Chapter 3

A few hours later, Violet woke up. She felt surprisingly better. She still had her eyes closed and could hear running water nearby, like a stream or a creek. She could hear birds chirping and greeting the morning. She wiped the tired out of her eyes and in a flash the events of the past twenty-four hours came back to her. The funeral, kidnappings, the car accident, a motorcycle ride through the jungle at night. She sat up quickly, opened her eyes wide and gasped.

“Where am I?!” she practically screamed.

Just then, an old woman walked inside the hut. She had long skinny grey dreadlocks, and had a very old tanned wrinkled face, but came off as friendly.

“Please be careful, you are still recovering. Just relax,” she said with some kind of Spanish accent.

The old woman produced a small bowl of a murky liquid and a plate of eggs and what appeared to be some manner of sausage. Violet sniffed the liquid and it wasn’t an undesirable aroma. She took a tentative sip and found it a pleasant taste, if not rejuvenating. Deciding to take the meal slow, she set it down to the side. She picked at her food slowly, none of it tasting bad, but also not exactly normal to her ‘poor urban American’ pallet. The old woman went about her business, patiently waiting for the young girl to finish her meal.

Violet was then taken to a place where she could shower. It was an outdoor small shack that was somewhat open to the outside. Inside was an overhead shower spigot and a toilet. Violet looked around cautiously. All she could see was the thick jungle around her, and could hear a baby crying far away in the distance. She could also smell meat cooking, assuming that others were also preparing for breakfast. The fact that she apparently got to eat before others was not lost on her.

“Here you are, dear.”

The old woman’s voice made her nearly jump out of her skin and she turned to see that the old woman brought her a clean towel and a bar of soap, then left her alone to bathe. Violet took another quick look around before slowly shedding her muddy and bloody clothes. Once completely nude she turned on the water while trying to cover her privates with her hands. It was so very awkward taking a shower out here in the middle of the jungle. What if some man just walked right up and looked in? He would see everything.

As the water turned soothingly warm her worries faded for a moment. The hot water running all over her aching body; it felt so good. She swirled the bar of soap in her hands to lather up. Then she washed her body the best she could. Once she began to rinse off she heard the sound of motorcycles approaching in the distance. She knew that it was the men who took her from the other guys.

Violet was still so confused as to what exactly was going on. She barely had time to think as she scrambled to dry her hair and body off quickly so she could get dressed. The old woman had brought her a long, handmade tropical looking dress with a dark red floral pattern all over it.

Word quickly spread through the camp that the new girl was awake and doing better. The fight to see who would get to keep the new girl as his own would be tonight. A few men entered, but once they saw Phoenix sign up for the fight, all the men who had signed up immediately dropped out. Then Adam walked over and wrote his own name in.

Adam and Phoenix were close; very close. Although they had their differences, they also were a lot alike, and they both wanted the new young beauty as their own.

Phoenix already had a girl named Fela. She had been with him for a few years and had given him two healthy young boys, but their sexual relationship had kind of lost it’s edge. They were more like co-parenting friends than lovers, and Phoenix wanted a hot, new little girl to bounce up and down on his thick long cock at the end of a hard day’s work. She would also be useful helping Fela with the kids.

Adam had been in the group for three years now and had never really shown interest in a girl before. Phoenix knew why he wanted her. She looked like him. Light skin, sparkling blue eyes, wavy blonde hair. She was young, and just beginning to develop her womanly curves. Phoenix almost felt bad for him. A sexy, hot little girl like her was exactly what his buddy needed, but if he wanted her he was going to have to fight for her.

Violet walked slowly behind the gnarled old woman through the village. It was far more active in the daytime, most of it she missed the previous day in her delirium. She kept her eyes on the heels of the old woman in front of her, feeling nearly everyone’s eyes on her, briefly glancing or just outright staring. She entered the woman’s hut behind her and exhaled audibly, only now realizing that she was holding her breath.

The old woman gestured to a wicker chair, “Have a seat, dear.” The old woman waited for her to sit and have her undivided attention.

“What is your name, my child?”

“V- Violet Rose.”

The old woman smiled, apparently pleased with the clever pun of the name, “I am Maeble, but the people here call me Mama Bell, or just Mam. I am pleased you recovered quickly, Violet.”

Violet wasn’t sure how to respond other than flash a brief smile and shrug nervously.

The old woman continued speaking while shifting things around in her hut, fixing the place up a bit, “A person’s life ... is often unfair to those who aren’t in control of it. Your own fate is in the hands of others. The men of this village will fight for ownership of you.” She turned her head to regard Violet before fully turning her body towards her, “I don’t mean to frighten you, Violet, but I don’t want to give you a false tale of safety.”

Violet sat there stoically as Maeble spoke. What did it matter, really? Her mom was dead, her step-father too for all she knew. She had no one else. Montoya seemed a nice enough guy, but he was just a delivery man to bring her to someone else. She had a number of questions, but the answers really didn’t matter in the end.

Maeble made a questioning face with pursed lips and raised eyebrows, inaudibly asking the girl if she had questions. Apparently not interested in asking them, she continued, “The fight is in tonight. You go to the victor. You must watch. You must see and know how the winner fights for you, their passion and need to have you. It seemed silly when I was your age too, but when you lay with him you will see again their passion. A clever metaphor for the kind of man they are.”

Violet kind of got lost in Maeble’s ramblings half way through. A line got through and she focused on it, that ‘when you lay with him’, disturbed her greatly. She was going to be competed over, and then raped. She looked down at the ground again and sighed deeply, the rest of the woman’s words lost on her, in one ear and out the other.

It was beginning to darken outside which surprised her. It felt like she had just gotten up and showered. Where had the time gone? She saw a number of people wandering the village fulfilling various activities. Maeble had pointed out the two men that were trying to win her. Adam and Phoenix. A day ago, Phoenix would have scarred her, but she just pictured his similarities to Montoya and she felt a little better about it. Inwardly, she hoped Adam won. He looked more like home than everyone else in this alien world she was in.

Maeble led Violet back to the cot and she laid down, closing her eyes with another sigh. ‘How much worse could things get,’ she wondered to herself.

Violet’s eyes shot open and observed Maeble above her, shaking her. She sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Looking through the gap at the door to the hut, she knew it was still dark out.