Warning, this chapter has an intense scene in it.
-November 23, Santee Reservation NE-
"Get out," our driver grunts through the open door. We've been on the road for close to nine hours today and for seven the day he picked us up. Outside is flat as far as the eye can see in all directions, there are no trees and endless hills of turned up dirt and grass. We've pulled up to an older house. The house is a two story wooden structure with a porch and a second floor balcony; it appears as if it hasn't been updated since it was built a hundred years ago.
Despite appearing run down with no electricity or running water, the clean windows and swept stairs hint someone still does upkeep on it. Harry steps out first and the brute grabs him by the collar of his shirt. The man throws Harry towards the house causing him to stumble over. I step out next and give the man a clear impression that I am not afraid of him. He grabs my wrist and kicks Harry on the floor in attempt to get him to go towards the house.
Parked ahead of us and to the left of the porch is a second vehicle, a yellow jeep. The jeep is covered in scratches with mud caked up half of its side, there are piles of nets inside its back and the seats are so weathered I can see the stuffing coming out of them.
A man steps out onto the porch to greet us. The man is a middle-aged black gentleman wearing a floral red tie and bright yellow dress shirt with black slacks. He has polished shoes that shine even as the setting sun provides little light, "You're early Prancer, and only two? Hardly a sell."
"Sorry boss," Prancer kicks Harry on the ground again. Harry finally gets to his feet and stumbles into the stairs falling down again at the Gentleman's feet. With my wrist firmly in his he pulls me along.
"What are we going to do with this one?" the Boss quarries, looking down at Harry.
"Dono, they threw shit at mah car, somehow they knew. Had to pick 'em up fast."
"Why not use the cages? We gave them to you for a reason."
"Get up there," Prancer snaps causing Harry to climb up the stairs. Harry gives the Boss one good look over before Prancer waves his gun to threaten Harry to get in the house. Harry scrambles inside. My handler stops at the bottom of the stairs and looks up to his boss, "Don' need them. They ain't causin' no problems. Came no questions asked. Easy."
The boss leans over the railing of the porch to get a good look at me; I return his look with a stern expression. "Interesting..."
A deep voice echoes from behind the screen door, "Mr. Pea, whatchu want me to do with this one?"
"Lock em up like normal," the gentleman shouts back.
"But..." the voice replies.
"I know, trade's tomorrow. I said two; we can deal with it then."
"Aye boss," I hear shuffling leading away from the door.
Prancer pulls me towards the doorway, but Mr. Pea puts his hand out, "Wait," he says, causing the driver to stop with his hand on the handle.
"What's your name?" I keep my stare, unwavering, "Not gonna talk are you?" He reaches his hand out and grabs under my chin. He turns my head to the left, then to the right, admiring my collar bone and cheeks. "You sure are a pretty one." His fingers loosen on my chin and two of them run down my navel.
My free hand lunges up and catches his wrist before the fingers reach between my breasts, pulling him away, "I'm going to kill you," I say in a flat tone without breaking eye contact.
"We'll see about that. Remember me when they break you. Maybe I'll even tip for the service." He smiles and pulls back, dusting off his tie, "Lock her up."
The driver drags me into the house. Inside is crowded with pottery, hundreds of porcelain dolls, and paintings of nature hung on every wall. There's a small off TV in the main room with an old shag couch across it. Sitting on the couch is an old lady huddled up in a pile of blankets. Next to the couch is a wood chair with a table in front, there sits a just-as-old man with his face inches from a newspaper crossword puzzle.
The retired couple doesn't even turn their heads to us coming in as we cross the room. Prancer takes me up a creaky staircase and down a dark hall filled with more paintings to the room on the far side with a balcony to the front. This room at the end of the hall has been stripped empty except for a large metal stake in the center. Harry has cuffs on his hands and feet that are linked to the stake. There are several chains strewn across the room. Prancer pushes me into the room and grabs a set of the cuffs locking them over my wrists and ankles before stomping out and slamming the door shut.
Finally alone, sort of. I already spot a small camera in the corner with a red light on. "Here," Harry says pulling a single piece of bread out of his lap and handing it to me.
"It's fine, you eat it. I'm not hungry." I pull at the metal; the stake doesn't budge an inch. With enough force I could probably pull it right out of the ground, but actually getting the chains off would be another problem all together. Strength doesn't mean much if my bones still break all the same.
"You haven't eaten for as long as I have."
"I'll be fine, comes with the territory when you move around like I do. My body's used to it, yours isn't."
He nods and eats the bread, "What do you think they'll do to us?"
"I think we're meant to become whores."
He raises an eyebrow, "Both of us?"
"Um, yeah..." that doesn't sound too confident, if whores are the plan then they'd have no use for Harry. I'm guessing the driver picked him up by association. He didn't need someone to run to the police and report the crime. My stomach growls and I bring both my hands to rest on it, "Whoa," I shouldn't be hungry.
"Maybe you should have eaten the bread after all."
The ache becomes worse and I feel my body swing backwards. As my head crashes into the floor two white lights appear in front of me. A phone rings. "Yeah, yeah," A man's voice rumbles from its place on a bed in front of me. He throws the covers off his body as the two lights beyond the bed flicker off.
He sits up and rubs his eyes before answering the phone, "I'll be there in a second," he drops the phone back onto the bed. The man stumbles over to the door and turns on the light. It's Neel. He's wearing a white shirt and blue boxers. He fits his feet into a pair of white slip-ons and shuffles through the door. He goes down a small hallway and to the left.
Neel unlocks the door and swings it inwards. On the other side is a woman with dirty blond hair and a freckled face, she's wearing a red polo shirt similar to the one Neel uses for work and the same black slacks too. Her brown eyes look into Neel's as she opens the screen door and steps in, giving him a hug. She doesn't seem to notice Neel's bare legs, nor does he notice he's not wearing pants.
He doesn't quite know how to receive the hug and awkwardly wraps his arms around her back, "Awe, hello sleepy head—did I wake you?" Neel mumbles something that's not quite words as she picks up a large bag that was on the ground and she stomps past him as if she owns the place.
"How was work?" Neel asks, closing the door and following her.
She walks past the hall and into an open area which looks like a mix between a kitchen and a living room with no visible separation except the change between tile and carpet. "When I called to say I was covering your shift Maria told me to come in at four instead of two—thought it was because she didn't want a newbie to the evening shift taking the long shift. Turns out she wanted me to close. Was there wiping down tables till midnight." She pouts and drops her bag on the single piece of furniture Neel's living room has, a white sofa.
"You still have that 7am?"
"Sure do!" They both glance over at the microwave, which is reading '12:19 a.m.' in red numbers.
"And you still came over?" Neel asks, "Well, thank you so much for covering my shift Rebecca, I was up all night looking that shit up, and was in no place to work."
"It's no big deal, it's my money now," She teases. Neel goes over to his fridge and Rebecca wanders past him, lured by the only light turned on in the apartment. As she enters the hall she says, "A promise is a promise! It's okay, I brought my stuff—your house is way closer anyways. A ten minute drive instead of the forty-five from mine—almost no point in going home." When she opens his bedroom door the light floods into the hall, from there creaking can be hard as she sits on the bead and speaks up, "So, monsters huh?"
Neel closes the fridge without taking anything out and turns to the hall, "Uh, yeah—just one though and only a couple of times. I think it's trying to tell me something, what I looked up says the visions are of the future, kinda."
When he gets back to his room Rebecca is already under the covers. Her work clothes are on the floor. She looks up with an innocent smile, "You only have one bed huh?"
Neel looks at her with disbelief then points to the door, "I, uh, got the couch too."
Her eyes fall on his legs and for the first time Neel realizes he has no pants. He gives her a half-smile, "I think its stress, the things you're seeing. Maybe it's the job. Your imagination is bringing this thing to life to entertain you or tell you something. The fact that you told me and not your mom means something too." She blushes and uses the blanket to cover part of her face, "I can help with the stress. We've had good times before: that one summer at the boss' place, or remember last Christmas? Maybe we don't need alcohol to have a good time. And maybe you need someone to get the crazy out of you."
Neel looks between his bed and the door; unable to believe the can of worms he just opened by telling Rebecca about his visions. He opts to take the bed, crawling in next to her. Rebecca reaches up to the window ledge next to his window and finds a small remote. She pushes the button in the middle and the bedroom light turns off. She then shuffles under the covers and pulls a small silver package out, placing it on the pillow next to Neel, "Let's not have any accidents," she smiles.
Neel takes the packet, almost guilty. They finagle under the covers for several minutes before Rebecca eventually ends up on top. She is slow and graceful at first before increasing the speed, Neel is so far gone in the moment he can hardly hold his hands on her thighs.
As Rebecca moves her body up and down Neel rolls his head back—then glass, everywhere. A sharp explosion sends blades of glass inward as the window splits into a million shards. Rebecca's erect body turns to the window, covered in deep gashes so fresh the blood has yet to come to the surface. She screams as a massive dark-haired beast reaches through what's left of the window rips her up and out of the bed.
The demonic beast curls its wings tightly against its body and shifts its weight to its hind legs. The beast tightens its grip on both her arms and rips in opposite directions, silencing Rebecca's scream as it tears one arm off and flings it across the room before smashing her entire body into the roof like smashing a fly against the wall. Her bloody heap plummets to the floor and the demon jams his fingers into the gore. It turns around and smears something on the mirror at the end of his bed before pulling his arms out of the room and shooting into the sky just as fast as he had appeared.
Traumatized, shaking, and covered in Rebecca's blood Neel looks at the message written on the mirror. It's a single word, 'NO.'
The scene rewinds. Instead of glass spraying her body, Rebecca looks up at the ceiling fan and lets out a deep lustful moan. She drops down onto Neel's chest, her heavy breathing synced with his.
"Shit," Neel shouts, pushing Rebecca off him.
She rolls to the side and between breaths says, "Yeah dang, that's much better than drunk."
"I got you pregnant."
"What," her response laced with anger, "How? We used rubber."
"It happened again, right at the end, the demon. I think he was telling me not to finish like that."
She rolls over and gets onto all fours. She crawls under the covers, and from there says, "Yep, it's broken." She comes back out from under the covers, "You're saying this demon of yours told you it would break?"
"Not in such a nice way, but yes."
She flops back onto the pillow and moans, "Great... I'm on birth control you know. If it comes back positive in a week or two maybe I'll believe in this monster of yours." She rolls onto her side with her back to Neel and says, "I got to be up for work in five hours, good night."
Neel adjusts himself under the covers before replying, "Night."
"Night."
"Night."
"Clare!" I look around, confused. "Night?" The room is dark now. Harry has his arms on my shoulders. "Where do you keep going when you do that?"
My eyes quickly adjust to the darkness as I look into his eyes, "It's not me..."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know, but it's not me doing it."
"Of course it is, you keep going blank like that. You're sick." I most certainly am sick, but this is not what I'm talking about. The Angel keeps showing me Neel's life. Why? Why does it want me to watch his anchor?
"Well, I'm fine. I'll figure it out. This has never happened before," I give him a smile; "maybe it's you."
He smiles back, "Yeah maybe, if we make it out of here."
I pull at the chains and move as far away from the stake as I can to lie out on the floor, "Don't worry about that, we'll be fine. We're just using them for the ride and entertainment; it's cheaper than a bus after all."
Harry also lies down on the floor, "You're crazy to think that."
I smile, I know.