Ronal (The Venkorians #6)

ONE

“When do you think they are going to take us out of here?” Ella whispers.

Each time, they grabbed a girl, they haven’t been seen since. What are they doing with us? Are they killing us off slowly and using the little meat on us for food? Or are they killing us, taking out all of our organs, and stuffing us so they have something to look at all the time?

I shiver at the thought and wrap my arms around my waist. I can’t think about it. I need to believe that they aren’t killing us and are just using us as maids instead.

“Nora?” Ella calls out my name.

They moved us to a different room after they took Leah and Isla. One where they don’t check on us as much.

“I don’t know if we want to be taken out of here,” I tell her. “I don’t know what they are doing to us. We haven’t heard anything or seen any of the girls since they left. We don’t know what they are doing to us.”

“Headmistress Helena said we wouldn’t die,” she informs me.

“Did she tell you that?” I ask. “Does she actually know what is going on, or did she just say that to comfort you because she knew we would put up a fight if we knew the real reason?”

“Headmistress Helena wouldn’t do that,” she rebuts. “She wouldn’t lie to us.”

I shrug and close my eyes, taking a deep breath. This is not how I imagined I would spend the rest of my life, stuck in a cage and about to die.

“We aren’t going to die. They probably just want us in here so we don’t wander off and die or get hurt,” she tries to reason.

“You don’t know that,” I whisper.

I wince as my stomach grumbles and aches, begging for food. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but I do know that I’ve only gotten fed once. I’m starving; I begged them when they came to grab Leah, but they didn’t pay any attention to the other girls or me.

“You saw how they treated Leah.” I look over at Ella. “They dragged her out of the cage, and she injured her foot. They didn’t care one bit that she was hurt. Did you not see that?”

She shakes her head, and I take a deep breath in. Of course she didn’t see it. While Leah made noise, the other girl had just arrived and was exhausted.

“They hurt her and didn’t seem to care. I don’t think they are going to treat us kindly when they take us out of here.

We need to be prepared and try to fight back as much as possible,” I tell her.

“We have to show them that we won’t go down easily and will fight until we die.

We need to show them why they shouldn’t kill us. ”

I don’t know who I am trying to convince, her or me.

“They’ve only given us food once since we got here. We don’t know how long we have been here, but I know it’s been more than two days. I think they want us weak so we can’t fight back, but we can’t give up that easily.” I mumble towards the end.

“Nora, are you okay?” she asks.

I open my mouth right as my stomach twists in pain, and I shake my head. I am not okay. My stomach has been cramping off and on for a while now. There is nothing I can do about it. I have called out several times to gain their attention, but they never come.

“Nora? What’s wrong?” she asks once again. “Talk to me. What is happening?”

“I don’t know,” I mutter, closing my eyes.

I know exactly what is going on, but I don’t want her to worry about it. Hopefully, she leaves before I do, so she won’t have to go through this.

“Let me see if I can get their attention. You don’t look good at all.” Her voice holds concern.

“How do you know?” I ask, my voice growing weaker as I keep my eyes closed. “You are so far away from me. You can’t possibly see me. I really am fine. I’m just tired and a little hungry. It will pass once I get some sleep.”

“I don’t think you should fall asleep right now. What if you don’t wake up?” she asks. “I can’t let you do that. Stay awake and talk to me until someone comes in here and helps you. They have to help you.”

I let out a sigh and grip my dress even tighter, pulling my knees up to try and ease the ache in my stomach.

Is this how I am going to die? I never imagined I would die from starvation. But as I sit here in this cage, I can’t help but think that this is how I am going to go.

“Nora, talk to me. Tell me about what you liked to do on the space station in your free time. Talk to me about what you wish you had done, and what you could do right now if you weren’t here. Just talk to me while I get their attention,” she says.

I crack my eyes open to see her grabbing onto the side of her cage as she tries to stand up.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” I mumble. “There is something different on this planet with the gravity or something. Everything feels so heavy.”

“Anyone! Help! Nora isn’t doing well at all. I think she is going to die!” she yells.

I close my eyes and feel my whole body relax. Hopefully, by the time they get here, I’ll be dead, and they’ll take care of her so that she doesn’t die.

“Nora, talk to me,” she begs. “Talk to me so you stay awake. Come on, I’m right here, and you can do it. Just say some words.”

“I just want to sleep,” I tell her. “I want to sleep and not do anything else. I think this will be the first time that I’ll get some good sleep.”

I’ll pass out and never wake up, the best sleep of my life.

On the space station, I could never manage to stay asleep for longer than two hours, always waking from a nightmare or for unknown reasons.

It has been the same here on Venkoria, but I attributed it to the cage we are in and how uncomfortable it is.

“Help!” Ella screams. “Help us! I think Nora is going to die!”

I hear the door open, but I don’t open my eyes, too tired to even satisfy my curiosity. It doesn’t matter, anyway. Even if they did help me right now, I don’t think I would last long at all. Not with how they have been treating us since.

“Please, help her. She’s so sick,” Ella says.

Words in an unknown language are spoken somewhere in the room. I must be really dying if I can’t even understand English anymore. I take a deep breath and slowly let it out, allowing my body to relax even more.

It’s like my body knows I am going to die soon, and it wants me to be as comfortable as possible. But it would be nice to die with a full stomach without feeling the emptiness.

I hear the same jumbled-up sounds, but they are getting closer. What could they possibly want?

“I can’t understand them, Nora. But it seems like they are going to help you. There are three of them, but one looks really worried,” she explains. “Just hang in there a little longer.”

“I don’t want help. Make them help you.” I crack my eyes open and look over at the girl. My vision is blurry as I try to look at her, but I can’t make anything out.

Hands.

Gentle, massive, warm hands touch my legs and the middle of my back. I tilt my head to the side a little to catch a glimpse of the person touching me. I can’t make out their appearance, but he looks male, as the room seems to be getting darker with each passing second.

He opens his mouth, and before I know it, someone rushes over with something in his hand. He places it around my neck before I can even fight against it.

“What is wrong with her?” the man asks, holding me close to him.

I can’t help but lean my head against his chest, taking in a deep breath. He is so warm and smells amazing. My eyebrows furrow when I realize I know the words he’s saying. I thought I was dying before because I didn’t understand what they were saying, but it seems I can understand them now.

“We do not know,” another male replies.

“Have you been taking care of them?” my savior asks. “Have you given her the shot yet?”

“Ronal, we have been busy, but we gave them food a couple of days ago,” a deep voice replies.

Is my savior named Ronal?

“Shit,” Ronal whispers. “Give her the shot real quick if you have not, and then I will be on my way out.”

“You should wait an hour before you take her,” the deep voice says.

“No, I will not be waiting an hour. Chale didn’t wait, and I am not going to, either.

You have not been taking care of them. They need three meals a day.

I will be talking to your superiors about what you have been doing.

This is unacceptable. I didn’t pay for you to starve her until she almost died,” the man, Ronal, barks.

What is he talking about? Wasn’t this their plan all along?

Starve us to make us weak so we couldn’t fight back when they wanted to kill us?

“We didn’t mean to,” the deep voice replies. “There have been a lot of things going on. Each of us thought another guard had done it for the past couple of days. We only found out today when we were finally able to talk about the next transport of girls coming soon.”

Sounds like excuses to me. Does Headmistress Helena know that they are mistreating us? How can she just sit back and let them do this to us?

“Get your act together and do not let this happen again. It is unacceptable,” Ronal growls.

“Sorry, Ronal. We promise it will never happen again,” a new guard speaks up.

“You’d better, unless you want to lose your job,” Ronal replies and starts walking. “Now, give her the injection so I can take her home.”

Take me home? What is he talking about? Why is he taking me home? Does he mean back to the space station?

“Space station?” I call out, cracking my eyes and looking up at him.

Ronal gazes down at me and gives me a small smile. “No, Little Pet. You are not going back to the space station, and you never will. You are coming home with me. I am going to take care of you for the rest of our lives. Right now, I just need you to be a good Little Pet and relax while we go home.”

I open my mouth, but he shakes his head.

“Daddy is going to place a blanket around you and over your face, so you don’t get blinded by the light and stay warm,” he explains to me.

Before I know what is happening, a blanket is snuggled around me. Whimpering, I try to move my arms, but Daddy holds me tighter.

“Just stay still. We will be back at the apartment before you know it, then I’ll give you some food,” he gently says.

I stop moving at the mention of food. The sooner we get there, the sooner I will be able to fill my stomach. Then I can die, feeling even better than before. With the blanket around me and being held against his hot skin, I am going to get warm.

This is how I want to die.

Warm and full.

“You are not going to die. I will not allow that,” Ronal states.

“H-how?” I whisper, gripping onto the blanket.

I close my eyes as my body grows heavier in his embrace. I feel so comfortable and safe with his arms around me. It’s like we were meant to be.

“Inject her,” Ronal says. “My patience is wearing thin.”

My body locks up at the mention of getting injected. What are they drugging me with?

The blanket moves to the right, and a sharp pain radiates across my neck.

“Please,” I whimper.

“All done,” the deep voice says. “It should start taking effect in an hour. Keep her close to you.”

“Thank you,” Ronal replies and starts walking.

His grip on me tightens as he moves.

“Everything is going to be okay. Daddy is here to take care of you. Nothing is going to happen. I’m sorry that you were in such horrible conditions and that I couldn’t come to you sooner.

I meant to pick you up several days ago, but work got busy.

I didn’t want to have to do anything the first week I got you,” he explains.

Why does he keep calling himself Daddy? Isn’t his name Ronal? That is what the guard called him.

“Daddy thought you were safe and healthy. If I knew that you were being treated like this, I would have come and gotten you right away. I’m sorry.

I will spend the rest of my life making up for that mistake,” he gently says.

“You will never go without a meal. You will never be hungry again. Daddy is so sorry.”

My eyebrows pinch together as I think about his words. This doesn’t sound like he wants me to die. It sounds like he wants me to live for a long time. Did I get everything wrong?

No. I couldn’t possibly have. He probably wants me to believe that everything is going to be okay, so I’ll not expect to die.

“Daddy is going to take you home. You’ll feel the warmth of the sun, but you are not to look outside. I don’t want you to get hurt,” Daddy says.

Hurt? How am I going to get hurt?

He places the blanket over my head and holds me close to him so I can’t possibly move my head. The next thing I feel is the cold air hitting my exposed legs, but the sun heats me.

“Shh, I know you’re cold. Daddy is right here. I’m going to keep you warm,” he whispers. “Let’s go home.”