CAGED

Chapter 6: The Bidder

I hear talking around me, but I can't seem to make out the words. My eyes remain shut despite my efforts to open them. My head hurts, a headache pounding its way into my temples. My throat aches painfully when I try to swallow my own saliva; I feel like crying from the ever-present pain making itself known to me.

I focus on the voices until I can make out some of what they are saying. One voice I recognize to be Masters, and the other is unknown to me.

"-day early. She---handful---warned." Masters voice is saying.

"It's fine---can go---early now. Where---" the stranger answers back.

I blink my eyes until they pry open, greeting the dark room. I'm in my cage, curled in an uncomfortable position. What did I expect after having been caught trying to run away? The door opens and Master flips on the light switch. I am blinded by the light and shy away from it with a gasp.

"I've had her for five months," Masters voice is much clearer now. Five months?! I scream to myself. My poor mother must assume I'm dead. And Kitty! I was supposed to call her. She probably thinks I didn't call her on purpose, that I abandoned her. I refrain from sobbing like my body yearned to do, but I couldn't stop the tears that gathered at my eyes.

"Five months?" the stranger asks. "And yet she tried to run away? Perhaps, James, you're not as efficient as you try to proclaim."

Masters ears turned red as he shot a glare at me. I know that if the stranger does not buy me, then Master will find a new punishment to torture me with until he feels as though I've compensated him for his loss.

"She had a bit of spirit," Master admits, "but she is well taught. She's older than most, so it took a little longer to train her than it did the others."

"I see." The stranger approached my cage and I cast my eyes down to my bruised and cut feet. The stranger circled my cage, his eyes piercing through the bars at me.

"Girl!" the strangers voice is loud as he calls to me. "What is your name?"

I don't hesitate to answer with what Master taught me. "My name is Slave, Sir." I say softly and with my head bowed low.

"Slave," the stranger responds, "what is your real name?"

I hesitate before answering, "Marissa, Sir." I know I'm not supposed to remember my name, Master told me to forget it, but at night I whispered it to myself so that I never forget it.

"Marissa," the stranger says my name is a startling way. "I am your new Master. You will call me Master and nothing else and you will do as I say. If you do not, you will be punished. Third strike and you will be killed. Do you understand?"

Tears threaten to spill from my eyes as I answer "Yes Master." My previous master unlocks the cage door and grabs my hair, dragging my legs across the rusted bars beneath me. When I am free of the cage my new Master pulls handcuffs from his jacket pocket and clips them onto my wrists behind my back. I look up for the first time at his face, knowing I'll be slapped but still needing to know what my new Master looks like.

He has dark salt and pepper hair, with a white stubble beard. His eyes are brown and his lips are pressed together in an unamused way. He is tall and average in size, not athletic but also not chubby. His eyes are angled at me with a look of severe disapproval in them.
Master raises his hand and strikes me across my face. "Do not look up unless I tell you too."

"Y-yes Master!" I cry out as my cheek begins to sting. I lower my eyes to my purple and blue feet again.

"The payment will be transferred within an hour." Master spoke above me to my previous master, James. James nods his head and agrees, and just like that my new Master drags me from the room, through the living room, and to the door I had tried to escape from.

Master opens it and shoves me through, pushing me down the aging wooden stairs. I stumble to my knees and scramble to get up before Master grabs my hair and throws me at his black car. I hit the side of the car hard with my arm, but Master doesn't pay attention to it as he shoves my head down and throws me into the backseat.

"Goodbye James." Master nods his head and shuts his door. He taps his knuckles on the glass separating us from the front seat and the car jolts into motion, making me fall back into the seat. I close my eyes and silently pray to whoever is out there that we crash and die, or he gets pulled over, or anything that could save my life. Nothing happened as we ride in silence.