Page 22 of The Seller

“Anywhere else,” I tell him. “We could go literally anywhere else.”

“What’s going on in Athens that has you so worried?”

I close my mouth. I can’t tell him. He’s not my confidante. He’s my captor. The one I fucked through the bars of the cage he kept me in while trying to break me. I can’t tell him what’s worrying me. I can’t tell him anything.

He gets out of the helicopter, walks around, and takes me by the hand. “Out,” he orders.

I step out, looking around and feeling my stomach churn. Athens is where this all started. It’s where I was taken from the bar by the skeezy guy who didn’t even really bother to hide that he was spiking my drink.

I saw the powder go in. I basically had to crane my head the other way while he stirred it with a straw, and then damn near hold my nose when I drank it because whatever he used made the whole thing taste like the inside of a tin can.

Waking up in Stavros’ basement was scary, but finding myself back here in fucking Athens of all places is terrifying. He wasn’t supposed to do this. He was supposed to fuck me a few times and hand me off to a buyer. Why can’t he just be the scumbag seller of flesh I know he is?

I have to accelerate things somehow. I have to get him to think I’m ready to sell.

“You’re quiet,” Stavros notes as he leads me down inside his beautiful mansion. I’m not one to be impressed by marble and chandeliers. I preferred the basement, if I am to be completely honest. Not that he cares.

“I wasn’t spoken to,” I say softly. This is how good, well broken, submissive girls act, I think. I hope.

He stops and turns my chin up toward him. “What is going on with you, Siri?”

“Nothing, sir.”

“Sir?” He smirks at me.

“Stavros?”

“No,” he says. “I like sir.”

He keeps leading me down the winding stairs, until he reaches a hall with a row of doors either side. I am taken into the third one on the left. It doesn’t matter. This is one house I do not intend on escaping from.

The room is well appointed, but overly designed. I can tell a professional came in here and made this space look “homely”, but all they managed to do was clutter it with things that were too new and too fancy. It almost feels as though the whole place were wrapped in plastic which was only peeled off moments before I arrived.

There’s a window looking out over the city. A big beautiful glass pane which lets light stream in. I recoil from it. Athens is cursed, as far as I’m concerned. This city has harbored liars and murderers for thousands of years. I used to think the history was beautiful. Now it just seems oppressive, and the blood I once took so much pride in seems tainted.

“Siri.”

It takes me a moment to respond.

“Oh. Um. Yes?”

He’s looking at me again in that way he has, with those keen eyes which see so much more than they should. Stavros is nothing like what I expected. I thought he’d be brutal with me, but I was willing to pay the price of my flesh to escape this world. If I had to sacrifice some sex to get out of here, that was okay.

Now, I am more vulnerable than ever, and I think it might be showing, no matter how much I try to hide it.

“I know better than to ask you what is going on,” he says. “But, you can tell me.”

I am pulling closer to him, though I don’t mean to. He’s a bad man. I can’t start to think of him as some kind of hero. I chose him because I knew he was efficient and I knew he’d sell me to the right buyer.

“I can tell you? And then what?” A dark smirk curls my lips. He can’t help me. This was all set in motion long before he met me. He’s a pawn in this game as much as I am.

“And then I know,” he says.

“And what would you do if you knew? You lock me away and you fuck me in cages. You punish me with your belt. Why would I tell you anything? Just fucking sell me already and get your money.”

His fingers tighten on my chin. “I’ll sell you when I decide to,” he says. “You’re not in control, Siri. I don’t know why you can’t seem to understand that, let alone accept it.”

I was in control once. I might not be anymore, but that’s a temporary issue. I try to relax. I can’t keep making him think there’s something going on. I have to redirect all this energy to something that might make sense to him.

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