The audience seems to grow bigger and louder as Ana is ushered to the front of the stage, the harsh strobe light beaming down on her painted face. I’ve never seen her like this, and I’m desperate to take a warm cloth to her face to wipe away the mask that I know is covering her beauty.
“Let’s start the bidding at.. what shall we say, forty thousand?” He asks, his eyes scanning the now silent room. “Anyone?”
Lifting my hand, I raise the numbered plaque in the air.“Here.” I say with a sharp tone that has everyone turning in their seats to face me, almost shocked that I placed a bid on a woman that never sells. The auctioneer almost looks confused as his gaze lands on the plaque in my hand.
“Well then, forty thousand it is. Anyone for fifty?”
Silence envelops the room like a thick cloud, like everyone is waiting to see who will outbid me. Where the fu-
“Here.”
A thick Russian accent echoes around the room and immediately my eyes land on the white plaque that’s in the air. In the corner of my eye, Ana wraps her arms around herself and sways on her feet. I haven’t got much time to wrap this shit up.
“It seems we’ve got a little bidding war on our hands, gentlemen. How exciting!” The auctioneer says with enthusiasm. “Eighty thousand?” He offers and I fire my hand up in the air until it becomes a vicious war between us, the total skyrocketing. Over and over me and the Russian battle with each other and I have no intention of stopping, no matter how much money it fucking costs, no matter the mountains I have to climb or the glass I have to crawl across to get Ana back, I’ll do it.
I keep my eyes on her as her gaze bounces between me and the Russian who’s sitting on the opposite side of the room. She’s probably terrified, wondering who she’s going to end up with. I’m desperate to shout out to her, to tell her that it’s me, that I’ll be the one taking her home but I can’t blow this up yet.
I have to fucking win this.
“Hundred thousand? Going once..”
The Russian lifts his plaque again and everything seems to freeze, time and space no longer existing in this room and I watch in slow motion as the auctioneer sends his gavel down onto the podium. “Going twice..”
“One million!” I yell with my hand in the air.
Bang!
“Sold! For one million dollars to the gentleman in the back. You can collect your winnings in a short moment.” He says, then turns to face the audience. “Once again, thank you for coming to Selection Day, we hope everyone is pleased with their prizes. Please make your way out of the main doors to your designated cars once you’ve collected your goods.”
The moment he finishes speaking, Ana is pulled off the stage and the urge to run to her is strong but Eli wraps his hand around my arm and pulls me out of the room before the audience comes piling out. “We need to move, now. They take the girls to the back. I’ve already informed Cecilia to get the vans ready.”
I nod and stride out of the room, straight towards the double doors that are now empty of guards and pull them closed, sliding the metal bar across and securing the padlock that some douche has left hanging there.
“What are you doing?” Eli asks in a hushed tone.
“Locking everyone inside. Anyone whose involved in this sick fucking scheme, doesn’t leave here alive.” I say whilst grabbing my mask out of my jacket and slipping it on, feeling its dark aura sinking into my bones.
Eli tips his mouth into a sinister grin and follows my movements, slipping his own mask on.
“You take the left, I’ll take the right. Every fucker dies tonight.” I say.
Wrapping my hand around the gun that’s sitting in my waistband, I pull the heavy weapon out, check the magazine again and flick off the safety before backing into the dark corners of the room. My breaths are heavy against the thick fabric of themask, bated breaths filtering in and out of my lungs as I wait for the first lot of people to exit the room. Laughter and small talk fills the space and they’re completely unaware of the hellfire I’m about to bring on this place.
Yeah, we might be outnumbered by guards but there’s nothing that can stop me from getting what I want.
The crowd of people stride towards the door and it only takes them a few seconds to realise it’s locked, then panic begins to set in.
“Hey! The doors are locked!” One of them shouts which causes alarm to ring through the rest of the people, and that’s when I make my move. Lifting my gun, I aim at the man who is closest to the door.
“End them all, Storm.” I say through the earpiece.
The moment the words leave my lips, bullets begin to fly, piercing through the mass of bodies that quickly begin to land like sacks of shit on the floor. Screams and wails of pain echo around the room and it quickly becomes a blood bath. Brain matter and crimson liquid spray across the walls as we slaughter every single fucking disgusting bastard in this room.
“You good, Viper?”
“All good. No doubt the gunfire will alert the guards so we better move.”
Ducking out of my dark corner, I check for any oncoming guards, hearing no footsteps, I step over the mass of bodies that have practically exploded all over the room. Various body parts hang on by a thread from bulletholed torsos, faces mangled with holes where blood spills out onto the filthy floor.
