DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters from the Night World series. They belong to the wonderfully talented Ljane Smith
~LONG ETERNITY~
"Who is that girl over there?" Asked the man that came in the hushed village if Hemingway with hundreds of men on horses and even more men and women chained to them. The mayor of Hemingway was a poor man with at least ten children now. Nobody could blame him selling his townspeople that were willing to leave Hemingway. They were the first ones he sold. But the man with the proud look and demanding eyes asked for more. And he was asking for me.
Mother wound an arm around my waist protectively. She was a small women with the kindest heart in all of Hemingway. I would hate to leave her alone by herself. Father didn't last long and Mother was deeply effected by his passing away. So I just couldn't be sold into slavery. Mayor John Hemingway of Hemingway knew that, yet the price the man asked for me made the Mayor hesitant.
Why would this man want me? I asked myself. I was no one special. I had dark brown hair that shone light brown when under the sun's rays and my eyes were a dark blue. People told me my eyes were my best feature. So did Mother who has light blue eyes. Other than that, I was pretty plain. I had normal features, normal figure. I might even consider myself pretty, if I can just look at my face, but that was impossible.
"What's the girl's name?" The man asked, eyeing me. The Mayor glanced at me then at my mother. Their eyes met for the briefest second, and it felt like the air between them thinned, then looked away. Mother just tightened her grip on me.
"Her name is Anna Shore. She should be about 17." The man smiled. I realized that he was handsome, in an eerie, nonhuman way. There was something odd about him in the way he smiled. Not once showing his teeth, I noted.
"Double the price." The man said as a matter of fact. I was very confused because the man looked directly at me when he said that. I didn't know what he meant until Mother ran towards the Mayor and went down on her knees, openly and publicly.
"Please! I'm begging you, please!" That was all she managed before she started to sob hysterically. Silent tears ran down my cheeks just by watching her. If the Mayor agreed to the man, I knew, even if I do return safe and sound, that Mother would never forgive the Mayor. The Mayor who watched my mother cry, softened his features and looked like he was going to deny the man's offer. Mother saw this through her teary eyes and hope shone in them.
Just then, the Mayor's expression changed.
His face went blank, like someone disconnected his head from the rest of his body. Shocked, I glanced at the man who I thought would be surprised to see the change in the Mayor, but he was expressionless.
"Anna is yours." The Mayor said in a monotonous voice. It sent chills through me. I didn't want to look into Mother's face for I knew very well what lay in her eyes. The man who looked intimidating smiled triumphantly. Then he jerked his head toward me and a bunch of guys on the horses came towards me with chains. I looked warily at the rusty silver chains, not sure if I run or I should put up a fight. Just then, Mother threw herself at one of the man on the horses nearest her and started hitting him with her hands. I was so shocked; Mother, the kindest heart in all of Hemingway, who cried whenever an animal was brutally killed, who didn't feel any personal pain but the pain of others, whom I love very much, was risking her life fighting an armed man on a horse.
"You go near her and I WILL KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!" Mother screamed. The townspeople, that were beginning to grow in numbers around my mother and the man on the horse, were shocked and amazed at the gentle woman that everyone in Hemingway knows.
The man on the horse struggled with my mother, furiously trying to pry her fingers off his arms, but did not call for help, did not make any sound, even if Mother's nails scraped his skin so deep it drew blood.
The other men on the horses did not pay any attention to the man in a fight with my mother. They didn't once look back at him. They came advancing towards me but I didn't pay any attention to them. I was focusing on my mother, who I noticed was growing very weak. Then, with a movement so quick like lightning, the man on the horse struck out at Mother and knocked her down in a heap on the dirt road. She wasn't moving. Someone screamed. Then I realized it was me. I hardly noticed the chains snapped onto my wrists or on my ankles. I didn't even notice the other people in chains that gave telltale signs of what was in store for me. The blank stares, like being in a trance, their bloodied rags and feet but happily smiling like they knew a secret joke. It was too late to do anything because all along the way to this slave owners kingdom, I was convinced my mother was dead and thus I had no reason for living anymore.
