bains_nanowrimo's Journal

Entry #13 ~ 2,016 words
The next morning, Rae stomped into the coffee shop across the street from the bar, and threw her cell phone on the table in front of her friends. Khan arched an eyebrow and poked at the device.
“The mighty hunter returning from the hunt?” She asked. “If so, I think it’s dead. Congrats.”
“More like the evil witch coming to extract her revenge on the townspeople.” Rae growled, settling down in the booth next to Tweek without another word. Tweek gave Khan a quizzical look, but the Mink just shrugged, paying close attention to her cup of coffee.
“Do you know,” Rae started, as she viciously shredded a napkin into little pieces, “That from the west side of the lake to my apartment building is a tree mile walk, at the very least? And that’s a low estimate.”
“Ummm.” Tweek smoothed an ear back, looking at Rae, then at Khan. “Is there something I should know?”
Khan chewed on a nail nervously, while avoiding Rae’s wintery gaze. She mumbled something under her breath, too low for either Tweek or Rae to hear it.
“What was that, Khan?” Rae queried, leaning back with her arms crossed over her chest.
“I said, I take it all did not go as well as I’d hoped for.”
“If you hoped for something akin to last night’s happenings, I will beat you profusely about the head with your purse.”
“What the hell happened?” Tweek asked, eyes wide.
“Our lovely Khan decided to tell Connor where my apartment was.” Rae continued to glare at her friend, who had the courtesy to look embarrassed, Rae noticed without satisfaction.
“WHAT?” Tweek’s short ears stood up in shock. “Wait, who’s Connor? And what does he have to do with a three mile walk back to your place, Rae?”
“Connor happens to be that strange guy who followed me home. And we had a fight, because he’s a fucking jackass.”
“I don’t understand.”
“We were at the lake, talking…”
“You went OUT with him?” Tweek asked suspiciously.
“It wasn’t technically a date.”
“You went out to the lake with a guy you don’t know, one you claim to be a stalker.”
“He was pushy!”
“Well, I fail to see where Khan MADE you go out with him. That right there was your own, very stupid, idea.” Tweek lectured, as the waitress brought their orders, placing a cinnamon raisin bagel in front of her, a plate of french toast in front of Khan, and a fresh cup of coffee for Rae.
“Thank you, sweets.” Khan replied, picking at her french toast with her fork as she poured a generous amount of syrup on the plate.
“That doesn’t mean you should have given the guy her address. You’re both at fault.” Tweek admonished both friends as she brandished a butter knife covered in light cream cheese at them. “I can’t believe either of you. Honestly.”
“Well, yeah, alright. It wasn’t exactly my most brilliant moment.” Rae muttered, “But I did need time out, away from thinking about Aislinn.”
“Have you heard anything from Crevan yet?” Tweek finished spreading the cream cheese on her bagel and looked at Rae with concern.
“Nothing.” Rae sighed, as she took a sip of her coffee and grimaced.

She couldn’t tell if the room she was in was lit or not; the blindfold was so tight over her eyes. Her hands, also bound, though slightly less tight, had lost their feeling long ago; her fingers were practically numb, except for the occasional wiggling, which brought feeling back in the form of aggravating pins and needles. Flicking her ears around, she tried to pick up any other sounds beyond those of the others in the room with her.
She wasn’t sure how many others there were, but knew they were bound just as she was. However, she didn’t know if they were all naked as well. Heavey breathing, whimpers and muffled cries of main and terror were the only sounds, but enough that it made it difficult to hear much else around her. Not that it would do her any good to know where she was or who had abducted her at the moment. Later maybe, she thought to herself, trying to keep positive.
She thought about the men who had brought her here, remembered their voices, the comment about her tail and how there was certainly no doubt that she was a true redhead. That was the first day, or so she thought, since she had no way to be sure of how many days exactly had passed since then. There was apparently no set schedule, beyond every once in a while someone new was brought in or one of the others were removed from the room. Not that any of them had been manhandled, at least as best she could tell.
The men had been outside the gas station when she had stopped to fill up her Jeep after leaving a study session for one of her classes at the university. Only two of them, they had been clean cut and non-threatening, as they filled the tank of their Lincoln Continental – almost to the point where she hardly took note of them, except that one of them, the taller blonde one, had made an off color remark about Furries, which made his companion shush him. She’d wrinkled her nose in disgust and paid for her fule as quickly as possible.
She cursed herself for forgetting about the men just as soon as her cell phone had started to ring on the way home. After looking at the number and deciding that she wasn’t up to talking to her exboyfriend, she had cranked the cd player up, trying to forget about how much it had hurt to break up with him, when she’d realized how much they had grown apart in recent months.
Foolishness on her part. She was normally careful and attentive to her surroundings, as she knew one could never be too careful, especially a single college aged woman. Not that being a Furry made things any easier either. The men had grabbed her just as she was getting out of the Jeep in the unusually vacant lot next to the dorms.
And now here she was, another statistic. It had occurred to her that maybe they were holding her hostage for ransom money, but that thought was banished from her head the moment she’d realized she wasn’t the only one being held captive. Thus far, she’d also ruled out murder as being a possibility, since they had been feeding her, and quite well. It didn’t make much sense to her that murderers would hold their victims for days on end, feeding them homemade meals of hamburgers, stir-fry with a lovely curry sauce, she’d noted, and various other foods.
No, she thought, they were keeping her for some other reason, one that had crossed her mind, but she had dismissed it quickly as completely absurd.
She also pondered briefly about her lack of fear, or really any other emotion, but chalked it up to her being a Capricorn, practical to a fault. There was no reason, at least in her mind, to freak out, sob uncontrollably, or beg for them to let her go, so why waste the energy, she’d figured. Eventually, at least she hoped, her compliancy would lull her captors into feeling overly confident that she was merely another cowed female, or something else would happen, where she could grab the opportunity to escape. She had faith in that fact.
Tilting her head during an all too brief break in the sobbing of the others in the room, she picked up the sound of footsteps and then the click of the door knob, as the door creaked open and more than one person entered the room. She resisted the urge to perk her ears and pretended to have fallen asleep.
“The Vixen.” Someone said in a deep voice, definitely male, and almost a growl. But still human. Then hands were grabbing her upper arms, pulling her to her feet, and pushing her forward. She tripped over her own toes, the lack of use making it difficult to move, and the need to stretch screaming throughout her body. The hands steadied her and guided her out the door, though failing to keep her from knocking into the door frame hard enough that she had to bite her tongue to keep from crying out.
Not a word was said as she was marched down a hall. She couldn’t tell if there was more than one person escorting her, nor anything else, the redundancy of living in complete darkness without a clue wearing thin on her nerves. She refused to let panic set in, especially now, it being the first time she had been out of the room since her arrival. Her tail swished behind her and she tried to ignore how cold the air was around her, difficult as that was with her nipples tightening up in the lowered temperature. She was not one to be shy about her body – most Furries weren’t – but she certainly didn’t appreciate being paraded around naked in front of who knew how many people, as if she were nothing more than a circus animal.
She was steered around a left hand corner, and up a ramp of sorts, into another room, she supposed, her ears picking up the noise of voices in front of her. Low at first, but as she was guided into yet another room, the noise grew much louder and a door shut behind her with a thud, causing her to jump involuntarily. She picked up snippets of conversation, enough to know that most, if not all, of the voices around her belonged to men. Sniffing the air lightly, she caught the mingling scents of cigar smoke, expensive colognes clashing, and perspiration sharpened by excitement. They were gathered for a reason.
“Gentlemen,” A smooth voice, with an accent reminiscent of her trip to New England a few months back, called the room to attention. The murmurs died down slowly, with the occasional guffaw, but finally the room was silent, all those in attendance no doubt waiting for the man to speak again. A cough, and then a chair squeaking over the floor. “Welcome. Tonight we have some interesting tidbits for you all, the most sought after prizes that before, we could only hope to one day gain. Now, our organization has made this possible in a much shorter time frame than we dared pray for in our wildest dreams.” A smattering of applause followed, and she trembled. This could not be happening, she thought. She was imagining the worse, interpreting the man’s words wrong.
“Now, let us feast our eyes upon the first lovely we have.” Someone pushed her forward and she stumbled a few steps before righting herself. She heard several gasps and a couple of catcalls, suddenly more glad now than before that she was blindfolded. At least she didn’t have to see what she knew was going on around her.
“Shall I start the bidding at five million?” She gasped at the amount, any hope of escape drowning in the knowledge that she’d been wrong to dismiss this event as absurd. She now was positive about what was happening and her heart sunk as she heard bids around the room, the going price for her soaring high within minutes. She was being auctioned off. The harsh reality of the situation stabbed into her gut and she choked back a scream. Screw her practicality now, she thought, panic finally taking root in her mind.
“Fifty million!” came a bid from her far left side, and she shook her head in denial.
“Fifty million, to number 34. Do I hear fifty one? Fifty one, anyone? Fifty, going once.” She could hear the murmurs of dismay and disappointment. “Fifty, going twice. Sold. Number 34.” Another round of applause and she was quickly whisked off the platform, her entire being numb with the knowledge that she had been sold to the highest bidder.

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