My father passed away when I was young. He left me, my mom, and eight of my sisters to mourn for him.
My father was our breadwinner. We barely managed to survive with his help, but when he died, we were left with nothing. We already lived in the slums, crammed into a two-bedroom house with nine kids and my mom.
My mom knew that it wouldn't work with so many of us, so she started to sell her body for money as she couldn't get any other work. It was only a week after our fathers funeral. It affected all of us. Mom tried to be happy for us, but we all knew she was suffering.
My older siblings were working and doing their best to help her with money. My oldest sister was only fifteen at the time, so the income they could provide was nonexistent. I was the second youngest at six years old and in charge of taking care of my baby sister, who was only a year old. The others were out to try and beg for money.
Even as strange as it sounds, that was a better time.
Everything turned around when mom met a man. A man she should've never crossed ways with. He pretended to be kind to us, but when mom wasn't looking, he hurt us. We knew we needed him, so we never said anything.
He was a rich and ambitious man. But he worked for the cartel. We only found out later, after mom gave birth to twin boys. The first boys in our family. The man wanted a son, but he got two. He was happy and stopped the pretense immediately after they were born.
My sisters and I were useless, a waste of money. He told us to work to support ourselves at first, but it took a horrible turn.
He wanted money, and we were useless. I was too young to understand at first, but after my eldest sister died, I realised the horrible truth; he was involved with child trafficking.
All of my sisters, one by one, were taken for his business. Some came back, but the others… didn't. My sisters tried to keep the younger ones safe, taking our places whenever possible. Our youngest and I were lucky enough to escape it. Mom tried to help us, but she was getting the worst of it.
My second oldest sister was the best 'prize mule' he had, and she was also the one who kept me safe the most. She was the one who planned and executed an escape as she heard what our 'father' was planning to do with me and my youngest sister.
My youngest sister was only five when she died. My mother killed her before my stepfather got his hands on her. I don't blame her for that decision, and neither did my sister.
That was the last straw. My sister took me and we escaped. We left everyone behind. She said we couldn't risk trying to save anyone else.
We escaped and hid our identities. My stepfather was always looking for us. I was eleven, and my sister was eighteen at the time. We lived with her working any and all jobs she could get for only a moment at a time. We kept moving around, again and again, never finding a place to call home.
But as our horrible luck would have it, she found out she had cancer when she turned twenty. We didn't have money for her treatment, and it was dangerous to go to any health care anyway as that left a mark of our existence.
I wanted to do everything in mpower to get money for my sister's treatment. So I started to work as a stripper when I was thirteen. I was beautiful, looked mature, and they didn't bother ever checking for ID anyway.
My sister always told me she went to get treatment, but she lied. She saved the money I gave her and passed away when she was twenty-two.
She never even left me a note of goodbye. She left the money and one measly note with onky an address.
I lost everything, and as a stupid teen, I started doing drugs and wasting myself on alcohol with the money she saved me.
I was lost. I had nothing left.
I have hazy memories of the two years I spent on the streets. I remember almost dying of an overdose, but I woke up in a rehabilitation center. Some good samaritan had taken me there and paid for it.
When I got out, I decided that I needed to live for all my sisters who weren't able to and went to the address my sister had left me. It was where my dead father's mother lived.
Grandma instantly recognised me and took me in. But the guilt of living well was too much for me. I started doing drugs again. I survived, but my sister died, and I didn't even know what happened to my mom or other sisters at the time.
Then, finally, a light sparked in my life as I met Aaron. He was the savior of my life. He was so full of love and kindness. Consequently, he was also the man who had saved me from my overdose and taken me to the rehabilitation center. He was a paramedic and saved people every day.
I was anything but. I was at the bottom of the barrel, but he still loved and cared for me.
I got my life to be better with his help. I helped my grandma to be comfortable and got a job as a hairdresser. Aaron proposed to me, and we got married. Everything was great.
But then, as we tried to have children... I found out there was something I couldn't give him in return. I was infertile.
"Candice," Greece whispers, and I snap out of my murky memories.
I shrug and cross my legs. "Sometimes there are things you don't want to remember."
Greece bites her lip and shakes her head. "I'm so sorry."
"It happened years ago," I say, but it really feels like it wasn't. "I… I suppose you figure where this is going now."
Greece sucks in a breath and taps the buttons on the table. We've been waiting at Joddel customs for fifteen minutes now, but there has been no response.
"Anyhow, that's about the time the aliens invaded," I say and lean back on my chair. "I called Aaron, as I was terrified of the sounds outside. He was away with his brother, who was hospitalised at that time. Of course, Aaron came to me and…"
I clench my jaw and blink away the tears in my eyes. "That's when the Zohra entered our apartment. Aaron tried to protect me, but he was killed in an instant, right in front of my eyes."
"You don't have to continue," Greece says and grabs my hand. "I get it…"
"No," I say determinedly and wipe my eyes. "I-I started it, so I'll finish it. I really need to get this off my chest."
Greece nods and squeezes my hand to comfort. "I'm here."
I swallow the lump in my throat and take a breath. "The… Zohra took me as his prisoner. I was kept for days, weeks, or months, maybe even a year. My sense of time was fucked. I don't know how long I was there, but eventually, I escaped." I close my eyes, seeing the awful night play in my head. I had jumped from a second story window and ran for hours in the middle of Joddel with a broken ankle. The whole way is still a big blur to me.
"After I got home… my grandma took me to our doctor, and later he said I'm pregnant. Somehow the fucker had healed my infertility."
"Jesus fucking christ," Greece interrupts me and hugs me against her.
I squeeze my eyes shut, afraid she would judge me. "I found that baby to be the one lying reason to keep going. I was ready to join my husband, until I heard those words," I whisper. "Dante is the reason I'm still here. It doesn't matter to me how he came to be. I love him and always will."
Greece's tears wetten my cheek and it eases up the ball of anxiety in my chest a bit. I pat her back and shudder a sigh. "I'm still terrified of telling anyone about this. I know some people would judge me—"
"Nobody will judge you. Fuck, dude. You're damn tough," Greece interrupts me. "Nobody can tell you what's right or wrong. Only you."
"Thank you…" I mumble and hug her tighter. "I was always scared that if I spoke up about my past, they would tell someone… and that would somehow reach my stepfather, or the Zohra that kept me."
"I will take it to my goddamn grave," Greece whispers. "There's no way I would tell anyone."
I take a deep breath, feeling much better after opening up. "Thank you for listening, and I'm sorry it's a bit dark."
"Don't apologise for shit like that," she says and strokes the back of my head. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that."
"It's all… in the past," I whisper. But it's not in the past. The nightmares still haunt me to this day.
Greece smiles sadly and asks, "Did you ever try to find your mom and sisters?"
"Yes… they're all dead," I whisper and squeeze my eyes shut, remembering the time I heard the news in a shitty coffee shop. "I had hired a private investigator, and he found out."
Thankfully Greece doesn't ask anything more. I wipe her cheek and smile at her puffy eyes. "It's OK. I made a grave for them, even if I didn't have their remains."
"Shit that's so sad," she sniffles and rubs her eyes.
I back away, and freeze. Icy blue eyes stare right back at me from the seat at the back of the room.
I completely forgot Harwal was with us.
Greece is still trying to stop her sobs, but the tears in my eyes dry up. I keep staring at the man sitting quietly, watching me without any hint of emotion.
I can only hope he keeps his mouth shut. I don't want to even entertain the idea of talking about any of this with him.
I wipe my cheeks and turn back to stare at the windshield covered in dark soot. The ball of anxiety that was released from my chest just moments ago grows back again, twice the size of what it was.
"Pleasure ship is free to enter. Landing pad 3–0–8–C, is ready for pleasure ship," the comms buzzes loudly.
Greece sniffles and communicates back to the city control, but I can't hear her reply. My ears start ringing and everything else drowns to just that piercing screech.
I stare at the window wide eyed as the ship flies into the air, wiping the window to show the black city, littered with bright lights. Dark soot falls from the sky like its snow, covering the buildings with black.
"...your son," Greece says and I snap back in reality.
"What?"
"We'll get to your son," she repeats and lands the ship on the pad. "Let's hurry."
I swallow hard and dart up. I wipe my wet hands on my shirt and turn to see that Harwal is gone from the room. I blow out a breath and wipe my face on my shirt.
"Okay," Greece says and pats my back. "Let's hurry it up."
"Let's change to business attire, we can't go like this," I mumble and gesture at our pants and shirts. "We're here as whores after all."
"Yeah," she says and follows me down to our bedrooms. "Wash your face too."
I nod and go to do just that, wash my face and apply make-up to hide the hideous blotchy sight my face is at the moment. I put on the skimpy sheer wear we usually have and a black parasol made specifically for Joddel. I put on my red high heels to match the clothes and get out of the room at the same time as Greece does.
She has a yellow theme, but matches me in the clothing style. I lift my parasol and she goes back to her room to fetch hers.
"Here," Greece says, handing me a small bracelet with a coin hanging off it. "I almost forgot, we made these for everyone after Cap disappeared. They vibrate when someone tries to make contact and it has a built-in locator. So we always know where everyone is."
I take the bracelet and put it on. "I don't know if I even need one now that I'm leaving you guys."
"Of course you do. If you're ever in trouble you can press the coin for ten seconds and it sends an emergency signal to us, then it buzzes three times," she says, showing her own bracelet. "It's a nice precaution."
I nod and walk with her to the boarding ramp, where Harwal stands. He has changed out of the normal Zohra clothing. Now he wears the low hanging slave pants. They're made of uncomfortably coarse linen and they're tied with a rope on the top and the ankles.
It's strange to see a Zohra without the thick belt around their stomach. I didn't know its purpose, but I can guess now that he wears the uncomfortably revealing clothes. They're trying to look less intimidating. To see the pure strength underneath that belt is awfully sobering.
I drag my eyes from him and stare down at the flooring. This is awkward. Harwal doesn't say anything, nor does he look at me. And I'm glad he doesn't. I want to keep my eyes well away from him and I don't want to hear his opinions about my life.
"Ah, Harwal…" Greece mutters. "You, uh, remember that you're called Cronus now and stay silent and right behind me."
"Cronus?" I repeat.
"It's a name from Greek mythology," she says and lifts up a backpack near the door. "He was a titan, I figured it fits the big dude. Take this, it's more clothes." She gives Harwal the bag, which looks very small in his hands.
"But… how do you know that?" I ask, avoiding looking at the man longer than necessary.
Greece blows her nose and shrugs. "Maybe I was a Greek mythology nerd?" She says with a short chuckle. "I guess it fits my name, doesn't it?"
I nod and turn to stare at the opening in front of us. It would be nice if Greece would regain her memory, even bits and pieces.
Greece sighs heavily at the sight before us. "I can't believe it's still like this. It's day and it's as dark as in the middle of night."
I nod and march down the ramp, opening my parasol to protect me from the black soot floating down from the heavy black smoke in the sky.
My home has turned into an industrial nightmare with the aliens overtake. Every building is black from the soot, only brightened up with the vast amounts of lights and neon signs on the streets. It's a horrific sight every time I step into this city.
I get down to the customs and lean on the counter, pushing my breasts forward. "Hello, are we good to go?" I ask, smiling seductively.
Luckily, it's a familiar blue face that greets me. The alien is my contact in Joddel, an Atorus named Gurk.
"Candy!" He rattles my Joddel nickname with happy clacks. "Get message?"
I nod and stop leaning to the counter. "Me and my friend Greece got here just now. We have a bodyguard slave this time too, look it's a Zohra." I point at Harwal knowing the aliens are amazed with them. It's a good way of distracting him from the security check. Even if Gurk works with me, it never hurts to skip the check.
Gurk leans his head out of the booth and rattles an impressed sound. "Amazing. Hard to get."
I keep my smile in place and wave for Greece to come to the counter with me, she smiles widely and nods to the alien. "Hello."
The Atorus rattles and checks Greece out. "Pretty thing. Go on, say hi to Valentina. Good pie."
I force myself to chuckle and nod. My grandma makes pie for him and his family every week to keep good relations. It's what she wanted and I don't complain.
"I'll be seeing you later then, Gurk. I need to go and find the doctor," I say.
"Hope good things," he says with a solemn nod.
I usher Greece and wave Harwal to follow us, which he does wordlessly, keeping right behind us. His shoulders and head are already filled with black soot, but he doesn't look too bothered by it.
We walk into the customs office, the floor is covered with black footsteps and grime. There are many aliens and humans huddling on the sides of the place, waiting for their once chance to get away from the city. Which is unlikely to happen in any other way than death.
I bite my lips as we step back outside, there are more children sitting by the sides of the buildings than usual, begging for money with their soot covered bodies and faces.
It's always hard to come by the hotspot of beggars. They gather around the customs in the hopes of rich merchants coming by and showing mercy by giving them credits.
First time we came here with the girls, they gave the kids some, but everyone living here knows that makes you a target. We got hounded by children and their owners, who eventually took every last credit from us.
"Don't look at the kids," Greece whispers to Harwal as a kid practically runs in front of us. They aren't even a little bit intimidated by the giant behind us.
We walk through their begging with our heads held up, not giving even one look towards them. They click their tongues and cuss us out as we do, but that's what you have to do. That's also what they have to do.
Greece keeps tightly next to me, hooking her arm around mine as she closes her parasol. "Where does your grandma live?"
"It's a half hour walk, but we can take the cable taxi."
She nods and we get out to the main street. It's a long uphill cobblestone road that is surrounded by shops with flashing neon lights to invite people in. It makes everything look cheap, but normal signs don't show with the amount of soot that keeps raining.
The main road is always quiet before the clock strikes twelve, which starts the public time to walk around without permit. City workers, masters and their slaves, and visitors always have a free pass on the main road, but not the normal citizens. It's one of those odd rules the aliens imposed on us. I figure it has something to do with the traders coming in and out of the city in the mornings.
A few humans are using power washing machines to clean out the streets, and walls of the shops that have paid for it. Washing the walls make them stand out among the dirtier shops.
This road used to have white buildings with brightly coloured door frames, but now it's like a black and grey film, dark and depressing.
I lead Greece to the taxi stop and press the button inside a plastic cover. There's a long cable line going through the whole city, as cars and anything that worked with gasoline was banned from the city. It's ironic that they wanted to keep the city clean, but it turned out to be the horribly polluted place it is now.
"My, my, look at these chicks," a human man says, one of the power washers. "How much for an hour?"
We both turn to the dude and smile. "We're occupied right now," Greece says. "But if you contact the pleasure ship, you'll find out."
"Pleasure ship?" The man says and wipes his sooty face. "What's that?"
"It's where we work," I say, and Greece digs out a card with the information.
"Nah, stop Carlos, they're expensive as fuck," the man's coworker says. "My mate works at the Neon doctors, got one of those and almost used a month's wage."
The man next to us grimaces and waves his hand. "Yeah, that'd be more than our pay."
"Is that a fucking Zohra?" The other man says, looking at Harwal.
I'm a bit surprised they noticed us before him, so I turn to their gaping and hold in my surprise. It seems Greece has ingrained him to kneel when we stop. He's blending into the street, as he's absolutely covered with soot. Greece follows my gaze and sucks in a breath.
"It is," I mutter and eye the guys, they don't seem too dangerous. "It's for our protection."
"Yeah, way too expensive for us if they can afford that. He's huge," the first guy says. "We should find a slave after work."
Greece grunts in disgust and I turn back around with a sigh. It's the awful reality of this place. Everyone is out to work, eat, and get laid.
"I hear the guys we're cleaning next have a sex slave, we could take her for a spin," the second man says.
The taxi arrives, so I nod at Harwal to open the door, but he doesn't seem to get it, so I poke Greece.
"Cronus, open the fucking door," Greece says angrily and he jerks to do what she asked. "Un-fucking-believable. They told me he's well trained."
I eye the guys behind us and they have a surprisingly keen interest in what is going on. It could mean they're also working for slavers, looking for easy merch. Humans rarely want to meddle in others' business, especially if an alien is involved. I push Greece in the back seat and point at the front door.
"I'm sure you're capable of opening doors," I say and lift my chin to stare into his eyes. It makes my skin prickle but I gotta do what I gotta do. "Being dull doesn't mean you shouldn't know how to act."
Harwal narrows his eyes and I kick his shin. No slave shows defiance, this idiot just forced me to do it. I point my shaky finger towards the ground and lean in to whisper, "Kneel again."
Greece peeks out of the car and puts on a show to sigh. "I should ask for my money back, only two days and this is it?"
Harwal slowly kneels and keeps his eyes on mine. I can't understand how someone can be so intimidating. Even on his knees he makes me want to run away and fast. I take a breath and try to move my eyes to communicate with him, to tell him he has to look at the ground. I glance at Greece and she gets the gist.
"I bought it," Greece says dramatically and comes out of the car. "I should deal with it, you go wait in the car."
I make a teatherical sound of disgust and open the front door with a napkin. As soon as I shut the door my hands start shivering, so I put them between my legs. This looks like a bad soap opera and I can only hope the men don't take too much of an interest in it.
"Look at that," one of the guys says. "They said that they're hard to train but that's just ridiculous. They should just kill it. Zohra are fucking wild."
"Hey lady! Be careful with that, I wouldn't want a pretty one like you to get ripped apart by it. We know a buyer if you wanna sell it or yourself." One man says with a loud laugh.
Greece snorts and I hear a smack. She must've struck Harwal. I don't understand how she manages to do it.
"I know how to handle an unruly slave, and I'm not for owning. Mind your own fucking business."
"Ain't she a spunky one."
I keep ignoring them and stare at the main street, where people are starting to pour out of shops and apartments. Apparently it's midday. The sky is pitch black, never indicating the time of the day.
"Come on then, get your ass inside," Greece says sternly and gets back on the backseat. Harwal comes in after her and shuts the door.
I punch in the coordinates and swivel my head to glance at the two. I press a finger on my mouth to indicate silence and make sure they both nod. Harwal is hunched in an awkward position to fit his size and horns into the small car, so his nod is debatable. I share a look with Greece and turn to stare back out.
Unfortunately as the city is under the outlaws it means that every taxi has a chance of being bugged, so it can listen in on all and any conversations. The taxi lurches to speed with jerky movements, but it quickly smoothes out and goes through the streets with speed.
When the cable taxis were first introduced it killed many pedestrians with the speed it goes through the streets, but now people know to steer away from its path and some have built passages so you can avoid the line they go through.
The city is as I remember; dark, lonely and hideous. The air is smokey and the sky is dark with black clouds. The streets are filled with masters and their slaves. The only ones who look well-kept are the masters, dressed in colourful grabs and using a parasol to counter the soot. It's a sad sight that hasn't changed for years.
I regret every day my gran and Dante have to live in this place. This place is a hazard.
The taxi beeps and slows down to a halt, right at the taxistop near my apartment. I don't ever take a taxi to the stop in front of my place, as you never know who's tracking you in Joddel. I touch my wristband to pay the credits of the ride and the locks open.
I get out and wait for Greece and Harwal to come out, and we wait for the taxi to leave before speaking.
"There's a motel next to the apartment, so you can get a room from there," I say.
"Alright," Greece chirps.
"We need to walk a couple blocks," I say and wave for them to follow. I take them through an alleyway for a shortcut and quicken my steps as I see the apartment building. My chest grows heavier with each step I take, the worry I put aside starts blooming full force.
"I… I think you two should go get the motel," I say and point at the said motel. "I need to go up."
"You sure you don't want me to come with you?" Greece asks.
"It's okay," I say, eyeing Harwal behind her. "The doctor's clinic is at the motel… Could you ask him to come to Valentina's residence?"
"Sure, of course," she says and I give her hand a squeeze before running to the door.
Luckily the shitty elevator is down. It's a cage, rather than an enclosed space. It bangs and rattles up, giving me a show of the horrible building. The walls are covered with ash that covers the graffiti under it, and the floors are smudged with the same stuff. I regret not being able to provide enough credits for them to live in a better place, but it's better than living in the streets.
As soon as the elevator opens I start banging on the door. "Grandma, it's me!" I yell, but I can't hear anything from the inside. "Gran?"
I keep knocking loudly and persistently, so much that the neighbour opens his door with a mean look. The man has grey, probably used to be white, boxers and a wife beater as he points a finger at me.
"Shut up!" He rages and points at my grandma's door next. "She and that kid went to the doc."
A whimper gets out in my throat and I start rushing down the stairs. Everything is a blur, but I manage to get back out to the street and to the motel lobby. They went to the doctor during the day, that means it's bad. The doc usually gives us a couple hours in the early morning, never during the day.
"Candi—"
I ignore Greece standing in the lobby and go right past her to the hallway that leads to the doctor. People line up on the sides of the hall as I get closer, but there's a thin gap that I rush through to the doctors room. I smack the door in panic, feeling my throat clogging up.
Just as I'm about to scream, the door opens and the elderly face of the doctor pops between the crack. His bushy white eyebrows are digging between his eyes as he grumbles, "there's a goddamned line—Sofia?" His eyes widen with surprise.
"Grandma and Dante are here?" I ask, panting. His face turns sorrowful. My whole body grows heavy with anxiety at the expression. I grab his arms and shake him. "Wh-where are they? Please, Mateo, what is going on?"
"They're here, yes, don't be so alarmed," Mateo says as calmly as he usually does. He gently pries my hands off his arms and checks behind him. "Let me deal with this patient, and I'll take you to them. Everything is fine."
Everything is fine? The door closes with a gentle clack in front of my face, and I'm stuck frozen in my spot.
Everything. Is. Fine? How can everything be fine when they're at the doctors?