The Life of a Tere Slave

1: The Auction

               The night was chillingly cold when she was taken. The shabby, fungus filled shack barely able to be referred to as a home was soon erupting with shouts. Hands grabbed at the frightened girl concealed by nothing but rags. She screamed for help, but no one came to her aid. Everyone knew. The Groves had become desperate enough to sell their daughter into slavery. In this future, there was no room for love or sentimentality. There was only room for a need to survive, and the Groves had seen it necessary for their benefit to sell their only remaining daughter to the slave traders constantly lurking.

               The neighbors rolled their backs to their glass-less windows as the men drug the Groves’ daughter away from her home. Still screaming and struggling, she called to anyone that would listen. But no one responded. No one even flinched as her shouts rang through the air. This routine had become all too common in this run down neighborhood in the suburbs of the city to the north. For the parents, it was an easy choice: life or family. For the children, it was only a matter of time.

               And Wisteria Groves’ time had run out on the January night (the night of her sixteenth birthday to be even more exact). The van door slammed shut as she was shoved inside. The interior of the van smelled of urine, feces, puke and sweat. Her heart wouldn't stop pounding in her chest. It was relentless in its attempts to take Wist away from this terror.

               She knew they would come for her in the next year, but she hadn't expected it to happen so soon. The slave traders pay a much heftier price for girls and boys who were nearly all the way matured or completely matured, and her sixteenth birthday had marked that point of her life. As they drove, more and more teenage girls and boys were piled into the back of the van. It was soon so crammed that no one could move. All were as terrified as the next person. Stories of the slaves and the trade surfaced and whirled in their minds.

               No story would have prepared them for what lay ahead however. Wisteria was crammed into the far back corner of the van bitterly thinking about how much money her parents had received for selling her. She knew the traders had had eyes on her for years knowing she would grow up to be just as beautiful as her sister had been. They knew she would bring a hefty price at the trade. When her parents finally agreed to trade her, the traders had been out five thousand dollars. But they would earn quadruple that at the trade for Wist. Even the other girls and boys saw this and shrunk as far away from her as possible as if her beauty was a disease that could be caught.

               It was common knowledge that the highest bidders at the trade were often people who sold their slaves for a night then took them back in the morning. Other girls and boys whom weren't as attractive as people like Wist would get off easy by working in the gardens or households of the wealthy. But there was also a chance that a wealthy would bid on Wist for her to become their head servant. That was the only strand of hope that Wist clung to.

               Wist's eyes brightened as she suddenly had a thought occur to her. She looked to the piles of feces and puke that littered the floor and was tempted to smear it over her body and ragged clothes in order to "ugly" herself. She never got the opportunity though because suddenly the van jolted to a stop and the door slid open.

               The twelve girls and boys were hauled out of the van and shoved into another room. There a team of people waited to prep the new arrivals. Instantly they all rushed to grab one girl or boy and prep them. One burly girl grabbed hold of Wist and sat her down in a car in front of a vanity. Wist's clothes were stripped off leaving her completely revealed to the world. She looked around to see that all the new slaves were now completely naked. Her chin was pulled roughly back toward the woman as she quickly brushed things onto Wist's face. She cringed and shuddered as the woman plucked and teased her face until she was satisfied with her work. Then the woman washed the grime from Wist's body and just as the slaves were lining up she sprayed something that coated Wist in seconds. It made her skin glitter brilliantly in the light, and Wist was immediately scared.  Next they threw a loose fitting rag on her body and bushed her into line.