4
Never stop fighting.
“Sleeping beauty. Wake up!” Sharp slaps against my cheek forced my eyes open to blinding white light. I recoiled from the bright rays of a sun I hadn’t seen in… in…
I didn’t know how long.
Days? Weeks?
Moving, locked up. Sleep, sleep, and more fucking sleep. I was dead to the world more than I was conscious. But maybe it was better that way.
“Now that you look more presentable , it’s time to start earning your keep.” Her graying brown hair was pulled into a tight bun. She was tall, with an accent I couldn’t place, and muscled arms suggesting she followed a strict workout regimen. When the woman effortlessly lifted me off the cot, bridal style, and carried me to a walk-in shower, she confirmed my suspicions.
“Let’s clean you up. You’re a young one, aren’t you? ”
I said nothing and let her strip off a gown I assumed had once been white. “I heard you’ve been keeping the guys here on their toes.” Again, I ignored her and stared off, too mentally exhausted and still under the effects of sedatives to speak. But she had my full attention when she gripped the hair close to my scalp and twisted my neck. “If you don’t start cooperating, they’ll toss your ass into the nearest landfill. Do you understand me?” She tightened her grip when I didn’t immediately respond.
“Y-yes.” I didn’t recognize my own voice. My last memories consisted of screaming until I tasted blood, and they drugged me again.
“The only reason you’re still alive is because you’re young and pretty.” Calloused fingers tilted my chin. “You have these strange eyes, and you’re a virgin.”
My eyes snapped to hers as my stomach twisted. “What?”
“Your hymen is intact.”
I blinked furiously, unable to understand how and when…and who?
“Oh, come on. Don’t act surprised. You thought they wouldn’t check? Do you know how much you’re worth? It’s the only reason you haven’t been sent to the Pit. And trust me, that’s not somewhere you want to be.”
The question hung on my tongue, but I chose silence again. I believed her. The name alone was enough of a warning. A spray of cold water tumbled over my body.
“I don’t know what you did to deserve these,” she said, running her hands over the sensitive skin of my back. “But it’s nothing a little makeup won’t cover, and some of my homemade balm to help fade the scars.”
Her tone was calm, almost playful, as if she wasn’t talking about selling my virginity to the highest bidder. Every time they put me under, I woke up and fought again, but no one would listen. They wouldn’t free me, and they refused to kill me. This nightmare was never-ending, like a revolving door to hell on earth—and I hadn’t even gotten to the worst part.
“Please…you have to help me. I’m not supposed to be here. ”
The woman’s rough fingers stopped lathering my hair, and she yanked my head back. “Do you think the girls here volunteered or won some lottery?” Her laugh was cruel. “In a perfect world, honey, no one would be here. Not even me.”
More cold water poured over my head and down my quivering body.
“Magda!” a man’s voice called from the other side of the door, followed by the heavy thumps of his fist. “He’s here.”
“You dumb fuck. No names!” As if his outing her identity had been my fault, she held my face beneath the spray of water until I aspirated and coughed violently.
“Now, come on. Tonight is your night. We have a client with very deep pockets waiting for you.”
“No,” I wheezed, still attempting to clear my lungs. “Kill me.”
“If you get another dose today, you may never wake up. So I suggest you calm down and get comfortable.”
“Do it!” More than wanting to die, I needed it. I craved it—the numbness it brought. It was the only time the pain stopped, and the voices would quiet. “Do it, please! Do it. Do it!”
Her backhand set off ringing in my right ear.
“I have kids to feed. Your tears and your pleas mean nothing.” She dragged me across the cold floor by my cuffs and tossed me into a chair. “I only have twenty minutes to get you looking like a virginal offering, and your hair is a fucking mess. This is your reality now. Whatever life you had before, the people you knew—friends, family—all of that is gone.”
Magda whirled me around toward a mirror, and I hung my head, refusing to look, and watched as tears dripped down my thighs. She was right. I was afraid of the girl I’d see, the one I lost more and more every day.
Another fog dispersed slowly, allowing me to break through, even though I wanted nothing more than to sink and never wake up. Magda must have given in. Had I fought her, after all? I couldn’t remember.
“Nice of you to join the party.”
Fuck.
“I know you can hear me. Go on, now, open your eyes.”
I bit back the bile rising up my throat when his hand fell on my thigh. Even if I had the strength to swat him away, my wrists were chained to the iron bedpost. I was unaware of their drug of choice keeping me compliant, slower, and my mind groggy. But I welcomed it.
Strong fingers pinched my cheeks, breaking skin and forcing my eyes to meet his.
“Beautiful,” he said with a twisted smirk. “I’m a little pressed for time tonight, but I couldn’t pass you up. So, excuse me if this goes a little faster than you can tolerate. I wasn’t anticipating the cuffs, but I heard you’ve got a spark in you. I like that.”
They’d sold me like livestock to a man who would take the last strip of my dignity. Inside my mind, I was screaming, clawing for freedom. But bound and drugged, I was helpless to save myself.
I jolted when he pinched my nipple.
“Stop,” I whispered as he tweaked harder. “No, stop!”
“It’s okay,” he reassured me, ignoring my cries and kissing my neck.
“No…no, please.”
“Relax.” His growl echoed in my ear as he cupped between my legs.
“Stop!”
Coarse fingers split me open and slid toward my entrance.
“I’d love to feel how tight you are, sweetheart, but I need to see how pretty you bleed on my cock.”
Oh, god.
He jumped off the bed and stripped, stroking himself as he stared with lecherous eyes.
“Please, don’t.” I shook my head and turned away. But I should have known better. Never take your eyes off the enemy. He flipped me over and hauled me to my knees, slapping my thighs farther apart. “Stop! You son of a bitch!”
I heard him spit and he slapped my ass three times until my skin felt like he’d set it on fire.
Yelping into the mattress, I tried to wriggle free, but he held my hips and draped his body over mine. “Relax,” he rasped into my ear, his dick at my entrance.
“No! Don’t—”
The words died in my throat when he mercilessly shoved inside. I thought I knew pain, that we’d become well-acquainted over the last few weeks, but fuck, was I wrong.
Red hot flames scorched me from the inside out as he brutally pistoned inside me.
In and out.
“Oh, fuck, sweetheart…look at you. That’s the prettiest fucking shade of red I’ve ever seen.”
Satin sheets muffled my sobs as he continued his assault.
His fists in my hair, blood-coated handprints smeared on my back and ass, and all over the mattress.
That sick, sorry bastard. He was so fucking proud.
My body wasn’t his to take, to violate, and desecrate. I didn’t belong to him.
I was yours, Ezra. But you left me here.
The world faded to black over and over, day after day. And every time I awoke, my soul dimmed a little more when a different set of eyes and a new face appeared above me until I couldn’t see them anymore—until they all blurred into the same monster.