Part 7 (There is depiction of self harm in this chapter, if you don't want to read, there is a short summary in the author's note)

There were times when Katy was dozing she saw her family, it seemed like she was looking at them through frosted glass. When this happened it made her heart ache, it made her lonely, it made her long for home. Katy's mother was always crying, begging to have her daughter back. "I miss my baby." She sobbed while her husband held her, his face grave, quietly sad and unmoving. Jamie looked directly at her, through the glass, a pained and bewildered look in his eyes, Jenny rubbed small circles on his back to comfort him. Sometimes Katy could just glimpse the shadow of a figure sat between herself and her family with muffled sounds that sounded almost like talking permeating the air.

Katy desperately wanted to talk to them, to reach out and say everything was okay, that she was trying to figure out a way home, nothing ever came out. They were too far away. No matter how hard she tried, they would never hear her. So when she eventually snapped out of the strange daydreams, she would cry, then she would take the sharp, jagged shard of pottery she had acquired when she broke a bowl, press it hard against the soft flesh of her thigh and pull and pull and pull until her mind stopped shouting.

Of course, existing in a place as dirty as this, the open wounds were prone to infection. When Jaida or Nu'm found her leaning against the bars of her cage, red surrounding her, they would ask her questions she didn't hear, then they would take her away, clean her up, put her back in the box. When Talal found Katy in this state he would quietly berate her as he dragged the barely conscious girl to a bath room, tell her that if she didn't want saving he would just kill her. One time she told him to get on with it, I would rather be dead than here. He ignored her, and whenever she was found with blood trailing down her legs and pooling on the floor he would throw a cover over her cage and summon the women.

Time was a mystery to Katy. She knew when it was day and when it was night, but never counted how many times the cycle had repeated. Everything that happened in the waking world blurred to the point of incoherence. The past couple of days had been slightly different. Talal had brought more strangers to look at his 'produce', but more and more often they were becoming interested in her. Normally the slavers wanted men to carry out physical labour, Katy was glad she was normally overlooked. She knew why men bought female slaves. The thought made her shudder. Katy would push herself as far back in the cage as it was possible to be.

"...Nearly three weeks she has been here and no real interest," Katy heard Talal's voice approaching, she scrambled to the back of her cage, eyes wide and breathing heavy, she hissed in pain when she jabbed her her thigh with the point of her elbow as she rushed to get away from that voice.Three weeks? Three weeks.. "I would be happy with any price, but he has named a decent amount." The door was unlocked and pushed open, Talal entered with an unknown man, quiet elderly, he wore a long, black robe with a white motif on each sleeve and a heavy metal cross around his thin, wrinkled neck. "Goodness only knows why, look at the pathetic creature." And they both did, hard looks filled with distaste. "Half mad, wretched and thin. But that is beside the point. He wants to buy her and I need to sell her, she puts off potential clients for any of the others." The old man nodded in agreement, casting a brief glance around the room at the others. "He could not take her himself at such short notice, and I know you are on your way back to Acre, if you could take her with your usual cargo, I would be ever grateful."

The old man bent down and looked at Katy, his eyes seemed to bore straight through her. His brow furrowed, his lips moved ever so slightly, he then straightened and nodded. "This one is broken," He said to Talal, still gazing at Katy. It made her feel uncomfortable, like he was stripping her bare. Danger. Her breath hitched and caught in her lungs, she tried to take in more air but nothing, it was like trying to breathe in a vacuum. "Perhaps beyond repair, she harms herself." His eyes flicked away from hers to look at her thigh and back again in less than a second. Katy looked as well, blood was oozing through the rough fabric of her robe where she knocked herself with her elbow. "Yet," He continued as Katy looked back to him, "Scared to die."

All Katy could see was this man, this old man. Nothing else existed at this point. Not the cage, the others, Talal, this whole insane world. They weren't real, they fell away. It was just this one man. He was real. Katy saw him. And he saw her, all of her. Who are you? The spell was shattered when Talal spoke. "But you will take her?"

"Yes," The man confirmed the request and turned to face Talal, "I shall take to Acre, she is so small it would make little difference to one of the pack horses." The men walked away from her slowly and Katy began to breathe a little easier.

"You have my thanks, Garnier." Talal stated.

"And a share of the 'decent amount', I hope." The old man replied with a low chuckle.

Garnier?

De Naplouse. The doctor.

Katy let out a shaky breath once the men had left the room. She pressed a closed fist against her thigh and twisted her wrist, the rough fabric between her knuckles and the open wound produced a satisfying jolt of pain. The relief Katy felt when she realised she was escaping this cage was short lived, she would be in the company of a man who tortured people and called it doctoring, she was being taken to a man who had bought her. While this place was unpleasant, it was safe, it was away from the open world. She twisted her wrist again, opening the cut on her leg further, blood seeped through the robe and tracked down her leg, warm, thick. It almost tickled.


A/N: Darker places in this one, as I said, not very graphic. If you have any issues with the way it's presented, let me know, I have no intention to be flippant about a very serious issue. Thanks to everyone reading, (almost 500 views, wow! *squishes all of your faces*) and remember I always appreciate feedback, please review! x

Summary:
There is a bit of a time jump during this chapter, we find out Katy has been in Jerusalem with Talal for nearly three weeks, while there she has visions of her family which has devastating consequences on Katy's already deteriorating state of mind. While buyers weren't interested in Katy, she has recently been bought by a client in Acre. Talal has commissioned Garnier de Naplouse to transport her there along with some other people.