章 7: Beginning of the auction

When the man's finger got too close to her mouth, Penny had bitten his finger hard enough for the man to yelp in pain. She hadn't planned to bite but his touch had been repulsive enough to bring out the reaction from her.

The man glared at the slave and slapped her right across her face. Penny could feel the heat rise on the side of the cheek where she could feel her skin resonate in dull pain. The man whom she bit wanted to slap her again but the guardsman held his hand.

"One more and you'll damage the good," said the guardsman staring down at the girl who had the audacity to bite. It seemed like this one hadn't been disciplined enough but what he didn't know was that it hadn't been more than a week since the girl had been added in the slave establishment. New slaves were usually not sold right away in the market not unless someone specifically came to buy the slave directly from the establishment itself.

"This little bitch-"

"Hold your hands. Go check the stage and announce the arrival of new slaves. Gather enough of a crowd. We need to get the show running," the guardsman ordered the man who went by the name Frank. From where she stood, Penny could feel the sting of pain on her cheek and the corner of her lips. When her tongue touched the side of her lips, she tasted the metallic taste of blood. Just as she was doing, she felt herself being dragged a few steps away from where she had been standing. She flinched when the side of her head was pushed against the wall, "Do you know how important the man is? He's the one that will give the details about you slaves to the elites who have come here to buy," the guardsman continued to push her head while she struggled for him to let go, "Don't forget that you are a slave. Let me show you what happens to the slaves who misbehave and don't listen," saying this he let go of her head.

Every slave's blindfold was pulled. Though it wasn't sunny and the weather of Bonelake was cloudy as usual, the light falling on her eyes after hours caused her to squint her eyes like the rest of them. Penny's eyes moved to look at where she was brought to. Since they had arrived, the smell here wasn't pleasant but rather odd and uncomfortable. She noticed that they were in a tent but this one was less dark compared to the one they were put in on the carriage. When the wind blew to move the curtain to let one peek outside, she saw people walking busily without standing in one place.

"Come now. Line up! Let's show what happens when you don't listen," said the guardsman who pulled the girl who was closest to him. Pushing her forward up the platform she could hear the voice of the man who had slapped her after she had bitten him.

The slaves could see the stage that was set up for them to be sold on while making sure everyone who had money had a good look at who and what they were selling. Curious to what the guardsman meant, she looked at the slave who was made to walk on the stage with her hands bound behind her back.

"Good afternoon my fellow men and women. Today we brought with us better goods than what we sold last week. Slaves who you will want to have and make use of. I promise you won't be disappointed. This is a glance to what we have today," spoke the man on the stage loud enough for everyone to hear. There was the sound of bustle which she noticed when the man spoke, "This is our first slave. Her name is Hannah. As you can see, she is a young human with black hair and pale skin," the man touched the girl's face but he didn't stop there, "Her skin is luscious and soft like silk. To let you have a look, my fellow people..."

Penny heard the sudden tear of the young girl's clothes which caused the girl to start crying silently. She could hardly believe what she was seeing right now. They were demoralizing a woman, treating her with no respect where the dress she wore was removed to be pushed down leaving her upper body bare for the onlookers to view. What just happened was harder than the slap she had received earlier. Her eyes widened and she gulped.

Hoots and whistles were heard on the other side of where she stood now with the scared group of slaves. As brave as Penny had tried to be up to this point since she had been put in the slave establishment. She didn't have the courage to go through what just happened in front of her sight but it didn't stop her thoughts from wanting to bash the man's head as he continued to speak.

"Isn't she beautiful? Now, let's see how many of you value her worth. The bidding starts from thirty gold coins!" the man shouted.

Thirty gold coins?

Penny wasn't sure if she was baffled with the number of gold coins the man spoke or that he had decided to value the girl's worth to be thirty. A person couldn't be valued in terms of gold coins and thirty was nothing.

At the same time, thirty gold coins wasn't a small number. Her own family could barely collect a good three silver coins which made it difficult to collect a gold coin. It made her wonder if her relatives had really sold her, then what price had they handed her to the slave establishment for?

But what she didn't know was that it was the minimum limit that would come to grow to a big amount.

The girl was on the stage shivered in the cold which she could see quite clearly from behind. She felt sorry for her and wished she could do something but there was nothing she could do right now. It wasn't her fault that the girl was being shamed publicly. She didn't want to cause trouble to anyone here on her behalf. Not to forget, if the guardsman sensed that she had been admitted to the establishment for only a week, there were chances of her being taken back again which she didn't want. And who knew what punishment waited for her. Being the troublemaker here, she was worried about what the man on the stage would do to her.

"Fifty gold coins!"

"Anyone willing to buy her for more?" asked the auctioneer on the stage to receive a response from the crowd,

"Eighty gold coins!"

"Ninety gold coins!" If Penny wasn't in her current predicament her brows would have reached her forehead but as the amount raised so did her heartbeat. It had come to be evident that the people who were outside were the people who came from the higher society who were willing to throw money to buy themselves a slave or more.

"Anyone interested in buying the girl?" asked the auctioneer, "Ninety gold coins going once, going twice, and THRICE! Sold to the gentleman in the grey suit. Please make sure to collect your slave backstage." Frank, bought the girl back inside whose clothes hadn't been fixed. The girl looked traumatized, her expression was vacant as if in shock making her feel guilty. But with the attitude of the crowd and the men here, it felt as if it was a norm to strip a slave in front of the buyers to make sure of what the slave was worth for.

When the buyer came through the other end, she caught sight of an old man who was short in stature with a few amounts of hair on his head. He smoked a pipe, his skin shriveled but his eyes sharp on the slave which he had bought. After the transaction was done, the girl was taken away.

Penny had thought of escaping once she would reach the market or after someone would buy her. That didn't mean she was ready to go through the humiliation of what everyone was going through, suddenly she heard a scream from the stage.

The next slave had already been taken without wasting any time. Her hair was pulled by the auctioneer so that she would scream more, "Doesn't she have a lovely voice. It is said that she sings like an angel. Age fifteen. Untouched and pure. Wouldn't you want to get your hands on her-"

The man on the stage hadn't even completed his sentence when someone in the crowd yelled, "Hundred and twenty gold coins."

"That's a lovely number to start with," the man rubbed his hands together before wincing due to the finger that had been damaged, "Anyone who wants to raise the price and take this girl home?"

The bidding went up slowly, the number of gold coins moving one step after another. In such a way that the girl was sold for four hundred gold coins. It made Penny wonder how did people earn this amount of money? I would take her ten lifetimes before she would be able to collect that number of gold coins while here the people were giving it away to buy them.

Finally, when it was her turn, Penny was dragged and pushed up to walk to the stage where when she stepped, her heart sank like someone had tied a rock to her and pushed her into the deep sea. The number of people who crowded around the stage was intimidating. There were greedy, lecherous men who stood waiting for the next slave to come out. Some were the local men and women who had only come to see the show and enjoy it. Some were poised but that didn't hide the look in the eye which one held.

Though it wasn't hot, she could feel the beads of sweat forming on the back of her neck to run down on the back of her skin. It wasn't the time to think but she wondered if vegetables were alive, this is how they would be feeling with the customers hovering over them ready to pounce.

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章 8: Sold- Part 1

The Isle valley was a land where an elite or the high society class of people walked on the streets to buy expensive clothing, shoes, or any other object one would fancy and also one where the middle class along with the lower class couldn't afford.

Being part of the land of the East, it was one of the attractions but not for the sole reason that it had a high-end product. A few streets and alley's away, next to the Isle valley was the black market. For namesake, it was the black market where things that were not often sold out in the open were found. From the unholy materials that were sent by the black witches to the blood of babies or children but until now the governing law of the council had done nothing to eradicate it. One of the reasons being that the men and women involved here were schemingly smart.

In the past, the council had tried to remove it but the problem was that no matter how many times some of them were sent to catch most of them would flee or trick the other which turned out to be hopeless. Not to forget there were some people who depended on the items from the black market which weren't found elsewhere. Once they had almost closed down and banned the black market to only be pressurized by the elites on how they wanted it running. After a lot of signs and meetings, the council had come to the conclusion to only keep a close eye. One could sell all to their heart's content but if they were caught, it would be a direct way to the council prison.

A man walked through the throngs of the crowd that had formed in the center of the black market. His hair was inky black in color, his eyes darker than any other red which looked almost black where a person could be misled into believing him to be a human if it weren't for the light in the atmosphere. He was tall, his shoulders broad, his eyes gazed around the little perimeter looking down upon the men not because they were short but because they were beneath him.

A small stick playing at the edge of his lips which was held in his teeth, he muttered, "Peasants."

"Sir Damien," a leaner man with brown hair and eyes came to stand behind him who had been trying hard to keep up with the man in the coat, "Is this where we'll be buying the tranquilizer? I thought it was the other way."

The man named Damien didn't respond, instead, he let his lazy eyes look at the shop that was set up in the corner, "Our shop is here, Kreme. Go speak to the woman in red," he ordered the thin man who widened his eyes.

"She's the one selling?"

Damien who had been watching the crowd and the auctioneer who was selling a young girl while having her scream turned to look at the smaller man, "Why don't you go find out rather than waste my time here," Kreme nodded his head and hurriedly made his way to the shop. Putting his hands in his trouser pockets, Damien followed the man. Annoying humans didn't know what or when to speak, to increase his work the council had given a human to work with. It was a wonder how he even passed the exam last year to be part of the council.

A woman sat on a platform, her green eyes holding mirth when Kreme tried to speak to her, "Miss, do you by chance sell tranquilizers?" asked the human politely but the woman who sat in front of him didn't answer. Thinking that she might not be familiar with the word he went to explain, "It is a liquid that is blue in color. Like-"

Damien pushed the human to the side, "How many tranquilizers do you have with you?"

"One. You are late in buying them," the woman leaned forward responsively at the sight of the pureblooded vampire. The human blinked at the woman who hadn't responded to him but had readily answered his senior.

"Whom did you sell it to?"

"I don't know," she smiled coyly, "I don't ask for names. I just need the money but I might try to jog my memory for you," Kreme was now sure that the woman was hitting on his senior and was worried where this was going to go. It wasn't because he was worried about their work being diverted but because-

Damien pulled out the silver pistol from his back, uncorking it and placing it on the woman's head. As the shop was set in between the walls and hidden so that it wouldn't be easily spotted, "You were saying?"

The woman's smile faltered, "You should learn something from the human. Such a handsome face but rude," she commented.

"That's rich seeing you be the one not to heed to his words but to a rude person," Damien smiled, taking the pistol away from her head like he had been kidding but the woman somehow knew that it wasn't an empty threat, "Be a doll now and tell us whom did you sell it too?"

"It was a man with a beard, just a little around his jaw. His eyes were of two different colors. Red and black. Deep voice, hair combed back. Black in color. That is all I remember," she answered him while Damien tried to relate her description to the man he would know. Strange, he thought. He couldn't remember anyone with two different colored eyes as they were rare.

"How dark were his eyes?" questioned Damien.

"The red was dark," she answered apprehensively, "Don't you want to buy the tranquilizer?" she asked when the pureblooded vampire turned his back to her. Even Kreme was confused as to why they hadn't bought it, wasn't that why they had come to visit the black market?

But the man was least interested to talk to her and he walked away from there to be followed by the leaner man.