year so they’d likely move on very quickly.

She was friendly with a few of them, so we expected to maybe hear from some individuals and we’d work that out when it happened. A few of the girls there had been here before, for a girls night in. There was a small possibility that one of them would appear to check that Emily was ok. Christ if she came by after work today, where would Emily be at that time? Shit we’d work it out.

I’d also picked up the text message from last night. I was shocked and showed it to Emily. It was one of the old blokes from a flat above us, he overlooked the courtyard that led to a load of houses, including us. He’d seen Emily come home last night and wrote, ‘Did my eyes deceive me?’ I hadn’t replied. Emily and I discussed what to say to him. We thought about saying that, ‘Yes Emily came home from a girls night out.’ That would explain the outfit, sort of. But we decided, as with the work thing, to wait and see. Maybe the entire nightmare from yesterday would be, exactly that, just a nightmare and nothing would happen today.

Neither of us wanted to go out. We didn’t want to have to face anyone. Usually when we’re both off work we’d go out for most of the day. Just out and about burning time, enjoying ourselves. Today felt so strange both being in the flat, afraid to go out for the simple reason that we didn’t want to have to talk to anyone. We’d already rationalised to each other that it was stupid as no one knew anything and even if they did it wouldn’t matter as we could tell them anything. But something about all of this had us scared.

We tried to watch TV, a film, play computer games but we were both on edge, both eating next to nothing all day. We didn’t actually know what time anything was happening. Both praying by the hour that the next stage wouldn’t happen. Or if it did, that it would happen much later on when it was dark. There were girls on that street all throughout the day. You could apparently pick up a prostitute in the middle of the day there if you wanted to.

I’d tried to talk to her about the men that fucked her last night, but she was very cagey about it. Not wanting to talk about it, saying that she couldn’t really remember, and getting all embarrassed. I couldn’t push too hard.

And then it happened. There was a knock on the door. I ended up getting it and opening it to a big black bloke that I don’t think I’ve ever seen around here before.

“She here?”

“Yer.”

“Get her.”

Fuck was this it, was she about to be taken away? Was this how my wife’s new, no choice job was about to begin? I turned into the hall. I knew I didn’t need to call her, that she’d be listening and waiting but I did anyway. “Emily babe,” trying to sound casual.

She appeared and walked towards us slowly. Fuck I wanted to protect her. She looked beautiful, plain but pretty. In a relaxing, usual, safe outfit. She stepped up to us, and he thrust a bag out to her. “Take this, and wear what’s in it, ONLY. I’ll be back in 30 minutes. Don’t be late,” and he punched me hard in the stomach. I was not expecting it and doubled over. He walked away as I again tried to catch my breath. It wasn’t as bad as yesterday but fuck me, why’d they keep hitting me? I need to get to the gym and start doing something so that I could protect myself.

Emily closed the door and looked after me before scooting off to the bedroom to change. She called after me, “Don’t come in.”

It took me a good 10 mins to get back to normal. I really needed to be better prepared for these fucker. Why’d they keep hitting me? It was just after 3 pm, it was day time, it was light. He was coming back at 3:30 pm to take my wife to ‘the street’ to act as a whore. Surely not. Surely this wasn’t really happening.

I looked out of one of our windows. There was Jim and Craig, there was Will and his two kids. There were three teenagers, looking like prostitutes themselves with nearly everything on display. Fuck everyone was around, living their usual lives. I half wondered if anyone would even notice if my wife walked past dressed as some whore in this area. Yer they would. They’d all very much notice. SHIT.

I heard Emily whimper in the bedroom and I rushed to the door. My hand on the handle. But she’d told me not to come in. “Love, you ok? Can I come in?”

“No. I’m ok. Don’t come in.” It was very clear, she didn’t want me at the moment. I looked at the clock. Fuck he was going to be here in 5 minutes. I looked back outside, arrr there were even more people there. Oh god. And then the door knocked.

The fucker was here, he was early. Do I make him wait? I walked to the door and this time braced my stomach for a surprise. I didn’t acknowledge him when I opened the door. We just made eye contact, he was a big man. Who was I kidding, I couldn’t deal with him at all. Suddenly, my bravado left me, “Do you want to come in?” Better than leaving him on the doorstep.

He simply nodded, I stood to one side and he stepped in, taking the few steps into our living room. I noticed him looking at the clock on the wall. Good he knew he was early. I walked past him and knocked on the door, “He’s here, love.”

“K,” was the only reply I got, so I wandered to the living room. He was standing exactly where I’d left him. Luckily I heard Emily walking behind me, so I didn’t have to try and make small talk with this cockend.

However I nearly fell over when Emily walked into the room as suddenly everything was made very real. There in front of me wasn’t my wife, in front of me was a hooker. I gasped for breath, heart palpitating, not quite believing this reverse metamorphosis. Before we got here, my beautiful wife was blooming into a social butterfly that had a bright wide smile and a twinkle in her eyes. But this! A transformation into a moth instead of a butterfly was hard to fathom. Gone, that angelic halo, gone that laughter in her eyes, gone that bounce in her step. God. How had this come to be? A dark cloud of remorse and regret left my deep exhale of hopelessness.

She had some white heels, bare legs, a pastel pink stretch mini skirt and a white tight t-shirt. The skirt showed off all of her legs and barely covered her crotch. The t-shirt was so thin, and with obviously no bra, I could clearly make out her areola and solid nipples. This outfit took 10 years off her, making her look early 20s. She looked like a porn star, I couldn’t get over it. She couldn’t go out looking like that. Above everything else she looked cheap.

He didn’t wait a split second, instead stepping in front of me and taking my wife by the arm. He started to steer her out of our flat. I didn’t know what to do or say but instantly wanted a kiss at the very least. Quickly grabbing her other arm before she was out of range and pulling her back, she turned and I kissed her on the lips.

“Love you!” I felt weak saying it. Letting my wife go out to god knows what now. I knew, I just didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“Love you too,” she called out as she vanished down the hallway. They stopped at the closed front door.

He turned to her in the small hallway and with no regard for me, reached up for one of her boobs. Taking as much of it into his considerable hand as he could he mauled her, hard. My wife gasped loudly, “Gawwwddd.”

He chuckled, “You know where you’re going?”

“I errr?”

He squeezed her boob, “You know where you’re going?” asking her again.

She quickly nodded, “Yes.”

“Good fuck off there, right away. Nail is waiting for you.”

He let go of her boob and reaching into his jacket, handed her a small purse. Fuck they really were prepared, what was in it though? My wife took it from him as he turned, opening the door. His hand on her ass he pushed her out the door.