I ask for the bathroom and pull the thing free, looking at it for one hateful moment before throwing it into the plumbing.
My body is still tense with the anger I felt upon finding my friend treated so badly and hurt so much. These new aliens might be here to save us, but I still want revenge. I crave it. Again, memory pulses in my mind. I am starting to feel that my brain isno longer willing to keep these barriers up. Whatever happened to me to break my mind is starting to break down.
I leave the bathroom, and I run into the scaled alien, along with the women who are milling about in the common space, looking various levels of uncertain and angry. I am sure they are scared. I am.
“These women need to be taken care of,” I tell the alien. “They need to be returned to Earth right away, where the doctor and the village can help them. Are you taking us home?”
“We’re not going to hurt you,” the scaled one says. “We’re going to take you back to Earth and release you in a safe area. Please make yourselves as comfortable as you can. We know the ship is somewhat small for this many people, but everything is at your disposal.”
I turn to Seeker, who is looking a little happier. I want to talk to her about everything, but I also know there’s not much I can say after all she’s been through.
“You have alien allies,” she says.
“I do?”
“Seems like it,” she says. Her eyes look behind me in a meaningful kind of way. I turn and follow them, to the tall figure of the scaled alien, who looks directly at me, then crooks a long finger at me.
I feel a rush of excitement and nervousness low in my belly, along with that feeling I’ve had before, a sort of familiarity I can’t quite entirely identify.
“Come here, you,” he says. “We need to speak with you. The rest of the ladies can help themselves to food in the galley. There’splenty of it. There’s also baths and beds and places to nap pretty much anywhere you might care to find them.”
“You want me?” I point a finger at myself.
“Oh, very much,” he says.
I hesitate for a moment, but then I follow him back to the depths of the ship where a little cave-like room contains all the big aliens who rescued us. I am a little confused as to what’s happening. They all seem to know me, and they all seem somewhat excited to see me. I can feel a sort of chemistry with all of them, but I can’t be fucking all of them, right?
Is this why I couldn’t form a bond with any male human when I was in the village? Does some part of me know that I am already taken? It feels like the mystery isn’t going to be a mystery for much longer.
“So. Hi,” I say as I face the three of them.
They look at one another, and then back at me. There’s something in the air, something unspoken that they seem to think they share with me, and I can’t remember to save myself.
“We found you again,” the Minotaur says. “I hope it’s for the last time. We were so worried it was going to take years again.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I really don’t remember any of you.”
The pretty blond man lets out a frustrated sigh. The other two seem to be in better control of their emotions. There’s warmth in the Minotaur’s tone and the kind of relief nobody can really fake.
“So we know each other?”
“We love each other,” he says.
“Wow,” I reply. “That’s really sweet, but…”
“That’s okay,” he says. “This time, you made a video before you ran away.”
He presses a button on a machine, and flickering light appears on the opposite wall, creating a moving picture synchronized with audio.
I see myself sitting in a chair. The video is at a bit of a weird angle, and my voice is hushed, as if I don’t want anyone to hear me. I am wearing a very fancy silver dress, and I am looking cute with my hair in pigtails, and my eyes made up with silver and black liner to match the dress.
“Hey, me,” I say. “I’m me, and so are you. So if you’re, I mean, I’m seeing this, it’s because I ran away from my owners…” I make a weird expression with my face as I say that last word. “Anyway. It’s because I ran away and probably got my head fucked up by whoever is fucking up heads down on Earth. But it also means I’m watching now. So, hi, me. You’re in the middle of a plot in which aliens are abducting women from Earth to fuck against their will. The three aliens who are probably pissed with us right now are good. Their names are Kronos—he’s the one that looks like he could be human if it wasn’t for the sharp teeth and the crazy muscles; Sharp, he’s the dragon-y looking one; and Boss, he’s the Minotaur. Anyway, they’re on our side, so don’t freak out when they catch me again. They’re going to beat our ass. Let them. They’ll probably make it hot. Also, you stole their ship. So. They kind of have a reason to be pissed. Okay. Good luck!”
I look out of my peripheral vision to see how the aliens react to that. Boss smirks. Kronos looks a bit pleased with himself. Sharp doesn’t give anything away, but I get the sense he is also amused.
“I don’t know what to say,” I say when the video ends, which is right after I embarrass myself. “So you’re telling me, or rather, I’m telling me, that I keep running away to try to stop these evil aliens from abducting women and selling them for sex and food to other evil aliens?”
“Yes,” the Minotaur, Boss, says. “And you belong to me and these two.”
