When Betty awoke the next morning she felt completely alive and whole. She glanced quickly at Barsork as he slept and ran her fingers lovingly down his naked back. He stirred slightly at the touch and made a contented humming sound.

“Barsork, I’m going to go back to the market and get something for breakfast,” she whispered softly into his ear.

Barsork rolled over slowly and wrapped his arm around her. “Alright, I’ll get up and come with you,” he groaned obviously still half asleep.

“No, stay in bed, Love. I remember how to get there and back, and I won’t be long.” She leaned over and softly kissed his lips and then quietly pulled on her clothes and stepped out into the warm air.

It was true that she wanted to go back to the market for something to eat. She had really and truly enjoyed the experience. She had a secondary motive in her mind as well though. She had to be certain if the girl she had seen at the market the day before had been a human.

Without even bothering to disguise herself, Betty walked briskly along the trail leading from their hidden home to the town market.

She couldn’t help but notice how much more crowded the market was today than it had been the day before. And for some reason she felt slightly uneasy. For a split second she almost turned around and ran back to the hideout, back to Barsork’s strong and comforting embrace.

In the end, her curiosity and determination won out over her nervousness and fear and she pressed onward slowly making her way through the market.

Betty gratefully accepted many gifts as she walked and couldn’t help but notice the strange and almost pitiful look on some of their faces. Yesterday she had felt like royalty walking along and talking to the vendors. Today she felt almost as if she were being treated like a lost and wounded animal.

The more she walked, the stranger her feelings became and then her skin began to crawl with a peculiar tingling sensation and Goosebumps raced up her flesh as if she had just walked through a snow drift.

Betty stopped and turned around glancing behind her and she just seemed to catch the faintest hint of a person following her. She couldn’t be certain that the movement had been someone dodging behind a stand, but it certainly seemed that way. After scanning the area vigorously she at last began to walk again, this time more slowly and cautiously.

She passed two more venders who nervously offered her their wares before hurriedly backing away from her. Once again the strange but oddly familiar sensation wrapped its way up her body and seeped into her skin. Betty turned, this time much quicker and was certain that she saw a man slip behind a fruit stand as she turned.

She gasped feeling suddenly very afraid and then with dawning clarity realized that she had forgotten her disguise. Everyone at the market could see that she was human, and probably knew that she was being hunted. Betty suddenly understood that the strange way she was being treated was because she was most certainly being hunted and she should never have ventured coning out on her own.

Fearful of what would happen if she were caught, Betty picked up her pace and began sprinting through the market, twisting and turning through the stands. Each time she glanced behind her she saw the strange shadowy figure just long enough to know that she was still most certainly being followed.

Betty dodged left through an art pavilion and came out on the other side at a dead run. As she turned another corner she glanced behind once more and as she did she ran full force into another body and the two went crashing to the ground in a tangled mess.

Betty, at first feeling disoriented thought she had run into a hunter and began screaming. “Please be quiet. You’re going to get us both caught.” The sound of a young human girl’s voice brought Betty to her senses and she realized the person she had run into was the very girl she had been searching for.

“Elena, I’ve been looking for you all morning. I have to know if you are truly human?” Betty blurted as the two tried to pick themselves off the ground.

Before she could answer the young girl looked over Betty’s shoulder. “Hunters,” she whispered vehemently. “Come, we must go now.” Elena pulled Betty to her feet and without a second’s hesitation began dragging her toward the street. Betty lost track of all the twist and turns, but eventually recognized the small fruit stand where she had first met Elena the day before.

Elena continued to pull Betty frantically along and when they at last passed behind the fruit stand, Betty surprisingly found herself staring at a small woodland track surrounded by sounds of the forest. From off to the side, another young girl popped out from behind a tree. “Elena what’s happening? Who is this?”

Elena handed Betty off to the new girl with a soft push. “She’s got a hunter on her tail. Get her back to the camp and I’ll be along shortly. You know what to do if I don’t get back.”

Betty turned back toward Elena and was surprised to find that she was staring at the market place. She could clearly see the backside of the fruit stand and see all the people wandering along, but she couldn’t hear any sounds. “What is this place?” she asked in awe.

“This is our sanctuary inside of sanctuary,” the new girl said. “Come quickly. Elena will make sure you are not discovered.”

Betty allowed herself to be pulled along as she stared back at the strange sight of the market on one side, and the beautiful forest on the other, as if separated by a single thin line.

When they had gone down the trail a small ways and Betty could no longer see the view of the market, the young girl began speaking in a soft voice. “My name is Kristin Hope by the way. I’m nineteen now, just a few days ago. What’s your name?”

Betty felt so lost and confused, but at the same time she was happy to see other humans, especially ones her own age. “My name is Betty and I’m nineteen too. Can I ask how you got here? You’re the first human I’ve seen since coming here.”

Kristin glanced over her shoulder several times. “We’d better wait till we get in the clearing just in case, and Elena should be there too. She’s the one that looks out for us.”

Betty didn’t like having to wait for answers, especially since she had no idea where she was, or who these people were. She was also concerned about the time. She had already been gone for over an hour and she was certain that Barsork would be up soon and worried about where she was.

After several more failed attempts to get Kristin talking, Betty gave in and decided that she would just have to go along with things for now and see where it took her. She was curious and her instincts told her that she could trust Kristin and Elena.

They trudged along for some distance until the path disappeared and they were trudging through dense undergrowth and large trees. Betty was beginning to insist upon being taken back to the market when at last they came out from under the heavy trees and she found herself in an open clearing.

As soon as they were out, at least a dozen girls jumped up from the center of the clearing, looks of fear etched on their young faces.

“Don’t worry, it’s just another girl. Elena is running off the Hunter now.” The young group of girls took a collective sigh and began smiling as they crowded around Betty excitedly.

“I’m so glad you made it out.”

“How did you get here?”

“What’s your name?”

Betty was pummeled from all sides with rapid-fire questions coming from several girls at one time and she didn’t know who to answer first. Thankfully Kristin came to her rescue.

“Stop that now, and give her some peace she’s been chased all morning by a hunter. Besides, Elena will want to be here when stories are told.”

The other girls quickly backed off and sat down around the clearing in a circle although they seemed somewhat disappointed in the wait. Betty too felt anxious and frustrated by the delay. Apparently Elena was in charge in some way, though, and she saw no need to rock the boat until she had too.

Betty took a seat amongst the girls and they all talked quietly amongst themselves, but avoided any direct questions to Betty. After about a half hour Elena popped through the underbrush opposite of where Betty and Elena had come. Immediately she held up her hands. “All clear.”

The girls around the clearing sighed in obvious and instant relief. Betty stood, feeling it was the right thing to do and held out her hand to Elena. “Thank you for saving me back there. I had no idea how I was going to get away from that hunter.”

Elena smiled and her young face lit up. “When I saw you yesterday you nearly scared the wits out of me when you said you were human. I thought one of the hunters had discovered our hideout and was trying to trick us. When I saw you again today, I knew you must have been hiding just like us.”

Betty smiled back softly. “I never expected to find other humans here. I thought I was the only one. I was so happy to see another girl, I just blurted things out yesterday. I’m sorry if I caused you any discomfort.”

Elena shrugged and then her bubbly face lit up again. “I know you must be curious to hear our stories just as we are curious to hear yours. I will tell you what I can to put you at ease and then if you feel safe enough, you can share your story with us.”

The other girls nodded and many of them held hands to the person beside them. Elena nodded toward Kristin. “Why don’t you start, it’s your story really.”

Kristin nodded slowly and sat cross legged in the middle of the circle facing Betty who now also sat cross legged. “I guess it’s been well over two years now since it happened. I had stayed late in the library at school studying and lost track of time. When I left it was very dark. I should have called for a ride, but I didn’t live very far and I didn’t expect any problems. I hadn’t even gone a block when I was suddenly surrounded by three huge men with strange weapons.

“At first I thought they were there to rob me, or kill me. I tried to fight them off, but they were too big and too strong, and there were three of them. They grabbed me and tied my hands and feet and then put something on my skin that made me fall asleep.

“When I woke up I was in a large room with a black marble bed. I knew then I had been abducted, but I had no idea why, or by whom. I found out soon enough and my whole world turned upside down.

“The Alien that had bought me was the leader of his people and a tyrant. I thought when I saw him that I had gone insane. I had never even imagined that aliens existed let alone come face to face with one inside a bedroom.

“He introduced himself as Carzon and at first I thought that maybe he was kind and that he was going to rescue me or set me free.”

Betty drew in a sharp breath at the name, but tried to keep her face from showing her shock. She knew enough about Barsork’s brother to know that this wasn’t going to be a happy story. She forced herself to pull her thoughts back to Kristin’s telling.

“I found out that night just how wrong I had been. Carzon stole my virginity that night as well as a great many other things I held dear. I learned very quickly and very painfully just what kind of a monster he was.

“Night after night he came to me to spread his seed as he called it. It wasn’t long until I was with child. During my pregnancy I saw very little of Carzon and for that I was grateful. Occasionally he would show up and have other aliens with him.

“They would touch me and look at me as if I was an object and then discuss me as if I could not hear. Sometimes they would ask me questions that I was expected to answer at once, but otherwise I was virtually ignored.

“As my time to give birth drew nearer I became constantly afraid. I had no idea if I would be able to birth an alien child and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I had spent my life dreaming of medical school, and marriage, and someday having a child, but bearing an alien born out of rape had never been a part of that picture.

“Eventually the day came and my fears were meaningless. The child within me was going to come weather I wanted it to or not. The pain was intolerable, but eventually it was over and I was handed my child. He was so small and human looking, but he was very blue.

“Carzon came immediately and pulled the child from my hands. He held the boy up in front of a roomful of aliens. Then he announced that the birth was a success and that the auction house would commence.

“I had no idea what the auction house was, or why it involved my child, but I would find out soon enough.”

Kristin stopped talking and many of the women laid comforting hands on her as she wiped a single small tear from her cheek. Betty felt completely immersed in the story and couldn’t find any words to offer and so she stayed silent. Elena took up the story from there.

“The rest of us were brought up over the next several months and sold at auction to varying men on Xicret and we were all used as breeding stock. Some of us had better masters than others, but all saw us as nothing more than a sex object and a housing chamber for their offspring.”

“Occasionally we saw each other at other girl’s sales, or at auction parties where we were put on display. Most of us at least knew of some of the others. Then word spread about Carzon’s brother being sent to Earth to harvest more girls and they started appearing at the auction house in droves, ten at a time.

“I guess we became obsolete at that time with fresh meat coming in every week. We were rounded up and sold to a Carzonzan trader and shipped off. Once on Carzonzan we were housed in a large building with very little security. After a few weeks we learned of a sanctuary planet and we planned our escape.

“Three of us didn’t make it, but the rest of us found our way here and were taken in and cared for. We were given this place for added protection because all of us are being hunted and would rather die than have to go back as sex slaves to the auction house.”

Betty had known about the auction house from Barsork, but of course hearing about it from these women had a deeper impact. For the first time, she started to question Barsork.

Elena shrugged and she smiled again. “We’ve done pretty well here and we have people on the outside helping us to find other women who are being sold or held. I had heard that there were more women on the way, but I did not realize that any had arrived yet. When I saw you I knew you must have a similar story.”

Betty blinked several times, her mind weaving between her feelings for Barsork, her feelings for these women, and her desire to go home to Earth. She settled for lying.

Betty quickly filled in a story that resembled the truth, but left out very key elements. She told them that she too had been abducted, but that she had never made it to the auction house because her ship had been shot down in an attack and she had been abandoned on the planet here alone.

She expressed that she had been a hostage to someone high up in the ranks before her ship was destroyed and that she had vast knowledge of the auction house, but she left out anything having to do with Barsork.

The women seemed desperate to know what she knew and she gave them whatever information she could that didn’t endanger Barsork or give herself away.

“Are you trying to get back to Earth? Because I might be able to help with that,” Betty said at last. She was surprised when the women looked at her as if she had just spoken something terrible.

Kristin shook her head, her eyes taking on a terrible anger. “We cannot go back to Earth as long as the auction house remains. How could we go back to our lives knowing what is happening to young women all over Earth? These Aliens must be stopped, and the auction house must be shut down.” Kristin said the last with a tone of hatred and violence in her voice that didn’t seem to match her youthful face.

Betty suddenly felt torn between two worlds, and she had no idea which one she wanted to be in. Her love for Barsork was very real and she knew that, but she also understood that they would never be able to be together.

She wasn’t ready to give up her human life on Earth and he wasn’t ready to stop being Xicret. The more she thought about it, the more she wondered if maybe things had worked out just the way they were supposed to. When Kristin asked her to stay with them for a few days she quickly agreed and found herself hoping that Barsork would be able to forgive her.