Chapter 69 69
Third person POV
"Noah?"
"Wait, Noah, what do you mean?" Hazel said out in frustration, but the call had already cut. Slave trading? In my own family.
She turned her head and gazed at her mother and father standing in front of her. She knew she had never trusted those people before, but now, she even had more reason to dislike them; she regrets being here.
She remembered Noah's words saying something about crossing the second gate. She turned around looking for Draven, then walked after looking for him, but to her surprise, she couldn't find him.
She had also never gone across that second gate before; only Thalia and her parents could, but she wasn't going to let this chance slip past her; after all, she wasn't sure she would get another chance to invade her parents house like this.
She walked outside in a hurry, ignoring the greetings of the other guests as they looked at her marvel and the lot, but she couldn't be bothered.
Her eyes scoured the grounds of the estate; she couldn't find even a single trace of Draven. She pulled out her phone and dialled his number, but that didn't make any difference; like Noah had said, he wasn't with his phone.
Of all times, Hazel cursed. She looked across the guests and the security guard and all that. Just beyond, she could see the second gate; she felt it pull towards her.
She had to know the truth: where are her parents really doing something as inhumane as selling slaves and human trafficking?
That stood against everything Hazel was; she hated to use others for her own benefits, which was why she was never any good at business and negotiating, but now things were different.
She took her first step and watched out; she dodged the eyes of security men and took off her shoes; she kept them behind some bushes she was familiar with as a child; she needed to be quiet, and her shoes would give the opposite effect.
Slowly and as stealthily as possible, she crept towards the gate. There were no security guards, at least not as much as there should have been, and that was understandable.
The guests that were here needed protection, so her parents had no other choice but to use the ones available to them. Fortunately the gates were open, and she walked past them after opening them slightly.
She tiptoed her face towards one of the two buildings in front of her; one seemed like a two-story building while the other seemed like a bungalow. The bungalow was also closer to her by comparison, so she went towards it.
The entire place was quiet, but she could hear the district noise that came from the party being held on the other side. She focused and walked on; she needed to be careful, mindful not to get caught.
Just a peek and I'll be back, she thought to herself. She saw a door open by her left; she pushed it more as it slowly opened up, leading down a flight of stairs.
It was dark, but she focused her eyes as much as possible so she could see. She walked down the stairs, her feet cold against the tiles on the ground.
She felt something wet at some point but decided not to look or bother checking what it was. She came to a point where there was a desk; a guard should have been there, but there wasn't, like an abandoned post.
She walked past that quietly, and onwards she saw three pairs of chains lying down in the first cell. There were only three cells, and the first looked like it had just been used of late.
She didn't want to imagine what must have happened to them. She turned and faced forward. In front of her was a steel door; the door seemed tightly shut, and there were no handles or anything of that sort.
She heard footsteps slowly appear from instead of the door. Thinking fast, or was it out of panic, she found a dark spot; it was dark enough to not reflect the colour of her dress, leaving her in complete darkness.
She held her breath as the footsteps rang louder and louder until the door grated itself open. A young man came out; he looked sweaty and rough, as though he had been hard at work for the past two hours, but he didn't seem to notice Hazel.
Although he looked very familiar to her, someone she was sure she had seen but not very often, and she couldn't place where exactly it was that she saw all this.
She turned around to face the door and waited till the man had begun climbing the steps. She tiptoed her way into the door; it made sense to her why he had left the door open; she didn't think anyone could open the door from the outside, just the inside.
She walked fast, hoping that she could just grab a peek at what she could then go back to hide in her corner and wait for the familiar man to pass before she could run back to her party.
She could also take some videos to show Draven as evidence. She walked through the dark corridor; at the end was a door with a handle.
She pulled at it gently and opened; the light flowed gently into her eyes, blinding her for a few moments before they could focus.
Hazel walked in shocked as she couldn't believe what she saw in front of her—naked men and women, mostly women being chained up and tied in different ways.
She could smell substances that she thought were just supposed to be drugs. She walked a bit further as the eyes of the slaves followed her.
She looked at them intensely, wanting to talk to them, but their eyes seemed dead, tired, and a voice of hope.
She brought out her phone and took videos of all this; she made sure to save them all to her cloud; she wasn't going to lose valuable proof such as this.
She took pictures and the like, but she felt even more inhumane that all she could do after seeing these people was to come here, take pictures, and leave without saying a word; she knew she could not do too much lest the man find out.
As soon as she was done saving her videos and files to her cloud, she began looking at the slaves; she wanted to free them up so badly, but she knew she couldn't.
She didn't have the power either, but if Draven was here then things would have definitely been different.
A strong hand gripped her throat from behind her; she barely had enough time to react, but the hand tightened its grip on her. She tried turning around and realised it was the guard that she had seen leave.
When had she come back down? Why couldn't she hear his footsteps like she did earlier? Her thoughts were all jumbled as she struggled to breathe; she could feel the panic attack slowly building up inside her.
"It just had to be you if all people, Pteuh," he spat at the ground in disgust as he looked at her. "Let... go," she managed to squeeze out of her throat, but his hand remained steadfast.
She immediately wanted to cry; she didn't want to die, not when her life was finally moving in a direction. "Well, Thalia would certainly love this news," the man said as his grip tightened around her neck.
Hazel could breathe for the life of her; she kept kicking and struggling, but slowly she grew weaker and weaker till her limbs fell and she passed out.
\~~~~
Several moments later, Hazel woke up in a prison or a cell; she wasn't sure which was which, but she sat there in confusion.
Suddenly, everything that had happened to her came back in a rush, and she managed to stand up and reach towards the metal grates.
She pulled at them with her weak hands, all to no avail; she shouted as much as she could to get the attention of anyone, but it was pointless.
She crumpled down to her knees in defeat; her dress seemed thorny at some places, and she didn't care; she was just so scared and anxious; she didn't want to die without ever seeing Draven again.
"You're not going to die, child," a weak old voice said from behind her. Hazel turned in a rush to see an old woman in tattered clothes who looked like she had had a bath or scrub in years.
She didn't look like a slave; she looked like a prisoner. "Who are you?" Hazel asked, surprising herself. The woman looked somewhat familiar, yet she had never seen her before; she was almost certain of that fact.
She looked again once more and noticed her green eyes, delicate features, and warm smile. “Who I am is of no importance anymore," the wrinkled old woman said.
"Then who were you?" Hazel asked again, changing the question; the woman sighed deeply as she spoke.
"I am Adylne Labrinth; once this Luna of this pack is imprisoned too," she said with a weak smile.