Page 3 of Moonlit Choosing Ritual

As soon as he left, a tsunami of emotions surged through me. I curled my knees up and hugged them. And then I cried. No sobbed. Couldn’t you wait for one more day, God? Just one more day and I would’ve been hundreds of miles away from here. My mother had been so cruel to me when I was a child, yet I endured her cruelty because I had no one else to go to. I remembered how she would make me eat food so hot it would scald my tongue, but I had it while crying and not making a noise because she was my safe haven. She was my normal.

Then suddenly, she became everything… abnormal.

Seconds turned into minutes, and I lost all sense of time as I cried until I could cry no more. My eyes hurt, my lips were swollen, and my cheeks were flushed when I looked at myself in the mirror. And realization dawned upon me that there was literally no escape. I took a cold bath.

I’d probably be free if someone bought me.

The red teddy barely covered my breasts and fell short on my hips. It was so horribly revealing. So I picked up my shorts and put them on over the top.

When Brute came in, he hissed at the shorts. Grabbing me roughly by my waist, he pulled them off, even as I protested.

“Shut up!” he yelled. He grasped my hand and dragged me out of the room toward a flight of stairs. It was hard to keep up with him, but I rushed as fast as I could.

When we arrived in a small foyer, he pushed me toward a group of five girls, all wearing matching red teddies. Like a fragile leaf, trembling in the storm of my fear, I collided with one of them. She whimpered as she caught me. “Steady…” she whispered. “And don’t protest, else he’ll tie you up and beat you here. It’s better to be out of here than in here.”

My lips quivered as I stood quietly in the foyer and waited with the rest of the girls for someone to bid for me. I tried to understand how my mom could betray me like this, but my bitterness toward her had already evolved into hatred.

“You have beautiful baby blue eyes and pale blonde hair,” a brunette beside me whispered, touching it. “You might be auctioned at a higher price.”

Before I could say anything, Brute appeared. “Time to go on the stage,” he barked at us. “You better behave out there, ’cause if you don’t, I’ll fucking drag you back here and choke you, got it?”

We all nodded, clutching each other for comfort, our faces pale, and breaths coming in quick, shallow gasps. Some of the girls had tear-streaked cheeks, while others stared blankly ahead, their minds overwhelmed by the nightmare they were living. The sound of muffled sobs and occasional whispered reassurances filled the oppressive silence.

One by one, the girls were called, and I heard people shouting and passing snide remarks. I was the last to go.

I entered a room with my hands clasped in front of me and scanned the audience, but I couldn’t see anyone. There were cameras everywhere. Blinding lights hit me while these monsters hid in the darkness, sitting upstairs in private balconies, enjoying the trade in flesh.

Brute was on the stage waiting for me as Madam Nella announced, “Here comes our most beautiful possession. She’s a virgin, loves to exercise.” She laughed softly. “My men had to run to catch her.” Shaking her head, she added, “She was about to graduate from high school, but we got her! You can chase her all you like, or make her study… you.”

Loud, unruly laughter rose from the crowd. Some whistled and some hooted.

Madam Nella signaled Brute to come forward. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders from behind, pinning me to his chest. One hand snaked to my hips, which he squeezed painfully.

“Look at her luscious skin,” Madam Nella chuckled. “The bidding starts at thirty thousand dollars.”

“No!” I cried.

“Thirty thousand!” said a nasally voice.

“Fifty thousand,” a man shouted gruffly.

I gulped as Brute brought his hand to my thigh and pinched me. I yelped in pain, jumping away, but he pulled me hard against him, not allowing me to move.

“Eighty thousand!” I heard a woman’s soft voice from my left.

I whimpered in pain. If God gave me superpowers, I was going to kill Brute first and then Madam Nella. “Let me go!”

Brute leaned closer and nibbled my ear. “Don’t move. The bidding’s going better than we expected.”

“Hundred thousand dollars,” the nasally voice came again, this time more aggressively.

“Hundred and fifty thousand,” two voices came simultaneously.

“One hundred and seventy-five,” the woman upped her bid.

Everyone fell silent. A soft chuckle emanated from the shadows. “She’s mine,” the woman said. “Wrap it up.”

Madam Nella looked at me proudly. “Hundred and seventy-five, going once. Hundred and seventy-five, going twice. Hundred and seventy-five—”

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