“Are you almost ready to go?”
Mary pulled a coat over herself and stepped out of her bedroom, closing the door behind her. She looked up at her friend, April, and nodded.
“Yep, I should be good to go.”
They both headed out the front door of their apartment and drove downtown. It was April’s twenty-second birthday, and she had been prodding Mary about going out and drinking all week.
They popped into the nearest bar, deftly squeezing past the super-sized bouncer ‘guarding’ the entrance.
The club wasn’t especially packed, since it was a Wednesday night. Lights flashed across the foggy dance floor, while bass and music pounded against every wall. The smell of dry sweat and alcohol was pervasive.
They found a table and sat down.
Mary sighed in relief as she shrugged her coat off and hung her purse on the back of her stool. She gave April an expectant look.
“Well, birthday girl, what would you like?”
April seemed distracted. Mary followed her gaze and saw a overdressed man leaning back against the bar, giving the women an interested look.
After a moment, “Oh, a piece of that ass, that’s for sure.”
Mary groaned. “Not this again. You know I can’t stand those creeps.”
“They’re not creeps, they’re hot,” April said through a smile. “I’m going to mooch a drink off him, you want anything?”
“Nah, I don’t want to give him any ideas, inflate his already massive ego,” Mary said. She cracked a smile and waved April on. No reason to not indulge her.
April hopped off her stool and wandered over to the stranger. Mary watched the two flirt excessively, and felt her stomach turn a little. She couldn’t see what April thought was so hot about the kind of arrogant guy who had more confidence than self-awareness.
Mary liked a little subtlety. A little deviousness, maybe more of a game? She mused on the thought for a moment, the background bass and lights vanishing.
April and her new boy pulled her out of her daydream. She blinked hard and looked to them.
“Someone looks a little lost,” April said. “Anyway, this is Jacob.” April touched his chest as she said his name. “He said he wanted to meet both of us.”
He flashed a smile and extended a hand. Mary managed a brief smile and gave him a cordial wag, before letting go. He didn’t seem phased.
“Mind if I get you two a drink?”
“I’m okay,” Mary said quickly. She bit her lip. After looking at April, she nodded with a sigh. “I don’t take drinks from strangers.”
Jake held up his hands defensively. “Whoa, I’m not a stranger anymore, we met.”
April glared at Mary. “Fine fine,” Mary relented. A slight smile crossed her lips.
“I’d love one,” April said, slinging her arm under Jake’s. He held up his index finger and moved to the bar.
April took her seat again and planted her elbows on the sticky table, cradling her chin.
“Already in love, huh?”
April scrunched her face in disgust.
“No, just thinking about gettin’ some tonight.”
“Good for you.”
April frowned and exhaled. “Hey, you didn’t have to come if you didn’t want to. You don’t have to be a stick in the mud, ya know.”
Before Mary could defend herself, Jake returned with three drinks, a shot for each of them. He pushed one toward each of the girls and took the third in his hand.
“Drink up, ladies. On me.”
Mary took it and held it in her fingers as if it would bite her. “I don’t know if I wanna drink too much tonight,” she whined.
April glared at Mary, forcing her to shrug at the thought. The three clinked their glasses together and downed them.
***
After downing the shots, Mary loosened up and let April get her some drinks. After getting lubricated up, they hit the dance floor and the night turned to a blur of thundering music and flashing lights. Jake grasped Mary by the chin and planted a wet kiss on her, before sliding his tongue up to her forehead. She shuddered as April watched with intent eyes, afire with alcohol and lust.
Soon the three returned to the apartment and Jacob and April disappeared into April’s room. Mary slinked onto her bed and the world spun lazily around her. She shut her eyes as sleep drowned out the sound of April and Jacob fucking in the other room.
***
The sensation of water on her face woke Mary up. She blinked hard and tried to pull her sheet up, but found it had fallen on the floor.
She reached down and another drop of water splashed on her lips, rousing her enough to open her eyes.
She wasn’t in her room at all.
A dimly lit stone floor and four walls surrounded her. The water had soaked the top of her thin shirt down to her stomach, and the hard stone floor left a coarse impression on her face. She touched her skin carefully, brushing sand and dirt off her cheek. She shook her head and blinked hard again.
She moved to stand up and found her neck and back sore with pain. The floor hadn’t been kind to her throughout the night. Was it still night, anyway? What happened?
She stood up and braced herself against the wall. It was cold to the touch, frosting her fingers as they pressed against it.
“I’m dreaming, right?”
Thick scraping echoed through the room, bouncing off the stone walls, followed by indistinct howls and grunts that seemed to come from every direction. Mary’s eyes grew wide as her heart started racing, the sound itself setting her teeth on edge.
She crawled back against the wall and leaned against it, letting the cold stone seep deeper through her damp shirt. A thundering sound reverberated against her back, and she leaped off it, fear filling her body.
She squeezed her hand to try and stave off her tremors, but it was no use.
A single torch hung on the wall, encased in a small metal cage. It was unreachable.
She reached into her pocket to find her phone. It was dead.
A caged door with rotting iron bars blocked the only way in and out of her cell. The sounds emanated from that direction. Mary steeled her nerves and swallowed hard, taking careful steps closer to the cell door.
When she reached it, she instinctively grasped the bars, the rough metal threatening to slice into her palms. The hallway was just as dimly lit as the cell, and seemed to extend forever. Torches barely lit the hallway. Each wall was lined with similar caged doors. Whatever was making the horrifying sounds lurked inside those cells.
The scraping and howling grew more numerous the longer she stood there. Then the smell came, a rancid, unknowable smell filled her nostrils. A mixture of dried bodily flood and rotting meat.
She clenched her mouth shut, forcing back her stomach from spilling its contents.
She gulped hard. “Hello!?” she called out into the distance. Her voice echoed back to her, and the howling intensified in reply, the cries and groans deafening and drowning out her pleads for help.
She released the bars and moved to the back of her cell again. Despite the insanity of everything around her, she didn’t feel defeated yet. It had to be a dream right?
***
A few hours later, she heard footsteps in the hall. The sound kickstarted her heart; while she hadn’t been sleeping, she hadn’t been focusing on anything but the wailing either.
A cloaked figure parted the darkness outside her cell and stood, saying nothing.
She slowly moved closer to the front of the cell, blood rushing in her ears.
There was something... off about the figure outside her cage. He stood in a strange manner, and his cloak seemed bulgy and misshapen around him. His face was obscured from the hood, and he breathed silently.
Mary opened her mouth to speak, but found her mouth parched. She gulped hard and tried again.
“Who are you?” she asked.
The man turned his head toward her and let out a low chuckle. Mary’s skin crawled, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. She clenched a fist.
“What the fuck is this, some kind of sick trick?” Her words came pouring out of her mouth, her flushed face only betraying her feigned confidence. “Where the fuck am I? Would you just fucking answer me?”
In a surge, she moved to the bars and grabbed them, thrusting her face between the metal. The rotted iron scratched her face, but her eyes barreled into the blackness under the cloak, trying to make out any kind of detail.
“Here. Stop all of this,” the man said. His voice was strange, warbled, indistinct. It had a hard edge to it, almost unnatural. He produced a key out of his cloak and pushed it into her chest, his fingers grazing her shirt. “I’m sorry.”
Without a thought, she reached up and held the key against her chest, his fingers only slipping past hers as she pushed against it. She cradled it, looking at it for only a moment.
“‘Sorry’?” She looked up in confusion, and saw the man was gone.
The fading echo of his footsteps were the only clue to which direction he went.
Mary took the key and slid her arm through the bars. After slipping the key into the lock, a satisfying clunk sounded. She exhaled hard as she wrenched the door open, the screech of the worn metal pounding off the stone walls.
The roar and howl of the other prisoners gained new energy and fervor. Mary covered her ears and shut her eyes, trying to focus on the sound of her shallow breathing.
After the sounds died down to a dull roar, she poked her head out of her cell and looked down each hallway.
Dimly lit torches lined the halls, and regrettably, they both seemed to extend even further than she originally thought.
She bit her lip and stepped out of her cell, carefully placing each foot to try and be as silent as possible.
The stench of rotting meat rose to meet her again, forcing her to choke back her gag reflex. She held her breath for a moment, before pulling her shirt up and holding it against her mouth. Each breath helped thaw her chilled fingers.
She remembered that the footsteps had moved down the right side of the hall, so she moved in that direction.
Mary hesitated in front of a neighboring cell and tried to sneak a quick peek inside. Fog dispersed from the middle of the room, rising up with the sound of heavy breathing. Something large was outlined in the darkness, but Mary forced herself to avert her gaze before she could make it out. She didn’t want to see whatever was inside these cells.
What was she doing here with the rest of them?
As she passed cell after cell, she forced her eyes forward. Labored, heavy breathing felt like it was wrapping around the back of her neck each time, a weight of anxiety pressing down on her shoulders. Every time she moved past a set of iron bars, a small wave of relief washed over her.
She tried not to think about how long this corridor might go on. To keep track, she started counting the cells that she passed on her right. She gulped at the thought of having to go back to her cell, but what if it was her only choice? She clutched the key in her hand, crippling fear of dropping it etched in her mind.
***
She passed cell seventy-six. The hallway seemed to be growing a bit brighter from the cluster of torches on the wall, so she picked up her pace to try and reach the end.
After passing cell eighty-five, she finally found the end of the hall.
Thick steel bars blocked her path. She frowned, her legs cramped and feet sore from the cold stones and rough mortar.
She leaned closer to the bars, peering in. If this didn’t lead to the exit, she’d have to turn around and explore the other side.
She felt the presence of something large lurking behind them, watching her, smelling her.
“You came.”
She jumped back, her mind reeling. The voice, it felt familiar somehow. The presence in the cell moved closer to her, and she braced herself for it.
It was large. At least eight feet tall with scales and rough skin covering its body. It was vaguely human shaped, with large horns curling around its head. The voice was gravely, thick, and thundering. The beast had large eyes, jet-black and piercing. She clutched the key to her chest, as if she were protecting it. She wanted to turn away and run — anything to not look at it. She steeled herself and kept eye contact, unsure what she was doing. Somehow compelled.
“Came? You...can talk?” She looked at the key in her hand. “You were expecting me?”
The beast licked its lips, revealing sharp fangs and a forked tongue. She shuddered, trying not to let it get to her.
“Yes,” it answered.
“Were you...” She couldn’t believe she was going along with all this. “A man told me to stop this... stop what?”
“Silxan?” The beast growled. “Yes, that’s probably who it was...”
“Silxan, then.”
“Yes. I can only assume his greed got the best of him. He won’t last long now.”
Mary’s mind was spinning. She felt hungry and exhausted. Silxan won’t last long? What about her? “Where the fuck are we? Why am I here?”
The monster shook its head, a heavy sigh escaping its nostrils. “Release me and I’ll tell you.”
“Why would I do something as stupid as that?”
“Because I know the way out. And why not let out a fellow prisoner?”
Her eyes widened, a surge of hope climbing through her. A breath of air. Still, she clutched the key.
“You can’t manage to escape without me. You can’t understand how big this maze is.”
Mary frowned. “Where’s Silxan? Why didn’t he let you go? I don’t like this... I don’t even know what the fuck I’m doing here. Talking to ...”
“A monster.”
She nodded in agreement, as if they had just decided. She needed more information. She felt like if she kept him talking, he might slip up if he was lying. At the very least, she might learn more about what was going on.
“Why are you here? What did you do?”
“Nothing.” The beast paused, as if contemplating if he should continue. “I was captured, to fight and fuck and breed.”
The idea set Mary’s teeth on edge, her skin rippled with disgust. She stared on, her gaze passing through the monster. She didn’t want him to see her affected. The beast paused again, as if he were trying to gauge her. His black eyes flicked up and down her body, her exposed nipples prodding through her damp shirt.
Her face burned, a mixture of confusion and anxiety overcoming her. She swallowed hard and asked the question hanging in the air.
“Sex? With people?”
“Yes. And I have, repeatedly.” He licked his lips again, stirring something inside her. Revulsion? Interest? “The warden wanted to see what would happen.”
She blinked hard.
Mary didn’t ask anymore questions. She felt a sense of obligation, a pulling desire to let the beast out. Wordlessly, she slipped the key into the lock and turned it.
As she released the beast, a sense of calm washed over her. A sense of detachment, as if she weren’t actually doing something so foolish, so dumb. She ignored the flash in the beast’s eyes when the lock clunked open, and the door screeched to let him free.
The beast moved closer to her, his enormous body warm and rancid next to hers. His body wasn’t as humanoid as she expected, longer and more slender. His movements were almost snake-like, curling back and forth as he moved around her. Like a predator stalking its prey. He relented from touching her, but she felt his desire, his eagerness.
She turned to look up at him, his gaze traveling across her body. “Y- you aren’t going to ravage me?”
The beast shook his head knowingly. “I’m restraining myself.”
Mary expected relief to wash over her, but instead, she felt a vague sense of anxiousness. Restrain himself? What would happen if he didn’t? What if she didn’t want him to restrain himself?
He motioned in the direction she came. “This way.” He brushed past her briefly, his scales rough against her skin. She hide her face as it turned red.
***
She couldn’t understand it, there must be something wrong with her. The stench in the air had lessened and she was barely noticing the howls of the creatures. She watched his broad shoulders, ripped with muscle, lumber back and forth as they moved down the hall. She noticed the monsters in the cells had quieted.
A thought occurred to her.
“It’s you,” she said under her breath.
The beast raised his head, acknowledging her.
“You’re the reason they’re so quiet.”
“They recognize their father.”
As they passed another cage that had gone silent, she peered in and saw a form crawled back into the corner. This was the desired effect?
“Why don’t we release them too?”
“They don’t understand. They’re wild, untamed.”
She grunted. “You aren’t?”
He stopped and turned to face her. His tongue slithered out and grazed her cheek and ear, cradling it for a moment. “No.”
She stood, paralyzed, until he relented. He gave a low chuckle and turned back around. A chuckle that seemed familiar. Mary shook her dehydrated mind, his focus shifting to her open cell as they passed it. Cell zero she had decided.
She started counting the cells on the left wall this time.
Cell one, two, three... four...
***
“Wait.” Mary said, stopping and putting her hand on a wall to steady herself. When the beast stopped and turned to face her, she leaned over and grabbed her knees, breathing heavily.
“Should we rest?” the monster growled, looking over his shoulder for a moment.
Mary shook her head and tried to stand back up. “No, I- I want to get out of here. I don’t want to rest.” She shot him a look.
His face was just as inscrutable as when she first met him. She didn’t understand why every fiber in her being wasn’t screaming in the opposite direction of him. Maybe it was his voice. It seemed so calm and collected, which didn’t match his vulgar appearance.
She huffed and stood up weakly, giving the beast a half-hearted smile.
“We won’t be able to get out of here for a couple more hours,” he said. “If you need to rest —,”
She cut him off, “‘Rest.’ You said it again. How could I possibly rest in this hellhole? The constant scratching and growlings.” Her tired eyes were bloodshot and heavy, despite how much she wanted to make a point, she didn’t have the energy. She slumped against the wall and slid down it, the rough stone leaving harsh marks on her shoulder and arm.
Mary gnawed on her lip and tried to keep her composure. The beast moved closer, and she flinched, feeling his overbearing presence towering over her. His shadow was thrown on top of her, blackening his face and body, revealing only his outline.
She looked up at him and saw his jet-black eyes flash for a moment, and she felt something flutter inside her. Her repulsion had only grown stronger while they were walking together, but she couldn’t deny a certain primal feeling growing inside her. Maybe she was losing her mind, and she just felt defeated by everything.
He leaned down and scooped her up in his rough-scaly arms. His breathing pushed his chest against her body every moment, she felt herself giving way to her desire.
She slung her arms halfway around his neck, clinging to the downcast horns that cradled his head. He turned back down the hallway they were heading and started moving, picking up speed. He didn’t have to match her pace any longer.
***
She woke in a cell, her mind fogged and her stomach hungry. The beast was nearby, watching her sleep; she wasn’t sure why.
In her fog, she crawled closer to the beast, and touched his leg, marveling at the way the torch light shimmered off the flecks of hard skin. The beast murmured, and she rolled closer to him.
He exhaled hot air through his nose, steaming the room a bit.
“You’re so warm...” she said, a slur to her voice. She felt calm, collected. Why was she in a cell again? What was he doing here?
She couldn’t remember what was real anymore. She touched the beast’s face in a moment of inspiration, and kissed his cheek. He turned toward her and moved upon her, his clawed hand grasped her breast and making her moan. Her heart began to race, pounding in her ears. He stood up from the floor and pushed her against a wall.
His scales were rough and hewn, she grasped at his arms to try and stop him, but he was too powerful. He swatted her hands away and held her wrists together, pulling them above her head and holding her tight against the wall. The rough mortar dug into her ass and thighs, making her itch and wanting relief. The beast’s eyes bore into hers, and she felt as if he was feeding on her anxiety, on her fear and confusion. Was this really happening?
He tore her pants off to reveal her silky white legs. Their pale skin contrasting against his dark scales. His cock was engorged, free from its slumber, and ready to tame her as he had tamed so many others.
“What, what are you doing?” Mary asked hesitantly. She knew it was a stupid question.
He moved closer to her, grasping her tit through her shirt with his mouth. She let a moan slip from her lips, to her own horror. Was she actually enjoying this?
The beast let out a low growl while he massaged her breast, pulling her nipple and making it taut and scream with fire. Mary’s legs grew slick with warm anticipation and worry, and he took his chance. He moved closer, cradling her with his free hand. She stared down at his cock as he teased the hard tip of it against her pussy, a line of precum breaking free like spider’s silk.
Mary’s breathing was growing faster, her heart racing, as he pushed his cock into her. She grew wide eyed as it disappeared into her, the girth making her cringe and yelp in pain.
Tears welled up on her eyes and she bit her lip, fighting back the urge to scream louder. The beast was slow, but forceful as he took her. Finally he was seated completely inside her, and a burning wave coursed through her.
Mary threw her arms around the beast’s neck and he started pounding into her. His meaty cock throbbed and groaned in her pussy juices, the sound of her skin smacking his scales echoing through the corridor. The beasts in the other jail cells were screaming and howling in response, but Mary didn’t care. She could barely pay attention.
The beast grunted as she rode his cock. Her moans grew louder and more frequent, she knew she wouldn’t be able to take him for very long.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Mary said, her voice growing hoarse as her throat tightened. She bucked wildly, and begged the beast to finish inside her, she wanted that demon seed, that unholy union to be complete.
The monster squeezed her ass and held her close as he came to his climax. The heat rising off of him steamed the air and wetted Mary’s face, her eyes filled with lust and terror. He let out a loud roar as his cock throbbed inside her, pushing his seed into her. She climaxed as she felt it slam into her, wrapping her legs around him in whirlwind of confusion. Sweat beaded on her skin, glistening off her chest and stomach. They slowed, and the beast held her there on his rod as they caught their breath. After a long moment, he lifted her off his cock and set her on the floor.
She tried to stay standing, but her numbed legs betrayed her. Before she could stumble to the floor, the beast caught her and helped her stand up.
As she held his enormous hand in hers, she looked at him in the eye and saw something different. Something human.
Exhaustion was too far along now, and her eyes grew heavy.
“I— I don’t think I can stay...” she began.
He reached out to touch her face, stroking her skin with his wretched claw. Mary flinched at first, but let herself melt against his touch.
As she let the after glow of the ravaging sex wash over her, her mind started to race. She looked at the cell door, and saw it was damaged and knocked off one of its hinges.
She took a step back from the beast.
“You broke in here? You could get out...?” Bewilderment filled her eyes as she spoke, fear rippling through her skin. “You... tricked me.”
The beast sighed heavily and stood to his hooves. He pointed at the door.
“What choice did I have?”
She glared at him.
He continued, “you... have an affect on me.”
“How — you expect me to believe that? I can’t believe I’m even here! That this is real at all!” She threw her arms up, and began to walk into the hallway. The torchlight made the sweat on her skin glisten.
“You... remind me of something. A moment before this hell.”
She stopped at the door, touching the hard stone. She didn’t turn to face him, but she listened.
“I needed to know. I had to know what it would be like to be with another human again. Not a beast sequestered in this keep. Not another chemical creation from a madman.”
“And...?”
“It was... inviting. It was renewing.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again.
“I was sent here as punishment. This form I hold is my curse, my nature manifested into this horror. I created most of these beasts that howl. A student of mine turned against me. He enslaved me and made me into this.”
She turned to face him again. Mary jumped a little when she saw him standing right behind her.
“You — you said someone else ran this dungeon.”
He gave her a look.
Horror sunk through Mary’s skin like a disease.
“This is all a trick... a game to you, isn’t it?” She steeled herself, balling her hands into fists. She didn’t know what else to do. Should she run and try to escape? The beast would be too powerful for her.
The beast looked away from her. “It was,” it began. Somehow, his liquid black eyes seemed sad, regretful. “At first.”
Mary blinked and touched her chest for a moment.
“There was something about you, it reached out to me and shook something loose. A reminder of who I was...” The beast turned to face her, and for a flash of a second she saw he was telling the truth. “Who I am.”
He continued: “By the time you showed up, I was destitute. I deemed myself unworthy of freedom, that I deserved to be trapped in the labyrinth I had created. Hearing the tortured howls and roars of my creations was enough to drive me mad.”
“Then what about the man who gave me the key?”
“Ah, Silxan,” The beast chuckled a bit, low and sinister. “I tempted him with forbidden knowledge. I knew he would eventually succumb to the same disease I did: absolute greed. In the search for more control and power. If he gave you a key to your freedom, he must already be changing into another one of the beasts that are imprisoned here. That’s what happened to me.”
Mary reached up and touched the Beast’s face, somewhat instinctively. She couldn’t understand it, but she felt something for him, more than a confusing kind of primal lust, but something more.
He nudged his large head into her hand as she caressed him, and he sighed heavily. After a moment, she broke the silence.
“So is there a way out?”
He looked into her eyes with renewed vigor and nodded. “Yes. I know there is. I designed the place. I should be able to navigate us out of there.”
Mary bit her lip, thinking furiously. “What about the others? The... other monsters.”
“I’ll take care of them.”
She nodded, not quite understanding why she did. They left the cell and headed down the corridor. Mary was all turned around after waking up, so she trusted the beast to be honest. After all, she didn’t have much of a choice.
If he was still lying to her, there wasn’t anything else she could do.
***
At every intersection they encountered, the beast guided them by instinct.
The torches grew closer together, and more light spilled into the cells, where grotesque and revolting beasts hid in the corners. As they passed each torch, Mary started to urge the beast to move faster and faster. A second wind had rushed through her at the thought of finally being free.
She watched the beast lurch forward with each step and she tried to figure out who he might have been before, how he might have looked.
He certainly wasn’t inexperienced, but if she believed what he said before about fathering all the beasts, did he mean only in the lab, or with his seed as well?
The torches burned brighter as they followed the hall to the end. The walls became less rotted and overgrown, more clean and maintained. At the end of the hall, a single steel door waited for them. It wasn’t like the cells, which had barred doors, but more formal. More final.
“Is this it?” Mary said, ducking under the beast’s arms and examining the door. Her mind raced. The beast guided her back with his hand and gripped the door handle, yanking it open with a satisfying hiss of air. Mary’s ears popped as the pressure equalized and she inhaled the scent of something fresh, the stagnant air of the dungeon all too familiar. As the door opened, the beasts in the cells all the way down the hall howled and moaned with astonishing ferocity.
Mary looked to the monster, finding his eyes which looked lost.
“Are you coming with me?”
“I’m afraid I can’t,” the beast said.
Mary frowned, she couldn’t tell him he wouldn’t be gutted and killed the instant someone saw him.
“I have to find a way to reverse this. Reverse the way I am,” he said.
“Reverse it?”
“Beyond this door is the laboratory. I’ll be able to work there, hopefully... these claws won’t fail me.”
Mary looked at her hands and his. A thought fluttered through her. “I could stay and help you.”
The beast snorted. “Impossible.”
“Why?” Mary fumed, offended. “I could help you!”
“You can’t. You can’t stay here much longer.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. I still need to get home too, how am I supposed to do that without help?”
The beast lowered his gaze and met hers. He grasped her shoulders with his clawed hands.
“This isn’t where you belong. This dungeon isn’t in a city, a building, or anything. It’s separate from your world.”
Mary’s mouth opened as if to interrupt, but the beast continued: “When you step through there, you’ll fade back to where you came from.”
“How did I get here in the first place then? I don’t understand...”
“I don’t know. I had agents on the outside with drugs that would induce the transportation, but they shouldn’t still be around anymore.”
“I don’t like it. I don’t want to leave if you can’t come with me.”
“I already said, I have to work on a cure first.”
Mary struggled against his grasp, freeing herself from his claws. “I don’t buy that. What if you find it and I never see you again?”
“We will find each other. I promise.”
She shook her head, a smile crossing her face. “I can’t believe any of this. I don’t even know your name.”
“Reizan.”
“Your human name.”
The beast frowned. “I don’t remember.”
“Reizan, it is then. I’m Mary.”
She took his claw and shook it, trying to not think too much about everything.
Reizan didn’t answer. He looked at her mournfully, long-fully. Before she could say another word, he grabbed her and shoved her through the open door.
***
Her skin was moist and dewy when she came to again. Too dizzy and disoriented to speak, she tried to look around and gauge where she was.
Darkness surrounded her from all directions, she reached out with weak arms and brushed at it, and saw it flutter. The light broke through the darkness the brightness making her shield her eyes. As she recovered, she realized where she was.
She was under her bed, the skirt and sheets bunched against the sides and blackening the room. She rolled out from underneath and gasped for fresh air, clutching the sheets in her hands as tight as possible.
Her pants were torn, her shirt still moist, her makeup smeared, and her mind foggy.
She heard stirring outside her room, and she scrambled to her feet to shut her door all the way. April certainly couldn’t see her like this.
She thought about what Reizan said about having agents on the outside.
Jake.
Mary slipped some new pants on and stormed out of her room, slamming the door open against her wall. She found Jake and April talking in the kitchen, stunned by the loud noise.
“What the —?” April said.
Mary cut her off. “I want to know what the fuck Jake did to my drink last night. Show me the shit.”
“Mary, what the fuck?”
“Bullshit he didn’t. Trust me, I don’t even need to get into how I know. He better fess up or I’m calling the police.”
Mary came up to Jake’s shoulder and pushed him against the counter. “Right. Now.”
Jake held up his hands. “Okay, okay!” He gave April an apologetic look.
He fished out a small bag out of his jeans and handed it to Mary.
“I knew it,” Mary said, snatching it from him. “Where did you get this?”
“I— I don’t know, some dude gave it to me last week. He said it was ecstasy.”
“Then how come I was the only one to have any?” Mary asked.
Jake pointed to April. “She said you were really tightly wound and needed a break.”
Mary shook her head, pocketing the stash. “I can’t believe either of you, ridiculous.” She stormed back into her bedroom, leaving Jake and April awestruck.
In her room, she took the sandwich bag out and examined it. Three small pills were left. She folded up the plastic and hid it inside her sock drawer.
Her rush from confronting Jake and April was wearing thin, and she had a lot of catching up on sleep to do. She stripped off and climbed back into her bed, grazing her hand against the large red mark on her thigh one last time. Just as she fell asleep, she thought of Reizan. Of his escape from that hellish nightmare.