Natalia
The lights of the stage were blinding. The bidding had taken place so quickly that I was still reeling. At first, it had seemed like the skeletal man seated in the far row was keen to win, but at the last moment, the one standing wide and brooding at the bottom of the raised dais had leaped in. Even from here, I could sense a brewing hatred scything back and forth between them.
But all that was merely background to the panic pumping through my veins. I was exposed to this crowd of ravenous strangers. All I had on me were high heels. Everything else was vulnerable beneath the spotlights. I tried to hide myself, but I knew it was no good. I was the prey. The sharks were all around me.
“Six hundred thousand dollars!” the man had called out. I squinted and tried to get a better look at him, though the lights were too bright to make out much detail. All I could see was that he was massive, so muscular I thought he might as well have been sculpted from marble, and the shadows of his face were dark and mysterious. It was an intimidating combination.
I didn’t have much time to look further. The stocky man who’d assaulted Amelia walked on stage and pulled me towards the far side from where I’d entered. I tried to look more, but he tugged, and I had no choice but to follow him.
Adrenaline had started swirling in my bloodstream the moment I had walked onto the stage. My muscles were twitching with it, boiling over with the fight or flight response. I had to run. This was my only window.
The moment we crossed off the stage, I wriggled free of the man’s arm around my waist and bolted for a nearby staircase. My thighs surged with effort, but the heels were slowing me down. I jumped up the first few steps, but I had to grab onto the railing to stop from falling over when my right heel slipped out from under me.
I felt the man’s hand wrap around my ankle. “Get back here!” he swore as he yanked hard. I fell. The bony part of my kneecap struck the edge of a step, sending bright lines of pain spiraling throughout my leg. I gasped as the man reeled me in towards him. He slapped me across the face, adding fresh pain to the mixture.
The fight drained from my body as he straddled me. His chest rose and fell as he caught his breath. His face was twisted in anger. “I told you not to run, you goddamn bitch. Why is it so hard for you to listen?” He sighed and hauled me upright by one arm. “I hope to God whoever bought you teaches you how to fucking behave. Come on, let’s go.”
“Where are you taking me?” I moaned.
“Down to a nice, private little room so just you and your new master can get to know each other. After all, new pets need to be broken in, don’t they?” He laughed to himself as he shoved me down the hallway towards a staircase that twisted back to the cells below.
Instead of throwing me back in the cell I’d first woken up in, he towed me farther along the basement level. We crossed a threshold into a different wing of the building. The dank hallway gave way to a plush velvet floor. Spiky red doors lined the sides of the hall in the same way that the cells had in the previous corridor. He guided me to the last room, opened the door, and pushed me in.
“Wait here,” the man ordered. “Your master will be here soon.”
The door clicked shut behind me.
I stared around the interior. Leather whips were hung up along the wall. I saw viciously pointed electric tools, restraints and masks of all kinds. A thick, intricately coiled rope hung from the ceiling. There was an oddly-shaped black chair decorated with straps that looked designed to pin someone to their hands and knees. A circular, crimson-colored bed was pushed against one wall.
The whole room had a sickly, horrifying vibe. I could practically hear the screams of the people who’d been in it before me. I prayed mine would not be next.
But a gnawing feeling in my stomach told a different story.