PERFECT PLAN?

The inmates were given breakfast after bathing then after that they worked the whole day by sweeping the buildings, cleaning some offices with guards supervision, cutting grasses and other hard labour jobs before they were finally locked back in their respective cells.

"I've never worked this much my whole life" Zoey claimed and fell flat on the cold cemented ground.

"It's good to experience new things " Penelope said jokingly.

"Yeah, but not this kind, how do you cope?" Zoey asked, cocking her head to look at Penelope who was sitting, resting her back on the wall.

" I'm currently nineteen years, I've been here since I was twelve so I'm used to this"

"Since twelve? Oh my"

"Here, most females like me get auctioned when we're eighteen above" Penelope explained.

"Sometimes I feel jealous when I see older aged girls come in, I know they'll soon leave this hell hole but at the same time I'm scared, this place might even be better who knows the kinda maniacs that would want to buy me ".

"I'm sorry about that... That's weird, I'm saying sorry when I'm in the same situation " Zoey chuckled.

"I've been thinking about this." Penelope said, ignoring the joke attempt.

Zoey sat up and listened with keen ears.

"What if, we try to get you sold tomorrow alongside me and the others"

"Elaborate"

" I've witnessed an auction before when I was mistakenly put alongside the girls already of age" Penelope explained.

"So they put me backstage where I watched through the curtains, the auctioneer usually read out a person's information from a clipboard "

" Since you don't have the slave mark, we need to figure out how we can get your name and info into that clipboard before tomorrow"

"The question is how? And where is the clipboard located?" Zoey asked.

"The clipboard is in the warden's office which is right in this building, just the first door if we turn left and walk down from here a bit."

"The clipboard would have been given to him already since it's always given the night before an auction. Luckily, the warden isn't that familiar with us inmates, he might not even recognize your name if he sees it"

"But how do we get out of here and get past the guards and what if the warden is in his office "

"Yes, that is the challenging part, but I've thought well about that part"

"Tonight, the warden will leave his office, he always leaves his office and come back later in the night, though there are two guards here. All we need is a distraction "

"What is this distraction you speak of" Zoey was getting excited, as she could see that Penelope really had a plan that could actually work.

"If they're dumb enough to forget the important procedure of slave marking, then this distraction will work".

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Scarlett got up early in the morning, heading straight for the village hall.

She went there the previous day but the village head, Smith was saying something about teenagers being adventurous these days and one can only be declared missing after twenty four hours of absence.

"It's been twenty four hours, find my granddaughter, " Scarlett said with a frown as she slammed her hands on the head's table.

She was now even more worried because she has tried a lot of tracking and location spells the previous day but all the spells were cancelled and that could only mean one thing, Zoey was in a place that blocked off magic waves.

She was now very sure Zoey was abducted by no ordinary people.

She even went to Kristine for help and they both tried the spells but it kept yielding the same results.

"Alright, it's been twenty four hours and we can officially declare her missing, you just need to fill these two files, one contains information about the case and the other will contain her name and description " The village head said as he brought out two forms from a drawer and passed it to Scarlett.

"Ink?" Scarlett asked "Oh, here" he gave her a quill pen and an ink bottle .

Scarlett took it and started filling the forms.

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{LATER THAT NIGHT}

The plan was in motion.

First they waited for the warden to leave his office as usual, then they watched the movement of the two guards, one was standing directly in front of the warden's office with a baton while the other was walking to and fro also with a baton.

If one took a closer look at them, they looked relaxed, this was expected since they've never had any problems of inmates trying to escape or try anything serious so they had their guard down sometimes they even fall asleep.

Letting them fall asleep would have been a better option but what if the warden comes back while waiting for them to fall asleep?

"SNAKE!!! GUARDS SIRS! THERE IS A SNAKE IN THE CELL! COME HELP US" Penelope yelled, banging the bars rk get their attention, the people in the other cells also started screaming in fear, thinking there was really a snake even though they couldn't really see what was happening.

"Quiy yelling. Fiyu, bring the torch here " the guard walking about the cells came to their cell and called the other one who quickly rushed over with a lit torch.

The former opened the cell while the girls rushed out, acting afraid, they both cautiously walked in, looking for the 'snake'.

Penelope quickly slammed the bars shot and used the lock to keep it from opening, she didn't lock it but she it just held the bars from opening and can be easily removed.

"Hey what are you doing " the one with the torch frowned to the girls.

"I'm sorry sir, we're really terrified by the snake please get rid of it before leaving there" Penelope made the perfect scared facial expression while Zoey backed her up with nods and a similar expression.

The guard sneered and turned the torch back to the walls, searching keenly for the snake.

Zoey quickly ran towards the warden's office and was inwardly praying for the doors to be unlocked and it was!.

She gently opened the door and entered.

The room was dimly lit with some small lit candles in the room corners.

She quickly went to the big table and started looking for the clipboard, she opened a drawer and saw it lying there.

She quickly took the quill pen beside it and opened the ink bottle, she was shaking a little so some drops of ink spilled on some of the papers there.

She ignored it and quickly wrote her name between the lines below the last name on the list.

She was thankful her grandmother taught her how to spell and identify words and also how to spell her name.

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"Hey, are you sure you saw a snake here?" one of them asked with a frown without looking back, "yes sir, it was black and big, it probably went into that hole there" Penelope said nervously, looking towards the warden's office.

Come on Zoey, hurry.

"All we can find is this stick here" one of them said

" maybe you thought it was a snake ?" they both turned back, showing her the stick while also pointing the torch on the stick.

"Hey, where's the other one?" one of them asked as he moved closer.

"Uhmm..."

"You're right, they were two right?" the other one with the torch said as he brought the torch closer to where Penelope was standing.

"I'm right here!" Zoey said from the wall beside the cell.

"I'm scared the snake might come out so I'm hiding here" She said as she peeped her face out so the guards could see.

"Tch, open the cell" they said, Penelope quickly opened the cell and rushed back still acting like there was a snake.

"There's no snake, you only saw this stick, you guys should sleep, you just had dinner" the torch one said and went back to his post.

You call that watery pasta dinner?

They both thought.

The girls nodded innocently and walked cautiously into their cell, still acting afraid while the other guard locked the cell and walked back to his post.

"Did you do it?" Penelope asked in anticipation.

"Of course I did!" Zoey whisper yelled in excitement, Penelope also joined in the excitement and they didn't even know when they hugged.

"okay, that's enough " Penelope tapped Zoey who didn't want to break free from the hug.

"If you get sold tomorrow, since you don't have the mark, you can escape your owners place immediately, since you're not marked, no one will question you if they see you running since you won't identify as a slave."

Zoey nodded at this explanation with glee but her face soon turned sorry.

"I know you're worried about me," Penelope said with a bitter smile, looking at Zoey who was looking at her with sorry eyes.

"I saw your name there" Zoey said with the same worried look.

"Don't be worried... Really. Infact I'm happy I'll leave here tomorrow, it's been seven years..." Penelope said trying to look a little happy but she just couldn't. There was always a thought lingering in her head since she had been here.

"But... what if leaving here to be a slave becomes my worst nightmare...The most I can do is pray to not end up with a cruel owner... Haha" Penelope chuckled as usual but this chuckle had a hint of nervousness and sadness in it.

Zoey didn't say a word and just pulled Penelope in for a hug. Penelope broke down and cried silently on her shoulders while Zoey silently patted her.

Zoey honestly didn't know what to say, she wanted to say 'it's okay' but was it really okay?.

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