Chapter 2
I loved my days off. I took the bus and went down to the coast. There was a place there the tourists never went. If you climbed the steep slope down, you had your own private rocky beach.
I’d spend hours diving and exploring the deep bottom. It was quiet under the water and the fish never bothered me. I learned to hold my breath a really long time and explored the underwater caves and crevices as far as I could.
If I ever got enough money together, I considered taking scuba classes and renting the equipment. That kind of cash was long way off for me.
That was life for me and I was finally happy. My little world wasn’t very exciting, but it was mine.
I shopped after work at the mini mart a block away. I came back to the motel late one night and noticed a faint glowing coming from around back. I dropped my groceries in my room and went to investigate.
There was a small wooded lot behind the building. Drunks sometimes started fires back there. The manager didn’t care unless they got out of hand and then we called the police and fire trucks.
I’m not sure what prompted me to go investigate. I should have gone and gotten Mr. Pensky and let him check.
I crunched into the lot stepping over empty beer bottles and discarded syringes. The light was coming from somewhere in the center. I wove between the trees watching the light. It wasn’t flickering like a fire.
It was more Like a steady pulse. That’s the Last thing I saw on Earth.
I woke up and didn’t really remember having gone to sleep. My surroundings were all very clean, sterile almost and completely foreign to me. I bolted upright and realized I was naked.
The room I was in was bright white including the Little bench I had been laying on. There were no windows in the room and the Light seemed to be coming from the walls themselves. I put my feet on the floor and it felt Like hard plastic. Reaching out and touching the walls I couldn’t find anything like a seam that would indicate a door.
My breathing was coming rapidly and I figured this must be hyperventilating. Suddenly it felt like the room was moving, the sensation was slight, but prominent. My arms and legs were stuck, held in place by strong air currents. The air pulled my arms out from my sides and separated my legs. I turned my head and saw the bench blend back into the floor.
The walls just disappeared, that’s the best way I could describe it.
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One minute they were there and then they weren’t. I was on the white lighted platform Looking out into oblivion.
My eyes slowly adjusted to the dark and now I could see faces. My little platform was drifting slowly through a sea of faces. They were humanoid, most of them. Others were what people described when they talked about alien abduction.
I fought for consciousness. My mind just wanted to shut off and be back at the motel fixing Ramen noodles. This could not possibly be happening.
I was so humiliated. I wasn’t fat, but I wasn’t skinny either. My tummy and hips had a soft look I hated. The same went for my enormous breasts. I longed to cover up all my private parts.
The thing that really bothered me. The thing that should not have mattered that did was that I hadn’t shaved my legs or my armpits in ages. There was no one to impress at the motel, so I was a hairy
mess.
My bush, oh man, my bush was huge reaching all the way to my navel. The dark curly hair covering my lower stomach was a trait I had inherited from mom. I hated it and I never would have showed it to anyone. Not like any of that mattered, but my brain decided that’s what I would worry about.
Occasionally, my Little tray would pause in front of a group of faces.
The ones that I stopped in front of all Looked human. I seemed to glide right past the strange looking creatures in the hall. I couldn’t wonder why that was.
The groups of men I hovered in front of appraised me. I could see them pointing at me and talking to one another. Depending where they pointed the light and the air currents changed. I was bent over, laid flat, made to sit, and made to kneel. I couldn’t fight the air currents, they were too strong. The light seemed to illuminate the part of me they were most interested in.
In one position I saw other dully lighted trays lining a raised stage on the far side of the room. Other creatures adorned those trays. ALL were held in a position similar to mine. A human looking woman was passing between them on the stage, placing collars around their narrowest part. It struck me we were being sold, this is what an intergalactic slave house would look Like.