I take a deep breath and blink open my eyes once again, hissing as the light hurts, but I force myself not to shut them. Where am I? Why are there metal bars in front of me?
My eyes go wide as I look around and realize I’m in a cage.
“You’re okay,” she whispers. “You’re on Venkoria. They drugged us and brought us here before we woke up. They have come at least once since I woke up and put this collar around my neck and injected me with something.”
“In-injected?” My voice is full of fear as I stare at her.
She nods. “I don’t know what it is, but they did something. For a brief moment, I could understand them, but they pressed something on my collar, and then I couldn’t anymore.”
“Who are you?” I whisper, my eyebrows furrowing as I try to remember her name.
She looks familiar, but there are so many girls on the space station, and I haven’t met all of them.
“Nora.” She smiles. “We’ve passed each other a couple of times on the space station, but never got to talk to each other.”
That’s why she looks so familiar.
“Why does my body feel so heavy?” I ask, keeping my head close to the ground.
I’m worried that if I try to sit up like the other girls, I will end up hurting myself with how I feel right now.
“We don’t know the reason for that. It doesn’t get better since we’ve been here, but we’ve managed to sit up and be able to look around,” Nora explains. “But as I told the other girls, when they come in, don’t fight when the collar or whatever the injection is. It won’t do you any favors since they are so much stronger than we are. You will end up getting hurt, and I don’t want that.”
I open my mouth, but before I can say anything, the door opens and two huge men walk in, their broad shoulders taking up so much space. They are wearing all black and have weapons attached to their sides. One of the right has red hair while the other is blond.
“Remember what I said, everyone, don’t fight them,” Nora speaks up.
My eyes stay focused on them as they head right in my direction. I’m still lying down in the cage, not daring to move and gain their attention even more. Maybe if I’m still enough, they will go to the person behind me… if there is someone there.
Unfortunately for me, they open my cage and grab my arm, yanking me out of the cage. My foot snags on the bars, and I scream in pain as I feel the metal digging into my foot.
“Leah!” Nora yells. “What’s wrong?”
I look down and notice my foot bleeding, and tears pool in my eyes. The blond man doesn’t seem to care and pulls me all the way out of the cage and starts walking, dragging my feet on the ground. A sharp pain shoots up my foot as they continue to walk out of the room.
The men start talking, but I can’t understand a word they are saying. Fear builds inside of me as they stop, and the blond man holds my body still. Before I can react to anything, a cold andheavy collar is placed around my neck, and something is injected into my arm.
I moan in pain as my head dangles from the weight of the collar. More tears pool in my eyes, and I let them freely fall to the ground.
“Chale is not going to be happy when he sees you’ve hurt her,” the redhead says.
I can understand them, and my eyebrows furrow together. It must be the collar, like Nora told me.
“Please,” I mumble.
“Chale will get over it. I want to finish work and go home,” the blond replies. “I don’t want to be around them anymore.”
“You will get your turn soon.” The redhead sighs. “Let me carry her so she doesn’t get injured further.”
“Do what you want.” The blond lets go of my body, and I hit the ground.
Groaning, I sob as my whole body aches from everything they are putting me through. How much more am I going to have to endure before they give me a break? Is this what the rest of my life is going to be like?
“You’re okay,” the redhead whispers as he gently picks me up and holds me against his body. “Everything is going to be okay. We’re going to take you to your master now.”
Master?
“You can go now,” the redhead tells the blond. “I will deliver her to Chale.”
