Page 4 of Dark Knight

The urge to run was overwhelming, and yet I couldn't. I perched on the edge of the bed instead, bouncing my knees up and down, needing some form of movement without being able to do much. It felt like I sat there waiting for hours. Maybe I had. I honestly had no concept of time in this room since the windows were completely closed off, if they even existed at all.

Muffled voices passed by the room. It was the first sound I had heard outside of the hum of the lights. I had to literally bite my tongue to stop from calling out to them because I knew if someone was calmly walking through the building, it was unlikely that they could or would help me. Anybody who worked at a place like this wouldn't be willing to put their neck on the line to help the people who were being sold. And I assumed since I had already been sold, I couldn't have been the only item up for auction.

As my legs rubbed against the fabric covering the bed, I realized how itchy the comforter felt against my skin. It was almost as if I could run my fingers over the weave of the threads and count them.

I decided to do just that as a way to pass the time. Maybe it would help me focus on something other than the fact that I was about to meet my new owner. Muffled voices sounded again, but this time they seemed to have stopped in front of the door. I swore I could hear my heartbeat echoing throughout the room as my breath sawed in and out of my chest.

My anxiety reached a whole new level I didn't even realize was possible. Sampson's ugly mug was the first thing I saw. His buzzed hair was longer than it had been when he first took me, which had basically been shaved down to the skin at that point. His cold eyes seemed to snap and lock on me as he entered the room, and it was all I could do not to flinch at the harshness of his gaze.

The air around me stirred and I could feel it move against my skin as Sampson returned with another person following behind him. Something in the smell that wafted in with him was familiar, and it made me remember the days I had spent with my family. The cult. Growing and working and learning. Being a single member of a collective. A microscopic part of a whole.

Movement caught my eye and a figure emerged from behind Sampson right as the click of the door sounded. Before I could get a good look at him, Sampson spoke. "Sean, this is your bitch now. Take a look at her. Make sure your boss is going to be satisfied. Then we can exchange the keys and money, but once I walk out that door, she's your problem. If you're not interested anymore then there's still time for me to shove her into the auction, where I'm sure she'll get a lot of attention."

There was a slight curl to Sampson's upper lip, as though he was sneering at me. What the hell did he have to sneer about? I didn't know.

The thud of something heavy hitting the floor drew my gaze back to my new captor as he fully looked at me and I looked at him.

Shivers broke out over my body.

There was no way this could be happening.

Not here.

Not now.

Not when I'd worked so hard to be free of them.

The blue eyes that stared back at me were a similar shape to my own and the blonde hair almost the same shade, or at least it had been. Now it looked a muddy brown color.

Sean wasn't his real name either. I scooted back on the bed until I was wedged into the corner. Everything suddenly became too much. The echo of my heartbeat. The buzz of the electricity. Sampson's sneer. The faint scent of cigar. The scratchy sheets. The weight of the cuffs. It all made me want to scream. When Sean took a step toward me, that was exactly what I did.

4

Evie

My scream of terror was shrill in my own ears, and it was only when Sampson reached out and backhanded me that I stopped, the sound cutting off abruptly. As though the hit shook my brain enough to think again, I realized that Sean might be my perfect chance to escape. I snapped my mouth shut as Sampson retreated.

"Come to me." Sean's voice was soft, with a slight accent to it.

I did as he asked, acutely aware of Sampson's gaze watching us the whole time. It was the first time he'd hit me all day. If I didn't keep myself under control, it wouldn't be the last, and Sampson's hits, even just the slaps, hurt like hell. I could already taste blood in my mouth from the one he'd just given me, and I didn't want to taste any more.

The chains that bound my cuffs to the bed rattled as I scooted forward once more, getting off the bed. My dress slid high on my legs, showing off thigh, more thigh than Sean had probably ever seen before, at least on me.

I scrambled to pull the fabric down, even though it only came to my knees and was thin enough that there wasn't much of a point to it anyway. Still, with him standing there looking me over as I pushed my feet, the fabric felt like a shield, and I wanted to cover every part of my body with it.

"Don't be shy," Sampson's voice sounded disembodied now that I was focused on Sean, and I wasn't sure if the order was for me or Sean until he spoke again. "Take a look at what you purchased, or rather what your boss purchased."

His boss. That was the second time that Sampson mentioned a boss, and I wondered who the hell his boss was. My greatest fear was that his boss was actually the Light Father, but my hope was that his boss was somebody else. There was no way that Sean was still a member of the same cult we grew up in together. Not with his hair dyed and tattoos peeking out from under the sleeves of his t-shirt. He would be disavowed for mutilating his body in such a way.

Sean reached out a hand and gripped me by the chin, tilting my head this way and that. He pushed the hair that had fallen loose from my ponytail out of my face, likely revealing the freckled birthmark that I had on the top of my right ear. As soon as he saw my ear, a smile spread over his face. The smile seemed hopeful, yet it chilled me to the bone.

Honestly, he was the last person I wanted to see. The Children of Radiance, the cult I grew up in, could have sent anybody else to find me and bring me back, and it would have been better. The only person I hated as much as him was the Light Father. I watched as his mask slipped back into place, his hand releasing my chin.

When he turned, I barely recognized the man who was staring down at me. "She's a good find. We'll take her."

Sampson smiled in a way that only he could, one corner of his mouth curling in a way that reminded me of a greedy goblin from the fairy tales, one that couldn't stop reaching for more. "Let's go chat payment then. You know, if your boss has other specific needs, I bet I could find something to meet them on Welhurst’s campus. When I took this little lady, there was a plethora of other easy opportunities for someone like me who’s brave enough to take them," he said as he headed back toward the door.

My stomach turned for the other students that attended Welhurst. There was a predator stalking them and they didn’t even know it.

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