Page 1 of Decadence

Chapter One

The alien pressed the smooth, round silver device in the palm of his six-fingered hand.

Bzzt.

The collar activated, surrounding her neck with a ring of fire.

This pain was unlike any kind of agony she’d experienced before. It felt like she was being stabbed with a thousand knives while boiling water was being poured over her.

She screamed and dropped to her knees. In desperation, she clawed at the terrible restraint, but as her fingers met the collar, the agony spread through her fingertips, making her weak.

“Do it again,” a gravelly voice said through some sort of hidden sound transmitting device. The speaker chuckled slightly; a cold, cruel sound that filled her with despair. He spoke in some weird dialect of Universal. “I want it broken and tamed before I receive it. If it arrives in any other condition, I will consider yer contract null and void.”

The alien minion holding the device—tall, slender, silent, and faceless behind a featureless helm—never ever spoke. Only the male with the gravelly voice spoke, issuing commands in accented Universal… in a tone that definitely wasn’t human.

He wasn’t in the room. He must be far, far away somewhere, waiting to receive her.

To these aliens, she was little more than chattel. That much she understood, even through the haze of drugs they’d pumped into her system.

She was completely helpless.

Alone.

In space.

Thousands and thousands of miles from Earth.

She didn’t know how much time had passed. It could have been days, even weeks. She’d lost count of the number of times they’d tortured her like this.

What the hell were they trying to achieve?

Bzzt.

The collar fired again. She fell forward onto her elbows, completely paralyzed by pain. The injuries she’d sustained from their beatings—broken bones, bruised organs, and probably even worse internal injuries that she couldn’t bear to think about—doused her in pure, blinding agony.

She was naked.

Cold.

Helpless.

Bound.

Her hair was dirty and disheveled. It fell around her face in waves. Tears leaked from her eyes. Her vision swam. The drugs in her system made her feel weak and sluggish. She couldn’t fight back anymore. She tried to rise to her feet, but the strength wouldn’t come.

Why is this happening to me?

But she knew why.

Out of all the women that had been abducted and taken aboard this horrible alien ship, she’d fought back the hardest. Once she’d realized the full extent of what was happening to them; once the last shreds of hope evaporated, something inside her had snapped.

So many times in her life, she’d rolled over and let people take advantage of her.

Fuck it.

No more.

“Submit, human. It’ll be much easier for ya that way. All ya have ta do is bow the head, let go of that annoying look in yer eyes, and acknowledge me as Master. Give up now. Any hope ya have now of freedom? It’s just an illusion that will never come. Best accept yer fate. See, we’re just getting started. If this doesn’t work, we’ll take it to the next level. Only other option, should ya prove to be of no use to us, is death, but that would be a waste of good credits now, wouldn’t it?”

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