Beast

The boy in the cage doesn’t look anything other than ordinary, except for that pair of bright yellow eyes viciously staring at the people passing by like a beast on alert. One of the times could be seen that the seller beat him up with a stick, but that gaze still didn’t die down at all. How many weeks has it been? Months? It’s been so long since the day he was taken by these nasty peddlers, human traffickers.

Not that he’s not surprised, back in the day he had a Naard friend who told him about various things in the capital, most of them are always unpleasant to hear. It might not be easy for him to survive here even if he finally got a chance to get away from the black market. He could only stare fiercely not to get bought by any of the seemingly twisted people appearing every now and then, appearing as an unapproachable character might send them away at the first sight.

But there are some who keeps staring at him with eyes full of curiosity. For example, this little kid who seems to be around five years old. He looks neat with fancy looking clothes, probably here with his father who might have a high position.

“Really? Bringing your toddler child to the black market?” He thought. The kid still innocently making weird faces as if trying to see his reaction, or at least to make him tilt his head and pay him some attention. Philip always has a soft spot for children and small animals, which lead him not being able to ignore them completely, but any reaction given here would only bring him more trouble.

He could only give the toddler side glances every now and then, keeping the boy in check not to be suddenly taken by random people while keep on giving some warning glare to the weird passerby smiling creepily at the child. The peddler handling his cage had also shows his interest in this little boy, causing Philip to send him dirty look every now and then, which made him want to take his beating stick but afraid to scare the kid and alert the parents.

Still, even if he tries to check the kid carefully every time the kid changes his focus, sooner or later it will be him who’ll be caught off guard. Just when he glances at the kid again, their eyes met. It’s not as the ocean blue eyes like the ones he always saw back at the village, but those ash blue eyes did give him sense of familiarity.

While Philip is caught in the old memories the toddler also sizing him up, not knowing why he’s attracted to the seemingly ordinary and somewhat dirty looking teenager in front of him, but he knows for sure this one is different from other people creepily smiling at him whenever he goes, especially for those pair of yellow eyes that appear like a thin glaze of honey. He’s five today, and he knows what he wants.

~*~*~

The auction for slaves is held at night, at this time the little toddler is already taken back by his father and keeps whispering something to his father’s ears. It’s a Black market after all, but also a place for the underground hangouts. Some of the people are already recognized and had their own circles.

The last Item for Auction is out, numbers of cheering along with the rising bids that could reach a prize of a mansion. But it stings every time those noises fell on Philip’s ear, as if anticipating another turn of bad events. He survived from being shown in the auction twice, the peddler started thinking about discarding him for giving no profit, but who knows somebody shows interest on him today. What a bad luck, he should’ve run earlier.

The noise dissipated as the highlight of the day has been won by whoever it is he didn’t care about. He just wished that he won’t be sold that much, so the bidder might not really mind if he run away after being bought. Seeing one by one the people brought to the stage forced to do something to attract the crowd. It’s more hateful that they were forced to remove their clothes and get their body marked with a burning hot iron, creating an ugly mark that could last a lifetime before being received by the laughing winners.