Tulsa, OK- Theresa Flores describes herself at 15 years old as an upper-middle class kid with a strong Catholic background.
Not typical, she says, of what most people consider to be a victim of human sex trafficking.
But, she was raped and tortured for two years of her life and lived to tell about it.
"My friends actually thought that this guy liked me and I let them believe that because if I told them I would have died," said Flores. "I always tell people 'I've met the devil and I've been through hell."
She was raped and tortured as a sex slave and left with only an empty shell of what used to be herself.
"You don't love yourself because you're put through stuff night after night and you don't trust anyone because no one's come to help you," she said.
Flores was brought into this dark and degrading world by a fellow student at her high school in a Detroit suburb.
She says, as an initiation of sorts, he raped her and then blackmailed her with pictures.
Ashamed, Flores hid it from her parents and friends.
"They didn't know what the signs were. They didn't know it was happening in the suburbs."
She and her parents eventually moved away too far for her tormentors to continue their abuse.
After that, she discovered more about what she had endured.
"It wasn't rape, it wasn't gang rape. It was more than that. It wasn't once, it wasn't twice. It was two years. I went to a conference and I found out my word, I had that word."
"Trafficking" in human lives.
It's something Flores wants to let people know is happening in this country and in this state- not just in foreign countries.
"Everytime I tell my story people say 'I didn't know' and I say 'I know you didn't know, but now you do."
A sign that a young girl might be a victim of the sex trade, Flores says, is if they're hanging around with older men, even 8-10 years older it can be a red flag you don't want to ignore.
