I woke up different.
Not magical different or anything stupid like that. Just... my stomach hurt less? Or maybe it hurt the same but I didn't care as much because today was supposed to be the start of real life. Maya said so.
The soap smell was still on my skin. I kept lifting my arm to my nose to check. Still clean. Still me but also not me, because clean felt like being someone else entirely.
She said she'd come get me early. "Our business is private business," she'd said. I sat by the broken windows watching for her, legs bouncing, nervous but good nervous.
The sun climbed higher. Still no Maya.
I heard voices down on the street level. Male voices, talking low.
"...should be ready by now..."
"...lot of work getting him clean..."
"...always pays extra for the young ones..."
My chest went cold. But I told myself it wasn't about me. Just people talking about people stuff that had nothing to do with Echo who was going to start his real life today.
I crept closer to the window.
Three men. Big men with fed faces and clean clothes. One had a working truck. And Maya. Standing with them like she belonged there.
"He's small for twelve," one said. "You sure about the age?"
"Small is good for what you want," Maya said. Her voice sounded different. Flatter. "Perfect for the factories. Can pass for younger if you need him to."
The ice water in my chest spread to my arms. My legs.
They were talking about me.
"He's broken enough? Won't try to run?"
"Completely. No family, no connections, no fight left in him. I've been conditioning him for weeks. He'll follow orders because following orders is all he knows how to do now."
Conditioning.
"What about attachment issues?"
Maya actually laughed. Sharp little sound that cut right through my chest.
"That's the beauty of it. He thinks I saved him. Thinks I'm the first person who ever cared about him. Which means he'll do anything to keep that feeling. Even when he figures out what's really happening, he'll still hope I'm somehow protecting him. Hope makes them so much more manageable."
No.
No, that wasn't... we were friends. She gave me my name. She called me special. She touched my face and made me say I trusted her and...
And she made me say I trusted her. Out loud. Why would she need me to say it out loud unless...
"Where is he now?"
"Upstairs. Waiting like a good dog. Probably thinking this is the day his new life starts." Another small laugh. "I told him I'd come get him early. He's been awake for hours, I bet. Excited."
The stone in my stomach grew bigger. Started crushing things inside me.
"Smart. Keep them hopeful right until the end."
"Exactly. He'll come willingly because he trusts me. Won't even realize what's happening until you're already driving away."
I couldn't breathe right. The air felt thick and wrong.
This wasn't happening. Maya was my friend. Maya saved me.
But Maya was down there. Talking to these men about selling me.
The soap. The clean clothes. The way she washed my face.
She was preparing merchandise.
I heard footsteps on the stairs.
I ran toward the back of the store, but running felt wrong. Like I was abandoning something important.
"Echo?" Maya's voice from the main area. Sweet voice. "Echo, sweetheart, it's time to go. Our new life starts now, remember?"
Maybe this was still okay. Maybe there was some explanation...
"Echo, don't make me come looking for you. You know I don't like games."
The sweetness was gone. Just for a second. Just long enough for me to hear what was underneath it.
Impatience. Annoyance.
"There you are."
She was standing in the doorway. Still looked like Maya, but something was different. Colder.
"Why are you hiding, sweetheart? I told you today was going to be special."
"I heard you talking to those men."
Her face didn't change. Didn't even flicker.
"What did you think you heard?"
"You were... they want to buy me."
"Oh, Echo. You don't understand what you heard. They're not buying you. They're offering you work. Real work, with real pay. Isn't that what you wanted? To matter?"
Work. That could be okay. People worked, right?
"But they said about conditioning me..."
"Training for the job, sweetheart. Getting you ready. Getting you clean and healthy enough to handle real work instead of scraping by like an animal."
She touched my face, just like yesterday. Gentle fingers.
"I know it's scary. But this is what growing up means. Isn't that what you wanted?"
Yes. It was.
But something still felt wrong.
"I don't want to go," I whispered.
Maya's hand went still.
"What did you say?"
"I don't want to go with them. I want to stay with you."
She pulled her hand away.
"Echo. There is no us. There never was an us. There was you, being useful to me, and me, getting you ready to be useful to someone else."
The stone in my stomach exploded.
"But you said I was special..."
"You are special. Especially easy to manipulate. Especially desperate for someone to care about you."
Each word hit like rocks thrown at my chest.
"The name you gave me..."
"A tool. Something to make you feel attached. Echoes need something solid to bounce off, remember? I was never solid, Echo. I was just the wall you bounced off of until I was ready to sell you."
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
"Come on. They're waiting."
"Maya..."
She stopped and looked back.
"My name isn't Maya," she said. "Just like yours isn't really Echo. Names are just tools, remember? And I don't need that tool anymore."
She walked away.
I followed her. Not because I wanted to. But because I didn't know what else to do. My body just... moved.
The men were waiting by their truck. They looked at me like I was a package.
"Good," the first man said to Maya. "He looks healthy enough."
Maya held out her hand. One of them put money into it. Real money. More than I'd ever seen.
She counted it carefully.
She didn't look at me again.
"Pleasure doing business," she said.
And then she walked away. Just walked away down the street like I had never existed.
Hands grabbed my arms. Not rough, not gentle. Just efficient. Like moving a box.
The truck door opened and I was pushed inside.
The engine started and we drove away from the only place I'd ever thought of as home.
I pressed my face against the window and watched it all disappear.
And something inside me just... stopped.
Not my heart or lungs. Something else. Something that had been holding all my feelings together.
It just stopped working.
The hope stopped. The hurt stopped. The anger and confusion and desperate wish that this was all a mistake... all of it just stopped.
I was Echo. I was twelve years old. I was in a truck with men who had bought me.
And I felt nothing at all.
Nothing at all was so much better than everything I'd been feeling a minute ago.
Nothing at all was safe.
I decided to keep feeling nothing at all for as long as I could manage it. Maybe forever.
The truck drove on, and I sat in it, and I was nobody again.
Nobody was easier.
Nobody couldn't get sold.
Nobody couldn't get betrayed.
Nobody was the safest thing to be.