Chapter One - Natalie
The train pulled into the station and sounded its whistle to announce arriving
at this destination. Natalie pulled her black trench coat around her and
launched herself down the steps and into the middle of a very cold winter
night. The station assistant inquired about her having bags but she just
continued on her journey. Natalie reached into her jacket and pulled out
the wallet stolen a few hours before her journey. She opened it up and
discarded the credit cards and threw them into the sewer through a man hole
in a dark alley. From previous experience it was best to get as much out
as soon as possible and ditch these easily traceable items. Lucky for her
this was all the way across the country and here she was with $10,000,
the only thing she had in the world. This may sound like a lot but when
you consider her plans in this great city was to be College bound in a
few months it wasn't going far.
With dirt on her face and a stone in her shoe Natalie walked off with one hand
in her pocket and the other one thumbing a well worn map. Normally six feet
tall with dark brown hair and green eyes. At the moment she was hunched over
to a much shorter height with matted hair around her face and sad brown eyes
with a pair of tired looking brown rimmed glasses. Natalie asked people on
the street for directions, some kept walking, others stopped and gave her
the time of day. It took her a few hours before she found her way to the
drop in refuge suggested by some acquaintances. It would be her home
until one of two things happened: she got a normal job and a cheap place
to live; or she ran out of money and was forced to find herself "live
in employment". This was her groups' terminology for prostitution
and finding yourself a pimp. It didn't take too long before she fell
asleep, still in her trenchcoat but with the wallet moved into her
underwear, on a small bed with no blankets and with twenty other
people in the same room.