Page 41 of Lexi, Property of Rhyder

I feel sick to my stomach to think that they are going to sell her. She’s so young and just beginning her life. Her hair is blonde and looks as if it’s been curled and styled. Her eyes, which I’m sure are usually bright and full of life, are dull and void. As I look on, I find that I’m possibly the eldest one here because they all look under sixteen. Beside each girl is a man wearing a tuxedo, just like Christopher is standing beside me.

Without warning, a man who’s wearing a white shirt and black pants walks past each of the girls spraying us with perfume. It smells like musk and vanilla and something exotic. It’s like nothing I’ve ever smelled before.

One by one, we are accompanied by the men beside us, and with their arm in ours, they walk us down the stairs. I can see Paige is about two girls in front of me, and I watch her as she struggles with the length of the negligee which is tripping her constantly.

When we reach the bottom of the stairs, we are placed in a line behind each other. A man exits a door wearing doctor’s attire with a white lab coat and white pants. I can make out his dark hair through the protective cap he’s wearing. He’s short with a black goatee and dark eyes. He speaks to the man next to him in Spanish, and then both the man and the doctor grab the first girl in line and walk her into the room the doctor exited from.

It’s quiet, and the girls all look around trying to figure out what’s going on.

Then struggling echoes around us, and I swallow hard wondering what they’re doing to that poor girl. I lick my lips trying to gain some sort of feeling of normalcy. I look up at Christopher, but he’s standing there like a statue, void of any emotion and certainly not giving anything away.

It’s about ten minutes later, and a young brunette exits the room in tears.

What the hell did they do to her?

She glances at me as she passes me in the line. Her eyes are dull and lifeless, but the tears have run down her face and run her mascara. One by one, they continue the same process, and then I freeze when it’s Paige’s turn. I step onto my tiptoes to try and get a better look into the room, but the door is abruptly closed after Paige is taken in.

I wait, patiently biting the skin around my nails praying Paige is okay, but then I’m relieved once she finally steps out. I try to gain her attention, but she’s avoiding eye contact and staring at the floor.

“Paige… Paige, are you okay?” I ask as she passes by.

She looks up at me, her eyes telling me exactly what I don’t want to know—she’s not okay. My heart sinks that little bit more, and I watch her walk to the back of the line with her eyes looking at the floor once again.

It’s not long until it is my turn, and when I’m ushered into the room by Christopher, I’m standing in an operating theater. The room smells of bleach and other sterilizing agents, a scent I’m all too familiar with, especially considering my dad’s a surgeon.

Before I can say or think anything, I’m thrust forward and asked to lie on my back. I would argue, but when I see two men in the theater dressed as the others holding guns, I decide it’s best to do as they say.

I lay on the bed, and Christopher helps me onto my back. The doctor looks down at me and tells me to lay still. The bed has leg restraints on either side, and I remember seeing something like this before when I went to the obstetrician with my mom to discuss me getting the needle in my arm for birth control.

Thank God my mom was on top of it because I had already gotten the needle when I was raped. The last thing I would have wanted was an unwanted pregnancy by a rapist.

Christopher bends one of my legs and straps it down while the doctor does the other.

My negligee falls to my thighs, and I know that I’m fully exposed to them. My breathing comes out heavily when I think about what they’re going to do. My hands grip the sheets beside me, and I close my eyes to try and calm myself.

Please don’t faint. Please don’t faint.

It’s funny because the first person who comes into my thoughts for some reason is Rhyder.

Where are you now, Rhyder, when I need you?

I feel my eyes burn with unshed tears when I think of him and how he was there for me when I needed him the most.

How right he was about everything.

He’s the one person I would call to help me. But how?

How can I?

How can I get to my cell? It has to be here somewhere.

How long have we been away from the villa? It’s hard to keep track when you’ve been lying in a dark dungeon with no light and no way to tell if it’s day or night.

My parents must be going crazy, and I wonder if Rhyder has tried to call me. I pray that he has because if I don’t reply or answer, he will know something’s wrong, surely.

“This will be cold,” the doctor explains. “Deep breath for me.” I inhale and then feel the coldness of something being shoved up my vagina. “I’m now going to clamp you open.”

“What?” I cry, but before he can answer, I feel myself opening, and then a light is switched on and facing downstairs.

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