Naia's POV
I was awake before I opened my eyes. I knew something wasn't right so I decided to act smart about it and pretended to still be knocked out.
"Why'd you get her?" A voice asked angrily. "She's too old."
"Who knew when the ball would go behind those bushes again. You know the boss is getting antsy about this. We're running out of girls and he knows it." Another voice replied with the same amount of anger. "Our plan would have worked if the girl wasn't so nice and had just let one of the younger girls grab the ball."
"Our plan also would have worked if you weren't such an idiot." The first voice shot back and then it was followed by silence.
I was horrified. I was kidnapped. I was terrified about what was going to happen.
"Look, I know we could get more dough if she was younger but when she waked up, we can find out how old she really is and still get a decent price on her. She can't be older than ten," The second voice said and the first voice agreed.
They were going to sell me?
This world was messed up. I wasn't sure how much time has passed but surely someone has noticed that I'm missing by now. Someone had to. Slowly, I opened one of my eyes and then the other. My hands were tied together by the wrist and so were my ankles. It reminded me so much of a classic movie kidnapping I wanted to laugh.
But I didn't.
Scanning my surroundings, I saw that I was on the floor of a car, most likely in the back seat. Unfortunately, there was a lot of dust down here and I found myself suppressing the urge to sneeze. To my dismay, I couldn't pinch my nose or anything so I sneezed and well, it wasn't a quiet sneeze.
"Seems like she's awake." The first voice said. "Let's get a few things straight first girly. You are not to try to escape because trust me, you don't want to have the boss deal with you. Second, keep your mouth shut. Don't speak unless you spoke to. Finally, be obedient. It'll be a lot easier for both of us that way. Got it?"
"Yes, sir," I replied meekly.
"See, I told you we could make use of her. She's obedient, this will be an easy one to sell." The second voice said. "Hey, girl! How old are you?"
I replayed what I had heard earlier in my head and decided to push my age just a little bit. "Thirteen," I replied confidently, trying to hide the waver in my voice. It wasn't a total lie. I'd be thirteen in ten months.
"You can't be older than ten," The first voice said suspiciously.
I shook my head, "I'm thirteen, sir,"
"Why does it matter?" The second voice asked, "If she looks ten then we'll say she's ten."
Darn it. Well, that didn't work.
I felt the car start to slow down before the engine turned off. The owners of the voices got out and the back seat open. I could now make out the features of my kidnappers. One of them had blond hair and green eyes while the other had dark hair and dark eyes.
"Get up," The blond-haired one ordered and harshly pulled me out of the car. He tossed me onto the ground and cut my bonds on my ankles before grabbing my arm. I looked around and saw that we were in a garage. It seemed like your regular house garage. The dark-eyed man went before us and unlocked a door inside the garage before stepping aside so I could be dragged in. I was led down a hallway and then pushed into a room. I turned around to ask some questions but the door had already shut and locked with a click.
Sighing, I turned back around and to my horror, I saw that I wasn't the only one in the room.
There were other girls, all younger than me, maybe around the age of eight, huddled in blankets on the floor. Their hair was filthy and there were large bruises on their faces. At the sight of me, they cowered against the walls, trying to getaway.
Slowly, I crouched down, careful not to lose my balance since my wrists were still tied and then sat down, legs crossed.
"Hi," I said, my voice shaky, "My name is Naia."