The barber pole girl who sang everything led me deeper into the crowd of women milling around the side hall and then we suddenly turned a corner and were in another hall—one considerably narrower and gloomier than the one we had left.
A cool finger of unease ran down my spine.
“Uh, hey, we seem to be getting pretty far from the main hallway, aren’t we?” I asked the girl, who had a firm hold on my right wrist and was pulling me along. “And it’s kind of dark in here, isn’t it?”
“Yes, for my friend has light-sensitive eyes,” she sang without missing a beat. “But he’s very kind—I know he’ll like you.”
“I don’t know…he sounds nice but maybe I should go back.” I tried to put on the brakes, but the striped girl was stronger than she looked. She tightened her grip on my arm and kept dragging me down the dark hallway.
“Don’t you want to get back to your home world?” she sang, looking back at me. “This could be your only chance.”
“I think I’d rather take my chances in the main hallway,” I told her. “Let go of me, please!”
But her grip only tightened even more.
“We are almost there,” she sang. And then she dragged me around another corner into a space which was even darker.
“Hey, let me go!” I leaned back hard, trying to use my body weight as leverage and break her grip but it was too late. I heard a clanging sound and when I twisted my head to see behind me, I saw that someone had pulled a silver metal gate closed, effectively locking me in.
“Well, well,” a deep, raspy voice said. “And what do we have here?”
“I’ve brought you a new girl, Shadrack!” the barber pole girl sang. “She’s a Pure One from the Closed planet—she must be worth a fortune.”
Worth a fortune? Uh-oh. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as I looked into the darkness, trying to see who or what she was talking to.
Once my eyes adjusted, the first thing I saw was a group of five or six women huddled together beside a tall gray pillar. Some of them had obviously been crying and all of them were wearing silver collars around their throats.
Then something moved in the corner and I realized the thing I had thought was some kind of support pillar was actually a person. After a moment, I was pretty sure this person was the same kind of alien that Sir was—a Korrigon.
But this guy wasn’t nearly so nice looking as Sir. He had horns and full-black eyes and a tail, but he also had a scruffy looking beard that sprouted from his lumpish face in little clumps like sickly alfalfa sprouts. That was where his hair ended, though, because he was completely bald on top.
He also didn’t dress like Sir. He wasn’t wearing any kind of business suit, like Sir wore for one thing. He had a thick gut that was barely contained by the stretchy, green material of a garment that looked like a sleeveless T-shirt—the kind some people call a “wife beater.” His big, gray belly hung over the waistband of too-tight trousers that were an off-putting shade of salmon and were tucked into enormous green boots that matched the shirt.
And did I mention his smell? Well, he reeked. Have you ever been at a fish market or any supermarket where they sell raw fish? And have you ever gone there when the fish they were selling was starting to go off? Well, that’s what this guy—this Shadrack—smelled like. Rotten fish. It was disgusting—to the point that I thought I might gag when he came near me—which he proceeded to do.
“Well, well,” he rasped, leaning down to get a better look at me. “A Pure One, is it? And from the Closed world the Ancient Ones had locked for so long? Won’t you make a nice little Sex Pet, girly!”
“You’d better leave me alone!” I exclaimed, backing away from him.
“Oh yeah? And why should I do that?” The gray giant with the extremely questionable fashion sense grinned at me, showing yellow teeth.
“Because,” I said quickly. “I can tell you’re from Korrigon Four—well so is my Master. And he’s the Overlord of the entire Northern Continent!”
“She’s lying!” the barber pole girl—who I had almost forgotten about—sang indignantly. “I found her wandering around the Great Hall alone! I didn’t see any Master!”
The gray giant leaned closer, making me feel even more ill as his rotten-fish odor wafted over me. I held my breath as he wrinkled his nostrils and inhaled deeply, as though he was sniffing me for some reason.
“No,” he said to the barber pole girl, straightening up at last. “This little pet is telling the truth—at least part of the truth. I can smell the scent of a HighBorn all over her, though there’s no fucking way the Overlord of the Northern Continent would be traveling out in this Goddess-forsaken galaxy all by his lonesome.”
“Sir is too the Overlord! He came here just to get me as his pet!” I exclaimed. “You’d better let me go if you know what’s good for you!”
“Oh no, little pet.” The giant grinned at me. “What’s good for me is more credits in my pocket. You see, this means you’re worth even more. There’s plenty that will pay extra for a Sex Pet with the stink of the HighBorn on ‘em—especially for a Pure One. So you’ll be coming with me back to Korrigon Four, nice and quiet like, where you’ll fetch a pretty price at the Under Road Pet Auction.”
“What? No!” I exclaimed, but he was already paying the barber pole girl and shoving her out of the caged-in area, apparently having decided I was now his property. He moved too quickly for me to slip out, slamming the metal gate shut behind her.
“You bitch!” I yelled through the bars as the barber pole girl sauntered away, counting her cash. “How can you betray other women like this? What’s wrong with you?”
She didn’t even bother to look back at me or answer me. The last I saw of her, she was disappearing around the corner, her red and white hide shimmering in the dim light.
“All right now, little pet…” The gray giant had turned back to me. “You come here and let’s take off that expensive collar and give you a nice control collar to wear. That should take care of your attitude problem.”
“No!” I backed away from him. “You let me go! I’m telling you, my Master is going to be here any minute! Er, any mern, I mean!”
“Naw—he’ll never find you back here.” He gave a grating chuckle that sounded like rocks in a riverbed grinding against each other as he reached for me. “Come here, now—the sooner we get that control collar on you, the sooner you’ll shut your pretty little mouth and join the herd.” He nodded at the other women, still huddled silently together.
“No!” I gasped, dodging away from the huge hand that was reaching for me. I ran to the far corner of the dark cell to avoid him. He came at me again and again I dodged out of the way just in time.
He was big but he was slow, I thought. Then again, I was locked in with him—how long could I keep up this little game of keep-away we had going?
“I said come here, you little bitch!” he roared angrily as he lumbered over to try and grab me again.
As he reached down, I ducked between his legs and made a run for the metal gate. Maybe I could get it open somehow and get away! I kind of doubted it but it was the only shot I had. I made it to the gate before he even turned around and started yanking on the metal bars desperately.
“Open up—open up!” I moaned tugging uselessly at the locked gate. “Oh my God, please! Open up!”
“I don’t think so, girly.”
Hard, cold hands seized my shoulders and started dragging me away from the bars. I held on for as long as I could but he was far stronger than me. I could feel the skin being scraped off my palms by the sharp metal as he finally pulled me away. Then he slapped me.
It might have been no more than a love tap to another Korrigon, but it felt like a knock-out punch to me. I fell on the ground, gasping and holding my face. My cheekbone felt like it was fractured and my eye was already swelling shut.
The gray giant named Shadrack stood over me, panting.
“Don’t make me ruin your looks, girly,” he snarled down at me. “It’ll make your value go down at the Pet Auction.”
“Leave me alone!” I gasped, still trying to be strong. But the words tasted like blood in my mouth—probably because my lip was bleeding.
“Can’t—gotta put that control collar on you before you make me ruin the other side of your face, too. You’re too damn aggravating without it!”
He reached down and grabbed me by the arm. He yanked me to my feet with such force, I felt like my shoulder was being pulled out of its socket.
I let out a cry but he paid no attention. Instead, he reached for the golden collar Sir had put on me, pawing at my neck with his big, clammy hand. He got two fingers between the golden collar and my throat and began to twist, cutting off my airway.
“Just…gotta…snap it,” I heard him grumble to himself.
I choked and tried to push his hands away, but he was too strong. As my breathing was cut off entirely, I felt a sense of despair. My grand escape attempt had turned into a nightmare. I should probably have stayed with Sir—at least he hadn’t knocked me around and choked me!
But I’d had to take my shot, hadn’t I? I just should have been smarter about it. And now I would never get home—never see my mom and sister again.
The world was turning gray around me when I suddenly heard a familiar voice right outside the metal bars.
“How dare you, you LowBorn scum!” it rumbled. “Take your fucking hands off my pet or suffer the consequences!”