FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A sharp pain tore through my arm as Neal pulled the knife out of my hand, letting it fall to the ground as my acidic blood ate the metal and the floor beneath it. The wound in my hand nearly split it in half, coming to a stop just between my two middle fingers. I tried to stick my hand underneath my arm to cover the hole, but Neal grabbed it, digging his rubber gloved thumb into the gash, causing me to whine from the pain.

"Quit being a little bitch!", Neal demanded as he grabbed me by the jaw and held me so I was eye to eye with him, "I said quit your whining before I give you something to cry about!"

I didn't answer him, mostly out of pain, but also because my throat was too dry.

"NEAL!",Baron shouted as he came down the rotted wood staircase into the dry, musty basement where they kept me, "I told you, we beat him to badly yesterday, you weren't supposed to do anything to him today."

"The little fucker kept me awake all night with his whining last night", Neal protested, "he deserved the knife in his hand."

"I don't give a damn what you think he deserved", Baron screamed, his high pitched voice hurting my ears, "I am not going to the noose because you can't control your frustration. You will wait until I say you can beat him again! Have I made myself clear!?"

Neal sighed and picked up his knives from the anvil that was in the corner.

"Your lucky your my older brother", Neal said waving the knife in Baron's face, "other wise I'd stab you in the face too."

"Get up stairs asshat", Baron said shoving Neal into the staircase, "move it."

Neal flashed his knives again and walked up stairs, Baron walked over to me and grabbed me by the neck, lifting me clean off the ground. With the one good hand I had, I clawed at his arm, but did nothing since they'd busted them out with a hammer a few days ago and my fingers were a little more than swollen stumps right now.

"Listen to me you little shit", Baron said, "if you keep any of us awake again with your whining, we will kill you. We will pour molten silver down your throat and no one will ever find your body, am I clear?"

I nodded my reply.

"ANSWER me you piece of trash", Baron yelled shaking me violently, leaving my neck feeling like it was broken, "I can't hear you nod your fucking head!"

"Yes", I gulped, "were clear."

Baron dragged me across the room to a four foot by four foot metal cage. The treated concrete floor which the metal box was bolted down to was stained green from all the bleeding I'd done inside it. Baron hurled me inside and slammed the door shut, locking it with a heavy, ship anchor chain and a heavy key padlock.

"If I hear you once tonight, or if Neal complains again", Baron said, "I will starve you to the brink of death and then I will pour silver down your throat."

He turned and left, shutting off the already dim, 51 watt light bulb and leaving me in complete darkness and to my old, beaten MP3 player, which of course, was dead. I sighed and leaned by head back against the cage bars. Upstairs I heard the usual heavy metal music and the smelled familiar scent of alcohol. No doubt they'd be drunk in the next few minutes. There was no way I could sleep tonight with them upstairs banging their music and the pain in my hand, which sucked because I hadn't slept in a few days and I was getting too fatigued to even keep my eyes open. The frigid air from the night outside was coming in through the basement's single, open coal chute. Looking out, I could see two stars, and just barely the full moon. There was snow on the ground and it was still coming down. Thunder cracked outside, shaking the entire house. I gulped, I wasn't scared of the thunder, in fact if I wasn't in so much pain it would help me sleep, but I was worried that if it woke Neal or Baron up, they might kill me for it.

What seemed like an eternity past before I heard a tapping on the glass of the coal chute door. I opened my eyes to see a black figure, dressed in a black shirt, pants and a jacket with a red liner at the coal chute window. Judging by the way it was built, it was a female. It took me a minute to put the piece together, but soon I realized who it was.

"Sky", she whispered.

"Chy?", I whispered back.

She slipped through the window and crouch walked over to my cage, the moon light dimly shining off her domed head. She grabbed one of the cell bars and I put my hand over her's.

"Chy", I whispered, "what are you doing here?"

"Coming to see my boyfriend", she whispered as she reached into her back pack, "what else?"

"Neal and Baron will kill you if they catch you!", I whispered as she started picking the lock.

"You tell me that every time I see you", she said as the lock clicked open.

"And I mean it every time", I said, quietly pushing the cage open, "do you have meds on you? I could use some help with my hand."

"Yes", she answered, "we can go back to the spot and then I'll work on it."

"Thanks", I answered her as we crept over to the window. Chy went up first and then helped me up. The snow stung my feet like a million fire ants and the cold bit through my Chitin like a shark. The sky was dark and cloudy now, the stars had gone away, the moon barely visible, only seen as a glowing fog high in the sky. I shivered from the cold, I could hear my own teeth chattering.

"I brought you some stuff to wear", Chy said. She reached into her back pack and pulled out black long underwear, cargo pants, socks, boots, a shirt and jacket as well as a glove for my right hand. I wasted no time in pulling them on and then following my friend across the dimly lit, snow covered street and into the forest. Even though it was pitch black, Chy and I were able to see by natural night vision, which was a nice perk to have because without it you would constantly be smacking into the giant Jafu trees that made up this massive forest. Chy called this forest her home. She had quite a fort in one of the taller trees deeper in the forest, even though she always told me she was more of a drifter at heart. Personally, I just wanted to back to Bespin.

Chy led me through the maze of trees and traps that she had made by hand until we came to a huge tree that stretched high above the others with two ropes hanging down from it, they were tied in such a way that they resembled a hangman's noose. Chy grabbed one of them and handed the other off to me.

"You sure your hand's not messed up too badly?", Chy asked, "we can take the other way up."

"Yeah", I answered putting my foot in the rope, "it's my left hand that's messed up."

"Then lets go up and I'll look at it", Chy gave a tug on the rope and disappeared upwards. I tugged on my own rope and up I went. The rope wound off at a large wooden platform that sat in between two layers of the huge Jafu leaves where it was nearly invisible. Chy had the floor of the platform covered in heavy black carpet. There was a small railing that wound around the entire perimeter of the platform and beams at every corner that held up the metal shingled wooden roof. There was a metal crate in the far right hand corner and there was a stone oven next to it, which still held glowing embers. Hanging from the ceiling were three shelves that held several articles of clothing, a few bottles and boxes of bullets as well as a couple of rifles. Up to my left was another platform that had a few book shelves underneath it which were using the heavy, steel like leaves of the Jafu trees for support. Up on the second platform, Chy had set up a small generator that powered a few lamps hanging from a wire that went around the area, a space heater and a small radio. Though the platform had no walls, the heater was running on full tilt and it was rather warm, a far cry from my dusty ass basement with zero air circulation, a lack of central heat or AC, as well as a general distaste of living creatures. Chy walked to a small box close to her bed and pulled bandages and a few small vials, thread and a needle out of it.

"Come here Sky", she said, "lemme see you hand."

I walked over to her and sat on the bed, showing her my hand. She inspected my palm before turning it over to look at the back of it.

"That's a pretty nasty slash", she said reaching for one of the glass vials, "what they do to you this time?"

"Neal shoved a kitchen knife through it", I told her.

"The heck?", she asked, "what he do that for?"

"Because I was crying last night from the open whip lashes in my back and it woke him up", I answered.

Chy pulled the cap off the vial of ointment and rubbed it over the gouge in my hand, "why don't you report these people? Abusing slaves is against Confederate laws."

"Well this isn't a Confederate planet", I told her as she started stitching the gash closed, "they can beat me as much as they want. If I wasn't a slave they would get hanged for doing what they do, but since I am, they would have to kill me before the government would take notice."

Chy sighed as she tied off the stitching in my palm and turned my hand over, starting to stitch up the back, her tail swishing as she did.

"What?", I asked.

"Nothing", she answered.

I sighed at myself as she finished patching the hole in my hand and bandaged it. She put the remainder of the medical supplies back underneath her bed. She threw her coat and snow pants aside and then moved the space heater so it was facing the beds. She crawled underneath the covers from the foot of the bed and lay her head on the pillow, curling up in a ball underneath the covers. I lay down on top of the covers and let my tail hang off the side of the bed, moving it nearer to the heater so it wouldn't freeze off. Chy reached over to her night stand and turned on the radio.

"Were seeing the cold front as possibly lasting for a month or more", the man on the station said, "it could give many areas, especially the Dylik section as much as 4 feet of snowfall over the next few weeks with temperatures expected to go far below zero. So we advise anyone who can avoid outside work during this time to do so, if you can't we recommend use of a Level 4 Climate suit."

"Dylik", Chy sighed, "that's us."

"Yeah", I answered, "I'm really looking forward to this next month."

"Why go back to live with those dogs?", Chy asked, "why not just stay here with me?"

"If I don't go back they'll come looking for me", I said looking at her.

"So?", she asked, "were Xenomorphs, we have the blood of the universes most dreaded killers running around inside us, if they come, we use it."

"You don't get it", I said.

"What don't I get?", Chy asked laying her head on my chest, "your saying I don't get it by saying that I don't want the boy I want to spend the rest of my life with going back to a run down, rotted house full of diseased, drug pushers who torture and beat him for their own amusement?"

I sighed, Chy sat up, pulling her red comforter over her head, "you are saying that? Aren't you?"

"No", I said propping up on my elbows, "I'm not saying that."

"Then what are you saying?", Chy whimpered, "Skyline please....I love you...if you don't love me back....say so."

"I do love you back", I said pulling her into a hug and kissing her forehead, "I don't want to risk the life of the girl that I want to spend the rest of my life with by staying with her, that's what I'm saying."

"I don't care if I live or die", Chy said leaning her head against me, "if you stay and they come I will fight them until my hands and tail are bloody stumps, and then I'll keep fighting. I'll do whatever I have to."

I smiled and hugged her tightly, "thank you Chy, I love you."

"I love you too Sky", she answered looking up at me, "why don't you get out of that? It's getting late."

I smiled and stood up. I pulled off my snow gear and tossed it into a pile with Chy's before I crawled into bed next to her. The bed was something else. In it, next to her, I didn't feel the fear or the hostility, I felt peace, comfort, for the first time in 15 years, I felt I had someone who cared. Chy loved me for me, and I loved her back for the same reason. I had met Chy some 12 years ago, shortly after I had turned 5. She was a year younger than me and owned by some people who weren't much better than Neal, Barron, Garth or Tony. She bugged out when she was ten and led them on such a winding path that they lost her and never found her. I had heard of her running away, so imagine my surprise when a weak after she was considered dead by the cops, she turned up here to see me.

I closed my eyes and pulled her tight against me. I could picture us a few months down the road, with a ship, off of this planet, somewhere far away from it, possibly with kids on the way. In a few years, I'd head back to Bespin to take my planet out of the hands of the Glykseians and finish what my brother and father started to drift off, certain that the future would be good to us.

"Surprise mother fucker!"

I was quickly jolted away as gloved hands sized me by the neck and pulled me out of the bed. I turned my head to face my attackers, but was met with the butt end of a shotgun to my face, causing me to start to see stars. Another man, who I quickly identified as Neal, grabbed Chy and pulled her out of bed, pinning her face down on the floor, stepping on her tail and neck to hold her down.

"Did you really think we wouldn't come looking for your dumb ass?", Neal asked laughing hysterically, 'whose your lady friend here?"

"Please", I whimpered, "torture me, kill me, I don't care! Please just let her live!"

"Fat chance", Neal said pulling a pistol from his jacket and putting it to the back of Chy's head, "I'd rather shoot it, one less of you pricks to deal with in the near future."

"NOOO!", I begged, "no please! Let her go! Do what ever you want to me! Please just don't hurt her!"

Neal smirked as he pulled back the hammer of his handgun.

"I love you Sky", Chy said, her voice was quiet, but her words rang in my head like a nuclear detonation.

"I love you too Chy", I told her, closing my eyes so I wouldn't see it happen.

"Ain't that sweet?", Neal laughed as a gunshot tore through the quiet night air.