Salvation

Chapter 1: The Auction

Present Time

 

She was right, he did come for her. Those footsteps in the gravel came and took her with them. No one except her captors know how long she was down there, squished into that tiny cell with the other women, maybe they didn’t know. All Darci knows now, is that it is nice to get out, evern if she doesn’t know where she’s headed.

As Darci is being pulled along, she notices that there are other women being led from other cells. They are all being led to this massive pick-up truck. There is a hard roof on the top of the back, with little bars they can look between. As the women are being loaded into the truck, they are being cuffed to each other and the truck. Everyone’s hands are being chained up, and our ankles are tied to a huge metal bar running the length of the truck. It is very uncomfortable, but Darci doesn’t have a choice as she’s pushed into the back behind another woman. The men pushed 10 women into the back of the truck, so they did have more room than in the cells, but not much. Once they were all chained, two of the men jumped in the front and started the truck.

The ride was long and hot, going all night and into the next day. By about noon, they had finally stopped. As Darci looked out of the bars, she noticed the landscape; mountains in front of them, flat pairies behind them and a huge body of water to the right.

“Do you know where they’re taking us?” she whispers to another woman, but without a response. All the other women look at her like she is crazy for even speaking. Just as she was about to say something else, the truck started again and was led over to a huge stage.

Darci had gone to a concert with Derrick a few years ago, but this stage was nothing close to the same. This stage has a big circle platform on it, with a podium to the right. “It almost looks like it’s set up for an auction.”

“You! Ya, you! Grab the girls and let’s start this! We already have a crowd!” shouted a man standing off to the side of the stage. Darci couldn’t see him very well, but she knows by the way he was standing and how everyone listened to him that he was the boss. Something seems very familiar about him, like she’s seen him before, but can’t place it.

When Darci is pulled out of the truck, she gets a good glimpse at him. He is a tall man, very fit with a strong jaw line which is tight set as he looks over the women. His hands are big compared to his arms, and when he grabs her face to inspect it, she can feel his rought skin, fingers digging into her cheeks.

“I think we’ll end with this one. I remember her, she’s a natural fighter. Let’s hope someone likes that in a woman.” He says aloud, though mostly to himself. Darci watches as he walks away, and she’s left wondering, “He remembers me...but where have I seen him before?”

He slowly walks up the stairs and across the stage to the podium, once there he starts into a long speech about why he’s here and what he’s hoping for.

“Hello, Freedom, Nunavut! How are you today? My name is Alex, and today we are auctioning off a variety of beautiful items. Shall we start?” Once Alex announced his name, she immediately remembers him. He was the one that organized her abduction; he is the mastermind and head of the sex slave trade in Canada. No one has caught him yet, and now, she is part of it.

“First up!” As Alex states this, one of the girls beside Darci gets hauled up onto the stage and put onto the platform. “This firecracker, she was beaten by her boyfriend and left in the streets to die. When we found her, she was barely alive. We nursed her back to health, and now we want to find her a good home.” Once Darci heard him auctioning her off, she tuned him out.

Then it was her turn. The big man standing next to her reached for her arm, but she twisted out of his reach, but  turned right into another guy and got pushed to the ground. Darci is hauled to her feet and thrown onto the stage, as she stumbles, Alex reaches over to help her to her feet. Darci immediadetly recoils back and ends up tripping over the platform and falling straight onto her back. “Don’t touch me.” She hisses at him under her breath, but he ignores her and reaches over to help her up. As soon as Darci is back on her feet, she plants a swift kick to his abdomen. As Alex doubles over, Darci makes a run for it, only to get caught by the huge man she had turned into before. He then brings her back to the platform.

“Let go of me!” she screams, “Put me down!” As she screams, she is kicking and squirming, but to no avail, his grip is too tight.

“Someone grab that tape and shut her up already!” Alex shouts as he goes back over to the podium. “Sorry everyone, this girl is a wild card.” He explains as his workers tape Darci’s mouth shut. “Now, what was I going to say? Right, I’ll keep this short and sweet. We found her wandering the forest, half out of her mind; we rehabilitated her and showed her how to deal with her confusion in a helpful way. So, do I have any takers?”

As Darci looks out into the crowd, she sees a lot of men, well, all men. There are no women in sight. But out of all these men, one catches her eye. Darci recognizes him, almost like she should know him from a long time ago, but she can’t place him anywhere.

Darci gets a good look at him, his short brown hair, carefully fraiming a square-shaped face. He has a strong jaw line leading down to a smooth, round chin. His head is sitting atop of a broad set of shoulders, his arms aren’ts huge, but they aren’t scrawny, somewhere perfectly in the middle. He is a very attractive man. Darci lets her gaze wander back up to his face and notice that his eyes are covered by sunglasses. Even as she looks away, she can tell that he is still watching her, seeing what she’s going to do next.

As she looks around, looking for another way to escape, the man is walking closer to the stage, pushing his way forward. “Darci?” he thinks. As he looks at her, he can see the features he knew so well as one point, the flame coloured hair, the intense green eyes, perfect oval head on top of slim shoulders. Her face is bruised and battered, but she’s still as beautiful now as she was when he last saw her.

Nobody is wanting to buy her, and he knows why; she’s fierce. He looks back up at the stage, and he keeps walking closer. “Marc! What are you going?” he hears in his ear. “You are supposed to stay in the back, out of sight. If they suspect you, then this whole operation will sink to the ground.”

Marc pulls out his phone and pretends to talk on it. “Relax, I didn’t forget, and you’ll see what I’m doing later. Ok?” When Marc then pulls his phone away from his ear, he grabs the hidden ear transmitter and puts it in his pocket.

The man behind the podium, Alex, is still trying to sell her, he just lowered the price.

“$50? No, okay then $20. That’s the lowest I’m going to go.”

Before he even realizes it, he raises his hand and yells out. “Here! I’ll take her for $20.”