Lot 27

Authors Note: Something a bit different - let me know your thoughts :)

Adam looked across at the Parthenon in Athens with a small smile. He surveyed the tourists bustling around its many columns with a sigh. All these beautiful places ruined by the chatter of hundreds of people. He sat a short distance away on a rock, watching the steady trickle of people on the path below him, climbing up towards the monument like ants up an anthill.

He had been travelling for almost six months now, just him and his backpack. He had seen many places and met many people. But he liked most of all to be alone, to find the quiet places, the ones which visitors often didn't find when visiting a city.

He stood up, deciding he had seen enough of people, and headed down the hillside, pulling his red hat down over his face to shield him from over eager tourists. Soon he had gotten away from the rabble and was walking down a cool street, the turkish language floated out of open windows and he relaxed. He took off his hat and ran his hand throw his ash blonde hair, pushing the sweaty locks from his face.

He walked further and the houses gave way into more dilapidated buildings and warehouses, up ahead a young turkish girl smiled at him from a doorstep, blushing. He gave her a half smile back, she was pretty, dark hair and big round eyes like chestnuts framed by long lashes. But he wasn't interested. He got quite a lot of attention on his travels, his bright blue eyes seemed to attract girls like butterflies, and he had found that he could convince these girls to do anything with a good grin.

They called him a 'cheeky chappie' back home in the UK. He had almost fallen for a girl in the beachy town of Brighton, but had decided that his travelling days weren't done, and left her behind. Since then, he tried not to get too attached. He wondered if his hatred of crowds and tourists had come from growing up in the tourist bustle of London, he had never felt at home there.

He pulled his bag round and fished out an apple he had bought earlier, biting into it as he walked, admiring his surroundings. It was just as he took the last bite that he heard a shout from behind him and then a scream. He span around looking up the streets from where he had come. He started towards the sound and then hesitated. He was an american in an unfamiliar neighbourhood and there were very few people around, this could be dangerous, and there was no one there to back him up.

'Someone help me please!' the scream came again, clearly a girl. He was running before he could think of another excuse not to, throwing the apple into a hedge by the road. Soon he was back where he had seen the pretty girl from before, but now there were three men and a van. He saw the girl kicking and struggling against two of the men who were trying to force her into the back of the van.

'Stop!' he yelled and the third man turned around, in his hands was a gun. Adam's eyes fixed on it, he raised his hands, his mouth dry and his heart beating quickly. He remembered telling his parents about his travelling plans all those months ago, their fears that it was dangerous which he shrugged off with a grin and a joke.

The barrel of the gun glistened in the sunlight. The man holding it said something in turkish and he looked at him blankly. The man narrowed his black thick eyebrows at him, raising the gun higher. Adam chanced a glance at the girl who was gagged, her hands tied. The men had stopped forcing her into the van at his shout and held her still struggling, she looked at him with those big eyes, wet with fear and pain.

'Come on man, let the girl go' he said, eyeing the gun cautiously.

'English?' the man asked gruffly.

He nodded, and the mans mouth curled in a smirk, he barked something in turkish at his friends. Whatever he said caused the girl to struggle more frantically, muffled shouting as she looked at him intently. He knew a warning when he saw it.

He dove sideways, the sound of the gun rang through his ears as he threw himself out of the way. Scrambling to keep his balance he leaped around the corner of the street and began to run. He heard shouts behind him and the starting of an engine. He ran as fast as he could but soon heard the van engine getting louder. He weaved in and out of the streets hoping to lose them but they managed to keep his tail getting closer al the time. He saw a small alley to the left and dove down it, running at breakneck speed, glancing over his shoulder to see the van screech to a halt, unable to follow him. Gunshots fired and he saw a piece of the wall to the left of his head crumble from the impact. He emerged onto the corresponding street, taking a moment to catch his breath against the wall safe from gunshots before running in the opposite direction back up the street.

He began to feel confident he had lost them, slowing down to a jog. Looking around for familiar landmarks to head towards the safety of the crowded city when suddenly he felt the sharp pain in his shoulder. The sound of the gunshot rippled through him as the pain radiated out like fire. The impact had thrown him to the ground, and he gasped, one shaking hand touching the rapidly reddening shirt. Blood.

He grunted, forcing his spinning mind to remember that he had to run. The next shot could be to the head. He staggered to his feet and continued to run, each step causing agonising pain to his shoulder. He rounded a corner and was met by a fist to his jaw. The punch was hard and combined with the pain of his shoulder he fell to the floor practically blacked out by pain, the world around him blurred. He had always thought he was strong, would fight back in a situation like this, but he felt a cloth pressed against his face with a sickly scent. He started to struggle and his blurry attacker pressed a hand into his gunshot wound, he screamed in agony and in doing so breathed in a lungful of the putrid gas. The pain in his shoulder began to lessen and the world around him turned to foggy black.

*

Adam awoke slowly, part of him hoped that he would wake up in his bed and all this would have been a rather vivid nightmare. But before he could convince himself further he felt a lurch and the sharp responding pain in his shoulder as it took his weight. He felt hands push him back onto his back and he gasped, the throbbing pain lessening slightly. Opening his eyes he saw a dingy dark sight, a blurry figure was above him, a girl, big eyes gazing at him. The girl blurred into two and he groaned, he felt light headed and his jaw hurt.

He realised, as the ground beneath him jolted again, that he must be in the back of the van. He felt a tight pressure at his wrists and ankles and with a weak attempt at pulling them apart came to the conclusion they were tied. He could taste fabric in his mouth, pulled tightly around his face, pulling at the corners of his mouth. He opened his eyes again to see the girl had backed away slightly to the opposite wall of the van. The same girl from before, she was tied too but had clearly shuffled over to roll him back onto his back, her hands were red with blood. His blood. He felt sick. How much blood had he lost? Was he going to die here?

The hours continued on, he drifted in and out of consciousness. At one point he was awoken by water being poured down his throat through the gag. He spluttered and he heard a low laugh but drank eagerly, when he was finished the man dropped his head so that it hit painfully against the metal base of the van, he saw stars for a moment before passing out again. He had no idea how much time passed until he was being slapped awake roughly, he blinked and groaned as he was dragged to his feet. He cried in agony as they pulled at his arm with the damaged shoulder, staggering slightly. Someone held him up and he leaned on them, angry and sickened that he was being helped to stand by his abductors.

His blurry vision was quickly concealed by a blindfold and he swallowed in fear. He started to try to fight back but his movements were lethargic from his injury and the drugs and they easily held him down, their laughter ringing in his ears. They said something in turkish but he didn't understand what.

He thought he heard the angry muffled noises of the girl being lead behind him but couldn't be sure. Two of the men, one on either side helped Adam to walk forward, practically dragging him as he tripped over his own feet, struggling to stay conscious as the pain of his shoulder seared harder than ever, the more recent knock to his head throbbing.

He heard voices, and a small part of him wanted to cry for help. But he couldn't trust that they would be friends, with his abductors carrying him on either side. Suddenly they came to a stop and he could hear the conversations ensue with a mysterious new man. They continued for a minute or so, and Adam noted that the third voice seemed to be frustrated, the men on either side of him getting defensive. They were arguing. He wondered for a moment what it was about before the blindfold was pulled roughly away. He winced at the bright white light of the room and would have fallen if he wasn't being held up by his abductors, they dragged him over to what looked like a hospital bench and he slumped on it the room still spinning around him.

The third voice had come from an older man, he was thin and looked a bit like a weasel. He looked down at Adam, his hands in the pockets of a white lab coat. He took a hand and gently turned Adam's face to the side, and then the other. His jaw clenched. His eyes fell on his shoulder and he barked in an unfamiliar language at the turkish man. The voice behind him responded and then laughed, whatever he had said the doctor, for that is what he seemed, didn't seem to find it very funny.

He took a pair of scissors and began to cut away Adams shirt, peeling the blood soaked material away from his wound. He looked down for the first time at the gunshot that had ripped apart his flesh and felt a sudden urge to vomit. He did. The doctor dodged the sick without much concern and continued to look at the wound. He scurried away for a moment and then returned with a wet cloth and began to treat it. The pain became unbearable and without meaning to Adam began to sag off the table.

Another quick instruction and he was being laid on his back, the lights above were so bright and the doctor looked down at him with an interested concern, he saw the needle he was holding poke into the vein of his arm before he again sunk into unconsciousness.

When he next came to, he felt like he had lost more than a few hours. He was in a dark room, and he was no longer gagged or tied at the wrists, however he did have what felt like a belt around his middle keeping him in the bed and his feet were also immovable. He looked down at his shoulder and saw clean white bandages concealing the wound. It still hurt but the pain was dulled compared to what it had been. He looked around trying to find any hint of where he was, but the room was relatively bare, the bed, a stool, a small cabinet on the far wall. He realised with a start that he was completely naked apart from his boxers and wondered where his clothes had been taken, and his belongings too.

He lay mulling over his situation for a while when the door creaked open. The doctor walked in and seeing Adam awake he smiled.

'Adam,' he said in an accent he couldn't place, perhaps Russian?

'It's good to see you awake at last. You were beginning to worry me.'

'How do you know my name?' he growled and the doctor chuckled lightly.

'You travelled with your passport Adam, it was not difficult.'

'Where am I?'

'So many questions,' the doctor said, sitting down on the stool with a clipboard.

'But I think I will be the one asking them.'

'We know you are English, from London, by name of Adam Burton, only son of Marie and David Burton. You are 24 and have been travelling Europe for several months.'

'None of that was a question,' Adam said curtly, trying to hide the fear he felt, hearing this stranger tell him about his life so confidently.

'True, we have managed to find a lot about you without needing to ask anything so far. We managed to access your mobile phone and see that you do not text any friends or family often. In fact, nobody even knows that you were in Turkey.'

Adam felt his blood run cold. The doctor was right, no one did know he was in Turkey, when they eventually worked out he had gone missing they wouldn't even know where to start looking. He was screwed. He had tried to keep his expression calm, but the look of alarm must have shown in his eyes because the doctor nodded and wrote something down on his clipboard.

'Do you have any allergies, Adam? Any medical requirements?'

Adam said nothing and the doctor sighed. 'I do not have to ask this question but I like to look after the people in my care. But I shall put you down as having none unless you tell me otherwise.'

'Sexual orientation?'

Adam glared at him.

'No answer? I believe we are already reasonably confident that you are a heterosexual male due to the conversations on your mobile device.

'I'm not gay if that's what you are asking,' Adam growled.

'Thank you, most helpful' the doctor said, scribbling again. He continued to write for a minute and Adam watched, his anger seeping into fear again.

'Why are you doing this to me?' Adam asked, his voice breaking slightly as he spoke displaying the fear within him.

The doctor surveyed him with curiosity and put down his pen.

'I believe it is what you British people say, 'wrong place, wrong time'. Human trafficking is going on everywhere, there is a demand so the supply is met. However they don't normally take British like you as your country makes a hell of a fuss looking for you. From what I hear you got involved with the collection of another girl and they couldn't let you go. It's a shame they damaged you,' the doctor said eyeing the bandages, 'I imagine that will knock a bit off your price.'

'My price?' Adam repeated horrified.

'Yes Adam. Do you not know what human trafficking is? Or is the British education system really that poor?'

'But you just said they don't take British people?!'

'Normally no, I believe they were going to just kill you, but one of them thought it might be worth checking your background first. As we already discussed, you travelled alone, nobody will be coming to look for you, therefore you are a safer bet. Plus, you are handsome, young, and British are rare so you will be worth a lot to them. I believe they are celebrating as we speak.'

'Please, let me go. Before they come back. I will do anything,' Adam pleaded but the doctor sighed and shook his head.

'I work for them Adam, you know how often I have been asked that? You belong to them now, I would be stealing their property. Plus, I get paid well here.'

The doctor stood, about to leave.

'I'm not fucking property, I'm a human being!' Adam yelled and the doctor smiled a small smile.

'Here, they are one and the same.'

Over the following weeks the doctor would come in, check Adam's shoulder, redress the bandages and leave. Occasionally staff who didn't speak English would bring food and water, of which he was certain was drugged as he always felt more lethargic than normal. Mostly he was left alone. He didn't like this. His thoughts terrified him. He wondered what his life was going to be once he left this room. Would someone really buy him? And then what would happen then? He also began to wonder how this system worked. This facility was well staffed, clean, well lit. He had always assumed these activities were small and under the radar. But this seemed like a well oiled and well funded large operation.

'Your injury is healing well,' the doctor remarked, and Adam looked down at the now puckered pink scar forming below his collar bone. 'Just in time.'

'Just in time for what?' Adam asked.

'The next auction, its in two days.'

Adam's heart clenched. Two days.

'In fact I think you're well enough now to join the others. I could do with my hospital bed back. It's been nice meeting you Adam, I hope that your next life is somewhat pleasant for you.'

With that the doctor left the room and two burly men entered. They undid his bindings around his middle and his feet and replaced them with cuffs with a long chain so that he could only walk in small steps. When they moved to tie his wrists Adam pulled away, trying to keep them from the captors grasp.

'We can make this as painful as you want kid,' one of the men growled. Adam looked between them and knew in his drugged, injured and chained state he was not going to win. He reluctantly put his wrists together and the cable ties were cinched tightly around his wrists.

They attached a chain to the cuffs at his wrists and pulled it sharply to indicate he was to follow them. He stumbled out of the room and into the corridor, shuffling his manacled feet. They pushed him into a tiled room and up against the far wall, he shivered at the cold, the floor was wet with grates at the base of the wall. The men said something in a foreign language and he looked at him blankly, trying to hide his shivers. He didn't want to look weak.

Angrily the man came to him and before Adam could protest reached for his boxers. Surprised he backed away and the mans eyes narrowed, saying something quietly that sounded like a threat.

'No, fuck off I'm not going to be naked in front of you fucking monsters,' Adam said.

The man clearly didn't know what Adam had said, but the intention had been clear enough. He moved towards him and Adam forgetting that his feet were manacled tried to dodge out of the way, tripped and with his hands tied had no way of stopping the fall. He fell onto the wet floor with a loud smack, his jaw stinging from where it had taken the worst of the blow.

The men around him laughed echoing around the tiled room. The man crouched over him and ripped his boxers open. Adam blushed in shame as his bare ass was exposed. They laughed harder, the man nearest him pulling him up sharply by his hair. He grunted in pain and once upright spat in the mans face.

'Fuck. You.' he said. The laughing stopped instantly and the grip on his hair tightened.

Before he knew it one of the other men was by his side and grabbed his face, fitting a contraption over his mouth that gagged him and held his jaw tightly closed. It buckled at the back of his head and they looked down at him smugly. He was muzzled like a dog. He glared at them and they laughed even harder.

Out of nowhere the man who he had spat at grabbed his balls, Adam started, surprised by the intrusion mixed with the pain of his tight grip. He couldn't hold in the whimper of fear that came through the muzzle. The man looked at him with black beady eyes and said something that even he could understand the tone of.

'You try anything else and you will pay.'

The man released him and Adam breathed again, his heart racing at the pure shock of such a display of authority, of domination. It was unfamiliar and terrifying, he felt a tingle all over his body that he couldn't explain, particularly in his crotch. Probably a reaction to him grabbing his balls, Adam thought. The man pointed back at the wall and Adam moved slowly back to the middle of it, watching as they grabbed what looked like a large hose. He had a second to anticipate the deluge before he was sprayed by the freezing stinging water, he held his hands infront of his crotch as he tried to dodge the painful jets but this only gave more amusement to his captors who seemed to find this a fun little game.

His skin stung and his hair dripped water into his eyes as the pummelling water eventually stopped. His shivering was violent now and he looked at his captors with hatred. Tied up and gagged like an animal, hearing them laugh and talk about him without understanding their words was dehumanising beyond belief. He felt tears of anger rise to his eyes and he was grateful for the water dripping down his face to disguise them.