Ornette was being licked. It was horrible.

  She opened her eyes and was quite relieved to find a dog licking her face. It was a fluffy white dog the size of a cat, and it was being held over her by a man with white hair and dull eyes.

  She was told he was Desmond’s father, but he did not look like Desmond’s father. He looked like Varner’s.

  After sputtering a little, she ughed and turned her head away from the dog to unbuckle her harness. “What a cute puppy,” she said dutifully. It really was better than if a man had been licking her like that, so the relief was real.

  The man put the dog on the floor, and it yipped around the room, confused by the visitor and making its feelings known.

  Ornette allowed the man to help her out of the cryochamber.

  “I’m Yarley,” he said, as though he was already bored with her. “I believe you’ve been pying games with my sons.”

  “Your sons?” Ornette asked quizzically. “I was told you are Desmond’s father.”

  “Yes. I’m also Varner’s. Different mothers. Varner’s not considered part of the whole Queen of Venus connection because Silver Ashley did not approve of his mother. She approves of no one, except Desmond and a collection of his female cousins.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking… Why did you buy me?” she asked softly.

  “Oh, to cover up my son’s mistakes. As soon as I saw your swollen face on the show, I knew Varner had lost his temper. He’s a naughty boy. Don’t worry. He’ll be here in a bit, and after he’s had a few rounds of you, he’ll bore and go back to his party game.”

  “A few rounds of me?” she asked with wide eyes. “He’s not allowed to have me. According to the terms in which I was sold through Sleeping Beauty Inc., Varner is not allowed to have me. He weighs too much.”

  Yarley frowned. “You think I care what Sleeping Beauty Inc.’s terms are? I own thirty percent of their shares on Venus and seventy percent of Jewel Girls. You’ll do as you’re told.”

  Ornette stamped her foot with a horrible cck against the tile beneath her as her only current option for defiance. “And what happens to me when Varner is finished with me?”

  “I’m sure some of the other boys from tonight wouldn’t mind paying a tidy sum for a night or two with you,” he answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  “That’s against my contract! I’m not a whore!”

  The gruff man growled at her. “Of course, you’re a whore! You’re a paid woman. You were paid for twice. You are paid for, and you’ll do as you’re told, or I’ll shock you into next week.”

  Suddenly, Ornette did not care what happened next. She had been through enough, and she would not be passed around to every st man who bid on her that night. She didn’t care if she got evidence against Varner and his father. She didn’t care what happened to Silver Ashley and her dream to bring Beckett Beltrose to Venus to terraform it. The only thing she cared about at that moment was that she would not be pushed around another second.

  She broke Yarling’s nose.

  It cracked.

  It bled.

  He was an old man, and he fell to his knees in shock.

  Ornette kicked the side of his head so hard, his cheek was against the tile floor. In that moment of vulnerability, she put the tip of her stiletto high heel in his ear canal and prepared to stomp down. It had a vicious tip… Just like her.

  “Ornette, stop it!” she heard a voice say. She didn’t know where it was coming from. They were alone in the room except for the yappy dog.

  She didn’t know who she was talking to, but she replied. “I will not let Varner rape me. It will kill me. I don’t care what he says or what anyone says. I’ll break in half with a man like that plundering me. I am a featherweight. He’s the size of a mountain. I…”

  Silver Ashley walked into the room. She was less flouncy than before because she was wearing trousers. Rushing in, she pushed Ornette to get her away from Yarley.

  Ornette was fragile and was knocked off bance, but she corrected her bance and stood straight.

  Silver Ashley stared at her with her hands on her hips. Her white hair was tied in a ponytail, and she wore a pair of whitewash jeans and a blue button-up shirt. “I know my nephew is a shit, but if you gouge your stiletto into his brain, we’ll have to execute you and we would all hate that. Especially Desmond.”

  At the mention of his name, Desmond came into the room, followed by Vangelis. They saw the old man on the floor with his hand on his bleeding nose.

  Ornette started crying. She tried not to turn red, or any redder than she was with her swollen cheek, but tears fell in straight lines down her face.

  “Don't worry," Silver Ashley said simply. "You won't be raped. We'll protect you. It turns out that we don’t have to wait for you to get more evidence against my family. Beckett Beltrose came on his own. Apparently, his people… including Benediction Hallows and Harrison Fox… are willing to help rid the sor system of svery, and they believe the first step is working with me to change the face of Venus. We got their notice before other pces because the popution of Venus is so small compared to other moons and pnets. No one lives here except a few elites. We’re easy, so they’re here, and they want to py ball. Unfortunately, since the lesser members of my family are the biggest and most famous culprits, I have to deal with them before I can let Beckett and Benediction do their study of our pnet. Benediction wants to end svery. Beckett wants to terraform the pnet. According to them, both things have to happen at the same time. So, either I punish my own people, or they will punish them for me.”

  The greatness of that pn stunned Ornette. They had really come to see what was happening for themselves. They had seen her bruised on the stage, and that was the st push they needed to get the ball rolling. Ornette struggled to breathe. All that had happened in the time she had been trapped in the cryochamber?

  “What will happen?” Ornette asked breathlessly.

  “First, your show, Goldilocks Zone, will be shut down. The girls will be returned to Sleeping Beauty Inc., and so will you. You will receive the money you were paid for this stint, and none of you will be able to return to Venus as sves,” she said shortly. “Get back inside your cryochamber. I’m having you shipped off immediately.”

  She gnced at Desmond, who gnced at Ornette like he would die if she were taken from him again. Their eyes met with a tortured longing for each other.

  The moment was broken like a bubble.

  “Move,” Ashley said shortly. Naturally, she was not going to let Ornette and Desmond be together. Naturally, she was going to do what she had to do for the pnet without considering what either one of them wanted.

  Ornette struggled to do as she was told. If she got in the cryochamber, if she calmed down and breathed the gas... she would forget everything. That was the way she always did it.

  Ornette did not have time to think.

  Silver Ashley was barking orders. “Vangelis, get my idiot nephew off the floor and look at his nose. If she broke it properly, it will need to be set. Desmond, help him.”

  Seeing no pce for herself outside the Queen’s commands, Ornette did as she was told. Getting into a cryochamber was usually one of the best parts of a job well done. Clumsily, Ornette got back into the cryochamber.

  Just before she closed the lid, Silver Ashley approached and whispered, “I owe you an apology. I should not have asked you to clean my house for me. However, in my defense, I did not know that Varner was Desmond’s brother until a few hours ago. Apparently, Varner’s mother was a sve. This has gone on long enough. You should be proud of the job you did. You can have your choice. Do you want to go to Earth or Luna? Mars or Io?”

  “I’ll go to Earth, please,” Ornette said, knowing of an apartment complex with tiny apartments where she could take a breather. “Send me to Sleeping Beauty Inc. headquarters, North America Division. I can work things out from there.”

  “Done. Good luck.”

  There was no fairy tale story whispered to Ornette when Silver Ashley smmed the lid shut on her cryochamber. Ornette peered out the gss as she waited for the sleeping gas to obscure her vision. Usually, at a time like that, Ornette would clear her mind. She would deliberately forget everything that happened and think of the clouds of Venus to ease her into a state of forgetfulness. Instead, she fought hard to keep her st view of Desmond strong in her mind. She stared through the gss lid at him. She studied Desmond, memorizing his face, the lines of his body, and the look in his eyes as he gazed back at her.

  She took the bracelet on her wrist, put it in her mouth, and broke it in half with her teeth. It shocked her, but only mildly.

  Desmond had four bracelets. Three on one arm and one on the other. The lone bracelet was connected with hers. He hooked a finger around it and let it fall. Even though her svery had ended, he still had three bracelets on his wrist. Ornette bet that the bracelet from his father would be removed shortly, but she did not believe he would ever be free enough to lose the other two. Silver Ashley seemed immortal. She knocked Ornette over with the energy of a twenty-year-old who went to the gym every day. She would live forever, and the bracelet she controlled on his wrist would stay intact as long as she lived.

  Desmond mouthed the words, “I love you.”

  Ornette screamed back, “I love you too!”

  The white mist appeared in the cryochamber between them, and he disappeared from sight like a curious cat in the forest mist.

  Her hand fell limp, and she fell into the frozen sleep of cryostasis.

  ________________

  Author's Notes: Thanks for reading. I will post the st chapter on Thursday, and then I will post the VERY INTERESTING epilogue on Monday next week. My next story is an uplifting horror story called 'Dream of the Wolf'. I hope you all come and read it.