Chapter 10
Marius was back to his stronger and younger self. Sheila had transferred enough of her ill-gotten energies to Ishtar, which in turn passed them onto him. He didn't hold a grudge, luckily, and Sheila didn't feel quiet as embarrassed around him as she had. It hadn't helped, as he had intended, when he said he would have found it within his duties to have died at her hands. She was just very happy that he hadn't.
Sheila looked into the full-length dressing mirror at the early-twenties face and body she had finally settled on. She had never been happier than she was right now. Although, no one had really noticed. James did give her a surprised look, but then only asked, "you cut your hair or something?" She had simply answered yes. If he couldn't see it she wouldn't point it out. Their only communication lately was him telling her to be careful from time to time when she left the house, as if he cared anyway.
Shopping, as she was spending some time today, was the only time she felt balanced and in control.
It had taken a few days for her to totally get over killing Charlie,but she finally had to just face the fact that she had saved her own life and many others that he would have killed, It still didn't feel right though. She never wanted to kill anyone, but she realized that what had happened couldn't be undone anyway.
She exhaled forcefully, fogging the mirror.
A sudden sadness gripped Sheila. But it was More than that. It was a tremendous loneliness, as if something had just been lost to her. She didn't know what happened, but something was definitely wrong. She had a terrible feeling of foreboding she just couldn't shake and had the overwhelming desire to flee.
"Ishtar." She whispered her goddess's name as she called to her mentally.
She was seeking that place of comfort, that place where she always felt safe. There was no reply. She was alone. The question was why?
She experienced a sudden sense of urgency. Cold chills ran down her spine like boney fingers. The walls felt like they were closing in on her.
She couldn't shake the feeling of being trapped; she needed to go. Someone was coming. She didn't know how, but she knew she was in danger. After gathering up all the clothes she had been trying on from the dressing room bench, she left the small dressing room and made her way toward the cash registers. She was driven by an urgency she didn't understand, but it was something she just couldn't ignore.
The last week had been a bit odd. Joshua hadn't contacted her since the day before Charlie, and then she had only been called on to dress as a nurse and go to a retirement home and jerk some old guy off who had been crippled by a stroke. He wasn't able to use his hands anymore.
Rosa had decided to blow his mind and instead gave him a blow job, but Sheila had refused to take any energy from him. He hadn't looked as if he would be able to spare it. It just hadn't felt right.
Her mind raced, wondering if they might have found out about Charlie, or Ishtar, or anything. Ishtar had warned her that the Network wasn't to be trifled with. Marius had been clearly shaken when she said it, which didn't ease Sheila's mind at all. Anything that could shake Marius had to be serious.
Sheila pushed her cart to the front of the store, deciding to forego checking out, and dropped the transceiver the Network had given her into the clothing. She then left both cart and contents sitting at the front of the store.
She looked around for anyone who might be paying unusual attention to her. Everything seemed normal enough.
Perhaps she was just being paranoid or simply taking a gut feeling too seriously. Either way, she wasn't going to take any chances. She would tell Joshua that she had inadvertently left the transceiver behind, if all was actually well.
She blended in with a group of people exiting the store and made her way toward her car. When two men in black suits rushed into the store she had just exited, she knew.
I'm in trouble.
She quickly continued past her car without stopping, toward the back of the parking lot. They would be watching her car, she needed to plan her next move. But first, she needed to get away from here.
A man in his twenties was about to get into a beat up blue chevy truck a few feet from her.
"Hello," she said to him in a friendly tone.
He looked somewhat confused, but offered a terse wave.
"Could you help me please? My car didn't start and I need a ride home."
She pushed her perky young breasts out. Her nipples became erect against the thin material.
"I can pay you."
She allowed him to read whatever he liked into that. She would gladly pay either way.
"Well, I'm kinda in a hurry," he said, all the while smiling and Looking at her breasts.
This guy wants to hear it.
"I can pay you whatever you like."
She looked from his crotch to his face, batting her eyelids in an attempt to seal the deal.
He looked all around the parking lot, shrugged and said, "I guess I could take if its somewhere close."
A stranger was risky for Sheila, but not as risky as it used to be for her. The Network was far more dangerous. They seemed to have an unlimited power that terrified Sheila.
She briefly reached out to Ishtar again, but received no response.
She slid onto the truck seat. The seat pulled her skirt up, exposing her extremely sheer red underwear as well as all of her more private parts.
Sheila pulled her skirt back down quickly, but it was too late.
The young man had an expression of disbelief on his face. He didn't speak for a few moments and when he finally did he stammered, "You... You've... You've got a cock!"
He stared at her red faced for several seconds before he took a deep breath and screamed, "Get out of my truck, you fucking freak!"
He made such a scene that people all over the parking lot were looking their way. This was definitely not what she needed right now. She hurriedly climbed out before he struck her, which he appeared inclined to do at any moment.
Further making a spectacle, he peeled rubber out of the parking lot.
The two men in black and several others in the parking lot now began to converge on her position. She hurried toward her car, but two of them were clearly going to be there before she could make it.
The sting of two darts from a stun gun burned as they penetrated the flesh of her back.
She reached for them, but her body seized and tensed as the clicking sound of the stun gun filled the air. She slammed down onto the pavement and a hood was pulled over her head.
A vehicle squealed up near her
"It's OK, were FBI," she heard one of her captors tell the onlookers.
Sheila doubted that very much.
She felt the impact of the floor when she was tossed into the back of the vehicle.
She called out mentally to Ishtar,
Help me Ishtar!
There was no reply; there was only silent emptiness.
"She can't hear you half-breed," one of the men said in a shitty tone, and injected her with something.
How can he hear my thoughts? Where is Ishtar?
Both men laughed coarsely then one said, "Be quiet."
She felt so alone and afraid, but for only a moment before everything went black.
* * *
She had no idea where she was when she finally opened her eyes. Her head pounded, her stomach felt like a cheese grater had been ran over it. She had no way of knowing how long she had been out, what time it was, or even what day it was for that matter. One thing was obvious, as she groggily looked around, she was in a cell.
The only window was high near the ceiling on what she assumed was the back wall and was barred. But, it was so high she couldn't see out. The air smelled different; it smelled artificial somehow. Sheila felt far from home and even farther from Ishtar.
The stone cell was cold. She was completely nude, and had one thin pillow and a quilted blanket to cover herself. They had even taken her undergarments, perhaps more, she couldn't be sure.
She assessed herself. Her belly-button ring was gone. She reached lower. At least all her new parts were still there.
There was a shower, sink, and toilet attached to one wall. It was made of what looked like stainless steel. A similar stainless door was on the opposite wall. The balance of the walls were made of stone and over twelve feet high. One small table was bolted to the floor in the center of the room with two benches attached to it.
She heard what she thought were the tones of someone entering codes on a keypad outside her door. A few seconds later she heard a loud snap confirming this.
The door quietly swung open into the room.
A very large man with bright-red, short-cropped hair stepped into the cell with a smile on his face. It wasn't a friendly smile it was a sadistic smile that made Sheila very uncomfortable.
"Hello," he said in a low, smooth tone.
He entered her cell and looked at her. He smirked before continuing.
"I am Samar. We can be friends or enemies, the choice is yours.
Sheila could feel that he was indifferent to her, probably didn't even like her. He was a human, but nearly as big as a Hunic, and very muscular. He wore black, military-issue commando style pants topped with a khaki-green colored T-shirt. A small weapon, Sheila assumed, hung on his hip. He had a dark black tattoo on his wrist that read: "Samar 3365."
"Where am I," Sheila asked hatefully.
"In time," He said and began to walk away. After a few steps he turned back and asked, "Do you require sustenance?"
Sheila nodded yes. She wanted to keep her strength up for whatever possibility presented itself. Eating was the best way to do that in case she was provided opportunity to escape. It didn't look promising though. She still didn't know who they were, but suspected the Network. They had likely tracked her location on her transceiver.
Samar turned and left the cell, closing the door behind him, without saying another word.
Sheila felt the sting of concrete burns on her shoulder and hip, and touched her fingers to it.
There was some type of dressing on her wounds. She sat on the metal shelf of a bed looking at the dressing on her scrapes. It appeared to be layers of some type of simulated skin.
There was nothing but deafening silence in her head; she felt so alone.
The clank of the lower panel on the door sliding up broke the silence in her head. A towel and soap was pushed into the cell along with some other hygiene products.
She looked at the cube of plain white soap on top of the small towel. It all appeared to be of county-jail quality. She hoped she wouldn't be here very long. She would rather they would just kill her and get it over with.
