Stardust

A couple of weeks ago I have the most frightening and surreal

experience of my life. But before I tell everyone about it, I want

to go back a bit.

It was about a year ago when my daughter disappeared. I have

been a single father; a widower. Cassidy, my daughter, had lost

her mom—and I, my wife—to a car accident one night and so it

was up to me to raise her. Things were hard at first, but we grew

close, which made our lives richer and helped fill the void the loss

had created.

When she was about seventeen, she was fully embracing her

freedom, seldomly listening to my 11-o-clock curfew. I always cut

her slack under the condition that she would be back by no later

than midnight and that she would check in at the initially agreed

upon time. She never wavered from this. That is, until one snowy

night in December right before Christmas. She had dropped her

friend off and was heading home when she called me, stating she

had hit a patch of ice and would be delayed a few. I had asked if

she needed me to come out and help her, but being the

independent young woman she was, she stated that it wasn’t

that bad and she had that emergency kit in the trunk she was

already in the process of using. I reluctantly agreed and told her

to check in in fifteen minutes or when she got back on the road.

Whichever came sooner. She agreed, told me she loved me, and

that was the last time I had heard from her.

That night was the longest of my life; waiting for her to come call

like she said she would. The night had gotten more dangerous as

it started to snow heavily. But I mustered up enough courage to

go out there and look for her. I just didn’t know where to look. I

knew she’d been out with her friend Jessica, so I traveled back

and forth along routes that I thought she would travel when

dropping off her friend. Outside the cul-de-sac I made where

Jessica’s house was nestled in, I called her friend. But there was

no answer. I even knocked on her door but there was no answer.

Then, I called the police and they told me that she was probably

out with another friend doing teenage things and to give them a

call late the next day if she didn’t return. And though I insisted,

the asserted that even if they could send someone out, it was too

dark and stormy to do any good. I was really put off by this, but I

didn’t want to get stuck out here, needing help and we raised our

daughter to be smart and strong enough to seek help if she

needed it. So, I went home and waited, not sleeping a wink.

When the next morning came I found that my body had put me

to sleep and the phone had woken me. There was a call coming

through from her friend Jessica. I answered it.

“Hi Mr. Jeffreys, you called me last night?”

“Uh, yes,” I stuttered, as my brain came into focus. “I, uh, have

you seen Cassidy? She didn’t come home last night and I was

wondering if maybe she crashed at your place?”

There was a pause on the other line.

“Oh, no. She dropped me off and then said she was going

home.”

“Ok,” I replied.

“Do you think she’s alright,” Jessica chimed in.

“I hope so.”

“Hey,” an idea suddenly came into my head.

“Can you help me out?”

“Sure,” Jessica responded.

“Can you show me where you and her drove to from wherever

you were when Cass dropped you off?”

“Sure. Just give me a few to get ready.”

Jessica was true to her word and we went all around to where

they had been that night, looking for signs of my daughter.

However, nothing came of it and panic really started to grow in

the both of us. We both ended up at the police station to insist

yet again that something was wrong and at this point the police

listened.

“Look,” one of the officers said. “We’ll send some squad cars

out to look around. Can you describe the car she was in and any

other details you might think would help us?”

We both answered the best we could and he scribbled down

notes.

“We’ll let you know if we find anything.”

But they didn’t.

Not for at least a couple of weeks before some farmer had found

something sticking out from behind some bushes on his property.

It was a car; Cassidy’s car. When the police got there, they could

see that it was barely visible under the snow that rested around

the vegetation. It had gotten a bit warm in the past couple of days

and I guess the snow had melted off of it just enough for the car

to be discovered. As soon as the police had done their look

around, they called me and told me that my daughter wasn’t in

there. There wasn’t even any sign of foul play. But what was

startling is that the back left brake light had been smashed and

the surrounding metal caved in. It looked like something had hit

her car from the road that rested on top of the embankment

above the bushes where her car was found. Perhaps it was done

on purpose. Perhaps it was just a driver driving too fast for the

conditions. No one could really tell. All we knew was that Cassidy

wasn’t there and quite possible she was alive somewhere.

I then started phoning the hospitals to see if they had someone

with her description currently or recently admitted. But no one

did. The weeks went by like this. No new nibbles and no Cassidy.

My daughter seemed to have vanished.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when my drinking buddies

from my past called me up and invited me to hang out with them.

We had separated a bit. Life can do that, and it was nothing

personal. Just busy lives. However, they wanted to give me some

cheer. They had seen the coverage of Cass in the papers and

wanted to make sure everything was alright.

I was feeling lonely and needed a little socializing. I had been

stuck in my house hoping, praying that my daughter would come

in around the same time she normally did when she woke up.

However, she never did and it was really starting to eat at me. I

definitely needed a change of scenery. So, I agreed and we went

out and had some beers.

Later that night, we all took a taxi from the bar to my buddy

“Mel’s” house to continue the party after hours. Now, these guys

were rock stars when it came to boozing, but I had calmed down

quite a bit and I was feeling good, but not as lit as they were. So,

I ordered everyone food, since I could still dial a phone, and the

others were preparing to watch a movie. They invited me to sit

down and on rolled the opening credits; the movie studio right

there in glittery, sparkling letters “Stardust”. I knew exactly what

it was. We were watching a porno. I smirked and commented on

what a sausage party this was and the rest just told me to relax

and enjoy the campy sleaze. So, I sat back and did.

The movie opened with two men walking into a very spacious and

ritzy home. It looked like the home of a billionaire. The camera

followed them into a room where there was a door on the floor.

The two when down it and the camera man followed. The

atmosphere got darker and only dim bulbs lined the sides of the

stone walls as the progressed along a straight corridor to God

knows where. It felt like forever and one of my friends shouted

at the movie to get to the tits. I chuckled and the other men

cheered him on. Shortly thereafter, the got to a room and lying

on the bed on her back was a woman, who looked no older than

eighteen. A part of me felt dirty for watching but I couldn’t take

my eyes off of her. She had a torn white shirt that was dirty and

a collar around her neck. Attached to that was a chain, which was

anchored into a nearby wall above the head of the bed. The

mattress was filthy as were her panties. The men scolded the girl,

grabbing her long blond hair and slapping her about. My other

friends had stopped cheering and watched in silence. They

weren’t enjoying it either.

“Mel,” one of my friend’s asked. “Where did you get this.”

There was no answer. Everyone was fixated on what was going

to happen next. My heart was starting to beat faster. There was

something about this situation that struck me differently than

the rest. And that’s when that and my worst fears were verified.

As one of the men pulled down their pants I could hear the girl’s

voice say “No. Please. Not again” and turn her head to face her

attacker.

It was Cassidy. These men had my daughter.

“No,” I screamed. And stopped the video tape, ejecting it out

of its player. I turned to Mel.

“Answer them! Where the fuck did you get this!?”

Mel just stood there, stuttered, unsure of what to do.

I repeated, louder this time, advancing toward him.

“Answer them! Where the fuck did you get this!?”

Mel backed off and put his hands up in defense.

“Now, just calm down—”

“The fuck I will, I replied.” My hand sunk into his shirt. “That’s

my daughter!” I held up the tape.

Mel was trembling and the other men just stood there with a

sheer look of shock and horror. Mel answered quicker now.

“I don’t know. Some guy on the street.” He looked at the tape

and then at me.

“These black market dealers come into the city at night during

a certain time and just set up shop for about an hour.”

“Show me,” I demanded. “Show me where they are.”

“I would love to,” Mel replied. “But I can’t. They move around

too much.”

“Let’s go to the police.”

“No,” Mel replied. “It won’t help.”

“Why?”

“They change who they are, what they look like, etc. You’ll

never find them and the police will take your tape and then you

won’t have anything to help find your daughter.”

“What,” I replied. My head was spinning.

“Look,” Mel pleaded. “I know a guy. He’s a P.I. and he can help

a lot more than the police can. Just give me the tape and I’ll

handle the rest.”

I calmed down and looked at the tape. The name of the studio—

Stardust—looking right back at me.

“Okay,” I agreed. “I want to know everything. I want to meet

the man.”

“Okay,” Mel replied. “You got it.”

The rest of the night everyone was sober from there on out. I left

shortly after and spent the rest of the night playing over what I

saw in my head before I eventually fell asleep.

In the next couple of days I got a call from a Detective Davis. He

had seen the tape and would apprise me of the developments.

He also stated that my friend Mel would be paying for everything.

He felt bad, I guess. Not knowing it was my daughter. I’m sure he

hadn’t even seen the tape before.

Several weeks or so went by before the P.I. gave me his findings.

It turned out the Stardust films didn’t even exist. It wasn’t a

legitimate business. It was just a name to throw on a video and

probably quit existing before the video even ended. He said that

these videos are like drop phones. They’re made to make a quick

buck and then the film makers and “stars” are shuffled around

elsewhere. My heart began to sink as he told me this. But not as

bad as when he told me what I’m about to tell you.

The night my daughter didn’t come home was probably the night

they got her—human traffickers.

His guess was that they had been following her the whole night,

possibly seeing her out with Jessica and thinking that she would

be a better fit than her friend. They must have waiting until she

was on the side of the road and, as she got herself unstuck, they

bumped her into the embankment where her car was found.

While she was disoriented from the “accident”, they snatched

her, drug her up the hill, into their car and drove off.

Davis told me that finding her after all this time would be

extremely rare and asked if I wanted him to proceed. I asked him

about the other parts of the video and if there was anything I

needed to know. He told me that the house was probably a rental

and that even that would be hard to find. These guys cover up

their tracks astonishingly well, he said. Davis also added that

there are groups that help investigate these crimes and that I

should look into them. I decided to take him up on his suggestion,

as well as talking to the police. But so far, nothing has come of it.

And Cass, if you’re out there, don’t worry about breaking curfew.

Just stay safe. I’m coming to get you.