Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
RUBY
Rowan starts coughing as the smells in this room surround us, and my chest tightens in anxiety. We can’t afford for her to have an asthma attack now and there’s no telling what kind of triggers there are in this place. We sure as shit don’t have her meds, and those damn snakes aren’t going to be sympathetic to her medical issues.
The noise of so many ‘things’ overwhelms my mind as we stand here looking around. There are creatures that could be in a sci-fi movie back home and others that belong in the realm of nightmares. Then there are a few that might even be described as beautiful until you see their faces. Several of the ‘ things’ clamoring around the platform just look hungry.
Several of the girls in front of us are crying, and it takes me a moment to realize what’s happening next. The snake guys are grabbing two at a time, no matter the species, and cutting their clothes off and parading them naked down the platform raised in the middle of this huge ass arena.
Now that I’ve gotten a closer look at it, my initial observation is confirmed. It’s a futuristic version of a beauty pageant stage. One of those that is shaped like a ‘ T ’ where the stage extends out into the crowd. The shouting of the spectators almost drowns out my thoughts as I watch the females reach the end of the stage.
Most of the females are made to turn this way and that, like they’re a prized hog at the county fair, and a loud bell chimes for some. The ones the chime rings for are escorted forcibly down another hallway and away from the rest of us. Their ear-piercing screams are so loud I can hear them over the crowd every time the door is opened.
A quick glance at the back of the ‘stage’ shows another small huddle of females with a guard lingering next to them.
‘ I wonder why they were separated from the others?’
An abrupt noise makes me jerk and I feel Rowan pulling away from me. She’s trying to step back from me and the frenzied crowd of aliens in front of us. Grabbing onto her asking, “ What are you doing? Don’t do anything to make those scaly bastards notice you.”
“ Ruby , I can’t.”
“ I don’t think we’re being given a choice in the matter. I’m not super happy about this either, Sis , but fuck. Do you see a magical door that we can slip through somewhere? I sure as shit don’t and have you looked around at all? Because I believe wholeheartedly that we’re on the other side of the damn rainbow and it isn’t the pretty one, either. This one has led us straight to hell.”
“ Ruby , I’m not like you. My strength and will to live is long gone.”
“ The hell it is! You’re my sister and you are stronger than you’re giving yourself credit for. I can’t do this alone, Sis . You’re the only reason I’m not falling apart right now. I need you Rowan , so please, in the middle of everything else, my mind can’t deal with the thought of losing you too. So , here’s the plan. No matter what they do to us, we do everything we can to stay together. Every time they try to yank us apart, you reach for me, you hear me? We can’t let them separate us, or we’ll be lost to each other forever. I can face this if you’re beside me, but not alone.”
“ I won’t let go.”
Her words no longer leave her lips when vicious, rough hands grab both of us. I was so focused on getting Rowan’s agreement, I didn’t realize we were next in line. The snake shoves us so hard, that for once, Rowan is the one to catch me and not the other way around. Another snake grabs hold of us, trying to rip us apart from one another. A snarl of frustration leaves its lips when it realizes that every time it manages to separate us, we grab hold of one another again, refusing to let go.
Putting up more of a fight than any of the other females so far, Rowan and I do everything in our power to stay together, our nails tearing into one another’s skin in a desperate attempt to keep from being split up. Both of us fighting against our captors with everything we have in us.
Tired of our resistance, one of the snakes grabs Rowan by her long hair, wrapping his fist in her tresses. He’s pulling so hard it makes her body tilt backward. Tears fill her eyes from the pain, but she doesn’t stop trying to reach for me. The snake holding her by the hair glances down snarling, only to pause. I can see its eyes roving all over her face, as if it just noticed the bruising still present on her skin. It utters a guttural sound to the snake holding me, getting its attention.
They hiss back and forth, clearly having some sort of conversation, but they’ve stopped trying to pull us apart, so I don’t care what the fuck they’re saying. I can tell the one holding Rowan is not happy about her condition. The one grasping me darts a look out toward the crowd that seems to have gotten louder in the short amount of time since the snakes grabbed us.
Growling , the one holding me yanks me forward and I’m proud when Rowan pulls out of the other’s hold so that she can grab tightly back onto my hand. A bell sounding overhead has both of us looking down the long stage and before either of us can comprehend what they’re doing, we are torn apart. Knives appear in their scaly hands and even though I knew it was coming, I can’t help from fighting back, trying my damnedest to stop them from cutting my clothes off. My efforts are futile, though, and earn me several nicks deep enough that I can feel the blood bead as it begins to roll down my body.
The ease with how quickly they remove our clothing tells me that they are pros at this. A few strategic cuts and my clothing lays in tatters at my feet. The small pile is almost unrecognizable from the garments I wore seconds ago. Glancing over at Rowan , I can see that she also has a few streams of blood running down her bruised legs. I frown in concern when I notice that she’s hunched over, her body turned away from me slightly. Craning my neck, I try to tell if she’s bleeding from some sort of wound, but she shrinks further into herself and away from me.
My mind hasn’t even caught up to the fact that I’m naked yet when a scaly hand grabs my arm, shoving me ahead of it. I reach out, grabbing Rowan’s hand, again pulling her along with me. Stumbling a little, I walk down the catwalk, my eyes glancing out at the faux darkness that seems to surround us. Lights built into the edge of the stage beat into us, creating the illusion that the arena is dark while showcasing our naked bodies to all the ‘ things’ watching us with hungry eyes.
Rowan whimpers and my head whips around to check on her when the glint of silver catches my eye. When I realize what I’m seeing, I almost trip over my feet. Her body isn’t only covered in bruises, but there is a silver fucking chain hanging between her breasts connected with a small delicate looking lock. My eyes dart up to her face only to see that her eyes are glued to the floor as the snake holding her jerks her one way and then another, showing her off to the audience. I squeeze her hand, trying to provide what little comfort I can while simultaneously comforting myself.
Regardless of what’s going on around us, we still have each other in this moment.
The snake holding my arm draws me to a stop, growling out something as he tilts my head back, its long claws digging into the tender flesh of my face. There is a small flying object fluttering around us. It stops along my body in various places, pauses, and then flashes. ‘ It’s … taking pictures?’ The dark mole on my cheek is the first place it flashes, the bright light so close to my face, it makes me flinch, causing the snake holding me to hiss in annoyance as his claws prick my skin. The resulting warmth flowing down my face tells me he broke the surface this time.
My body is scanned by the camera, which focuses on the tattoo on my hip and then the scars on my knees, remnants of a motorcycle accident some years ago. Suddenly , I realize what the flying thing is doing. It’s categorizing the flaws on my skin. It circles me one more time before a red light goes off and it beeps several times. The snake holding me starts hissing to the other one holding Rowan , as the little camera zooms over to her.
It begins the same process on her battered body, but with far more flashes of light than it did on me. Initially , the bruising and chain attached to her body drew my attention, but flash after flash of that thing has me taking a closer look. Rowan is covered in scars. They’re everywhere and it takes the camera far longer on her than it did on me.
Before we know it, both of us are forced back up the stage, and just as I think they’re going to force us apart, we’re marched past that awful hallway and tossed down with the group of girls along the back wall.
Pulling Rowan close, I scoot back away from them as far as I can. She is shaking so hard I can hear her teeth rattling. That stupid chain catches the light and I reach over, gently touching the lock and immediately noticing how the awful thing is attached to her. Hoops pierce her delicate nipples with the chain connecting them as the small lock holds them together. Her nipples are swollen and inflamed. It has to be terribly uncomfortable, that chain pulling all day, every day on her most sensitive parts. I wish I had a way to get this damn thing off her without hurting her worse.
I refuse to look at where the bottom of the chain leads. My mind can’t comprehend what else he might have forced her to have done. Forced her to pierce. Forced her to endure. All for his own fucking pleasure. Instead , I wrap myself around her, rocking her back and forth as she cries silently. No wonder she was refusing to take that sweatshirt off, she didn’t want me to know.
‘ How do you do something like this to someone you supposedly love?’ What other horrors has she lived through all this time only to have finally eluded it and end up here? As another person gets tossed into our group, a nearby girl accidentally knocks into Rowan , making her jump and snuggle closer to me.
As I lean back against the wall, trying my best to ignore its biting cold, I watch as they parade girl after girl down that runway. The reality of what is happening around us finally sets in. This … this is a market. We were being thoroughly inspected. Bile rises in my throat as all the clues come together.
WE ARE BEING SOLD !
My heart hits my throat as I fight against the terror trying to take over my mind. I don’t know how to protect either of us from what’s to come. Sooner than I like, I realize that the line of girls is rapidly dwindling. The only two left is the girl that was bitten and Sherry . Just as they are headed out onto the stage, the one holding the unconscious girl simply turns toward us, throwing her against the wall next to me.
Sherry , on the other hand, is shoved down the stage the same way we were. I watch as the little camera thing does its inspection on her, but instead of being put back here with us, she’s led down the other hallway.
Her screams of terror are the last thing we all hear before the doors slowly close. A series of bells echo throughout the room. Then within minutes, it becomes eerily quiet as the roaring of the crowd seems to drift away, leaving only us and the few other girls they have tossed in this corner. The snake guarding us sneers in our direction before slithering off. For the first time, we are all left utterly alone in the darkened corner.