Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 47529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
“Are they going to kill us and eat us?” His first question is his deepest fear.
“Worse,” I say.
He practically shits himself. “Are they going to torture us?”
“Kind of. They’re going to take us into their homes and make us their pets.”
His eyes widen into two saucers of concern. “What?”
“Yeah. They’re going to take you into their home, like, into their family, and they’re going to treat you like a fucking animal for the rest of your life.”
“Do they feed us?”
“Sure.”
He shifts, looking a little less concerned, which I guess makes sense. “Is it… are they nice homes?”
“The one I was in was like a fucking mansion. They had so much stuff to break.”
“Wow,” he says. “Wow. This is…”
“I know, so fucked up.”
“Pretty cool,” he says at the same time as me.
“What?”
“You’re telling me these aliens are going to feed me, clothe me, house me? I never have to work again?”
“Yeah, and they’re going to get you all kinds of stupid outfits and little treats and take you for walks, and…”
“Wow,” he breathes. “Awesome.”
“Dude, what?”
“I was literally about to be homeless,” he says. “I lost my job, and my girlfriend kicked me out. I’ve spent the last two weeks wearing this suit, trying to get a job, watching short videos about living on the street, and now I get a house, free food, and treats?”
Ah hell, I throw the guy a bone. “You might get a new girlfriend here. Some of them like to breed us.”
A grin spreads across his face. “Sweet!”
“Not sweet. We’re prisoners. We have no choice in our lives…”
I try to warn him that if he gets used as a stud, he’s not going to get to have a family. He’s not going to get to raise his kids. They’re more than likely going to take them away when they’re a few years old and sell them while they’re cute. We are not people to these creatures.
He listens for half a sentence before he interrupts. “I never had much of a choice in my life anyway. Did you? I got born into a family I didn’t choose, got raised in a way I didn’t choose, had things happen to me I didn’t choose…”
“Okay, Plato,” I say, picking a philosopher at random. “Free will might be an illusion, but don’t you at least want the illusion?”
“Not really,” he says. “Sounds to me like every single problem I ever had just got fixed.”
I don’t know what else to say, so I don’t say anything else. This guy doesn’t understand that he’s lost everything that really matters. Sure, it might sound good, but it’s not. It’s just not. He’ll realize that sooner or later. He’ll see that the only thing that matters is freedom, and everything you trade for it is worthless in comparison. I know.
“Now,” Arkan says, coming back. “What to do with you?”
He’s looking at me, but it’s the guy who replies. I wonder what his name is. I doubt he cares. They’ll give him a new one in his new home anyway. They called me Fifi. That was actually closer to Jennifer than I would have imagined. Maybe they caught some psychic vibe of my name.
“Mr Alien, sir? Is that family still out there? Will they take me?”
“Eager to be rehomed? Good. Makes for a nice change. Jennifer here isn’t a fan of being a pet.”
“I am.”
“Of course you are. Because you’re a good boy. Who is a good boy? You are! Of course you are!” The alien is praising the guy like there’s no other guy in the universe and the dude is absolutely soaking it up. He’s just been turned from a free man into a commodity, and he doesn’t care. Some people are beyond saving, I guess.
Arkan opens the cage and lifts the man out, carrying the full-grown dude the same way humans carry little dogs, under his arm like he weighs absolutely fucking nothing.
That’ll be the last time I see that guy. He’s going to a home the size of a small apartment building back on Earth. He’ll have a bowl with the name Fifi written on it and a comfortable bed under the stairs. He’ll shit in a box, and he’ll probably like it.
“The males of your species are often much more sensible than the females,” Arkan observes when he returns. “I think he will be a much more suitable pet for that family. You, on the other hand, are going to take a little more training. I think it’s time I took you home.”
I’ve never been anywhere other than out the back of his store. I wonder if his home is worse than this. I wonder if anywhere is worse than this. I don’t think so.
“I don’t want to go to your stinking home. Let me go back to my home.”
“Your planet is dying,” he reminds me. “Every human I take from your world is another human that doesn’t have to suffer. I’m singlehandedly saving your species, potentially, from extinction.”