Four
For years I had watched women sit in this throne.
I watched them streamed through the CCTV to all the residents of the House of Lace, showing us what to look forward to. We had watched as girls cried tears of joy or in horror of where they ended up. Of who, or what, no owned them.
Minutes ago I watched as my friend Malory was sold, tears streaming down her face as she looked back in horror to her new owners only to be dragged through the red door at the back with a collar around her neck, the same as everyone else. In my years of watching this they had never shown us the audience. Never shown us the creatures who were there to stake a claim.
Now it was my turn. My turn to be led to the red upholstered chair that faced the audience and see what waited for me.
I had expected Logan to be here for this but he was gone. I hadn’t seen him since he had stormed away hours before, leaving me wet and confused on the floor.
Once the door clicked shut, I tried to cipher through the confusion. I had repeated everything he said and tried to make sense of it, but fool that I was, I didn’t understand. And now, sitting here on this soft cushioned chair, I was starting to think I didn’t know enough of the world to understand anything.
We had been raised in a fog of questions, but I was starting to get an idea. A large rubbery idea.
And looking out over the audience I was beginning to grow more terrified. Light shone in my eyes, blinding me so that I couldn’t see more than a wave of jewel bright colors and textures. I couldn’t make out more than a few shapes; an arm, a leg… a tail?
The screen to my left flipped over to a picture of me, folded in half, ass and pussy on display, wide shocked eyes looking back at the camera.
The audience erupted.
Female Number E7N31Y “Elney”
Depth: High
Flex: High
Training: Virgin. Prep for: Dual, Triple, Master, Child
Womb: Pure
I didn’t know what half of that meant, but it didn’t matter. The screams of glee and excitement only increased with each new fact placed on the board. I swiveled around, trying to see through the bright lights that were everywhere to find Logan. Not that I could see much, but I was sure he wasn’t there.
“As you can expect,” the Matron’s voice boomed over a loudspeaker. The old woman who had overseen our age group playing announcer for this whole thing. “Elney has been trained to our highest standard. She will be remaining at the House of Lace through her breeding years as a highly sought after experience. This auction is for cherry and one year breeding only.”
“What?” I gasped to no one in particular. Every minute seemed to welcome more confusion. More realization that I had no idea what was going on around me. What this world was. I had sat through these for years, but never questioned any of it. Now that I was sitting on the chair, everything tense and afraid, I was wishing I had paid more attention.
“We will start the bid and eight million,” she continued. The crowd erupted as the screen shifted to the Rolodex of numbers. A scroll of all the pictures I had taken earlier flashing across the bottom. Everything from me on the chair to being dragged away by Logan on full display.
The Matron’s voice had barely finished before the numbers began to tick up, the picture of the bidder flashing above with each change.
It was then that I saw them for the first time; the creatures that ruled us.
A scaly red creature with a bull nose and horns: Eight-point-one Million.
A man with green skin, tattoos and eyes like slits: Nine Million.
A young man with grey skin and a crooked smile: Nine-point-five million.
Two men kissing; both blonde, they appeared to be sharing a body: Nine-point-eight million.
The ticker went up faster and faster, the pictures flashing by so fast now that they were a blur. The pictures continued for a moment, only for a new screen to pop up over my fact sheet, the video playing as the number continued to lift.
I recognized at once what it was. Yesterday morning before the pictures, me in my room naked against the window, splayed as Logan walked in, his face blurred as he scolded me, as he commanded me to present myself to him as I did every morning.
The numbers picked up, everything was a blur except for the first number. Fourteen. It held for a second before it picked up again. Fifteen.
The video shifted from the moment in my room to me in the photography hall sitting on that chair, legs spread open as I stared at the toys.