It is safe to assume that we all know how she ended up in a dark room. Unfortunately, it was not the silent dark room one would expect. It was not even empty, not because she was not the only victim, but because of something else, something more terrifying.
Her lashes fluttered open, but it made no difference. Regardless of how many times she blinked, darkness remained. She felt a sharp pain on her neck, this one fresh, not from the one she had been injected with hours ago. The air smelled damp. Her trousers were soaked from the floor she sat on, and something cold pressed against her wrist.
She needed no interpreter. Jade knew that she was bound with a chain. It rattled as she tried to move, but its sound fell on deaf ears as the room erupted with murmuring and chatter from figures she had yet to see.
"Hello!" she called out, but her voice came out hoarse, barely above a whisper, and it hurt her throat despite how faintly she had spoken.
She tried to stand and perhaps move forward, but she only discovered that another chain was bound to her feet, one that allowed her to move only a few inches. "Hello, please get me out of here!" she cried, her heart pounding violently against her chest. She believed that in a room full of this many people, there should be at least one person willing to assist her, and one close enough to hear her voice.
"Everyone, everyone!" Another voice came loud and clear, cutting through the darkness and gaining attention, because as soon as the speakers sounded, the hall went silent. "Settle down, everyone. We have a lot more," added the voice, and from several metallic devices hanging above her head, floods of light blinded her.
"Argh!" Her voice was faint. She gasped, squeezing her eyes shut as the harsh white beams caught her unaware. In less than a minute, her vision adjusted, and at the sight of her very own position, her stomach dropped. She was not in a cell or a place expected for kidnappers. She was on a platform, a raised stage like in an opera house, and below her were multiple rows of seats, and on them were multiple shadows… shadows of men.
It was hard to see clearly with the light focused on her, but she could see them, dozens of them seated comfortably in what seemed like a grand underground hall due to the staircase leading upward. The seats were luxurious, and every man either had a glass in hand, an entire bottle, or a stick of cigarette. Some had all three from what she could see.
She immediately knew that this was not random. It was organized, because never in the world would she expect to sit in front of so many men. It made no sense. "Do rich men kidnap people for fun?" she wondered. It was naïve but genuine.
"Lot seventeen!" The voice boomed through the speakers again. Only then did Jade realize that she was on stage with a moderator, a sanctimonious smirk on his face and a coated microphone in his hand.
"She is a new lot," he continued from a distance. "Female, twenty-two years old, clean record, no criminal affiliation like the last two baddies, and she is also a university graduate. We have been monitoring her, and trust me when I say that she is the whole package, and we might spend all night reading her profile if I had to."
"No," Jade muttered, her breath becoming shallow, hoping that it was nothing but a dream, one that she would soon snap out of. But in reality, she knew it was not. It was happening in real time.
The floods of light went out, leaving a single beam pointing directly on top of her from above.
"She'll start at one million."
Her heart sank. She was not kidnapped because they were looking for ransom. She was kidnapped to be sold, sold to men, sold like furniture at an auction, like livestock before Thanksgiving. Before she could react, a voice came casually from somewhere to her left.
"Two million."
Her stomach churned. Is that how quickly women are sold here? Yet another genuine question she really should not be asking at the moment, but it was in her head anyway.
"Three million!" another voice echoed.
Again? her brain asked subconsciously, it was almost funny. The second voice was elderly, so old that she had to look in that direction, and her fingers immediately curled into tight fists. She could not properly make out his face in the audience, but that sure sounded like a man who could have fathered her own father.
"Four million." The same voice declared, more daring, desperate, and possessive. The lighting team had no choice but to point one of their beams in his direction, and he was worse than she imagined. This was a man in his late sixties, an expensive suit and a dangling gold wristwatch that exuded wealth, real wealth. His predatory eyes glared over Jade's body without shame, and it made her skin crawl. If this was her fate, she really hoped someone else would counter his price.
"Five million," he yelled again, seemingly impatient with the moderator's silence.
"We have five million," the moderator finally declared unhesitatingly with a mischievous smile. "What an unbeatable price it seems."
At his words, Jade's throat burned. Now she could not tell whether she was bitter because she ended up here or because she did not want him to take her. What if it was both? She pulled against the chain, moving backward, but all it did was make a pathetic metallic clank, and she did not move very far.
"Going once…" said the auctioneer, while the older man adjusted his cufflinks with a smug expression.
"Going twice…"
"Ten million!" A voice cut across the room like a blade, drawing every single attention to the back. "I will take her for ten million, and I will appreciate it if the lighting crew keeps their lights to themselves."
Those words came late, but the lighting department got the message and moved the lights away from him, so Jade could only catch a glimpse.
Something washed over her. It was relief, but why, she did not know him, and she was going to be sold anyway, but not to the old man who clearly looked like her late grandpa's best friend.
"Twelve million," the older man declared, eyes flaring, but the same man responded almost immediately.
"Twenty million."
At his words, the old man's face drained of color. His pride wavered, and his fingers tightened into fists before he slowly leaned back into his seat, not daring to bid again.
The auctioneer swallowed hard. "Twenty million going once…" Jade's heartbeat thundered. It was happening, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
"Going twice…"
"Sold!"
"Lot seventeen belongs to the mysterious man at the back."