Chapter 1
***
🥀 The future of a parentless orphan was clear. Either they would starve to death on the streets, or they would be taken in by someone to do odd jobs to satisfy their hunger. Either way, the future was far from normal or happy.
Aubrey's life was neither, but it was the worst of all.
Her mother, Diane, had died of a plague that had swept through the town. Aubrey's face and lips were covered in blisters. The air around her smelled foul. Even the people who had brought food for Diane's little girl got sick of the smell and slowly stopped coming.
Eventually, six-year-old Aubrey was the only one who kept Diane company.
Aubrey was visited by Jeff, a man who looked pretty bad. He had a scruffy, chest-length beard with a dead fly tangled in the middle.
He flashed a missing front tooth and said,
"There's a place your mom asked me to take you. Let's go there."
Aubrey wondered if there was a place her mother, who was dying, had prepared for her.
This was the man she had often greeted when her mother was alive. It seemed like the least she could do. Aubrey, six years old, followed him onto the boat, full of anticipation.
They sailed for a while across the blue-black waters until they came upon a series of small islands, the busiest of which, Crysis, was their destination.
Sandy beaches lining the ocean, dense forests behind them. There was a village beyond.
"There are a lot of kids like you there."
A village of abandoned kids like her. Aubrey suddenly felt like she had a friend she'd never had in her life.
As the boat approached the island, the waiting man approached. No, many men.
The man in the lead was a distraction. He had a long scar across his eye. He had a thick nose and thin eyes that reminded her of an animal. His name was Yank, the owner of the island.
"Go over there," Jeff said, "for you must ask his permission to live on this island."
Aubrey did as he said and walked away. Soon Yank and Jeff were talking.
I hope they'll accept me. Aubrey hoped so, looking up and down the island that would become her new home.
When they finally ended their conversation, Yank handed Jeff a small, thick sack. It was about the size of his fist, and before she could ask what it was, Jeff hurried aboard.
"Mister! Aren't you coming with me?"
"Now you must go alone, for this island has taken you in."
And with that, Jeff left without looking back. Still, Aubrey was grateful to him for bringing her this far, but she couldn't say goodbye. She was disappointed.
As Aubrey stared out at the ocean, someone grabbed her arm. Aubrey's eyes widened in surprise as she recognized the face of the man who had stood behind Yank earlier.
The man had a long beard like Jeff's and a strange odor.
"Follow me."
By the time she realized something was wrong, it was too late.
***
Children on the island were put to work as soon as they could walk and talk, bred to be sold to the slave market or brothels. It took Aubrey less than a year to realize that.
It was then that she realized that her mother had never asked Jeff for anything, let alone set up a home.
The fistful of money he'd accepted must have been for selling her, because there had been countless other children like her since then.
"My God, I've never seen such a lovely island."
Nobles often visited the island. Aubrey thought they were stupid and naive.
An island that trained young slaves and courtesans was ostensibly touted as a vacation spot for its vast natural beauty.
There was no way to be self-sufficient on an island surrounded by water on all sides, so what little nature they had had to survive as a vacation spot.
Did they realize that every inch of ground they step on, every blade of grass, was the work of children?
"Aubrey, what are you doing here?"
She thought she heard a rustle, but then someone tapped her on the shoulder. Aubrey jumped at the slightest touch, a habit she'd picked up since the day she'd been sold to the island.
The girl with the scarlet hair in a bun raised her hands apologetically.
"Phoebe. You scared me."
"Oh, my bad."
Phoebe playfully mimicked a gentleman. Aubrey crouched down to give her attention. Her spine jutted through the rough, frayed fabric.
"What were you looking at?"
"Just. Watching."
From this thicket of trees, she could see the dock, the entrance to the island. Aubrey came here whenever she was disillusioned with her life.
"Ugh, I need to hide. I feel like my limbs are going to fall off."
Phoebe smelled strange after rolling around in the barn all day. Her scarlet hair was streaked with something, and her face was also streaked with something, with only her pale brown eyes shining through it.
"I wonder what other noble lady has come to visit."
Phoebe cleared her throat as she spoke.
Whenever a noble visited, the children were herded like sheep into the stables. The fact that child slaves were being raised on the island was a closely guarded secret. Partly because it was unsightly.
The only good thing was that when a noble came to visit, the day's work ended early. Phoebe and Aubrey found a flat spot on the ground and stretched out their limbs as best they could.
"Heh. She's so pretty."
Phoebe's voice was laced with admiration, and Aubrey shifted her gaze. It was a young girl who had followed her parents to the island. A young lady wearing a pure white dress and an equally lacy white hat.
"How can she be so white and fair?"
Phoebe said with a hint of envy. Stepping off the boat, the girl clung to her mother's side and looked around the island with fearful eyes. She couldn't have been more than ten years old.
Aubrey smiled wryly, wondering if she sensed something sinister about the island. But her expression quickly turned cold.
Perhaps it would have been better if she had run away then.
If only she had jumped into Jeff's boat as soon as she realized something was wrong.
Would it have been different?
Aubrey was now fourteen. Too late for hindsight and regret.
"Aubrey. Do you want me to tell you a horrible story?"
"I don't really want to hear it."
"But you're going to have to hear it."
Phoebe giggled. Phoebe, Aubrey's age, had been parentless since birth.
She also said she'd been brought to the island as a piece of luggage with other children.
"Cohen's coming."
A cold voice, devoid of playfulness. A feverish wind blew, ruffling Aubrey's red hair. Aubrey turned her head slowly from the sea.
"What?"
"Cohen is coming, in ten days."
Cohen was a man who ran a brothel business on the mainland. He stopped by the island periodically to pick up girls.
Over the course of Aubrey's six to fourteen years, she'd run away countless times during his visits. Phoebe did the same. Both girls thought it was better to be a slave than a prostitute.
Aubrey sighed deeply, wondering where else to hide this time.
"I have a bad feeling about this."
Phoebe said.
"What do you mean, you don't have a good feeling about this?"
"Something...... just doesn’t feel right this time."
Phoebe shrugged and laughed. There was a hint of resignation in her face, and Aubrey felt unnecessarily angry.
"If you have a bad feeling about this, you're going to be sold as a whore, don't be a dick and get up."
"I'm going somewhere."
"Since the great noble lady is here, let's go freshen up."
They took advantage of the lapse in guard to take a dip in the sea. Phoebe smiled broadly and hurried after Aubrey.
***
The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Phoebe, red-faced and screaming.
"Run!"
The stables used to house the young slaves were full of Yank's men, and they began to pick out girls and take them away. Phoebe was among them.
Phoebe didn't cry, but she screamed, her face gaping. Run away!
Aubrey didn’t know how she got out of the stables after that. She didn’t remember.
"That bitch! Come here!"
Deep into the night. Two skinny legs ran frantically across the dirt, followed by men with dull torches.
The brothel pimp was coming much sooner than ten days, she realized too late, some sort of trick to catch the girls who were lucky enough to escape each time.
Aubrey gritted her teeth and ran, but all she saw was an island of endless darkness. There was no immediate place to hide, and at her heels were Yank's men, ready to kill her at a moment's notice.
Screams assaulted her ears. Skinny limbs flailing. The howling faces. Aubrey bit down hard on her lip as she recalled the living hell she'd seen.
"Evil!"
Small stone beaks snagged on her frantically running toes, sending her tumbling to her hands and knees, but Aubrey scrambled to her feet and ran for the nearest distant mountain.
"There's no point in running, they'll take you for four years."
The pimp's men growled and began to follow her up the mountain, their voices making her hair stand on end as they drew closer.
Her tiny bare feet trudged up the slopes. Broken branches and sharp stones poked at the soles of her feet, but she felt no pain. Her only goal was to avoid being caught.
Aubrey kept running. She fell again and again, deeper and deeper into the pitch-black forest. Their voices seemed to fade into the distance, but she couldn't stop.
She had to survive somehow.
Finally, her pitch-black vision cleared. The spot she'd come to whenever she'd felt down. She could see the dock. In the distance, two boats were docked side by side.
And there was a boy.
Black as the night sky, he sat with his knees up, watching the dock. Just like Aubrey did. His white shirt shone bright in the dark forest.
He didn't look like a local boy. The slaves here didn’t even get to see fine clothes like that.
Crack. The sound of a twig snapping as Aubrey took a step made the boy look up.
The boy's eyes widened as he turned around. Then he frowned as if he saw something he shouldn’t see.
"Search high and low, or I'll snap your necks!"
Aubrey's shoulders tensed at the distant shout.
The sound of their footsteps grew closer. There was no way she could run anymore, and the men whose eyes had turned upside down to find her would not give up.
How much longer could she run?
Better to be dead before then.
Alas. Why was her life.........
A lump stuck in her throat. Tears quickly filled her eyes and dripped down her face.
"Master, where are you, Master!"
The call from the other side made the boy turn around in disbelief, and he scrambled to his feet, dusting off his dirty hands. His hands, which had never known hardship, shone white in the moonlight.
Aubrey’s eyes, filled with despair, were fixed on the boy.
He had a place to go back to.
He could get off this island.
The thought scared her, and her feet moved. The boy only stared at her, his eyes still wary.
Thud. Thud. Closer now, Aubrey grabbed the boy's hand without hesitation.
"Please, help me."
Up close, the boy's eyes glowed a brilliant blue, and she could see the wariness and disgust in them for her ragged appearance.
"Please, please......."
Her entire body began to shake. There was only one chance.
"Take me with you."
****
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