THRALL

On a vast sandy ground, Elena was on her knees as she begged Christian who was pointing a gun at her. “ I didn't want that to happen, I swear I didn't,” she sobs, begging for her life to be spared. Christian in so much rage keeps the gun pointed at her as his breathing gets deeper and louder. Looking down at the tears-filled innocent face In Front of him, he turns his face away, lowering the gun and yelling out of pain. With a strong intense face of determination and rage, he snapped back his head towards Elena pulling up his gun back at her. His index finger battling with emotions of whether to fire or not.

He fired the gun.

Christian was swimming in their family house pool enjoying the fresh warm water as he swam across the ends of the pool. He got out as a housemaid awaited him with a smile as she offered him a towel to dry himself. He took one glance at it and noticed a black spot and immediately his countenance changed as his facial muscles tightened, sending a terrifying signal to the maid that something wasn't alright with the towel. Her eyes fell on the black spot as she silently groaned pacing backwards to go get another towel.

“There are two kinds of people, the noble and the workers. Both are not equal and will never be, don't let this fool you. One will receive commands and work towards executing them while the other will only give commands.” He said as he stood In Front of his bedroom mirror while he dressed up elegantly paying attention to every aspect of his outfit.

In his house office, he spoke to Peter Hutton while his back faced him. “ If she cannot follow orders, which is her only job,” he turns away from the window he was facing to the man behind him, “ then she doesn't deserve to live in misery.”

“ Files you asked for,” as he walked closer to Christian stretching his hand out and offering him a black file. “ Later,” while he looked down at the file and then up to Peter as he walked out of the room.

Anastasia was on a phone call with her older sister Sophie who works as a medical doctor in the faraway land of Dosiata. Anastasia was in their living room with her mom and two house staff. “  I understand you, but you're not even listening to me, Sophie, '' with her left arm crossed around her tummy as she moved from one end of the room to the other. “ We miss you,” she said with a sad face. “I miss you too,” Sophie responded. “ Why are you even still there?” Sighing, she asked. “ You won't understand, people here need a lot of help and so I have to be here to offer as much help as I can,” Sophie said as she manipulated her laptop in her office.

“ You still haven't given me a return date,” as she turned to her mother with a look as if she wanted her to convince Sophie to come back home. “ I already told her last month to come back home, don't think it's necessary repeating myself,” her mother said with a stern look on her face as she sipped the tea that was served to her by one of the staff.     “ Sister if you're not coming back, at least please take care of yourself for us, okay?” As she pointed towards the center table for the maid to drop her tea. “Everyone says hi, I love you so much sister,” as she dropped the call.

“ Christian, regarding the maids matter…” Christian's mother asked as she lifted her head in his direction. “ There is no matter as such anymore, I will be traveling to Dorsiata in two hours. Sophie will return home tomorrow,” he said as he lifted his left arm towards his face checking the time on his watch. His mother chuckled, nodding her head. Christian gives Anastasia a wink as she smiled at him, he took a deep breath.

The sun was high overhead as its rays shone across a vast land entirely of sand. The tire marks of a white Hilux truck trailed around its ground, moving up and down little hills as if it was in search of something. The white truck came to a halt when it came across an abandoned red truck. “ Stay in the car, Mr. Christian, it could be dangerous out there.” the driver said as he went out holding a rifle. He sneakily moved towards the red truck looking right and left if there was anyone around. Christian got out of the car, took off his sun shades and placed them on his seat, he walked towards the red truck with no sense of caution. “ What is wrong? What's the obstacle?” He asked as he walked closer to the driver. “ The Car had been attacked, Mr. Christian. The Mataki rebel group controls this route and many others, maybe it's their doing '' he responded facing Christian. “ Who are they and why are they doing all that?” As he  looked at the truck disappointedly, he nodded his head. “ just a bunch of newly formed groups who don't mind getting their hands dirty, human trafficking in fact slave trade is mostly their source of income.”

“ Slave trade? In this era of life?” Christian asked with a face filled with surprise and shock.

“ This is how wars go on in this part of the world, I know people who killed their neighbors just to sell their children to human traffickers,” as he noticed Christian observing something at his back.

They both walked towards what he was looking at and noticed it was blood stains with a foot trail beside them.

Christian took their truck and drove to go find his sister while the driver followed the foot trail.

Elena is barefoot running as she stumbled and fell but that doesn't stop her. She dragged her weak body up and continued to run. Christian is stocked as the car tires get buried deep in the sand, he stepped out and went to the passenger side to check if he had a way out. Seeing that he didn't, he grabbed his backpack from the passenger side preparing to continue his journey on foot.

Suddenly, up the little slope, he saw a lady who looked very exhausted. It was Elena. He stood and watched as she lost consciousness at the sight of him, tumbling down the slope. Dropping his backpack he rushed to help her out, the sight of her face gave butterflies in Christian’s stomach though she looked so sweaty and homeless.

He carried her to the truck and placed her on the ground against the passenger's side front tire. With his water bottle, he poured drops of water onto her lips as she licked it off while her eyes were still closed. Fully regaining consciousness she quickly grabbed the water bottle from him and gulped it down. “ Hey stop,” as he snatched it back from her.

“ Who are you? What are you doing here?” As he looked at her with sympathy.

She quickly crept away in fear as her boy trembled.

“Do not worry I won't cause you any harm,” he assured her.

“Who are you and what are you doing in a place like this? What or who are you running from,” he asked in a worried tone. There was no response from her, as her head faced the ground, her eyes moving from side to side, and her lips trembled, unable to utter a single word.

“Who are you? Answer me!” he yelled looking at her. “E-Elena, my name is Elena,” with a very cold voice as she lifted her sight to his. “ Don't worry I'll take you to the…” They noticed a brown truck filled with rebels holding guns. “ No no no no no, they found me,” she screamed running to hide behind him. “ Who are they and what do they want? He asked with his attitude unbothered by their arrival. “No we can't remain here, they'll hurt you too if they get here, we have to go,” with a shaky voice and trembling body, she pulled Christian backwards. “ We're in the desert, there's nowhere to run to and they are already here anyway,” while arranging his pistol tucked into his trousers at the back as he moved towards the four rebels coming to them.

“What do you guys want?” With no sense of fear in him.

“ Give us the girl” the bigger and stronger one among them responded as they pointed their guns at him. He seemed to be their leader.

“I can't let you have her,” as he positioned himself firmly.

Elena screamed as one of the rebels who had passed behind the truck grabbed her, pulling her forward with him.

“ She belongs to me so I am taking her with me,” the leader exclaimed.

Christian technically snatched the gun from the one holding Elena and pointed at them, as he slowly moved to the back seat of the truck while keeping his eyes and gun straight at them, he grabbed an open black bag containing money and threw it on the ground while he slowly tilted downwards, he took three bundles of cash and threw it at the rebels.

“There, fifty thousand dollars. Twenty for the girl and thirty for your smell,” he said with a blatant look.

The rebel leader nodded, giving a sign to one of them to pick up the money from the ground. Slowly, they stepped backwards and fired their arms screaming like it was a sign of a won battle.

Christian transferred the remaining money, a phone, and a torch light from the black bag into the backpack. He carried it on his shoulder as he walked away. Elena tried to follow him but “ I do not know where you came from and how you got here but you are free now,” as he turned around and continued walking. He noticed that she was still following behind him and again he turned angrily to her “You were a slave but now you're free, I do not need you to be a slave to me so you can go back to where you came from.” He continued his road not minding what she was up to.

He walked for a mile but she was very much behind him. Suddenly, she paced herself to catch up with him. “What was it?” He asked turning to his right side since she was standing next to him. “You're going the wrong way,” she said, suspiciously moving her body. “ And how do you know where I'm going?” with a look of surprise on his face.

“Was it not Sophie you are searching for?”

“How did you know Sophie and how did you know me” with a disturbed face he had on.

“ From the hospital, you look alike,” shyly as she stared at the ground.

“She said you can be very annoying and arrogant sometimes and I noticed from the way you spoke to the rebel leader,” she chuckled.

“ Did you live with Sophie?”

“No, you can ask there, everyone knows her. She has a very good heart for helping people,” as she smiled faintly.

Without uttering a word he took his right and moved down the slope.

“This is the right way,” she pointed to the left.

He changed course and took the direction she showed with a strong determined look.

“The hospital was a two-hour walk and this route wasn't safe at this time of the day,” so slowly and edgy. He didn't care but continued walking. Noticing that he couldn't hear her footsteps he stopped and looked behind.

She was in the same position, her body lingered, and her eyes blurred as she fell to her knees. In a struggle to get up, she failed as her body lost it and she lost consciousness falling to the ground with her head on her hand.

He just stood there and watched her motionlessly and emotionlessly. He turned back to the course of his journey and walked away.

Seated beside a little fireside he had built, he slowly adjusted the catheter he had placed on her to administer a drip. He added some drugs to the drip as she slowly regained consciousness.

“What are you doing?” As she tried to pull her hand off his grasp.

“ Do not touch it,” as he slowly let go of her hands.

After a short moment of award silence “Are you also a doctor?” As she stared at him with a cold look.

“ Your feet are injured, you're going to have a fever,” he said as she quickly tried to cover the shackle marks imprinted on her ankles. “Is it because of the shackles?” He looked at her in a concerned way. She tried to answer but it seemed words won't come off her lips as she shivered in fear and agony.

“ Tell me, why all this slavery?”

“ I am a slave, have always been,” she stared right into his eye.

“ You are a foreigner, you don't belong here so how did this happen?” with a state of confusion.

“ My parents had