The room was dark, just like it always was. It was cold right now, meaning that it was daytime; at night it was practically frigid. Next to the scurry of mice and rats there was no other sign of life in the room besides the trapped children. And the only sounds that could be heard were the occasional conversations between them. They spoke very quiet and not very often. They spoke of lost families, long lost friends and memories of happier times. They never spoke when the man came. They knew not to, for if he were in a bad mood he would punish them. They wouldn't dare do anything to defy the man that referred to himself as 'The Master'. There was one exception though. There was one girl who, although she never talked, she still found ways to defy the Master. But she didn't count. Well, not to the eyes of the other children. She wasn't one of them. From her first day there she had angered the Master enough for him to have her chained against the wall, not in cages like the others. And she remained there still. They never spoke to her either, for the Master forbade them to speak to her. If they were caught, none of them would get the next meal, and they wouldn't risk that. She wasn't fed as often as them either. That was another punishment by the Master's orders.
There had been those, some recalled, who had also defied the Master; but unlike them he kept her alive. Children that defied him usually never lived passed the next week, but she was different. It was strange, Master would throw fits at the child's defiance, and yet, he spoke so highly of how different she was. He spoke in an eerily happy tone of how fair her skin was, and how her hair shined, even in the dark room; and he spoke of other things too, things which the children feared to think about. They feared it because they knew that the people who came to buy them wanted them only for those things: small parts, long parts, round parts… the chills it would give them just by thinking about it. And they tried not to think about it, just like how they tried not to think about the little girl on the wall. They tried to ignore the Master when he was feeding the girl her bi-weekly meal, and how he would stroke her hair and talk about all of the money that she was going to get him when he sold her, and when he spoke of how his clients were going to torture her once they bought her, and they helplessly tried to ignore when he lowered his hand to demonstrate. Some things were harder than others, like when they had to keep silent as these things occurred, or how when the girl bit or kicked him hard enough to make him fall they had to prevent the laughter and smiles, and also they had to make sure not to speak against the Master whenever he got up and struck her for her defiance. Oh, they wanted to console her, for they really did pity her, but feared that, at any moment, he would return and in anger treat them as he treated her.
And so they remained silent, even as much time went by, they left the fair-skinned child alone to the punishments of the Master. Even if they had ever decided to be brave enough to break the rules and speak to the girl, it would be far too late to be of any use. With each day that went by the light in her eyes slowly died. She was falling apart, piece by piece. The children came to notice this too. They noticed how the girl wouldn't defy the Master as frequent as she had in her first few weeks. She wouldn't bite him when he fed her, she stopped kicking him when spoke cruelly to her, and eventually she wouldn't even flinch under his touch. She had broken.
"Rise and shine kiddies!" The Master boomed. "Come on, get up you lot! We have an important day today. I got buyers coming soon and ain't none of you are gonna doze off and damage my business."
The children cringed, for it was the day that they feared the most. The day which buyers came, the day when strangers purchased them and took them away into new, unknown, fear-filled, lives.
The Master gave them some scraps to eat and they all lined up side by side in the cages. It wasn't long until they heard voices up on the main floor. The Master was already upstairs to greet them. It felt like hours to the children as, one-by-one, different buyers came in to browse through the cages. There ranges in buyers were surprisingly various. They ranged from shaggy-looking old men to wealthy young women. They even seemed to share different 'tastes' in purchases. Children of all ages were being taken out of the changes by the whims of the buyers. Each child taken from the cages were give a look-over and, after some haggling, were either sent back inside or were taken upstairs for the buyers and the Master to finalize the financial trade. About halfway through the day the Master brought down his 15th customer. It was a man who seemed to be in his early forties and appeared to be from an upper-middle class society. He eyed children from some of the cages while making small talk with the Master. He was about to turn to the case on the next wall when he noticed a figure in the corner and walked over to it.
"Oh, I see you've noticed my little treasure over there. You must have good taste to be interested in her."
The man huffed. "Why's she chained away from the others? Is she a trouble maker?"
"Oh no sir; not at all. It's just that I felt that such a prize like her should be put up on display." The man didn't reply to his comment as he looked over the girl. "So… what do you think?"
"She is rather unusual, she's practically an albino." The man sighed. "On the other hand, I have been rather bored with my other slaves. Perhaps I could use a little variation in my home."
"A perfectly good idea Sir; very nice. So you'll take her?"
"I suppose so." He replied dully. "Has she been used before?"
"No, no sir. This girl's as pure as her snowy little head."
"All right then. I'll take her."
"Wonderful! I'm sure that you'll enjoy her, guaranteed! Now, about the price…?"
"Fifty thousand pounds should be enough." The man suggested.
"Fifty thousand? My good sir, surely you can't honestly expect me to give away such a treasure for so low a price! She's worth at least two hundred thousand."
"I'm not here to throw away my money slave-trader. I will go for eighty thousand."
"Please Sir, be considerate. Look at how fair she is and her eyes too! A hundred and seventy five thousand no lower."
"Blue-eyed children are easy to find if you no where to look. A hundred thousand is sufficient."
"Well sure blue-eyes are common. But even in the lands of white men you can't possibly say that that silver hair is common. A hundred and fifty pounds and no lower Sir. That's my final offer!"
"…Alright then, we have a deal; a hundred and fifty thousand for the girl."
"Wonderful Sir! Now, if you would just follow me upstairs we can get everything settled."
"Not so fast slave trader. If I take her now the whole city would notice. I will come pick her up in the evening; and then I will pay for her."
"No problem Sir, I'll make sure to get her ready for the evening."
With that the man and the Master went upstairs and the business continued. By nightfall nearly half of the children had been sold and taken away. The man was to come within the hour to pick Laila up and so the Master went back to the basement to fetch her. "Congratulations kiddie. You're new Master's coming to get you soon. Aren't you excited?" The girl stayed still and made no reply. "Dumb brat." He mumbled. "You know, usually I'd hit you for being such a bitch. But I guess I'll have to make an exception. If you get damaged then the deal for you might get thrown off. And I can't let that happen now can I?" She still made no sound. The Master sighed and unlocked her chains. Once they unlocked she crumpled to the ground like a rag doll. "Oy, you've gotta be kidding me." he bent down to pick her up. "Alright kid, up you go now. Come on, stand up--!" The Master gasped and collapsed on his knees. "What the fuck was that?" he gasped it was then he noticed the knife wedged on his side. That knife, she always imagined that during her beatings he would have noticed the kitchen knife she stole all those months ago, strapped in a sheath against her back; but he never found it. It just lay there, for months, just waiting for the time when she could use it. Now was the time, and she wasn't going to hesitate. Once he was on his knees she pushed him to ground and grabbed handfuls of his hair. He clawed at her arms but she barely gave notice as she used an iron grip to start bashing his head against the ground. The room was in an uproar as the struggle continued. Under most circumstances the master would have been able to throw her off easily, but the knife inside of him was making everything unbearable enough, he was losing strength to fight back from the assault. After a few more slams against the ground the Master fell unconscious. He wasn't dead, but if he was left long enough he'd surely die of blood loss. The children cheered as Laila got up and took the knife from the man's side. Once she gained her balance she started to walk towards the door.
"hey wait a minute." One of the boys called out. "Get the keys kid. Get the keys so that we can get out!"
"Please, you gotta let us out. Help us!" A girl next to him pleaded.
Laila stopped and turned to them. She saw the fear and desperation in their eyes. She looked on as the other children called out to her. And then she finally, after many months, managed to finally speak to them.
"Do I know you?"
The children went silent. They could see it now, what had happened to her. She was dead on the inside, her eyes showed it. That was why she paid no heed to the Master as he clawed at her in her escape. She couldn't feel it, just as she couldn't feel out for the children in the cages. She had become an animal now. No, worse than that, she had become a shell, with hardly a mind and hardly a heart. And no sooner that they had realized this, she turned and walked out the room, leaving the other children alone, begging for their lives.
