Chapter 6
I sat cross-legged and glared at the metal mesh door of my cage.
This was ridiculous.
The second Mr. Murder Mayhem Hot Stuff left, the cranky kitty lady had wrestled me into one of the two small cages that lined the wall.
I tried to dig my heels in, but she was strong and I was barely able to stand.
She had brought me out once or twice to try to weigh and probe me, but I wasn't having any of that.
I rubbed my aching hand.
I probably shouldn't have punched her.
It said a lot about the alien that she didn’t hurt me after I nailed her. She just restrained me and continued with her mission to put me in the cage. It was clear she wasn’t malicious, just didn’t think of me as someone whose thoughts or opinions could be taken into account.
Being imprisoned wasn’t my cup of tea.
The room didn't have anything fun to look at other than empty cages.
Various metal boxes with tubes, lights, and switches sat on top of movable carts shoved into haphazard arrangements around the edges of the large room, keeping the center open and clear except for one tall metal table.
Thank goodness none of it was organic and oozing.
The door to the room opened, and Arnina walked in, looking full on Jane of the Jungle in a patched together outfit of giant leaves.
Her hair was an absolute wreck. The one thing she had going for her was that the cat boy alien next to her who had fur and hair coloring that absolutely screamed snow leopard, wasn't escorting her… she had him on a leash.
"NEEN! You lucky seastar!" I cried out. "How come I'm stuck in a cage, and you have eight-foot giant elf leopard freak Tom Holland look alike on a GORRAM leash?"
She looked around the room for me, finding me in my unpleasantly small cage.
"Lorelei?" she cried out.
"Are you wearing leaves?" I demanded. "How do I get a set?" The doctor slash prison guard had stolen my towel when she shoved me in here, and I was tired of having all of my bits on display.
Arnina dropped the leash, unwrapped the alien's tail that was gently caressing her, and rushed towards her.
A loud growl rumbled through the room, a lion's snarl that rattled the metal bits and bobs around the space.
Arnina ignored it and its lashing tail, running over to the cage I was in. Her new Boy Toy moved in between her and the towel-stealing doctor, and began to do a whole song and dance routine.
They really wiggled when they talked to each other.
Their voices overlapped, creating beautiful harmonies that sounded like they were singing a rehearsed piece, rather than having a conversation.
It was like watching a musical where the actors didn’t think the audience mattered at all and were completely focused on one another.
"He defends you, too?" I crawled to the cage door on my hands and knees, threading my fingers through the bars of my cage. "How do I get one of those?"
"Lorelei, he didn't treat me like this before. I think the leash is his way of apologizing or earning my trust. I'm pretty sure he knows I'm sentient now," she said, searching the edge of the cage. "What was the last thing you remember?"
She stopped and began rummaging through a set of keys.
How did she get keys?
I grinned at her through the bars.
After years of knowing that she was with a serious fast food dumpster of a human being, a person I knew for a fact was a criminal, who absolutely would have hurt her both physically and psychologically - it was nice to see her displaying some form of power.
She hadn’t told me what happened between her and her ex yet.
But I already knew from my experience with him.
He had been the kind of guy who deserved to be in jail, but would likely never get there because of other men thinking his behavior was just normal for men.
I eyed the alien male behind her.
I hesitated.
She had abandoned our years of friendship over some guy that treated her like shit. What would she be willing to do for a man who freed her from captivity? I didn’t like that uncertainty, that lack of trust. But I had to honor it, and recognize it.
I could want to reach out to an old friendship and still be distrusting of it.
As long as I didn’t dump my feelings all over her.
Those I could keep to myself.
"We were walking on the beach, right?" I said. "That was the last thing I remember before waking up in this nightmare."
At least I could test out the waters before I gave her all the info.
It wasn’t that I felt like there was any harm that would come from sharing the exact details of what went down, there just was this sick distrusting feeling inside of me that coiled around my words and made them want to hold something tight to my chest, something to keep that was mine to share when I felt like it.
"The beach is the last thing for me, too." She nodded, trying a key in my door's lock.
"Then I was here, and this freak alien was like weighing me and trying to stick things places." I scowled. "I hope I broke her face, when I punched it because I definitely broke my hand. How did you convince bondage snow leopard elf that you were sentient? This bitch ignores everything."
"Teenagers," she said, trying another key.
"You gotta give me more than that," I dug for more info as she swung the door open.
"I got the teenagers to recognize I'm not an animal, and they taught me how to introduce myself. We're in a zoo, by the way. I have a whole pen where all sorts of aliens gawk at me."
"Is that where you got the leaves?" I asked as I crawled out of the cage.
The two aliens behind us became even louder, the cage opening a trigger for the argument. The doctor lady tried to step around Neen’s Boy Toy, but he shifted to block her path.
"Yes, now let's convince the other one that we're intelligent, so it stops freaking out," she replied, grabbing my hand, not noticing when I winced at her touch.
She had always been less aware of others.
It was great in the fact that she didn't get upset by microaggressions, but it also meant she was a little lacking in friendship awareness.
Arnina sang something at the aliens while waving her arms like a modern dancer doing an emotional piece about a teapot. She gave me a meaningful look afterwards, like she wanted me to copy her.
It sounded like their language.
The rude doctor lady froze and stared at her.
"Cthulhu's balls, Neen. You know I can't sing," I said. How was I supposed to copy her?
"Do your best, and maybe just emphasize the gestures? I know you're a good dancer," she said.
"I dance underwater, Neen." I crossed my arms, not mentioning that I’d expanded my dancing venues since we last hung out. She would judge me, I just knew it. She already hadn’t trusted my opinion of her ex when I performed at kids’ parties.
Telling her what I’d done for a living in the last several years wouldn’t help her believe in me. "My land legs need a lot more work."
"If you can't get the notes, just work on the up or down directions of the sounds. Now, repeat after me," she said before singing the whole introductory shebang to try to teach the aliens our names.
Yeah, that doctor lady didn’t deserve to know my real name.
Putting me in a cage canceled out the fact that my body felt better than it had in years, minus the hand I’d punched her with of course.
"My name is fuck you," I croaked out like a frog high on licking itself, and flipped a double bird.
"Lorelei!" Arnina cried out. "We need to make friends here! We are up shits creek without a spaceship, and all we have are these zoo employees to help us out!"
"Wait till they try to stick a probe up your butt and see how friendly you feel," I scowled, crossing my arms.
I walked away, grabbed a large sheet of fabric off the shelf, and began wrapping it around me like a toga. I'd spent enough time being a captive. Like heck, I was going to bother with anyone who didn't bring me my enemies’ heads in a box.
The aliens were singing at each other again.
I struggled to get my toga tied.
My hand really hurt.
It was getting difficult to move.
Arnina joined me and helped me with my make-shift outfit. I let her finish, feeling both cranky and relieved to see her at the same time. It would be nice if my emotions could just pick a direction and stick to it.
Arnina picked up another towel.
"Grab another," she said. "If we get put back in the pen, we can use them to try to climb up to the balcony."
"You got it, seastar," I replied, snatching several more and putting on layers.
"Arnina," her alien on a leash sang out.
She turned and walked over to him with passive obedience, validating my previous concerns. Ugh, this was so like her. The second she found a guy she liked she ignored every red flag about him, like the fact that his species liked to keep ours in cages.
I crossed my arms and watched them.
They sang words back and forth, pointing at their stomachs. Arnina was grinning away like a fool who'd just found out the meaning of true love.
Then her alien unsheathed his claws.
He was clearly getting agitated by the conversation - perhaps that was one way of indicating his emotions?
Maybe it was less true love and more craving someone who could protect her.
These males had some serious weaponry built in.
Then he, the doctor, and Arnina started going back and forth some more, even passing around what looked like a set of tongs.
Unable to follow what was going on, I began to space out.
Did my headhunter guy cut off those reptaliens' heads with his bare claws? If so, how did he keep his fur so clean? How much work would it be to shampoo every inch of him? I flushed at the thought, imagining soapy suds dripping down his hard, rippled body.
Arnina was pointing at me and singing, and the gesture brought me back to what they were doing.
Then her male sang something else and pointed at his butt.
"Don't tell me he wants you to put on a strap-on and ride him like a pony?" I asked.
Arnina ignored me, very focused on her language lesson.