Page 21 of Teach Me How To Fly

What a pathetic piece of shit. Not even being grateful for what those girls were enduring for his pocket to be filled each day.

“Five hundred thousand dollars for the one and only Killian McKnight! The pretty lady must be red in her cheeks knowing such men are battling over her,” the man said with a mischievous grin on his face as the girl started shaking even harder. “Five hundred thousand dollars once. Five hundred thousand dollars twice.”

What I was going to do was going to shock everyone.

“Eight hundred thousand dollars,” I said promptly and the silence that came in the entire hall made my lips stretch into a smirk.

That was what I fucking wanted.

The girl started crying on the scene and I saw the man next to her punching her from behind to calm down. I wanted to stand up and go right to him and punch him in his face. But I couldn’t.

I looked at her and I saw the fear she had in her eyes as she looked at me. I tried to send her some comforting looks, but I supposed she wasn’t catching any of those considering how terrified she was.

“This night is the most interesting of them all, ladies and gents! Eight hundred thousand dollars once. Eight hundred thousand dollars twice.” He spoke slowly, waiting for someone to come up with a higher bid than I did. But no one did, just as I expected.

“Eight hundred thousand dollars for the man behind. The girl is all yours, Mister Brown!”

I smiled gently as he spoke and felt some sharp looks coming for me. It was either Lukyan’s, Killian’s or everyone else’s, but I couldn’t care less.

I stood up from the chair and walked to the stage where the girl was already escorted out. I led my feet towards her and as I reached her, I saw how hard she trembled.

I took her hand in mine and started walking to the area where we were going to send the girls to our facility to prepare them for the next step.

“Don’t worry. You’ll not have a better life with us, but I can assure you that it will be nicer than with the McKnights.”

“I-I-I want to go h-home,” she mumbled and I noticed her accent.

“I know. But I can’t help you. I did more than I could to not let you go with those awful men.”

“You are all awful! I-I…”

“Just say thank you for now. You wouldn’t want to know what the other girls will be going through now that they’re bought by the McKnights.”

I won tonight.

But I wasn’t proud of it.

When I got back home,I took off my suit and searched for the napkin in my pocket. Even though I had a lot to do tonight, my mind didn’t stop thinking about the message Olivia left for me.

I sat down on the bed’s edge and took in a deep breath as I unfolded the napkin.

Save Annalise

And my heartsuddenly stopped beating.

9

ANNALISE

As I was playing with my pen on the desk’s surface, I felt a cold air hugging me entirely. It made me feel unsafe in my own house. I tried to move and stand up from the chair, but it seemed impossible.

“Olivia?” I yelled, but all I could hear was my own voice echo.

I turned around and the door slammed open on the wall, a dark fog entering my room and making everything look like it was portrayed by a demon.

I knew it was him. My body started shaking uncontrollably and I became more terrified with every second that passed by. The black fog filled the room, and when it reached for the desk, I felt it untwining up my legs, tying me to the chair. I tried to yell again, but nothing came out of my mouth.

“Annalisa! Annalisa! Where are you, my sweet dear child?”

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