 |
|||
|
|
Act IX
Steven sat in stunned silence. He could think of no words to convey his thoughts and feelings. His heart was hammering in his chest. He felt the blood draining from his face and was sure that he would faint in a moment.
He watched as The Lady picked up a remote control from the same table where she had picked up the notebook from. She pressed a button on the remote and waited quietly, studying the notebook. A moment later, there was the soft click of the apartment door opening. The Lady smiled sweetly at him as the guards returned and pulled him to his feet, dragging him away.
It was strange finally being able to see his surroundings. He realized that The Lady's apartment was richly furnished in leather and marble and other expensive amenities. But, outside, it was all bare concrete and institutional tiling and flickering florescent lights. The place was chilling, reminding him of those insane asylums in old horror movies where the patients go wild and kill all of the nursing staff in horrible, bloody ways.
Back in the dungeon, as he had come to think of it, the guards forced him back down the hall. He was taken into a room that looked like a high school gym shower with several different shower heads on the wall and sickly lime-green tiles on the floor and walls.
One of the guards shoved a bar of soap into his hands while the other shoved him into the showers. “Get cleaned up. If you don't do it yourself, we'll have to do it for you.” A strange light entered his eyes at this and Steven thought it better to comply with them. There was no telling what they would do to him if they were “forced” to bathe him.
~~~~~~~~~~
After the slave was gone, The Lady returned to her computer. There, she began to type out all of the needed papers for the boy's transfer to Nakrad. She filled in his given name, his approximate age, his physical description. She recommended that he be trained as a Pleasure Slave. His build would not do him much good in the gladiator ring or under the hard labor of the salt mines. And his good looks would be wasted in either pursuit. Finally she recommended a sale price for the auction master and began to print the forms. The sky was already darkening, and he was to be shipped at sundown.
~~~~~~~~~~
After his shower, Steven was turned over to a team of women. While a guard stood by the door, he was guided into a chair in front of a large mirror. He was then carefully groomed, his hair cut and combed into place, his face shaved clean, and his eyebrows shaped. It was all done so quickly that Steven was left wondering what they were preparing him for. Certainly it was not for The Lady. She had already seen him at his worst, he was sure.
Then, suddenly he remembered and the blood in his veins turned to ice. They were preparing him to be sold. He was going to be sold to some new sadist. He did not exist any more. No one would be looking for him!
He felt all the blood draining from his face and his head swam as though he would faint. He was vaguely aware of laughter in the room around him, and then a stinging slap on his cheek brought him back to reality. “None of that now,” one of the women said. “It's time for you to go!”
~~~~~~~~~~
At sunset, The Lady began the journey to the transport room deep in the bowels of the building. There, in a huge concrete room, stood a strange metal contraption. It looked like a delicate hoop of shimmering silver wound about with delicate golden threads. Etched into the silver were intricate runes. Just the presence of it seemed to make the room hum with magical energy.
She heard the sound of the doors opening behind her and looked back to see the guards escorting the slave into the room. He looked much better after a shower and a shave even though he appeared to be on the verge of collapse between them. His face was pale and he was beginning to sweat in fear. Apparently, it had finally dawned on him that she had not been kidding before when she had told him what would become of him.
Turning back to the silver hoop, she raised her hands, palm out, and began to recite the magical incantation that would bring the gateway to life, filling it with swirling gold and silver energy. The light was incredibly bright at first, blinding all present for a moment before slowly fading again. The hoop now appeared to be filled with liquid quicksilver. The surface rippled gently, and sparks of gold glitter appeared from time to time as The Lady watched to make sure the connection would hold. There was not much magic on this planet and sometimes the gateways did not want to work properly.
Satisfied that all was well, she turned to the slave. “This is the gateway to my world. Once you step through, there will be no way back. You will enter the auction house and be sold to your new owner. You will not be missed, except by those who actually knew you in this life, but they will never be able to find you. To the authorities of this world, you do not exist and you never did.”
She was standing in front of him now and could hear his quickened, terrified breathing. She would almost have enjoyed keeping this one. She was sure he would be a delight to break and train. But that was not part of the deal. Her job was to find them and send them on their way. When she finished with this assignment, she could have all the toys she wanted, but not yet.
She pulled her eyes away and looked at the guards. “Boys, help him through.”
She stepped back as the guards drug the slave forward. He bad begun to thrash and try to fight them. They were used to this reaction, though, and soon had his arms twisted behind his back and were surely guiding him up the ramp leading into the portal.
The cast one last frightened glance back over his shoulder at The Lady before he was shoved through the portal, never to return.
|
|
|