Promise Me You'll Never Feel Afraid

Cinder’s POV

I opened my eyes and looked around the dimly lit room that I was in. The only furniture in the room was a bed that Lyric and I were lying on. It smelled like piss and vomit. I had a massive headache, and the room was unfamiliar to me. The previous night came flooding back into my head. I never made it home. The last thing I remembered was getting shocked before I passed out.

“Where the fuck am I?” I whispered to myself, sitting up. One of my hands was cuffed to the bedpost, and the other was holding Lyric’s hand.

“Well, I see you’re awake.” A man’s voice drawled. I looked towards the sound of his voice, and could barely make out two figures standing in the room, one against the doorframe, the other standing in front of the bed.

“Who the fuck are you, and what do you want?” I hissed, yanking on the cuff that was around my wrist.

“Looks like we’ve got a feisty one on our hands, Avian. Good, she’ll sell for higher cause she’ll be better in bed.” The other man said. So Avian was the one standing by the bed.

“Let us go, you sick bastard!” I yelled. I was met with a rough smack across my face.

“You will respect me, do you understand?” Avian growled. I spat in his face, and he struck my cheek again.

“I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” He yelled. Lyric squeezed my hand, and I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. Her eyes were closed, pretending to still be unconscious.

“Yes.” I muttered. He smiled and looked back at the man who was still in the doorframe.

“Shall we, Derek?” Avian said. Derek smirked, and pushed himself off of the doorframe, walking towards Lyric as Avian straddled me. I saw Derek in the same position over Lyric. She looked terrified, but also a little bit mad. Me? I was so angry that I was seeing red.

“Get. The. Fuck. Off. Of. Me.” I hissed, my hand curling into a fist. He ignored me, roughly feeling me up. I threw my fist forward, smashing it into his jaw as hard as I could.

“Bitch!” He yelled, smacking me again, harder than before. I growled at him and he reached for his belt buckle, holding my arm down with his other hand.

“NO!” I screamed as the door banged open.

“WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU? YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH THEM! THEY NEED TO BE CLEAN WHEN THEY’RE FOR SALE!” A woman’s voice shouted.

“S-sorry, miss.” They both stuttered, climbing off of us hurriedly and backing up towards a wall. Lyric and I shot our identical glares at them. The woman prodded my side with a bony finger, and I scooted away from her, snarling. She smiled at me, but it was a sick smile.

“I want to look at this one first.” She said. Before I could react, Avian grabbed my hair, yanking me up to stand. Derek grabbed my other arm so I couldn’t move.

“LET ME GO!” I screamed, struggling to get out of their grips.

“Shut up or I’ll shut you up myself, and you won’t like it.” The woman hissed. I frowned, but still glared at her. I looked back at Lyric, who was sending me a look that said ‘stay still’.

“Hmm…pretty muscular…skinny…fair sized breasts…” The lady remarked, poking and prodding my body. She squeezed my butt roughly, and I growled at her, baring my teeth. She took a step back immediately, eyeing me carefully as if she was suspicious of something.

“Avian, take her to get her ready. Derek, write up her profile for the auction.” The lady said, apparently deciding it was nothing important. Avian yanked on my arm and roughly pulled me out of the room.

“She’ll be a good maid, if someone wants one. I heard Escape The Fate was looking for a maid. Oooh, Black Veil Brides is coming tonight. They always buy a lot of girls. She’ll be used for sex, of course, but also…” The lady’s voice disappeared as I was pulled into a room. I saw 6 girls, standing in a semi-circle, staring at me.

“Another one for us to do up today?” One purred. Avian pushed me forward into the semi-circle, and they started poking and prodding at my body again. 3 rushed into a closet, and the other three led me into a chair before they started fiddling with my hair and applying makeup to my face.

“Great.” I sighed, letting them push me around as if I was their Barbie doll. Since I didn’t have to do anything but sit there and look pretty, I started to think.

Why did they keep talking about an auction? And why were they feeling me up like I was some kind of whore?

I just hoped that my worst fears weren’t about to be confirmed.