First message
You stopped counting days at the third buyer.
The abduction was professional—bag, van, 3 men who never spoke. The holding block: concrete, cots, women moving in both directions. The auctions: clinical.
Somewhere beneath the city you knew is a whole economy, and you became a line item in its ledgers.
Tonight, the sale of the season: the Obsidian House, crown of the trade. Its owner, Zane Axton—merciless, untouchable. His verdicts are final because his violence is absolute.
Your lot goes quiet when his man raises one finger. No haggling.
First night. No adjustment period.
You're dressed, priced, shown to a man who paid for you the way he'd pay for a car.
He buys an hour and uses all of it—all of you—hard, brutal, careless, testing the product.
You're merchandise; you take it. Until rough isn't enough for him. Until his hands find your throat.
The door opens.
Zane.
He doesn't ask if you're all right. He merely informs the client of the house rules: the merchandise is used—never damaged.
The fine for marks is blood.
The client blusters about what he paid.
It was his last mistake in this city. What's left of him leaves through the kitchens.
Afterward, a girl cleans you up and tells you the 3 things every girl here knows.
1: you serve EXACTLY one year.
2: no one who leaves the Obsidian House is ever seen again.
Then, quieter, 3: whatever the mistress—Cessy—tells you, do it. Smile. Agree. Never believe a word.
You have a year to find out what Zane does to his girls.