SOLD TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER

WHERE ARE THEY TAKING ME

Why was I so stupid to stay out late? The latest I've ever stayed out in the past was around nine and I always had company to walk home with. I've been blaming myself for what feels like hours, trying to think of ways this could've gone differently. Maybe if I had fought more or ran back to campus security I wouldn't be in this position. What do these people want? Money? I come from a middle class family so they may not get much.

What if I never see my family again.....

My heart aches for my parents. My mother would not be able to handle the news of my kidnapping and my father would be mortified. I hope his heart can take it. The thought of my parents' reactions brings me to tears again but I know for a fact that my family would stop at nothing until I'm found. That gives me hope for a safe return home.

My body is drained. I'm exhausted from trying to break free and all the screams I attempted to make. The bondages around my mouth is so tight I can't take them out no matter how hard I try to remove it with my shoulders.

I hear a noise. My eyes roam around the darkness in search of the direction the noise is coming from. I wiggle my body to somehow position myself in a way that I can see what's coming. After five minutes I see light. The light is as bright as possibly midday. I look around my surroundings to figure out where I am exactly.

It took me a minute to realize that I'm in a container. How long do they plan on keeping me in this container? I hear a group of people talking but their language is not English. Three seconds later a man comes into the container, looking at me. He looks middle aged, Caucasian, dressed in coveralls. I watch as he comes closer to me. I'm so scared but I try to hide it. I don't think I want to make him angry. He's almost to my face when I hear more people enter the container. I look away from the man to see ten other girls, tied up just like me. Six of them passed out while the other four are awake. The men put a large wooden crate in the container and unties the ropes from the women they brought in. The man who's in front of me pulled a knife out and bends down in front of me. I watched as he roamed the knife from my legs up to my shoulders. I could feel my pores raise and blood crawl through my body with the movement of his knife and then he cuts the rope which connects my ankles with my hands. Then he use the knife to cut the ropes that ties my hands and ankles.

I don't move an inch. I'm afraid of what he would do to me next. He looks at me in a sadistic way, his eyes roaming my body while he licks his lips. His hands are about to touch me when one of his accomplices shoves him away and shouts at him in a language I can't quite catch. The two men are shouting at each other and somehow the man who shoved the sadistic man away from me got him to leave the container. He left in anger.

"I am sorry for my friend's rude behavior, I am Paul", the man says, helping me out of the ropes. "You girls are the finest of our catch, this is why you are in a separate container from the others," he diverts his attention from me and to the rest of the girls. "The crate," to which he points at, "is filled with food and water to make your journey more accommodating and comfortable. It is going to be a long journey. France is a long way from home," he says the last part with a devious laugh then him and the rest of the men exit the container, leaving a light switch on.

I massage the pain on my wrists caused by the ropes and cry in silence. I realize what this is. I realize what has happened to me and in an instant I lost all hope for rescue. I wasn't kidnapped, I'm being trafficked.

I looked at the girls around me. Their faces show a loss of hope as well. One girl comes and sit right beside me, helping me with the bondage around my mouth.

"How old are you?" she asked me.

"I'm 23," I responded, "Did you see land while you were outside?" I asked her.

"No"