Anastasiia Mitchell - Nikos

I had to make an effort and try to escape. So, I already took the first step when I… tripped over the root that was sticking out of the ground and fell down.

Both the men turned their heads.

“Bah!” said the first man in Greek. “Who’s that? Look who’s here!”

“It’s a little girl!” the other man grinned. “She’s appeared here not in vain. We can do something with her.”

“Yes! What a pretty one!” the first man stood up and started approaching. I was still lying down. I had to get up as fast as I could and run away.

I began raising myself onto my knees and elbows. But it was already late. The first man came up to me and seized me by the arm.

“Here you are, pretty girl,” he broke into a grin. “You’ll come with us!”

“No!” I shouted and tried to free myself out of his grasp. The man was holding me tightly. “What do you need from me?”

“What do we need from you?” he broke into laughter. “A lot of things, my pretty young girl. A lot of things.”

I hoped that they wouldn’t do something they meant to.

Then, the first man picked me up in his arms. I squirmed, trying to free myself.

“Calm down, little girl! You’ll go with us!”

What? I wanted to go home! I wanted to be with Mummy!

Why did I go away in the afternoon? I could have got back home as soon as I took the goats into the shed!

“I won’t go with you! You’re bad!” I cried.

The two men laughed even more.

“And what? We’re bad, but you’re pretty! We could keep you an amazing company, my dear!” a nasty smile appeared on the other man’s face.

I was scared. I didn’t know what to do.

“Well, my beauty,” the first man smirked, “we’ll give you a lot of pleasure! We’ll take you with us.”

“No-o-o!” I cried louder. “Please, let me go! I want to see Mummy! They are looking for me!”

“Who do you want to see? Who’s looking for you?” the second man asked sarcastically and then said: “You won’t see your family anymore! You’ll go with us.” With these words, he turned to his mate and said: “Ramazan, tie her hands! And shut her mouth! We don’t want to be noticed! Quickly! Be quick! Be quick!”

I tried to distract them somehow. I said, “Hey, and don’t you have any relatives?”

Both the men laughed coarsely.

“Of course, we have! But it’s none of your […] 7 7 The square brackets are used to denote sworn language. business, you baby doll!”

“But…” I tried to squeeze something out of myself. “But do you want to please them? Don’t you want to make them happy?”

“Well, how to say that?” the second man squinted. “They’ll be happy if we finish off the girl like you! Ramazan! Have her done! And quickly! We can’t waste our time here on this island anymore!”

Ramazan tied some rag around my mouth. At least, I could breathe through my nose.

I tried to call for help, but in vain. There was nobody but us on the beach. Besides, even if I screeched through the rag on my mouth, nothing worked. I only had to put up with my situation.

Then, Ramazan got me on his shoulder and carried me somewhere. His friend followed us.

“Shut up, you […]! We’ve hit the jackpot today!”

“You’re bad! Let me go!” I begged. “Please! Let me go!”

But it seemed like they didn’t even listen to me. I started to think that I would die sooner or later. Die in their hands.

“Are you dumb or what? Can’t you hear us?” Ramazan’s friend said. “We told you to shut up your […]! Ramazan, kick this […] in the muzzle! Someone will finally hear us!”

“But…” Ramazan stuttered, “she’s only a little girl! We’ll just get her to our boss, I think.”

“What boss? Don’t you want to play with her?”

“Well, let’s see. First, we’ll deliver her to Cyprus and then decide what we’ll do next,” Ramazan said. “We can’t waste our time here anymore. And then,” he grinned at me, “we’ll do something with you, little chick.”

What? Cyprus? By what means would they take me there? It was so far away from Rhodes!

I wanted to be with Mum and Dad. They would have protected me from the two villains. My parents wouldn’t have let them treat me like this. What a fool I was! I must have stayed at home that afternoon!

I thought, “What is to become of me? What should I do now?”

I tried to struggle. Ramazan didn’t pay attention to my movements. Suddenly, I was about to fall off Ramazan’s shoulder.

“Be quiet, you […]! Be quiet! Otherwise, you’ll fall down dead!”

I was drained.

In a few seconds, I saw a big steamship!

It meant that they were going to load me there! Like a slave!

What were they going to do with me indeed?

“We’ll get you to the ship and talk to our boss on what we’ll do with you, pretty chick.”

I gave Ramazan a kick on his shoulder. He gave a curse.

“[…] you! Can’t you keep still, ah?”

His friend shouted to someone:

“Man, we’re here! And we’re not alone! We’ve got good prey today!” he pointed at me. “Big loop!”

“Good job!” a man’s voice croaked. It was the captain of the ship. He spoke in such a loud voice that made my skin crawl.

The captain’s name was Izmir. He went down to the shore and came up to us.

“A really pretty girl, indeed!” he bawled. “Hey, you!” he shouted at me. “May we have the pleasure of your company?” he said sarcastically and then grinned.

Frankly speaking, I didn’t know exactly if I would survive in all that hell.

Tears streamed down my face. I began to sob.

When all the three men heard me cry, they laughed louder than the captain was speaking. It seemed like the latter was also drunk.

“Hey, the chick isn’t happy to go with us!” Ramazan’s friend simulated sympathy and pity.

“Throw her into the hold! Let her be there for a while!” Izmir yelled. “I’ll decide what we’d do with her next!”

“But… captain…” Ramazan muttered.

“What?” the captain grunted out the answer.

“We’d like to entertain ourselves with her…” Ramazan forced out the words.

Even through the darkness, could I see Izmir turn red and then flare up.

“How dare you, you disgraceful creatures, ask me something like that? The girl’s mine! Only mine! You got the girl – you get your payment and food! You’re working for me, so you do what I say! And if you don’t…” he looked at me furiously, “I’ll do something worse with you than with that girl!”

Why couldn’t I die right now? What was he going to do with them and with me?

The tie around my mouth became looser, so I was at least able to mutter something.

“Please, captain! Let me go!” I tried to beg. “I want to be with Mummy!”

“What? Which Mummy, you […] stupid chick?” he smirked. “You’ll go with us! We’ll put you in the hold, and then, I’ll decide what I can do next.”

With these words, he burst into nasty laughter, not to mention that the man was hardly able to stand. He reeked of alcohol, like his two subordinates.

This made me sick. Fee mou 8 8 My God (Gr.) , why was I in a situation like this? Well, it was fully my fault: I should have got back home as soon as I took the goats into the shed.

I began to pray. “Feotoke Parsene, haire, keharitomeni Maria…” 9 9 The text of the Hail Mary Prayer in Greek: Hail Mary, full of grace. This is the transliteration of the prayer. The original version of the prayer (Greek) is as follows: Θεοτόκε Παρθένε, χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη Μαρία, ὁ Κύριος μετὰ σοῦ. εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξί, καὶ εὐλογημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου, ὅτι Σωτήρα ἔτεκες τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν. We all, the Greeks, were strong believers.