Page 13 of Own to Obey

Before she could think of it any further, the door opened and the shinno strode in.

As usual, his imposing presence pressed in all the air in the room, but Shaya took no notice of the feeling within her. She was too concerned about what was going to happen next. Her hands simply would not work without excruciating pain.

He sat down in the chair, waiting for her to begin and when the wait stretched too long, the girl blinked and nodded furiously at Shaya, pointing to the comb at the top of the triangle.

Slowly, Shaya rose to her feet and reached out for the comb, breathing heavily at the pain ricocheting through her. Walking to stand behind the shinno, she combed his hair extremely slowly, working through the pain until she became used to it. However the comb trembled in her hand, as her muscles spasmed and jerked. Finally, the shinno's hair was neat along the top of his head, and Shaya sighed inwardly in relief.

When she turned to place the comb back on the blanket, the girl was standing right next to her, holding the long knife and the jar of foam.

Shaya widened her eyes and shook her head, but the girl widened her eyes and nodded. She took the comb from Shaya and pressed the long knife into her hands, fixing her fingers around it.

She then moved Shaya around to the front of the shinno and quickly applied the foam to his face. The shinno frowned as she did, his eyes sliding between the two of them as though he did not expect them both to be working on him at the same time. The girl was helping her, Shaya realized. She was supposed to be doing this on her own. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. If the girl was willing to help her when she wasn’t supposed to, she would try her hardest not to mess this up.

Shaya positioned herself at the shinno’s side and lifted her arm. Shaya let the girl guide her on how to scrape the foam from his face as though she hadn’t done it before—the pressure needed, the angle required, and the method of working across his face, but really, the girl was holding the blade.

The girl tried to lead her as quickly as possible, but the shinno muttered something when they were only halfway through, and she froze.

Her eyes met Shaya's and there was an apology within them. Slowly, she stepped back, releasing Shaya's trembling arm and aching hand stepping away from them both.

Shaya returned her eyes to the shinno's face, trying to ignore his eyes boring into hers, and slowly continued to shave him. But she wasn't able to get the pressure right, and when she pressed, the spasming her arm jerked the knife the wrong way.

The shinno grabbed her arm and growled, causing both the pain in her arm and the nervousness within her to shoot up. He rose from his chair, blood blooming on his face as it contorted.

He bellowed out something harsh and grabbed the long knife from her hand, throwing it on the bed. Gripping her by the arms, causing her to cry out, he dragged her from the room.

Shaya tried to explain, she tried to plead with him, but the pain in her hands was the only thing that took her attention. “Please, please it was an accident. I'm sorry, my arms… my hands and arms hurt,” she stuttered, gasping at the pain ricocheting through her.

But the shinno did not pay her any attention. He took her one or two decks below and maneuvered her through a dark corridor.

They stopped outside a small door and he growled something in his tongue.

Opening it, he pushed her inside and slammed it behind her.

Inside it was completely dark, Shaya couldn't see anything. She blinked repeatedly, but her surroundings remained black. She stood still for a moment, trying to determine where she was, but something about her environment felt strange. Lifting her aching arms, she tried to feel her way forward, but quickly reached a wall. Turning to the side she ran her fingers on the wall as she stepped forward, but quickly reached another wall. Horror erupted in her as she turned the other way and realized that she was enclosed by walls that were only about a foot away. She was in a tiny closet!

She stilled as her heart began to pound, trying to remember where she came in but it was impossible to figure out how many times she had turned, especially when she couldn't see. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stay as still as possible, but it suddenly became difficult to breathe. It was as though the walls of the tiny closet room were closing in on her, suffocating her, punishing her for her accident with the shinno. An intense fear twisted into her stomach and rose up through her chest, bringing with it the nausea she experienced the first week on the ship. She tried to take deep breaths, tried to calm her breathing because she couldn't possibly vomit in such a tiny space. The thought of that raised her fear and she began to tremble. She didn't know how long the shinno planned to keep her locked up but she wouldn't be able to last long.

Within a few moments, sweat was pouring from her brow and her heart was beating so hard she thought it would pound out of her chest. Turning wildly in the space, she picked her best guess of where the door was and began to smash her fist on it. “Please open the door!” she called. “Please! I can't stay in here.” Even as she spoke, her breath was becoming short. What if there wasn't enough air in here for her? What if she was slowly suffocating? Her panic and fear jumped to new heights as she considered that maybe the shinno was actually trying to kill her. What if he decided she was useless? That he couldn't use her as he planned? What if he decided that this was the way she would die?

Thoughts revolved in her mind becoming wilder and more extreme with every moment that passed and soon she was pounding on the door screaming. An intensity gripped her entire body, urging her to get out of there, pushing her to find any way out. She pounded on every wall and threw herself against them, hoping that one would be the door and it would open. The blackness that surrounded her pressed in, adding to the feeling of suffocation. It was as though it was climbing inside her mouth and down her throat, pushing into her eyes, exploring up her nose, blocking every possible sense that allowed her to experience life. Every sense that allowed her to enjoy the vastness of the earth; the beautiful greens of her gardens, the fresh scent of the flowerbeds just after it rained, the snarl of feral tomcats that snuck through the roots of the bushes after its prey, and the taste of home-grown herbs and spices that she added to the meals she made for her family.

At the thought of Kyus, she burst into tears. It never once crossed her mind that she might be killed. It seemed to be important for the shinno to have an Omega, so she never thought that he would get to the stage where he would kill her. Obviously she’d been completely naive about that. She was expendable if she didn’t do what he wanted, and Kyus would now never know what had happened to her.

She wailed and screamed, clawing at the walls as her whole body shook. As the desperate need rose to escape, she reared back and threw herself at one of the walls as hard as she could. And then again and again, her entire body was shutting down and if she could just somehow get the door open, she would survive.

She wasn't sure how long she threw herself repeatedly at the wall, screaming and crying and wailing, pleading for anyone who could hear her to let her out, but the darkness began to choke her. This was it.

As she threw herself one last time at the wall, it suddenly opened.

She landed against the thick, hard body beyond the door, clawing it in her urge to escape.

She sobbed, gripping on to the man before her, pleading for him to help her, as her entire body became a tingling sensation of dizziness.

Suddenly she was whipped up and being carried along the corridor. She curled herself in as tight as she could and sobbed, the horror of the experience deep within her bones. She couldn't concentrate on anything—even when she closed her eyes, it returned her to… the darkness. Her body trembled, shaking as it rejected the idea that the darkness was only ever a blink away, and the sobs that wracked her body echoed the despair that had smothered her in the room.

Slowly, she became aware of a breeze on her face. It was cool and soft, and the mellowness of it calmed her a little. Her sobs quietened as she realized she could breathe in sharp, fresh, cool air.

Lifting her head, she saw that the shinno held her and curled back in on herself immediately, unwilling to look at him, but the breeze around her beckoned. Turning her head, she was presented with the most wonderful sight.

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