Vladimir's Marked Luna Chapter 6: Sold

🌙𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐡

A confused, tense silence followed. The announcent was deafening.

No one moved.

"Get up!" one of the n yelled, raising his gun threateningly.

Everyone rose at the speed of light, their heartbeats strangely pulsing in my eardrums.

What the hell was wrong with ?

Jerry made eye contact with everyone in the room, his eyes so piercing they could have drilled a hole through cent.

Gerald was a statue, his towering fra not daring to move a muscle. His eyes focused on a certain point on the wall. His wife was different, quivering like she had been caught in the cold.

The kids’ eyes darted to their mother; they were holding back tears.

Charlotte and Ajax, the origin of the issue, were white as sheets, both sweating buckets.

"Everyone," Jerry’s voice made us all flinch. "Sit," he commanded.

The reaction was imdiate. Everyone found a surface to plant their asses, all looking up at him.

Jerry surveyed us as though looking for sothing. He shook his head, inhaled through his nose, and exhaled through his mouth. He ran his hand through his cropped black hair.

"Na your price," he finally spoke again.

No one spoke. I could tell they were all as confused as I was.

Another tense breath.

"How much for Lilith Brooks?" he asked.

My muscles seized, blood turning to ice. "What?" I muttered, my voice pathetically trembling. Cold dread clawed at my insides, painful tendrils gripping at my organs.

But Jerry ignored , instead looking at my family as though I was not sitting right there. Like I was the commodity to be discussed.

Shock was a spell that left everyone unable to speak for a ti, but Aunty Agnes was the first to snap out of it.

"What would you want this useless thing for?" Her voice ca out snide and curious, all the forr fear nowhere to be found.

Jerry’s brows knotted. "Useless?" he echoed, like it was the most absurd thing he had ever heard.

He looked back at his n. They mirrored his confusion before it all seed to click, and he rolled his eyes.

"I guess we have so family dysfunction going on here. The black sheep is the only successful one. Nothing new."

If only it were that simple. If only I were truly that innocent...

He shrugged. "But I am not here to resolve family drama. I said na your price before you no longer get the chance to."

The adults in my family exchanged glances, long, loaded ones that said everything and nothing all at once. Aunty Agnes’s eyes darted to Uncle Gerald. He gave the smallest nod, barely perceptible, but I saw it. My lungs could have collapsed.

Run---no, don’t. He’ll shoot. But if I stay---God, I couldn’t---I couldn’t breathe---

"Define price," Uncle Gerald said stiffly, his voice hoarse like gravel. "Are we talking... cash? Property? What sort of offer are we discussing?"

My breath caught.

They were actually negotiating.

"For a human being?" I rasped, stunned, my eyes darting to the nurous guns in their hands, before falling on the door. No one looked at . No one even flinched.

Because they knew that unless I was crazy, I would not move a muscle. I was out numbered, out gunned, in the bad side of town. My words ant absolutely nothing.

Jerry cocked his head like he wasn’t surprised by the question but maybe amused by it.

"I’m open-minded," he said simply. "You want cash, I have it. You want land, connections, silence, removal of your debt... say the word."

"I am a person..." my voice cracked out, hating how small I sounded. Maybe I could reach into sowhere in them, sowhere where humanity still resided. I regret so much putting my phone in my duffle bag. "You can’t just—"

"Person?" Aunty Agnes snorted. "You stopped being that to us the mont you started acting like you were better than us."

Fear mingled with anger for a brief mont but it quickly fizzled out.

"She’s not," Charlotte snapped, her voice shrill and desperate. "She thinks she is, but she’s not. She’s just lucky..."

"Enough," Jerry interrupted. Not loud. Just firm. Like he was already bored. "Shove your opinions up your asses. You already disgust ."

Ajax cleared his throat, sweat still trickling down his neck. "Can we get... a mont? To talk?"

Jerry raised a brow. "Talk all you want. Just don’t waste my ti."

He stepped back, arms folded, as if this were a casual business deal and not my life being auctioned off in front of .

They huddled. Whispered. Disgusting, really—watching them bargain over my head like I wasn’t sitting right there.

I tried to speak again, to stop it, to scream, but my throat was dry. My voice betrayed . My body was frozen, sha anchoring in place.

After a mont, Uncle Gerald stood like the appointed family spokesperson. He cleared his throat and straightened his rumpled shirt.

"The debt," he said, voice a little steadier now. "Clear the debt. And... two hundred thousand dollars."

My jaw unhinged slightly. Two hundred thousand.

That was what I was worth to them.

Jerry didn’t blink. "Done."

No hesitation.

That should have been the end of it. It should have stopped there. But of course, Ajax opened his mouth.

He shot up like an eager puppy, nerves and ambition tangled in his expression. "Wait—wait," he said, his voice cracking. "If you agreed that fast, we probably undersold. I an, she’s clearly worth more. Five hundred thousand? Maybe more than that—"

Jerry tilted his head, amused.

"Oh, look at the dissertation talking," he said dryly. "Didn’t you just piss yourself five minutes ago?"

Ajax froze, color draining from his face. Everyone turned toward him. No one said a word, but the air shifted, charged with a fresh wave of humiliation.

Jerry continued, twisting the knife. "I should’ve known the mont I slled it. You looked like a kicked dog when I raised my voice. And now you’re negotiating?" He chuckled. "Jesus."

He raised his hand, bored. "You had one chance. You blew it."

Then, to his n: "Wrap it up."

Ajax lunged forward, panicked. "Wait—please! Just—just hear us out!"

Jerry didn’t even glance at him. "Debt stays cleared. Cash? Gone. Bla the pisser."

That was it.

Sothing in snapped. A silent scream unfurled behind my ribs. My body moved before my mind could catch up.

Fuck the gun...

Maybe be a bullet to the leg would be too bad...

Run. My legs kicked into motion, bolting toward the hallway. Run now. Get out. Go.

The chair clattered behind . My heart pounded so loud it drowned the noise in the room. I saw the door. I tasted freedom.

But I didn’t reach it.

A hard hand caught the collar of my shirt, yanking backward. I crashed into soone’s chest, arms locked around like a vise.

"Let go!" I shrieked, kicking, thrashing, wild with rage. "I’m not a fucking thing! I’m not—!"

"Hold her," Jerry said simply. "She’ll wear herself out."

One of the n restrained with brutal ease. Another secured my wrists behind , tight, plastic, biting into skin.

My lungs burned. My mind spiraled.

"We will say she eloped. You have nothing to worry about." I could hear my aunty promise over my struggling. "No one will suspect a thing."

A prickle, sharp and cold, before sothing flooded my veins.

It spread like wildfire, slow at first, then suddenly, all at once. A strange heaviness, a traitorous calm, pooling in my limbs.

My screams died mid-throat.

The fight drained from my muscles, my knees buckling, vision swimming like oil on water. Distant voices warped and slowed, stretching out like echoes in a tunnel.

I was slipping.

"No—no, no, no—" I tried to say, but it was a whisper now. My head lolled sideways, catching a blurry glimpse of Charlotte’s face.

She looked away.

Of course she did.

The last thing I saw before my vision finally blacked out was Jerry. Still standing at the center of the room. Still watching as the darkness pulled under.