Page 4 of Riv's Sanctuary

The alien looked down at her, his small ears folding over behind his horns. He looked like the version of the devil they didn’t want you to imagine: old, intoxicated, and rocking that divorced dad-bod. All he needed was a pair of boxers and messy hair.

Who would really be scared of a being like that sending them to eternal damnation?

The zookeeper’s huge nose moved as he opened his mouth and spoke.

“Time to leave, human,” he said.

“Leave? Leave to go where?”

“The exchange. Your time here has expired.”

When her eyes widened, the alien continued. “You’re up for sale.”

Memories of the stench of the market, the leers she’d received, and the promise of bad things happening came right back to her.

Staring up at the zookeeper in shock, Lauren blinked several times.

He was selling her?

“Selling me? Why?”

The zookeeper’s eyes moved over her. There was no care there. “You’re too dangerous to keep.”

This time, her eyes widened by the mere absurdity of what he just said.

She? Dangerous?

Clearly, he was in the wrong terrarium.

2

Behind the devil that God forgot existed came in three thinner beings that looked like sphynx cats on two legs.

They immediately began spraying the terrarium and wiping down surfaces as if they were trying to remove every trace of her from the room.

Wide-eyed, Lauren watched them, her mouth slightly open before her brain kicked into gear.

“Wait.” She turned to the zookeeper. “Wait. I can’t go back to that market. I can’t be bought by…” she shuddered to think what being might buy her next. She didn’t want to even consider it.

The nightmares were enough.

The zookeeper ignored her, instructing the aliens to lift her mattress and incinerate it.

As the aliens lifted the mattress and took it from the room, Lauren’s heartbeat picked up.

“Wait!” she called out to the aliens but, of course, they weren’t paying her any attention. To them, she was just another being that was the zookeeper’s property.

And she was property. She’d learned to accept that a long time ago. Stating otherwise only caused bad things to happen like the toilet tube suddenly not working, the meal bars coming in tasting like dirt, or excruciating pain that put every cell in her body on fire.

The last form of punishment was a mystery to her. She still didn’t know how he managed it but the zookeeper had some sort of remote where, all he had to do was point it her way and press a button and she was in pain.

Didn’t matter how far she ran either. Distance wasn’t a factor. The signal was never interrupted.

She’d found that out the hard way when she’d been left writhing on the ground on one of her escape attempts.

Lauren’s breathing began to go slightly faster as she stared at the zookeeper. Why would he want to sell her now?

From the mumblings she’d heard from his workers at mealtimes, she had been making the zookeeper rich.