I turn 7 today, and I'm not an only child. My parents have turned to selling me and my siblings, just so they can survive. If a sibling dies, we are not allowed to go and mourn them, we are not allowed to contact them. My brother who I did have the chance to meet and remember had left last year. He told me before he left, "Hopefully, you will find a good master or something. We are only seen as toys, but hopefully you don't get treated like you are one. Your too pretty to be the same garbage as the rest of us. Please, don't forget me, and don't step out of line." After that he had turned 7 the next day, and I never saw him again. I didn't understand what he had said to me back then, and I didn't want to. 

I'm supposed to be picked up around noon, and right now its only 7 o'clock. I'm scared, I don't know what to do. Hopefully the person I am supposed to serve is normal, and kind. I don't want to get hurt, and I don't want to live sheltered like I have been. I don't know how to read, I can barely write. I have lived the past 4 years sheltered, and I don't remember anything before that.  I am trying to understand what is going on, but I have never left the walls of my house. I've never seen grass, or had a pet. My parents cooked, but never showed much affection. Brother had told me once that once we turn 4 and are out of the range where affection is vital, they don't bother with us. We are breed to serve, not to survive. Mother has said that money is vital in order to survive, that is why we must work for others. She had gotten an injury to where she can't work because of her hand. But I heard father tell brother once that she chooses not to work, and that she is only good for popping out babies that can do it for her. To them it doesn't matter if we die, as long as they can get paid. 

I guess I must get ready, I wasted 30 minutes laying in bed. I couldn't stop thinking of all the stuff I have been told, all the stuff I wish to be true. I brush my long blonde hair in the bedroom mirror, I look back at the vacant room. We are not allowed to have personal belongings, the clothes on my back are from the first child who was a girl. The room has two mattresses on the floor, a dresser with both boys and girls clothes. The drawers have an age label, I am supposed to pull from the one labeled 7 years but the only thing I can really read from it is the number. I go to the bathroom and brush my teeth, I put my hair in a pony tail after. I go back to the room and open that fated drawer, it is empty. A single note lies on the bottom, but I don't know what it says. I put it in my pocket to ask father, but then the door bell rings. It is only 10 o'clock. I didn't realize that I wasted so much time, I grab what few belongings I have. All it is, is a single book, one that has a picture of me and brother. I'm not giving this up, I can't afford to lose what little memory I have of him. He was the one who was there when I grew up, I never saw mother. 

"Hey kid, come here. They are early, its time to say good bye." I walk out to father, in the living room stands him and two other men. "Go put that book back."

"Sir, she can keep it. It's perfectly fine, the young man that she would have to serve is strange. It might give her comfort to have something." The guy walked up to me, he is wearing a black suit and has on a pair of dark tinted glasses. "Well, you look very cute. Hopefully he likes you. Come on sweetie, I'll tell you more in the car."

I look at the guy, clueless as to what is going on. I don't want to believe that something is wrong, but I don't understand. The guy gets up and walks to my father, he hands him a stack of green paper. Then comes back to me and picks me up, the other guy is still just standing at the door. When me and the guy who is carrying me walk out the other follows. I don't cry, I don't want to go back. I'm not attached to them like I was to brother, and yet I feel no sorrow. 

We get to black vehicle, I am placed in the seat next to the open door. The guy puts the seat belt around me and it locks in the thing that sticks out. He closed the door and then both walk over to the other side. The guy that had just stood there had sat in the front seat and started the car. The other had sat next to me. 

"Hey sweetheart? Are you ok?" The guy is looking at me, all I do is nod my head. "I don't know, usually when we pick up kids they are crying. Parents typically don't want them to go, but yours seemed to not care. So... that book there, why did you wanna bring it? Oh and before I forget what is your name?"

"I don't have a name sir, and the book is special. It has a picture of brother." I can't fight the tears now. I have no identity, no family. I am really just a toy. I can't relate to others well. But right now, sitting next to a man I don't know, and leaving all that I have known. I feel afraid, broken, and above all alone. For the second time, this emotion takes hold and I feel like I am drowning. I am nothing. I cry, the warm tears leave my eyes and gather at my chin. They fall on my hands and all I can think to do is wipe them away and act as if nothing has happened. 

"Ok kid. I'm sorry, just try and hold out. I think the kid is gonna like you. I hope you like him too, you need a family. He needs a companion. Just so you know, because it seems like no one has or will tell you. This kid, his family did not buy you. They asked if we had any kid in our system that needed a home. And could have been at risk of getting killed. The age range that had was between 6 and 8, in this world a girl is at more of a risk. And the family we just picked you up from, I have heard abandons children who can't do as they are supposed to. If you are comfortable, I would like to see the picture of your brother sometime. I'll check on you every week ok, but for now just enjoy the ride. It's a bit long, if you wanna sleep you can." The guy is kind, I don't know what happened to brother. But the thought that I was at risk of being abandon is scary. I asked brother what that meant once, he said, " It's like when you leave something, and pretend it didn't exist or like you never had it." Then he told me that I shouldn't worry, and that he wouldn't leave me without a reason. But in the end, he still left me, and I don't know the reason.