Branding, and memories of the past.

Esmeralda laid on the ground as she felt completely out of it. She tried to opened her eyes, but as she tried, she felt as if the room spun around her. It was enough to make her sick. She went to turn on the stomach, but found that she couldn't move. This caused her heart to skip a beat. What was going on? Where was she? This place didn't feel like her cell. No, this place seemed colder, and wherever she was laying felt really hard. Unlike the bed she had been laying in when she had fallen asleep. Even if that mattress was hard, it still felt like a bed. This though, this felt like a cold, hard floor.

Where the hell am I? What the fuck is going on? She thought to herself.

Esmeralda once again opened her eyes, only to close them as the room was still spinning. As she continued to think of the nausea that came with the spinning of the room. It was enough to make her want to puke. What was in her system, was it a drug? She knew of drugs that could paralyze people, but usually when they woke up it would be gone. So what kind of drug was injected into her? As she continued to think about this drug, a headache suddenly came to her. Making her groan inside of her head. Though, as she kept feeling the symptoms, she started to feel familiar with some of them. Which caused her body to tense as she remembered that day.

---
"Daddy? Where are you taking me?" The little twelve year old girl asked, looking up at her father in confusion.

"I'm taking you to a friend of mine's house." The man answered, causing the little girl to tilt her head.

"What friend, Daddy?" She asked.

"You don't know him, sweetie. Which is why I'm going to introduce you."

"But I know all of your friends, Daddy." She said, finding this all confusing? Did he make a new friend, but didn't he have enough friends?

"Enough questions, Esme. It's time to be quiet, you'll figure everything out when we get there." The man said sternly.

This caused the little Esme to look down as she continued to be carried by her father to his friend's house. As he carried her, she watched how the scenery changed. It went from very beautiful, fancy modern houses, to old looking, rusty houses. Which made her scared, she clung to her father. She saw how very beautifully dressed people also involved to trashy looking people.

"Look away, Esme." The man spoke once again.

Esme didn't hesitate, she buried her face into her father's chest. Trying to hide from the people who looked evil. Every now and then she would peek from her father's chest, only to see, and hear crude things. It caused her to immediately look away again. All she wanted was for her dad to get to his friend's house fast. Though, she was wondering why would his friend live in a place like this? Maybe this was short cut? Maybe when they got there, there would be fancy houses again. A few more minutes went by and they were still not at their destination. Which was causing her to fall asleep in her father's arms.

"We're here." The man spoke.

Esme immediately looked away from her father, only to see that the scenery had only changed a little bit. She was about to ask her father where they were, but he immediately placed her on the ground. Which caused her to look up at her father. When she did she saw hurt, and fear in his eyes. "Daddy, what's wrong?" She asked.

"Be quiet, Esme!" The man whispered loudly, taking his daughter's hand and immediately walked to the front door of the only house that looked better than all of the other houses. He knocked on the door and called a name then telling them they were here.

Little Esme looked at her father, before looking at the door that suddenly opened. A man walked out and whispered to her father. She watched how the two were exchanging words, and the more they did. The more hurt her father looked. "Daddy?" She asked, before immediately hiding behind her father when the strange man looked at her.

"Is this her?" The man asked.

"Yes."

The man smirked and immediately bent down to be the exact same height as the child. "Hi there, Esme, I'm Aidan. I'm going to be looking after you for a while." He said with a cruel tone. Now he was trying to make it sound as if he was friendly, but Esme had a feeling, a feeling he wasn't a nice person.

"Daddy, I want to leave!" Esme suddenly spoke, gripping the back of her father's shirt.

"You better take care of her Aidan, you better treat her as the most special girl here." Her father suddenly spoke, ignoring the poor, frightened Esme who was now calling to her father.

The man glared at the child, before standing up straight to look at her father. "Oh, I will, you should know the Mr. Levitt." He smirked, "I mean, how could I not treat a wealthy man's daughter special?" He said, before going into his pocket and handing Mr. Levitt money. "You can count on me.. As long as you never come here again. Boys, take her!" The man suddenly yelled. Two man suddenly came out of the house, grabbing the little girl, causing her to scream.

"Daddy!?" Esme screamed out as she was pulled away from her father.

"I'm sorry, Esme, but I hope you can forgive me one day." He said as he backed away, looking at his daughter in agony.

"Daddy!!!" Esme screamed, trying to fight away from the man. "Daaadddy!!!" She cried, screamed, yelled for her father, wanting him to save her. She kept screaming and trying to get away from the men. She continued fighting until suddenly something was injected into her system, paralyzing her whole body until she passed out, but not before hearing cruel words.

"Looks like Aidan has a new toy for his customers."

"She's a pretty little thing.. Can't wait to see how she works."

---
Esmeralda was suddenly forced out of her memories as someone suddenly grabbed her hair, and roughly forced her into the chair. She wanted to know what was happening, but she couldn't move at all. She couldn't even open her eyes! All she wanted to know was who was doing this to her. Esmeralda kept fighting to move her body, but it continued to fail over, and over. She cursed inside of her head. She was going to try again, the back of her head was grabbed and forced forward. Esmeralda probably would've groan at the roughness that was being inflicted on her, but she couldn't even make a noise. She felt the person move her hair, and tightly gripped it in place.

After that, the person seemed to stop. Which caused confusion, what was going on? Why was the person holding her like the way they were. She kept wondering this, until suddenly a hot, burning sensation was on the back of her neck. This caused her heart to stop for a brief moment. As the burning sensation kept going, the more Esme was trying to keep her mind off of it. Trying to not think of the pain. Even though she was useless at protecting herself, she could at least try to show that she wasn't being bothered by the pain. The question was, what was happening? What was the person doing to her neck.

Once it was over, Esme couldn't help but thank the lord. Though, she didn't celebrate long, because the moment it was over the moment she felt her being pushed to the ground. Now she was on her side, and even now she couldn't see who it was. She was now trying to ignore the pain in the back of her. As time went by, and she thought more, she slowly fell back asleep. Hoping that when she awoke, she would be able to find out who did this, and what happened to the back of her neck.