Chapter 9 : How Much for the Girl?

I woke up later, unaware of how long I had been operated on or how long I'd been out. All I could see was a foggy vision of a blinding spotlight above me. Then, I saw a few faces come into my distorted view as the chair I was laying in reclined upward. I heard muffled voices, and it took me a while to regain my grip on reality. "Earth to 305. Earth to 305," I saw that same female nurse from before waving her hands in front of me. What the hell did she mean by 305? I looked down at my arms but didn't see any incisions. Then I glanced down at my legs and still I couldn't notice any differences. I began running my hands all over my body and froze when I felt some stitches on the back of my neck. "What the hell is this?" I screamed. "And why are you calling me 305?" I frantically ran my fingers over more parts of my body to feel for any differences from before. "Why dearest, that's your new name," I heard the doctor's squeaky pitch from the corner of the room. He came into focus. He ran his finger along the back of my neck slowly and leaned in closely to my ear, whispering, "And that right there is the GPS microchip we were talking about." I could feel the condensation from his breath sticking to my ear lobe. I wanted to ask Ginger after this if I could take a shower immediately. "Now, unfortunately, I have to let you go," the doctor said as he glided around my chair and stood right in front of me, his all black outfit contrasting with the pristine white of the operation room. "I have more patients to operate on today, but deary, I'll never lose track of you," he chuckled while pointing to my neck. I was seething. I wanted to shift right here and tear his tongue out so I'd never have to hear his devilish laugh again. But, I couldn't shift. I didn't know how shifters were treated here, and that was something I wanted to ask Ginger about first. I hadn't smelled any so far while down here, surprisingly. As I began walking out of the operating room, led by that unsettling nurse, I heard the doctor's voice beckon, "Oh, and deary? No showers for at least two weeks until the incision heals! I'll make sure to let Felix know." And as if he was reading my mind, I couldn't even take the shower I so desperately wanted to get the feeling of his insipid breath off of my body. I returned to my cell and was surprised not to see Ginger there, but then I also realized that she probably was fulfilling some duty of hers. I already had confirmation from Felix that she wasn't going to be in today's auction, and neither was I. At the cell, there was one tray of food laid out for me. It was a soupy tray of scrambled eggs and one baked potato. I wasn't sure how long that was supposed to sustain me, but I ate it. I looked at the cell across from me, and I saw one tray of just seaweed, and another of some sort of salad green. The girls were a bit heavier, and it seemed like everyone's diet was a bit different based on our size and what El Lobo wanted us to look like to garner maximum profits. I looked to be on the 'just the right size' diet. I ate my morning breakfast slowly, staring out at the hall in front of me waiting for Ginger's return. I finished my whole meal without even seeing a soul walk by. They must have been busy with the elite clients who flew in today. I put the tray aside and sat back against the wall on the small mattress that Ginger and I were supposed to share. It was a rusty old spring mattress and smelled terrible. Last night, I let Ginger have the bed after she kept kicking at me unconsciously in her sleep. It felt good to finally lay down for a little bit since I didn't sleep at all last night. I let my eyes drift shut, and after getting a little bit of shut eye, I was awakened to two men picking me up out of the cell. "What are you doing?! Let me go!" I kicked, my vision and mind still in a fog from my nap. "Put me down!" I kicked my legs furiously. These guards were much stronger than George and the rest. I wasn't breaking free from their grasp. "Where are you taking me?!" I yelled again, but the men wouldn't answer. Instead, exiting the infirmary was Dr. Melnyk with that same wide grin plastered across his face. "Dearest, so we meet again! I knew we would!" he chuckled. "Now, here's the thing. Your results came in, and oh, did you not disappoint!" He licked his lips as he made eye contact with me. "Wh-what are you talking about?" I stammered. "It turns out you were keeping secrets from us, huh?" He tsked his tongue like he was scolding me. "You didn't tell us you were a shifter!" "Yeah, what about it?" I spat back. "Wasn't much of a secret." "Well you did a good job of hiding it, I'll tell you that. Maybe that smelly girl Ginger's scent rubbed off on you and masked it." I snarled as he belittled Ginger. I was still in the arms of the two burly men and was losing feeling in my legs. "So, what does it mean for me?" I asked. "For you, not much," he admitted. "But, for us. Oh, you're about to make us millions, deary. MILLIONS!" he cackled, and his laughs echoed through the hallway and reverberated back into my ears like searing knives. Before I knew it, the men were walking forward and taking me to a whole new area. After navigating down a few hallways, the men carried me right in front of a fluorescent pink door and a sign next to it that read, "VIP Only." I felt nauseous. The men dropped me onto my feet. The one guard warned in a deep, grizzly voice, "No one has ever come back once entering this door." With that warning, he opened it and guided me in while the other guard went back in the other direction. Immediately, another guard, some red-haired boy, was waiting on the other side of the door. "Number?" he asked, and I wasn't sure if he was speaking to me or the man escorting me. "305," the man behind me responded plainly. "Nice to see you too, Jeremy," he scoffed. Clearly, this red-haired boy wasn't personable. It probably made him good at his job. I could hear the muffled sounds of electronic music coming upstairs. The rest of this hallway was painted black, and there was a staircase down the hall. Was this a nightclub? It was a stark contrast to the cave where they held the non-shifters. "Scan," the red-haired guard demanded, pulling me out of my observations. He wasn't that intimidating even though he spoke in short phrases. He looked like he could be handing out perfume samples at a Nordstrom, not working as a security guard at whatever this place was. The guard pushed me forward, and I faced the chip reader that the other guard was holding. "Turn around," he ordered, and I followed. After waiting for about ten seconds, I heard his apparatus beeping. Jeremy sighed and stepped out of the way. "All clear." The guard behind me latched onto my arm again and tugged me forward towards the staircase. His words bounced around in my head from earlier. 'No one has ever come back.' Why is that? Were all the girls killed? Sold? Could this place possibly be as bad as the human trafficking prison cells? We reached the top of the stairs and met another door. This time it was wrought iron, and there was an electronic keypad to the side of it. First, the guard had to scan his fingerprint. 'Authorized,' a robotic female voice declared from the screen. "Your turn," the guard released my arm so I could have my fingerprint scanned. I reticently lifted my right hand to the screen. It sat there for a few seconds, and I heard the robotic voice explain, 'Registering user.' Then, after a few seconds, the voice reappeared to confirm, 'authorized.' The iron door slid open, and the guard grabbed my arm again, which I was getting annoyed by. Immediately, as the door parted from its seal, I was overwhelmed by the stench of alcohol and marijuana, as well as the blaring electronic dance music. Fog, presumably from fog machines, cloaked the floor, which made it impossible to know where I was walking. Nearest me was a stage where a DJ was spinning records, but at the center of the large, square room, was a raised platform with many men hovered around. It almost looked like a boxing ring in size, and multi-colored spotlights shined directly on it. I wasn't as intimidated here as I had been at the other showroom, part of the reason being I didn't see depraved men jerking off in front of girls. This seemed like any Miami nightclub, and even some women were in here amongst the men, too. We walked along the side of the room, seemingly not to draw any attention away from whatever the people were looking at. As we approached the center stage, I made out the scene: a beautiful snow white wolf, standing in place. After a few seconds the wolf shifted back to her human form, and the whole crowd cheered. I heard the voice of the DJ beckon over the speakers, "Two hundred forty-three, Isn't she lovely? We'll start the bidding at one hundred fifty thousand." I nearly choked to death. "Did he say one hundred fifty thousand dollars?!" The guard behind me chuckled, "You're in the high rollers' section now." Interestingly, I didn't smell any other shifters in the crowd. It seemed like all of the people in attendance were pure humans, which made me wonder what they would use a shifter for at that price. "Why do these people want to spend so much on a wolf?" I asked curiously. It seemed like the guard wasn't adverse to talking like that Jeremy guy. "Rich humans do as rich humans do. If I knew what it was to be a rich human, I wouldn't be working this sh*tty job," he sighed. The DJ's voice rang through my ears as his voice sounded like it was on fast-forward the whole time. "One fiddy, one fiddy, anyone one fiddy, we have one fiddy anyone one sixty, one sixty going once, one seventy, anyone have one seventy?" A female voice screamed out from the crowd, "Two hundred fifty thousand!" She was nearest to me, so I could hear what the man next to her, possibly her husband, had to say next. He looked upset. His face was in a scowl, and he scolded, "Meredith, why would you pay that much? This one isn't even worth over the starting price." The woman looked careless and said airily, "Because white is so pretty! Imagine how beautiful she will look in our exotic pets enclosure!" My attention was pulled back to the DJ who was also skilled as an auctioneer. "Two fiddy two fiddy, anyone two sixty, two sixty, anyone, going once, going twice, sold to the woman for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars!" The woman started jumping up and down and gave her husband a huge hug. So, these humans just bought us shifters because we were exotic to them? There was no other reason than that? While some might have just viewed us as that, I worried others, more dastardly, might try to have sex with us to create their own hybrid children. Whatever thor motives may have been, I was repulsed by everyone in this room. The guard finally led me to the far corner of the room, and since we entered from the back, we were near the entrance. However, knowing how El Lobo ran things, that entrance was probably just another secret door. "Hello, Rochelle," the guard behind me greeted. "Hi Cristian," she sighed. Well, finally I had learned the guard's name even though I hoped I'd never see him again after this. "She's all yours now," Cristian said, handing me over to Rochelle. "You didn't f*ck this one, did you?" Rochelle raised her eyebrow, and her face looked annoyed. Crisitan excused himself. "You know El Lobo would be furious if we ever harmed one of the shifters. I only f*ck the ones who are in my price range." He cackled, but Rochelle wasn't amused. She sent him away. "Come with me." Rochelle ushered, and she pointed me towards what looked like a coat closet. I was just thankful that she didn't grab my wrist. We were only a few strides away from the closet when a muscular, tall, long-haired brunette stepped in front of me. I couldn't see the front of his face, but I thought, 'how rude.' Rochelle greeted the man, "Mr. Castaneda, I'll be right with you." Then Rochelle whispered into my ear, thinking nobody else could hear, "Stay right here until I'm done. Got it?" I nodded my head. "Here for your coat, sir?" Rochelle asked the man. A buttery smooth voice, that sounded like that of a radio host, seeped into my ears. His voice reminded me of the texture of fondue and caramel. His cadence was slow, yet composed. He seemed sure of every word he wanted to say. "I was." He stopped immediately after that. "But, I think I had a change of plans." Then, the tall man in front of me turned around, his hands tucked into his maroon blazer pockets; My eyes were drawn to his face immediately as it came into view, like there was a magnetic pull tugging my head upwards. His chocolate brown eyes met mine and lingered there for a few seconds. I felt like there were swirls of cinnamon sugar around the pupils, they were so mesmerizing. He turned back around to Rochelle. "How much for the girl?"