Chapter 21: Another Nightmare
On the way back, Kate stayed silent.
A deliberately avoided history had been dug back up suddenly.
After Kate had quit school, she worked at a canned food factory in her hometown. She did not make much money, but it was better than nothing.
The land in their area was thin, and the weather in those years was not good, so there was never a large yield. Even the farmers had very little attachment to their land. The young people always sought to go away to the big cities.
Betty, who was one of the girls that had left for the coastal cities, seemed to make quite a lot of money. When Kate was still working her head off in order to get into a good senior high school, Betty went to Los Angeles with a few girls. When she came back for Christmas, she was dressed in completely different clothing and won much admiration from her friends and their parents.
Quite a lot of girls wanted to go back with Betty, but Betty only wanted Kate to come with her. The reason was simple. Kate was easy-going, pretty, and did great at school. In short, she made a good company and would never cause trouble with others.
This was also the time when Kate’s family needed money the most. Her sister and brother were both doing great in school. They had a good chance to get into Ivy League colleges, but their parents could not afford to send them all to college. Kate thought she was not as good as her siblings, so she talked with her parents, and after the New Year holidays, she followed Betty to Los Angeles.
Kate was told that money was easily made in this city, but when she arrived, she found it wasn’t exactly the same as what Betty described. Betty told her that she got a job at a five-star hotel. But in fact, it was the recreation center of a hotel, composed of a karaoke and spa center.
Betty turned quite different when they returned to Los Angeles. When Kate saw the ladies with revealing outfits walking along the recreation center, she felt full of remorse.
However, Kate could not do anything about it. She reckoned she could spend some time here and make some money and then decide what to do next.
Betty was not bad to her. She introduced her to coworkers at the karaoke. And she had asked the manager to take care of her, to avoid some of the more touchy guests. Kate was careful and tried her best to appear invisible. Hence nothing happened for quite a long while.
However, even if you don’t make trouble, trouble finds you.
One day, a drunken guest dragged her aside and fumbled his claws on her body. Then he pulled her into his arms. She struggled, but the man didn’t release her and kept touching her here and there, saying, “Give me an amount. Don’t be affected. How much do you want?”
She struggled harder, but he was a burly guy and easily mounted on top of her. His companions were looking on like devils, and the other girls didn’t dare to help Kate. They turned a deaf ear to Kate’s cries for help.
The man was stimulated by alcohol, and with the encouragement of his companions, he kissed Kate’s neck and reached his hand under her dress. In a panic, she grabbed a beer bottle and hit him on his forehead.This is property © of NôvelDrama.Org.
It was a hard hit, and he started bleeding immediately.
Then there were screams, and a sharp noise pierced the air.
She was lucky. The siren was for police raids.
Betty said later that if it were not for that police raid, Kate would have been raped or even killed. In a place like this, money equaled power. It was easy to erase a person from this world. Nobody would seriously take the case of a missing whore.
That man was so drunk, and he got furious at the sight of his own blood. He would not let go of Kate’s wrist. The policemen arrived, and one or two said they knew his father. His companions also testified that Kate had tried to seduce him.
In that kind of place, nobody would trust Kate’s side of the story. And at the moment when she was being taken away with a few other girls for prostitution, she almost wanted to kill herself to prove her innocence.