That Nagging Feeling Of Ick

 

If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. Trust your intuition and don’t ask “why”, just say no.
― Maria Erving

*Names changed to protect the identity of those involved

Hey, Lovelies.

If you read yesterday’s post you’ll know that I’ve been busy this week helping a young Australian woman, *Amy. She is studying overseas and a friend and I were concerned that her living situation was dangerous.  Amy’s accommodation was a large space on the top floor of a big converted three-storey villa, and around thirty young women lived there.

I spoke with Amy at length after she had moved out of the place where she was staying, and I asked her if she’d ever had a bad feeling about the person whose place she stayed in, or the villa itself.

‘Oh yes,’ she said, surprising me. ‘I had a nagging feeling of ‘ick’ the whole time. I thought the guy was a bit creepy. He was very charming, but he made me uncomfortable. And I never really felt I could relax there. I wasn’t really happy when I found out the other girls on my floor would have to go through my room to get to the bathroom, but I’d already said yes and moved my stuff in.’

‘Why did you stay if you weren’t happy?’ I asked.

‘It was cheap, and my room had a great view. There was a lockable cupboard where I kept all my important stuff. But mostly, the guy was really nice and helpful to me, I’d already said yes and I didn’t want to be rude or make a scene.’

So, Amy ignored all those flashing red lights her body was giving her because she didn’t want to be rude.

There were plenty more red lights after she moved in. They were all international students, but many of the girls who lived on the lower two floors didn’t speak much Italian and had little English either. Only Amy and a handful of young American girls seemed to ever actually attend the university. And there were lots of cars and bikes coming and going late at night and in the early hours of the morning. Amy felt she couldn’t judge other people or ask what was going on, so she kept quiet and concentrated on her study.

After she moved out I encouraged her to go to the university and make a report, and to the police, because something didn’t feel right to me. Amy took photos with her of the man who owned or managed the villa, and of some of the young women she’d met there at parties. The police took her seriously, and looked into the matter.

The man was wanted by Interpol for human trafficking, and many of the girls in that villa had been trafficked and were working in the sex industry. The villa also had hidden cameras in the bathrooms, including the one that Amy had been using. Having some legitimate students staying there acted as a cover for a more sinister operation.

Amy is safe in on-campus accommodation now. And she has promised me she will listen to those ick feelings in future and to do something about them.

I hope that if you ever get an ick feeling you’ll pay attention to it too.

I also want to acknowledge my friend *Susan, who reached out to me after having a strong psychic message to contact me about a dream she had that involved *Amy – a stranger Susan had never met. It was brave of her to act on that feeling and to share that information with me.

Let’s all keep taking care of each other. Much love, Nicole xx