The Demon’s Bride

Elise took the old bucket, filling it with water and poured it atop her head. Splash, splash, splash, the water droplets dripped down from the ends of her sunset hair to the ground bellow.

Splashing water over herself thrice, Elise put aside the bucket she used and followed the other girls who haad begun to walk away. After the bath, they received new clothes which were also tattered down. However, now the mud and grim allover Elise's body were wiped clean, bringing back her adorable face to the light. Her red hair also glittered back to its original color. 

A few minutes after, they came back to their previous cell and everyone slumped back near the wall, most of them now leaned forward to the iron bars as it was warmer than the inner cells. 

The baths were very cold, commented Elise in her heart. With only a heavy dress with holes and nothing to protect her limbs, her body had been shuddering from the passing wind that blew from the outer corridors.

Arian saw the girl suffering from the chilling night in silence and called her with a wave. "Come here."

Elise nodded to crawl silently next to Arian who had wrapped her hand on her shoulder. "It's warmer if you get closer here. What do you say?"

"It is warmer here." certainly, on the other corner of the corridors, the wall was warmer. She didn't know whether it was because of Arian or the warm wall, but her heart felt slightly ease. 

"There had been no one for me to talk to for a long time. It has been lonely, but having you as my cellmate was a blessing in disguise, perhaps." Arian turned in a conversation. 

Elise grew silence, she wasn't the type to talk with and with Airan's sad expression, she didn't have anything to reply to comfort her. 

"Do you hear that tomorrow, we would be having an auction? "

"Yes."

"There would be many rules around the place, but if there is anything I have to warn you, it would be not to defy the person who would be buying you. " Arian said as she patted the young girl's head. 

Elise noted down Airan's warning with all her might, in the young girl's eyes, Arian was an angel in the hell where she was thrown in. She had no one to talk to and her behavior wasn't as friendly to new people. But, nevertheless, Arian helped her as she entered the slave cell, giving her warning and helped her so the wardens wouldn't punish her with the whip. 

"The buyer... are they scary?" Her fragile question lashed with very little hope.

"I wonder, I also don't know. It's different for each people, they have their own quirk and taste. I once heard they also like to use slaves as a sacrifice-"

"And also..." Arian trailed her words, looking to the side before completing it. "It's nothing, I just hope the person who would be taking you in is kinder than the gossips. You should go back to sleep, tomorrow wouldn't be a good day you should prepare yourself."

Elise's lips quivered as her head fell again to her hugged knees. 

Just once, if God was even there, she hoped the person who would be taking her in would be a kind person. A kind person that wouldn't kill her or punish her by using whips. 

When the morning came, Elise was once again woke up with the shout of the wardens. 

"Wake up! Work you butts women!" 

The young girl turned her head to the side where Arian was. She had also woken up, or perhaps she hasn't slept at all. Last night she heard the sound of thunder and woke up from her sleep to see Arian staring at the wall across them without a word. When she glanced around, she saw Elise woke up from her sleep and coax her with a pat on her head, bringing her dream across the girl. 

"You should go," Arian said. 

"What about you?" Elise asked as she stood up from her spot. 

Arian gave a warm giggle. "Your soul was very warm. I think this is why you could see me. Go on, my dear. Don't ever stop your steps. What Ever might happens outside the world, should never break your wings."

Elise couldn't understand what Arian was saying, but as she was about to speak, the warden screamed at her. "What are you doing, you mute? Are you fucking deaf? I said go!" 

Elise flinched from the shout, but she turned her head once again to where Arian was to found no one sitting there. 

In confusion, she pointed her hand to the spot where Arian was. "The lady disappear."

The guard could only think that the young girl must have lost her mind on the way after entering the slave building and sneered. "I thought you were mute, who knows that you could actually talk. What did you say? A lady disappear?"

"Arian." Elise named. 

"I haven't bothered myself to remember each slaves names. But there wasn't any slave in this cell room other than this one and you." The guard pulled Elise harshly to her cellmate that he pointed. "If you are about to get crazy, do it after you met your buyer. That will give us money."

Chill ran down through her blood as she stepped out of the cell. She clearly talked with Arian a while, ago. But the lady disappeared. Did she once again talk with a ghost?

Her mother cursed her for seeing ghosts, her aunts and the places where she stayed at also called her monsters for talking to them. But to her eyes, the ghosts were far kinder than humans who always beat her up. She looked at her the red bracelet on her wrist, the bracelet which was said to control her power of seeing things that shouldn't be seen with naked eyes. 

Her head slumped down again. She couldn't understand why Arian became a ghost at the slave building, but the reason must be not far off from the guards who killed the other girls. 

"How evil." she murmured to see another girl agreeing with a faint nod. Everyone there had their sympathy for each other but none could do anything that would help themselves. One wrong moves and either the slave traders would beat them to death or perhaps activate the magic on the shackles and have their body blown to little bits. 

The guardsman brought the rest of the girls into a carriage that was wider than the one she used previously. Unlike the previous container, the rail guard of the container was made up of steels wrapped in white carpet. 

As she entered, the little girl's eyes swept the scene and the people inside it. They were docile and quiet, unlike her whose eyes always wondering about to see the whole place. 

The distance between Ulriana and Afgard wasn't as far as the little girl had thought. On the way to enter the Afgard, Elise heard merry chatters and sounds coming off the road. People were laughing without restrain, kids gigglings, the sounds of traders calling new buyers in, and the smell of freshly baked bread that made her stomach growled aloud. 

Timidly, she covered her stomach to see around the carriage mate who didn't mind her stomach growling in hunger as their own stomach was also crying in volume. 

Her curiosity about the place outside the tent made her want to peek in between the slight rip on the tent, but unlike the previous ride, the gap on the tent was hard to look at. Elise retracted back her curiosity and caressed her back which had been hurting from the entire uneven road. 

Riding a carriage also needs skill, Elise thought to herself as she got back to looking at the wooden floor of the carriage. Her day at the slave building was short, but she couldn't praise god enough for it as she hadn't suffered from the guards beating. Thinking that way, she couldn't help but turned sorrow from Arian's ghost who had to stay behind at the cell. Arian didn't look that much older than her, perhaps she was still only sixteen or seventeen. For her to die in the slave building, it could only mean that she died from the guardsmen's beating or by hunger.

Her little heart hoped that she wouldn't be lonely and could ascend back to where she belonged beside god. To lose a kind person, Arian's family must have felt sad for their loss. But Arian was still fortunate enough if she has someone mourning for her death, unlike her who has no one. 

As they entered the place to the back alley of the auction building, the slave traffickers pulled the chain on their hands which was tied in a line. As he pulled one, the others follow and so did Elise who was at the third from the end. 

Before they walk down the carriage, the other guardsman held a black cloth to wrapped the slaves' eyes. 

Not knowing where they entered, the place was quiet with a few footsteps from where they were. 

Turisk played his final round to examine the newest slaves and pulled the hair of the women with a lascivious smile. "They are fairly fresh."

"Virgins." The other traffickers commented. 

Turisk hummed in a tune and Elise felt the presence of a man in front of her. His curly hair brushed her neck as Turisk sniffed aloud. "This one is very young."

"Her family didn't want her." The traffickers explained, rubbing salt to Elise's wounded heart. 

"Thought so. " Tursik said before stepping back. "Okay. The auction would start after another half an hour. Bring them carefully especially the virgins. Sorcerer like virgins for their sacrifices. "

Elise's heart sunk in cold water. It seemed the sacrifice that Ghost Arian said was for the sorcerers. Although she couldn't understand most of the terms they used. Her probability of being buy by the sorcerers must be high according to them. 

As slaves were lower than other beings, they were ordered to sit on the marbled floor. the other slaves Elise down at the cold floor while hugging their knees.

Elise rounded her last pray in despair.