Let's get this started

For @Callan <3

Alright, was it really that much of a crime to go clubbing in a new town? Not if you asked Saige. Despite being a seraph, they could often be quite the devious fiend. Maybe because they were gullible and easily seduced, or perhaps it was them being smart and using their personality to get their way. But who really cared? They were standing up by the bar, ordering another drink as a guy, a tall human with blonde hair, was chatting them up. Saige looked rather feminine, especially tonight as they had opted for a nice dress with stockings and a small leather jacket over. Their hair was fluffed up and wearing makeup in this lighting could fool anyone into thinking they were a biological female, that was for sure. The guy was moving closer by the second, and Saige didn't mind. They could be a little promiscuous, but as long as they stayed safe, then everything would work out.
Eventually the guy was practically standing behind them, and Saige had to admit they loved the attention. Being whispered in their ear about all sorts of crazy fantasies made them chuckle as they turned around to look up at the guy. Saige was by no means small, but they were not the biggest muscle wise. Quite the feminine features when they wore the right outfit. They touched along his arm, just muttering some small flirtatious remarks back. Of course with their luck it didn't take long before he had pressed them up against a bathroom stall, making out and doing what drunk single people did best; mistakes. But Saige knew what they were getting into. "I could call a cab? Get a motel room? Hmm pretty?" The guy suggested making them stop to look at him. Humming softly they shook their head, "no, sorry, I have to get up tomorrow and study," they smiled still rather charmingly. The guy sighed, cupping their face, "give me your number then .. I'll hit you up once the holiday break starts?" And Saige seemed to agree to that.
Afterwards they were heading outside alone. Needing some fresh air and to cool down after a make out session that had actually turned out rather cute. The guy had been a bit flustered, and clearly a bit confused about his own sexuality, but Saige hadn't felt threatened in any way. There were a small group of smokers nearby and while sober they hated smoke, it was a different story when they had gotten a fair amount to drink. They poked a broad-shouldered fellow on the arm a little politely, "sorry, could I bum a smoke?" They smiled, standing rather cutesy as they found that often persuaded other drunks to help them out.
They got one, and got a hand getting it lit as well before stepping a bit away. It was relatively nice weather, considering that the autumn had truly come. Wrapping their arms around themselves as they smoked, they shivered a bit. Yeah, maybe they should've worn something warmer, but their cheeks were still a little flushed from the bathroom incident earlier. Maybe they should call him already? They could at least use someone to help release some tension. This seraph had needs! Looking around there were quite a few groups of friends, and Saige hoped that they would soon enough find and establish a new friend group here in Churchill. Of course they had Romeo, but it didn't seem like his husband liked them very much. Maybe it was jealousy or perhaps some sort of insecurity? Regardless, it wasn't their problem. They just wanted Romeo to be safe and healthy.
The cigarette was about smoked halfway as they noticed a pair of eyes on them. A slight smile creeping up as they looked to the shadows. "Don't worry, I don't bite .. that much," they smiled in a flirty manner, wondering who this mystery person was.

The mystery figure didnt answer, but rather just moved out of sight without further question. But that didnt mean that the danger wasnt going to present itself as a rather young guy bumped into the seraph, smiling a little apologetic. "Come on, it's about to get wild in there." He urged him before heading back inside. And it sure did if the seraph followed along, the party inside was changing up in pace. A DJ spoke, the lights changing up as the music got louder. People were massing up out on the dancefloor, others were painting each other with neon colours. It was quite spectacular. The guy disappeared into his own crowd, but others urged the seraph to join the painting.

The mystery figure went out of sight and Saige frowned a little. Perhaps disappointed? Or maybe the person just wasn't interested anyways. Regardless as they guy bumped into them they looked a little surprised, but the fact that they were still pretty buzzed made them snuff out the cigarette against the wall before following inside. The painting made their jaw drop but decided to join the crazy people. Soon enough they were covered in paint, not really caring if it would come out. A young woman had even drawn cute whiskers on their cheeks for them so they looked like a cat. Saige found all of this extremely interesting and strange, but in a good way. It wasn't something they had really seen before, at least not this seemingly random time. However Saige knew how to improvise and adapt, and surely this fun was going to turn out rather memorable.
They ended up dancing with the woman who had drawn the whiskers on them, and she seemed just as drunk as they were. Basically they were just having fun. The dancefloor one big conglomerate of people dancing and painting, and Saige laughed smiling widely as this was so freeing in a sense.

Saige was quite frankly loving it, and it was clear to see on their face. Bouncing up and down, dancing with random people, even making out with a fair few strangers that passed by, they were having a grand time. They didn't really bother fighting the way the crowd was moving and as they ended up in front of another young woman they turned their head to look at her as she yelled. Though it had been rather faint over the music. The gesture made them chuckle, signaling that they liked the stars going over their chest and down their shirt. The drink was offered, and at this point the seraph had had too much to even consider malicious intentions. Here everyone seemed so free and trusting, and they were surely having a good time. Maybe that was why they just took the drink, sending the sweet young woman a blown kiss before they were swept away again. Sipping on the drink as they danced they were surprised at how good it was. There was hardly any burn from the alcohol and the taste was rather fruity.
However soon nature would give its call, and as they stumbled out of the crowd they were smiling to themselves. A bit wobbly on the legs as they made it to the bathroom, having to sit down in one of the stalls to not just fall over. Once that was finsihed they moved out, washing their hands and found it rather empty. Shrugging they guessed that everyone just had a bladder of steel. Looking in the mirror they could feel their vision growing blurry. Maybe they had had enough to drink? Yeah, as fun as this was they weren't looking to pass out anywhere that wasn't the hotel bed. Stumbling out of the bathroom they leaned against a wall, bumping into a rather tall figure. "Sorry," they smiled, clearly rather intoxicated, but they didn't know if there had been something in their drink earlier.

In all of this it wasn't like Saige had much of a say. One moment they bumped into the neutral looking guy and the next they were outside having a smoke placed between their lips. Frowning they just ended up dropping the cigarette on the ground, staggering a bit to stand upright. Something was wrong, but it was too late to fix anything. The notion of being helped home made them shake their head, taking out their phone, texting someone. Though the text would end up rather nonsensical and to a random contact that they couldn't see who was.
That was when they blacked out. Nothing really sure what happened next. They knew their body had been moved, and they felt their muscles sore. Slowly coming to they couldn't really say where they were nor what their surroundings looked like. Everything was spinning, and they suddenly felt a sharp pain in their head, groaning and gritting their teeth as the feeling was like being hung over but ten thousand times worse. Had they ended up in some stranger's bed? Wouldn't have been the first time, but this was certainly weird.

It wasnt that surprising that the seraph fell over and the people just looked at each other before the plain man just nodded. He went and grabbed the seraph and dragged them along. The apartment they ended up in was rather random. It did look a bit run down, but it wasnt easy to tell whether it was because they were dragged beyond South or staying somewhere in the Southern District. When the seraph came to, a bottle of water was rolled over. The man sat not far, puffing on an e-cigarette, his green eyes analyzing the seraph with a relaxed and yet hard stare. "Dont bother getting up. You wont get very far." he said in a calm tone before he leaned back and exhaled the smoke into the room. The chain would at least do it's job for now. The man tilted his head. "What's your name?"

Saige groaned softly, stretching himself before they heard something rattle near their ear. They moved their hands up and around their neck was what they could best describe as a collar made of metal. That was when they felt slight panic, sitting up with their head still hurting quite a lot. The sound of the bottle rolling over the floor made his eyes focus a little, reaching down they didn't really hesitate to unscrew it and drink from it, feeling parched and it even felt like their lips were a bit chapped. They were hungry too, but the hunger took a backseat as they looked up from where he was sitting and saw a rather broad shouldered man. Their ears started ringing a bit as they felt their brain tingle with some memory, but they couldn't quite place him.
"Huh? Uh, I'm Saige," they replied rather hesitantly but mostly confused. Touching the collar there was a sturdy lock on it, and they knew that they couldn't just get it off without any struggle. "I'm sorry .. I can't really remember much from last night," they admitted, looking down before they took another sip of the water bottle. "Can I get this chain off now? I think I need to go home and sleep this out," because it hadn't really occurred to them that they were in any actual danger just yet. Even if they felt that gut panic, they had been in strange situations before, and they were sure this had just been some sort of kink thing.

The hesitant reply surprised him a little but the name was odd. He however didnt question it. If it was the seraph's name or not wasnt really what mattered right now. The confession made the man smile but the smile was a little void of emotions. "That would make sense with the drink you had yesterday without questioning whether it was spiked or not." he shrugged. The question about the chain made the man furrow his brows a little before he shrugged. "What do you think?" he just asked, before the door opened and one of the girls from yesterday entered. She was dressed differently from yesterday, throwing an easy buy packed sandwich for the seraph to eat. "So have we found out whether this one is even worth the trouble?" she asked, the man shrugging. "Still working on that." he said before he looked at the seraph, tilting his head. "How bad would your family miss you now that you didnt come home last night?" he asked rather directly.

Realization was slowly setting in, but it felt almost too unreal to grasp. That was when a soft chuckle left their lips, one of pure nerves, but a chuckle nonetheless. The door being opened made them jump a little, catching the sandwich a little clumsily, but managed to not drop it at least. They weren't sure what was really going on, and everything was either too loud or too bright, or maybe even both at the same time. Laying down again they felt the room was spinning still, turning their head a little lazily to look at the two. The question made them shrug, not really saying much about their family. "Wouldn't know," they just said in a simple manner of fact. Well, they did know that they had had a falling out when Saige had come out to them, and it had ruptured their perfect image of what the family had supposed to be. The family could've tolerated that, but it was more the way that they acted and dressed that upset them.
"I guess they'd be surprised; I think most of them think I'm either dead or on my way to death," they spoke, looking up at the ceiling. They weren't sure why they were so calm, because their heart was beating very fast. The anxiety was there, but their body felt so heavy and it wasn't easy to just move. Squishing the bred through the wrapped plastic made their fingers tingle in a way. "Do you want money? Is that it? I could just go grab some for you if that's what this is about," they admitted. Why else would they go through the option of finding the family?

Saige wasn't sure how much money would be enough for freedom. Sure, they had a decent amount, and they still had a few funds that earned them a bit of cash, but it wasn't like they had access to the Black estate. Looking up at the woman that drew nearer made them frown a little but ultimately had to close their eyes. Despite her voice being soft, the sound was just so close now that it was making their ears ring. It was making them nauseous as well, shuddering softly. So as she kept talking, Saige really had nowhere to turn but throw up on the woman. All of last night's mistakes poured out into her lap and the seraph was left shivering as they had to lean away, panting for air as it was clear they weren't feeling well still. Taking the water bottle they swallowed a few gulps before muttering a soft apology, still shivering a bit. Whatever they had put in the drink to drug them had upset their stomach enough and was now luckily out of his stomach. "Do you have like a toothbrush or something?" They muttered, managing to sit up, their eyes a little glazed over and yet Saige wasn't sure if they were crying just yet. One thing was for sure, the seraph didn't look good.

It was quite obvious that the seraph wasnt feeling too well but when Saige threw up all over the girl's lap, she furrowed her brows and grimaced with disgust. But could she really blame the seraph? She tried not to. The man was chuckling, shaking his head and finding it rather humorous. "I think you asked for that when you put all that shit in that drink." he chuckled. She frowned at him before she got up, wobbling over to grab something to dry her legs off with. The request for a toothbrush made the man get up and walk to the bathroom. He looked around, opening a closet, clearly searching for something before he returned with a toothbrush. "There are no clean ones. This will do." he said, throwing the toothbrush with some toothpaste next to the seraph before he returned. He grabbed his phone to make a call. He was looking at the seraph while he spoke with someone on the phone. "I dont think we'll get anything out of this one. No, I know what Callan will say, now shut up." he spoke first calmly but then he hissed into the phone. He got up and left the room, his voice muffling as he closed the door behind him. "Eat your food." the girl said with a sigh, trying not to be too angry about her ruined pants.

Of course the toothbrush having been used was a bit disgusting, so instead of brushing using it, they simply applied some toothpaste to their finger and scrubbed the teeth that way. It wasn't perfect, but it at least got rid of the residue of puke taste that had basically coated his mouth from the way he had been throwing up. The way the guy stared at them made them feel a bit confused, especially as the phone call went on. Looking after the guy they were reminded to eat, looking down at the wrapped sandwich. Humming they unwrapped it and took a few good bites before the hunger kicked in and they basically swallowed the rest of it whole.
"Sorry about your pants," they finally said as they had finished chewing. If the guy hadn't returned yet they would simply look to the woman with confused eyes. "I know you guys are in some sort of bad shit, but I really don't know what you could even use me for," they admitted a bit confused, "I mean, why did you target me?" That was a fair question, right? It couldn't simply be because of them being a seraph, could it? Or maybe it could and Saige was simply too stupid to understand. Either way most of this made little sense to begin with, and they grit their teeth a little as the metal was starting to bother their skin, trying to adjust it, but their skin felt almost raw from it.

"It's not your fault." she spoke in a controlled manner, trying to send them a smile too but it didnt quite work out. She was quite clearly annoyed but trying not to take it out on them. The confusion seemed legitimate but she shrugged. "We didnt target you for any specific reason, personally anyways. But you are a seraph. If we wouldnt get the money, we could sell your blood and possibly tears too. A lot of vampyres would pay money to have you." she shrugged like it wasnt that big of a deal. They would get their money somehow. The man returned, looking at the female before he sighed. "I dont know if we're going to get a lot out of this one. Maybe it's better to get rid of him.... her?" he said, before he looked towards the seraph. He wasnt sure if it was a guy or a girl but he didnt care.

They weren't sure if they were supposed to be surprised or not at this predicament. From the outside they probably looked calm, but on the insides they were freaking out a bit. The notion of being sold off like some piece of livestock made them look rather worried, and now they for sure weren't going to mention anything about the fact that they didn't have working tears. Regardless they just looked down as the guy came in once more. The confusion about their gender did make them a little happy, but it was the wrong situation to really correct anyone. "Get rid of me?" Saige snapped their head up to look at them, this time actually showing how scared they were. Getting rid of them sounded like when a mafia boss in a movie spoke. "I-I mean, couldn't this Callan person use me? Am I really not worth anything?" They were basically picking at straws here, but they had a fear that not going along would mean them at the bottom of the ocean with weights tied around their ankles. Swallowing they looked to the female, "please, I promise I won't tell a soul about this if you just let me go," bargaining in any which way they could had to work somehow, right?

Saige looked up as their chin was grabbed, feeling a little weirded out as it seemed that the woman was considering their looks close up. At least it was weird, because they already knew that they looked a mess with their makeup probably smeared everywhere. The notion of how far they would go to keep them quiet made them swallow, looking down as their cheek was slapped. It got a little red, and Saige rubbed their cheek a little as it hadn't really been pleasant. But perhaps that was more so because of what had been said.
The notion that this Callan person could decide didn't sound too good. But maybe it was a new chance. Maybe the guy would take pity on them and their young age? Or maybe come to some sort of agreement or basically anything. Hearing the chain and feeling the light pull made them frown, "I'm not a dog," they said, getting up and following out to the bathroom. Looking at themselves in the mirror they groaned at how the UV paint had made their skin irritated. "At least let me out of the chain so I can wash properly," it was clear that the seraph knew they wouldn't get long. "And a bit of privacy, even if you think of me like less of a person." Saige wasn't good at handling this, but it wasn't exactly something you were taught in school.
If they got a bit of privacy they would wash up quite nicely. Their curls heavy, but they would dry in no time. Checking their teeth it looked alright, but they took a piece of the towel and rubbed it against his teeth as well, just to get off the worst of it. Breath shuddering a bit they got back into the clothes they had gotten there in, unless something else had been placed for them. Even without makeup they looked rather feminine, the freckles at least aiding them in hiding the slight skin reaction from the paint having been on so long.

Safe to say, Saige preferred their own clothes. It didn't matter if the fabrics weren't as clean, as long as it felt right. They did however rip a slip of cloth off so that they could wrap it around their sore neck. The heated exchange in the other room made them a little nervous, and as the guy opened the door, the seraph was looking rather surprised at the guy who just sorta grabbed him, pulling him all the way down the stairs and stuffing them into a car. Saige felt confused and hurt, rubbing the spot on their arm that had been grabbed rather roughly.
Of course they at least had to try and push the window down, but it didn't work. Eventually they just laid down on the backseat, not really caring if they were going to be upset about it or not. But Saige felt scared. Their heart in their throat as they felt the anxiety getting to them more and more. The worst part was that they didn't know where they were going or if they would even survive this. It was a lot to take in. Saige had always thought they'd have eternity with them being a seraph and all, but now it seemed more like their potentially long life would be cut rather short. They scratched their neck a little, gritting their teeth as the skin was so tender from the collar.

As the man pulled over and another man got in, Saige felt their heart pick up in pace. What had they gotten involved in? Well it wasn't really like it was the seraph's fault, but regardless he had suggested tof ju be given to this Callan guy. In his mind he was picturing the biggest guy he'd ever see. Like a super villain who wouldn't hesitate to dump him in a pool of flesh eating fish. Just hearing how the two guys discussed them made them turn around. They didn't really want to hear about it, covering their ears as they drove on.
The next time the car stopped, Saige turned around, sitting up to look out, but it wasn't like they knew where they were. They had never been to Churchill before. And while sure, they had gotten to understand their way through Central a bit better, it was far from knowing a whole country. One of them went to get gas while the other stayed behind. The threat of the knife made them gulp, but their throat felt so dry. "Co-could we open the window a little?" They asked hesitantly. They didn't need much, just enough to get fresh air in, but they were completely at their capturer's mercy. The guy returned, and off they went once more. Laying down they just tried to close their eyes and pretend like none of this was happening.
Once the car stopped for the final time they exhaled in a trembling breath, barely getting to sit up before they were dragged from the car, managing to scrape their knee on the way in. Whimpering softly they were shoved in a chair, almost falling off of it from the sheer amount of strength behind it. Look pretty? They just nodded, removing the cloth from around their neck and tried drying the scraped knee clean of blood, gritting their teeth as they could feel tiny pebbled embedded in their skin. If it wasn't dealt with there would probably be a small infection, but there wasn't much they could do besides pulling their dress down as they sat. They also pinched their cheeks a little to give them a little bit of blush, just to at least appear cuter.
And now the waiting game began, lostening to the pacing of the nervous man. "I'm sorry," they just said. Why, they weren't sure, but they felt bad for the guy who had ended up like this. Owing money to someone and getting so desperate as to kidnap someone. Maybe Saige just had too much empathy. "It's going to be alright," even going as far as trying to comfort him a little.

The fact that the guy just sat down beside them made them a bit more tense, and the hand on their thigh along with the compliments made their heart beat faster. But not in a good way. Rather they felt a little uneasy, not really sure how it was best to go about this. Could they really deny them in this situation without getting hurt? But then again, they didn't really know what customs were in regards to being a hostage. As the guy leaned in he panicked and just looked down, the guy only managing to kiss their forehead. "I-I .." They muttered in a hasty and scared tone. They were clearly unsure of what to even do right now. "I appreciate the gesture .. I'm just not really sure getting involve now that you're about to sell me off is a good idea," which was a logical reply, but also almost devoid of the understanding of what they said. They were really going to be sold off, huh? This was a trade, and Saige was the currency. They felt awful about it, but they couldn't really muster up the courage to remove the hand on their thigh. It felt scary. Sure, they had been in uncomfortable situations before, but never like this. Never amongst people who had already threatened to kill him once or twice. "Please don't hurt me," they whispered in a soft plea, closing their eyes as if to prepare themselves for the inevitable. The guy would slice their throat and leave them bleeding out, wouldn't he?