All for You

Preview

Kate Sharma opened her eyes and immediately felt sick to her stomach. She couldn't handle traveling in a worn-down carriage with the bumpy roads and the constant nauseating smell. The small carriage could only fit about 3 girls, but the greedy bandits shoved 5 girls into one, making it hard to breathe and having no room to move around.

Kate didn't know where they were going, and she didn't care to ask because they weren't going to take her home anyway. Home to the cottage she lived in with her half-sister Edwina and stepmom Mary, two of the most important people in her life. They wouldn't bring her back to the village she loved and where all of her friends were living, getting ready for the winter season and harvesting all of the crops. The air was getting chillier every day, and Kate would usually be making a pot of hot tea for her family in the morning and soup at night. Now, she can't even remember the last time she had a decent meal. She imagined the town library, a safe haven for her to escape when things at home were too stuffy, but now all she wanted to do was go back home.

"We're probably never going back home," a voice whispered to her. Kate looked to her right. It was Priya, an older girl from the next village and someone who she has known for years. She was a pretty girl at 19 years old with dark brown hair, a short and petite build, and plump lips that never seem to need lipstick. Their villages used to come together for parties and fun competitions, something that seemed too far away now.

"Why do you say that?" Kate asked.

"A long time ago, when I was 8 or 9, a powerful group of bandits came to our village and kidnapped two girls," she sniffled. "We never saw them again. We don't know where they went and they never wrote a single letter home. We didn't even know who took them."

Kate closed her eyes again and willed herself not to think of never seeing her mom and sister again. Instead, every time she closed her eyes, she remembered how the group of bandits terrorized her village and forcibly took her from her garden. She had been picking apples and mangoes before they became too ripe when a man suddenly came behind her with a tight grip around her neck. Kate had tried to fight back but to no avail and was taken kicking and thrashing. Her last vision before she fainted from the loss of oxygen was of her mom and sister pleading with the criminals to let her go.

Thinking back about it, it made her want to scrunch into a ball and cry until she physically couldn't, but, she wouldn't cry and lose hope. Not when it was the only thing that kept her going.

Suddenly, the carriage door opened, and one of the bandits pulled down his face scarf. His face was riddled with small scars and a big one across his forehead. He had greasy and matted black hair and had the build of a garden rake.

"We're almost there, girls," he taunted. "Put on your best smile and hope you get a good buyer or else you'll be sold to the brothel."

No, no, no, no, no.

"What do you mean?" She demanded. "Where are you taking us, you filthy bastard?" She could see the smirk slowly drop from his face, and he reached out to grab her face.

"You better hope someone buys you, or I'll be your only customer when you become a whore, bitch," he seethed. Kate recoiled in disgust and struggled to get free but when she managed to, she spat in his face and shut the carriage door while the bandit was trying to recover from the shock.

"Kate, you shouldn't have done that," Priya said. But, she knew that he wouldn't do anything. After all, the leader of the group of bandits wouldn't want them to be aggressive when he knew the better they looked, the higher their price.

Kate always knew the probability of being sold into slavery was most likely, but having her fears confirmed didn't make it any less terrifying. She has heard horrid stories of girls getting kidnapped from villages, towns, and other cities only to be transported to Arvenstone, the capital of Aichedia to be sold into slavery at the bazaar like cattle.