Page 2 of Darkness I Become
“No secrets between us, sweetheart,” he said, grabbing her cheek. She recoiled, but he held fast. “We’ll be getting to know each other much better soon.”
She didn’t think about doing it; she simply reacted. She turned her head and sunk her teeth into his hand. He tasted like dirt and something salty she didn’t want to think about.
He roared with pain and released her, then cupped his bleeding hand and examined the distinct tooth marks in his flesh.
“Bitch,” he bit out. “Don’t know where you came from, girlie, but you’re about to learn your place.”
Asha gasped in surprise and pain as he grabbed a handful of her black hair and pulled, forcing her out of the washtub. He threw her to the floor, still naked and soaking wet, and pain lanced her side as he kicked her in the ribs. She doubled over, trying to protect herself with her arms, but the second kick didn’t hurt any less than the first.
“Don’t get carried away there, Pike, or no one’ll want her,” a gruff male voice said from the door. “No good if she’s all roughedup before auction.”
Auction?Asha snapped to attention. She hadn’t been told anything about these men’s true intentions since they’d kidnapped her a day ago. She’d been wandering through the dense forest with nothing but the clothes on her back, desperately searching for food.
When she at last spotted a rabbit roasting over an open flame, all good sense abandoned her. The smoky scent of sizzling meat was dizzying. She’d gotten sick from drinking the water from a stream a couple of days prior, causing her body to empty itself of every shred of nourishment via painful vomiting and diarrhea. She’d eaten nothing in a week and was dangerously dehydrated.
But of course, when she’d approached the campfire, she’d walked right into Pike, and into this waking nightmare that refused to end. Four smelly, grimy Wastelander men had tied her up and forced her to walk for what felt like forever, until her legs gave out and they were forced to feed and water her, lest she not make it to wherever the hell they were going. Any questions about where they were taking her earned her a sharp slap across the cheek.
They led her to a much larger campsite, where more brutish, dirty men greeted them. Asha hated the way they openly leered at her.
“Such a pretty one,” a man with greasy hair and missing front teeth crooned. “Such lovely skin…like polished copper.”
She recoiled as his clammy, meaty hand touched her cheek, leaving behind a mysterious oily substance that she hastily wiped on the sleeve of her worn winter jacket.
“She’s a prize,” Pike had replied, showing off several blackened, rotting teeth. “Never seen one like her before. So untouched. So pretty.”
Asha wanted to vomit, but wisely decided against it. She needed all the calories she could get, because who knew where her next meal might come from. As the sky darkened, they brought her to a copse of trees several metres from the main campfire. She was surprised to find two other women there, tied to tree trunks. Both women were fair-skinned and blonde, and thin as a rail, their faces smudged with dirt. There was a bone-deep weariness to them that showed on their faces. It was only their lack of wrinkles or expression lines that gave away their youth: neither could be more than eighteen or nineteen years old.
At twenty-six, Asha knew she looked younger and healthier than either of them. It didn’t bode well that, in the company of these men,a couple of vital young women lookedthishaggard and unwell. She wondered how long they’d been there as they watched her, wide-eyed, while Pike made her sit and be tied to an adjacent tree trunk.
“Go to sleep,” he ordered, smacking his lips unpleasantly. “No talking.”
They weren’t wrong about Wastelanders back home,Asha thought, wrinkling her nose.They’re repulsive.
Pike wandered back to the main campfire, leaving Asha and the two women alone. Asha glanced in their direction. Both of them studied her with an intensity that made her uncomfortable.
“So, where’d they get you?” the blonde on the left asked in a low voice. She had a smudge of mud on the tip of her nose, and her blue eyes were wide and curious.
Asha stayed silent. She wasn’t sure what to make of them, and she didn’t want to provoke Pike or the others by talking.
When it became clear she wasn’t going to reply, the other woman said, “I’ll bet she’s one of the volunteers Daddy told us about, Becks. Too pretty to not be.”
“Ah, you’re probably right,” Becks replied knowingly. “Is that it, pretty girl? You offered yourself up to the men?”
“What?” Asha said indignantly, startled into speech. “No. As if I’d ever volunteer to be tied up in the woods by a bunch of Wastelanders.”
The girls blinked at her. She realized too late that they’d probably never heard the term before…which meant they also didn’t know that it was mostly used as a pejorative, thank God.
Get your shit together, Asha,she scolded herself.These people are dangerous.
“What’s a Wastelander?” Becks asked, raising her eyebrows. “That another gang?”
In a manner of speaking.
“It’s a word for outside people,” Asha answered cautiously, and when they gave her another look of confusion, she sighed.
“Outside?”
“Never mind,” she hurried out, not eager to explain. She had no idea if she could trust these women, but she could gather information from them. “Who are you?”
