Page 78 of Isle of Beauty

THIRTY-ONE

LANA

CAPTIVITY

Murmurs fill my ears. The surface underneath me is hard but I don’t think it’s the ground. I can’t detect anything while in this state. My body shivers, a cold breeze enveloping me from head to toe. And I feel it where I shouldn’t.

I groan. It’s taking me longer to come back to my senses. My head hurts with the headache of the century and when I try to open my eyes, they feel sticky.

I force them to open more and wish I hadn’t.

“The princess’s awake,” a voice says next to me.

I breathe in through the nose and out slowly through my mouth, giving myself the strength to push onto my arms and sit up. I’m dizzy and I realise with horror that the people next to me are naked. And I immediately know why I can feel the breeze on my nipples.

Nausea clogs at my throat. The idea of having been unconscious while someone took my clothes off and touched me, or worse, fills me with a disgust so strong I start to tremble.

“Don’t fucking puke! They don’t come to clean the room.”

I snap my gaze to the person next to me and focus on them instead. Anything to distract my mind from being violated.

“Who are you?” My voice is hoarse and my mouth completely dry.

“Name’s Jennie. And that over there, is Sally.” Sally sits on the floor opposite of us, knees into her chest, catatonic. “Here, have my water.” She hands me a cup of fresh water and I drink it slowly, reminding myself that with the state of my stomach, any intake of liquid or food in one go will make me sick.

“Thank you.”

I take in the room where the three of us are. There are no windows, the walls are grey and bare. A light bulb illuminates the room, and Jennie and I are currently sitting on an extremely thin and dirty mattress, directly laying on the grey cement floor.

Fuck, this is bad.

“Where are we?” I ask.

“Transition facility. Before we get sold.”

My eyes widen. She’s saying it with such carelessness.

I stand on unsteady legs and take a closer look around the room. The door is metal and closed, no sign of a door knob on our side.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Somehow, I know without asking that we’re not on Kalliste anymore and given Jennie’s accent, my bet is on the UK, where the threat against my family was coming from all along. But skin trade? It fucking doesn’t make sense. My entire family is going to look for me everywhere, I’m a known face in the underworld and any potential buyer - my skin recoils at the word - would know I’d fight my way out of it.

“How did we get here?” I ask Jennie.

She shrugs. “Beats me. I was drugged from a bar and woke up here seven days ago.”

I turn back to the door and bang on it like a banshee.

“Stop that shit, you don’t want them to come in here.” Jennie calmly says.

I fucking know it’s futile. I know how crazed I must look, naked and banging on a metal door until I hurt my wrists and break nails. Anything is better than acceptance. Anything is better than the apathy Jennie displays or the catatonic state Sally is in. I refuse to give up, that’s not who I am.

After a while, the door opens to a burly man all dressed in black. His mouth is covered so I can’t see his face but his eyes are hateful. Until they turn black when he takes me in, inch by inch. A shiver runs up my spine but I stay standing, chin raised and looking at the man. I won’t cower for anyone.

The door stays open behind him.

I can take him. I’m trained. I know how to disarm him and snap his neck. But I don’t know the layout of where we are, how many men are outside, waiting for an excuse to beat us, or worse.

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