Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
There’s so much screaming. The creature is screaming, the women are shouting, someone is coming through the door. I knew there wouldn’t just be one, and I know there’s a chance some of us will be hurt. But everyone is already hurt.
Brrwwoaawww!
A deep bellow fills the room as a massive red-hued beast with huge horns crashes through the door, knocks me to the side as gently as a charging bull can, and gores our captor to death. His horns pass straight through the apparently quite vulnerable flesh of the octopus face and cause it to start to hemorrhage what I can only describe as green goo.
It’s a disgusting way to go, but very satisfying. The bull creature keeps the evil alien pinned to the wall until the light fades from his eyes, and some of the malevolence leaves the room.
I and the other women are suitably shocked and impressed, some more than others.
Seeker is whimpering and covering her eyes. I put myself between her and the bull man. I want to protect her. I want to protect all of us. I don’t know why, but I feel immeasurably guilty for some reason, as if this is my fault.
“Don’t hurt us,” I say. “If you do, you’ll regret it.”
The Minotaur pulls free of the wall and lets the body slide down to the floor. It’s so pathetic, how quickly it went from being our biggest threat to being nothing but a sack of squid.
“I would never hurt you, pet,” he says.
He speaks with a familiarity and a warmth that indicates he might be a friend. The fact that he just gored our combined enemy to death is also a bit of a hint.
“We got captured,” I say. “All these ladies and me. The squid things have been selling them…”
“I know. I’m sorry,” he says.
Two others come in the door behind him. One is a tall, stern male with scales around his face and hands and a sort of patriarchal air about him. Very strange. Very daddy. The other is a big beefy hunter type. Both are covered in bits of green gooey blood. They must have been doing battle with the demons… if they are demons.
This is a very confusing situation, but even a rabbit knows when it has been freed from a snare without having its neck snapped, and I have that feeling now.
“She’s safe,” the Minotaur says. “She’s okay.”
CHAPTER 9
What happens next is a mess. All of us are herded out of the place the others were being held, and into a ship of some kind. The women are scared and hurt, and most of them think they’re just being abducted again. They’re probably right.
The aliens who have us in their custody try their best to be reassuring, but once you’ve been hurt by a big evil-looking alien beast, you don’t trust one again very quickly.
I am the least hurt of all, but even I have a butt plug to remove that shouldn’t be there. The feeling of being violated by a powerful creature who wants nothing but to use you is terrible.
I ask for the bathroom and pull the thing free, looking at it for one hateful moment before throwing it into the plumbing.
My body is still tense with the anger I felt upon finding my friend treated so badly and hurt so much. These new aliens might be here to save us, but I still want revenge. I crave it. Again, memory pulses in my mind. I am starting to feel that my brain is no longer willing to keep these barriers up. Whatever happened to me to break my mind is starting to break down.
I leave the bathroom, and I run into the scaled alien, along with the women who are milling about in the common space, looking various levels of uncertain and angry. I am sure they are scared. I am.
“These women need to be taken care of,” I tell the alien. “They need to be returned to Earth right away, where the doctor and the village can help them. Are you taking us home?”
“We’re not going to hurt you,” the scaled one says. “We’re going to take you back to Earth and release you in a safe area. Please make yourselves as comfortable as you can. We know the ship is somewhat small for this many people, but everything is at your disposal.”
I turn to Seeker, who is looking a little happier. I want to talk to her about everything, but I also know there’s not much I can say after all she’s been through.
“You have alien allies,” she says.
“I do?”
“Seems like it,” she says. Her eyes look behind me in a meaningful kind of way. I turn and follow them, to the tall figure of the scaled alien, who looks directly at me, then crooks a long finger at me.