The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

Chapter 237

237 Human Trafficking

Not long waiting, Cecil arrived at the studio to join the girls who had been waiting for her.

“What exactly happened?” Linda confusedly asked Emma who had been staring at the one-blind-sided window that led to the front street.

Emma turned her body and walked over to her friends who had gathered. “I will explain everything,”

“Me, Kathy, Poppy and Rachel. We’re undercover to stop the crime in Handway City.” Emma explained.

What Emma said made Linda, Britney, Cecil and Ava frown. They were still trying to digest the nonsense information.

“Wait a minute. What do you mean, Emma? Then why is Britney crying like this?” Cecil looked at her friend who had been looking down and couldn’t stop crying. “What happened to you, Britney?”

“Britney was forced to work as a prostitute on Jen Marrie Street,” Emma said.

“What? Are you kidding me?!” Linda looked at her best friend, whose cry immediately grew louder. She didn’t know what was on Jen Marie Street. But, a prostitute? It was a job that highly religious girls would not do.

“Britney! Speak up! Is what Emma said true?” Cecil shook the girl’s shoulders.

.....

Wiping her tears that kept coming out, Britney nodded weakly. “They.. forced me to..”

“Who forced you, Britney?” Linda asked with an angry face. Then she looked at Emma. ??”Who forced her?”

Emma shook her head. “We don’t know the exact story either. And I’d also like to hear how Britney got there.” She answered as looked at Britney.

“Britney, I know it’s very hard to do. But what you know will help the other girls to be free from those bad guys.” Poppy said slowly.

Then Kathy walked over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water to give to Britney. “Drink it.”

Britney seemed to control her shortness of breath. Everyone waited patiently for her to speak; especially Poppy, who understood that the experience Britney went through was terrible for her psychological.

“It.. started as a part-time job,” Britney finally spoke.

“My dad.. His business was not so good lately. Therefore, I looked for part-time jobs to buy my various personal needs so as not to burden him. I saw a modelling vacancy in the newspaper, and tried to give it a go. But when I went there, it was not a modelling agency.

There were many big men waiting in a hidden room. When I was sitting in the interview room and handed all the forms and ID cards, the men came out of there and surrounded me. At that point, they gave me a real working contract. It wasn’t modelling but was an agreement to surrender myself as belonging to a labour foundation called Beast Empire. I must be willing to work for them without being paid for an indefinite period of time.”

“Then you signed it?” Linda’s eyes widened.

With tears flowing again, Britney nodded. “They threatened me. They said they would destroy me right then and there if I didn’t sign it.”

“But you signed it, Britney! You gave yourself to them. It’s the same as destroying your own life.” Linda replied impatiently.

Rachel grabbed the shoulder of Linda who looked furious. “We don’t know the real situation at that time. She was alone and surrounded by a group of men.” She said to warn Linda not to pressure Britney. “She is the victim. We shouldn’t judge the victim.”

Linda turned her face away from Rachel’s. She sighed harshly. What Rachel said was true. She shouldn’t be judging Briteny for what she should and shouldn’t do.

In fact, the anger was a form of regret that Linda felt. She had failed to be a good friend. How could she don’t know anything when her own best friend was in such serious trouble even though Britney had been showing strange behaviour lately? However, Linda didn’t seem to care or at least tried to force her to say what was going on. She just let her be.

“I experienced it too. They forced us to sign it. They also recorded all of our data to study our home addresses and the people closest to us. They said they would hurt our family if we didn’t obey. They even threatened to destroy our faces.” Ava said.

“Destroy your faces?” Emma frowned.

Britney nodded. “It wasn’t just a threat, Emma. They really did it. There’s already a girl they’ve destroyed in the face with acid solutions. It was a girl who fought back. They used it as proof to others that they didn’t hesitate to do so if anyone dared to oppose them.”

“Even after having her face destroyed, they didn’t let her go. After no longer being able to be used as a prostitute, the girl with the ruined face was turned into a beggar. They really are monsters. We have no more future now,” Ava started to cry.

“Those bastards..” Kathy clenched her fists, feeling like punching the leader of the Beast Empire’s head with all her might.

Emma was silent. Her anger was too severe that she didn’t know what to say anymore. Her breath was heavy and ragged. She felt like killing those people right now.

“So what should we do now? Did you two run away from them?” Cecil asked Britney and Ava with a worried face mixed with fear.

Britney shook her head. “I don’t know. But we didn’t run away. Actually, Emma and the others pretended to be masked criminals and kidnapped us. That would make them think we were kidnapped.”

“You kidnapped them?” Linda turned at the four girls who suddenly looked very mysterious to her eyes.

“Is that all, Britney?” She looked at her, and then Britney nodded.

“Okay,” Emma said with a deep breath. “I have said that we have a group, haven’t I? When we said that it wasn’t just an ordinary group, we weren’t joking at all. Our group is called Black Swan. The four of us work with masks to cover up our identities; pretend to be the men who go around eliminating crime in Handway City.”

“Is that.. for real?” Cecil was stunned. From her face, it was still clear that she couldn’t believe it.

“Unbelievable, isn’t it? But it is the truth. Weren’t you surprised to see Poppy beat the three men who almost kidnapped you the other day?” Kathy smiled lopsidedly, instinctively feeling proud of how awesome her group was.

“It’s a very long story as to why The Black Swan was formed. In essence, the four of us work together to fight groups of gangsters and destroy their businesses that are detrimental to society. Therefore, we learn self-defence and become strong so that we can take out those bastards.” Emma said.

“So, does that mean you guys can save us?” Ava asked quietly hopefully.

“I can’t promise that, Ava. But we’ll try. The problem is; we don’t know exactly what the Beast Empire is and how strong their group is,” Emma answered.

“They are very strong, Emma. Too strong. Every day, I saw the faces of their men were always changing. Doesn’t that mean that they have many members?” Britney said.

“They are not,” Ava shook her head with a serious look. “They’re much stronger than you know, Britney. I’ve been trapped in that hell for over a year. And I think I’ve seen enough of how strong they are,”

“Can you tell me what you know about them, Ava?” Emma asked.

“Beast Empire; they do Human Trafficking business,” Ava said, making the girls’ eyes widen.

In fact, from some information about the Beast Empire, it was clear that they were doing that kind of business. But Ava, who said it clearly still made the chest of anyone who listened to it hurt.

The reason was that Human Trafficking was an extraordinarily evil business. In any part of the world, no one allowed such a business to exist. But in reality, this vile business that violated human rights was still going on.

Just like a ghost wandering in the middle of the night, searching for their victims like a hungry monster; made anyone unable to sleep peacefully. Because, if you became their victim, even though your body was still alive, you would feel that you were dead and thrown into hell.

“They look for victims in various ways; kidnapping and deceiving. Kidnapping can’t be done every day because missing people are definitely being searched by their relatives. But people who are framed like Britney and me, have reasons so that our family or friends don’t have to look for us.

They treat us like cattle. Sorting us like merchandise, then selling us to work in various places. Let alone choosing our own work, we don’t even get paid. They only feed us once or twice a day.

The prostitutes like us are at least still taken care of a little to support our physical looks. But people who do not have attractive physiques will become beggars, slaves and others. Those who work by relying on their body power have to work while starving. When sick, they untreated; had to share blankets on cold nights.” Ava explained.

“Actually, Ava and I are still quite lucky. Even though we have to lie to our family and friends to cover this job, at least we can still go home. Since we only work at night, we still have a life during the day so that we can take care of ourselves because stress will affect our physical appearance.” Britney added.

“But you don’t know, Britney. In the end, we will end up like those people.” Ava looked at the girl who had the same fate as her.