Chapter 24

Emilia

The cold metal dug into my flesh. 

“Emilia?”

“I’m here Lucy.”

“I’m scared.”

“I know, hon it will be okay.”

Every day for the last month she calls out my name as if I could save her from our fate. She was different than the rest of us.

We were here to be sold she was here as a hostage and then she was to be sold. It didn’t save her from the visits.

Shudders had my cage rattling. The sound of the door opening had tears filling my eyes not today please not today. 

I wasn’t going anywhere until the baby was born. My stomach hurt as it pressed into my knees and no matter how much I shifted the pressure didn’t dissipate.

“Lucy…”

Her screams echoed around me as the man we all dreaded came walking into view.

“No, not her.”

I screamed the words, hoping to distract him. As much as I didn’t want his attention I didn’t want it on her.

“Miss us sweetheart?”

Bile rises in my throat. Hands everywhere. I could feel them touching me. Opening my eyes, I remind myself I’m here and I’m alive.

“No Emmy please it will be okay.”

I could hear the fear in her voice the tears clogging them. She was terrified and from what she’s told me I could completely understand.

She’s been here for almost six months and she has suffered everything I have and more over that time. John was a sick bastard.

He liked us to watch sometime what he did to those he was breaking in as he liked to call it. They were the impure, so they were undeserving of the care we were given.

Honestly, I was thankful I wasn’t them at this point I fell into their category and, yet this child keeps me safe. 

Five more months and I would be them, but I would already be broken. They were going to rip my child from me and sell it on the black market.

“Oh, our little red apple wants some quality time.”  The desire in his voice had my skin crawling. He can’t have her.

“No.”

“You need to remember your place.”

I could see him getting closer to my cage and it took everything not to sink into myself as far as I could.

“I’m lonely.”

A small voice from below me whispered. My heart sunk as Alissa tried to take my place. 

“No, please.”

I whispered the words. If I could get on my knees, I would beg her to keep quiet, she was one of the impure.

The sweet woman took as much of the attention from Lucy and I as possible and I knew one of these days she wasn’t coming back.

“They’re going to sell me soon.”

The resignation in her voice broke my heart. She has accepted her fate. Something in this felt final. “You won’t survive this trip, not after last night.”

The cage below me was jerked open and Alissa was pulled through the opening at a painful speed. Her eyes connected with mine.

“I’m so very tired Emilia.”

“Shut the fuck up whore.”

“Remember what you promised?”

“Yes.”

She just nods her head as he walks her out of the room. The sound of the door slamming didn’t cover the laugher that echoed around us.

The men were here and ready for a little fun. Looking at my dirty fingers I cry. The promise ate at me. I wasn’t so sure I could keep it.

She wanted me to find her family and tell them she loved them, tell them that she was gone, and it was okay because she was at peace now.

I was going to be her in a few months and I was never getting out of here. They all seemed to think I could save them.

That for some reason someone cared about me and was going to come and save us all. I laughed to myself no one was coming.

I was an orphan I carried my life in a trash bag like I was trash until I was old enough the system kicked me out.

I had no one. No home no friends and I couldn’t bring myself to tell them it was never going to happen, I couldn’t save them or my baby.

Alissa’s screams could be heard through the door for what felt like hours. The silence was heartbreaking when it happened, I knew she was gone that she finally escaped this hell.

“I should have begged for my turn and she would still be here. They all die.” Lucy started to mumble, and I feared she was losing herself in the insanity trying to take us all.