by Corin Cain
A single Bullfrog is terrifying – and as I float beneath the water, I see a room stuffed with the huge, glistening creatures.
They’re all staring at me – perhaps because I’m the first of the captives to be thrown into this pool with her breasts exposed. I can’t hear the noise beneath the water – but I can see their flabby jowls jiggling and their necks distending as they croak and warble in excitement.
But there’s also a different kind of heat on me – the burning gaze of three creatures who are the absolute opposite of the Bullfrogs.
Aurelians.
At the back of the room sit those same three Aurelians we’d encountered in the corridor.
They’re not joining in the raucous jeers or gurgling laughter. They sit almost like statues – cold, aloof, straight-spined and with their chins forward as they observe me.
I’m not a good swimmer, but before I panic, the water buoys me upward and I break the surface and take a grateful whoop of air.
The clear water in this tank must be highly oxygenated, or something – because it lifts me almost effortlessly back to the surface, and I can understand now why the first captive thrown into the water wasn’t dragged down by her clothes.
Dragged down to where? This deep, dark pool feels endless below me…
Kicking my legs to stay above the surface, I glance down – and that’s when I see the tunnel outlined in the gloomy depths. That’s where I’ll be dragged to once I’m sold – just as Tessa and the other captive were.
Now my head is above the surface, I can hear the Bullfrogs jeer and hoot – so much louder now that I’m more or less level with them.
As I bob up and down, I try to cover my chest – feeling shameful and humiliated knowing that the Bullfrogs got to drink in the sight of my naked body.
I just want to disappear – to fade into nothingness.
Then, through the glass viewscreens, I suddenly see Tessa.
Yes! It is her! But my elation at recognizing her instantly chills as I see that Tessa’s leashed at a Bullfrog’s feet. She’s attached by a collar around her throat to his huge, glistening arm.
Tessa sits there, petrified with fear. Soon, I’ll join her – and I can’t imagine feeling any different.
But once I’m in the same room as Tessa – perhaps something will turn in our favor.
I know I can’t save everyone – not now the auction has begun. But maybe - somehow – I’ll be able to draw on Ling’s teachings. Perhaps I can rediscover the boldness of the ‘old me’ and figure some way to get Tessa and I off this ship alive.
Yet, as one of the Bullfrogs raises his arm, starting the bidding, I realize the futility of this ambition. The fact is, I’m not going to be able to get myself off this fucking ship – much less manage to do so with Tessa at my side. If I’m sold to a Bullfrog, escape will be an impossibility. I’d be better off drowning. At least choking in this chill water might be a quicker release than what awaits me in the aquarium of one of those sadistic brutes.
Then, my blood runs cold. I’d thought this was grim enough already, but suddenly my situation is threatening to get so much worse.
There’s a Bullfrog sprawled across the third row of seats – and he’s glaring at me. That’s not a glare of lust, or desire – and the moment my eyes fall across his glistening, green body, I instantly realize why.
That particular Bullfrog has a long, jagged scar across his shoulder – running all the way down to his sinewy, green arm. I suddenly remember my first rescue mission, years ago, during which I’d shot my blaster and badly scorched the arm of a Bullfrog that looked just like that particular specimen.
I mean, all Bullfrogs look similar to human eyes – but this one was branded into my memory forever. I’d injured that Bullfrog badly enough that he’d been unable to guard his shipment of slaves. I remembered exactly where I’d hit him – and what the damage had been.
I’d memorized the jagged lines of that scar like a roadmap, because the next time I’d seen the Bullfrog I’d adorned them with was when he’d shoved the crackling barb of an electro-rod right through Ling’s torso.
The Bullfrog had skewered her like a womp on a barbeque stake.
The same Bullfrog had stared at me with those same, bulbous eyes I’m looking at now – filled with that same hatred for me. His furious glare promises a world of horrors should he place the winning bid.
Gods… I’d hoped I’d never see that face again – even though I do, every time I try to sleep. It’s as if he’s been haunting me – chasing me across the galaxy. Now, through coincidence or fate, our paths have crossed again; only this time I’m even more helpless than Ling had been.
The Bullfrog stretches his mouth in a sadistic grin, and row after row of sharp little fangs glint in the light.
As the bidding continues, that Bullfrog raises his huge, slimy hand. His eyes are wide with desire for me – but not the kind of desire that could be sated by spurting his spawn inside me. He wants revenge. He won’t be satisfied until I’ve sated first his sexual desires, and then his murderous ones.
First, this Bullfrog took my best friend from me. Now, he intends to take everything else I have left.
I shudder in the water, but it has nothing to do with the chill. If that Bullfrog buys me, I’ll wish I was never born.
The irony? I know the old me would have wanted to be bought by him. She’d have wanted to get close to the creature that robbed me of my best friend. The old me would have endured almost anything – even the unspeakable rutting of a horny Bullfrog – if it meant a chance to slit his fucking throat for what he’d done to Ling.
But the old me died the same day she did, and now all I feel is terror.
I kick my feet to stay afloat, and stare in horror at the Bullfrog’s arm in the air. Then, the Aurelian sitting behind him – the one with the thick lips and the thick, brown hair – raises his own hand and nonchalantly increases the bid.
They’re offering up thousands of credits – more than some humans make in a year – and he’s doing it as nonchalantly as if he was asking for a refill on a drink; not bidding for the life of a human captive.
The opposing bid does not sit well with that murderous Bullfrog. The huge creature turns in his seat, staring up at the Aurelian with the same murderous look he’d given me
“This one’s mine, Aurelians”
The glass and water distort his voice, but I can still hear it.
The Bullfrog is staking his claim on me.
The other grotesque Bullfrogs shift in their seats – some even getting up to give the enraged Bullfrog some distance. It’s disturbing to watch the cruelest and most sadistic sub-species of Toad retreat from an example of their kind even more cruel and sadistic than they are.
The additional space leaves nothing between the scarred Bullfrog and the three Aurelians who sit behind him. I’m only observing the room though the glass viewscreen, but I can feel the tension even as I bob up and down in the water. At any second, I sense that things could turn violent. The question is – what happens if they do?
The one Bullfrog against three Aurelians would be a quick massacre – but if the rest of the room side with the angered creature and turn on the Aurelians, those three towering, marble-skinned warriors would be cut to pieces.
The worst part? I can’t even use the distraction to my advantage. I can’t even look for a way out. I’m frozen in place, treading water mindlessly.
Through the glass, Tessa stares at me with dull horror in her light brown eyes. She knows that there’s something wrong – some additional drama heating up the auction – but her own situation is so dire she couldn’t do anything to help me even if she wanted to.
I’m on my own.
Through the glass, I watch as the leader of the Aurelians smiles. His dead, cold grin never reaches his slate-grey eyes, though.
He scares me. I don’t know what kind of man could bear to work with Toads – even more so in the grisly trade of unwilling human flesh. To
do what he does, he must be as cold as ice inside. Irredeemable.
“Very well, Bullfrog,” Marcel sneers. “We’ll take back our bid.”
The Bullfrog grunts in approval, turning and sitting down heavily back on his seat. He raises his hand again, reiterating his bid, and the glistening creature rubs the long scar I’d given him with my blaster as he does so.
Those big, bulbous eyes turn to me, and he stares at me coldly.
As I tread water, I feel the chill of them. In fact, my stomach drops as the magnitude of what just happened becomes real inside my mind.
The Aurelians retracted their bid. That foul, sadistic alien creature is going to buy me.
For a second, I wonder if I could force my head underwater – holding myself down until my lungs fill with water and I drown. Anything to keep me from that creature’s touch.
But then, I see Marcel’s lips move again.
“I wasn’t finished.”
The Bullfrog turns sharply in his seat, jowls jiggling in outrage.
“We’ll take back that bid,” Marcel purrs, his eyes as cold as ice, “because it didn’t do her justice. We’ll triple the bid.”
The Bullfrog can’t contain himself. Jowls undulating, the massive creature reaches for the long hilt of his own Orb-Axe.
I stare through the window, transfixed. That Bullfrog would be going up against three Aurelian warriors – the most lethal species in the universe.
Kill him! I silently plead to those three gorgeous, towering aliens. Oh, Gods! Please kill him!
I keep pleading, and that turns into prayer – only, I don’t know if I’m praying to the Gods above, or to the gods-made-flesh I’m staring at through the viewing window.
All I do know is that while that scarred, twisted Bullfrog is alive, I’m in danger.
I watch through the window as the Bullfrog activates his Orb-Axe. With a resonant hum, twin axe-blades materialize as if from nothingness – crackling blue-black energy, humming as it shudders and shifts.
I watch, transfixed. The Orb-Axe defies the laws of reality – in fact, it’s as if reality ceases to exist in the space where those blades materialized. It’s like a gaping maw into another dimension – a loophole in physics that should not have the audacity to exist.
I’m terrified just watching the blade from here – but the three Aurelians stay seated – as if the towering Bullfrog, bulging muscles wrapped in glistening fat, isn’t standing there. It’s as if the sight of him wielding one of the deadliest weapons in existence right in front of them means nothing.
“Crad!”
Suddenly, a voice booms so loudly from the top of the stairs behind them that I hear it, even through the glass viewing screen.
I squint my eyes to spot who the voice emerged from – but there’s no one there.
The Bullfrog, however, freezes instantly. He looked up, and when I follow the focus of his bulbous eyes, I spot a speaker in the roof from which the voice emerged.
It must be the Captain of this mothership – warning the Bullfrog not to start trouble with other paying customers.
If so, that means there must be surveillance scanners all over this ship – including cameras like the one that caught the Bullfrog’s tantrum. That means even if I could escape – perhaps make a break for it when they try to hand me to whoever placed the winning bid – I’d still have to evade heavy surveillance to get off the ship.
In the auction room, angry words continue to blast out of the sound system. They’re spoken in the guttural language of the Toads, with authority that freezes the Bullfrog in his tracks. The raging language is so guttural that I half-expect spittle to fly from the speakers the same way it does from a Toad’s lips when they’re enraged.
Whoever is ranting must be important – the man in charge of the entire Toad mothership, and with an eagle-eyed view of everything that goes on within her.
I watch through the viewing screen as the Bullfrog stands there, mortified. His only movement is the twitching of his thick, glistening neck. The veins along it are bulging with heated fury.
Then, slowly, the Bullfrog turns towards the glass – and stares at me as I tread water in the tank.
They aren’t the eyes of a human, or Aurelian. They’re the eyes of an animal – and they remind me that no animal knows hate like a Bullfrog.
This Bullfrog’s only lust is for revenge. I was the scrappy human girl who made him feel powerless when I rescued two slaves from his grasp. Ever since, whenever he’s looked at that scar I left him with, it’s been a reminder of his humiliation.
Human, Toad, or Aurelian, I know his type of character. There are some men who can’t abide the feeling of powerlessness – especially when it comes at the hand of a woman.
I glance behind him. Those three Aurelians are still sitting there, unmoving – but I can read their amusement at the Bullfrog’s humiliation – even on their impassive, emotionless white faces.
With a slobbering snarl, the Bullfrog reluctantly deactivates his Orb-Axe and lumbers out of the auction room with the gait of an executioner. I shiver in the water – but I’m not cold.
I just saw the look of impotent rage in that Bullfrog’s eyes. He saw me – the one he wanted to make suffer for his indignity – and was then denied the right to claim me. More than that, the Bullfrog blames me for his humiliation in front of those three Aurelians – stoking the fire of his fury even hotter. It burns uncontrollably now, and nothing will extinguish the fire’s hunger for revenge – not until he has me.
But he doesn’t have me – and now, it’s time to learn who will.
I turn my attention back to the auction room. The Aurelian’s extravagant bid has made the ante too rich for the blood of the other buyers. There’s no higher bid, and as the gavel cracks and declares the Aurelians the winners, the rest of the Bullfrogs turn their attention to whichever poor soul will be next up for auction.
I tread water, my heart racing. This is it – I’ve been sold.
The two Toads standing at the edge of the pool dive in with an eerie, inhuman grace. I take a deep breath, suddenly realizing what comes next.
The water shifts as the Toads swirl gracefully around me. It’s almost beautiful – and so incongruent to their ungainly, lumbering gait on solid ground. It’s as if they’re born for the water.
The two Toads curl their webbed fingers around my ankles and grab me – pulling me below the surface as if I’m a fish they’d caught for the supper table.
My lungs burn and my ears pop as I’m dragged swiftly downward. The Toads kick their powerful legs, their webbed feet stretched like flippers. My descent seems effortless to them – and they pull me through the underwater tunnel and through the shimmering air shield at the end of it.
I’m pulled through – and gravity takes effect, dumping me on the cold ground. I double over, gasping and hacking.
I’m dripping wet – and I don’t think I’ll be drying off any time soon. The sticky humidity hits me like a wet slap, and it’s oppressive after the cool, clear water of the viewing tank. The wetness seems to cling to you.
Again, I think back to the shaved heads of the three Aurelians. They forsake fashion for function, and trimmed their thick hair so as not to inconvenience them on board this humid mothership.
I wish I could shave my head the same way – but it’s too late for me to think about that now. I’ve been sold. My new owners will decide such things for me in the future.
The two Toad guards drag me up the stairs. I struggle to yank myself free of their slimy grip.
“I can walk!” I splutter, breathing in desperate lungfuls of air. After holding my breath for so long, I’m now struggling to drag enough oxygen from this humid, steamy atmosphere.
The Toads ignore my protest, and continue to drag me up the stairs. There, we emerge into the well-appointed auction chamber.
The three Aurelians are waiting for me there.
I gasp, suddenly in awe of these three, towering creatures. They look like
the ancient statues of the Greek Gods brought to life – like angels, even though I know they have the hearts of devils.
Marcel sits at the center of the trio, and he slowly rises as I’m brought forward. His two battle-brothers remain seated, eyes vigilant.
I turn to Marcel – and gasp.
There’s a leash dangling from his wrist.
The other end of it, at the end of a long chain, is clipped to a band around his thick wrist. Marcel holds the leash like the owner of a dog might – expecting immediate obedience.
I shiver. Soon, I’ll be his little pet.
I can’t stop shivering despite the heat. Up close, with nothing but a few feet of air between us, Marcel is beyond intimidating. I once swore to never let a man make me nervous – but this looming Aurelian is no ordinary man.
Don’t think of me as weak for saying that – because I’m not. You can’t go up against the worst scum of the universe – Toad slavers, and pirate scum – and expect to get out alive if you’re easily intimidated.
But that was the old me – and the last time I truly felt like her feels like a lifetime ago.
So, I surrender. I allow myself to be dragged before a towering, seven-feet-tall mountain of coiled muscle and marble-white skin.
I gulp dryly as my eyes roam over his muscled physique. It’s as if there’s not an ounce of fat on him – just sinewy, deadly muscle.
Muscle that was almost unleashed on a murderous Bullfrog – a creature that wanted nothing except to give me a slow, painful death.
The scarred Bullfrog terrifies me. These Aurelians – well, I can’t help but be in awe of them. It’s like I’m slapped in the face by the sheer power of the Aurelian species up close.
I press my thighs together.
I’ve heard the rumors. I’ve listened to the myths. I’ve heard that the lusts of Aurelians are endless – that they’re shameless and insatiable.
I have a vision of my near-future. When they get me back to their room, they’ll lose themselves to the legendary mating frenzy of their species. They’ll become like animals, and I’ll cling on for dear life as they ravage me one by one, or all together.