I am Aveline, and I keep my head down in Casper Hoke's ice house, because that is how I survive.
The cold gets into my bones every day, but I never complain out loud.
I write down what people need on my pad, because I don't speak.
Pax: Aveline, your wrist.
I pull my sleeve down fast over the bruise and write that I fell on the ice.
Pax: That's a handprint, not a fall.
A customer wants two bags of ice and he is already reaching for his wallet.
I write that it is two bags and that the cash comes first.
Casper says my silence is the only good thing about me, and he says it like a compliment.
Casper: You wrote the order wrong, you dumb mute bitch.
His slap comes so fast that my ears ring before I even feel the sting.
I taste blood.
Casper: Look at me when I talk, you useless piece of shit.
His grip is a vice, and I feel the bruise bloom under his fingers.
Pax: Casper, the ice is melting. I'll fix the order.
Casper: You fix the ice. I'll fix my property.
Casper: This one owes me. She owes me everything.
Property, that is all I am here, and I hate that the word fits.
Pax: Let me see.
I shake my head at him, but he holds out a clean rag anyway.
Pax: For the blood. Please, Aveline.
His voice is soft in a way that nobody here has ever used with me.
I take the rag, and my fingers shake so badly that I nearly drop it.
Pax: There you go. You don't have to hide from me.
I write on my pad and ask him why he is being nice to me.
Pax: Because you're a person, not a thing.
My chest hurts, because kindness has always been a trap that costs me, but for one second I want to believe him.
Casper: Tobias. This is the payment.
A man in a black leather jacket walks in behind Casper, and I know his name is Tobias.
He looks at me the way a butcher looks at meat on a hook.
Tobias: This the mute one?
Casper: She's quiet. She's clean. She don't fight much.
I want to run out the back door, but my legs will not move.
Casper: I owe you six grand. Take her. She can work it off.
Casper: Or use her any way you want. She's paid for.
I am not a daughter to him and not a worker, I am just a debt he can hand over.
Pax: You can't do that. She's a person.
Casper: Shut your mouth, kid, or you'll be in the ice too.
Pax: Then put me in the ice.
Tobias: Move, kid. I'm taking what I'm owed.
Tobias's hand closes around my arm, and the cold silver rings dig into my skin.
I make a small sound that is not a word at all, just fear coming out.
Casper: You think you're a hero? You're a fucking ice boy.
Casper backhands Pax across the mouth so hard his lip splits, and I write fast that I will go if he leaves Pax alone.
Tobias: Too late, sweetheart. You're already mine.
Casper: Get her coat. Tobias is waiting.
Pax looks at me with sorry eyes and blood on his chin, and he cannot stop this.
I don't know if anyone will ever come for me, but I pray someone does.