Sold

His breath hit my face as he knelt down to my level.

“Do you remember me now?” I slowly shook my head, and another sharp pain hit me somewhere in my body. It hurt like hell.

“Well, before this is over, you’ll know me very well.” He didn’t seem happy to be doing this, he wasn’t laughing like a maniac; and he hadn’t touched me one time in a sexual way. What was it that he was after?

“You know, this whole thing that you think you’re going through is a lie.” My face wouldn’t move enough to portray my confusion so I just concentrated on breathing. Let me tell you, that was a lot harder than it sounds.

“Nobody gets to pick who you’re with; who gets to be with you. You sure are a pretty little thing.” My lungs felt on fire, and I still couldn’t breathe, but I sure did want to rip this guy’s face off.

“You’re bought, like an animal at an auction. Although your situation was a lot closer than most ..” He seemed to be talking to himself for a second before continuing. “You women are told what we men want you to be told. You see, parents - mostly fathers are called by a friend when they have a daughter.” This guy was just confusing, but I figured there had to be some point to his rambling, so I tried to listen. “We’ll use you for the example. Once your dad found that you were a girl, he called all of his buddies that had little boys that would be around your age. The men put up money almost immediately for their sons to be with you, and your dad would pick the people he found fit to be in your family, and also who put up the most money - naturally.

“Once he had found them all, he started to invite them over to see you. This is where your little lie starts to tie into the story. Once the girl is old enough, the boys are introduced properly and they interact with each other.

“After, he starts to pick off people who you didn’t like all that much, one by one; also the ones with the least amount of money; though he still tried to make sure to keep the people you liked the most. Believe it or not, your father was interested in your happiness. Soon, people would raise their prices, and you’d be worth millions.

“Your dad is a very greedy man, and picked everyone off but the top two by the time you were nine.” His voice was becoming a little fuzzy, and as his voice got fuzzier, the pain got stronger. As he spoke, I realized that I was exactly nine when it was only Matty and Jeremie that I was allowed to play with.

“Unfortunately, your mother interfered when she tried to make you spend more time with Matthew because she believed that both of the boys should have a chance to get to know you; and have a chance of being picked. That’s the first mouth function with the lie that we’ve had; and so it might not be used anymore. Justan, however, had the most money, and had paid for you already, so your mother had to be taken out of the equation, just as your friend who made you like that idiot because she liked him the most. Like I said, you were worth a lot; lots of people wanted you and wanted into your family as well.

“Sadly, when your mom died, tragic hit and your dad when insane; keeping you away from everyone, not letting anyone see you but himself.” He paused for a minute; but I couldn’t really concentrate on that.

“Stay awake!” Another sharp pain hit my body and I realized that I had been falling into my subconscious, and I was being stabbed.

“So anyways, once someone finally got through to your dad, he decided to call a few people back up and try to auction you off. Just so happens that when he called Justan, they made a deal that he’d give you over after a certain price, and that nobody was going to bid to that certain price; it was too high. Although he’d already paid for you once, he agreed to this; that boy would’ve given any amount of money just to have you. He’d fallen head over heals for you.

“Not knowing what he was getting into, he started to bid, although I could tell that he thought nobody in the room was bidding nearly high enough for someone as exquisite as you; but he kept his bids low.” At that point, I realized that I’d seen his guy in the crowd at the auction house. “Then, that annoying twit of a girl burst in trying to buy you off so you didn’t have to be with anyone and could live the normal life that you’d deserved.” I could hear the snide tone in his voice at the word “deserved” as if he thought I didn’t deserve anything close to even the thought. She was right, I did have something to be grateful to her for. Ooops.

“Well, that worked well. I said stay awake!” Another painful stab. “So, Justan got you, and somehow, you ran into that baboon, Matthew. Justan thinking it was in your best interest, let you interact with him and then Daneese told him about the tradition; or at least her version of it. So, he let you be around him to choose who you wanted. I guess that was another flaw in the lie.

“Seeing you with Matthew; seeing that you actually had an interest in the boy flared his anger, which he had a problem controlling in the past, poor boy. Don’t sleep, my story is just about to get good.” I felt a tear down my left leg, which was still healing. My eyes bugged and I sat up, only bringing more pain. “Ah, ah, ah, it’s bad to move when you’re bleeding.” I lied back down and continued to stutter on my breath.

“So, when you left to go stay with Matthew, Justan nearly went insane not seeing you. As you probably already know, he followed you. Until you came up with the brilliant idea to stay at Matthew’s house. Which I’m positive that you decided because that buffoon doesn’t have a brain cell strong enough to come up with an idea like that.

“When you came back, your leg was broken; no doubt the buffoon’s fault,” he laughed slightly and all I wanted was Justan at the moment; so I began to cry, not knowing what else I could possibly do. “What’s the matter? Don’t like my pet names?” I shook my head.

“Justan,” was all I could breathe out.

“What about him? You don’t care about him.” I nodded my head; I did, I really did. “Then why were you kissing that idiot back there?”

“Test.” Looks like we found another flaw. Blood began to pour out of my mouth. Oh shit, we’re dieing.

“Of what? To see if there was anything there? Just like your pathetic mother. I want to see you writhe the way she did when she died; I want to watch the light leave your same eyes. This is what you both deserve for causing me and my son so much pain!” I tried to shake my head; tried to wrap my mind around that one word. Son?

“That’s right. Justan is my son. I sure will enjoy watching him act so indifferent about your death, just like everyone else’s.”

“Love.” I choked through all the blood.

“You love him?” I tried to nod, but my head wouldn’t move. “You lying little bitch!” He began to stab me, over and over again. Through my screaming, I heard shocking things, such as: “You’re just like her! You hurt him, just like she hurt me!”, “She was just a little slut! Apple must not fall far from the tree!”, “You don’t deserve my son!”, or even, “You were going to pick Matthew over him; just like your mother picked Jareth over me!”

My screams suddenly hit an octave that I wasn’t aware was possible; surprised that nobody was coming to my rescue; and I finally choked on one of those horrid screams before I couldn’t breathe altogether.

The light on my eyelids that I had previously closed began to dim away, and it was all black soon enough. The immense pain was fading away. But no matter how dark it go, or how much my physical pain dissipated, the pain crushing my heart would not go away, and I couldn’t get the image of Justan out of my head.

He was the last thing I saw -reminding me of the life I would never live with him -before I past away right there on the cold, hard, gritty, blood covered ground.