Chapter Text
Cold, dark, and dry were the first things that Will registered when he awoke. He had been striped of everything but his undershirt and jeans and anything that looked even remotely valuable had been taken from him while he was out. Even the cheap five dollar watch he had was gone. Not that it would have mattered much in the darkness around him. Waving a hand experimentally in front of his face didn’t register to the profiler. But rather than feel distressed about that fact, all Will could feel was the need for some water. Whatever the men that took him injected him with made it feel like he’d been drained of all the water in his body.
Pushing down the initial panic reflex, the profiler got to his feet to measure his surroundings. Will managed a good three steps from any direction before he ran into a wall. He did find a door after blindly groping at the walls for several minutes. Unfortunately, the door lacked a handle on his side and it appeared much too sturdy for him to break down. The room was completely bare and empty of anything besides Will.
Seeing no better option, Will began to bang on his door hoping that whoever had put him there would still be nearby. With any luck he could try to reason with them. “Hey!” He yelled. “Is anybody out there? Can anyone hear me?”
A brief shuffling sound was heard followed by a series of harsh bangs from the opposite side of the door. “Could you yell a little less? You’ll wake the rest of the cargo.”
Cargo. The pieces quickly clicked together in Will’s head. “Human trafficking.”
“Aren’t you just the smartest little thing.” The voice replied in a mocking tone. “That saves me the trouble of explaining your current condition.”
“Do you even know who you just abducted?” Will asked.
A scoff that spoke volumes about how often that question was asked was his only response for a moment before the stranger replied. “Doesn’t matter; we needed a number fifteen and you’ll fit the bill just fine.”
“I work for the FBI, they’re going to come looking for me.”
“Well it’s going to look pretty darn embarrassing when they don’t find you then.” The voice replied before walking away, leaving Will alone in the dark.
That conversation was the last that Will had for the rest of his confinement. None of the other men that came to feed him a pile of sludge or take him to relieve himself twice a day would give him anything more than instructions or monosyllabic responses. It seemed that as long as Will proved himself to be fit enough to stand, they wanted nothing to do with him. Any attempts to reason with or even learning what day it was were ignored, leaving Will with only his mind for company.
The ghosts of men and women that had long been gone resurfaced to keep him company as he thought of what the future held for him. They’d talk about what they did to the people they had taken captive and spoke of how long it took the police and FBI to track them down. Will would either be dead or wish he were by the time they had even the faintest idea what had happened to him. A few even offered him helpful advice on the quickest way to take his own life when the time came.
He’d only attempted to run once. After playing the meek victim long enough to get a rough idea of the layout of his prison, Will dislocated the shoulder of the man escorting him to the bathroom and made a dash towards the nearest flight of stairs. He made it to the top and shoved open the door only to stop dead in his tracks.
He was on a boat.
There was water as far as the eye could see in every direction and nowhere to run. Will had just enough time to process how trapped he actually was before several members of the ship’s crew threw him to the ground and beat him senseless. He woke up bloodied, sore, and with what must have been a few broken bones back in his cell. No one came to feed him for days after that.
Will didn’t try to leave a second time. There was nowhere to go.
It was long after he had given up hope of ever seeing anything other than his box and the path to the restroom that Will was moved. One day his door was thrown open and three of the biggest men on the ship yanked Will out and held him still while a fourth injected him with a mystery drug. Soon the world was covered with a thin layer of fuzz and Will couldn’t find the strength to do more than lean into the men holding him up.
He was quickly blindfolded and thrown into the back of a vehicle that drove long enough for Will to fall asleep along the way. A stinging sensation in his arm woke him hours later and Will found himself laying in a chair while a greasy looking man examined his face. Every now and then he’d tap a portion of skin and various different goos and oils would be rubbed on the spot.
They want you to look nice for the buyers. Will’s mind supplied. It was his first coherent thought since he’d been dragged off the ship. Unfortunately he didn’t have time to bask in his returning coherence as he was all but thrown out of the chair and into a stranger’s grip.
Rough, callused hands were suddenly on him now, guiding Will into a blinding light. After living for so long in his dark little hole, Will felt like he was being forced to stare down the sun. The hands kept him from shielding his eyes while a vague blur to the left of him began speaking in a foreign language. It sounded familiar to Will, but the thing was going much too quickly for him to attempt to place it. Separate but similar sounding voices began to speak in front of him and Will was yanked in a harsh circle. The voice to the left spoke again while the hands poked and prodded at his arms and sides. Rustling paper overtook the sound of talking in front of the lights. The voice to his left continued to talk for a while longer before the sound of a gavel was heard and Will was shoved off the stage and he was shoved into an actual broom closet.
The entire scene couldn’t have taken more than two minutes.
He had been sold. Like an animal or piece of meat. God, he was probably about to die. The thought ran through Will’s mind while he sat in his cell waiting for whomever had just purchased him to come retrieve their prize. Human trafficking was beyond illegal, anyone that would come to an auction would have to be member of the darkest parts of society. They’d need to be a person with as little morality as possible to attend this kind of an event. Some sick rich guy had just bought his life and could do whatever he wanted to Will. He was in no shape to fight back now, he’d be the perfect victim.
Any further musing was cut short as the world narrowed to the sound of a pair of footsteps approaching. They stopped in front of Will’s container and the clicking of keys was heard. Will refused to look up as the door opened and his new owner looked down on him. Will didn’t look up even when a voice that he could never misplace spoke to him.
“Hello, Will.”