Sold

My eyes still feel heavy when I finally pry them open, I wince at the bright lights on the ceiling staring down at me. My body feels sore and heavy when I look over to the side, my pulse quickens at the sight of many other girls dressed in white dresses. Many are sobbing, some are praying. They all cry out though when a door, out of my sight, is opened. It sounds heavy. Metal, I thought to myself. I can hear boots slamming down on concrete ground, until finally stopping next me. I stare up, with wide eyes, at the man. He's dressed in dark clothes and has a hat on his head. He smiles a wicked smile whilst staring down at me.

"This one, for those rich bastards" he orders and chuckles. Two men come to stand on either side of the old bed I was laid on before grabbing me by the arms and lifting me up. My legs give out beneath me, the two men do their best to lift me up, but still struggle to drag me out of the room and down a dark hallway towards an elevator. Just before leaving the room, I see a girl mouth, "I'm sorry" In my direction.

"Be careful, she is still under the influence of the drug" the man says after the other two men had dropped me on the floor of the elevator. I was left on the floor the whole ride up. I watched as the numbers on the elevator panel went from basement to the fiftieth floor. When the doors of the elevator opened again it wasn't a dark lit hallway I found myself being dragged in, it was actually a very well lit one with plush red carpet and gold colored furnishing with portraits of every wall.

The men dragged me to a room where there was another man and woman. The two men laid me on the ground and left.

"What category?" The woman asks, the first man smirks.

"Virgin" he answers, the woman nods and the other man helps me off the floor and gently leads me to a vanity. I sit on the plush gold threaded chair and sway a little, but the man keeps a strong hold on my shoulders. The first man leaves with a huff and shuts the door behind him. The man and woman from then on start brushing my dirty blonde hair, applying light makeup and at some point the man leaves and the woman takes a look at what was nice a white dress, but after being dragged all the way up here was torn and dirty. The woman shakes her head and sighs, she makes her way to a wardrobe in the corner of the room. Okay, it's now or never. I roll off the chair and start crawling towards the door silently, but the woman noticed and placed her heavy boot on my back, she dug her foot in and I screamed out in pain.

"Look, I know how you must feel, but you have no choice, get up!" She hisses and pulls me up my arm. She seats me back down on the gold threaded chair and grabs the hem of my dress. I stiffen, she sighs and pulls the dress off of me. I instinctively cover myself with my arms and notice that I have on white underwear and a white bra, I hadn't had this on before. I try not to think about someone undressing me and about the bruises covering my body everywhere except my face as the woman makes me put on another white dress. It was a plain white dress with spaghetti straps, probably to resemble purity. I stare at myself, my green eyes full of fear, in the mirror for three whole seconds before looking away. She walks over to the door and opens it, the man walks back in and nods in approval at my appearance. They both help me up and lead me down many hallways. My head feels clouded and I somehow feel like I'm shaking. In my ears it sounds like a buzz, but behind the buzz I make out another sound...prices? I can hear someone talking about money. Like, bidding.

"Going once, going twice, sold!" A man shouts and I instinctively start to struggle against their hold on me. I push my legs out as best as I can trying to get away.

"Now, c'mon, don't be like this" the man says while urging me forward, I scream and claw at him, trying to get away. The door in front of me is opened and a short man with a bald head walks out.

"Is she ready?" He asks the man and woman, they nod and pull me forward. I kick at them and try to get out of their grip, but they just hold on tighter as they lead me out to the stage. The red velvet curtain is down, shielding me from the crowd. They take me to the middle of the stage and make me kneel while they chain my hands to the stage floor. When they're sure I can't get away they let me go and the man and woman leave without another word. The shorter man lets out a breath and walks over to a podium visible to the crowd, he smiles. I stare down at the chains as he introduces the next item, which would be me, to the crowd. These chains...how many girls have they felt? Did they tremble like I am now? Did they cry? Did they fight? Things I may never know, but maybe those girls had someone looking for them, I know nobody's looking for me. Nobody ever looks for me.