“What about you?” I said. “How did you end up here?”
“That breaks another rule. You do not ask about the past life of the other girls before they came here. It’s not fair. This is a place to forget, not to regret or relive.”
“But there must be a way out of here. There must be a way to escape.”
“You’re welcome to try but you will fail. Just as everyone else has failed. Even if you escape this place, there is nothing outside but an endless desert. The sun will bake your skin. The shade will freeze your bones. Forget escaping. The only escape you can do is in here.”
She tapped the side of her head.
“You will learn you can become anything in your mind. And nothing can harm you.”
“What about my life back on Earth? What about my friends? My family?”
Even as I said the words, my throat clogged with emotion, the tears ready to slide down my cheeks.
“There’s one other rule you must obey,” Lily said. “Your sanity depends on it.”
“What?”
“You must never, under any circumstances, fall in love.”
I glanced at her over my shoulder to see if she was being serious. I was surprised to find she was. I snorted. It was an ugly sound with my blocked nose.
“Fall in love?” I said. “In this place? With these things? Give me a break.”
“You say that now but many a Prize has fallen for their captors.”
There was a flicker behind her eyes, I thought. It was the first time I’d seen a crack in the veneer of her expression. It was hairline-thin, but it was there.
“Your body and mind evolved to adapt to any situation thrown at them,” Lily said. “Including this one. Later, there might be an alien you take a fancy to. Not all these prisoners are hideous and ugly. Some are exceptionally gorgeous. And when that one comes along, you must refuse any warm feelings toward him. You must focus on your task—to survive through each night. Love in this place can only end in tragedy.”
She picked up a cup, dipped it in the water, and rinsed my hair. She grabbed a ratty towel and held it up.
“There,” she said. “All done.”
I had thought she was referring to the bath but it turned out she meant our heart to heart conversation. This was the first and only time she showed any warmth toward me or the other girls. The next time I saw her, she treated me with the same cold attitude she had since I arrived.
I took her advice to heart and practiced it each time I was claimed by a fighter.
I smiled even though it was the very last thing I wanted to do. I studied each alien species and got to know their strengths and weaknesses. I also befriended the other girls. They really weren’t so bad once you got to know them.
I realized Lily was right. Although I could never enjoy this way of life, I could learn to deal with it.
Suddenly, the monsters were no longer monsters. They were prisoners forced to fight and deserved a little… appreciation for their efforts.
When I was nice to them, they were nicer to me. I was no longer just a piece of meat.
I was pleased when one of my “clients” took it upon himself to dispose of the tusked demon who fucked me that first night. The poor old sport was skewered by his own tusks in a freak accident.
There was power in controlling the pleasure of others.
And never once in all my five years had I broken the most important rule: to never fall in love.
Never once had I considered even one prisoner might be the one I’d like to spend the rest of my life with.
All that changed when I met Trayem.
Trayem
The girl remained silent as she followed me, dressed in her oversized clothes that had to belong to the owner of the cell we’d just come from.
What was her relationship with Kren? I wondered. Was she a part of what happened before all this rioting kicked off? Or was she innocent in all this?
I was aware, just as the rest of the prison was aware, that Kren had taken a fancy to a particular human female from the Prize Pool. Ever since then, strange things had happened.
Was this human female the girl that had attracted the champions eye? Was she the one he’d found unable to resist?
Looking at her, I could believe it. She was a cute little thing, small, but perfectly formed with pert breasts and wanting eyes.
I had seen what she had beneath those unattractive clothes and it could tame even the most violent souls.
I cleared my throat and moved out of the way of a pair of prisoners that hastened around a corner. I sensed another fight was soon approaching. The sooner we got to my cell and out of the way of danger, the better.
The riot was only getting worse. The gangs gathered, fighting each other at hastily-constructed barricade choke points.
They carried primitive weapons for the most part. Shards of metal, glass, and pieces of plastic. Others had managed to commandeer shock rifles from the fallen prison guards.
I wasn’t part of any gang. At least, no gang they were aware of.
The prisoners looked me and the small figure tucked behind me over before moving on. A single wayward glance and the situation would implode.
We needed to get out of the hallways before the approaching battle took place.
We came to a barricade of chairs and tables and beds, crammed together with barely a hole in sight.
“Halt!” a voice shouted from the depths of the barricade. “Who goes there?”
I raised my hands.
“Trayem.”
“Trayem?” the voice said, squinting from between a pair of upturned chairs. “I don’t know no Trayem.”
“My cell’s on the other side of your barricade. I need to pass through to reach it.”
The figure eyed
