Chapter 14

Lexa remembered how when she was little her mother had surprised with a small birthday cake. She was around 7 then, and since this was the first time that she had been treated with a birthday cake, she had been really happy. She remembered eating it, savouring the sweetness on the taste buds, licking it clean when she had finished. She didn't even think to give her mother a single bite, but Tabitha didn't seem to mind. She just watched a little Lexa swallow bite after bite of sweet sponge cake. She watched how Lexa separated the icing from the cake and ate it separately, because the icing was sweeter and Lexa really liked it. This was probably the first surprise that Lexa had in her life, and probably one of the only pleasant ones. The other surprises that she had were less than present, for example when she realised that she was going to the market for the first time. That had been a nasty surprise. Also when she got hit for the first time. That had also been a bad surprise.

But this? This was a good surprise. Lexa had come into the room feeling down and remorseful, and now seeing what she considered a long-lost friend had given her hope.

Echo's expression said so much. Shock was the most prominent of them, but it also showed happiness and perhaps excitement.

"Lexa?" Echo could barely contain herself. "Is that really you?"

"Yes," Lexa felt a surge of emotions wash over her. Was it relief? She had no idea. Her emotions were so heightened, that she was a little confused.

Echo's lips cracked into a huge beam, and the younger brunette surged forward, engulfing Lexa in a tight hug. "I can't believe it," Echo mumbled into Lexa's shoulder.

"Me neither," Lexa sighed, and eventually the two girls got out of their embrace.

Suddenly Lexa had an idea. "Echo?"

Echo wiped at her eyes with a finger. It looked suspiciously like her wiping away a stray tear, but Lexa didn't question that. Echo was going to deny it anyway, she could be incredibly stubborn so there wasn't really much point in asking.

"Yeah?" Echo said.

"Do you think that we can get out of here?" Lexa asked.

"Of course," Echo replied, offhand. "There isn't really any point though. We'll just get caught and sent back here."

"No we won't," Lexa insisted. "If we get out of here, we can just lay low and they won't find us. We can be free."

"We won't be free," Echo said darkly. "The truth is, and I've come to accept it over the past week, is that we will be slaves for life. If we get recognised, we will just get sent back here. And what, do you really want to stay in hiding forever? I don't want to, that's for sure. Living life in hiding is literally us being fugitives. There is no good way out of this."

"Yes there is!" Lexa hissed. "Look, Clarke will help us. We can escape, you're stealthy and I can cause a distraction. When we're out of here, we can run into the woods. I've been here 7 times already, I know this place better than anyone. We can hide in the woods until we aren't being searched for, and then we can go back to the Griffin Estate and Clarke can help us."

"Going back to the Griffin Estate?" Echo scoffed. "I'm sorry, my friend, but that is suicide. Jake will see us and we will be toast."

"Clarke will protect us, I promise! Come on, don't you think that this is worth a shot? Isn't this better than being sold?" Lexa pled.

"Why do you have so much faith in Clarke? You two fall in love or something?" Echo half-joked.

Lexa blushed and there was silence for a while.

"Shit," Echo's jaw slackened in realisation and perhaps horror? "Are you for real? Are you stupid?"

"I can't help it," Lexa mumbled. "It kind of just… happened."

"Okay, never mind that for now," Echo shook her head. "Look, I hate to break it to you, but your plan is not going to work. First, it is going to take us forever to get back to the Griffin Estate. Plus, if we get there, you realise that it is close to the city centre, right? There's no way that no one will see us. Also, you don't know how hard it is out there. I didn't either, I was naïve, and I learnt it the hard way. Don't make me go through that again."

"You won't be by yourself," Lexa insisted. "You'll have me. Come on, we can literally leave now!"

"No," Echo shook her head, sighing. She lowered herself to the floor, sitting down against the wall. "It's no use."

"Why?" Lexa demanded, starting to get irritated. This was their prime chance! They could get away, just the two of them, and escape the tormenting life of a slave!

"Because, if we leave, all these other people here," Echo waved her hand in a wide arc to gesture everyone else that was in the room. "Will want to leave too. They will do anything to get out of here, believe me. And, you don't know what happened during the two weeks that I was out there, alone. You have no idea what I went through."

"Then tell me!" Lexa pled. "Look, I get that you may not want to try escaping, but is getting raped what you want? Because I can almost guarantee you that is what going to happen when you get sold to your new master. So don't you think that it is worth at least a shot?"

"It is only a matter of time," Echo pursed her lips. "We will always be a slave, Lexa, I've accepted it. So us escaping will not change anything. Please, come and sit next to me."

"Echo," Lexa sighed. "Why are you so stubborn?"

"Why are you so stubborn?" Echo shot back. "Just come sit. We can talk, while we still have the chance."

"Fine," Lexa grumbled. She still didn't get why Echo didn't want to help her escape. She felt a little betrayed, even though she had no right to. Echo didn't owe her anything, and besides something must have happened for her to be completely against this idea. What happened, though, Lexa didn't know. "At least tell me what happened out there?" she said, sitting down next to the other brunette.

"Yeah," Echo sighed. "Well first, what did Jake tell you when he got home?"

"Hmm," Lexa racked her brains for what Mr Griffin told her. "He told me that he dropped you down a couple of blocks."

"A couple of blocks?" Echo chuckled mirthlessly. "Hmm, I guess that could be right. If one block stood for 2 kilometres, sure."

"He took you out 10 kilometres?" Lexa said incredulously.

"I don't know, I was unconscious," Echo said spitefully. "I woke up in an empty field in the middle of nowhere. The trees were all wilted, there was barely any grass, there was literally nothing."

"That bastard," Lexa gritted. "He was trying to kill you, wasn't he?"

"Probably," Echo shrugged. "Not that it matters anymore, I'm here and in the flesh, aren't I?"

"Yes, and you don't know how relieved I am for that," Lexa said.

"Thanks, that means a lot," Echo said flatly. "Anyway, there was literally no food, it was an empty field, there was no shelter. It rained, and it was so cold at night that I was surprised to find myself alive in the morning."

"So… what happened next? Did you get hypothermia or something?" Lexa asked.

"No," Echo said. "I got lucky. I started to walk around, trying to get anywhere other than barren grey land, and eventually I found some kind of woodland in the distance. I was so hungry, but I have learnt how to control my hunger ever since I was little, so I forced myself to walk the bit of distance to where the trees were. For the first few days, I refused to eat anything, but I don't know what I was thinking. I couldn't starve forever. So, I started to eat leaves that didn't look disgusting at first, and when that wasn't enough, I started to eat bugs. It was absolutely grim, but I had no choice."

Lexa grimaced. "I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. So… what happened next?"

"Well, it had been like 4 days and I literally had no energy left. And then a white eel came. Not literally, but someone was driving around for whatever reason. I thought about ignoring it and staying in the woodland, but I couldn't do it anymore. So I went to the middle of the road and got a lift."

"A lift?" Lexa asked. "To where?"

"I didn't have anywhere to go, so they took me directly to their house. They knew that I was a slave, judging by my appearance, so they just claimed me as their own. So, there I had my second master."

"Is that why you're here? So that you can be sold on?"

"Yes," Echo nodded. "I didn't get raped there, I was actually not in that bad a family. They had someone that was dying of cancer, they were on their deathbed and they just wanted someone to help him, because they couldn't be asked to bring water or whatever to him every minute of every day. So I had to do that, it was more tedious than anything, really. At least I was fed, I guess. Then he died a week later and they decided that they did not need me anymore so they might as well get some money out of me. So they threw me here and gave me a rating of like 95 or something. They really want the money, don't they? They're still in the audience, I think. Well, enough about me," Echo chuckled. "Why are you here? I thought Clarke was your master."

"She was," Lexa sighed. "Mr Griffin caught us… you know. He got really angry and threw me here," she admitted.

"Wait, you two were doing – uh, I don't want that image in my head," Echo shut her eyes. "He sent you straight to the market? He didn't dump you out there like me?"

"No," Lexa shook her head.

"Hmm, I guess that's because he really doesn't want you to see Clarke again. He probably thought that if you didn't have any freedom in the first place you won't be able to crawl your way back to them."

"I guess that makes sense," Lexa nodded. "You sure that you don't want to escape? There is still time."

"No, I've accepted my fate," Echo said dejectedly. "It was nice knowing you, though. Thanks for all your help."

Lexa debated whether or not to try and persuade her to try and make an escape again, but she figured that there wasn't going to be any point. So instead, she said, "It was really nothing. Hope your next master treats you well."

"You too," Echo chuckled sadly. "Although that is incredibly unlikely, from what I have heard you say about your past masters."

"Hope is a powerful thing, Echo," Lexa said. "Without it, we are nothing. Have faith."

As if on cue, a middle-aged man walked in with a briefcase in his hand.

"Who is that man?" Echo asked, looking at the man suspiciously. "He doesn't look like a slave to me."

"He isn't," Lexa agreed. "He's the guy who gives us the injections."

"Injections?" Echo said, a little fearfully. "What for?"

"It makes us drowsy, so that we don't fight back when we're sold. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt."

Echo just looked ahead at the man, with an unreadable expression.

"Welcome to the auction!" Jaha's voice cried and Lexa just rolled her eyes. She had just been drugged with depressants and she didn't really have that much energy at all, but it didn't stop her from holding contempt to those people who think that they are superior and have the right to sell slaves. Slaves are people, after all. But there was nothing that Lexa could do about it.

"Here we go again," she sighed. "Might as well watch it, because it's your first time, right?"

Echo, who was behind her in the queue to be sold, nodded. "What is it like?" she said, a bit groggily.

"You'll see," Lexa said. "It's probably easier for you to watch it for yourself than me trying to explain it to you."

"Fair enough," Echo mumbled and they fell quiet again.

Lexa didn't really pay attention to what was going on as the queue in front of them started to thin, as she had been through this process so many times that it was almost boring.

About a quarter of an hour later, Lexa was now near the front, and she could hear the person two places in front of her getting sold for 5 grand.

"Best of luck, Lexa," Echo mumbled, voice a bit shaky. Maybe the fear had caught up to her. Lexa could understand. The first time she was displayed like a prized possession on the stage, she had been scared out of her mind too.

"You're scared, aren't you," Lexa noted.

Echo side-eyed Lexa. "No…" she said slowly.

"You are," Lexa said. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it. We really should've escaped while we had the chance. I still don't get why you weren't willing to."

"Because this is just going to happen again," Echo mumbled. "Hopefully whoever I get sold to is nice enough to give me food. I guess that's all I can ask for."

Lexa simply nodded gravely as the young boy in front of her got sold for 3 grand. "My turn now, Echo. It was nice knowing you," she mumbled. She had no energy to cry, and even if she did she wouldn't anyway, because she was stronger than that. She didn't want to cry because she was going to be sold to some abusive jerk and her life would be over, no, she wanted to cry because she doubted that she would see Clarke ever again.

She never told Clarke that she loved her. And now she will never get the chance.

"And up here, is a pleasant eighteen-year-old brunette, with a P rating of…" the black man squinted at the paper. "Sixty-five? That's got to be wrong. Well anyway, starting price of one grand."

And nearly every paddle in the room rose up. Lexa was surprised, she had a pretty low rating, meaning that she wouldn't be sold for that much.

"Two grand," Jaha continued to drawl. "Three grand. Four grand." With each offer, some paddles went down, but there was still about a dozen up.

"Five grand," he called and seven paddles went down, leaving five left. Lexa couldn't really see the people's faces, because her vision was a bit blurry, but she could still see the neon paddles, clear as day.

"Five and a half grand," he called and now there were only three paddles.

"Six grand." Still three paddles.

"Seven grand." Two paddles went down, and there was only one remaining.

"Going once, going twice, sold! Congratulations, Mr Woods!" Jaha announced and there was some applause among the audience.

Mr Woods? Lexa had never heard of that name before, so she didn't know whether that was good or bad. All she knew was that she was being guided off the stage now, and towards her new master, where her fate would be sealed.

She would never see Clarke again.

"Over here, we have a sixteen-year-old brunette, P rating of eighty-five. Starting price at fifteen hundred dollars." Lexa could faintly hear Jaha's voice as he started to list out the prices. This was when she realised that it was Echo that was on the stage now. She prayed that Echo went to a good family, even though that was quite unlikely.

Mr Woods came to collect her when she was escorted to the aisle, and that was when she first saw the man. He had fair hair, although there were signs of balding, and he had dark brown eyes and a kind face. However, Lexa took this with apprehension, because first impressions don't tend to be representative of the man's true nature. This man, despite looking gentlemanly and kind, could be just as bad as her previous masters.

"Come," he said, holding out his hand. Lexa didn't want to set off on the wrong foot with her new master, so she begrudgingly took his surprisingly warm hand and let herself be lead through the aisles and through the audience. "I have some good news for you," he smiled and Lexa frowned slightly. Normally when masters said that they had good news, it was nearly always not good.

Lexa, however, did not dare to voice her doubts. She had to remember to stay in line. This was not Clarke, and she had to remember that.

"Come on!" he chastised when Lexa fell a little behind. Lexa quickly caught up and instead of gripping her hand, Mr Woods decided to hook his arm with hers instead. "I have really good news for you," he said again, looking down to meet Lexa with a warm smile.

She didn't know if she should be happy or disturbed.

But when he led her to her destination, to where he was sitting instead of outside where his car would be, Lexa saw a person sat next to an empty seat where Mr Woods must have sat before that made her heart stop. When the woman saw that Mr Woods had returned, she stood up from her seat and spread her arms, looking like she was on the verge of tears. "L-Lex…"

No fucking way.

"M-Mum?" Lexa choked.