Free Deep Blue by Yolanda Olson

scared me worse than anything he had done to me so far. The branding, the using me as some kind of animal equipment; none of it terrified me more than him having me dig that dog out.
    He was still standing over me as I pushed the last of the dirt into place and I could feel the anger rolling off of his body. When I was done, I wiped as much dirt as I could off on my dress and got to my feet. I glanced up at the sun shining brightly in the blue sky and wondered how I was going to calm him down.
    “I’m ready to tell you now,” I said quietly.
    “Tell me what?” he asked angrily.
    “About what happened to me after you traded me off.”
    “If you think a sad story or two is going to make me forget about my dog, you’ve got another thing coming,” he warned.
    I turned slowly to face him. I don’t know what got into me, but I calmly reached forward and took his hand in mine. He let me lead him back to the wooden staircase where he had just held Scout and sat down next to me, after I gave his hand a gentle tug.
    Troy impatiently pushed the brim of his cap up and glared at me. I swallowed hard and made sure not to maintain eye contact. Instead I folded my hands on my lap and tried desperately to remember the things that were done to me. The things I had fought so viciously to forget.
    “The first one was Denton. I don’t know if you remember him; he was an older, like middle aged. Anyway, he was my first official owner I guess. He had a thing from broomsticks too. I can’t tell you how many times he’d crack me across the ass with one, just for his own personal entertainment. He said that hearing me ‘squeal like a little piggy’ made his day. Of course that escalated from just getting beat with the stick. One night he decided to get adventurous and shoved it inside of me. Not all the way obviously or he would’ve killed me, but just far enough to make me scream in pain. He was an evil bastard,” I said, chewing my lower lip at the memories.
    “Next was Nathan. I can’t tell you how happy I was after the ‘official year of ownership’ was over and I got traded again. I was surprised that I had been strong enough to survive Denton, but little did I know that Nathan wasn’t any better. I guess I kind of hoped I’d get relief at some point, but he was new to the game and that made him cruel and clumsy,” I recalled with a sigh. “He was about my age at the time I think. Being a teenager like me, he thought that I would have the stamina and the energy to take whatever he did to me. But the night that he lost control and almost ended up breaking my neck, he got scared. See, Nathan liked to tie me up; ropes, chains, sheets, whatever he could get his hands on. The time that I’m referring to, he had tied a sheet around my neck and got behind me. I think his plan was to fuck me, but he pulled too hard before he even got the chance to put his little dick inside of me and I gurgled and pitched forward as limp as his dick suddenly went. It scared the shit out of him and he didn’t touch me again after that. No, instead he put me in a cage for the rest of the year feeding me only every now and then until it was time for another trade.”
    Tears stung my eyes at the tidal wave of memories crashing down on me. I had done such a good job of forgetting and now I was remembering again to try and save my life.
    “Posy,” Troy said quietly. “You don’t have to tell me anymore.”
    Oh, so now you’re human? I thought bitterly wiping away the tears.
    “No. I need to finish. Please,” I said. Troy sighed next to me and put a hand on my leg, giving it a reassuring squeeze. With a deep breath, I moved on to bastard number three.
    “Okay, so after Nathan was William. He’s the one that started calling me an ugly whore. He’s the one that started to make me believe I wasn’t worth the breaths I took. That’s when I think I started to mentally crumble. That’s when I started to realize that if I wasn’t capable of