Soon, the room was filled with girls, I knew as I heard the violence that took place as the girls were forced into the room. It was starting to get stuffy, and hot and the female voices were increasing.
I still laid tied up on the ground with my slightly fractured left arm when I heard sniffles from someone who was right behind me. The sounds of the sniffles increased, it was like the person was coming to me and then, I felt a gentle pat on my shoulder which startled me.
"It's just me" a female voice whispered to me.
I recognized that voice from anywhere – It was Aliyah, my best friend since childhood. We were both in the same situation but at least I felt relieved to hear her voice again.
"Aliyah?" I said as my eyes felt teary. "Are you okay" I continued.
"Yes, I am...why'd they blindfold you" her voice sounded broken and cracked like she had cried them out.
"Wait, aren't you blindfolded?" I asked
"No, I only have cuffed hands, and my legs are tied up," she said with her cracked voice.
Suddenly, I felt a hand behind my head ruffling the blindfold
"What are you doing?" I asked
"Isn't it obvy, I'm untying the blindfold"
Obvy was a slang we used meaning obvious.
After some seconds the blindfold fell off my face making my eyes squint at the sudden change of light. Though the room was dark and gloomy, it was still a far brighter version of what I saw behind the blindfold– Pitch darkness.
Now my eyes were free, and it became easier for me to sit up. I sat up just like Aliyah did and my eyes scanned the room but all I could see were girls, girls, and more girls.
"So this is how we'll live our life from now onwards....without certainty", Aliyah broke the silence between us.
I didn't know what to answer her. Aliyah has always been the pessimist while I was the optimist. I use to encourage her by being optimistic with my words but truthfully, I didn't know what to say at this point as I too felt there was no hope left. I just kept quiet.
The atmosphere of the room became tense again as the locks were clicking. It sounded like someone was unlocking the door. Both Aliyah and I were scared, I could see it in her face so I scooted over to her trying to comfort her with my presence. Though we were up to a hundred in the room and Aliyah and I were far enough from the door at a safe distance we were still shaken to the core. I could feel her whole body trembling and I was pretty sure I was also trembling. The door opened just like I expected with a noisy "creeeeak!"
"Welcome girls" an intimidating figure appeared from the door and came in shutting the door.
Just then I remembered where I heard the voice, he was the one who told us to shut up in the van. From the way he spoke to the other men, it was obvious he was the boss around here.
"You may all be wondering what's next for you, but I have good news and bad news," he said in a very unpromising tone.
"Some of you have a good life ahead of you while some have death" he continued.
I was still confused about what he said but I kept listening to gain more knowledge and understanding of what he was talking about.
"And all this is dependent on your beauty. You have four destinations….four destinations I say, you can either be auctioned out for sale to rich men, Sold to high-class brothels, sold to street side brothels, or be slaughtered"
The last word he said made everyone gasp, at least everyone who understood including me.
"Now that I've sent down my message, it's time for the separation", he said mysteriously and turned to leave.
He stopped in front of the door without looking back he said something out loud
"Cass, Separate them according to their beauty", he said, ended it with a wicked chuckle, and left.
At this point, I only asked myself this question "Am I beautiful?"
"You"
Even though I didn't want to live my whole life as someone's mistress or satisfy the lust of random men, it seemed like a better option than being slaughtered and to me, as far as there was life, there was also hope. I was determined to fulfill my dream of becoming a world-known artist.
"You"
I was good at painting as I took interest in it at a little age. Though I heard that there was a specific art school in the city, I still preferred learning my art skills on my own in my little village.
"Am I not talking to you?" an angry voice echoed in my ears bringing me back to reality
That was when I noticed I was basked in my thoughts that I couldn't even hear the man who was asked to separate us - Cass.
Before I could say anything, "WHOOSH!" I felt a sharp sudden pain on my cheek, the force of the slap made me lose my stamina and I fell to the ground. At first, I couldn't feel the pain as my cheeks were numb and hot but the stinging pain came almost immediately.
I whimpered in pain much to his satisfaction I heard a hint of amusement in his voice.
"That's what you get for not paying attention to me, now, you're in the auction group, go over there", he pointed to a corner.
I struggled to gain my stamina which was no doubt infuriating him. I had to hop down to that corner as my legs were tied up but he seemed irritated at how slow my pace was.
"Hurry up, you dummy", he said as he pushed me with force just a few hops away from my destination.
I fell violently as my head banged loudly on the concrete wall. I could hear the cries of the girls increasing, they were probably pitying me. I managed to ignore the astounding pain and the throbbing headache I felt and crawled back into a sitting position and when I turned back he was no more on me, he was now directing other girls to their group. I squeezed myself to the very corner wishing to be swallowed by the walls when I felt a trickle of hot liquid run down my face, I raised my hands and touched the painful part of my head with the back of my palms and when I looked at my hands I saw my blood. That was when I felt blood filled on one half of my face. I was bleeding immensely.
I managed to place the tip of my dress on my head and pressed my tied-up hands against it to apply pressure until I finally stopped bleeding. After the whole bleeding episode, that was when I realized what he had said, I was in the luckiest group of the most beautiful people. My eyes scanned the crowd for Aliyah, I wanted her to be at the same destination as me. I finally caught a glimpse of her just at the right time, Cass was right in front of her and he said something to her. Aliyah stood up and sadly walked opposite my direction towards the slaughter group I was so shattered but I heaved a sigh of relief when she went to the group at the back of the slaughter group the high-class brothel group.
We were going to be separated but on the bright side, she wasn't going to be slaughtered.
Finally, after the whole separation, only ten girls ended up in my group out of a hundred and up to twenty in Aliyah's group, up to thirty in the low-class brothel, and forty plus to be slaughtered. Though I felt pretty bad for them I was happy that Aliyah and I made it.
After the first, second, and third groups were loaded in the truck, some of the slaughter groups were going crazy as they knew they were to die, some continuously banging their heads against the wall some attempting suicide, some attacking raiders some trying to get into the truck where the three destinations where going. The first destination was loaded in a jeep, the second in a jeep truck, third in the huge warehouse truck.
I wasn't able to say a proper goodbye to Aliyah but all we did was stare and wave at each other from the distance as our vehicles went separate ways.