“Going once!...Going twice!…SOLD!”
A cheer went up from the crowd. Up on stage, the newly sold girl was dragged off to meet her owner. From her place in line, Ahbe stifled a sob, head hung low, eyes fixed to the ground so she wouldn’t have to see what was happening. But she couldn’t block out the sounds of the auction. The clanking of the chains binding her and the rest of the girls in line made enough of a racket as they shuffled forward to temporarily blot out the crowd. At the front, the slavers grabbed the next poor girl and led her up onto the stage.
Ahbe gave a whimper. “Three more to go...” She thought, knowing without looking how many other women stood between her and the front of the line. Soon they would be gone and it would be her turn. She shuddered. Since the slavers had raided her village, leading all of the women and girls off in chains, she had been dreading this moment. As bad as their capture was, and the hard days of marching they’d endured to reach the slave market, above all, none of that was as bad as what was coming; when she’d be dragged onto the auction block and exposed to the watching eyes of hundreds, maybe thousands of people, one of whom would be the one to buy her.
“Sold!” Another girl was led off, the next one in line was led forward. Some of the girls fought, others were led along meekly enough, it didn’t matter in the end. Up to the stage they went. As she shuffled into place, Ahbe briefly raised her eyes up to the stage, hoping to steel herself for the ordeal to come. She flinched. The other girl stood at the front of the stage, trembling. Beside her, the auctioneer had a hold of her dress and was in the process of ripping it down the side.
Hurriedly, Ahbe dropped her gaze, but she couldn’t shut out the lustful cheers from the crowd as another innocent was exposed for them. She clung to her own thin shift. After several days of walking in the slave coffle it was torn and dirty with dust from the road, but it was all she’d had on when the slavers had broken down the door to her hut and pulled her mother, her sisters and her from their bed. They hadn’t been given time to grab anything from their old lives as they were taken away.
A few minutes passed, another girl sold, a few more, then another. Suddenly, Ahbe found herself next in line. She found herself shaking with fright. This was it. Any moment now. When the auctioneer’s cry of “Sold!” rang out again, she thought she might faint. Somehow, she kept on her feet as another of the slaves came for her. A rough hand grabbed her by the arm and led her forward.
Numbly, she stumbled up the stairs to the raised wooden platform, hampered by the heavy shackles on her feet. As she reached the top, she saw the crowd, stretched out across the market. They could see her to. Hundreds of eyes stared back up at her, in eager anticipation for the moment she would be exposed for them. Ahbe shrank back, too scared to go forward, but it did her little good as the slaver simply dragged her the rest of the way to the front of the stage and the waiting auctioneer.
As she stood there, trembling, he addressed the crowd. “Our next lot is this fine maiden...” He called out to them. “What say we get a better look, though?” Ahbe whimpered, closing her eyes as his hand went to her shift. The thin, cheap cloth provided little protection. With a single, hard yank, it tore, falling away from her body, leaving her exposed...