My stomach rolled in disgust. With nowhere to hide, all I could do was tear my eyes away from their lips and bury my head in my arms.
The next hour, the same group of guys came through the hallway, and we watched them open a cage and drag a gaunt woman to her feet.
“Another one is leaving,” Quinn mumbled. “They have to be killing these women. That girl is haggard.”
The woman was just that. Her body was skin and bones. Emaciated. Her mind was mush, and her mouth was slanted downward, probably emanating low, tired grumbles. The holes across her body were surrounded by angry red skin—holes where her blood was extracted. She looked shredded—used.
“I don’t know. Do you really think that eventually we just run out of useful blood?”
“Keep her or bring in new, lively blood? I think this one is getting put out of her misery.” Quinn huffed. “I hope they choose me next. I’ve been here longer.”
I took a deep breath as the men took her out of her cage by the arms, legs dragging behind her.
“Come on. Let’s get up.”
As soon as the woman’s legs hit the hallway carpeting, all of us women stood in solidarity, even if our bodies fought us to stay sitting. On shaky knees,we all flattened our hands over our hearts and watched the woman leave the cages.
The men slammed their hands on our front glasses to get us to stop, but we remained unwavering. When the woman was out of sight and the door to the hallways closed, we all collapsed to the floor and resumed our dull gazes into nothing.
The headache ravaged me for the next two days while I nibbled on half a berry and took only a sip of water that dribbled down the wall once a day.
Then, my red light flickered to white. I rolled my eyes, laboriously standing for the first time in two days. My muscles ached and my head throbbed. I knew I wouldn’t be able to give Fletcher much blood. I was hardly restored to full health.
I counted to ten, staring straight ahead at the woman caged across the hall from me. She was curled up, sleeping on the ground.
On cue, the door to the hallway burst open, and I didn’t have to look to know it was Fletcher. With his presence, he brought an air of superiority with him. Ikept my eyes above his head as I planted myself in the middle of the cage, ready for farming.
As he was dropping coins in my cage, I didn’t expect the door to open again. From my peripheral, two Cidris strode in with a limp person in one of their arms. My eyes darted to them, curious. It was the youngest girl I had seen. Her teal dress went to her ankles and her hair was bright as the sun. Her freckles were familiar and so was the point of her chin. As they passed my cage, I got a better look, and every part of me reeled in horror when I recognized the eleven-year-old.
“Topine!”
She was the young girl who had found me on the outskirts of the crystal mining fields after running away from the Cidris toward Elizy. She had saved my life by giving me water and food.
I ran to the glass and banged my fist on the cage, now no more than a foot away from Fletcher’s heated gaze. But I kept my eyes up even though the top of his dark, wavy hair was in view. “Topine!” I screamed, knowing she’d never hear me. Tears ran down my cheeks.
This was not right. She was sweet, innocent,young. For her to be locked in a cage for men to gawk at hernaked made bile stir in my stomach. She shouldn’t be here. The Cidris had gone too fucking far!
On the third time I called her name, I saw the top of Fletcher’s head rotate over his shoulder to see what I was looking at. And he, too, watched briefly as they threw her in a cage, stripped her of her clothes with scissors, and slammed the cage shut.
“Topine…”
My heart broke. And a flash of needing comfort gripped me, tempting me to look at Fletcher. The only person who could do something about this madness. But, I knew what his face would look like. He’d probably be smiling at my distress, laughing at how ridiculous I was for trying to call her name. His cinnamon eyes would be latched on my breasts, dipping down my body to my core. So I didn’t bother to spare him even a glimpse.
Then, the machine turned on, warming up to take my blood.
Between the headache and the horror of seeing little Topine being thrown in a cage like a rag doll, I felt as if I had already been drained. Fletcher wanted more of me, but I had nothing left to give him. He’d already obliterated every part of my body, my magic, and my blood.
The pressure forced me to the center of the cage, lifted my limbs, and raised my chin up high to get every possible surface area of skin exposed. Then, the pressure dropped before rising, sucking blood droplets out of my skin through the holes that were already drilled into me from the very first time Fletcher had farmed me.
It never got easier. The pain never lessened. It was always excruciating as the blood was sucked from my body then moved to the edges of the cage where it drained into a bottle for Fletcher to drink.
I collapsed to the ground when it was over, heaving for breath with the stabilization of pressure. I was too tired to open my eyes, so I left them closed, resting my head wherever it felt like. I did not want even a glimpse of Fletcher’s magic surfacing on my palm. I didn’t want to see that purple orb I harbored somewhere in my body. I hoped my magic would drag it down and burn it alive.
The blood-deprived headache didn’t even give me a second to breathe. It smacked me across the temple, sending my body rolling to the left. It forced my eyes open, the ruby red florescence stabbing my eyes.
And by the time my vision focused, Fletcher was gone, and Topine’s eyes were open.
“Topine,” I breathed, crawling to the edge of the cage to get as close to her as possible.