Riv's Sanctuary - A.G. Wilde Page 0,2
in the wild.
But today was different.
Just then, the door on the inside wall of her cell moved.
Lauren stiffened.
It wasn’t feeding time yet. There was no reason for them to enter her terrarium.
As the zookeeper stepped into the terrarium, his fat black and red belly jiggling, Lauren moved a little further toward the far wall.
The alien looked down at her, his small ears folding over behind his horns. He looked like the version of the devil they didn’t want you to imagine: old, intoxicated, and rocking that divorced dad-bod. All he needed was a pair of boxers and messy hair.
Who would really be scared of a being like that sending them to eternal damnation?
The zookeeper’s huge nose moved as he opened his mouth and spoke.
“Time to leave, human,” he said.
“Leave? Leave to go where?”
“The exchange. Your time here has expired.”
When her eyes widened, the alien continued. “You’re up for sale.”
Memories of the stench of the market, the leers she’d received, and the promise of bad things happening came right back to her.
Staring up at the zookeeper in shock, Lauren blinked several times.
He was selling her?
“Selling me? Why?”
The zookeeper’s eyes moved over her. There was no care there. “You’re too dangerous to keep.”
This time, her eyes widened by the mere absurdity of what he just said.
She? Dangerous?
Clearly, he was in the wrong terrarium.
2
Behind the devil that God forgot existed came in three thinner beings that looked like sphynx cats on two legs.
They immediately began spraying the terrarium and wiping down surfaces as if they were trying to remove every trace of her from the room.
Wide-eyed, Lauren watched them, her mouth slightly open before her brain kicked into gear.
“Wait.” She turned to the zookeeper. “Wait. I can’t go back to that market. I can’t be bought by…” she shuddered to think what being might buy her next. She didn’t want to even consider it.
The nightmares were enough.
The zookeeper ignored her, instructing the aliens to lift her mattress and incinerate it.
As the aliens lifted the mattress and took it from the room, Lauren’s heartbeat picked up.
“Wait!” she called out to the aliens but, of course, they weren’t paying her any attention. To them, she was just another being that was the zookeeper’s property.
And she was property. She’d learned to accept that a long time ago. Stating otherwise only caused bad things to happen like the toilet tube suddenly not working, the meal bars coming in tasting like dirt, or excruciating pain that put every cell in her body on fire.
The last form of punishment was a mystery to her. She still didn’t know how he managed it but the zookeeper had some sort of remote where, all he had to do was point it her way and press a button and she was in pain.
Didn’t matter how far she ran either. Distance wasn’t a factor. The signal was never interrupted.
She’d found that out the hard way when she’d been left writhing on the ground on one of her escape attempts.
Lauren’s breathing began to go slightly faster as she stared at the zookeeper. Why would he want to sell her now?
From the mumblings she’d heard from his workers at mealtimes, she had been making the zookeeper rich.
“Why are you doing this? Why are you sending me back there? I haven’t done anything even vaguely offensive.”
She couldn’t believe she was arguing to stay in the zoo.
The zookeeper glanced at her and clicked his tongue. “You are a liability. I must rid myself of all traces of you before I am caught with you here.”
She had no idea what that even meant.
“You could always set me free.” She tried her luck. “You do know that’s an option right?”
She had no idea where she’d go or how she’d survive but she truly thought anything was better than going back to that market.
She’d been lucky to escape the weirdos at the market once and had ended up at the zoo. She doubted she’d be so lucky a second time.
“Free?” The zookeeper’s laugh sounded like water going down a partially clogged drain. “Freedom comes with a price. If you can pay me for your freedom, you are welcome to go free.”
His gaze held a challenge and Lauren’s lips tightened. He knew damn well she didn’t have any money.
Glancing toward the hole in the wall that he’d walked through, she briefly considered making a run for it. But even if she made it outside the zoo, where would she go? What would she do?
“Don’t even think about it,” the zookeeper said,