Shadow Cipher

20. Nova

I'm being marched towards Bolton's private office. Kevin shoves me forwards. He's pissy because Cygnus called him and they broke up. Thanks to Kevin's shitty mood, I have a deep gash in my face that goes down the center of my right eyebrow to about 2 inches below my eye. He made sure to avoid hitting my eyeball, but it still hurts like hell. He gave me enough healing ointment that the wound closed, but not enough that I won't have a nasty scar for the rest of my life. Luckily, my life won't be much longer either way. I also have a scar on my chest from Bradford. I tried to escape, he didn't take that well.

We stop before Bolton's office door and Kevin knocks. I hear Bolton's sleazy voice answer, "come in." I take a deep breath before Kevin opens the door and shoves me in. I unfortunately fall to my knees.

"Ah, begging already?" Bolton asks with a laugh.

"Never," I spit at him.

"So obstinate," he says while petting my hair. I try to move away, but he grabs my hair in his grubby fist and twists, pulling the strands tight. "We can train that right out of you." Then he does something I wasn't prepared for. He snaps his fingers and a servant brings him a golden collar with a thumb pad lock on it. He locks the damn thing around my throat. I try to scramble away from him, but he still has my hair in his fist, so I can't get far. All I can do is tell myself not to cry. I won't give Bolton the satisfaction.

"Kevin, the funds should be transferred to your account. Now leave." Kevin spits on me and then leaves. Bolton hands one of his goons a f*****g leash, which is then hooked to the damn collar. Then the goon leads me to a cell.

The days start to run together. Every day, I think I'm going to die. Unfortunately, I'm kept alive. I'm beaten, I'm passed around like a freaking party favor some nights. I bide my time, trying to act like I'm being trained.

One day, I get lucky. I'm brought to Bolton's night club. I'm stripped of my clothes and tossed onto a stage where I'm expected to dance. If I don't dance, the collar shocks me. So I dance.

Then I'm brought to a private room. Bolton walks in and tells me that I belong to his friend for the night. If I don't behave, I'll be punished. Apparently, this friend has paid quite a bit of money for me. I dance in the private room on the pole in the middle of the room. Then the friend grabs me. "Time for you to show me just how loyal Bolton is." I'm pulled onto the man's lap. He grabs my hair and grinds into me. I see the man's data pad sitting close. I need to figure out a way to get it. Perhaps if I can f**k him into a coma? I notice he puts a powder into a drink and offers it to me. I pretend to drink then swap our cups. I continue to grind on him, touching him and pretending to get into it.

Eventually, he passes out. Luckily, it is before his clothes come off. I take his clothes off to make it look more convincing. I take his jacket and put it on and have the data pad in the pocket. When I open the door to the private room, I'm faced with one of Bolton's goons. He takes me back to my cell.

Once back in my cell, alone, I start hacking into the data pad. It feels good to have a bit of technology in my hands once again. I am able to find my way to Jake's cat cam at his house. Shadow, his cat, comes up to the camera and meows at it. I talk to him. Then I hear Cygnus and Jake talking. They're discussing Cyg's most recent race. Apparently he did really good. A pang of home sickness hits me hard in the heart. "Okay, Shadow, I gotta go before they see me. Be a good boy, okay?" He meows and I close the program. Then I start to plan.