Artemis eyes fluttered open as she found herself lying on the floor with a dirty looking attire, she held her head and groaned because of the throbbing pain. Then the memories of the other night flooded in and she bolted up but her blue eyes widened in surprise to see herself in a human sized cage and she began to panic because she was claustrophobic and then she felt as if her chest was caving in, she tried to breathe until a voice startled her,
"Hey, you are disturbing my sleep, keep quiet", a middle aged lady with brown hair said tiredly, she was in another cage,
"Hi Hi Hello... I think there's a mistake somewhere, I don't think I'm supposed to be here, please... wh-where am... i?", Artemis said as she moved closer to the other lady in the cage,
"Aren't we all, we don't all belong here but it looks like we are fated to die here", she said in a depressed voice and sat up, she opened her eyes and lifted it to the small window above her and snapped her eyes to her in a dramatic way,
"You are in a slave establishment!",
"Wh-What! I...", she couldn't finish as she and the woman heard a heart shattering agonizing cry from another building,
"Wh-What was th-that", she whipped her head around,
"That's the cry... of a slave being branded, all slaves that arrive here gets branded...", she peered at Artemis' shoulders, arms and thighs,
"...looks like you have not been branded... yet", Artemis' eyes almost fell off its sockets as she couldn't believe her ears, her claustrophobia flew out the window due to extreme fear, and then the doors to all the cages including hers opened and a man entered the building,
"All of you animals out, it's time for your bath", he yelled.
The woman stood up and all the other slaves walked out of cages except Artemis, the man narrowed his eyes at her and approached her, the woman whispered to her before she got out,
"Hey! little girl, get out before he...", but she was too late as the man was already inside the cage, the woman swallowed her words and shook her head slowly at the confused girl.
On the other hand, Artemis didn't hear anything that the woman said until a rough hand forcefully dragged her up and shoved her outside the cage, she lost her footing and fell to the floor on her knees, her knee was pierced by a medium shard of glass, she grimaced and bit on her lower lip and thought 'How did glass even get here',
"Get up, you worthless bitch", the man cussed and pulled her up again, Artemis managed to stand up,she hissed as she felt the pain shot through her leg and she limped to the line.
Artemis followed the line outside and she saw how large the space was with people in the same dirty looking attire and other people in uniforms, ' I think the people in sacks are the slaves' she looks at herself and scoffed.
Another man led them to an area in the middle of the court and they all stood side by side in front of several buckets of water.
Artemis looked at the bucket, at the other people who appeared to be stripping and at the man that had a weird smirk on his face and she took a step back.
The man walked to her and grabbed her arm,
"What do you think you're doing, you bitch", Artemis whipped her arm away and glared at him,
"Ooh... a feisty one", he licked his lips and she flinched, she looked back at the naked people having a bath, she quickly shut her eyes as her face was beyond red and also there's no way she'll strip in front of strangers, Artemis stepped back and met with another man, she faced him and the man gave her a hard smack to the face that she fell to the floor, she could hear ringing in her ears and can taste the metallic taste of blood on her lower lip. The man pulled her hair up and ahe stood,
"Who do you think you are, you piece of shit!", he dragged her by her hair to another building. The brown haired woman saw her and felt pity for her.
Artemis landed on the hard ground with a thud,
"Looks like you need some lessons on how slaves should behave", he growled as he moved eerily towards her, she shivered with fear and crawled to a corner and the man followed her, he pulled her hair again and now she couldn't feel her scalp, he shoved her to the other side of the room,
"Pl-please, I...I...", she begged and stammered, he took a hold of her clothing and ripped it, but her hand was quick to grab what was left to cover herself, even though it wasn't helping, he went for the clothing again but was interrupted by a knock and he went to answer, leaving Artemis shattered and a tear slipping down her right eye.
"WHAT!", he yelled at the guy at the door,
"S-Sir, The councilman and guests are here and...and th-they want to...to see 'All' the slaves branded and unbranded, Mr Alexander is also here, Sir", he relayed his message while he stuttered. The other man's countenance changed at the mention of Alexander,
"Okay", he said and turned to Artemis who was shivering in a corner, she heard the name before but she didn't know where.
"Get all the slaves lined up at the usual place, I'm coming",
"Okay sir".
The man went to her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and she scooted away, he went to a box and took out another sack looking clothing and threw it to her,
"Wear it", he said to her and went towards the door,
"Meet me outside in ten seconds", he shouted and locked the door from outside.
Artemis hurriedly put it on and rushed outside as the man was waiting for her.
He grabbed her arm and dragged her to the slaves that were lined up horizontally on a podium in front of various chairs and she stood beside the brown haired woman, for once she was relieved to see someone other than the evil man that made her scalp hurt.
Artemis looked forward at the various chairs as she rubbed her scalp. She didn't need someone to tell her that there's going to be a slave auction and now she wished someone with a nice heart buys her, she was scared at her own thoughts because she didn't know where she was and she could feel her own heart beating in her ear. She was extremely petrified.