CHLOE

“New prisoners to be processed,” one guard calls out as the hatch lets out a hiss and our small transport ship opens its doors. “And you’re not gonna keffing believe what we’ve got today.” He makes a weird, whistling sound with his strangely petaled mouth that unfurls around each word. It’s not English that he speaks, but a strange tongue full of high-pitched whines and nasal sounds that I can’t replicate. Thanks to the large, bulbous translator someone’s installed in my ear, though, I can understand everything that’s said.

I understand it…I just don’t care anymore.

It can’t be worse than everything I’ve already lived through.

Of course, even as I think that, I know it can. It can always be worse. In fact, every day seems to be worse than the last.

The guard assigned to me tugs me forward. “Move along, prisoner.”

It sounds so very much like something I’d expect a human prison guard to say that I want to laugh…or cry. Because the truth is, he’s not human in the slightest. The man that tugs me along has stripey fur like a housecat, except his mouth unfolds like a rose each time he talks. He’s short and squat, but strong and with four fingers on each hand. Not human at all.

I’m starting to get used to that, though. In the nightmare week I’ve had since I was abducted from my college dorm in my sleep, nothing’s surprising me anymore. Cat people? Sure. Lizard aliens? Why not. Moon made of green cheese? I’d believe it at this point.

My hands are bound before me in cuffs, my neck encircled in a stun collar. I’m wearing a weird, papery sort of white uniform that covers me from neck to foot, and I’ve got no shoes. It’s a little like being in a doctor’s office I think, at least when it comes to the lack of privacy. Behind me are three other prisoners, each one cuffed just like me. Two of them are muzzled, and the one that’s not hasn’t shown any interested in talking. They all stare at me, though. It doesn’t matter that two of them look like dogs and one looks like…well, fuck if I know what it looks like. A marshmallow with limbs, I guess.

Out of all the weird aliens, it seems that I’m the freak.

Another guard comes out to meet us—this one with scaly, lizard-like skin that looks as if it’s molting. He’s thin and tall and has six ant-like arms encased in the deep blue uniforms of the prison guards. His eyes are like jewels as they focus on me, and he stops in his steps.

“What the kef is that thing?” he asks my guard.

“I know, right?” Cat-guard nudges me. “You’re not gonna believe this, but it’s something called a ‘human.’”

“A what?” Snake-ant-man slithers around me with obvious interest, ignoring the other prisoners.

I stare straight ahead, pretending like I can’t understand them. Pretending like all of this is below me. I just hope they don’t notice I’m shivering with fear.

“A keffing human,” Cat-guard says proudly. “I looked ‘em up on my datapad. They’re from a nearby galaxy but it’s a D-class planet. You know what that means.”

“Dirt-eating savages, hmm? Fascinating.” One of the snake-ant’s hand-claws touches my hair. “It smells lovely. What’s it doing here?”

“That’s where things get weird. You got a minute? I can tell you the story.”

“You bet I do.” Snake-ant makes a weird choking sound that might be laughter. “Let me process the other two. We’ll send this one through quarantine check. Gotta make sure she can’t infect our other prisoners with some sort of disease.”

Great. Special treatment. I’m still not surprised. Ever since I’ve been stolen, it’s been one person after another staring at me. As long as all they do is stare…

I shudder, trying not to think of worse things.

“I don’t know what this ‘human’ thing is, but I like it,” Snake-ant hisses.

“Thought you might, Noku. I know the strange interests you.” Cat-man chuckles. “Thought I’d seen everything until this creature showed up on my transport. Guess where it’s coming from? The story gets better.”

“Let me finish processing these others and you can tell me all about it,” Noku says to him. He touches my hair again and makes an interested sound. “Least it’s docile.”

“That’s the funny part,” Cat-guard says. “This thing killed a dozen Tritarians.”

The snake-ant pulls its claws back. “Is it…poisonous?”

“Story gets better.” Cat-guard waves the other away. “I’ve got time. Process the others. We’ll wait. Isn’t that right, human?” He jostles me with one arm and then winks at Noku. “Thing doesn’t like the shock-collar much.”

The snake-ant just watches me with a fascinated gaze. Then he shrugs it aside and gestures for the other three prisoners to follow him. They do, and I’m left alone in the room with Cat-guard. He doesn’t talk to me, just sits down on one of the little tripod stools and makes himself comfortable, pulling out something that looks an awful lot like an e-cig and puffing on it.

I gaze around at my surroundings—my new home.

There are windows, at least. Even in this place—what must be a loading dock or a processing center of some kind—there are large, clear windows that give a good look of the world outside. I know I should be looking more at the prison I’m in, with its sterile gray walls and the strange furnishings, but I can’t help myself. I stare out the windows with a sense of horror and yearning both.

It looks like Mars out there. It’s all red and rock, except for one enormous difference. The sun in the sky takes up easily half of the sky, and I stare at it with a strange sense of awe. For all of its enormity, it doesn’t give off a ton of light and seems more red than bright yellow like Earth’s sun. I try to remember what I learned about planets back in grade school. There are different kind of stars out there, some dwarfs and some…giants? That’s it, giants. I remember something about the bigger the star, the less light it gave off. This must be a red giant. Maybe that’s why it’s so huge.

It lets off a lot of red light, though, and that paints the entire world here in the same ruby glow. The room we’re in seems to be a high tower of some kind, and from here, we can look down at everything around us. Gray prison buildings are lined up in rows in the distance, and I can see people moving around between buildings, so small that they look like ants. The nearby ground seems to be covered with machines, reddish-tinged rows of strange-looking crops lined up all around the prison “base” itself. There’s a distant thing that looks like a smokestack pumping a gas of some sort into the air, and I can see tractor-like things maneuvering amongst the fields. On the horizon are huge cliffs that look like a red and white-ribboned cake was sliced in half, showing all the layers to the world. It’s a bizarre place and doesn’t look welcoming at all.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, this place is a prison. Why anyone would want to live here is beyond me. Then again, maybe they don’t. Beyond the prison and the grounds itself I don’t see…anything. Nothing but barren rock and soil and red, red red.

Maybe the prison’s the only thing on this planet. The thought fills me with a sense of despair greater than anything I’ve ever experienced.

I’m not getting home again. Ever again.

The thought makes tears prick at my eyes. Shit. I spent the first three days of my captivity crying, but in the last few, I thought that with everything that had happened, I’d be so numb that I’d never cry again. I guess not. I hate it, though. I hate everything about all of this.

And as the snake-ant re-enters and gives me another lascivious look, I hate him, too.

“Back?” Cat-Guard asks and makes a sound that my ear-translator determines is a belch.

“I handed them off to Jajji.” Noku makes a slithering kind of shrug. “He’ll take care of them. Tell me more about this thing. It’s female, isn’t it?” The prison guard gives me a fascinated look as he approaches. “Any hidden claws or natural weapons I should be aware of?”

“Nope. That’s the strange thing about humans. They’re the most defenseless things I’ve ever seen. Even their teeth are pathetic.”

The snake-ant puts a claw at the corner of my lip. I grimace, showing him my teeth, because I don’t want him to stick that thing in my mouth. 

“Interesting,” Noku says again. “But you say this thing killed a dozen Tritarians?” He nods at me. “Is it…sentient? Can it speak?” As if this isn’t enough of an insult, he reaches out and pokes my nose.

“Yes,” I say flatly in my own language. “I just don’t have anything to say to you.”

The snake-ant flails its many arms and makes an exclamation. “Listen to its voice! So unique. And you said it’s female. They don’t send many down here to the Haven prison system, you know. Not much use in terraforming.”

The cat-man snorts, which sounds as odd as you would think coming from a cat. “You call it terraforming on the books. We all know you’re just working these brutes as slave labor until they fall over dead.”

“No one else cares about them. Why should we?” Noku gives a fluid shrug. “They’re sent here so the universe can forget all about them.” The jewel eyes narrow at me. “I assume that’s why this one is here.”

“Mmm,” says the cat-man. “Got that in one. So you didn’t hear about the Tritarians? It’s a huge scandal over at Prefalon Station and every single system I passed through to get here.”

“Nope. But I assume you’ll tell me all about it?” Noku picks up a piece of strange-looking electronic equipment and taps a few buttons. My shock-collar around my neck pings, and I know what that means—he’s activated it. Noku gestures at me. “Move to the wall and spread your legs.”

Fear flares through me. I pull my arms close to my body, as if hugging them to me can somehow protect me. “Why?”

The smile Noku gives me is evil, but it’s the cat-guard that answers. “Standard foreign object scan, human. Just do it.”

Uneasy, I look at the two men. I don’t have much of a choice. In the next room over, I can hear voices—all male. And judging from their conversation, most of this facility—prisoners and guards both—are all male.

On a scale of Not Good things, this definitely ranks higher than I could ever imagine. I don’t know what to do, though. I know how debilitating the shock-collar can be. One zap through my five-foot frame and I’m going to be out. Or worse, conscious and unable to move while they do whatever they want to me anyhow. It’s best to cooperate, as much as I hate it. With fear and loathing running through my mind, I move to the wall he indicates and turn my back to the two prison guards. I put my cuffed hands on the wall to support my weight and spread my feet apart. 

Noku immediately runs the scan up one leg, and I can hear it blipping. He pauses at my knee. “Foreign objects detected inside. Looks like metal. Care to explain, little human?” 

I glance over, because if a snake can look puzzled, he does. “I had screws put in my knee when I tore my ACL. That’s a muscle.”

“How…primitive.” The two guards exchange a look. “Well, human, it is my advice that you do not mention this to anyone else when you are in the system. I would hate for one of the other inmates to rip your leg off for that metal.”

I stare at him in horror, my mouth dry. He…I don’t think he’s joking. Oh god.

I don’t belong here. God, this is a nightmare. I’m just a college student, not some space-faring murderer like they think I am.

“I’ll mark this as a known anomaly. Any others we should be aware of, human?” 

I try to think of anything that an alien might not be aware of. “Um…this thing.” I point at the shiny silver bulb of the translator that’s been attached to my ear. At his nod, I nod at my arm, where a tiny little nodule is under my skin, no bigger than a mosquito bite. “I was told that’s a tracker. And…um, I have fillings in a few teeth. Porcelain.”

He gestures for me to turn. “Show me.” After a cursory glance into my mouth, he grunts. “Still primitive, but at least they’re disguised well. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“She’s pretty docile,” the cat-guard says. 

“That just means she’s going to end up as someone’s favorite toy,” Noku tells him. “Those that sent her here, they’re aware our prison system is co-species and co-ed? This little thing’s not going to stand a chance.” He indicates I should turn around, and when I do, begins his scan again.

Cat-man snorts. “I’m pretty sure that’s why they sent her here. Let me tell you what I know.”

I’m silent and unmoving as the scan continues and the cat-man proceeds to tell his friend all about me. Or rather, what he’s been told about me through the alien grapevine. That even though owning a human is considered one of the highest of taboos because our planet is off limits to all ‘civilized’ peoples, someone still purchased me on the black market. That the particular someone that purchased me was a Tritarian ambassador who knew very well that I was illegal as hell and decided to buy me anyhow. That he was looking for a kinky little playmate that he could manhandle privately.

Well, “private” for Tritarians apparently means “three on one.” Because in addition to having a tripod-shaped body and dual appendages, Tritarians are also tri-bonded, which means that they do everything together.

And as a human captive, I really, really fucking objected to this. I might have kicked and screamed a bit, and my kicks might have landed square in the middle of a Tritarian’s soft stomach. And the force of such a kick in such a fragile area apparently is enough to kill a Tritarian. 

And here’s a tidbit I didn’t know until I experienced it: Tritarians are thrice bonded. That means when one dies, they all die. And since these were ambassadors, they were thrice bonded once more. Which means nine Tritarians died in one kick.

How was I to know that I’d knock out three rapists and their entire entourage in one fell swoop? 

With rumors in play, it’s been bandied about that I’m an assassin sent by a rival planet I can’t even name much less pronounce. That I took out twelve Tritarians instead of “just” the nine. And my favorite—that I have a poison pussy, and human snatch is dangerous to alien skin contact.

That last rumor kept me from being raped in the last holding cell I was in.

No one bothers to ask me who I really am. No one cares that I’m really just Chloe Fuller, a college student working part time at a pizza parlor to pay for tuition and who dreams of a career in zoology. That I woke up one morning seven days ago—seven long days ago—to find myself captive on a slave spaceship, held hostage by orange-skinned aliens who wanted to sell me to others for money.

It’s been a never-ending nightmare since then. Of course, I never imagined it would get this bad. That I’d be the focus of an international incident. They’ve done their best—from what I can tell—to hide the fact that the Tritarians were buying a human on the black market, and instead listed me as some other alien species. I saw one newsfeed in my last holding cell and was startled to realize that the face they were showing wasn’t mine, but some other stranger’s. That’s the focus of Noku and the cat-guard’s conversation right now—that the Tritarian “killer” wasn’t a mazu (whatever that is) but is a human. 

Basically I’ve been sent to this outpost prison to disappear. Me and ten thousand other serial murderers, rapists, arsonists, and whatever garbage the galaxy can scrape up. This is where they send the worst of the worst.

And it’s now my home.

* * *

The two guards chitchat for a while as Noku leads me through a series of tests to ensure that I’m able to be housed with the rest of the prison population. Even though no one really cares if the people here live or die, which is made abundantly clear to me through the conversations the men have, there’s apparently a large monetary investment in this planet—Haven—to have it terraformed by the prison labor. So singly, no one here matters. As a whole, we’re valuable only as muscle.

And since I’m kind of small, even by human standards, I’m drawing the short end of the stick there.

My paper dress is taken from me and my cuffs and shock-collar removed. I’m sent through a sterilization chamber and inoculated against a bunch of different alien diseases. Blood samples are taken, a hormone shot is administered so I don’t get pregnant, and then Noku is there waiting for me with a prison uniform. I don’t like the way he’s watching me, but there’s not much I can do about it. I take the uniform and am surprised to find that it’s more or less one big self-sealing bag. It cinches itself at the neck and at the feet. Noku runs a hand along the loose sides and the legs, sealing them, and they fall away to make it a strange kind of bodysuit with no ties. I guess anything that could possibly be used as a weapon will be kept from us. I’m not sure I like this weird material, though. It’s awfully clingy in all the uncomfortable places, and I’m pretty sure you can see my nipples through the weird grayish fabric, but I guess it wasn’t made for human modesty. And judging by the creepily smug way that Noku is looking at me, I’m not going to get another outfit.

The cat-guard is gone, his duty finished. I try not to feel nervous about that, because it’s not like I had a connection with him. I never even learned his name. It’s just that…now I’m going to be thrown in with the rest of the prisoners, and the thought’s a terrifying one.

“Shall I give you a tour?” Noku asks as he finishes sealing the side on my costume. There’s a note in his strange voice that I don’t like. Even through the garble of the translator, it sounds…ominous. Possessive, almost. Maybe I’m reading him wrong, though. Maybe he’s just trying to be kind to an obviously scared human freak.

But then he reaches out and touches my hair, caressing it, and the alarm bells go off in my head.

“Such a strange, soft little thing you are, human. You’re going to be eaten alive down there amongst the rest of the prisoners. They’re going to take one look at you and fight over who gets to be the first to fuck that poisonous human pussy of yours. They won’t care if it kills them. They’ve got nothing to live for anyway.” He makes a weird hissing sound, and I think it’s laughter.

“So you’re going to sit by and let them rape me?” I cross my arms over my chest, doing my best to hide my breasts. “What’s the point in having guards if you’re going to let everyone attack everyone else?”

He makes the slithering noise again. “My adorable little human. They’re not going to attack everyone else. Just you. Of course, there are ways to keep yourself safe, you know. If you have a protector, no one will harm you.” 

And he touches my hair again with one of those many, many claws.

I do my best not to shudder. So if I whore for him, he’ll keep me safe? For how long? And how many guards am I going to have to make agreements with? Fuck that. Fuck him. I don’t want to sleep with a snake-ant or whatever the hell he is. I don’t want to sleep with anyone.

Of course, I’m rapidly running out of options. I ignore him and his petting of my hair, because I’m not really sure what else to do.

“You can think on it, little one.” He touches my cheek with a claw. “And in the meantime, shall I show you where the females are housed?”

Like I have a choice? “Are all the women kept together?”

“There are only a handful of them in the entire Haven system. It makes sense to keep them all together. They are not given machine tasks like the males are. We have no wish to break such…fragile and important members of our little community.”

Yeah, the whole “female prisoners together” thing is starting to sound a bit like a brothel. Great. “Do I get shoes?”

“No shoes.” He pulls a baton from his belt, and the end of it crackles with electricity. “Follow me, prisoner Fem14-H. Failure to comply will result in the appropriate action.”

AKA a whipping with his shock-stick. “I’m following,” I say quietly.

Noku steps into a glass tube-like thing that must be an elevator. I step in with him, and when he indicates that I should put my hands on the metal railing on the side, I do so. My hands immediately feel glued to the metal, as if magnetized, and I can’t yank them up, no matter how hard I pull.

“You won’t be able to free yourself,” Noku says, smirking at my frantic tugs. “That’s to ensure the safety of all passengers. You’ll be expected to put your hands on any transport railing whenever you are in such a compartment. Do you understand, prisoner Fem14-H?”

I nod. I hate the feeling of subjugation and helplessness, but there’s no getting around it.

The compartment doesn’t feel like it’s moving, but a panel on the light-up grid flicks back and forth, showing where we’re traveling. And the windows show that, too, as the scenery whooshes past. Instead of going up and down like a normal elevator, we’re racing from one side of the compound to another in what must be something like a cross between an elevator and a train. I want to press my face to the glass and stare down at everything, but there’s too much to take in. The harvesting machines, the endless lines of buildings, the bubble-covered yards that are full of weird-looking crops, the striated cliffs in the distance, the smokestack that seems to churn out endless smog (or atmosphere) into the planet’s red air. 

“Can we breathe the air here?” I ask, curious. “Is that what all that smoke is?”

“The air is still an unbalanced compound,” Noku tells me in a bored tone. “It’s going to take a few more years before all the chemicals we’re pumping into the air actually do something. Until then, if you are required to go outside—which I doubt will happen—you will be provided with the appropriate gear, little human.” Our elevator whizzes to a stop, and he taps the back of my leg with his shock-stick, sending a jolt up my body. “You can let go now.”

I pretend like he didn’t just zap me and cautiously lift my hands. Sure enough, I’m free to move around. I clench my hands into fists and fall into place at his side, just like he gestures. I hate this guy. I’m not sleeping with him. I’m not. I think I’d rather die first.

Instead, I do my best to act like his petty shit doesn’t get to me. I focus more on my surroundings. The feel of this place reminds me a bit of an old high school more than a prison. Even though the gargantuan building has a lot of strange-looking technology that I don’t recognize, there’s a grimy, run-down feeling to things. Even the halls we go down have a claustrophobic feel to them that reminds me of being trapped in a school or a hospital. Down here, there are no windows to the outside. In here, it’s all gray walls and locked doors.

And people of every shape and kind. As we walk, it’s hard not to edge closer to the guard at my side out of fear. It’s easy to tell who’s a guard and who’s a prisoner just by the uniforms—the guards are in dark blue, whereas the people in the bland grayish-white like me are prisoners. That’s the only thing that sets people apart. There’s a hodgepodge of races down here, from something that looks vaguely like a lion to something that I’ve never seen in my entire life and can’t even describe. There are things with four legs and no arms. There are things with tentacles. There are things that look like they’re molting their skins.

I can’t even tell if they’re male or female. Then I remember Noku’s words about having very few female prisoners, and it makes me feel even more unsafe.

They’re all watching me. The guards, the prisoners that walk behind them, the people in what looks like a mess hall a short distance away—all eyes are on me. It’s the most disconcerting and alarming thing in the world.

“That didn’t take long,” Noku says in his hissing voice. “You’re going to be very popular here, until that popularity gets you killed. Most inmates here only manage to last a few years before the environment becomes too much for them.”

“What happens after that?”

He choke-laughs. “What do you think, little human?”

I hate that answer almost as much as I hate him.

We move onward and turn down another hall, this one crowded with rows of prisoners. One guard waves a wand at a pair of inmates, leading them into cells. I’m surprised to see that this looks a lot like a beehive and the cells are honeycombed into the walls. Each inmate gets a little honeycombed nook to himself, though I don’t see any blankets or pillows or possessions of any kind. I don’t see bathrooms, either, and I grow a little more worried with every step. Am I…am I going to be out here? With all these staring men looking at me like they haven’t seen a woman in a hundred years?

Jesus. My snake guard and his over-friendliness are starting to seem like a good thing. None of these men have an ounce of softness on their faces. Some, I don’t even know if I’m looking at their faces. I try not to make eye contact, my body prickling with horror more and more as we walk.

Noku stops to talk to another guard, their voices low. Both guards keep watching me, and I just hug my arms close to my chest and try to look unassuming. I steal a few glances around at the honeycomb, but every single cell seems to be filled with a prisoner…and every prisoner seems to be staring right at me. The guards talk for what feels like an eternity, and then the second one—who looks like an owl without feathers—shakes his head and continues on his way after sneaking one last glance at me. Noku gestures at me, and I fall into step behind him.

I’m relieved when we turn down another tunnel and out of the noisy honeycomb. “I’m not staying there?”

“Did you want to?”

“No!”

He hiss-laughs again. “Then follow me, little human, and stay close. We just had to pass through those cells because I wished to show you off to a friend. You’re going to make me quite popular today, as well.”

Lucky you, I want to spit at him, but I say nothing. I have no friends and lots and lots of enemies right now.

“One more detour before we make our way to the female quarters,” Noku tells me, typing a code into a wall panel and then pressing one thumb-claw against it. The door opens with a hiss, and I see another series of glass walls, though there’s no honeycomb here. These rooms are stacked like big shoeboxes, and Noku nudges me forward with his shock-stick. “Come on.”

To my surprise, there’s no one out in this area. The other halls seemed to be crawling with alien prisoners. In this room, there are a few guards seated at a bench in the center of the room. They watch the long cells, and unlike the guard in the other area, these seem hard and grim. One has pebbled orange skin and horrible teeth, and another looks scaly and strong. They carry a lot more stuff at their waists than Noku does, and I’m guessing that they’re weapons of some kind.

“What’s that?” the orange one asks as Noku nudges me along.

“A new female inmate.”

“No, what the kef is that thing?” The orange alien stares at me, hard.

“Human. She’s been sent down here to disappear. Isn’t that right, little human?” Noku strokes my hair again.

I shift uncomfortably away from his touch, staring at the ground.

One of the guards makes a horrible laughing sound. “So you brought her here?”

“Thought it’d be fun to see what our Level 3 prisoners thought of her.” Noku hisses and then leans in toward me, his hands on his knees like I’m a child he’s lecturing. “Level 3 is maximum security, little human. These are the worst of the worst, and they would eat you as soon as look at you. They don’t ever leave their cages except to work, so you don’t have to worry about them. But we do like to…show them what they’re missing from time to time.” He pushes at me with the shock-stick again, sending another jolt through my body. “So come along, little human. Let’s go show you off.”

Is he serious? I stare at him in horror. He’s going to dangle me in front of the murderers? No, wait, the WORST of the murderers, just to torment them? That’s insane…and dangerous. I don’t want to do it. Already I can feel my skin prickling at the attention I’m getting, and I don’t like it.

I feel like a worm being dangled on a hook.

“Move, inmate.” He gives me a push forward, and the shock-stick sends a harder zap through my system. “Toward the glass.” 

I shoot him a look of anger, but all he does is laugh at me. I stumble forward, not sure how close I’m supposed to get. As I move toward the glass, horror builds inside my gut until I want to vomit. These men aren’t kept in the sterile honeycombs like the others. These cells seem to be uncomfortable rock with no chairs, no beds, no nothing. There are about a half a dozen men in each of the cells, and as I move forward, they all jump to their feet to come stare at me. One immediately grabs at his crotch and begins to stroke it. Another pushes his face against the glass and begins to lick it with a tongue covered with suckers.

Noku just laughs at this. “Just what I thought. It doesn’t matter if you look strange to them, little human. They’d still fuck every hole you’ve got.”

I hug my arms tighter, averting my face. “Can we just go, please?”

A scant second later, Noku’s rough claw grabs my chin and he jerks my head back. He hisses at me, spraying a fine mist of spittle on me as he does. “You do not make the rules, little human. Do not tempt me to throw you in there with them.” His jewel-like eyes seem cold and lethal as he gazes down at me. “I run this place. You are just the prisoner. You are worth only what I allow you to be worth.”

My mouth is dry with fear. I stare up at him, terrified. I don’t dare move, not even if he uses the shock-stick on me again.

“Keep her in line,” one of the guards calls. “Make her appreciate you like the others do.”

Noku hisses a laugh. “Not yet. There is time enough for that.”

Oh god.

But Noku only taps his claw against my chin one more time. “Behave, or you will end up like that.” He gestures inside the cell. I don’t see anything at first—it’s hard to distract myself away from the aliens licking the glass and stroking themselves at the sight of me. But as I look, I see there’s a lump in the back of the cell. There are green splatters everywhere, and I can just barely make out a hint of what looks like fabric created from the same material I’m wearing. “What…what is that?”

“It looks like they’re eating one of their cellmates. Again.”

Eating? Jesus. Those green splatters must be blood. And now that I look, whoever it was definitely seems to have the consistency of…meat. God. What a horrible way to die. 

“Are you paying attention?” Noku asks me.

“I am,” I whisper. He’s got my attention now, that’s for sure.

“Good. Come, let us go a bit farther down.” He puts a claw on my back, leading me forward, and I reluctantly pull my gaze away from the dead prisoner and move down the line of cells with him. I’m numb as I gaze at the rows of strange aliens, all looking at me like they want to hurt me, rape me, eat me, or other horrors I can’t even imagine at this point. 

I’m all alone. The sharp edge of it cuts at me like a knife, and I feel like crying. Tears won’t help things, but I just feel so helpless and afraid.

“To the glass,” Noku hisses at me, and shoves his shock-stick against my back. I cry out as it sends a hard jolt through my body, making me stumble forward. I smack against the glass of the next cell, and immediately rear back a second later.

As I do, I see a blur of blue muscle and look up in surprise to see blue skin, horns, and tattoos. He’s one of the more human-looking aliens here, but still doesn’t quite look like me. In fact, he looks a lot like a devil with his dark hair and horns. But the eyes that meet mine are surprised.

He touches the glass with a three-fingered hand, as if saying hello. And his mouth curves into a hint of a smile, revealing fangs.