Page 3 of His Human to Adore

He pushes the plunger down, and a jolt of pain sears through the left side of my head and down my spine. My body shakes and tremors, and then, just as fast, it’s over.

“Can you hear me, A12-04?” The doctor asks.

I nod my head, rubbing at the spot where he forced the needle in. My skin is still tender, but the pain is gone. “Yes, I can hear you.”

The doctor turns to the Hand who brought me here. “She’s ready to go.” He looks down at his bare wrist, causing me to frown at the motion. Do they actually have something on their wrist, and they cover it with the weird human masks they wear? “You need to leave now.”

The Hand who brought me throws me over his shoulder and runs down a new hallway with me. I’m so shocked by being touched by a Hand in this way that I don’t even respond for half a minute, and at that point, we’re in another room filled with computers and scientific equipment. I’m about to start kicking when I’m placed in front of a metal archway.

“A12-04, we’re sorry for the rush and sorry for any questions you may have.” A new Hand speaks to me.

She holds up a pair of safety shears and begins to cut at my clothing as another Hand holds my arms in place. I don’t dare move. I can feel the power in the Hand who’s holding me, and I don’t want to know how much power they’ll use if I’m not compliant. They told me beforehand that my braids weren’t allowed, so I’m not surprised when clothing isn’t allowed either.

“Thank you for cooperating,” The Hand with the shears says as she pulls the last bit of clothing from my body. I cover myself as best as I can with my hands, but the aliens aren’t even looking at me. They’re all hyper-fixated on a map on one wall.

“Five-second window opening in five, four, three, two, one…”

The Hand that was holding me pushes me into the middle of the arch right as the countdown reaches one, and the archway opens in a bright white light that engulfs my entire being. I feel weightless for a moment, and then my vision goes dark.

I’m stumbling on a stone floor, trying to keep myself upright before giving up and sitting on the ground. I rub my eyes, trying to clear the darkness from my eyes. There’s talking all around me, making it obvious I’m not alone. No one seems to notice me, though.

I can feel it under my skin, a soft warmth and buzzing that sings to my heart and makes me gasp in wonder. It’s what I would imagine a strong dose of dopamine would feel like if I could inject it straight into my brain because I’m stupidly happy. That feeling keeps me from freaking out, even though I can’t see anything for a few moments.

My vision clears slightly, just enough for me to make out an enormous dark creature walking around a corner and locking its big black eyes on me. My eyes go wide as I take in what the world’s inhabitants must look like. Tall, scaled, and horned, just like Simone had said.

I don’t scream, even though I definitely should be screaming. Maybe it’s the high of whatever is currently in my veins, or maybe it’s because the creature looks just as scared as I am.

He snaps his palm over his eyes as his other hand thrusts a piece of fabric out to me. “Naked human! Kendra! Get over here. A sister is here, but she is naked, and I do not want to look at her.”

A chair slides against the stone floor, and then a human, Kendra, I’m assuming, runs up to the lizard man and grabs the shirt from him. “Ignore him. Pretend he’s not here, A12-04. You’re safe. No one here will hurt you.”

I grab the shirt from Kendra and pull it over my body to give myself some semblance of modesty. The thin material does nothing to conceal the shape of my breasts, and I doubt it’s going to leave much of my lower half to the imagination, either. Something covering me is better than nothing covering me, though, so I don’t complain.

I’m separated from the rest of the room by a wooden partition. I stare at it, wanting to know if there are more lizard men on the other side. Rationally, I know that, of course, there’s more out there. What I’m most interested in is if my lizard man is out there.

The room has gone silent, and I’m sure it’s because they’re all waiting for me. The warmth underneath my skin starts to fade, a chord of it wrapping around my chest, tugging on me, begging me to follow wherever it’s leading. Exhaustion, probably from being teleported through space, has me unable to move very much now that I’m surrounded by other humans and feeling so safe.

“A12-04.” Another human woman comes around to the other side of the partition. “I’m Olivia, A12-01. Can you see?”

I nod my head, not trusting my voice to work correctly right now. Exhaustion, the high of the warmth, the ever-calling pull to follow the string that has somehow wrapped itself around my chest and is tugging me toward a deeper part of the building. Everything is too confusing, and I’m not aware enough to figure it all out. Am I this tired because of being teleported? That must be it.

“Good, good,” Olivia kneels down beside me and offers me her hand. I give it to her, and she’s cupping it between hers. “First, you’re safe here.”

“Nowhere safer.” A third woman, who looks exactly like Kendra, comes to stand next to her. “We promise you. There’s happiness here.”

I nod again, not even needing their words of encouragement because I can feel the safety in my bones. I can feel the warmth of love and family in my veins somehow. Like I was always meant to be here. It’s insane. Completely and totally nonsensical, but I’m home that much I know for certain.

“It takes a minute to adjust,” Olivia says as a clap of thunder rattles the air around us. The sounds cause goosebumps to erupt on my skin, but no one else seems worried, so I try to calm myself down. “You don’t need to see anyone else tonight if you don’t want to.”

I close my eyes slowly and then press against them, trying to push some reasoning into my brain. My brain is lagging right now. When I go to open my eyes, my brain tells me we’re lying down, and the vertigo has me swaying where I’m sitting. My eyes close again, this time refusing to open back up.

“Sleep, I think.”

“Alright,” I don’t know which woman says it, but I feel two of them grabbing me underneath my shoulders, and they’re helping me walk down a hallway. “You still with us, A12-04?”

“Deja,” I murmur. I hate being called by the name the Hands gave us. “My name is Deja.”

“Okay, thank you for telling me, Deja.”

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