She’s gone,” Amber says.

I turn to her and see her still curled up into a ball on her bed.

I scream at her. “You could have helped me! You just laid there while I tried to stop him!”

“Didn’t you see him?” she asks, “There’s no way either of us could have so much as budged that thing.”

“We could have tried!” I say tears stinging my eyes. “Now Alice is just gone.”

Amber frowns. “We’re all gone. All three of us. You don’t seriously think we’re ever going to get home again now, do you?”

I fall down on my bed, turning my back to her. I don’t want to deal with her right now. Not when she’s in such a shit mood. I don’t want to hate her either. We all are dealing with this in different ways. I’m angry, Alice is gone with a strange alien, and Amber is giving up hope. At least for now.

The next time the door opens, it’s the sickly green aliens again. The moment the doors open I hear loud, buzzing alarms, and there’s flashing red lights leaking in from outside.

I watch as two of them prod Amber just as her scream begins. She falls limp back into her bed, and I decide I’m not letting them take me again without a fight.

I scream and kick at the one moving toward me. It backs up and swings its electrified rod, and just as I grin with satisfaction that I made it back up, another one jams its weapon into my back. It must have snuck up behind me while I was focused on the other one.

I fall to the ground in a heap, and this time I pass out entirely.

* * *

I wake up with the feeling of the sun on my skin. It’s warm, but not unpleasant. It’s like the feeling of one of the last warm days of early Fall, when there’s a nice cool breeze, but you can still feel the sun on your skin.

I try to get up, but my body feels stiff. My back and neck hurt, as if I’d slept on a couch that was too small for my legs.

Then I look down and see that I’m lying on hard stone. I hear a metal jangle, and I see there’s a big metal chain cuffed to my ankle. The chain goes to a metal post, which is bolted to the stone floor.

Everything looks more red than it should, and when I look up, I can see the sky. It looks like early morning or late evening, as I can see the glow of the stars in the sky. But there’s a large, red sun shining above, and the sky is more of a deep purple than black or blue. I squint at the sun, which is bright, but not nearly as bright as the sun I’m used to.

“This isn’t Earth,” I whisper.

Saying it aloud somehow makes it real. We were on an alien ship, and now we’re on some other world. The chance that I’ll ever get home feels so remote now, but I won’t give up hope.

I’m in some kind of courtyard. I can see the alien sky and sun above, but I’m surrounded by marble columns and arches. There is a second and third story, with balconies and jutting walkways above, though I see no one in any of them. Through the doorway nearest me, I can see some potted plants. Their leaves are greener than any green I’ve ever seen on Earth, and they grow from clay pots painted with horned figures in bright teal paint. I can’t see too far into the building, and the doors further from me–on the far ends of the courtyard–are at angles that I cannot see into at all.

I pull my leg and tighten the chain. The metal post doesn’t budge.

I notice I’m wearing some kind of white robe. It goes down to my ankles, and hides most of m body, though I can still see the outline of my nipples through the thin cloth. I get onto my knees and then stand, and I reach to the pole with both hands, shaking and tugging at it. It’s bolted in so tight that it may as well be part of the ground. There’s not a thing I can do to loosen it, so I sit back down and pull my feet in toward my body to get a better look at the cuff on my ankle.

It’s tight enough that I can’t even slide my pinky in. I try anyway, and soon my fingers and ankle are rubbed raw. I get blood on my pinky, though it must be from where the cuff cut into my ankle.

“Leave that,” A voice rumbles.

I look up and feel my body sing as one of the perfectly sculpted teal aliens towers above me. He looks like the one from the ship who took Alice away, but he’s somehow even more attractive to me. Maybe it’s because he’s standing in the sunlight rather than that eery purple glow, or maybe it’s because he’s actually looking at me rather than glaring or scowling at me.

Or maybe it’s the way he cocks one eyebrow at me as those brilliant violet eyes glance down at me. I notice I’m not breathing. My hand is on my chest, and when I see his eyes looking right where my nipples are, I bring my hands down to cover myself.

He’s wearing some kind of mask over his mouth, though I can see he’s smiling with his eyes. The mask has two small vents coming out from either side of his mouth, and as he moves nearer toward me, I can hear his breath filtering through the vents.

He’s wearing nothing but a loincloth. Just like the alien who took Alice. He pulls out some metal object from the cloth, and he crouches down near the pole.

My eyes wander down across his muscular calves and thighs as he bends down. Then I hear a click, and the chain drops from the post.

He grabs the ring at the end of the chain and stands. “I’m to escort you to your master.”

I frown at that. My master?

“Who are you?” I ask.

He looks down at me and holds out a hand. “I am Titus.”

I feel at ease, even though I shouldn’t. I remove one hand from over my breast and reach out to his. He takes my hand in his, and the warm embrace feels better than the sunlight on my skin. He pulls me up to my feet, and his eyes wander across my body. I hear his breath heavy through the vents of the mask.

“You can’t breathe here?” I ask. “This isn’t your planet?”

On the ship, no one wore masks, so I assumed we all could breath Earth-like air.

He shakes his head. “The mask is to protect me from you.”

I’m still holding his hand, but he lets go of me and takes a step back. He’s still holding the end of my ankle chain in his hand. It’s only long enough for me to walk maybe 3 or 4 feet away from him.

“Where am I?” I ask.

“My master bought you,” he says. “It’s my job to make you presentable for him. And then to keep you safe.”

“You’re my bodyguard?” I ask.

Titus narrows his eyes at me. “That body…” He looks down at me again, and his eyes widen as he works his way further down. “Certainly must be guarded.”

I feel my face redden, and I look down.

“You shouldn’t talk to me more than you have to,” Titus says, and he reaches up and adjusts the straps on his mask.

He pulls on my chain and starts walking toward the far side of the courtyard.

I pull back on him, and I nearly fall over when he doesn’t stop.

“Hey!” I shout.

He spins around and glares at me. “Your master will dock my pay if I don’t have you ready in time.”

“Then explain to me,” I say. “Or I’ll make this very difficult for you.”

He sighs. “Explain what? You are a slave now, isn’t that clear? What more would you need to know?”

“A slave?” I hiss. “You can’t be serious? A slave of who? On what planet? Why?”

“Your master is Magistros Vesuvius Archinaidus Maxillius,” he says. “You are on the dying planet of the dying sun, the planet whose name has been lost to time.”

“That’s a long name” I say. “Both of them.”

“You will call him only ‘Master,’ never call him by name,” Titus says.

“Not like I’d remember it,” I say.

“Now, we go,” he says, and he moves so fast that I don’t dare stop, for fear he’d drag me across the stone ground of the courtyard.

We enter into one of the archways, and I hear the distinct echoing sound of an indoor pool. Each of my bare footsteps onto the polished marble floor bounces off the sound of water, and as we near a glowing, floating light, I see the distinct movements of the sloshing water reflected onto the domed ceiling above us.

Titus brings me to the pool and lowers the chain to the ground. He places it gently onto the marble floor, then he steps toward me.

“Stay still,” he says, and he leans down, wrapping his hard, calloused hand around the bare skin of my ankle.

I close my eyes and focus on that feeling, pretending it’s a sensual touch. That he’s not just holding me to remove my chains. That I’m not a slave.

It’s crazy that I can at all think of wanting a sensual touch from my captor. From this brutal, loin-clothed alien with horns jutting from his head. The truth though, is that I’m in total shock. Nothing around me makes sense, and if it all didn’t feel so painfully real I’d assume I’m dreaming. Each time I spend any energy thinking about the reality of my situation, it becomes more and more clear that I’m never going to get out of it. The thought of a man like Titus, who has shown me even the smallest amount of kindness, touching me in a way that made me feel safe rather than alone and violated...it’s somehow the best thing I can fantasize about given the circumstances.

I feel a release of pressure as the metal cuff falls to the ground by my feet, and then Titus lets go and stands back up, looking down at me from his impossible height.

“You must bathe,” he says.

His voice is muffled not just by his strange accent, but by the mask.

“Why are you wearing that?” I ask. “You’re afraid I’m going to make you sick?”

He narrows his eyes at me. “More bathing, less asking questions.”

“I’m not going to bathe in front of you,” I say, putting my hands on my hips.

“You will try to escape if I do not watch,” he says.

“Where would I escape to?” I ask. “How far are we from Earth?”

He puts a hand on his mask. “This mask protects me from your scent. Only your master may smell you.”

“You’re telling me,” I say. “That you won’t at all get off on watching me get naked and rub my body?”

I take a step toward him and meet his eyes defiantly. I’m flirting with him, I realize, and my heart pounds so hard in my chest that I can hear it hot in my ears.

His jaw clenches. “Get in the water.”

“Answer me,” I whisper up to him.

He grabs my shoulders and tears the robe off my body. I feel the cool air hit me, and I reach up to cover my breasts with my hands.

He looks right down between my legs, and though I can’t see his mouth through the mask, I know he’s smiling.

I jump into the water, thankful to have it cover my body.

“Good,” he says, standing just at the water’s edge and looking down at me. “Now wash well.”

I glare up at him, but he stands still as a statue, his eyes never leaving me, and barely blinking.