Accidental Acquisition by Evangeline Anderson
13
Jillian woke up in a dark, dirty corner, naked and covered in massage oil and gritty dust and dirt from the hard surface she was lying on.
At first she had no idea of what was going on. Her last jumbled memory was of having Kalis’s hands on her and the intense orgasms he had given her. But she’d been lying on a massage table in the opulent rose-gold relaxation grotto, surrounded by pampered Mistresses. Her current circumstances couldn’t be more different from her former ones.
Look at me, she thought, peering around the gloomy, dirty, dusty corner, but not attempting to rise yet. Naked and dirty in the dark—guess I’ve come down in the world. Whatever world this is. Am I still on Prius Six? Am I still in the market?
She blinked owlishly, trying to make sense of what was going on around her. Her vision was blurry and she couldn’t seem to see anything further away than her own extended arm and hand.
What’s wrong with my eyes? Why do I feel so dizzy? Where is everyone?
She seemed to hear the sounds of people passing somewhere in the distance, but none of them sounded familiar or seemed to notice her lying there, in the shadows.
Jillian looked around, trying to make her eyes work right. There was a strange bluish radiation coming down from overhead. It made the rag beside her head glow a brilliant white, as though she was in a club with a black light. Did that mean it was night here on Prius Six? Did the moon make this strange light that caused white objects to glow? She had never been here at night before, so she had no idea.
She picked uncertainly at the “rag” and found, to her surprise, that it was her bra. And lying next to it, in a jumbled pile, were her panties, jeans, and t-shirt—also glowing because it was white as well.
Jillian still felt weak and drugged, her limbs responding sluggishly to her brain’s commands as she levered herself laboriously into a seated position. Had the tea Mistress Douchenbag given her been laced with something? But her poison checker had given it a green light!
Still, she couldn’t think of any other explanation as she brushed the dirt off her oily skin as best she could and began putting on her bra and underwear, which rubbed uncomfortably against her gritty skin. It was uncomfortable but better than being completely naked in public—she felt less vulnerable once her underclothes were on.
Now for her jeans and t-shirt. But her arms and legs were even dirtier than the rest of her. She started to use the back of her t-shirt to wipe the dusty oil off her skin, but she hated to smear grease and dirt all over it.
“Ugh, such a mess,” she muttered to herself. “Why did he use so much oil on me, anyway? Wish I had a washcloth or something to wipe off with!”
“Here you go,” someone beside her said, handing her a handkerchief.
“Oh, thank you.” Still feeling dizzy and out of it, Jillian took the cloth—which glowed a brilliant white in the strange blue light—and wiped at her arms and legs.
It didn’t occur to her to wonder who had handed her the handkerchief in the first place—her brain still felt like someone had put it through the blender—and whoever it was, didn’t say anything else. They only stood quietly to one side, out of her line of vision. It all seemed rather like a dream—where you wish for something and it appears.
As Jillian wiped away the oil, her head began to feel less fuzzy and her vision cleared somewhat. She became aware that people were passing back and forth, about ten or twelve meters away, though none of them seemed to notice her here, in the dark corner where she had woken up.
She couldn’t really see the people clearly, but they seemed to be leaving the blue-lit space and passing through a long black curtain that led to someplace lighter. At least, if the flashes of weak golden light she saw whenever someone went through the curtain were any indication.
Hmm, a long black curtain that people keep going through… a dark space filled with weird blue radiation…
Suddenly, her drug-scrambled brain put two and two together and the implications of what she was seeing hit her—the Dark Market! She was inside the Dark Market!
“Holy shit!” Jillian mumbled.
Getting unsteadily to her feet, she scrambled clumsily into her jeans. She swayed drunkenly, nearly falling as she attempted to get her feet into the leg holes, and kept having to hold onto the tall wall beside her. Luckily, there were no pain threads on this side of it, like there were on the regular market side.
But once she got her feet in, the damn jeans didn’t want to pull up—the denim was sticking to the oil on her legs and thighs, that she hadn’t been able to get completely off with the handkerchief. Grimly, Jillian tugged them into place. She had to get dressed and get out of here! Every minute she was inside the Dark Market was a minute she was in danger. She—
“Well, now that you’re dressed, are you ready to go, girly?”
Jillian had been concentrating on trying to button her jeans when her hands were still slippery with oil and her fingers didn’t seem to want to work right. The voice floating down to her was high and strangely familiar.
Like someone talking after they sucked in helium from a balloon, she thought, peering up into the darkness. Suddenly a huge shape stepped out of the shadows and into the full light of the blue radiation overhead.
Jillian looked up…and up and up. Horror gripped her like a cold hand around her heart.
It was Ripper, the two-headed Trollox who had taken her grample and offered it back to her earlier. Both heads were staring at her greedily and the one with the red eyes was drooling through its thick yellow tusks.
“Are you done with our hanky now?” asked the yellow-eyed head, grinning at her.
“Y-your what?” Jillian didn’t like the way her voice trembled.
“Our hanky, girly. What we gave you to clean up with.” One massive hand gestured to the dirty, greasy, no-longer white handkerchief clutched in one of Jillian’s hands.
“You gave it to me?” she gasped. There was a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach as the huge Trollox nodded with both heads. Hadn’t Kalis told her something about how if someone gave her a gift, she was legally obligated to give one in return by market rules?
“We did indeed. And now that you owe us, it’s time to collect,” the head with the yellow eyes informed her. Its yellow irises glowed fiercely in the blue radiation, making the huge creature look even stranger and more frightening than it had out in the normal light of the main market.
“What…what do you want?” Jillian was dressed now—well, mostly dressed. She hadn’t put her t-shirt on yet, but now she didn’t want to risk covering her face, even for a second. She clutched it to her chest instead, trying to edge away from the massive Trollox.
“Going, are you, sweet girlie?” the yellow-eyed head inquired in its high, helium-sucking voice. “Before you even repay your debt?”
“Please…” Jillian backed away from the Trollox, trying to aim for the long black curtain in the archway of the entrance to the Dark Market. If she could just get through it, she would be safe! No one was allowed to hurt anyone in the main part of the Buy-All-Sell-All Market. But here in the Dark Market, all bets were off. Anyone could do anything to her and there were no legal consequences. She had to get out of here!
“Hey now, girlie, you don’t look too steady on your feet,” the yellow-eyed head observed. “Why don’t you let old Ripper help you?”
“Not too steady! Not too steady!” the red-eyed head repeated and then roared with laughter. “Hyuck-hyuck-hyuck!”
“Shut up, you!” The yellow-eyed head shot its brother a glare of annoyance before focusing on Jillian again. “As I said, you don’t look too good, sweet girlie. Why don’t you come to my shop and we can have a lovely cup of tea and get to know each other better? Then we can discuss repayment of your debt in a civilized manner.”
“Civilized—civilized! Hyuck-hyuck!” the red-eyed head chortled.
Jillian shook her head frantically, still edging away.
“I…I’ll have to pay you later. Right now, I have to get home. Sorry!”
She had been trying to get closer to the entrance and exit to the Dark Market before she made a run for it, but the massive Trollox was looming over her, its eyes glowing in the strange bluish light like a monster from a nightmare. Its breath smelled like dead things and the drool from the red-eyed head was falling in long, viscous droplets to the ground right by her bare feet. Suddenly, she couldn’t take it anymore—she broke and ran.
Or tried to, anyway. Whatever drug she’d been given was still in her system, making her clumsy and weak. As she turned, her feet got tangled in each other and she started to fall.
A massive hand, as big as a shovel, scooped her up before she could hit the dirt and Jillian found herself tucked under the Trollox’s arm like a stray cat.
“Come on now, girlie—let’s go get that tea and talk about your debt,” the yellow-eyed head said.
“No! No, let me go! Let me go!” Jillian beat weakly at the giant’s leg, which was clad in some tough material that scratched her exposed skin like sandpaper.
But all her shouting and struggling did no good. She was still dazed and weak from the drug and she couldn’t do any damage to the immense Trollox or get herself free.
“Help! Help—he’s kidnapping me!” she screamed, but nobody paid any attention to her at all.
Nobody cares! Oh my God, I’m in so much trouble here—nobody gives a damn if he takes me!
She felt like a kitten being dragged away by a rabid Pit-bull. Because Ripper was holding her facing backwards, she could see the golden light from the other market—the Buy-All-Sell-All—getting fainter and fainter as he carried her deeper into the Dark Market. It was her last glimpse of freedom and it was getting dimmer and dimmer and farther and farther away.
And there was nothing Jillian could do to stop it.
