11. HOUSE OF BABYLON.

Winifred was woken up by the loud sound of mosquitoes that kept buzzing like they were inside her ears. Her heavy lidded eyes opened as they tried to adjust to the darkness in the room and then to the bar-like rods in front of the room she was in. She got off the wet and rocky floor and she tried to walk towards the railings, there was no light in the room she was in but she could see light on the narrow passage ways which showed that lanterns must have been lit along those ways.

She wondered what she was doing in such a place like this as she tried to open the little doors that was made of iron railings and was unable to do so.

"Is anyone there? Hello?" She shouted for anyone to hear as she didn't know where she was and was yet to process why she was locked up in a dark room.

"Hell-"

"Shut it." An irritated voice interrupted.

"What is her problem?" Another voice threw at no one in particular.

"She's a new slave." Another different voice replied.

"And so what? She shouldn't put us in trouble just because she's stupid." The previous voice said again.

Winifred on hearing the word, 'slave' immediately had a surge of memories as the incident she faced the previous day all came back to her with immediate effect, she stumbled and fell to her knees due to the impact as she reminisced all that her eyes had seen and her ears had heard in hours.

"Are you sure this one doesn't have a faulty battery or something?" A voice asked rudely, again.

"Uh... I'm sorry? Where am I?" Winifred finally got the courage to ask, even though she already had an idea of it, she still wanted to confirm it. She looked around at the little room and seeing that there were three other silhouettes of people in the dark room, Winifred was sure that they were a total of four females in the room judging from their voices and long hair.

She was yet to make out each faces properly but even in the low light, she could tell that there was a girl with red hair, one who's a brunette and the other who's blonde like she was. The brunette looked way more haggard and was on the chubby side, she also looked like the oldest amongst the four of them.

"Girl, what's your name?" The brunette asked and Winifred was quick to know that she was the owner of the first irritated voice who had asked her to shut her mouth.

"Its Winifred." She simply replied, wanting her to just get to the answer part.

"Great, I'm Edith. The rude girl with red hair is known as Agnes while the other one who's way too petite and short is called Katherine." Edith introduced as the names immediately stuck to Winifred's brain.

"Who asked you for the introductions? You do way too much!" Agnes scolded.

"Oh please, shut it already, will you? Being so cranky just because you weren't bought by any master at the auction yesterday is unnecessary. What were you expecting when you went ahead and got yourself that stupid scar on your right cheek? Only a miracle would get you sold and you know that!" Edith retorted, immediately shutting the other girl up.

At this point, the content of their conversation had succeeded in getting Winifred even more confused.

"Uhm, I'm not the one to interrupt conversations nor ask so much questions but where is this? What's auction? Who sells who and to whom? What is going on here?" She bombarded as each girl stared at her for seconds before speaking.

"If that's you not asking too much questions, then I don't want to be there when you actually do ask a lot of questions." Agnes said.

"Oh, I'm... I'm sorry. I... I'm just so confused and petrified right now? I'm new in this world and I... I have gone through the worst in my entire life within the previous hours." Winifred quickly apologized and explained herself in a rush.

"The worst in your entire life? Really?" Agnes replied, chuckling in between as she spoke. "Oh dear, you're yet to even see the worst, trust me."

"What do you mean by you're new to this world though? What other world is there? Are you from the werewolf kingdom or from the vampire caves... or is it somewhere entirely out of here, like another planet? Is it the moon or let's say the sun?" Katherine finally contributed, looking extremely interested in that part Winifred had mentioned.

"Ugh! Katherine, do not terrify the new girl with your crazy imaginations. Does she look like a werewolf nor a vampire to you? Why would any of those beasts be thrown in a slave establishment of the humans and what life would exist on the sun of all things? Have some common sense, please, or at least, borrow one!" Edith scolded again, giving Winifred the confirmation that she was the oldest and the boss in the room.

"Sorry about all of that, Winifred. About your questions, I'm sad, very sad to welcome you to this beautiful castle, the house of Babylon. This, Winifred, is the great slave establishment for females." Edith finally said with the greatest amount of sarcasm Winifred had ever heard in her life.

"And this is where all sorts of slave trades for females occur. Sex slaves, labour slaves, prostitution slaves and many more. You're going to be placed in a category based on your looks, age and body. By the look of things, you'll be a sex slave, well, that's if you don't have a scar on you body. If you do have a huge scar, you'd either be used as a labour slave which is kind of worst or you remain here after been branded to be a prostitution slave used to serve various men at once. Many slaves prefer to be sold as sex slaves instead, at least, they'll be serving just one master and if you're lucky to fall in the hands of a master who treats you okay at least, you'd at least be com-"

A loud shrill interrupted Edith's explanation as Winifred immediately moved towards the entrance.

"What is that?"

"It's a slave." Katherine responded and after her response came another painful cry that shook Winifred to the core as she whispered another question.

"What are they doing to her?"

"Torturing the ones who go against the laws and orders of the establishment. Slaves here are just like animals who are raised by farmers only to be sold or killed for their own gain. The house of Babylon is all that you've heard in the outside world but what is been spoken about it outside these walls is barely a little of what actually goes on in here. What you are hearing right now is a daily routine, it's something that happens day in, day out. A little mistake such as staring into a Warden's eyes could get you to be get whipped severely and it's mostly the new slaves that go through these punishments so I would advice you to stay low and be as obedient as you can." Edith explained again scaring Winifred even more.

None of the options or explanations sounded good to her, they all sounded dreadful so she decided to just ask what lingered on her mind instead.

"Uhm... Is... is there a way to escape from here?"

This was a question that got all the ladies in the room to burst into a fit of laughter. They all rolled their heads and waved their hands while also holding their stomachs as they laughed uncontrollably. After a good thirty seconds had passed and they couldn't laugh any more, Agnes sat up with a serious expression on her face.

"Do you really think that we would still be here if we knew a way to escape from here? Does it look like we enjoy sleeping on this hard rock they call a floor or enjoy inhaling this putrid smells? Do we look like we'd love to remain here just to get fed once a day while dreading the day that we'd finally be placed in a category that fits us? Do we?"

"So there's no way?" Winifred asked again earing various eye rolls.

"Well, unless you're some kind of super being who can eliminate all the securities and wardens so you can pass through that same main entrance that you were brought in." Edith said this time.

"Uhm, what if I find a way and try to escape?" Winifred threw again, remaining adamant.

"You will wish you hadn't."