~Kemi's POV~ "How many years did you say you have been here for?" I ask again as if I didn't just hear him say 10 years. It's hard to believe really. How would someone stay here for such a long time? I have only been here for a day and I already feel like dying out of nervousness. This place is mysterious and I don't even understand how things are done here yet. I definitely know these people are involved in crimes and they only cover it up with their beautiful mansion and lots of money. "You heard me Kemi." Mike points out shaking his head at me as he stands up from the chair he was sitting on. I have had a wrong impression about Mike when Lucy brought me yesterday. I thought he was like those scary looking men wearing suits but he is actually nice... I think. "If you have been here for that long, that means you enjoy your job?" I ask in disbelief. Who enjoys preparing people for auctioning? He walks over to the window and slides it open to the right before turning to me. "How much is 8000 dollars in naira Kemi?" He asks me. I look at him in puzzle wondering why he would ask me that. Is this part of the auctioning lesson? "Em...l don't know, I wasn't good with math in school." He shakes his head, "Trying to defend your low IQ?" I pout, "Is that even part of the lessons?" "It seems like you're really looking forward the lessons." He teases. I swallow hard and purse my lips. Why would I be looking forward to that? "That's 1.6million Kemi." He says. I shrug, "Oh okay, so?" "That's my salary." My eyes grow wide, "Wait, for a year?" He sighs and starts walking over to the wardrobe. "That's the money I'm paid every month." He says. Wait, what? What did he say now? "Wait; do you do any other job apart from assisting girls with their clothes and answering their questions?" I hear him laugh before he walks back carrying two skimpy gowns in hangers. "You know about those fashion designers that assist celebrities with their clothes right?" I nod, "Yes." "Thank God you know that." He laughs. "I'm just like those fashion designers, just that my clients aren't celebrities." He says with a shrug before placing the clothes on the bed. I look at the gowns with a frown on my face. "Just that and they pay you that kind of money?" I ask in shock. He pauses for a while and I see a sad expression on his face but it disappears quickly like it was never there. "Yea. I'm lucky right?" I look down at my fingers and fidgets with them. For a moment, I have forgotten about my predicament. I am really never going to see my family again. The peaceful life I had always lived is gone and gone for good. Now... "Which color do you want?" I hear Mike ask disrupting my thoughts. "Color of what?" Mike stares at me without saying a word and I quickly realize he meant the gowns. I look at the two skimpy dresses he had placed on the bed. "I don't like any of them." He frowns, "My patience is running out Kemi, just pick a dress. You know this is what you're going to be wearing from now on." I bit my bottom lips and move closer to take the red one. I don't know if I should call it a dress because the only thing I'm seeing is a red net but who can I lay all these complains to? "What about the other girl who is supposed to join me?" I ask holding the skimpy dress as I sit on my knees in the bed. "She will come later:" He answers curtly as he takes the other dress back to the wardrobe. Is he angry? HaveI offended him with all my questions? "Did I ask too much?" He shakes his head and stands in front of me. "You should have your bath now, Lucy might come in Soon. "Lucy?" "Of course, she is the deputy supervisor." Deputy supervisor of training girls to become sluts. I nod, "I see." "Yeah." Mike adds as he walks over to the table beside the bed and pulls her out a drawer. "If you're curious about anything, you can ask me Kemi." Of course I'm curious about things, everything in fact. "I em..! have lots of questions." I say looking at him as he takes out a cigarette pack from the drawer. "Heh, sure you do. I'm listening." He takes out a cigarette and lights it. "Tell me about the consigliere." He furrows his brows and curls out smoke from his mouth, "Why? You interested in him?" He teases. I roll my eyes, "Of course not. I just want to know." Like I said before, he...is the right hand man of the boss. He is like representative of the boss. What else do you want to know?" "Does all of the mafia family live here?" "Hmm...Not really. Although they all have their spaces here but they definitely have houses elsewhere." He moves to sit beside me on the bed. "How come you're here Kemi?" He asks me this time. "Can't people just decide to be here?" He shakes his head, "Only 10% of the girls here came willingly Kemi." I shrug, "And if l'm part of the 10%?" "Now come-on Kemi, tell me. It's obvious that if you had a second choice you wouldn't want to be here right?" I sigh and look at my hands. "I was brought here to pay for my father's debt." I raise my head and look at him. "It was my only choice of saving my family." He sighs,"That's um...quite bad." He puts the cigarette into his mouth. Did he just say quite bad? "I'm about to be auctioned and you sat it's quite bad?" "I was brought here at the age of 15. I watched my parents get killed in front of me and couldn't do anything..." I gape as I hear him say that. He curls out smoke from his mouth, his eyes showing no sad expression on his face. It's as if he had already gotten over it. Is it possible to get over your family's death though? "They...Did they kill your parents?" "Which people?" He asks me. "These people, these mafia people." "Yes, they killed my parents and sold off my sister." Wait, if they did all those horrible things to him, why is he here then? "I'm.. I'm so sorry about that Mike." He shrugs, "It's all in the past, its okay" "But why are you working for them if they did all that to you? Did they force you?" He shakes his head as he inhales the smoke from the cigarette. "No, they didn't. I'm also paying a debt like you Kemi." "Your family owes them money too?" He smiles lightly, "No, I do. I'm the one who owes the debt." I give him a puzzled look, "You?" He puts the cigarette butt on the table. "Enough of talking about me now. Go have your bath." I nod and move out of the bed. "Is there a towel?" I ask him. "There is a bathrobe in the bathroom, it's new." "Okay." I walk towards the bathroom. As I reach for the door, I turn around to look at him and that's when I see that sad and painful expression he didn't show before. It must be hard for him, especially being around the people who did that to him. I can't imagine seeing my parents get hurt in front of me. I can never heal from such pain. After having my bath, I put on the skimpy red gown Mike had given me. I thought he is going to remain in the room and watch me dress up but he leaves the room giving me privacy. It seems there are still nice people who aren't perverts here. He comes in after I finish wearing the clothes. I sit down on the chair facing the mirror while he styles my hair. "You have really long hair Kemi, and it's full too." He says and I smile at the compliment. He combs my hair which stops half way down my back. He parts my hair sideways and takes out a hair straightener from the cupboard to start stretch my hair. He brings out the makeup box. "I still need to put on makeup?" He sighs as he opens the box, "I know you're naturally beautiful Kemi, but you still need to add little touch up." "You know how to apply makeup?" "If I don't know how to; why am Ilabout to apply it on your face?" I stare at him without saying anything. "Don't give me that look Kemi, I'm completely straight." He says as if reading my mind. I was actually thinking he was gay since most guys who do makeup turns out as one. It's not like I'm against them though, I have just never met any in real life. I chuckle, "I didn't say anything." "I know that's what you're thinking." "No I wasn't..." I deny. " I'm like those people who believe all male makeup artists are gays, okay?" He smiles, "Alright stop talking, let's make magic." Soon, he was done with everything. The makeup isn't too much as it blends well with my chocolate skin. "It's fine, thank you Mike." "Anytime." "But what's the need of all these anyway? It's not like the auction is today." "The auction is not today but the practice is definitely starting now. So get up and let's move it." "Where are we going?" l ask as I stand up. "The practice is obviously not going to take place here you know." He says. "But..." He raises his hand to stop me as his phone rings. "Hello." He says to the caller and after listening to whatever the person says; he nods. "Yes, she's prepared." He hangs up and turns to me. "We have to go now. After the practice, you will have to perform in front of the consigliere." My eyes widen as fear grip me, "What? Me?" "Relax Kemi, not just you. There are others too going to perform like you." I gulp nervously and fidget with my fingers. Mike holds my shoulders, "What are you scared of?" I look up at him. "Everything! Especially being auctioned." Mike stares at me without saying anything. "Is...The people buying us off, can you brief me on them?" I ask him. I should at least know that, right? "I don't really know them but they're mostly old men. If you be good, they might treat you right." "I don't want to get auctioned." Tears flows down my cheeks. All through the night, I couldn't sleep well. I kept on thinking about what's going to become of me. I tried putting on a strong facade but I just can't keep pretending all is well anymore. "The consigliere brought you here to pay for your father's debt, right?" I nod, "Yes." He reaches for my face and wipes my tears with his thumb. "Don't cry Kemi, you will ruin your pretty face." He smiles at me. "I told you I'm also here to pay a debt right?" I nod. "Well l could have died along with my parents then but was spared and that's why I am here. It's like paying a lifetime favor to the person who gave me a chance to live despite the fact that he was the one who killed my parents. "It still doesn't make sense." "I know but you won't understand..." He lets go of my shoulder and dips his hands into his pockets. "Why don't you try to speak with the consigliere? You're very beautiful and I don't think he can resist that." Is he... "Are you saying..." He cut me off, "Don't get me wrong Kemi. I'm not saying you should open your legs for him. If he wants you there's nothing you can do anyway. I just mean you can try to, you know, get him to like you and you will be fine." He shrugs. Get him to like me? That man? Does that mean man even have feelings to like someone? "You are not like the other girls. You're actually bold and you speak your mind, why don't you use that power to stop yourself from being auctioned?" He's saying I should try to convince the consigliere to help me out, but that heartless man would never. I scoff, "ls he someone you can just meet?" "You're right but you can meet him at practice today. After all, he brought you here, you're his property." His property? Heh. "Let's go now Kemi, we have been here for too long." I nod and follow him as he leads me out of the room. "The girl didn't come again" I say in a low voice. "She's already with Lucy at the practice area." Mike says as he closes the door. I could see other girls walking pass us with their *fashion designers* at their sides, I guess they're all going to the practice area too. I walk beside Mike until we got to large hall where others are entering. There are strange men sitting on chairs, some drinking, others smoking. I see a girl twerking inbfront of them with all the energy she has. "What have you two been doing inside?" A voice startles me and I turn to see Lucy standing in front of us with a deep frown on her face. There is a fair skinned girl standing besides her also wearing a skimpy gown. "It was my fault Lucy." Mike quickly intervenes. His fault for what? She sighs and turns to me."Move it." She says curtly and starts walking away. Mike signals for me to follow her and I did immediately before she would start scolding me. She walks over to where the men are and stops. "That's enough, Ara." She says to the girl who has been twerking. She girl stops panting hard as she steps down from the small stage to go sit at a corner. "Can you twerk?" Lucy asks me. Wait; don't tell me I'm also going to twerk like my life depends on it just like this girl just did? "No..No I can't." I quickly say. Lucy sighs, "Is there anything you can do?" She kisses her teeth at me. "Climb on the stage" She adds on and I look at her for a moment before I climb on the stage. "Bend your back!" She says with so much command that I didn't know when I lowered my back. "Set that your butt well!" She points at my butt and I bend lower not knowing what to do. "What in the world are you doing? Is that what I said?!" She yells at me. I try again to do as she says but only ends setting my butt like I want to dance a traditional dance. I hear her sigh. "Everything was going smoothly just now! Do you have to ruin it?" I remain there already trembling since I have been in the position for long. "Oya twerk now!" She yells. l just told her I can't twerk now. What else does she want me to do? I start to move my butt slowly up and down but everyone starts to laugh and that's when I know I'm fooling myself. My eyes are already becoming watery. I stop and stand there staring all the girls who are dressed in skimpy clothes like me. The men al laughing as they smoke their cigarettes and drink. "As big as you are, you can't even twerk? You need to be taught right?" Lucy says with her face red from anger. She walks away to a corner where there are sex equipments and he pulls out a whip. She's not going to wipe me with that, is she? She climbs on to the stage and stands by my side. "Kemi, I say twerk." Jesus Christ, she's going to hit me! I quickly start moving my waist again but l'm still not getting right since everyone is laughing. I stand up with my hands on my waist, "I can't twerk; I cant do it anymore." The next I feel on my back is a strong whip and I yelp in pain before rubbing my hands on my back. "I say twerk properly Kemi, or I will ask these men to teach you." She glares at me. I bit my lips and quickly wipe away my tears. I look around and could see Mike staring at me with a blank expression on his face. It's not like he can help me anyway. I try twerking again and still am not getting it right. Lucy hits me again and this time harder. I fall to the ground asI cry out in pain. I couldn't hold it longer as I taste my tears. "Get up you idiot! Dont waste my time or I will deal with you." I stand up from the floor and wipe the tears away from my eyes and try again closing my eyes tightly. I hear her groan loudly and I knowl didn't do it right again. I remain there waiting for another hit but none came. I turn to see if she is there but I see her climbing down. She walks over to one of the men and start talking into his ears. Please God, please she should not ask him to come and teach me, Oh Jesus! "Okay Kemi! It seems you are finding it hard to do it, so someone is coming to help you out." I start to panic. No, no. I move backwards as he approaches me. But there's no more place to run to as my back hits the wall. The tall, huge dark skinned man grabs my waist and pulls me to the chest. I struggle to push him off but he grabs my hair suddenly making me yelp in pain. "Shut the f*k up bitch and let's get this done with." Xoxo