Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 65094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
“This is one of the little toys, I’ve invited and thought this was the best place to test it out. Do you want to see how it work?”
My mouth opens but no words come out.
He chuckles. “No, matter. You don’t have to speak, my beauty. We’ll both find out soon enough. He pushes a button on the bottom of the rod and out pops a three-pronged knife.
The evil bastard stalks toward me with menacing steps, his eyes never leaving my face. In that moment I’m positive I was going to die. There were moments since I started this assignment that I wanted to. When I was caned I’d prayed for death but the last bit of survival instinct within me that I didn’t realize I still had popped up.
I twirled out of his reach and raced for the door only to find there’s no way out. My palm against the heat sensory pad doesn’t recognize my vitals and I realize it was probably designed this way so that none of the companions could escape from the private rooms until their temporary masters had been satisfied.
He chuckles. “This will be more entertaining than I thought. You have some fight in your after all. I love it when they fight. It makes the end result much more satisfying.
He moves towards me in slow unhurried movements. There are no other exits in the room so I’m sure he figures that it’s only a matter of tiring me out until he catches me. My determination to get away, however, strengthens. I duck and dodge out of reach. Each time he gets near me, he slashes that weapon at me.
This dangerous dance seems to go on for so long, I’m starting to run out of breath. No matter how much alcohol this man has consumed, he’s still steady on his feet and doesn’t seem to be running out of stamina.
Fucking superious and their stinking genes.
I’m quickly losing hope and I think about never seeing my parents or Noah again. In that moment I would give anything just to see them one last time,
In one last desperate measure, I sidestep the downward arc of his weapon and rush to the bed where the rest of his weapons lie. I grab the closest item I can get my hand on, something that appeared to be a mini scythe.
This only seems to amuse him. He chuckles. “What are you going to do with that my beauty? Do you think you can harm me with that?”
“Don’t come any closer!” I yell waving it in his direction.
This seems to amuse him. His eyes gleam with malice. “Red will look really good on you.”
He rushes forward faster than before and I automatically react. Instead of backing away, I shove the knife forward. To my shock and his, the knife sinks into his stomach.
His arm is still raised as if he’s ready to attack me but his eyes wide and his mouth falls open. A line of blood dribbles down the corner of his mouth.
Filled with adrenaline, I yank the knife out of his body and shove it back in, and then I do it again, and again. The rage I’d held back these past months has been released. The beatings, the degradation, the starvation, and every indignity I’d suffered.
There was blood everywhere.
So much blood but I keep digging my knife into his flesh. Even when he collapses to the floor. My tears blind me but I continue to swing until my arms give out on me.”
“I blacked out after that. They told me that I had killed him and that he was the relative of one of the governors in that region.”
“They said I would face a trial and then be executed when I was found guilty. So I was locked up in a dirty cell with without clean water to drink and I was only given stale bread to eat that even the rats wouldn’t touch. I was in there for days, and then one day I was collected by someone calling himself General Rohman. That was when I was taken to the Sector Leader’s manor.”
I never thought I would tell that story to anyone, especially not to Draken. I left out the part where I was tortured for several hours afterwards by Master Fredresks’ Enforcers. I was kicked, choked, hit and spat on before I was imprisoned.
It didn’t matter at that point because I’d been completely broken. I had a fleeting thought about Rose, wondering if she’d also been crushed when she realized that not all companion assignments were good.
“I’m sorry that happened to you, Jamie. The Registry is not a perfect system, but it was designed to make sure every homo sapien had some kind of employment.”
I snort at the oversimplification of something that was really invented to keep track of us and to keep us oppressed. But who was I to argue with him the Registry was created to benefit the superious.