For Sale On Display

by Hollie Hutchins

  “Go on and ask them then.”

  Anna couldn’t believe this was happening. Is this really how bad it’s gotten? Had she really been so oblivious? Most of the cases she was working at her last job were white collar crimes that affected a very small, elite subgroup of the Michigan population. Now, however, she was starting to recall all the abductions and corruption stories she used to hear snippets of on the news before she would inevitably flip to a different channel. She had been in a bubble, which was how she liked it after so many years of struggling, living in the underbelly of the state where monsters ruled and people like her either joined them, or at least got out of their way.

  It’s karma, she thought as the men went over the details of their arrangement and the car started moving, over the border and on towards the market. The fact that she ended up back here, after so many years of turning a blind eye, was karmic justice. Maybe she deserved this.

  But what about the other woman?

  Anna had glanced in her direction while the trunk was open and notice that she looked very young and very scared. There’s no way she deserved this. Anna could accept this as her own fate, but not as this girl’s. She had to do something.

  “Have you seen a car full of big guys, werewolves actually, driving through here recently?” Noah asked the kind looking trooper stationed at the border between Michigan and Canada. “We’re not sure what type of car they were driving, but we have reason to believe they were transporting illegal… goods across country lines.” The trooper handed them back their passports and crossed his arms.

  “I see,” said the trooper. “That’s a pretty serious allegation. I wish I could help you out, but I’m afraid I didn’t see any group that matches that description.”

  Noah nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Thank you for your time.”

  He went to close his window, but before he did, a breeze went by and he picked up on a two distinct scents wafting through the air. One was the undeniable scent of a werewolf, or multiple, and the other was a sweeter smell, a smell that Noah had become quite fond of over the past few months: Anna.

  “Excuse me,” he called back the trooper who was walking away from the car. “I hate to take up more of your time, but it’s really important that we find these guys. I was being vague before, so as to not cause a panic, but I think you should know that these men have abducted two young women and are bringing them to an illegal marketplace nearby to be sold.”

  The trooper took his time walking back to the car. He had painted a calm expression across his face but Noah could smell his fear.

  “That’s awful,” said the trooper. “But like I said, I can’t help you. I wish I could.”

  Noah smirked and looked over at Sue, who was sitting in the front seat. “He wishes he could help us. You hear that, he really truly wishes he could help us.” Noah opened his door and stepped out, making a show of how much larger he was than the trooper. Sue got out as well, her hand on her holster.

  “Hey, what are you doing? Get back in your car!” the trooper reached for his own gun. “It is against the law to threaten a border patrol officer. If you take one more step—”

  “You know what else is illegal?” said Noah. “Aiding and abetting criminals in their attempt to abduct and sell other human beings. Now I know you’re lying. I know those guys came through here not too long ago. But what I don’t know is why you would lie to me about seeing them… unless…” He glanced back at Sue.

  “Unless he is somehow involved,” said Sue.

  “That is ridiculous!” He pulled his gun. Just then the other four agents they’d brought for back up got out of the car, their weapons already drawn.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said Noah. “Instead, what I would do is I would tell us when those guys came through, where they were headed exactly, and then I would turn myself in.”

  “You have no proof,” said the trooper.

  “You’re right,” said Noah. “Not now anyway. But once I catch the guys who took my friend, do you really think they will have any problem rolling over on you? So let me give you two options, you can either tell us everything and we won’t hurt you, or we will hurt you until you tell us everything. Your choice.”

  The guy looked around, making eye contact with each of the five agents before gazing back at Noah. “Fine.” He lowered his gun. “I’ll talk.”

  (page break)

  At some point during the last hour of the car ride, Anna fell back asleep. Considering she hadn’t eaten much at all before being abducted, it had probably been close to twenty four hours since she’d had a real meal. She was feeling very dizzy, and even though the adrenaline kept her going for a while, she passed out not long before they arrived at their destination.

  She must’ve been in a deep REM sleep because when she next awoke, she was no longer lying in the back of a trunk. Instead, she was in a small room with white walls and fluorescent lights. The ropes binding her ankles and wrists had been removed, along with the gag, and to her horror, her dress too had been removed. She was wearing only her black bra and underwear. She looked around the closet sized room for something to cover herself with, but of course there was nothing.

  All the sudden a loud female voice started booming somewhere outside of the room.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, next up we have a very special treat for you. She hails from the beautiful town of Idle Waters, where we are told she used to work as the head deputy for the Sheriff’s department.”

  She heard a bunch of people “oh” and “ah”, somebody whistled. It sounded like the crowd was right outside of the room. She stood up and walked over to one of the walls. When she pressed her ear to it, it was cold. Glass. The walls were glass. And in fact, they weren’t white at all. She could see ripples in the fabric. There was a sheet hanging over the glass. She was in a cage.

  “And that’s not even the most interesting thing about her,” the voice continued. “No, the most interesting thing about this gorgeous woman for sale is that she is… drumroll please… a virgin.”

  The crowd went wild, cheering and screaming. A chant began. “Pull the sheet. Pull the sheet.”

  “Alright,” said the woman’s voice. “Without further ado, I introduce to you, the Virgin of Idle Waters.”

  The sheet was pulled off of the glass cage and Anna saw a sea of people, mostly men, although there were some women. Some of them were seated, but most stood up once the sheet was removed. They had little paddles, with which she guessed they would use to bid on her. She was in the middle of the room, her cage placed atop a sort of platform, which meant there were people on all sides of her. Towards the back of one side of the room was a bar, and there were no windows. It seemed more like a club than an auction hall.

  She tried to scream and banged her fists on the glass, which was met by a round of laughter and pointing from the auction goers. They found it so funny, so cute that she would try to get away.

  “Can’t blame her for trying,” said the voice. Anna looked around the room and spotted a skinny woman wearing an elegant, sparkly dress standing on a separate platform off to the side. She waved almost seductively at Anna and spoke into a microphone. “Hello there beautiful.”

  Anna would have thrown up had she had anything in her stomach.

  She stopped her wailing and banging. Her next instinct was to back away into a corner, as far away from their jeering and their hideous grins, but there was no safe corner. Instead, she sat down right in the middle of the glass cage and curled her knees into her chest. She felt the tears welling up into her eyes, but she pushed them down. She would not let them see her cry.

  “Let’s start the bidding then, shall we?” said the woman. “Opening bid, five hundred dollars. Five hundred, do I hear six?”

  Anna glanced up and saw what looked like a hundred paddles went up in the air.

  “Oh wow,” said the auctioneer. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a got ticket item. Everyone get their paddles ready, this is going
to be a good one.”

  Glass Box Not Included

  “Okay, so according to the trooper guy, the entrance to the market should be around here somewhere.” Sue was walking ahead of the group, looking down at the crude map the trooper had drawn them. Apparently, the trooper had not only let criminals go on their merry way across the border and to the marketplace, he had actually been once or twice himself. He claimed he couldn’t remember exactly which street it was on, but he was able to give them a general area.

  “This is ridiculous!” yelled Noah. “We should have brought him with us. We are wasting time.”

  “Hey look,” said Urlich, one of the backup agents. “That neon sign. Didn’t the trooper mention a neon sign?”

  Noah looked where Urlich pointed and saw a bright purple neon sign hanging over the entrance to a staircase leading to the basement of a run-down looking building. The lit sign read “closed.”

  “He said if the closed sign is lit, that means they are having an auction there that day,” Urlich continued. “If the open sign is lit, that means it’s just a regular bar again.”

  “We weren’t planning on there being an auction,” said Sue. “Our whole plan was to go into the bar and ask for the manager. If there’s an auction going on, we won’t be able to get to Anna without bringing a lot of attention to ourselves. Plus, we’ll be outnumbered. By a lot.”

  Noah smiled and took off his heavy winter coat. “This is exactly why I brought a change of clothes.”

  “Huh?” asked Sue. She followed him back to where they parked the car, half a block down the street.

  “I wasn’t sure what we were going to walk into exactly, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a nice suit on hand, in case I needed to pose as a wealthy buyer at the marketplace.”

  “What about the rest of us?” asked Sue. “We don’t have any other clothes.”

  “I know,” said Noah. “You’re not coming in. I’m going alone.”

  “That’s crazy!”

  He opened the trunk and pulled out his change of clothes. He threw his heavy coat in and put on his sleek suit jacket. He was already wearing black slacks and a button down, but he swapped his winter boots for shiny black slip ones and put on a tie.

  “Hear me out.” He closed the trunk and looked at his reflection in the window. “I will go in and bid until I’m the last one, then when they give me Anna, we’ll slip out of the back or something.”

  “What about the payment?”

  “I can write them a check that I’ll cancel later.” He fixed his hair. “We can contact the local police and come back here with a larger force and shut the whole thing down.”

  “What about the other girl, Sal’s daughter? What if they sell her off before we are able to bust them?”

  Noah frowned. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “I’m going in too. We will have to act like we don’t know each other. I’ll bid on the other girl. It’s the only way we can ensure we get them out in time. Meanwhile, the other agents can call for backup and figure out the plan for shutting down the market.”

  “What if people won’t believe you are a buyer?” asked Noah, looking at her outfit.

  “Leave that to me,” she said. “Now get in there before your girlfriend gets bought! I’m right behind you.”

  Noah nodded and ran towards the bar.

  “Six thousand and one hundred dollars,” said the auctioneer. “Do I hear sixty-two hundred?”

  There were only a handful of bidders still making offers at this point. Anna had given up trying to look into the face of each person placing a bid, as she was doing when they first started the auction. She’d tucked her head into her chest and hugged her knees, trying to calm her mind and let her intuition take over. If she had any chance of getting out of this situation, it would be by listening to her gut.

  “Six thousand and five hundred, how about sixty-six hundred?”

  Somebody in the back yelled seven thousand and the auctioneer’s voice got faster and louder, as the prospect of such a large sale made her more and more excited. She must work on commission, Anna thought. That meant the woman was motivated by money, which could possibly work in Anna’s favor. If, after she was sold, she could get close enough to the woman to whisper in her ear, she could make up some story about how much Anna would be worth to the Idle Waters Police Department. She could try to convince this woman that by not selling Anna, and instead calling Sheriff Wells and saying she has his detective hostage, the auctioneer could stand to gain thousands of dollars all for herself.

  It wasn’t true, of course. Even if Sheriff Wells was willing to make an offer, it would likely be pretty measly considering the department’s astounding low yearly budget. Not that she could even count on that, seeing as she just started at the department and hadn’t yet done anything to prove her worth to Sheriff Wells or the larger Idle Waters community. But the auctioneer didn’t know what.

  “Nine thousand going once,” said the auctioneer. “Nine thousand going twice.”

  “Twenty thousand!”

  Anna looked up as a hush fell over the crowd and everyone started turning their heads, some craning their necks to see who it was that made the offer. A tall man all the way towards the front door was raising his hand in the air. He didn’t have a paddle, but that didn’t seem to matter to the auctioneer.

  “Twenty thousand!” she cried. “Twenty thousand going once, twenty thousand going twice…” She paused, grinning at the audience for a single, charged moment, and then stomped her foot and yelled, “Sold! To the gentleman in the back for twenty thousand dollars. Please come up and claim your purchase.”

  The man began to elbow his way through the crowd and as he approached, Anna could start to make out the details of his face. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized it was him, but she remembered to mask her excitement so as to not raise any suspicions.

  Noah walked up on the stage and had a conversation with the auctioneer. He took out his checkbook and at first it seemed as if the woman was not going to take his check, but after some hemming and hawing he scribbled something down and handed it to her. She then personally walked over to the platform where Anna’s cage was placed and rapped her knuckles softly on the glass.

  When she did, there came a loud noise overhead and the glass began to move. Only then did Anna notice a massive metal handle of sorts on the ceiling of the cage, through which was threaded an industrial crane hook hanging from a thick cable. The walls of the cage were lifted into the air and Anna ducked underneath as soon as there was enough room for her to get out.

  “Come with me,” said the woman, wrapping her spindly fingers around Anna’s upper arm. “It’s time to meet your new owner.”

  It seemed all eyes in the crowd were on her as she was escorted to a back room behind the bar. Noah was inside, waiting with a sheepish look. It took everything in Anna’s power not smile and throw her arms around him.

  “She’s yours now,” the auctioneer said to Noah. “Do with her what you like. Let me warn you.” She lowered her voice and as she spoke she pulled the slit in her dress back and grabbed a small dagger that was tucked into a leather garter. “If this check doesn’t go through, I will send my guys after you.” She took the edge of the kniff and brought it near Noah’s knife. Anna’s breath caught in her chest. The woman held the knife against his skin for a second, then with a quick flick of her wrist she sliced through his silk tie. “They will have your scent,” she said, sniffing the piece of fabric. “So they will find you. Got it?”

  Noah nodded. “Yes,” he said. “I understand. The check will go through. I promise.”

  She smiled devilishly and put the knife away.

  “Good.” She turned and looked at Anna. “She came in wearing a dress, but I’m not sure where it ended up. If you want her to cover up with something, there’s a box of lost and found stuff in the corner.”

  “She can wear my coat,” said Noah.

  The woman shrugged. “Whatev
er does it for you.” She went for the door.

  Noah cleared his throat. “Before you go, I was curious, are there any other young women for sale today. Any young virgins?” Anna could tell he had a hard time getting the last word out, especially with her standing right there, but luckily the woman didn’t seem to notice anything odd in his asking.

  “There was one other,” said the woman. “But she was sold earlier. Sorry.”

  “Oh,” Noah nodded. “Do you, uh, have any contact information for the person who bought her?”

  The woman laughed. “You’re really eager to get your hands on some virgins, aren’t you? Got some sort of pagan ritual planned?”

  Noah rubbed the back of his neck. “Something like that.”

  “I don’t know the guy’s name, sorry, but I’m pretty sure I saw him leave with the woman and then come back in for a drink. He probably put her in his car or something. He’s a big and hairy. I think he’s one of those half-breed bears. He might still be there.”

  “Okay,” said Noah. “Thanks.”

  “I’ll leave you two a long for a moment,” she said. “While I go get the next item ready. If you’re going to get up to any monkey business, please be mindful of the carpet. I just had it replaced.” She winked and with that she slipped out of the door.

  Noah immediately went to Anna and wrapped his arms around her. When he held her, all the tension left her body and all the fear and anxiety she had tried to push down sudden coursed through her like a raging river. Tears streamed down her face and her body shook.

  “It’s okay,” said Noah. “It’s okay.” He ran his hand down the back of her head and softly played with her hair. “Everything is going to be fine.”

  After a while she pulled away from him and wiped her face with the back of her hand. He took off his coat and offered it to her. It was quite big and warm, like she was wearing his hug.