Rooted from Betrayal

Chapter 2: *Sold to slavery.*

After I had taken that one drink it had not been long before more followed until I was too drunk to be able to put up a fight should there be a need for it, and soon there was.

After a few short hours one of the brothers, had grown tired of watching the scene unfold in front of him and had ordered all the girls we had found with them to leave which had left only the eleven of us in the secluded section, where no one would be able to see a young woman getting kidnapped.

As soon as the girls had vanished, Nicholas (the oldest of the five) had called one of the guards and from him, took a thick brown paper envelop and handed it to Brayden's slim hands without saying a word.

Even though I had drunk more alcohol than I could handle, that simple action had sobered me up enough for me to see the guilt on Naledi's eyes, the satisfaction in Priya and Brayden's eyes and the too-blank look on Sakhile's. I knew then that something was not right, but before I could voice out my 'need' to use the bathroom, Rosy had spoken:

"I think everything is done here. You have what you wanted, and we now have what we want. I advise you to leave before I lodge a bullet into your brains." Her voice had been filled with revulsion and her eyes malicious.

The first person to leave was Sakhile-someone I saw as my own brother-and he had left without sparing me even one last glance. After him, Priya and Brayden had followed, their heels clicking audibly with sneers of disgust and hatred laid bare in front of me to be seen.

I had not needed to be told, I knew I had to leave that place as soon as possible but I had failed to notice one of the guards coming behind me, and as soon as I tried to take a run for it, he grabbed me and forced me to sit on the plush sofa.

I remember the pitying look on Rosy's eyes and guilt on Naledi's. Guilt but not remorse, she did not regret betraying me. I remember how they looked at me with those looks as I fought and screamed before a needle stabbed me on the neck. I remember Naledi's soft voice as she whispered to me before I fell into the dark chambers of unconsciousness.

"Better this than spending any more time with snakes like us who envy you even though you have nothing. Better this than being auctioned on the black market."

Those were the last words I heard from her and the first words that had come into my mind when I had woken up on a bed that was not mine, in a room I had not known. Whether because of the alcohol, the drugs or the reality of the situation, I had woken up nauseated and had the urge to vomiting.

I am not sure how I found the toilet because there had been more than one door. After I had vomited all the contents of my stomach, I had washed my mouth and had started thinking. I had never been one for panicking and in that moment, I had been too numb or under shock to feel something of that intensity. I had known I could not escape in that moment, even if I had tried, I had thought it highly unlikely that they would leave me unattended and attempt escape.

I had had no desire to try and escape then because a slave that tried to escape always angered the master. A slave, because that is what my situation had pointed at.

I had been sold and put in a cell and even though it had silk sheets, electricity and perfect plumbing, it was still a cell. Escaping and running for my freedom had sounded as tantalizing as rushing water in a desert but I had known I could not face whatever consequences that would have been thrown my way if I had been caught. As it turned out, the probability of that happening had been guaranteed because of the guards who had been tasked with watching me.

And so, I had done the one thing I could do that would not get me in trouble; I had gone back to the bed I had woken up from, wrapped myself in the covers and waited for the man that now 'owned me' and learn about the nature of my new fate.