📍Azuria.
~ATHENA
"-13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18...…..40"
I continued counting till I heard the whoosh of the whip seize and the wail of a high pitched voice turned into a mess of antagonizing whimper.
That would have been me if I didn't learn that running away was not an option in this place, it never was and it never will. I was dumb enough to have escaped few years ago only to be found within the span of 6 hours. I was brought back here and I received twice as much as the punishment anyone who had the idea to flee would have gotten. Why?
Disdain.
A harsh reminder of that one thing that made me different, the one thing that I once considered a perfection in my being before people told me how it flawed my face. My eyes, my eyes contrasted to one another with one being brown while the other was a vibrant green color.
Slurs, insults were mostly heard instead of my name. I've heard people call me a creep, some said it's a defect that ruined my facials, they said it was imperfection but once upon a time, I used to think they were beautiful, unique, striking, different but perfect.
The children of this world called me a freak, a monster, a witch. They said I was possessed by demons, that my eyes were a curse. They asked me if I was a mutant, if I was contagious. They laughed, they pointed, they whispered. I couldn't help but to stand out in a crowd, to be stared at, to be judged, to be a walking conversation starter, a human spectacle, that was how I felt.
As time went by, I started to believe them, I started to believe that I was indeed a freak, a mistake to humanity. I tried to hide my eyes as much as I could whenever I was speaking to someone, I tried to cover them up but they were always there, staring back at me in the mirror, reminding me of my ugliness.
I never felt beautiful, I'm not unique, I'm just...different. And different is just a nice way of saying 'flawed'.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be normal, to have two eyes of the same color, to be able to walk down this underground cave without people staring. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be loved, to be accepted and to be wanted by everyone but those are just fantasies of mine, dreams that will never come to pass.
I'll always be different, always be a freak. And that's just something I'd have to live with till I cease to exist from this vast world.
~~~~~~~
Salad.
That was what was set into a small white bowl which laid on a silver rusty table at the end of the dimly-lit room. The light above barely illuminated any object, talk-less of lightning up this entire underground cavern.
They had made us live the life of moles, staying deep and buried underground. The last time I saw the sunlight was many years ago. It has been so long to a point I had lost count of the days I had spent in this place.
We were as pale as ghosts, having no ounce of sunlight turned us alabaster which was perfect for them and the standard. The standard the people who were going to buy us required.
The dimly lit room reeked of stale air and desperation. I scanned every other girls faces which was filled with varying degrees of despair etched on their features. We all sat around the long, rusty table. The single, flickering light fighting and begging to be replaced as it hummed above us, casting an eerie glow on the wilted lettuce, fist sized cabbages and soggy vegetables in front of us.
One of the girls, a petite dark haired girl with sunken eyes, gently pushed her plate away but I knew she was frustrated deep down but wouldn't dare to show her true emotions. "Ugh, not this again." She whispered, her voice barely audible, a crease made its way between her eyebrows as she glared at the food before her.
"176 days." Another voice mumbled.
176 is a rookie number, I stopped counting on day 1330 of being here because I had zero hope I was going to escape from this life. "176 days of them feeding us with things like these as if we were animals or something." The Blonde girl which I believed her name was Celeste finished her sentence, her voice laced with venom and bitterness.
A younger girl, no more than 16, spoke up, her eyes welling up with tears. "I just want to go back home to my family, I want my life back."
A red-haired girl, Scarlet, snorted. "Life? That life is gone sweetheart. We were kidnapped, taken against our will, dragged into this whirlwind of a nightmare, and our lives are gone. We're just waiting to be sold, or worse....."
The room fell silent after Scarlet's words, because whether we liked it or not, she was right. The only sound that was being heard was the quiet sobs of the younger girl. Celeste reached out, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder to soothe her emotional pain.
"I'll never get used to this," Scarlet continued as she stabbed the cabbages in her plate with so much rage, her voice cold and distant. "I'll never forgive them for taking us, for making us live like this." She finished.
I remained silent as I watched the girls in their seat sharing their once beautiful life which was taken away from them. The sound of footsteps echoed outside the room, followed by the click of a lock which made some of the girls gasps before they started consuming the food in their plate.
"Girls," The voice of Madame Ivanoff echoed in the room as we all stared up at her tall frightening frame. "Eat up. Tomorrow is the auction and we would know who will have dinner with us tomorrow, again." Madam Ivanoff eyes zeroed in on me as she finished with her sentence.
Everyone knew I wasn't going to be sold. Compared to the other girls, I was ugly looking and flawed because of my eyes, these eyes has only disdainful memories etched on them. Every year, whenever an auction was being held, no one would purchase me even though I was sold for the least amount of money. All I got were judgmental stares and irritant looks plastered on people's faces.
I gently pushed my plate away, the remnants of the plain vegetable soup still lingering on my tongue. Another bland meal, another struggle to make it through the next day. With a small sigh, I stood up, my worn-out shoes scraping against the rough plastered floor, and I made my way to the sleeping quarters. The room was small, barely big enough for the narrow bed that dominated the space. I sighed as I collapsed onto the mattress, feeling the springs poke into my back and the lumpy, stained blanket scratch against my skin. The pillow was flat and hard, offering little comfort for my aching head. This bed was a disaster, a tangled mess of rusty springs and frayed fabric that seemed to suck the life out of me. I closed my eyes, trying to find some semblance of rest, but the discomfort was a constant reminder of my miserable life. I shifted onto my side, trying to find a position that wouldn't leave me with a headache in the morning.
"Athena." I heard a voice call my name and I knew who that voice belonged to, my closest friend in this cavern, Esmeralda. I saw her silhouette as she moved closer to my space, and with a small voice, she whispered. " I want you to know that If I get sold tomorrow tonight, hopefully to a good person.....I'll definitely come back for you." She promised. "We're sisters, remember?" Deep down, I knew those words were nothing but empty alphabets jumbled up together. Everyone knows that no good thing comes from the buyers, the girls being sold here either ends up in a whore house or as a personal slave/slut for the masters.
"I love you, Esme." I hugged her body into mine as she began to whimper, tears cascading down her face like an avalanche. Silent tears which I didn't want to fall, fell and rolled down my cheeks for I knew tomorrow would be the last day I would ever see her.
"I love you too, Athena." Those were the last words I heard before surrendering my eyes to slumber.