“Yeah?” Carmen tuts, shaking her head and popping our fledgling hope like a party balloon. “Or maybe they’re moving us to a space market, where we’ll be bought and sold likecerdo!” She waves her arms for dramatic emphasis.
Why can’t she just let us hope for two seconds?“What is cerdo?” Kazumi asks, her voice barely audible over my pounding heartbeat.
“How you say?” Carmen makes snuffing noises. “Oink, oink, like farm animal.”
“Pig,” I mutter absently.
“Pig! Like farm animals, youentiendes?” Carmen retorts, glaring at us like an angry drill sergeant in her camouflage fatigues. She sighs after a moment, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Don’t get it twisted because they haven’t done anything yet.”
We all avert our gaze from Carmen’s intense glare. But she’s right. Dracoth didn’t just snatch random women—he sought us out, traveling across space and the entire globe, selecting specific young women.
“Wait, wait!” I exclaim as a thought strikes me like a lightning bolt. “If he wanted sex slaves, why didn’t he just raid one place? Why go to the trouble of flying across the entire world, taking just one of us each time?” I glance at the others, searching their faces for answers.
Carmen frowns but remains silent for once, lost in thought. I turn to Kazumi, struggling to recall what our captors told her. “Didn’t they say something about you being a bonded female? Maybe it’s like a marriage thing, not some weird, kinky sex deal?” I suggest, clinging to the sliver of hope.
But instead of hope, Kazumi and Sandra’s faces reflect only terror. They clutch themselves tighter, their skin growing pale. Carmen emits a deep laugh, oozing bitterness and mockery. “This is better?” she asks incredulously. “Being raped by that giantpendejo, or by the other one—the one frominfierno?”
I meet Carmen’s mocking, intense brown eyes, undeterred. “Of course, it’s better than being used by a whole horde of aliens or sold to creepy, bug-eyed, slime monsters,” I argue, my mind racing with horrifying images of all manner of grotesque, terrifying creatures. “Or worse—gooey, tentacled aliens that’ll eat us after fucking us.”
Kazumi bursts into sobs at my words, and Sandra immediately wraps her arms around her, trying to offer comfort. Carmen just scoffs, “Bullshit.”
I sigh, regretting wasting my time trying to instill some hope.Why does everyone always misunderstand me? It’s like I’m speaking an alien language myself!Suddenly, the dim purple lights of the ship flicker off, plunging us into total darkness.“What’s happening?” I whisper, panic rising my voice and heart rate.
Deafening silence engulfs the surrounding darkness. “These space hillbillies probably forgot to pay the power bill,” I mutter, earning a sardonic chuckle from Carmen.
“Shush!” Kazumi commands, her voice choked with tears. We fall silent, straining to hear something—anything. But there’s nothing. Just complete, unnerving silence. “Not just lights,” Kazumi whispers. “Engine has stopped.”
Her words only heighten the oppressive darkness, like a suffocating blanket I can’t cast off.She’s right.What the hell is happening?Urged by desperation, I struggle to my feet, groping my way toward the bars until they loom out of the dark, almost bumping into them.
“Hello!” I shout into the black corridor, my voice echoing uselessly in the void that might as well be the depths of space.
“Hello!” I repeat, my annoyance and fear growing in the cruel silence.Where is that giant bore when you need him?“He’s probably off abducting more females from some other planet,” I sigh, trying to mask my frustration.
“This cell’s going to get real crowded, real soon,” Carmen replies, though her expression is hidden in the pitch-black. “We should stick together.”
Ironic, coming from her.I can already picture the intergalactic squabble over which aliens control the hole in the ground that serves as our toilet—I could cry. I should be lounging on a yacht in the Mediterranean instead.
A sudden, blinding light stings my eyes. It’s Kazumi’s cell with the torch activated. “You have your cell?” I ask, feeling a pang of jealously. Mine was lost—along with my Birkin handbag, another tragedy. “Do you have any signal?” I add, already dreading the answer.
The cell’s light illuminates Kazumi’s face as if she’s about to tell a ghost story. “No signal, no Wi-Fi. I saved battery until now.”
No shopping, no social media, no nothing! Come on, Lexie, now’s not the time.
I struggle to suppress my trembling lip, on the verge of erupting into full-fledged weeping.
“Give me that,” Carmen snaps, grabbing Kazumi’s cell from her shaky grasp. Kazumi protests weakly in Japanese, her voice barely audible.
“Hey, give her back her phone!” Sandra challenges, looking like an angry pink fox, wearing those garish pajamas.
At this rate, the aliens might find we’ve all killed each other.
“I’ll return it soon,” Carmen waves a dismissive hand as she stalks towards the cell bars, leaving the three of us in total darkness. “Let us out of here!Hijo de puta!” She squeezes the cell through the bars, shining the light as if it might reveal something. Carmen sighs in frustration before unleashing more pointless verbal assaults.
I wince at the shouting. “That’s very useful. Yes, good job,” I say, dripping with sarcasm.
Carmen turns, the cell lighting up her face as it twists with impotent fury, now directed towards me. “I’ve been listening to you threechicascry like babies for days!” she roars, thundering closer, urging me to steady myself, rapidly breathing, knowing she might attack. “Now you tell me to be quiet!” she sneers, jabbing a finger in my face.
How dare this bitch threaten me!Fury overtakes my fear, even though Carmen’s probably military trained.
