Capítulo 2: Chapter 2

#Chapter 2 Living Hell

Patara

“Oh, yes of course!” I quickly peeled off my backpack and dug through my bag for my phone. Before I could turn back to him, a sweet smelling damp cloth was clamped harshly over my mouth. Everything went dark with only the sound of his haunting laugh to drown out my light.

—

It was pitch black when I finally opened my eyes—was I still sleeping?

What… what happened?

Everything was shaking all around me as if I was in the back of a moving car. An unpleasant smell that could have woken me from even my darkest dreams filled the air and convinced me that I was wide awake.

Fear instantly overcame my senses.

Where was I?

What was I doing here?

Who took me?

My body felt like a limp weight that refused to move in the slightest no matter how desperately I tried. My head pounded violently and made me dizzy from the ache. What was happening to me?

In the darkness, I suddenly had a heavy feeling that I wasn’t alone. I held my shaky breath and heard the sounds of several other shallow breaths around me. My heart sped up and tried to bang out of my body.

“Help…” I tried to shout. My torn throat wouldn’t allow it. The only sound that came out of me was a small, pathetic whimper that made me feel as if I was suffocating. Part of me realized that I might not want those around me to help—what if they’re the ones that put me here?

I silenced myself instantly when I heard the sound of deep scratches against a door. My blood chilled as I listened to heavy boots stomp across the ground with chains that scrapped across the metal.

In my mind, images flashed of barbaric shifters standing outside that door. Big, tall and rough creatures that knew no manners and only wanted to claim things. I’d heard stories since I was old enough to understand that they favored pretty girls and plucked them off the roads as if they were all free for the taking.

Did that happen to me?

A loud bang made me almost flinch out of my skin when the metal door finally opened. The stench of chicken and duck feces hit me in the face and filled every inch of the suffocating area. It made me want to throw up everything inside me but I was too afraid to make a sound.

In the dim light, I barely made out the shape of a short, stout man catapulting himself through the narrow doorway. Not a shifter—but perhaps worse. I quickly closed my eyes and pretended I was asleep.

I heard his loud steps come straight for me and it was like all my bones had melted to pure fear. I silently begged my limbs to cower far from him but my body wouldn’t let me. It felt as if almost every inch of me was paralyzed from something other than fear. I prayed it was too dark for him to realize I was awake.

He reached out and held his hand in front of my lips as if he was checking for my breath, then turned and continued to test the other people around me that I saw for the first time once I opened an eye.

Four unconscious girls laid on their backs. They almost looked as if they were in peace, but I knew better than to think something innocent like that. They were all taken—just like me.

“Fuck! That one doesn’t look like she’s breathing!” Another man hissed from the door. I quickly closed my eye most of the way so he wouldn’t see me watching.

“Shit! She was a good one, they’re out there waiting for this lot!” The short man spat as he looked down at the girl next to me.

The other man was taller and broader, he pulled himself in and forced the poor girl beside me up to check her pulse. She looked just like the rest, I would have never guessed she was dead. Part of me instantly mourned for her family that would surely be looking for her only to never find her. If I could move at all, I would have tried to run out that door before I became just like her.

She fell back in a lifeless thump when he confirmed she was dead. The short man rolled his eyes and started to drag the girl towards the door.

“Damn, these girls are prettier than the last load.” The taller man said as he reached down to caress my face. My stomach turned and all I wanted to do was recoil inside myself but I forced myself to act asleep.

“Don’t even think about it. We gotta get the goods to the Tina by four o’clock today. If we’re late, the Snake King will cut your dick off this time and feed it to the dogs.” A man said from outside as he yanked out the dead girl.

“There’s not much left back there.” The short man said over his shoulder. “You need to open the top vent and feed in some potion—but not too much. Don’t make anyone stupid, the shifter’s only like sober girls.”

The door was still opened after they carried that poor girl out. One of the men dropped her to the ground like she was nothing but a bag of trash before he slapped her—twice. Each crack across the face was loud enough to make me feel as if he had hit me instead. Still, the girl didn’t react.

His barbaric hands ripped her shirt open to bare her chest. My cheeks heated instantly, I couldn’t help but feel shame for the girl even though she was gone.

I wanted to throw up when I saw him squeeze her breast. Everything inside me went off like loud alarms at the sight. Disgusting, nasty man disgracing the girl even in her death.

After he seemed to get his fill, he started CPR but quickly gave up when he got no response.

She was dead.

His mouth was just as dirty as his actions as he started cursing like a sailor.

I quickly closed my eyes when another man came inside the room. I heard the sounds of a small window opening above my head and was instantly awarded with a breath of fresh air—along with another dose of chicken feces.

My heart sped up when I heard him jump down from the carriage and slam the door behind him. Chains scrapped against the metal and I didn’t dare breathe until his heavy steps moved away from the door.

My eyes shot open as I scanned the surroundings. I could barely move my head, but I saw that it was the back of a dark narrow van. The girls around me were still out, not one of them had opened their eyes since I woke.

We had been trafficked. I knew it deep in my soul. What else would it be?

My mother warned me about this, it was why she insisted her daughters always had transportation so we didn’t get shoved in the back of dirty vans. It was why I wasn’t allowed to walk home, but I always thought those were cautionary tales—nothing real.

All her stories came back to me at once. Although shifters lived on the other side of the continent, they paid heavily for human girls. Female shifters weren’t nearly as beautiful as a human to the males, and so they became desperate to own them. Traffickers found the money irresistible and the streets became dangerous to wander down if you were a girl.

I never believed her. I always thought nothing bad happened during the daylight, but clearly I was wrong. Monsters were bold enough to come out in the light just as they did in the dark.

Oh, what do I do? I tried to move my body but only my fingers started to wake. How would I ever get out of here?

I realized my breath was getting louder and tried to calm it before they heard me. I felt like a useless fool waiting around for fate to claim me.

No, I had to get out of here. I had to try and escape before I became the next victim.

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