After about 40 minutes on the road, I arrived at my destination, an abandoned parking structure right smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Used to be a mall here, a big one, but like other buildings that were too big to sustain, it had to go. They were planning on opening a new place here, just to make use of the remaining said parking structure, since it was apparently too much effort to remove. But, after a while of nothing being built, they just said screw it and left the thing here. It’s become an urban legend in the city where I’m from. Now I get to see the myth for myself. Amazing.

The night air wasn’t as cool as I had hoped for. I guess it makes sense though; a parking structure in the middle of the desert ought to be warm after soaking in a day of dry sun. Actually now that I think of it, this set the mood of what was to soon come perfectly, at least, in my opinion.

I got out of my car and walked down the dark, almost pitch black corridor of the structure, The smell of marijuana and tears soaked the rotting stone. Disgusting  I thought, Absolutely Disgusting. With each step I took, the heels of my shoes echoed down into what seemed to be endlessness. Only lit by the moonlight seeping through wherever there were any openings, I navigated my way to where I needed to go. Wait, where was that again? Some of the ceiling lights were burnt from overuse, others seemed like new, but either way, none of them had felt the sweet, sweet remorse of electric power for several years.

After walking for about a minute in the aimless dark, I heard a voice.

“Right there is good. You can stop right there.” The voice was shrill and deafening and took me by surprise, for the only noise I had been hearing was my own shoes, and the veins rushing blood by my ears.

I looked around for a person to which the voice came from, but I saw none. It was just too dark. Did deals like this really happen this way?

“I suppose you’re the guy?” I asked this strange stranger

“Depends on what you’re here for.” He said. “Wacky Tobacky? A game of blackjack? I’m also a licensed yoga teacher.”

After a moment of silence, he continued.

“Yeah’ I’m the guy, and I take it you’re my customer for EC-1.6-ET?  

“No, I’m the neighborhood watch. 6 thousand in US, correct?”

“Didn’t you say you’d be paying extra? I believe it was half a grand.”

“Fat chance bud.” I hated this guy’s guts, and I just met him. It’s just this once though. Never again.

“Oh, maybe that was someone else.” He wheezed.”Jokes aside, you ready to start this deal?”

“What kind of dumb question is that?” I asked.

“I’m required to ask that every time, no idea why. Rules I guess.”

I had a bad feeling about this place. My body told me to get out of here. I told it to wait till I got what I came for. It didn’t feel like listening very much.

“Before I give you the money, may I see the item?” I had to stick to a shady-guy attitude, which I really, really didn’t like. How do people go about this way of life? Sickening.

“Why of course!” He sounded a little suspicious, just a little, to say the least. The dealer grabbed a wheely chair from behind a cement pillar, though because of the darkness, it almost looked like it came from nowhere. Tied to the chair was a girl. She was asleep, at least, I hoped she was, and she had a gag over her mouth and a scarf over her eyes. I desired to see her face, but I guess the world doesn’t give you everything you want. For me it’s anything I want.

“5”2, Brunette, straight from Edmonton. I think she’s around 14, but I can’t be for sure. Doesn’t show much aggression under most circumstances.” He took out a surprisingly neatly-creased folded up piece of paper. ”The rest you need to know is on here. As a note, we didn’t give her a name, so feel free to call her what you want.” He handed me the piece of paper and I unfolded it. In the low light I could make out a picture and where I could assume a name would be, but that was about it. Presumably, this was an ID the market made for her. I didn’t quite know how their system worked, and quite frankly I was glad about that.

As I stowed the paper away, I said, ”Hope she likes getting aggressive.” No, I didn’t actually hope this; I didn’t have enough reason to be that perverted. I was just acting for this weird dealer guy, so he wouldn’t be suspicious of me. Again, shady-guy attitude.

To this the dealer laughed, pretty loudly. He sure needs to learn how to control himself. I swear that poor girl can hear his gross laugh in her dream.

“Now that you see what you’re getting,” He began. “You know I can’t be scamming. I believe you need to bring up your side of the trade now.

“Oh, why yes of course.” I held up the briefcase that was in my hand. I had almost forgotten it was there. I opened up the case and he took it towards a moonlit area to count. While he was counting to himself, he made strange snorting noises. He probably also looks like a pig I thought.

It must have been a good 3 minutes that he was counting. I could understand the needing to look closely at each one since it was so dark and there wasn’t any way to get a light out here, but did it really take him this long? There’s only 60 pieces of paper in there. Perhaps he was double checking, but either way, his snorting noises wouldn’t stop. If he was snorting this much, you’d think the repulsive stench would make him stop. Maybe he didn’t mind it. That would explain a lot.

“You know,” I started. “If you just wanted to look at the money, I wouldn’t mind taking it ba-”

“No no no. I was just making sure they were all hundreds.” After a moment he said, “Looks like it all checks out.” He dumped all the money into his own case, in quite an unorganized fashion, and handed me mine. “You can take the girl now, she’s all yours. Fresh off a new dose as well, so she’ll be out for another 4 hours at least.”

I had just done something illegal I thought. This whole thing was really messing with my head. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, the smell of this place, or maybe because the last thing I ate was a bag of M&m’s. Either way, this whole ordeal gave me an upset stomach. “Pleasure doing business with you.” I forced myself to say out of common courtesy.

With that, I picked up the girl, a small thing she was. I could feel her heartbeat, as slow and faint as it was, against my chest. I will save you from this madness I thought, it’s the least I can do.

As I turned around to leave, and enjoy a half hour drive with a new friend, the dealer groaned.

“Ya know,” He began. “I’m sure the drive out to this remote location wasn’t that fun. We couldn't do it online since the site’s being watched right now. This was just the only place we could really do it. But, as a token of my appreciation for you coming out here regardless, here's this.”

He handed me two hundred of mine back.

“For the gas on your way back, maybe to get her some food when she wakes up, and whatever else.”

I gently set down the girl, pocketed the money, picked her back up, and left for the car.

“And remember,” He added. “For now on we don’t know each other.”

“But, I don’t know you regardless.”

“Exactly” The dealer finished.

What a strange guy I thought.

I walked out of the structure and finally gave my nose a break. When I got to my van, I gently untied the gag from the girl’s mouth and undid the scarf blindfolding her eyes. In the moonlight, I managed to get a good look at her face. Things that the dealer didn’t mention were her small mouth, pale cheeks, and obvious proof she hasn’t eaten in a while. Perhaps the strange man actually did feel sorry for her. Maybe this was never his intention. Maybe this whole thing wasn’t even his idea.

I lowered her into a seat in the back and made sure she was secure and comfortable.

I’ll make this right I thought.