I flinch. I won’t be put in cuffs again. The panic builds in my chest like an atomic bomb. I will take them all out if I have to.
“You might as well kill me now, you fucker; I’m not going quietly.”
“Stupid, selfish human, I can’t kill you until we get back to the hive for processing. We can’t waste the investment made in you so quickly. Your organs and meats will be sold to the highest bidders on the black market. Many species love the taste of humans in the kitchen, not just the bedroom. You should be honored to be considered such a delicacy.”
My body springs out from the wall before I even realize what I’m doing, and I’m on his purple scaled body like a rabid spider monkey. I bite into his neck as the bitter and stinging skin excretions fill my mouth. When the Deenz pulls back and screams, I knock my elbow directly into his sternum. The bone cracks like he’s part chicken, and I spit in his face as he crumples to the ground.
“You’re not fucking eating me, you bitch!” I bark.
Somewhere in my rage, I feel a sharp pain in my neck. One of the Deenz has snuck up to my side and pressed a syringe into my jugular.
“We have no taste for humans. It’ll be simple enough for us not to take a bite—unlike the heathen you are,” a pair of purple lips whispers into my ear.
Blackness creeps over my vision as what I’m sure would have been my best comeback yet is cut short.
* * *
“Opal, are you all right?” The woman’s voice is fuzzy, and I flinch as I feel a hand touch my brow. “Calm down, peaches. It’s Jessy—you remember me, don’t ya?”
I feel the hard plastic seat under my ass and smell the stale scent of sweat and masturbating. Oh god, I’m back on the bus.
I jerk upright, my whole body rigid as I finally regain control of my faculties. As I try to clutch my hands to my body, they strain against the cuffs. I’ve been chained to the seat in front of me.
“Jessy?” My mouth feels full of cotton, and my arms feel like dead weight.
“Yeah, it’s Jessy. We’ve met before, remember?” She strokes my brow in an attempt to comfort me. “I didn’t think we’d see you again after the big gray guy took you. Are you all right? I hope he wasn’t too rough with you…sometimes they’re not very nice.” Her eyes get distant.
I shake my head. “No, you don’t understand. I married him, Jessy. The Deenz fucking kidnapped me for a second goddamn time.” My face is flushed with anger, and my head lolls side to side as the bus moves.
“Sweetie, he dumped you back with us. That’s what they said when they brought you back in. Judging from the bruises on your neck, you’re better off here.”
She’s gotta be fucking confused.
“Dumped?? Why the fuck would they cuff me, then?” I ask.
“They said you were drugged, that you’d wake up angry…you really married that gray guy?” She seems shocked.
“They’re going to butcher me and sell me as some human fucking delicacy, Jessy. You have to help me,” I beg. I try my best to whisper, but it escapes my lips as more of a quiet shout.
Maybe more of an actual shout, because the human women in front of us turn around with their eyes wide.
“They’re going toeatyou?” a tall brunette asks.
“No way, that’s such bullshit. She’s high, remember?” The tall woman with an Eastern European look and a thick accent next to her says.
A chorus of hushed questions begins on the bus, and the anxiety ramps.
“I’m not fucking lying. Ke’ain, the big gray guy, he’s my husband. The Deenz stole me back. They don’t want the other aliens to know that theykidnappedus from Earth. These aliens think it’s some great honor to be here. That we fight and jockey for the opportunity!” I say to the frightened crowd of thirty or so women. “Help me get out of these cuffs, and if we can get off this bus, I promise you I’ll make sure you’re all safe.”
“How are you going to do that?” one of the other women asks.
“The big gray guy, my husband, is the king of this planet. I’m the queen. You have to believe me!” I’m begging them for help at this point. How much of their trust has been lost in their abduction trauma?
“If you’re thequeen, where’s the calvary, babe?” A valley girl’s voice floats over the gasps of shock and disbelief.
The bus lurches forward as something slams into the bus’s bumper. The Deenz driver swivels his disgusting dripping head around and slams his foot on the gas.
“That cavalry?” I say, pushing my cuffed hands toward the crowd. “Please, we can escape if you all help me!”
