Hello, and I'm back with another chapter of Not her first Auction.

I don't own Ancient Magus Bride.

Also, I don't own all of the ideas in this chapter-I got some suggestions from Bard of Innail, so thanks for the help!

Enjoy!

Chise sat down next to the dragon, wearing a cloak-to cover her twisted arm, as well as to hide the scars.

She didn't say anything about what had happened to her-and because she was starting to get flashbacks to the others that had bought her just by looking at the scars, she was blocking a worried Ruth out. Silke was starting to get worried, too, especially since Chise had started to eat less.

It had been an entire week since Chise had woken up, and she was sure that she was worrying everyone. Alice and Renfred had visited twice, despite the fact that it had only been a week. Angela had been bugging her about it, but Chise refused to say a single word about her past. Simon had asked about why she was wearing a cloak at all times, then answered his own question by saying that it was probably because of the temperature outside.

I...I just want to pretend nothing happened, Chise thought, holding back tears as another flashback came into her head.

Screaming. Chise was begging for him to stop-she didn't want to be used like a human battery anymore.

"Quit your crying," the person said-she couldn't remember his name-had he ever told it to her? Probably not, she was just a guinea pig for this twisted man's experiments-an energy source, too. And she couldn't stand it.

"PLEASE!" Chise yelled. "Please stop!"

"Stop crying-you'll be asleep before you know it," the person said just as the pain grew worse.

If there was one thing Chise knew, it was that the pain wouldn't go away even if she did fall unconscious.

The flashback ended, but it left Chise feeling like she wanted to cry.

With a sigh, Chise stood up. I'm going to go for a walk to clear my head-I don't care if Elias or Ruth gets mad at me. I just need some time to myself. With that, Chise walked away, wrapping her cloak around herself.

Meanwhile…

Elias and Ruth weren't even at the house-they had slipped out the back door and walked away out of Chise's sight.

Elias knocked on Simon's door.

"Coming, coming," Simon said, opening the door. He blinked with surprise. "Elias-Ruth. What brings you here?"

"I hope you don't mind, but as we do not have a phone, I was wondering if I could borrow yours for a few minutes to call someone," Elias said.

Simon raised an eyebrow. "You need to call someone? Don't you usually just send a letter?"

"We need to talk to them now," Ruth said.

Ok," Simon said. "Well, come in, I guess."

Elias and Ruth walked into Simon's house-it was really small, but they could still fit inside.

Simon walked over to the table, then grabbed his phone, handing it to Elias.

"You memorized the number you're trying to call, right?" Simon asked.

"I asked Renfred to tell it to us just in case," Elias said, then gave it a confused look. "Um...how do you dial a number on this?"

"You press the buttons for the numbers," Ruth said, taking the phone and dialing the number. He hit call, then handed it back to Elias.

Elias put it to his ear, and he waited as it rung.

After a minute, Seth picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hello," Elias said.

"Oh, Mr. Ainsworth," Seth said, sounding surprised.

"I was wondering if I could as you a few questions?" Elias asked.

"About what?" Seth asked.

"Chise is covered in scars, as you know, but she won't tell us why," Elias said. Ruth leaned closer to the phone, listening as well. "And she's been acting more distant since we learned about them-but the scars are rather old. Did something happen to her?"

Seth stayed silent for a minute.

"Well?" Eias asked.

"If Chise won't tell you...well, there's a reason for that," Seth said, then sighed. "In all honesty, I shouldn't be telling you this, but at the same time...it might be best if you know."

At this point, Simon walked over and grabbed the phone, turning it to speaker.

"What can you tell us?" Simon asked.

"Who else is there?" Seth asked, confused.

"Elias, Ruth, and I'm Simon," Simon said, then gave Elias a confused look. "I didn't know Chise was covered in scars, though."

"That's the real reason she's been wearing the cloak," Ruth said.

Seth sighed. "I should've guessed that she would try to hide the scars-not that I can blame her."

"What happened?" Elias asked.

"Is Chise around you at all?" Seth asked. "Any way for her to overhear what I'm about to say?"

"I'd hope not," Simon said, looking around. "We're at my house-I don't think she knows where I live, actually."

"Good," Seth said. "Now, to start, I have a question-are you aware that when you bought her, it was not her first auction?"

"I'd heard rumors, but I wasn't completely sure," Elias said.

"Well, it was far from her first," Seth said. "You were the tenth person to buy her."

"Wait, seriously?" Simon asked, his eyes wide.

"I had no idea," Ruth said quietly.

"Yeah," Seth said. "The first person that bought her was named Eden Dumont-older man, but incredibly kind. He had her for a year, then he...passed away. A friend of his bought Chise next...and Chise was sold back a year after that due to the friend going bankrupt. Both of them were relatively nice people...but they were the only ones out of the nine."

"What happened after that?" Ruth asked.

"The next buyer was interested in all the power Chise has-and decided to try to use her like a human battery," Seth said.

"A what!?" the three asked angrily.

"Yeah," Seth said. "She got a hold of me a year later, and begged for something to be done. We looked into his past, found some unresolved crimes, as well as potential kidnappings, and used that to get him arrested. We wanted to stop selling her at the auction house, but due to the fact that she's one of a kind, we couldn't just do that, so we had no choice but to sell her to the next person, who did the exact same thing. We found creative ways to get Chise back after that, but we had no choice but to sell her over and over again. Buyers three, four, five, six, and seven were the same-they wanted to take her power and use her like a human battery. Number eight...number eight decided that it would be best to use her blood for energy, and tried to fuse her blood with his-the massive amount of energy caused him to explode."

"That's horrible," Simon said quietly. "I guess we know where the scars are from."

"Not quite," Seth said.

"What do you mean, not quite?" Ruth demanded.

"That was buyer number eight," Seth said. "Elias, you were the tenth."

"What did the ninth do?" Elias asked.

Seth took a deep breath. "Apparently, before he bought Chise, he had a daughter, named Teegan Junica-the man was Liam Junica. Well, before he bought Chise, he hit poor Teegan on the head so hard that he killed her. In a panic, he bought Chise from the auction house and forced her to pretend to be Teegan."

"He killed his daughter?!" Simon exclaimed.

"We didn't discover this until a year later," Seth said. "But that's not the point right now. He bought Chise from the auction house and treated her like Teegan-as you can probably guess, that means highly abusive." He took another breath. "As you probably know, Chise sings and dances for the Fae once a month-and that's when we realized what was wrong. A bunch of Fae began to swarm to alchemists and others that could see them, begging for help-saying that Chise was in danger. That's when we did some more digging on Liam Junica, and that's when we learned about Teegan. Some help from the Fae and more digging around revealed her grave. Horrified, I took the police to Liam's house. We asked to see her, and he refused. We went into the house anyway...there was a bloodstain on the floor."

Elias, Ruth, and Simon gasped. Simon put a hand over his mouth, and Ruth looked angry. But it was nothing compared to how angry Elias looked-for someone that didn't seem to show much emotion, he was clearly the angriest in the room.

"I ordered for his arrest and went into the house to find Chise," Seth said. "And when I found her...there was so much blood. She was covered in wounds, bruises-it looked really bad. I brought her to the hospital-I never got the full story from her, though. She doesn't like to talk about it, as you can probably guess. We tried to keep quiet about it, but people learned about her again-she didn't want to be sold, but we couldn't do anything about it until she turned sixteen."

"Why sixteen?" Simon whispered.

"Eden Dumont adopted her-she was his daughter-and he was kind to her," Seth said. "But, the other thing with him was that he was rich beyond belief. When he died, he specifically stated in his will that Chise could inherit the money he left her when she turned sixteen-then she could buy herself back, and she would be free." He sighed. "The money that we gave her to work with at the auction house-the auction for the dragon? That money was her inheritance, as well as the money she gained from being sold at the auction-half of the value she was bought for. We weren't supposed to give it to her, so we had to take it back after the auction, but still. We decided that, when she turned sixteen, we would take her back, and she would be free." He chuckled sadly. "But from the sounds of it, she's found somewhere to call home-I just hope that she survives."

"She will," Elias said. "I will make sure of it."

"That's good," Seth said. "But still. There's hardly any way for her to survive with the curse of the dragon-and the fact that she's a sleigh beggy doesn't help matters. At this point, it might be best for her to call upon an old Promise and hope that a particular Fae can save her."

"Who?" Elias asked. "Who would she call upon?"

"You'll have to ask her," Seth said. "Oh, and before I forget. She is turning sixteen tomorrow." (A/N: I don't know if that actually lines up with her birthday, but for the sake of the story, I'm just going to say that it will.) "Before long, I will come by to make sure that she's fine with staying there, and if she is, then I need to give her her inheritance, as well as...something else left for her." A voice was heard in the background. "Well, I have to go. Tell Chise that I say hi, and I'll see her soon." With that, he hung up, leaving the three in stunned silence.

After a minute, Elias closed the phone and handed it to Simon, then began to leave.

"W-Where you going?" Simon asked.

"To find Chise," Elias said, walking out the door. Ruth followed him.

What they didn't realize was that it was going to be hard for them to find her.

Dun dun dun! No, not really, but still. Cliffhanger! What did you think?

I should be updating before too long, but writer's block sucks, and I might decide to just power through a different fanfiction that I'm working on and finish that before continuing-then again, I might decide to put that on pause and just continue with this for a while-I don't know yet.

Anyway, until next time!

Lunetheart out.