From Sold to Selling

Chapter 1

I did nothing to deserve this.

My body is starting to ache from being chained to this wall in such an unnatural position. My hands are tied together with rope and latched onto a hook overhead. My fingers have been numb for so long that I fear that I will never be able to use them again. My ankles are also bound together harshly with duck tape, limiting my mobility.

My mind is starting to play tricks on me. I have no notion of the time or my location. I have been sitting in the dark, concrete room for hours. The room is tiny and has no windows. I have seen no one since arriving here. I don't even know how I got here. 

The last thing I remember was walking home from the lab. I am a 24 year old grad student studying Chemistry, my research advisor asked me to prep some supplies for tomorrow's undergrad labs. I stayed late to do so after I finished my own research for the night.

I guess I shouldn't have walked home alone that late in the city, but I had done it a hundred times before. There was no point in paying for a taxi or bothering a friend to come get me so late. My apartment is only a few blocks away.

I started my walk home, staring down at my phone as I walked. Sure, I probably should have been paying more attention, but I had been alone in the lab all day long. I needed some human interaction, so I loaded up my social media apps and scrolled away.

Someone came up behind me, which wasn't abnormal, even for the time. I live in St Louis, there are plenty of night owls here. I didn't think twice as they started to pass me. I didn't even glance up from my phone screen. As they passed they quickly reached over and covered my face with a something and before I could even react everything went black.

Then I woke up here; uncomfortable and pissed off. Obviously, this was a dangerous situation; when I first woke, I was terrified and panicking. I tried to struggle out of my restraints with no luck. Then I started screaming, hoping anyone would hear me. I yelled until my voice was nothing but a raspy whisper. When I could no longer scream, I waited.

Since then, I have had hours to sit uncomfortably in this room getting more and more angry by the minute. I have no information yet. I don't know if this is trafficking, a serial killer, or just some creep who kidnaps young girls from the street and keeps them in his basement for his amusement, but I do know a few things. 

I have not been harmed, and my clothing is all intact. The way I am bound and left here alone with no necessities implies that this location is temporary and that I will be moved soon. (Or killed soon... I push away the thought) There are at least a dozen people upstairs in this building because I have been hearing their footsteps and boasting laughter for hours on end.

My thoughts are interrupted by a loud rumbling noise upstairs, and I tense up. It takes me a moment to realize that the rumbling is dozens if not hundreds of people clapping above me. I definitely underestimated the number of people in this building. 

The door in front of me opens suddenly, blinding me with light that I have been denied for hours. My eyes won't adjust. I feel someone roughly cut the duck tape at my ankles. They grab my wrists off the hook on the wall and hoist me to my feet. My hands are roughly unbound and something is shoved in to them. My fingers are still to numb to move or feel.

"Change" a man says before slamming the door in my face leaving me alone in the dark room once more. I look down to my hands and toss the black dress they had given me on to the floor scoffing. I am not changing in to that. I am getting out of here.

Now that I am unbound, I look around the little, dark room. There is absolutely nothing in here. I turn my attention to the little closet's door. I reach for the nob, which is of course locked. Nothing is that easy, I try to shove it open with no luck.

Someone slams on the outside of my door with no warning, and I jump back startled. My heart racing. "I told you to change," the man from before growls.

"Don't make me come in there and help you." He snarls as he jiggles the door nob.

I know he was just trying to scare me into obeying, but what other choice did I have? I was trapped in a room with no way out and there was a giant man guarding the door.

I slip the tight dress on over my tank top and pull my jeans off underneath not daring to undress completely if there was a chance the man could open the door.

Now what? I think to myself.

I didn't have time to make a decision before he opened the door again. He smirks when he saw that I changed, and I just glared at him.

He notes my glare and gets pissed. By my wrist, he pulls me out of the closet before slamming my back on to the wall outside the door. My head smashes against the wall and I immediately feel lightheaded. Warmth flooding to the back of my head where it impacted against the hard wall.

He takes a step back, and I see the flash of a camera. Before I even comprehend what he was doing he shoved me back in to the closet and slammed the door. I tripped on my way in and fell cutting my knee open on the rough concrete floor.

I pull it up to my chest instinctively, waiting for the sharp pain to pass. The cut isn't deep, but the dress ripped and there is blood running down my knee now.

I go to grab for my old jeans to use as a towel, only to find that they are no longer there. 'Asshole' I mumble under my breath.

Running my fingers through my hair out of frustration and wince when my fingers contact the knot forming where my head was slammed in to the wall.

Once again I sit in the dark alone for hours before the door finally opens again. I stand when I here someone outside the door, and I am backed against the wall when the door opens.

"Jesus Drake, what did you do to her." a man says looking at my bloody knee.

I look up at the men, they look frustrated and perhaps even scared when they observe my injury. I keep my mouth shut. Drake disappears down the hall and a moment later returns throwing dome damp paper towels at me.

"Clean yourself up" he tells me.

I wanted to tell him to fuck off. I wanted to scream at him and tell him that it is his fault i'm bleeding and that he should clean up my leg. I wanted to fight and scream and cry and run. I had the adrenaline built up in me, I could probably do some damage to these guys...

But I didn't. I let fear bind me as I took the paper towels from his hand, and I wiped the blood from my shin and knee without a word. Drake takes the paper towels from me and turns to the new man.

"All better, now take her" he tells him.

The new man rebinds my wrists with a pair of shiny handcuffs, this time they were bound in front of me. He kept a solid grip on my wrists and pulled me out into a bright hall and to the right. We turn into a stairwell and I stumbled up them, struggling to keep up but the new man does not seem to care. My panic rises as the unknown gets closer.

I get passed off to someone else at the top. This man is tall and muscular, and his grip on my upper arm is rough, I am sure that it will bruise. Amidst my panic, I begin to listen. In the distance, over my racing heart, I can hear someone announcing names while others clap and get rowdy. The man pulls me down a hall without even glancing in my direction.

My eyes have fully adjusted to the light, but there isn't much to see, just a dark hallway with a thick red curtain draped to my right. I can hear the people on the other side and I know what is about to happen. I know they are calling the names, and I know the clapping and rowdiness is coming from groups of people bidding on these helpless girls. I'm not stupid, but I am in denial. I don't want to be one of them. I can't speak as the panic fills me. Tears are now what blinds my vision as they walk me out onto the stage.

I gasp audibly. This isn't some raunchy strip club with some low life criminals who will make stupid mistakes and get caught. I am on the stage at a massive theater in downtown St Louis. Fuck. This is professional. There are no mistakes here, these people are powerful, I am looking at a criminal empire, and they are all staring right back at me in this skimpy little black dress.

I have never felt more helpless in my entire life.