The door slammed shut behind Alexandria as she sprawled onto the floor, trying to catch herself. She heard metal clanging, a soft click, and then… silence. Alex took off her blindfold and the first thing she saw was… herself. Or rather she saw a reflection of herself. She was in a bizarre decagon-shaped room with mirrors on every wall; except for the wall with the door from which she came. The mirrors went from the beautiful marbled ceiling to the soft red carpet where she sat staring at her surroundings in awe. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, as if Alex had been the one to lock it. The door opened to reveal a tall skinny woman, in a red button-up blouse, and a tight black pencil skirt. Her neatly red painted nails and manicured fingers were wrapped around a plain white foam cup.

“You might need this, you’ve had a long and hard day,” the woman said, handing the foam cup to Alex. Before taking it, Alex peered inside suspiciously. It was coffee; sweet, creamy, caffeine-filled coffee. She cupped the drink in her hands and gulped down the warm brown liquid as if it would dematerialize right before her eyes. Alex sighed in satisfaction before handing it back.

“I have a few questions,” Alex said, eyeing the woman carefully.

“Go ahead, shoot,” the woman replied before discarding the foam cup into a trashcan next to the door.

“Who are you, where am I, and what’s supposed to happen to me now?” Alex asked as the woman pulled a pen out of her shirt pocket. She then started marking something that Alex couldn’t see, on a clipboard that was in her other hand.

“So, you use to work as a bartender, yes?” the woman asked, clearly ignoring Alex’s questions.

“You said I could ask my questions,” Alex said irritated, crossing her arms below her chest.

“True, but I never said I would answer them,” the cunning woman replied with her red lips that twisted into a mischievous smirk as she made another mark on the clipboard. Alex opened her mouth to give a smart remark back when the room began to spin. Alex tumbled to the floor, and as she tried to stand back up she found her arms and legs could barely move. As her heart slowed to a weak beat she realized what was going on.

“Ah, it’s finally taking effect I see,” the woman said, looking down at Alex. Alex tried to form words but nothing came to mind. A warm steamy fog clouded her mind and she soon found it hard to even form full thoughts. As if on cue, the door opened again and two other women dressed in what appeared to be white nurse outfits, walked in. One of them went behind her and held her up as the other one slowly began to strip her of her clothes. Everything in her very being was telling Alex to fight back, but her mind was so clouded and her body was so weak that she couldn’t do anything. She remembered in the alley, how Leon’s surprising strength made her feel so vulnerable and realized; this was ten times worse. Overwhelming fear filled her weak body as she screamed as loud as her weakened body would let her.

The woman in red watched as the two women in white continued to strip and then drag the girl towards one of the mirrors. Then one of them opened the wall like a door, which led into another room. This room was covered floor to ceiling in dark blue and black tiles. It was tall and circular like a cylinder, it had five shower heads, and in the middle of the floor was a drain. The two women dragged and dropped Alex into the middle of the floor. Alex wailed weakly as she suddenly found herself being pelted with hot and cold water. When the shower heads finally stopped the two women came and scrubbed down her whole body. She felt so helpless that all she could do was cry out in terror. When they finished scrubbing, the shower head began to blast hot and cold water at her again. Alex’s mind finally began to clear up. When the shower heads stopped again she got to her knees, trying to get up when the two women tackled her again.

“Roslyn get Ava, the drug is starting to wear off!” yelled the woman holding Alex’s legs, to the woman in red, Roslyn.

“I told you we didn’t give her enough,” the woman who was holding Alex’s arms down, said to the other woman in white. 

“She’s so tiny, I didn’t think it would take much,” the other woman replied. Alex continued to scream as loud as she could while trying to shake off the two women. Another woman in white, who Alex presumed to be Ava, ran in.

“Get her feet, I’ll get the wax,” the other woman told Ava.

Oh god, wax? What are they going to do with that, torture me?  Alex thought frantically. When the woman got back she slowly poured the hot wax on Alex’s body. Alex screamed in agony as the wax burned into her skin. Then the woman took out a strip and slowly began to rip every little hair on Alex’s body that wasn’t on her head. When they were finally done, Alex had tears of pain running down her face. The women turned on the shower once more and then dried her off. The woman holding down her legs began to apply lotion to her now pink skin while Ava held down her upper body and washed and brushed Alex’s hair.

Once they finished, they dragged her back to the mirrored room, stood her up and took her measurements. Alex looked at a hundred naked Alexes that all looked back at her with a look of sheer terror on their face. When done with that, Ava handed her some clothes.

“Put those on,” she said simply.

“Uh… these are a bit…,” Alex began.

“Just put them on,” Ava repeated, irritated.

The shirt was a white midriff button up with puffy sleeves. Next, there was a black vest that ended just above her belly button. Then there was the skirt. It was a super short black skin tight skirt with a small slit down each side that almost reached her underwear. It was so short she found herself constantly trying to pull it down more. Lastly, the girls added a red tie and sleeveless cuffs for her wrists. Alex felt completely uncomfortable; the outfit gave off the look of a slutty bartender.

What did I get myself into… why do I always have to play the hero?

With this, all the girls including Roslyn left Alex alone in the room. Alex found herself falling to her knees in shock. Her head felt clouded, as if the drug was starting to take effect once again; except this time her heart pounded in her chest as if she had just run a marathon. Her breaths became short and soon Alex was struggling to breathe. It was like something was holding her underwater every sight and sound around her became muffled, the pressure in her chest building up as she sank into the bottomless pit. She began to panic as fear seemed to consume her very soul. Alex was in the fetal position with her hands gripping her hair as her whole body trembled and tears streamed from her eyes. Venomous thoughts leaked from her head as everything went dark.

You’re worthless, the darkness told her in a raspy voice. You couldn’t even defend yourself, how weak you must be. Alex shut her eyes tight trying to block the darkness.You should just disappear; no one needs a worthless weakling like you, it told her. Alex tried her best to bury the voice, held her breath and then slowly let it out. The voice was gone. She opened her eyes to see an empty room when there was another knock on the door. A man wearing a dark red button-up shirt, with a black vest and black suit pants walked into the small mirrored room. He looked at Alex who was on the floor.

“Stand,” he said gruffly. When Alex just sat there in confusion he came up to her, grabbed her by the wrist, and roughly stood her up. He then slowly inspected her head to toe. Alex tried her best not to blush, with his intense smoky-grey eyes, eyeing her in such an unsightly outfit.

“Sit,” he said pointing to a chair in the back of the room facing one of the mirrors. Not wanting to be touched again by this strange man Alex sat in the chair. The man played with her hair, getting a feel for it before he began putting it up. He curled Alex’s naturally straight hair and then put it up in a sexy messy bun. Then he began working on her face. Normally Alex used very little makeup, but this guy was really packing it on her face. When he was done Alex looked into the mirror and gasped. There in the mirror was a sexy, smoky-eyed, woman with full wine red lips looking back at her. After admiring his work, the man went into one of the mirrors that opened like a door. When he came back, he was carrying a shoe box.

“Put these on,” he said throwing the five-inch heels at Alex. She eyed the man, wondering if he would answer at least one of the questions spinning in her head.

“Would someone please just tell me where I am or at least what is going on?” Alex asked the man as she tried to put on the heels. The man opened his mouth to answer, but the door opened again interrupting his answer. Alex instantly recognized the person who walked into the room.

“You’re to enter a blood auction and be sold off to the highest bidder,” Lloyd answered her question with a twisted grin as soon as he entered the room. Alex stood up to tell him off and wobbled in the heels, it was like walking on stilts.

“What makes you think I won’t fight back,” Alex said trying to regain her balance.

“Oh I’m counting on it,” he said playfully, brushing his hand on her cheek and under her chin, holding it up to look at him as if he owned her. Alex swatted his hand away.

“And why would you do a thing like that?” she said glaring at Lloyd.

“Vampires are hunters,” he said with that evil grin of his. “We enjoy a feisty girl such as yourself.” Then he turned towards the man in the vest. “Get her a shorter pair, would you? I don’t need her wobbling in front of our bidders.” The man nodded, went back into the room, and brought back the same pair but with four-inch heels. The highest heel Alex had ever worn was three inches, but she figured four wouldn’t be as bad as five. She tried them on with less wobbling, before wondering why she was being compliant. Something or someone was screwing with her head. When Lloyd’s guard was down Alex swung her leg at his head with a roundhouse kick. Barely moving a muscle, Lloyd blocked it by grabbing her leg. Before she knew what was going on Lloyd was on top of her barring his fangs at her. Alex tried to shove him off of her but he pinned her arms behind her head. She tried to flip him off of her with her legs but he used his knees to pin them down. She was completely defenseless yet again. Lloyd then leaned in close to her; she could feel his breath brushing the skin on her collarbone.

“Sir, I know this isn’t my place but we don’t have time for this,” The man in the vest said with his arms crossed. Lloyd laughed at this.

“You’re right Sabastian.” He said rolling off of Alex, pulling her up with him. “That was fun,” he said to Alex while retracting his fangs and fixing his white suit. Alex glared at him, lifting her hand to give him the finger. Then, something unexpected happened. With the slightest movement of his hand, silver metal slithered up Alex’s legs and wrapped around her arms like cuffs. With another movement more metal linked the cuffs together creating chains. Alex gasped in surprise.

“How did you-” she exclaimed, not finishing her sentence in shock. Not giving her an answer, Lloyd motioned his hand towards him and the chains began to tug Alex out the door.