Chapter 4 "The Nightmare Comes True"

• Emi.
• I felt like my head was going to explode, knowing that as soon as I opened my eyes, my brain would receive the light like needles piercing through it. I felt disoriented, so I made the greatest effort to open my eyes.
• " "The little princess has finally awakened, now we will know what makes you so special." " a feminine voice made me suddenly open my eyes.
• Before me, several beautifully made"up women, dressed in different party dresses with different characteristics, one dressed as Cleopatra, another in a Victorian"era dress, another dressed as the goddess Athena, a diversity of female beauties, looked at me with curiosity.
• The headache didn't stop, but little by little, I got used to the light.
• " "Where am I? Who are you?" " I asked, noticing that my voice was hoarse from the hours I had been in that state. Memories of what had happened to me came back to me, even some that I barely remembered, like waking up on a stretcher with my legs raised high while a doctor inspected my private parts. Also, my reaction was not what he expected. I remember giving him a kick in the face with the little strength I had to be able to get up and escape, but I was immediately restrained, and the situation that brought me here was repeated. After being injected with something, I fell into a deep sleep again.
• I got up abruptly, with the possibility of escaping, or at least that's what my survival instinct prompted me to do. While all the women looked at me, unable to help it, I had to hold on tightly to the back of the chair where they had left me lying down. Dizziness came over me, leaving me even feeling nauseous, and with the sensation that the world was spinning beneath my feet.
• " "Stay seated, it will pass soon. We have all been through that, unfortunately, some more than once." " one of the women said to me again.
• " "More than once?" " I asked, sitting down again because I couldn't stand without falling to the ground.
• " "Some of us haven't paid off our debt yet, so unless you conquer your buyer, if he returns you within six months, you will be sold again." " another girl told me while touching up her makeup.
• " "Where are we? And what is this about selling, buying? I don't understand anything." " I asked, leaning my head back to stop it from spinning, and closed my eyes, or I would end up vomiting.
• " "We are in the hands of the Marchetti family, a mafia family, to whom you owe money, either you or your family, it doesn't matter to them. In exchange for repaying it or for them to recover what you haven't repaid, you will be auctioned off to several billionaires and become their property, at least for six months. If for any reason he is not satisfied or gets bored of you and returns you, you go back to the cycle, until you pay off your debt." " another girl dressed as Marilyn Monroe told me.
• " "You will never pay, because everything you spend when they return you, until they buy you again, accumulates to the debt. There are girls here who have been here for five years. If, on the other hand, your buyer does not return you or marries you, your debt is canceled with what they have made from you in the auction, which is usually a much higher amount than your initial debt, and your hell ends," explained a beautiful redhead dressed in the style of the women from the Highlands of Scotland, in the time of the clans. I felt like I was in a dream, or rather a nightmare. We were going to be sold, and many of these women had been sold more than once, because they remained so calm."
• " "Why didn't they report their situation when they were sold? Why didn't they run away?" Thousands of questions like these crowded my stressed brain."
• " "But in your case, it's even easier. Your contract to be returned is for eight years. They had never set such a term as a sentence for your buyer to always have you. What makes you so special? You even have scars," said a woman dressed as a harem woman from a sultan, looking at me with arrogance, as if she hated that I would go through a nightmare for eight years, while she only endured it for six months, that is, if the wretched person who bought me didn't get tired of me before, or wanted to keep me forever as his toy, that is, if he didn't make me disappear first, because what could be expected from a person who buys another?"
• " "How can you allow them to treat you like this? Why don't you take advantage of any excuse or moment to escape and report them? There are laws here in Chicago," I said, at least the dizziness and headache began to subside, and I could look at them normally."
• The laughter that erupted in the large hall where we were locked up was almost deafening. They all looked at me as if I had told the biggest joke.
• " "You don't value life, do you? If you run away, they will search for you, and they always find you. They have bought many politicians and high"ranking police officers. So far, none has escaped. When they find you, they bring you to a large room, strip you naked, and you pass through the hands of all the male members of the gang, not necessarily one by one. Each of them will leave a mark on your body, and then the boss decides if you live or die. By then, I assure you, you will wish to die because you will already be defective merchandise. If they let you live, you will be sold to any network of low"life women who will give something for you. You will never be heard from again. I have seen it happen twice because we are forced to witness the punishments, and I can assure you they are horrible," said the beautiful blonde from before."
• " "On the other hand, if you manage to make your buyer fall in love with you, you will be free from this forever. And at least for six months, you will live better than you did before, I assure you," everything they said seemed unreal to me."
• But what Cleopatra said next confirmed that my real world had indeed ended.
• " "And who tells you that we are in Chicago, you are very mistaken, these events are never in the same place, so that the authorities do not know, the millionaires who come, many do not even know why they come until after the doors are closed, they are not obliged to bid, but if they are made to believe that we do this freely, they agree to a confidentiality agreement before the terms of the event are explained to them, which can cost them their fortune if they reveal anything that happens here, and many end up enjoying this, some even repeat, they fly to the event location from all over the country, I assure you." " this was definitely a nightmare. I looked at my hands, trying to control the feeling of anxiety that was starting to creep in.
• It was at that moment that I realized how I was dressed and why it had been difficult for me to get up earlier, apart from the horrible dizziness I was feeling, my body was wrapped in a Greek toga"like outfit, very long, so long that the gauze cape dragged on the floor. I looked at myself closely and discovered the character I was portraying, it was Andromeda and they dressed me just like she was delivered to the sea monsters of Poseidon to calm his wrath, before being saved by Perseus."
• I now felt just like poor Andromeda, but unlike her, I didn't have a Perseus to save me. The toga was white and gold, clinging to my body like a second skin, leaving one shoulder bare, while gold chains in the form of bracelets bound my wrists and ankles, all the jewelry adorning me was made of gold, I could feel its weight, and for another practical and biological reason, I am allergic to any other type of metal that comes into contact with my body, except for gold and silver.
• Those are one of the reasons why I don't have pierced earlobes, I can't afford to buy certain jewelry with my salary, especially when I have to eat.
• Well, I didn't have them, I correct myself, and I discovered that when I got up after making sure I was no longer dizzy, as I approached one of the dressing tables in the room, which I can say there were many, I saw the vivid image of the goddess, Perseus' wife, in front of the mirror. It wasn't just the outfit I was wearing, my whole self represented the enslaved goddess, my earlobes had been pierced so that gold earrings in the form of snakes intertwined along my lobe, while small gold chains fell loose almost touching my neck, on my neck a choker"like gold necklace held it as if they were the golden handcuffs of my wrists and ankles, which by the way were barefoot."
• My hair was partly braided and partly loose, the braid was intertwined with golden ropes that made my goddess image more evident, while thousands of gold and pearl hairpins adorned my hair.
• Now what truly scared me was the makeup. True experts had made me up, I didn't even recognize myself, my eyes were bigger and more mesmerizing, the yellow in the background of my iris somehow stood out like a light bulb. And my lips were red, plump, and desirable.
• In a fit of anger, I wanted to wipe my face and remove all that I was wearing, I was getting tired of all this, I was my own master, no one was going to possess me, those women may accept the situation without complaining, but I was not like them.
• When I grabbed a napkin to remove the makeup, someone snatched it away from me, I saw that it was Marilyn, who had been explaining the situation I was in.
• " "Don't even think about doing that, or they will throw you out there, completely naked dressed as Eve and tied up. I've seen it done, and I can tell you it's the most humiliating thing." Anger coursed through my veins, but I had to be smart and wage my battles against enemies who would surely be more accessible, like the man who was going to buy me. If he bought me, he would suffer hell, I would make sure of it. His eight years together would be the unhappiest of that man's life, I promise as an Italian."
• " "Prepare yourself, damnation, the revenge will be terrible!" I vowed in my mother tongue. Even if it meant the end of my life, that cursed man would receive all of my vengeance, the bastard who sold me, and definitely my family too."