Imprisoned Read online

  “Well let me tell you what I’m going to do about those nasty words, boys,” he said, glaring into Ari’s defiant, tear-filled eyes, his hot, fetid breath blowing in her face. “I’m going to wash that pretty mouth out with my cock. Right before I take his pretty virgin ass,” he snarled, squeezing Ari’s face until she cried out in agony. It felt like he was breaking her face all over again! “And then I’ll turn you over to the Serpents and let them get their revenge,” Tapper finished. “Now what do you think of that, pretty boy?”

  Ari couldn’t even answer. She was in too much pain, tears leaking from her eyes to sting her torn cheek. How had things gone so wrong so quickly, she wondered dimly. She’d had what she thought was a fool-proof plan and now she was about to be raped and killed without even seeing Jak again. How had this happened?

  Hanna was right—I never should have come here. I underestimated this place and overestimated my own skills.

  Well now she was going to pay for her hubris—pay with her life.

  Goddess of Mercy, she prayed as Fenrus and Gorn grabbed her firmly by the arms. Please, I know I was stupid coming here but I wanted so badly to save Jak. I know I haven’t prayed to you since I was a little girl but could you please help me now? I’m in so much trouble…oh please…please…

  There was no answer and no way out. Amid the cheers and mocking shouts of the other inmates, she was dragged away towards the direction of the cell blocks as the indifferent Horvath guards watched and did nothing to save her.

  Ari was sure she was going to die.

  Nine

  Lathe heard the shouting as he neared the Mess Hall and wondered uneasily what in the Seven Hells was going on. He scanned the hall quickly as he came to the wide double doors leading into it, but he couldn’t immediately see the cause of the ruckus. Inmates were talking animatedly and gesturing but for once there was no fight going on, which was surprising.

  He made his way to table 13—the one designated for neutral parties who refused to affiliate themselves with any of the many gangs—and looked for Ari.

  The boy wasn’t there.

  Lathe swore under his breath as he looked around and registered the fact that Ari wasn’t anywhere in the Mess Hall. Where could he have gone? If he was thinking he could get out by the large exit located perpendicular to the entrance from the holding area, he was wrong. You needed trustee status added to your ID tag or the presence of one of the Horvath guards to get through the huge double doors which shut once all the inmates were accounted for each mealtime and only opened when the designated hour was up.

  So where could Ari be?

  “Greetings, Medic,” burbled Xolox, waving one of his eight tentacles at Lathe. He was a Sporran from Gibbous Seven who had been imprisoned for the offense of killing one of his Yonnite Mistress’s favorite slaves. But it had been a crime of passion and he was usually genial enough and more worth talking to than most of the humanoid inmates, at least in Lathe’s opinion.

  “Greetings, Xolox,” he returned. “Excuse me, but have any of you seen a new prisoner—a boy with black hair and dark blue eyes here today? I told him to come to table 13 to eat but I don’t see him anywhere around.”

  “A boy? Apologies, Medic, but almost all of you humanoids look the same to me.” Xolox shrugged his tentacles apologetically.

  Drumph, the orange-skinned exopod sitting across from him simply gibbered and typed something into his toy com-link. He was clinically insane and never said anything that made sense, though Lathe had heard he had once been a charismatic though extremely dishonest, leader among his people.

  But Gumper, who was sitting beside Xolox raised his heavy head.

  “He might be talking…about the boy…Tapper took,” he said in his slow, ponderous voice. He was chemically dependent on sloth, a drug which caused his skin to turn green and his bulk to balloon to enormous size.

  “What?” Lathe demanded, turning to him. “What did you say? You saw the boy and Tapper took him? Took him where?”

  “Took him…to his…cell…I think.” The drug, which was constantly delivered to his spinal canal via permanent injection sites in his spine, also made Gumper’s thinking and speech agonizingly slow.

  “Why? Why did he take him?” Lathe demanded, then shook his head. “Never mind.” He didn’t have time for Gumper’s labored explanation and anyway, he didn’t need it. There was only one reason Tapper ever took a newbie prisoner up to his cell and it wasn’t to play a friendly game of cards.

  “Damn it!” he swore as he left table 13 and ran for the exit doors. He’d been afraid something like this would happen—afraid the boy’s unique beauty would draw Tapper’s attention. And once the crime boss had someone in his sights, it was over for them. As the ranking gang leader with syndicate connections, Tapper’s word was law in BleakHall. There was no way to get Ari back from him now.

  Still, Lathe had to try.

  Swearing again, he ran faster, hitting the exit doors so fast they whined in protest as their ancient mechanisms slid open to let him out. Then he was pounding up the stairs towards the cell block where Tapper and the rest of the trustees—himself included—had their cells.

  Goddess, he prayed as he ran. Goddess, please—help me save him! I don’t know why it’s so important, I only know it is. I have to save Ari—please!

  Ten

  Ari knelt nude on the rug in the middle of the well-appointed cell. It was so nicely decorated it could almost have passed for a high-priced single unit domicile on Phobos, where she came from. Except for the clear plasti-glass walls on either side, of course.

  It actually was a very nice rug, she noticed dully, as she looked down. A deep red pile worked with golden threads that formed all kinds of marvelous patterns. She ought to know—she’d been studying it ever since Fenrus and Gorn had brought her in here and stripped her. It probably wouldn’t even show any blood.

  Her new prison jumpsuit was lying in a crumpled heap near the foot of Tapper’s bunk and her hands were bound behind her back with some kind of sticky tape. Her look/touch device was still working well, projecting the male chest and genitalia which appeared to be dangling between her thighs—but that was a small comfort at this point.

  She’d been afraid of what the inmates at BleakHall would do to her if they found out she was female instead of male—now she knew they would rape and kill her either way.

  Please, Goddess—don’t let it hurt too much, she prayed dully. And don’t let Jak find out what happened to me. He’ll feel so bad if he knows I got myself killed trying to save him.

  “Well, well—look what we have here. Supper’s over and it appears to be dessert time, lads!” a voice over her head said.

  Ari felt a chill go through her naked body. Tapper was here. Which meant her brief respite was over.

  The hairy gang boss swaggered over, his rubber slippers whispering across the deep nap of the lush carpet. He came to a stop, looming over Ari with his hairy belly almost right over her head. It looked like a practiced pose.

  How many others has he done this to? she wondered, looking up with a wince, since the motion made her swollen left cheek throb with pain. How many innocent victims has he raped and killed just because he felt like it?

  The thought made her angry and she glared defiance at Tapper, who was still looking down at her like she was a prime cut of meat and he was wondering where to take the first bite.

  “Now, now, pretty boy—none of that scowling,” he said, giving her a deceptively gentle smile. “It’s time for your punishment, so it is. And as I recall, I promised to wash your filthy mouth out with my cock, so I did.”

  Reaching under his pendulous belly, he unfastened more of his green and blue striped jumpsuit, revealing what appeared to be a short, stubby root vegetable growing out of a huge patch of thick black hair.

  The smell of sour, unwashed male flesh hit her nose, making Ari want to gag and the sight of his member, growing and twitching like an overeager worm, turned her stomach too.