by Zara Zenia
“You are trembling,” she said as she crouched down beside me.
“What did you do to me?”
I was still holding my head, the blood running between my fingers.
“We have given you something you will learn to appreciate. A chemical that will let you understand any language that reaches your ears.
“So-so, yo- you’re not speaking English?”
She shook her head.
“On your travels, you will hear many languages but you will only hear them as though they were your native one. Which I take to be English…”
I nodded not knowing what else to do. This was insane.
“But you mustn’t be afraid.”
“Really?” I gasped. “Because from my position, it seems I have every reason to be.”
She cocked her head to the side as though she was offended and let out a sigh.
“You will not be hurt.”
She placed a hand on my arm. It was icy to the touch.
“What do you want with me?” I asked.
“You are valuable to me,” she nodded as she spoke. “You will bring a great deal of pleasure.”
Her words sounded insidious, dark and loaded with meaning although I couldn’t fathom what she meant.
“Wh-what are you going to do with me?”
Something about the way the creatures acted made me think if they wanted to kill me, they would have done it already.
“You are a slave now… Or you will be when you are sold,” she explained casually. “Until then you are my property.”
“A slave?”
I began to shake, my hands unable to stay still beside me.
“Where are we going? Who will I be a slave for?”
There were too many questions running through my mind. I couldn’t articulate everything I wanted to ask. It was all so unthinkable, all so unbelievable.
“You will find out soon enough,” she patted me on the head as though I was a naughty child. “But you must not worry. I am not just any slave trader, I only deal with the best in the universe.”
She spoke as if her words would put me at ease but they only served to confuse me even more.
“A slave…” I whispered into the darkness.
“There is much honor in being a slave of your kind,” she said as she walked toward the door.
Her brutes were in tow, their eyes fixed on me as they stepped away.
“How can there be honor in being a slave?” I asked.
“You won’t be any slave. Once you are bought you will live in luxury. I do not trade with degenerates.”
“But what does that mean?”
I reached out a hand as I called out to her but she was already leaving me behind in the shadows.
“It means you will live a privileged life, but enough questions. You will find out soon enough.”
“But... Wait, who are you?”
She stopped, lingered in the doorway with one foot in the hall.
“My name is Reli and I work for Celestial Mates—a dating agency. And for the moment I own you, which means you must do as I say. No more questions and don’t cry so much. It ruins your looks, decreases your value.”
And she was gone.
I heard her light footsteps as she hurried away. Now that she and the guards were gone it was just me, the darkness and the other captured girls. There were so many. They huddled in groups around the edges of the room and whispered to one another as they kept their distance from me.
“Hello?” I tried to make contact with them, my voice croaky with tears as I spoke. “I can understand you all now.”
I touched the wound at the back of my head again. It was still stinging although the blood had begun to dry. I listened as the whispering intensified.
“Won’t somebody talk to me?”
The whispering echoed off the walls. I could hear snippets of conversation emerging from the darkness.
“She’s not like us…”
“She’s a human you know…”
“She’ll be bought first.”
“Expensive.”
“More valuable than us…”
They sounded like snakes in the shadows. I squinted as I tried to see their faces but all I saw was a flurry of hands as they covered their mouths. In the corner a single eye rotated toward me, it was as green as an emerald. I leaned forward on my knees, scurried over to the person staring at me. They were silent and shrouded in blackness. Reaching out a hand to touch them, I was hit by a noise. Loud hissing pierced my ears and I shrunk back.
“Jesus!”
I slapped my hands to my ears and leaned my head between my legs. When I opened my eyes, the girl with the emerald eyes had hidden once again, hostile and far away from me. It would seem I wasn’t going to find a friend down here.
Behind me, a small window sat halfway up the wall. Standing up and finding my balance on the moving ship, I walked over to it and reached up on tip toes. My nose grazed the bottom of the glass. I couldn’t see much at all but what I did manage to glimpse was mesmerizing. Sheer blackness punctuated by stars as they zoomed past. The universe was infinite and we were hurtling headlong into the abyss. Although who knew where we would end up. I wondered if the planet we were going to would be anything like Earth. Would it be hostile? Would there be other humans? Would the air smell the same? Or would it be poisonous?
Unable to hold myself up on my toes anymore I fell back and rested my forehead against the cold, steel wall of the ship. The whispers continued behind me, but quieter. The other girls were obviously growing weary of their gossiping. I tried to see them again, squinted against the dark as my eyes adjusted to the meager light. Just shapes of bodies that were unfamiliar. Tails and claws, large heads and skinny limbs that were covered in colors I never knew existed. It was then that I did something I thought I would never do. Despite discovering the existence of aliens, I fell to my knees and began to pray to God. In the moment it seemed like if one existed then it was just as likely the other did.
“Please, Lord… I don’t know if you’re there but if you can hear me out there in space, please can you make sure this ship lands somewhere safe.”
The girls began to snigger at me.
“Religion,” I heard one of them mutter under her breath. “The solace of the damned.”
“Stupid human,” chimed in another.
I clenched my eyes shut and pressed my palms together tighter, felt the speed of us moving against my knees as they pressed into the ground.
“Please, God. Don’t let me die up here.”
And as I closed my lips something changed. There was a pressure drop in the air, I could feel it in my gut. Then I was flung on my side. The girls squealed, held onto one another as the ship changed direction and threw us from one side of the dungeon to another. The chaos sent us flying into one another. Death seemed certain. Then the ship became calm once again although we were now flying at a steady decline, one side of the room tilted up high above the other.
“I think we’re landing,” one of the girls said.
“We are,” said a tall girl with radiant silver skin and legs that stretched for at least four feet.
She was standing at the little window, staring out with ease. Her eyes were like narrow slits in her long, bony face. Her hair was platinum and tied up high on top of her head like an antenna.
“We’re landing on a planet. I can see it getting closer,” she told us.
“What does it look like?” I asked.
She gave me a tense look, obviously annoyed that I was speaking to her.
“It’s red,” she said. “That’s all I can see right now.”
A red planet, I thought. Was it Mars?
“We’re in its atmosphere now!” she gazed up.
A plethora of colors shone through the window and illuminated her face in a rainbow of radiation. Then she covered her eyes with her arm.
“Aargh! It burns.”
She crouched down on the floor rubbing her eyes.<
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“Who do you think will buy us?” a girl behind me asked.
Her voice was light and airy, as innocent as a sea breeze. She sounded more like a child. I spun round to see her and was confronted with an elfin girl with small features and cobalt eyes. She gave me a haughty look.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” she said.
Her terse words surprised me. I had done nothing to gain her hostility.
“You won’t have to worry about a thing. Didn’t you hear Reli? You’re valuable. You’ll probably get bought by a prince and live a happy life,” she spat.
I scuffled away from the crowd of girls. Besides us all being in the same position, I shared nothing with them. They hated me and there was nothing I could do about it. I pulled myself into a corner and lay my head down on my arms, lying like a dog for its master to return. As I closed my eyes I hoped the world we were landing on was a safe one.
Chapter 5
Urie
“The Tetra Collider, it is a great instrument. It has been seen to take out as many as two hundred in one go. The Acetyl guns, on the other hand, those are better for closer combat. They have one hundred percent accuracy but take out fewer numbers.”
Nereid walked beside me, his great lumbering frame struggling to catch up with me. His stomach forward, heavy and bulbous and he rested a hand on top of it as he walked. I slowed down to let him speak with greater ease, the words coming from his mouth with short sharp breaths. He wheezed as he took a step.
“So what do you think will suit your troops the best? Whatever you want I can give to you at a good price. You have always been a loyal customer, Urie.”
Arms dealers, they always got straight to the money but I wanted to talk about other things first.
“I will have to think about it, dear Nereid but I think we will reach an amicable agreement.”
He nodded happily with his two guards beside him. They were staring straight ahead with their attention on the people around us, ready and waiting to attack at any moment if they needed to.
“I must say, Urie. We have known each other a long time and I feel that it is possible for me to speak in earnest. Is that so?”
“It certainly is.”
“Good, because I feel I must say that it looks as though something is troubling you.”
He was right. The X’Sorians were still playing on my mind. My body had healed from the trauma of battle but the memories were still fresh in my mind.
“I assume you heard of our latest victory,” I turned to him with a raised eyebrow.
“I did young Urie!” he slapped a hand to my back. “You are a mighty fierce warrior and leader. It has been said that you tore the head from the enemy commander and showed it to his men.”
“I did just that,” I chuckled to myself. “Although I can’t say I am particularly proud of such barbaric behavior.”
“Ah, nonsense,” Nereid scoffed. “You talk of brutality as though it is a terrible thing. Where would civilization be if it wasn’t for the occasional act of violence? It is part of our lives, part of existence. War makes our world go round. Without it would we live in a utopia? Or would the weak thrive?”
He had a penchant for wandering off on a tangent, talking about things that fascinated me as much as they confused me. I nodded and pursed my lips together.
“You are as wise as always,” I said.
He smiled at the compliment and patted his round stomach.
“So then, young man, will you tell me what ails you?”
I thought for a second, decided whether I could trust him or not.
“You have dealt with the X’Sorians haven’t you?”
“I have. Although I can’t say that I enjoyed it.”
“They are savage aren’t they?”
“They are.”
We shared a conspiratorial glance, a shared hatred for the race of monsters.
“I must ask. If you were to identify a weakness within the X’Sorians, what would you say it was?”
He went silent and poked about the inside of his mouth with his tongue as he thought, a peculiar habit that distorted his face.
“Hmm… I think it would be…,” he looked down to the ground, carefully placing one foot in front of the other. “…I think it would be their arrogance. You may have defeated them this time but they are still complacent. They have a sturdy sense of egotism that is almost impossible to shake.”
“And you think that could be a hindrance under the right circumstances?”
“I think it’s possible.”
“That’s interesting,” I said.
I clasped my hands behind my back and matched my stride with his. As we walked from the palace, we made our way to the center of the city. Most meetings, especially ones with my elders and advisors, take place within the confines of a stuffy room, seated around a table that keeps us in place. I, on the other hand, like to conduct meetings in the open. It not only relaxes us but it keeps the conversation relaxed. Not to mention guests are less likely to get annoyed and make a spectacle of themselves if they are in public. I find they like to be seen with me and act with the impeccable manners I desire, walking by my side with their chest puffed out with the pride of fraternizing with the planet’s leader.
As I think about the X’Sorians and what plan of action I must take, I’m so preoccupied with my thoughts that I barely notice what is happening further down the street. It isn’t until Nereid elbows me in the ribs that I look up and see the commotion.
“Is it, young Urie?”
“Is it what?”
“My, my,” he laughed. “You must have your head in the clouds. It looks like an auction of some sort. Is it a slave auction? I have heard about them but never seen one in person.”
Slave auctions… I never liked them. Not that I abhorred them, but I rather thought they were tedious affairs. I had, of course, bought a few slaves myself, loyal young people, who had served me well in the palace. Yet, as Nereid and I moved closer, I saw that these slaves were not being sold for housework and sundry tasks. I recognized the slave master right away, Reli, the notorious beast, employed by Celestial Mates.
I didn’t have much time to focus on her because there was a noise, a shrill voice shrieking out across the crowd.
“Don’t you dare touch me!”
The voice sounded full of terror. I craned my neck to see better and saw the stage, a line of girls queued up waiting to be bought. They were all beautiful, but not as beautiful as the girl who was yelling at Reli.
“You’ll have to kill me before I go home with anyone!”
“She’s feisty!” Reli told the crowd.
They all chuckled and cheered at the girl, enjoying the anger and fear in her eyes.
“She is hard work too but pleasure comes at a price. She is worth it. Beautiful human girls always are.”
Nereid reached up on tiptoes and whispered into my ear.
“It’s true. Human girls have the firmest, ripest bodies. They are soft and more beautiful than any other species.”
I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. How would he know? Yet I couldn’t deny that he was right. The girl on display was exquisite, slender and tall with flowing hair and dazzling eyes. Her lips were moist, her teeth sparkling white as she gritted them. I pushed through the crowd to see more of her. Standing pressed up against the stage, my eyes met Reli’s and she gave me a sly smile.
“You must behave, sweet human, for we are in the presence of a king.”
The girl looked down at me and spat in my direction.
“I don’t care if you’re royal or not! I’d rather die than be bought as a slave.”
“She is feisty,” Nereid was by my side again, puffing and panting from the exertion of fighting through the crowd.
I wasn’t listening to him. Something was happening in my body. A heat was building up inside of me that the girl ignited. She was angry and dramatic, a million miles away from all the simpering females that had been thrust in my dir
ection as a possible mate. A night with her would be a challenge, not to mention her body was perfect and supple. I could caress her beautiful curves for hours and feel the softness of her skin beneath my calloused hands.
Reli was holding her from behind, whispering orders in her ears.
“Be a good little human, won’t you? Put on a good show.”
“I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to be doing?”
“Just fight me and stand up for yourself. The leader is here, there’s nothing he’ll like more than a young human woman who can fight.”
Samantha didn’t know who the leader was, nor did she care to find out, but she did as she was told for fear of being hurt. The slave master had been hard on her, dragging her from the hull of the ship and throwing her on stage before the others. It was obvious she was her favorite and was expected to obtain a high price.
“It hurts,” she cried as the chains around her wrists dug into her skin.
“I don’t care,” Reli snarled in her ear. “Just fight me, come on! Pretend that you hate me.”
“I do hate you,” Samantha seethed.
“Good…” Reli laughed as she pushed her in the back. “Don’t hold back.”
I watched her struggle against her restraints, her hands tethered behind her back. She was getting angrier the more Reli pushed her from one end of the stage to the other but I enjoyed the spectacle. There was something so alluring about seeing her bound up and raging mad. Her breasts popped forward as she struggled, a vein in her neck throbbing blue below her jaw. I could have watched her for hours.
Something began to happen to me that hadn’t taken place in a long time. I was growing hard. Pushing down my hand, I tried to hide my penis as it grew into a bulge behind my pants. Reli, being the professional that she is, noticed my lust for her and pulled the girl up by her hair. She yelped as her scalp stung, cried like a wounded animal as she was dragged once more across the stage. She was then ungraciously thrown to the floor, tears falling from her eyes as her knees hit the ground. Her eyes pleaded with mine. Despite her acting furious and putting on a good show, I could see she was afraid, so deeply afraid that her body was quivering as she lay there, her breasts trembling.