Grab A Plate

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A couple of thuds pulled her out of her thoughts. She shifted her eyes to the wooden door which was moving back and forth with each thud. It seemed like it would come off of its hinges any time. But she also knew that it wasn't the case as those rusted hinges were far stronger than they seemed to be.

"I am up." She spoke up in response to the thuds. She knew that the thudding wouldn't stop until she said something. This was their way of waking up all the people they were holding as hostages. This was what she had managed to learn about them so far.

"It's time for breakfast. Get your ass moving, brat." She heard a gruff voice coming from the other side of the door which was followed by some shuffling of the keys. A little while later, a 'click' entered her ears and the door flew open.

Her eyes moved to the only window in her room which was closed off with some planks nailed across it so as not to let her or anyone else peek outside. The only way she could tell the time was according to the thudding at the door of her room.

She continued to sit on the ground as she watched a man enter the room. He barely took two steps inside the room as his eyes settled on the girl's figure.

"Do you need an invitation? Or am I to drag you down, eh?" He narrowed his eyes at her frail figure urging her to move.

Not given any other choice, the girl stood up from the floor and walked towards the door. She acknowledged the fact that it was better to act like their puppet instead of arguing with them or going against them. She had seen with her own eyes the ending of those who had gotten into an argument with these men.

"That's like a good girl!" The man exclaimed as she walked past by him. He shoved the bunch of keys back inside the pocket of his ragged jeans. His eyes lingered over the girl's back for a while before he started to follow her out and then down to the big hall where other children were gathered for breakfast.

"I don't see your people escorting out others like you do with me." She spoke up as they walked down the corridor.

"Let's just say that you are a precious cargo." The man let out a chuckle and replied to the girl's remark.

"Then, can you bother to tell this precious cargo what her name is?" She mumbled under her breath, but made sure that she was loud enough for him to hear it clearly.

The man let out a low hum as he stared at the back of her head. He had to accept that the girl surely had some guts to question him like this. It wasn't the first time that she had done so. She had been bugging almost every member of his gang with such questions. Truth be told, someone might have given into her persistence if only they knew about her identity.

They knew nothing about the girl except for the fact that how old she was. Someone just delivered the girl to them with instructions of what to do with her and a bag filled with cash. The only thing that was mentioned about her was her age. Maybe the other party didn't want them to sell her into prostitution until she was of legal age. But under the instructions they had to move her to some other place as soon as they could.

"Where are you lost?" The girl spoke up again as the man continued to walk in silence behind her.

"I have told you this before as well, I will tell you this once again. I don't know. In fact, nobody here knows this including our Boss. We just know how old you are." The man answered her as he began to fiddle with the silver chain around his neck.

"And you have already shared that with me." She added to which the man nodded despite knowing the fact that she couldn't see him.

"Don't worry, you won't be staying here for long." The man spoke up as they approached the dining hall where already a number of children who were around her age were sitting on the floor with steel plates in their hands.

If not for the fact that the place looked like a dumpster and the scrawny appearances of the men she had seen around, she would have taken the place as a juvenile detention center. She was busy scrutinizing the place when she heard another voice.

"Grab a plate and get in line if you want to have some food." It wasn't the man who had accompanied her to the hall.

Detecting the change in voice, she shifted her attention in the direction where the voice was coming from. Her eyes ended up landing on a bulky man. He was clad in a pair of black jeans which was paired with a dark green vest leaving his muscular arms bare. His right arm was covered in black ink as a number of tattoos marred his olive skin.

Her eyes trailed up to the man's face and she couldn't help but scrunch her nose in utter disgust. Her disgust didn't arise from how he looked, but rather the way he was looking. He had his eyes fixed on one of the older girls who was sitting on the floor, just a couple of steps away from him. The girl was too lost in eating whatever she was served with to pay any attention to her surroundings.

"You were saying something?" Without paying any attention to the newly arrived man, she turned her attention back to the one who had walked with her. But instead of replying to her, he scurried her away after nodding his head at the man who had just arrived.