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1
IVY
Everyone in the audience is a member of the prestigious and secret Monster Gentlemen’s Club. Because monsters are real and you’re about to auction yourself to one.
I remind myself to take slow, measured breaths as I follow the single file line of women through a dark backstage area.I’m here because I need money to pay for the specialty program I’ve been accepted into. I’m already drowning in more student loans than I’ll ever be able to repay, but this program is for my dream career. The thing I’ve always wanted to do since I was a little girl. And the money I’ll make in thisone night will make that happen.
“You can do this.” I whisper under my breath.
There are more than a dozen of us, all women of various ages, ethnicities, and sizes. I follow along as we’re led up a short flight of stairs and then onto the side of a brightly lit stage.
“It’s just one night and then all your troubles will be a thing of the past,” I continue my quietly muttered mantra. Closing my eyes, I swallow down the lump forming in my throat, unsure if it’s from the threat of tears or warning me that I might throw up.
Quite a few of the women look as rattled as I feel, although I catch a few preening with excitement for what happens next. Dressed up in evening attire and made up to look like celebrities we’re sent, one by one, across the stage to be auctioned for a night of sex in exchange for a fortune.
“And next, we have the lovely Ivy.” The female presenter calls from the center of the stage.
Ivy is not myreal name.We’re all given an alias upon being entered into the auctionand I don’t realize that it’s already my turn, until the girl behind me gives me a nudge.
“You’re up.” She whispers.
I swallow down the knot that forms in my throat.
Being accepted into the program was a culmination of years of hard work, but I wasn’t expecting it to cost so much up front. I thought there would be scholarships or grant available. Hell, maybe even an internship. When I balked at the price the professor was sympathetic, but not willing to offer any help. His assistant, however, was quick to take me aside and offer me an option that I never would have considered.
“What would you be willing to do in order to afford this program?” she asked me in hushed tones.
I’m sure my jaw hit the floor. What indeed? My initial reaction to her question was shock followed by horror, but then curiosity because—whatwouldI be willing to do to afford this program? My answer wasanything.
With a strange half smile she pressed a business card into my palm and told me about an auction that was happening in one week. With a starting bid of no less than one million dollars, and auctions never going for less than ten million dollars. I would get to take home half of the winning bid in exchange for a single night and no memories of what I had to do to earn it. All I had to do was call the number on the card.
I went straight home and before I could talk myself out of it, I called the number. For the next several minutes I listened quietly as the rules were explained to me, this time in horrifying detail. I learned that monsters are real, and that the auction was set up to keep their sexual appetites for humans in check by plying them with willing men and women.
I must have been truly desperate because at the end of the call, I agreed to their terms and entered myself in the auction.
Steeling myself for what’s about to happen, I force my legs to move out of the darkness and into the blazing spotlight. Blinking against the bright stage lights, I squint to see out into the crowd but it’s too dark. The figures I manage to pick out are all little more than shadows.
“Who would like to start the bid, for lovely Ivy?” The presenter asks and suddenly I’m surrounded by the roar of voices, all shouting out different numbers.
“Alright, let’s start at five million,” the woman cackles into the microphone. “Do I hear ten?”
The bids shoot up by increments of five and I’m not at all prepared for the bidding war that is happening between two dark creatures in the audience. Creatures with deep voices that I can’t put faces to.
Forty!
Forty-five!
Fifty!
FIFTY-FIVE!
Sixtymillion.
Numbers volley back and forth between the two men until the announcer cuts them off with a laugh. “It’s clear that you both want this female. Perhaps you can come to an agreement. Would you be willing toshare?”
The audience goes silent and all I can hear is the deafening sound of my ragged breathing.
Share!Withbothof them?
