CRIMSON PETALS

Life had a very funny way of making you grow stronger, you know.

It would strip you off things that you needed the most, and leave you stranded, or hanging by loose threads to it, like a fucking over used puppet.

It was the same case with my life; I had become nothing but a rag doll, playing in the silly theater called life, an actor in a large game of the world.

Hate the game, don't hate the player, they said. But in my case I just couldn't help but hate both.

It must've been the day time again, or perhaps night. I didn't know any longer, considering that I had lost track of time, a very, extremely long while ago. I now existed in an unknown plane, at an unknown time, probably unknown to the world.

It should have bothered me, that I was probably unknown, and most likely forgotten by the world on the outside, but it no longer did.

It no longer stung like it did, a few years back.

But then again, it might not have had been years. I might've just been reliving the same day, over and over again, just with different situations.

All these thoughts and more engulfed me as I lay down on one of the mattresses in the dingy looking, and rusted cage of a thing, together with some other people. I wore a dirty and tattered shirt, the color was dark brown. It had been ripped in various places.

All of us wore the same thing, and by all of us I mean everyone in this large hall that were part of us.

The "us" that were trafficked. Bought and sold like objects. Abused and misused, treated worse than animals.

My heart wrenched at the thought of it, though not as tightly as before. It still ached terribly, when one thought about the way they ended up being.

I never saw myself being in this situation; being a sex slave to some terrible Mafia underworld godfather, or being sold by my oh-so-loving uncle Sebastian. If someone had told my fifteen year old self about what would happen, she would probably scream Bloody murder, and call you a liar.

I chuckled to myself bitterly, thinking about it.

But unfortunately no one is ready for life, and the way it comes at you.

Suddenly, I heard a noise that pulled me out of my thoughtful daze.

Oh no, not again, I could hear myself say mentally, sighing heavily in resignation and tiredness. Not as I was just getting comfortable, and used to some peace in the planes of my mind.

"Wake up, you useless creatures! It's time to fucking wake up! Maybe today someone will show some interest in your unfortunate lives, and buy you, don't you think? Even though they're most likely to treat their dogs better than you, but that's besides the point..."

It was stupid Albert, and his dumb crew of men who had walked into the large hall where our cages were kept.

They came here every morning, sent by Alex, to check up on us, and of course count us to see if we were complete. Once in a while, to take one of us, or a few to do something terrible, or the other.

Before, I would have panicked. Thought of ways to steal the keys from them, and perhaps open all our cages so that we would run. So that we would finally achieve freedom, and not go through the same shit we did here, in the hands of another lunatic, but I had given up on that dream a long time ago.

Time and Time I had tried, the consequences always terrible and unkind to me, but that isn't what ended my surge for freedom. What ended it was the fact that I had nowhere else to go.

More than a half of the trafficked people here, were far, far away from their homes. Far away from everything they knew. They would just get killed and kidnapped by some other drug lord, or Alex himself again.

I was no longer going to try. I had resigned to fate.

He rattled each bar of each cage as he passed, making a terribly cold sound of metal hitting on metal.

However, I managed to stay unfased. My eyes were closed; I didn't need to open then to see or know everything that was going on. I had watched the routine one too many times. I could already see everything play out in my mind's eye.

Suddenly, I heard the jingle of keys being taken off a hook, and checked. That was unusual; was it time for food yet? Lately they had been feeding us better, which made me wonder whether there was a big event where many people would be needed to take part in, or if there would be an auction soon.

I didn't hope for any; I just couldn't. One time, Alex made a very young boy sleep with a middle aged woman in front of him, before he sold the boy to a gay and equally ruthless drug lord. They boy must have been around the age of ten if not less, and his case made my stone cold heart break.

I shut my eyes again in order not to see what was happening, and at the same time block out all the terrible images I had collected from this hell hole from flowing in. I refused to cry, no matter how painful it got. I only hoped that someday someone would kill me, and I would finally leave this Earth and meet my parents once more.

The rusted metallic door to a cage opened, which made me open my eyes in turn. I sat up to see what was happening.

Two people were dragged out of the cage; a girl and a boy. From where I sat, I feared they would make the grave mistake I tried to do all those years ago.

Unfortunately, they matched my suspicion. They struggled, trying their best to run away from the grip of Albert and his man.

A sharp sound cut through the air, followed up with two screams.

It turned out they were going to be tortured or maybe sold off again.