Stolen

Chapter 4: Numbers and Names

Time started to drag on as a few more people were dragged in, one more girl and two more boys. It made all of us jump back when one of the boys had kicked one of the masked man in the spot you should never kick a man and all over us girls just went wide eyed and the other boys let out 'ows', and looked away, feeling the man's pain. That boy got a good fist to the face, blood running down and they had forced him down to the floor as they cleaned it up, keeping a cloth pressed hard on his nose to stop the bleeding. After that, the boy had been thrown into the cage next to Izzy, leaving all of the other cages full. Now we all could only stand in these small spaced cages, playing with our cuffs and clothes.

It had been maybe hours later, all of us leaning against cage walls, looking at the entrance to the room, looking at the ground or just at each other. None of us spoke, what was there to talk about? That was when my stomach made a noise, Luke looking up at me as I pressed my hands to my stomach as it let out yet another growl.

"What was that? A whale?" He asked smiling a little as he spoke in a soft whisper, looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

I just rolled my eyes. "It's not my fault, I'm hungry." I mumbled, looking over at Izzy who had stopped crying but hadn't said one thing, at all.

"Sure, judging by that whale." He laughed a little and I shook my head, nearly jumping as a soft voice spoke next to me.

I looked to see it was the girl who I had been locked up next to, her eyes were a light blue, her hair let out lose from a braid that was still together, barely. She looked to be just a year younger than me, her red hair matching nicely with the mint green dress she had on that hugged her body.

"Hi..." She murmured softly towards me, her blue eyes looking past my shoulder at Luke the best she could.

"Hey?" I said looking at her with a soft smile as much as I could muster and saw her body relax some.

"D-o you know what's going to happen to us, um.." She stopped, seeing she didn't know my name.

"I'm Skyler, and no, I don't." I said looking over at Luke, who just shrugged.

"I'm July." She said smiling a little bit, her blue eyes seemed to light up a little more.

I nodded at her and almost everyone jumped when to the far right, a boy grabbed at the cage door and shook it, his cage shaking back and forth. All of us looked around at each other until one of the boys I didn't know yelled at him.

"Heath! Stop, you're going to get all of us-" but the boy who he had called Heath stopped shaking at the cage and sent him a nasty glare, his cuffed hands still clenched onto the mesh wiring.

"Shut your trap Nate!" He yelled, July and I both looked at each other, she just shook her head before looking back at the boy who was called Nate.

"You don't understand! They're selling us, you cheese ball! There's people up there that are waiting for them to bring us out so they can buy us!" Heath yelled, making all of us look at him.

"What are you talking about?!"

"Sell?!"

"You're joking!"

That went back and forth and I looked towards the entrance to see men entering, one of them seeing all of us were now yelling at each other. This was the first time that I had noticed that they all weren't wearing masks, their eyes darting back and forth between Nate and Heath, who had words with each other. The one man then grabbed at a clip board in someone's hands, throwing it against the wall, the room going quiet.

"Shut up!" The man yelled and I just closed my eyes and shook my head when Heath spoke up.

"How about you give us answers on why we're locked in cages!" He yelled, making the man just place his fingers on his temple.

"I'm going to have a headache by the end of all this." He mumbled before taking the same clip board he had thrown at the wall from a different man.

"Alright, I'm going to call numbers and or names out, say something not stupid when I do call either one of yours." He said flipping a paper up.

"Number 8765, Juniper Lane." He said looking up and a soft voice came from the cage next to Luke who looked out with wide eyes.

"T-that's m-me." The girl said, glancing at the man who took a step forward, looking at her.

"Okay." Is all he said.

"Number 8739, Heath Robson."

Silence.

"Heath Robson." The man said a little bit more forceful than before. Heath still didn't say anything.

"Robson!" He yelled looking around at us, reading some of our number tags before his eyes landed on Heath who was looking right back at him.

He just snarled and shoved the clip board into someone's hands before walking over to Heath, unlocking the door, the man stepped in, grabbed Heath by his collar and pinned him against the wall. Heath struggling for air as he tried to get the man off of him.

"How many times do I need to say your name?" He asked with dead calmness, moving his arm up and pressing it near Heath's neck who was now coughing for air.

Heath couldn't respond and the man just let him go, stepping out of the cage before slamming it shut, giving Heath one last look before walking back over and taking the clip board back. He started to read off names and none of us hesitated to answer after what happened. July Percy, Lily Collins, Rory Weeks, Marcus Rheem, Brynn Carillo, and Nate Gates. It took the man, oh, maybe ten minutes to say our names and all.

"Alright, looks like I have everything else." He said lifting up more papers and scanning over them before he nodded and the men behind him all started to walk towards our cages, unlocking them. Some of us tried to pull away, the rest of us got out. I thought they were going to just walk us down somewhere but I nearly yelped when I saw another guy pull out a roll of duck tape, stretching a peace out and ripping it with his teeth. I pulled away a little as the man holding me pressed the tape over my mouth, muffing me from screaming or calling for help. Soon, duck tape covered all of our mouths and we were walking down a hall in a line, voices starting to get louder and what could be described as laughing.

No, no, no, no, no!

I tried to dig my feet into the ground but the man just picked me up, taking me up a few stairs, the others doing the same with the rest and what I saw come into view, I wanted to run. Poles were lined up in the room and blurry glass doors were closed, for now, only showing the figures that moved around.

The poles had chains around them and when the man put me on my feet, he locked them into shackles, my hands were cuffed behind my back now, a strap pulled around my waist and chest, making me have to lean straight up against the poll, not being able to move. The same was done with everyone else and soon, we were all stood locked against the poles. I moved my eyes to see who was next to me, Heath, who looked like he was struggling with the strap over his waist and chest. That was when I heard a voice talking over a microphone in the other room.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen! I know that normally we have our little gifts out here on the stage but this year, we're trying something new. Right behind those doors, are our gifts. Don't worry, they can't move or talk back to you. The doors are going to be opened in 30 minutes and we'll be set, giving you time to look at each and every one of them beforehand so you can have your money ready!" the voice announced, and soon, before I or anyone of us know it, the glass doors were opened and people started to walk in.