Chapter 2

Jessica's Pov

I had spent so many nights on the sea ,being taken to an unknown destination. At some point I had a feeling that I was very far from home and might never be able see my mama again. Initially I counted the days I had spent there by the number of nights, whenever I woke up ,but when it was down on me that the numbers were never going to end ,I lost count and hope.

I made another friend in the ship,she told me her name was Doreen and she happened to be a foreigner from England. She wasn't one of the kids abducted together with me.

According to her, she had been in the factory where we were abducted for more than thirty days before we arrived. She told me that the men had said they needed a hundred and fifty kids for the mafia queen, before we could be shipped out of the country.

Doreen was ten , three years older than myself. She looked much older than her age , a tall ,huge very pointed nosed girl with her long blonde hair. She reminded me of the pictures I made in my head whenever I read about Elizabethan stories or Shakespearean novels. Her family had just moved to the Philippines and her dad was a professor in library science. She said she was abducted on her way home from seeing her friend .

She was taken together with her friend Jenny ,but they were both separated after ten days. She had no idea if Jenny was still alive or dead .I asked her if she had seen the mafia queen which was spoken of, but she said that she was yet to see her, but only heard that the mafia queen would be the one to separate us when we got the their destination.

Many kids lost their lives these part days, some due to fear and some sickness. There was a certain kid called Carly , he had caught cold in the ship. We all begged for some medications for him , but no one answered. Two days later he gave up and was taken away. We had no clue how his body was disposed ,all we knew was that they came in and dragged his body away.

" These men are beasts !" Doreen exclaimed.

I asked her what she meant by that , and she explained how they had shot a certain girl before our arrival who tried to escape. The twelve years old girl had pleaded with them when she was caught ,but one of the men shot her dead.

I got scared the more and asked her if anyone had escaped from there. She laughed and said it was impossible to escape, you could eventually get yourself killed if you tried running away. I knew I was smart but how do I outsmart these men. We were on the sea and very far away from the dry land. It would be very impossible to run now because we were surrounded with water and there was no place to run to.

I knew that I could only take actions when we got to the land, but my fear was that I had no idea where we were traveling to and I wasn't sure if I would be able to find my way home afterwards. I asked Doreen if she had any idea where we were heading. She told me that she overheard one of the men telling another that we would be heading to Italy.

"Italy!! I shouted and she covered my mouth so I wouldn't be heard.

" Why are you shouting? don't you know you could be endangering our lives by shouting", She said.

I apologized to her but I couldn't stop crying. Why would I be taken to Italy. I knew no one there and mother will never think of me going to Italy. I was my mom's only child and she never joked about me .

According to her, my father got her pregnant and never showed up again, he was a foreigner who came into the Philippines for some business which she had no idea of. She stayed with my grand parents, till I was delivered.

I had always been her source of joy and her companion and I could imagine what she would be going through these past days. I knew I wouldn't try escaping now, but I swore to escape the moment we get to a dry land. We were being given works to do in the ship. Forced to fold some whitish substance into wraps and get them bagged , I had no idea what it was till later on.

If one tried relaxing , the men used long whips ,which they released onto our backs like slaves. Almost every kid had been flogged mercilessly. I couldn't count how many times I was whipped , I just surrendered to every punishment I was offered. We worked almost twenty hours a day and only slept for few hours. Talking about the food we were fed with is just tremendous.

I never knew humans could be given such meal until I got here. Back then at home ,I ate whatever I wanted and however I wanted to. Although my mother wasn't rich and she had little money, but I was never treated the way I was here. We could get mixtures of meshed potatoes with soured soups that had been eaten for more than six days .This gave me running stomach most times and I refused to eat the meal once it was served more than the fourth day.

I woke up one morning ,the sun was shining brightly and I felt that day might be different. Soon one of the men came into the room I stayed with some kids and ordered that we stood in a single file. I wondered what was going on and then looked through the window to see if there was a problem.

The smile I had on my face was great and I couldn't remember when last I did smile since the attack.

We had finally gotten to a dry land !