Parson Upton
Year 2023, Month July
Somewhere in Minnesota
~~

As I held myself together in the empty trunk of the car I had been thrown in, I slowly wished to drown in my own tears. I didn’t want to live anymore―especially if all that was going to happen to me was that I was going to be thrown underground in nothing but a fucking thong.

This life is sick.

I had begun to shake, and I couldn’t feel my hands and feet because the rope around them had been tied so tightly that I was afraid my circulation had been cut off. I’ve been in this trunk for what feels like two days, and I haven’t had anything to drink or anything to eat. I might just die in this trunk… and I wouldn’t even care. I’ve lost Jate, I’ve lost my dignity, so I might as well be thrown in a ditch like the girl I took the place of.

I began to try to move around in the small area I was trapped in, but as soon as I was about to turn over, the trunk popped open. Was this it? Was I able to finally escape?

“Alright, bitch, let’s go,” Nelson said to me and I groaned. Well hell no. What was I thinking? Getting my hopes up like that?

They had put the gag back on my mouth, so they made sure that I couldn’t scream. If that damned gag wasn’t on me, I would be screaming like hell. As if anyone would come to help anyways; so many people are kidnapped on the street for people’s own terrible reasons. Nelson grabbed a lock of my hair and I rolled my eyes, throwing my legs over the edge of the trunk and kicking him out of the way. I know that there is absolutely no escaping this, so I might as well give them what they want. He went to hit me, but stopped when I voluntarily got out of the trunk and started walking towards his group of men.

He put his hand on my arm and squeezed tightly, “Try anything funny, and I will blow your fucking brains out.”

“Won’t Jared get mad?” I mocked through the gag, but he heard me clearly and closed his eyes tightly. They had talked about some guy named Jared, I figured out, and he was apparently the boss of all of them. So if one of them fucked up, even just a little, it would be on their hands and Jared would be there to recover them. By recover, I mean kill. Jared would kill them if they made a single mistake.

Supposedly, Niall persuaded his way out of being killed because he convinced Jared that he still needed him. He told him it was an accident that he let Beth go, and that he was happy she was dead, even though he was completely devastated that she had died. The pure evidence is in my dead brother’s body. Tears boiled in the back of my eyes and I wetted my chapped lips, turning away from Niall when he looked at me. I couldn’t possibly blame him for the death of Jate because Nelson is the one who pulled the trigger, but he did help kidnap me, and if I wouldn’t have been kidnapped… Jate would still be alive.

I was thrown onto the ground and I scowled at the men around me, hating how they had it ordered to tie my hands behind my back. All of a sudden, that red head that was in the old building we were in walked up to me and I gasped when he started to unbutton his pants. What the hell? No! No! No! I began to panic and he grabbed my arm and drug me to a post.

What I didn’t expect him to do was tie my arms to the post with his belt. He untied my feet and let the gag drop from my mouth, but he still kept me tied to the giant post behind me. “We’re camping out here for tonight. I suggested that you sit outside instead of in that cramped up trunk,” he patted my head like a dog and I furrowed my brows, “you can thank me later, blondie.”

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll thank you when you’ll be the one to let me go,” I muttered and smiled sarcastically, making him look back down at me.

“Not on your life, kid,” he laughed at me and crossed his arms, “Not on your life.” I went to say something, but Niall walked up beside me and sat down.

“I got this one, Ed. You can go eat now,” he said to red head above me and he nodded his head. Niall pulled a bowl out from beside him and I instantly smelled soup, making my mouth water. Although that couldn’t be for me, knowing these men, he probably sat down beside me to mock me and eat it right in front of me. “I got you some soup, I know that you’re hungry,” he muttered and my mouth dropped. That’s for me? Oh my God… I went to reach for it but I remembered that my hands were tied to the post behind me. I rolled my eyes and looked at Niall.

“You damn well know that those other men wouldn’t feed me, so… why are you doing it?” I asked him quietly and he let out a breath and grinned at me.

“Because I know that they won’t do it. Now, open,” he instructed before putting a spoonful of warm soup in my mouth. I groaned after swallowing it because I hadn’t eaten in so long, and it just felt so good on my sore throat. He held the spoon out for me again and I didn’t hesitate to open my mouth for another bite.

“Where are we going?” I managed to spit out after swallowing my soup again and he set the spoon down in the bowl, making my shoulders sag.

“I’m still not going to tell you that,” he whispered, “But I’ll tell you where we’re at.” he fed me another spoonful and sighed, “You ever heard of Duluth?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, “It’s about two hours away from where… I live,” I furrowed my brows because I became really confused, “We’ve been travelling for three days, and we’re only in Duluth?”

“Hey, we’re busy. We had to make a lot of stops,” he said, chuckling a little. He scooted closer to me and sighed again, feeding me the last spoonful of soup. “Okay, where we’re going… it’s not a fun place. There are a lot of slaves and women used for sex, and I am kind of hoping that you won’t be either of them… Jared, he has the auctions. I hope that you don’t stay at Jared’s because he isn’t a very nice man when it comes to his women. Yes, he treats them with respect… but… if you don’t listen…” he cringed and shook his head, “Jared doesn’t take too lightly to women who act up on him. But when he has these auctions, he’ll make sure that he keeps all of his women except for one, and after one is gone, another one is put up at the next auction. You’ll be lucky if you’re last because the men who try to buy you will rape you and use you for their own pleasure. These auctions are called Panties and Lace, because Jared knows that all the men who buy you are only going to use you for sex… and their pleasure, like I said.”

“That’s… disturbing,” I had became terrified in a matter of five minutes.

“There are three big slave plantations, the smallest one is Jared’s, but that’s only because he sells the most slaves and the most women. His plantation is named after his wife, The Celia Plantation―”

“Wait, he has a wife, and he slaves women?” I asked and he nodded. “Oh… I feel sick.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be at Jared’s long enough to know that he won’t touch you. He doesn’t touch the slaves that are brought in immediately, and you’re going to be there in less than a day. So you have nothing to worry about… it’s his nasty ass men that you have to worry about,” he shook his head and cleared his throat.

“Aren’t you one of those nasty ass men?” I asked and he squinted his eyes at me, nodding his head slowly, “Thought so.”

“The second biggest plantation is owned by Keko, and she has a lot of fucking slaves. Her plantation is named The Mason Plantation,” Niall explained and my mouth dropped when he said she. What kind of woman would want to own slaves? “She’s not one to be messed with, let me tell you. Nelson and I got caught stealing a slave from her and she put a bullet in my shoulder.”

“Oh,” was all I could say and he let out a ragged breath before continuing. “That largest plantation out of three is owned by Harry and it’s called Styles 710. He’s fucking valiant, I give him that, but he’s also very dangerous,” he said, not looking at me once.

“Dangerous… how?” I asked and he swallowed. “He killed my wife,” he said, finally looking at me and I went wide eyed, “With his bare fucking hands… only because she gave him the wrong wine…”

“Oh my gosh,” I shook my head and tears fell from my eyes because I realized how terrible the situation I am in actually is. I could get killed for saying one wrong word, but sometimes I can’t help it. It’s in my nature to be confident and independent, but one wrong thing… and I’m dead.

“Harry owns over four million slaves, and one of them gets killed every day because they either fuck up or he just gets tired of his space getting used. He replaces each slave he kills, just to kill more. He’s fucking sinister, I won’t lie,” he said before running his hands down his face.

“Niall. What the hell are you doing?” Nelson walked up to us and scoffed when he saw that I was crying. “Get your ass over here, I need to talk to you,” he said to Niall before Niall stood up and walked away with him.

~~

I woke up when I heard Niall yelling, and I groaned at the ache in my neck from sitting up the entire night. I blinked my eyes a few times to clear my vision and saw that there was vans surrounding us instead of that one car. Thank God.

My heart skipped a beat when I realized… my hands weren’t tied anymore. I wasn’t tied anywhere; not on my hands, not on my mouth, not on my feet… no where.

“Don’t even think about it, blondie,” when I stood up Ed showed up beside me and I slumped, rolling my eyes as I walked up to Niall.

“You need to get in the fucking van, now,” Niall snapped at me, his eyes a shade of color that I’ve never seen before and I furrowed my eyebrows, “Jared found out that we killed your brother and he wants you there now.” He grabbed my arm and literally threw me through the open door of one of the vans. He stood there for a minute as if he was going to say something to me, but he hit the side of the van with his fist and I knew it made a dent. “Fuck!” he yelled, running his hand through his hair and slamming the door shut.

“Why is Jared so upset that Jate was killed?” I asked Ed and he cleared his throat.

“Your brother was only seven, correct?” I nodded. “Well, Jared hates killing little kids, and he’s going to get rid of Nelson when we get there since he’s the one who pulled the trigger. Then he’s going to get you cleaned up to get you ready for an auction. But don’t worry, you’re not getting sold tonight,” he explained and I was in pure shock.

Why the hell would he even care if a little boy got killed? Then my mind went to the other slave owners―would any of them care that Jate was killed? I seriously doubt it… I also thought that there was a certain amount of time I had to wait until I was put up for an auction…

I guess it’s a good thing that I’m not being sold off tonight, because I don’t want to go anywhere else. Believe it or not, I want to get to Jared’s so that I can finally breathe. Even though I’m going to be in a house closer to hell itself, I’ll still be able to appropriately rest.

Notes

Third chapter and I'm still so excited to be writing this.
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Your thoughts mean everything to me.

Kal xx