Sold

It was dinner time and surprisingly, Lovessa had prepared dinner for them all. Adam couldn't join since he was bedridden so it was just the four of them.

Throughout dinner, Elara couldn't stop yapping about the nobleman who was courting her while Malia and Dabria had to sit through it with bleeding ears.

"Its a surprise you made dinner for everyone, Lovessa." Malia said, interrupting Elara.

Lovessa chuckled awkwardly as she said "Well, today is a celebration for Elara, the nobleman proposed to her and the engagement ceremony shall be held in seven days."

"Congratulations." Dabria said to her while Mali a shrugged and continued eating her meal.

Elara mumbled an inaudible thank you without eye contact and continued bragging about how wealthy the nobleman was to her mother.

"As for you Dabria, you've been attracting harmful attention to this family, roaming around with your strange silver hair out in the open. Some villagers have claimed to seen you practicing strange magic in the forest. Now whether it is true or not, your mere presence is attracting danger to this family, what have you to say about that?" Lovessa snickered.

"I beg your pardon? It is my hair and like everyone else I get to wear it out, if they have a problem with it, then they should fix it. Besides, who saw me practicing magic in the forest? I'd love to hex their entire generation." Dabria scoffed sarcastically as she rose from her seat and stomped out, leaving Lovessa speechless and enraged as she watched both of the girls excuse themselves and proceeded to their room.

"I guess she's overstayed her welcome." Lovessa whispered darkly and a grin split through Elara's lips.

In their room, Malia sprawled all over the bed while Dabria sat at the edge as they chatted.

"They've finally given up on Father." Malia remarked and Dabria turned to face her.

"Who?" Dabria asked.

"Who else but Lovessa and Elena. She's getting married to a nobleman yet they fail to assist in father's cure." Malia stated out.

Dabria sighed in exasperation, her face sullen with fear. "We won't let him die, right Malia?" Dabria said, trying to comfort herself with words that seemed barely true.

"Of course not." Malia said with a tiny smile, but the doubt in their eyes spoke louder than their words.

As the moon rose higher above the darkened clouds, the girls both fell into a deep slumber. After being trapped in a mindless unconscious state, Dabria's lashes fluttered open at the thrashing of her body against a moving vehicle.

Still oblivious of her surrounding, Dabria slowly opened her blurry eyes to meet darkness. Pushing her body up, her eyes adjusted to the dimly lit space with one lantern enough to shed a ray of light and her senses immediately became familiar with her surrounding.

Dabria's brows furrowed darkly as she realized that she was in a moving carriage. Dabria's breath hitched as she panicked at the situation. She was supposed to be in her room, but this wasn't her room, so where was she?

Perhaps she was dreaming, Dabria thought to herself but as she pinched her arm, she could feel the warmth of pain on her flesh.

Dabria's heart hammered against her ribcage as she looked around the confined space of the carriage , but as she moved around, only then did she realize that her hands and feet were bind in shackles, tightly latched around her wrist and ankles, the cold heavy metal pressing against her flesh.

Dabria's shallow breathing echoed louder against the silent space, her silver hair clinging to her sweaty face. Was she being captured? But how? Why? By whom?

She had been asleep in her room so how had they captured her? Dabria's thoughts racked back and forth as she tried to think of what had transpired in the before moments before she was captured, but all she could remember was that she had gone to bed.

Panicking in her helpless and oblivious state, she frantically banged on the moving carriage, screaming "Let me out!!"

Still, there was no reply as the carriage kept moving. Fear and panic swelled within Dabria, her purple eyes watered with unshed tears as she continued banging on the door.

"Let me out!" Dabria cried out with a croaked voice, while wishing inwardly that it was all a nightmare, but she knew very well it wasn't. She could feel the cold sweat dripping down her back and the pricking sensation of fear gnawing through her insides.

Dabria was terrified at her predicament, of the oblivious events that had transpired and the tragic fate that had befallen upon her and mostly, of the fact that she was all alone, with no help and no one knowing of her whereabouts.

Despite her heavy wrists, Dabria continued banging loudly as she cried out "Let me out! Please let me out!" Still, there was no reply from within the moving carriage.

Her voice broke as tears flooded down her pale face, adrenaline rushing through her veins, but in the next unexpected moment, the carriage abruptly screeched to a halt.

Dabria's sobs immediately stopped and her breath caught in her throat in suspense. With big eyes fixated on the door, she moved away from it with knees pressed against her chest in fear.

Suddenly, the door was flung open to reveal two bulky men hovering above her, their large bodies blocking the view of the exit, but she caught a glimpse of the dark forest, it was still nighttime.

"W-Who are you?" Dabria spluttered in fear as she gulped heavily. They were humans, but obviously dangerous men, yet weirdly she was more frightened of them than she was of Lucian, the strange demon king.

"You better be quiet or we'll make you." One of the bulky men growled at her, their faces twisted in a grimace, it made the hair on her skin rise.

"P-Please, what am I doing here? H-How did I get here?" Dabria asked amidst tears, hoping they could shed some light on her situation.

The men rather cackled loudly as though she had said a joke, but the dark glint in their eyes spoke of something else more sinister than she had imagined.

"Just like every other young, fresh maiden in the village, your aunt sold you out." The bulky man sneered and Dabria's face turned pale.

The realization suddenly dawned upon her. Lovessa had drugged and then sold her off.