The Devil's Masterpiece

Chapter1-Ava

“If I see any tears I’ll blow your brains out, now smile ladies” Madame’s voice cuts through the corridor in her thick accent. That’s what she said we should call her, Madame. She’s the person who came to clean us up, well more like hosed us down with two gunmen ready to shoot on command, after I woke up in a cage with 7 other girls. Different countries, different ethnicities and no one else from the US, we’ve been trafficked, and we are in line ready to step into a room with blood thirsty billionaires ready to buy and use us.

“Five I said smile”, five is standing right in front of me and then she swallows and smiles.

My fingers itch for a paint brush. Painting would really calm my nerves right now.

“When you get in there you better behave and remember everything we talked about” she says again a look of pride on her face. “You girls are the best batch we’ve had all year, I chose well”.

I’m f****d and if I don’t find a way to get out of here within the next hour then I’ll be literally f****d by some old rich guy who probably has a venereal disease. 6 of us are lined up in a well-lit carpeted corridor wearing nothing but skimpy lingerie and 6-inch heels. Its only 6 because number 7 was shot trying to act cocky with Madame’s 2 guard dogs.

I’ve seen dead bodies before but seeing her naked drenched in water and blood with a hole in her chest f*****g shook me. Well now my nightmares will have a new star.

I know it’s probably heated in here meaning the chill running down my spine is not whether induced, I’m just terrified. I’ve been terrified from the moment I was dragged into a van and drugged while on my way to the beach in Mozambique. Never vacationing there ever again by the way, and now I’ll forever hate needles cause that’s what they used to drug me.

“Move in slowly and elegantly and make sure you are bought by the end of the night, or you’ll be joining 7 in the acid drums” the cunt says

“Acids drums?” one of the girls asks, her voice is shaky, and I know she wants to cry. Madame smiles ushering us through the huge double doors,

“This looks cozy” I nervously whisper to number five. She doesn’t respond.

Different men and a few women are seated at tables and are all engaged in conversation. There’s not much of them since a lot of the tables are empty or scarcely filled but they are definitely more of them than us. The air is thick with expensive cigars and suits, whisky and wealth, yeah wealth has a smell and it’s all I can smell now.

“Stand there” Madame orders ushering us to the front of the room facing all the buyers.

Suddenly I feel so exposed, I’ve been in public with a bikini before, but it’s never felt like this. This isn’t a beach, and these people aren’t just looking at us because they think we are beautiful. They are looking at us because they are trying to decide which one of us they want to buy. I feel a sting behind my eyes, I’m about to cry again I can’t afford to cry right now so I swallow back the tears and the fear. Not now. Don’t cry Ava.

“Don’t you think it would better to die?” number five whispers to me. I look at her she looks at me. Her eyes are glassy with tears.

“I promised someone that I would live, so I’m gonna do that” I whisper back my voice full of too much emotion.

“Who?”

“My brother, Max he couldn’t live so I promised I would do it for the both of us”. She doesn’t say anything after.

I just need to stick to the plan I’ve been brewing in my head for the past 10 or so minutes. It’s simple really attract the most innocent and weak looking guy in here and make sure he chooses me at least I can overpower him or at least outsmart him once he gets me out of here then I’ll run for help and just like that I’m free and back in New York burning my passport and taking a vow to never leave home again. It’s not the most perfect plan but I need anything to keep my hope from dying.

Another glitch in my plan is that I have no home to go back to, I sold my house; my boyfriend stole from me and dumped me, and it’s been two months since my brother Max died. He was my last living relative and because of Tony, the ex, I don’t even have friends so I could be gone for years, and no one will come looking for me. How convenient for these people that took me, it’s almost like they knew that I was no one with no one.

“Evening gentlemen and ladies!” a man says at the top of his voice. He’s standing between us and the buyers, facing them.

Just then I feel eyes boring into my skin I look up, and I see a god looking right at me or can I call him a fallen angel or better yet a demon. He’s beautiful. Cold blue eyes that resemble the ocean beneath a winter sky are focused right on me; I can’t look away now I’m looking at him too completely getting lost in his ocean eyes.

His broad shoulders and perfect posture make his presence so imposing. A few strands of dark brown almost black hair fall carelessly across his forehead the slight disorder making his otherwise immaculate appearance more intimidating rather than less. He doesn’t look anywhere above 28 with lips that I wouldn’t mind if they devoured me, they look soft but also firm.

Any survival instinct I had just left them room cause I’m looking at the most intimidating man I’ve ever met, and he doesn’t even look like a beast, but his presence is unnerving you can see the effect his presence has on the men sitting with him. They all know they are second best, all beneath him.

“Welcome back to our regulars, and a warm welcome to some new people who decided to join us tonight” white suit bellows again.

The conversation around the demon angel continues but he’s not engaged he’s nestling a glass of whisky in his left hand, and his entire focus is on me. I can’t read him can’t tell whether he’s intrigued or just thinks I look stupid. Why do I even want him to be intrigued? Why would I want the attention of a man who spends his time in such places buying women.

“Thank you all for joining us for yet another night of merriment” the man continues in his stark white suit.

“Yet again we have a line of beauties before you sourced from all over the world” he gestures toward us.

“Fresh merchandise” merchandise, that has me pulling my eyes away from the demon, these words will haunt my dreams for years. I feel bile begin to rise and quickly swallow it back down, I have to be picked tonight, or I’ll be dead before the sun rises and I really need to live, I promised Max I can’t break my promise. Tonight I’ll live its already decided.

“Most of you know the rules” he continues “Bidding starts at a million, one girl per person as you can see, we are in short supply and everyone wants to eat”

A man near the back raises his glass, “What if I want two, you know my appetite for your girls is quite hefty”. The room erupts into laughter.

The auctioneer grins. “Then you’ll have to attend another night.”

“You can do as you please with your commodity as long as it does not track back to us” He spreads out his arms. “Aaaaaaaand let the bidding begin”. My fingers curl into fists the anger taking over me.

“Number 1 is this beautiful blonde bombshell 5’9, 128 pounds, 19-year-old Argentine”. Number 1 flinches and everyone is looking at her now. “And has never felt the touch of a man, you heard me gentlemen we have a virgin, now am I hearing 1 million…” he says in a cheery voice like he’s selling dolls to little girls. Virgin?

“How does he know that?” number 5 whisper yells at me “Did they…”

“Don’t”

What else did they do to us while we were knocked out? f**k I think I’m going to be sick. The bidding starts.

One million

Two

Three

The numbers keep climbing. I look at number one. She looks terrified and I feel sad for her, her first time will be with one of these animals I don’t know if she’ll be able to heal from that I know I wouldn’t.

“I hate everyone involved in this I feel like cutting each one of their balls off and force feeding them until they choke to death.” I whisper to Five. Her mouth quirks up a little.

“I don’t hate the sound of that”

I look again at the blue-eyed demon and he’s still looking at me, and I hate him most because how could I even think this monster is beautiful this pig amongst other pigs.

Eventually a man wins number one and they just move on to the next girl.

The bidding goes fast not surprised there the girls are indeed beautiful. Number three sobs as the man who bought her drags her to his table too excited to even care about the turmoil she’s going through or the fact that she looks sixteen.

“f*****g paedophile.” I almost spit the anger roiling up inside me.

Then another purchase happens. Then Five is taken and I’m next on the chopping block

“And finally last but definitely not least…” my stomach drops.

“This flaming hot red head”

Oh fuck

“The only thing hotter than her body is her head, and I promise you gentlemen she’ll put up a fight.” A few people laugh.

“At five-four, a hundred and twenty pounds, twenty-two-year-old American” he says looking me up and down then landing on my cleavage and staying there.

“Now you Americans are harder to get” he smiles “So bidding will start at 10 million. Now am I hearing 10.5 million?”. Silence. Then...

“Ten point five” a man says from the back. My heart pounds

“Fifteen” Another voice.

“Twenty” More hands rise. My breathing becomes shallow. I look around the room. These men aren’t looking at a woman. They are looking at their next big purchase.

“Thirty”

“Forty”, the numbers keep rising.

“A hundred million” I go still. The voice came from the demon’s table and I look up expecting it to be him but it’s not him it’s the older fat guy next to him wearing a s**t eating grin and I physically cringe. Oh, I’m going to hate it if I have to sleep with that guy.