CRY OR BETTER YET, BEG

ARIA

"Four hundred thousand dollars!" a deep voice shouted.

"Eight hundred thousand!" another voice countered.

I was only five, innocent and clueless.

I was made to stand on a platform in the center of the room.

I didn’t understand why I was there or why I wasn’t wearing clothes.

All I knew was that there were men, lots of them in black suits and their eyes were locked on me like vicious predators.

Thick cigars between their fingers, and each one had a scary man behind him, also dressed in black suits and shades.

Those men standing occasionally whispered things to the ones sitting.

Emily was the only woman in the room,she stood beside me and whisper instructions to me. She was the closest thing I had to a mother. She taught me everything I knew that that age, and homeschooled me.

I only got to know that she wasn't my mother when her son Daniel,who was two years older than me told me.

This place was the only home I’d known, for as long as I could remember. I wasn't allowed to leave my room or interact with anyone else except Emily and her son, Daniel.

I didn’t know where I came from, or how I got here.

However, I kept having this scary dream of two cold bodies in a pool of blood. A blonde woman,naked, her thighs looking like they’d been broken with force and a man, headless, lying beside her.

I had no idea who they were, or why I kept dreaming of them.

Emily touched my shoulder gently, then she leaned in, and whispered, “Turn around, sweetie.”

I obeyed and turned slowly.

“Five million!”

A man suddenly called from the back.

The room went quiet for a moment, no one could challenge that amount.

A man in a gray suit approached us and whispered something in Emily's ear. She nodded quickly, then turned to me with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Come on, sweetie, let’s get back to your room.”

It was finally over, I stepped off the platform and gazed up at her.

She smiled back weakly, held my hand and walked me down the narrow hallway, back to my room.

I could still hear the men talking and laughing behind us.

“She’ll make a nice doll for my boss” one voice said with a chuckle.

I didn’t know what that meant but somehow, I knew it wasn't good.

Daniel, Emily's son was inside my room, reading when the door opened.

My eyes lit up when I saw him but as soon as he stood up , he walked to his mother and asked the question I hate to hear.

“Can we go home now, Mom?”

“Just a minute, honey. I need to get Aria ready,” she said,and brought out a new dress from a fancy bag.

She got me dressed up after which she knelt down, looked me in the eyes, and touched my cheek.

“You did great out there, sweetie,” she said softly. “So brave. I’m proud of you.”

I looked up at her.

“Am I going somewhere?"

She paused, then sighed and brushed my long hair behind my ear.

“Yes.”

“With you and Daniel?”

I asked again.

She smiled — the kind of smile that meant “no.”

Then she shook her head, her eyes were sad.

“No, sweetheart. But you’ll be taken good care of. It’s… it’s…”

She paused, as if the words were too heavy to say.

“It’s a .....a...good family. They will adopt you. You have to do whatever they say so they’ll take good care of you. Understand?”

She had tears in her eyes.

Seeing her like that, summoned tears in my own eyes and I allowed them to roll freely down my cheeks.

“Hey, honey, you don’t have to cry. I promise to visit,” she said gently and cleaned my face.

“I don’t want to go anywhere. I’m scared,” I sobbed and hugged her tightly. She wrapped her arms around me and kissed my forehead.

"It's okay honey, it's okay".

She whispered and consoled me.

Daniel came over and joined the hug.

Just then, the door opened.

Daniel immediately stepped back in fear as two tall men in black suits walked in.