Excerpt: Acrid, Bitter Candy

I sighed and let my eyes close, only to see dark shapes forming on the backs of my eyelids. Those dark shapes twirled and swirled in my vision, dark reds and purples looming over me.

Cackles echoes through my ears. The shapes swirled and defined, forming vague human outlines- enormous human figures, their mouths open and bright as they laughed at my fear. I cowered slightly, feeling their breath beating down on my neck.

One figure ran his finger up my face gently and I tried to move back, only to hit a body from behind, holding me in place- trapped between horrors. The fingers grabbed my chin roughly and jerked my face forward, looking into their red fiery eyes.

“You’re next slave,” the one behind me whispered, his voice causing the hair on my arms to rise. The one holding my chin grinned eerily, letting his thumb run over my cheek, where my Band-Aid covered my bar code.

“Ahh, what is this? You hide away the mark of your servitude? How shameful.” A searing pain shot through me as my band-aid was ripped off, laying my tender skin bare. Only the bar code on my cheek marred my face.

The man behind me ran his hands up and down my sides, letting his fingers linger at times. “There. You’re clean now. A slave. Maybe we should mark you a bit more.”

I felt defiant tears well in my eyes. “No. Don-“

The man’s eyes flashed as he placed his hand over my mouth. “Hush slave. No one gave you permission to speak.”

As I fought back the tears welling in my eyes, threatening to spill into the open world, I sank my teeth into the man’s hand. I tasted filth.

Within seconds, my cheeks throbbed from the slap that had been set across my face. “You filthy whore,” the man hissed, holding his hand against his chest.

The man behind me reached over, prying my mouth open. The other seemed to take this as a signal because he stuffed a foul cloth in my mouth. “You shall listen.”

I shook my head, trying to yell against the gag. My muffled yells seemed pitiful in my own ears. Sweat rolled down my face, inching over every centimeter of my flaming face. I could feel every slick drop make its way down, seeking refuge from the heat.

“You’re ours now. And we’ll break you. And kill you. In a few hours time, you’ll lay on the floor surrounded by blood. Now how about we draw some of that blood.”

“And a few tears too,” the other man added in.

“Oh, quite a few tears from this one, Williams.”

Before they even did anything else, I could already feel the tears leaking out of the corners of my eyes.

My blurred, teary eyes searched desperately for a rescuer.