Losing Pieces of Me

by Briner, Rose

  I don’t like Hayden, I knew from the first moment I saw him that he was a bad man who would do evil things, turns out I was right. Too bad my sister and I didn’t figure this out before we ended up becoming his latest victims. Although, now that I realize our connection, it’s likely that eventually we would’ve crossed paths anyways.

  “How about a little reunion for my stepdaughters, does that sound like something you think they’d enjoy, Hayden?” asks Frank as he stops at one of the doors and produces a key.

  “I think during their final days, they should be together. The auction is coming up tomorrow night, so we might as well allow them to say goodbye to each other, that’s the least we can do for our family,” Hayden says cockily as him and his father share a laugh.

  I don’t like it, but if Katrina is on the other side of that door, I’ll take it.

  “Behave yourself daughter, or I’ll make sure Hayden and his friends have a go at you before the auction,” Frank says as Hayden tosses me inside the room and the door slams shut. I wait for the lock to click into place before I focus on the room.

  The room is incredibly dark. I’m sure there’s a light in here somewhere, but for some reason my sister has chosen to keep it off. That is, if my sister is the other person in this room with me right now. God I hope it is her, I don’t think I could bear it if someone else was in here that is going to hurt me.

  I slowly get to my hands and knees as best I can without causing myself too much more pain and try to look around. I can’t see anything so I decide talking might work better. Maybe Katrina is as scared as I am about who is in here with her.

  “Kat?” I whisper hoarsely. I lick my lips and clear my throat before I try again, “Katrina?” I ask a little bit louder this time.

  A bright light flickers on in the corner and I am forced to squeeze my eyes shut against the burn of the light.

  “Reya, is it really you?” asks Katrina.

  I force myself to get to my feet as quickly as I can so I can go to her, but when I take my first step I freeze and stop in place. My sister doesn’t look the way she did when I left her that night in the club. She’s still wearing that same dress she was that night, but most of it is gone. There are holes all over what is left of her dress and her hair is matted to the top of her head and she has raccoon eye going on like she just started crying hours ago. That’s saying something since I haven’t seen her in nearly six months. Her lip is swollen and her right eye is puffier than the left one. She looks like she’s been to hell and back, all the while I’ve been living with her captor’s brother.

  “Oh Katrina,” I cry as I go to her. I approach her and try to hug her, but we both wince in pain, so I quickly release her and take a seat by her side.

  “God you look like hell, Reya. I thought you were living the high life, what happened?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t put it quite like that. I married Jayden because he offered me the money I would need to hire a private investigator, but things didn’t end up going quite as planned and now here I am,” I reply with a shrug. There’s no need to burden her with all the things I was doing for the last two months.

  “Yeah, I never would have guessed that Hayden was following me around and that’s why he invited me to the VIP area that night I met him. Turns out Frank has known of our whereabouts for years now and was just looking for the right opportunity to bring us in. He figured Hayden was the best route since Hayden is a scumbag. I always thought that Jayden was a nice guy though,” she says thoughtfully as she stares at me.

  “He is a nice guy,” I tell her. I don’t want to discuss this anymore, instead I want to find out what she knows about what is going to happen tomorrow night. “What is this auction they keep speaking of, Kat? This is a human trafficking operation isn’t it?”

  She nods solemnly, “That’s exactly what this is. They bring in young women who want to become models and they promise them things like lots of money and fame if they sign their contract and in reality the girls are signing away their lives. I’ve seen a lot of girls come and go from this place, I’m the only one they keep, but that’s because they needed me to get to you. Now that they have us both, I think they plan on sending us to the auction together. I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never seen it. The auction is basically modern day slavery, where the highest bidder gets to buy you and they take you home and keep you forever.”

  “Surely that must be a joke,” I reply as I take her hand in mine and settle myself on the edge of the bed.

  “I’m afraid not, Reya. I’m assuming because they have you that they did something to make Jayden hate you and then they took you away from him. That’s the only way I imagine they could’ve managed to get you away from him,” she says as she searches my eyes.

  “That’s exactly what they did. They hurt Jayden and so did I,” I tell her sadly.

  Just the thought of him makes me want to cry. To know how our relationship ended and that we won’t get to stay married like we wanted to hurts me worse than I thought it would. I guess in the short amount of time I’ve known him, his love grew into something more than love, he’s my soul mate.

  “You love him, don’t you?” she asks me point blank.

  I start to deny it by shaking my head, but she gives me that look she’s famous for.

  “Don’t lie to me, Reya. We’re sisters and I know you better than anyone. You love him, and he abandoned you,” she states matter-of-factly.

  “I do, but none of that matters now. What matters is that we find a way to get out of here,” I tell her looking around the room.

  There’s not a single window in this room and no bathroom. I look at the pot in the corner of the room and realize that’s what she’s been using to relieve herself. The only way we’d be able to get out of here would be through the bedroom door and I’m sure that will not be an easy task.

  “There’s no way out of here, I’ve tried. They have cameras and motion detectors. They knew you were here yesterday, Reya. They told me you were here asking questions and looking around. You’re lucky they weren’t here to grab you then because you wouldn’t have been around for today’s event. They talk to me, I think they enjoy allowing me to hear about all the wonderful things you’ve been up to.”

  “None of that matters now, all that matters is that we found each other and now more than ever, we have to stick together,” I tell her, squeezing her hands when she looks back down at me sadly.

  She’s given up, but I haven’t. I’ll fight until the last breath leaves my body.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Katrina and I get about an hour to catch up before the door swings open and crashes against the wall with a loud crack, hard enough to make a noise, but not hard enough for the door to break. When I get over the shock of the door crashing open, I look back in the direction of the door expecting to see one of our captor’s but instead, I come face to face with the last person I ever wanted to see again.

  She doesn’t speak as she steps into the room and looks from first myself, then over to Katrina, before looking back at me. She laughs at us as she slowly enters the room and walks around the small space. I can tell she’s ready for the ball tonight, she’s wearing what looks like a brand new expensive gown. The gown fits her body perfectly, the light blue hues of her gown accenting her figure and her legs look longer with the heels she has on to match the dress.

  I want to vomit when I look closely at the color of her dress, it matches the color of Jayden’s eyes. I bet she’s done this on purpose just to rub in the fact that she’ll be at the ball tonight and I won’t get to be here.

  “I just wanted to stop by to say hi and check on you,” she announces as she gets right up in my face so she’s towering over me as I cling to Katrina next to me on the bed.

  “Well Vanessa, you’ve said hi, now get out,” Katrina seethes at her as she glares up at her with a murderous glare.

  “Oh, I’ll be going Katrina, I just wanted the precious Mireya to see the gown I’m weari
ng tonight when I accompany Jayden to the ball. He’s decided to take me back after what you’ve done to him. I should thank you, really, you’ve helped him see how much we belong together,” she laughs as she takes the door and slams it shut behind her.

  Katrina waits until she hears her heels fade off in the distance as Vanessa leaves before she turns to look at me.

  “You know she’s lying right?” asks Katrina as her eyes search mine.

  “I want to believe that, I really do, but I think he really did take her back. You didn’t see the look on his face when Frank told him I was working on his side,” I tell her sadly as tears fill my eyes and spill over. “Can we just not talk about this?” I beg her as I lose myself to the memory of what happened today.

  “Sure Reya, no problem. Just remember I’m here if you decide you want to talk about it,” she says as she kisses my cheek and helps me to lie down in the bed so I can get some rest. I don’t want to sleep, but my eyes are so tired and sleeping might help me forget what just happened.

  We fall asleep that night holding hands as we spend what could be our last night together. At least in the end, we found our way back to each other. I’d rather die knowing I found her then wonder for the rest of my life what happened to her. Katrina manages to find sleep a lot sooner than I do, I spend most of the night wondering what Vanessa and Jayden are doing. If she’s dancing in his arms or even worse, filling my space in his bed. I think about it until I can’t think anymore and that’s when I finally find sleep.

  “Get up!” yells a voice the next afternoon. We spent most of the day sleeping. Not only are we exhausted, there’s nothing else to do in this place. What are we supposed to do watch TV and sing campfire songs?

  I look up to find a burly man standing before us with his arms crossed over his chest. He looks us both over, licking his lips as he stares down at us. I bet if he had the chance he’d rape us both, but he must realize that won’t be possible because once we’re both awake and staring up at him, he throws two slip dresses in our direction.

  “Hayden said to put those on and be ready in fifteen minutes,” he states as he looks us over one last time before slamming the door shut behind him as he exits.

  We both take off our badly ripped clothing and pull on the slip dresses he brought us. Mine is a light shade of pink, my sister’s a cream color, both don’t cover up shit, which I’m sure was the point in their outfit choices for us for tonight’s auction.

  “Let’s go,” commands the same man when he returns ten minutes later. Lucky we were ready to go because I bet if we weren’t we would’ve suffered a severe beating.

  He waits for us to exit before another man emerges and each grabs us by the arm and escort us downstairs to the same van I was brought here in yesterday.

  I prepare myself to be thrown inside, but this time each man produces a black bag and slips it over our heads so we can’t see where we are going. When they are sure we can’t see, the man lifts me up and sets me down in the van so I’m sitting up against the side. I bet the only reason he didn’t throw me is because my dress has to be presentable for the auction.

  “Where do you think we’re going?” I ask Katrina through my bag.

  “Somewhere private and probably expensive. That’s the reason for the bags, they don’t want us to remember where we were in case the police find us later on in the future.”

  I wonder how many times she’s seen something like this done. For her to know that information says that she’s all too familiar with this process. But I get this feeling she doesn’t want to talk about it because she doesn’t offer up any information other than that. We’re silent for the rest of the ride, both lost in our own thoughts. All I keep wondering is what’s going to happen when someone purchases me and I’m forced to become their slave. I don’t think I would survive more than a week as someone’s slave. I’ve read enough about this to know that some of the things they do to women would probably make me take my own life. I’ll never last servicing someone else against my will.

  The van screeches to a halt just like it did last time and I’m helped out of the van and led blindly across what I would imagine is the driveway. I have to imagine it because obviously I can’t see anything. My only indication is the feeling of cold concrete under my bare feet as I stumble forward as I’m dragged towards where ever they are taking me.

  When we are inside, the bag is pulled off of my head and I get to see the place where we are for the first time. They’ve done a good job covering where this auction’s located is because as far as I know I’ve never been here before. Katrina doesn’t look like she has either as she does the same thing I do, look around the room in awe.

  This place is huge, the owner must go to great lengths to conceal this location from the women that come here.

  “This way,” orders my guard as he leads me over to a room towards the back of the house. Well, this isn’t just any room, when he pushes the doors open, I find us standing in a ballroom. But tonight, there are no dancers swaying to the music and there is no music. Just voices, lots and lots of male voices. There are only a few women tonight, maybe at most another three and then there is us bringing up the rear of the group. The three women are standing in the center of the room with their hands clasped demurely behind their backs and their heads down.

  When I see all the men touching and poking the women, I can only conclude that this is going to be a very long night. The two men shove us to the very end of the line and I barely withhold the glare and eye roll when Katrina runs right into my back. I have to remember where I am because doing that right now wouldn’t be a wise decision. There’s at least twenty men here tonight and I bet if I behaved badly enough I would draw the attention of the most sinister man in the room who would purchase me only for the sole purpose of punishing me for the way I behaved tonight. How about no thank you.

  I ignore the men currently touching and leaning in to smell me as I discreetly look around the room. I don’t want to focus on the fact that these men are making noises of pleasure in the backs of their throats based off of the way we smell. I haven’t showered in two days and I was locked in that room with Katrina who probably hasn’t showered in more than a week in a room that smelled like a combination of mildew and pee.

  I instead focus on the men standing guard around the perimeter of the room. I make first one sweep of the room, then an additional one before I spot a figure I’ve seen before. I almost gasp when I realize who is standing there by one of the exits. That’s the bodyguard that Jayden gave me. What is he doing here? He doesn’t look out of place standing along the wall with the other guards, in fact, he looks like he was hired to stand there. So this can only mean one of two things. Number one, people are here to save Katrina and myself, or number two, he’s working for the bad guys. I hope it’s the former and not the latter.

  When he catches me staring at him, he discreetly shakes his head no and that’s when I have my answer. Something is about to go down and if I continue to focus on him, I’m going to draw attention in his direction. So instead of continuing to stare or trying to get Katrina’s attention, I focus on the floor beneath me.

  Clapping in the center of the room has me raising my head before long.

  “Welcome gentlemen,” announces a well-dressed Hayden. “Tonight’s auction is about to begin. This is a cash only sale, all sales are final, and you may pick up your purchase from Frank at the conclusion of tonight’s sale. The girls will be led over by Frank and you will be able to bid on one or even all of them if that is your fancy. Each girl has a starting bid of one hundred thousand.

  “Frank if you will bring over the first girl,” he says gesturing towards Frank. I look out of the corner of my eye at Katrina and see her shooting daggers at Frank. I pretend to stretch my arm out and lightly hit her on the arm to get her attention. When she looks at me, I shake my head no. She quickly changes her face back to neutral before the two of them notice.

  “This is Yolanda,” says Frank a
s he gestures to the girl. “She comes to us fresh from Guatemala, she’s only been here in the US for a week, so she’s going to need a green card and you will need to marry her in order for her to stay here.”

  Jesus, the girl is from Guatemala? I bet she just came here to visit her family, went out to the club one night, met Hayden, and now she’s trapped here with these evil men who are about to sell her to another evil man.

  I don’t really pay much attention to her sale as I instead try not to cry when I realize how young this girl looks. She had her whole future ahead of her and that’s all about to end. When a fancy dressed Vanessa steps into the room to collect the girl, my heart stops. Not only does she have Jayden back in her life, now she’s a member of this sick group of men.

  The second and third sales go down quickly since both of those girls are also from out of the country and don’t fetch a high price. I would imagine that getting a green card for one of those women will cost a pretty penny and these men look like they don’t want immigration breathing down their neck at every turn.

  Frank yanking me forward draws me back to the present. I almost fall over when he drags me, that is how much I’ve been paying attention since the auction began.

  “Now for our prize girl of the evening. This one doesn’t need a green card and for the right price, you can own both her and her sister,” he says gesturing to Katrina behind me. I don’t dare look up at her as I wait for my fate to be sealed.

  Screaming is the next thing I hear as gunshots ring out through the room.

  “FBI, hands up in the air,” I look up in the direction of all the shouting and find that same bodyguard and all the other ones along the wall holding up guns and taking aim right at Frank and Hayden. I breathe out the breath I’ve been holding since Frank dragged me to the center of the room. Looks like I won’t be sold to someone after all.