Riya stood outside the high walls, leaning against the unwelcome stone of the home of crime. "We are going to go in head first", said her boss - the leader of the spy team, "and we try to collect as much information as we can." The girls nodded firmly. "The building is full of girls. Thousands and thousands of girls. They are not even going to notice you! But they will notice me... So I will be down here ready to back you up, worst comes to worst." They all looked at each other, with a gloom of understanding in their eyes. "Come on, we can do this!", he cheered, but they all knew what they were getting themselves into. This was not going to be easy.
She entered into the huge reception, which did not deserve its name as it was not made to receive anyone. No one entered; and no one left. She gave her mates a knowing smile before spiralling up the staircase. This could be the last time she ever saw them. She was hardly three stairs up when she heard a young woman, a bit older than twenty, sob frantically like a little girl. She was being escorted by a middle-aged woman who held her firmly by the arm. "Stop screaming!", she ordered. Instantly, the loud cries of the girl were turned to muffled sobs. "Who are you?", the woman asked Riya. "Me? I am..." "Intruders!", she screamed. "Get security! Intruders!". The moaning blares of the alarms forced Riya to run. She ran up the stairs and across labyrinths of corridors. Underneath, she could hear firing. So, their boss had - after all - come to back them up... That would buy her some time.
She walked casually across the corridor until she came to the compact curtained cabins. She ripped off the curtain, only to find it empty. It was the same with the next one, and the next, and the next. Except for the few belongings and a certain family photo here and there. This was where the girls lived. When they were not performing the orders of the gang, that is.
"Aaahh..." There was a cry at the end of her corridor. A cry for help. What was worse, she knew who the voice belonged to. "Cary!", she called - in a low whisper, so as not to give her location away, "I'm coming for you!"
Cary was being strangled by some women, but not to death, only long enough for her to faint, and get a lifelong scar. It was mere seconds after she saw the sorry sight that she felt hands grab her from the back. She fought frantically until she could see no more.
She woke up in enclosed walls. Cary was standing in front of her and all the other members of her team were gathered around, except for her boss. There was the tinkling of bracelets all around her. Getting up, she saw women all around her, dressed up in old gowns and tightened corsets. The bracelets on their ankles and on their wrists reporting the gang of their every move. The place stank of urine, faeces and period blood. There was no toilet. The un-ceilinged wall rose high above their heads and so slippery that it was an impossible climb. The only escape was the cave that was dug through a large pit on the corner. "There is no chance of getting out," said one of the in-mates, "the tunnel leads directly to the headquarters of the gang."
Riya's eyes pricked with tears. "I am the one who got you guys into this!", she exclaimed, "if that lady hadn't seen me, none of us would be here!". The girls looked sympathetically towards each other and then at Riya. "But I will get us out.", she claimed.
"Now who's talking about getting out?" asked the middle-aged woman that Riya had seen on the stairs, alighting from the cave. "Oh, it must be the new-comers! The experienced in-mates have more sense than to even talk about escaping let alone making false promises about it." Riya glared at her.
"Now if you wouldn't mind, rude, staring lady," she smiled with hypocrisy, "I have some new, proper, dresses for you and your little friends."
"Well you are not wearing proper dresses yourself." Riya commented, "Look at you with your crop top and skinny jeans. And you want us to wear them!"
"Now who is shouting so much?" asked another gang member, a middle-aged man wearing a T-shirt and shorts, stepping out of the cave. "It's just the new comers," said the former lady, shaking her hand dismissively, "they refuse to wear our dresses, especially that rude girl there", she pointed at Riya.
The man looked Riya directly in the eyes. "Either you wear them yourself or I get help to make you wear them", he threatened. "Okay" said Cary, putting her palm on Riya's shoulder. "Good girl," he replied, holding his stare with Riya which she returned with a similar ferocity until they went back through the cave.
The dresses were white with matching bracelets looking nothing less than delicate shackles. Riya loathed the very sight of her forced gift. "Wear it!" Cary ordered "Or you are going to get everyone into trouble. Including yourself!" Riya grimaced at her. "Don't you see?!" she ejected, losing control, "They are trying to control us! With their dresses and their bracelets and their lack of toilets. They want to embarrass us. Make us feel all feminine and weak and ashamed. But I am going to show them." she said, crumpling her hand into a fist and tipping up her chin. "I am going to show them what being feminine really means."
Standing behind the drapes held up by her friends, Riya slowly removed her shirt and replaced it with the corset. Tightening it gave her a suffocating feeling. 'Oh God, when will I be out of here!', she thought to herself, in an almost pleading tone. Grabbing her pants, she felt a certain block being wrapped around her palm. She left hold of the pants and gasped in shock. "A mobile phone!" she whispered silently for her friends to hear, while smiling - brightly - to herself. "There is a mobile phone in my pocket! They must have overseen it when emptying our pockets!" They exchanged bewildered looks but did not say anything. "I am going to dial a number," she said excitedly.
Suddenly, the alarms sounded. The gang members came rushing up the cave. Riya quickly fastened her pants before her friends let go of the drapes in their sudden shock. She felt herself being tackled to the ground, blindfolded and then raised. She was being seated onto a chair and tied with thick ropes with knots impossible to open. The ropes were so tight that she could feel her blood supply being blocked. Her arms were running cold. Next, the same happened to her legs. "You are going to kill-" her mouth was filled with cloth, "eee" was all that came out from her muffled voice.
"Thank You for sounding the alarm," said the middle-aged lady, looking at no one in particular so as not to give away the identity of her secret agent. Or agents. Riya could feel the chair under her rolling towards the cave. She was getting out of here. Just not in the way she had expected and wished.