Two Page Shorts - Nick Venom (big ebook reader txt) 📗

me? I’m marked already… so I’m going to die soon, aren’t I?”

Beverly shook her head, this time confident of it. “I’m helping you because I want to. I’ve seen too many people like you be destroyed so soon after arriving. I couldn’t watch any more fall, especially someone who lives in the same cell as me.”

“We won’t die if we escape,” Cat muttered, catching the others off-guard. “We can’t be raped if we escape, right?”

“Uh… well, I mean, that’s true and all… but we can’t escape this place,” Beverly told her.

“Oh, we can’t? I thought we could just walk out.” She muttered to herself. “Maybe they changed the rules… I don’t remember seeing the patch notes saying anything about the terms changing.”

“W-What? What in the world are you talking about?” Beverly asked. “This isn’t a game!”

“Oh,” Cat muttered, frowning. “Strange.” She then turned away from them and went back to sleep, snoring loudly. 

Helen and Beverly stared at Cat sleeping for a few moments before turning back towards each other. “Weird isn’t she?” Beverly asked. 

Helen nodded. “Yeah, but… she isn’t wrong.”

Beverly shushed her. “Remember that you’re marked. Steven will be monitoring you for as long as he lusts over you. Don’t say anything that could irritate him like the word ‘escape’. Okay??”

Helen nodded. “You’re right… Then what now? Wait and hope he doesn’t attack me?” She asked, trembling softly.

Beverly shook her head. “The Warden will be back in a week, so we have to think of a plan soon.” She muttered.

“What if we break the collars?” 

“No shot there. We need powers to break our collars and we can’t use our powers.” She whispered.

“I can use mine!” Cat exclaimed, holding her arm up as if to ask a teacher a question. “It isn’t hard to break them.”

Helen and Beverly stared at her with open mouths and eyebrows nearly jumping off their faces. Then they stared at each other, sharing the same surprise as each other. 

“How?” Helen asked. “Show me how!”

Beverly shook her head. “Show me that you actually broke your… device.” She said, wording her sentence to turn away eavesdroppers. “

Cat nodded as her hand snaked up her body and reached her neck. She tugged on the collar, showing that it was firmly in place. “Oops,” She muttered as she tugged on the collar harder to no avail.

“See, it doesn’t work,” Beverly said as she sat on the ground. “We can’t-”

“There it goes. I forgot to turn the latch off.” Cat remarked as she pulled the collar off her neck, re-enabling her powers. The collar was now an unconnected three-quarter of a circle. “See, it isn’t hard to break them.”

Beverly felt her jaw briefly hit the floor as Cat connected the collar and twirled it around her pointer finger. “I… I… I… What the hell?”

Cat smiled. “Done!” She exclaimed as she threw the collar up, hitting the bunk above her, and watched as it landed in her lap. “Good?”

“I don’t even know anymore,” Beverly remarked as she watched Cat’s collar being thrown up in the air or twirled around her fingers. 

Helen smiled as she watched the collar being thrown around. “So… we can escape now?” She said with her eyes lit up. “Is it possible?”

Cat nodded. “Give me a day and I'll pop them off.”

“You will?” Beverly asked. “Is there a price for it?”

Cat smiled, her mouth remaining shut.

“I guess there is… Whatever, get this thing off me.” She told her, who complied. Cat pointed at the ground in front of her and Beverly slid into position. Cat then began working on disabling the collar. Meanwhile, Helen kept a lookout for passing guards. Even though many of them were sympathetic to the prisoners, they couldn’t go against Steven’s orders. They were bound to him by blackmail or money. 

“Hey… Helen?” Beverly said. 

Helen turned her head towards Beverly. “Yes?”

“If we escape… Do you have somewhere we can go?” 

Helen thought about it for several seconds before nodding. “My father owns a house we can go to.”

“Is it close? Wait, why am I asking that? I’m not even sure where we are now. We could still be in Chicago or New York for all I know.” Beverly said before rethinking her words. “Well, anyway, can we head to your father’s house if we’re close to it? At least until we can find our way home?”

Helen nodded. “Of course. I would never leave you on your own.”

Beverly nodded. “Thanks… thanks.” 

“Oh, can I come?” Cat interjected. “I want to live in a house.”

Helen raised an eyebrow at her statement but soon dismissed it. “You can come as well, Cat. You are the one who is helping us out the most.” 

Cat smiled. “Yay! I get to be free and inside!”

Helen and Beverly were confused by her statements but passed them off as her rambling. They never saw much of her comments as anything coherent. And Cat didn’t seem to mind. 

None of them seemed to mind their new situation.

However, an eavesdropper was frustrated about it. Milly pressed herself against the wall to their cell, just out of sight. She heard every word they spoke and the plans they were putting into motion.

Damn, the Blue just jumped up to a Black. I need to inform them before they escape. Damn it. Damn it! DAMN IT! She thought to herself, barely able to hold her anger and not slam her fist into the wall. She quietly moved away from the cell and avoided being seen by the guards as she headed back to her cell - now in an aggravated mood. 

***

“Yes, she leveled up to Black. We need to put her down before she causes a full-blown riot.” She nearly shouted into her phone. She sat on her bunk in her empty cell. She was the only prisoner in her cell; even the neighboring ones were empty as well. 

“She can remove the collars? Get rid of her soon or else everything will be destroyed, especially if the Oranges are freed. The Vault will be in chaos. Shut her down now!” The grim voice ordered. 

“Yes, ma’am. She’ll be dead by the end of the day.”

“I hope so… for your sake.” The grim voice muttered before Milly heard a beep sound. The beep sound was the call being hung up on her.

Milly balled up her fists, aggravated further by the voice’s threat and the problem she now had on her hands. “Damn it. When did she have full control over her powers? And for how long? Damn it!” She shouted, punching the wall and creating a dent. “I mislabeled her. She tricked me with that clumsy and dumb character, but this must be her true self. A scheming wyvern who intends on bringing everything down once she finds compatible people. Maybe those Yellows are what she needs to escape. She must’ve been plotting this from the first day she was here… I have to kill her.”

She huddled herself up in the corner, bringing her legs close to her chest. “At the very least, I need to stop their plans. I can’t afford to disappoint my family. Not anymore.”

***

“Another victim?” The first guard from earlier asked the second guard. “Why is he creating more and more victims? Shouldn’t the Warden step in?”

The second guard shook his head. “Boe, remember that the Warden would do anything to cover up for his son. Just keep your head down and we’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, but I don’t feel right doing this,” Boe said. “I’ve heard stories and seen bodies being rolled into the morgue, but… to do it myself.”

“It’s disgusting, I know. But we don’t have a choice.” The second guard, Isaan, said. He was holding one end of the gurney holding a female victim that was beaten to death by Steven after being considered ‘disposable’. Blood leaked out of the corpse, staining the white sheet covering the body. “Let’s… Let’s keep going.”

Boe nodded, holding the other end of the gurney. “Still… How is it that we can’t do anything for them? That new girl that was marked, is she just dead now?”

“The Warden’s gone and Steven is on his own. He won’t act until after he returns, so she has a week to think of something.”

“Then what? After a week, Steven will feast on her and she’ll end up being on this table like this poor soul.” He said as he pointed at the girl under the sheet. “Unless her collar comes off or she… I don’t know, maybe she steps up to him. Some of the girls here, for sure, scare him.” 

Isaan nodded. “We can’t do anything for them as long as we want to earn money and live.”

“What if we quit and then report to the police about this place? It has to be some type of illegal slave camp, right?”

“Is there such a thing as a legal slave camp?” Isaan asked.

Boe shook his head. “Forget about that, let’s focus on the topic. Is that possible?”

“If it was, wouldn’t you think that the police and FBI would’ve already raided this place? Obviously, something happens to silence all those who quit and intend to rat this place out.”

Boe nodded. “Then we’re stuck here until we die?”

“Let’s hope we leave when we die… unless we’re stuck here for eternity.”

Boe nodded in agreement. “I think we should’ve tried our luck shoveling snow and mowing land. It would’ve paid less, but our lives and morals wouldn’t be stretched and played with like it is.”

“Well… we lost that chance now.”

“We lost the chance to stop Steven.”

“When did we ever have that?” Isaan asked.

“The first day working here. We lost it the second day.”

***

“What kind of rumors?” An irritated Steven asked. “Tell me what kind of rumors you heard!” He barked as he approached one of his “boys”. 

“Rumors that said you wouldn’t act without the Warden around.” A man, named Nanu, told him. He was smaller in height by a few inches with a clean-shaven face and a skinny and frail build. 

“I can’t act without my father? They’re calling me worthless without him?”

Nanu nodded. “According to the rumors-”

“Rumors is it… or are these your words?” Steven asked, pressing a thin knife against Nanu’s neck. “Speak of which.”

He took in a deep gulp of fresh air. “... the rumors, sir.”

Steven smiled menacingly before nodding his head. He released his grip on Nanu, taking several steps backward. “So… the prisoners don’t believe I can operate without my father… get all of the marked and bring them to the courtyard. Now!”

Nanu’s eyes widened as he realized Steven’s plan. “You’re not saying that you’re going to rape them all in the courtyard? That’s crazy!” He shouted. “Your father will be angered by this.”

“He’ll be happy that I do something on my own. Now go and gather them all. Take any women who intervene and kill all men who step in the way. Now!” Steven barked, venomous words articulating themselves. “Before you end up like the men.” 

Nanu nodded before disappearing from Steven’s room. He sprinted down several flights of stairs with an expression of guilt and revenge. His past sins weighed him down so that passing the message took longer than usual.

Steven didn’t like that.

***

“Where are you taking us!” Beverly shouted, handcuffed and being led away from her cell by a sobbing Beo. 

“I’m sorry, I really am!” Beo cried out. 

Isaan placed a hand on Beo’s shoulder, applying pressure. “Check your emotions, he’ll target you next.” He remarked, not daring to look at either Beverly or Helen, who he was leading. Cat, meanwhile, was following after them without an escort. She was handcuffed, but she picked the locks while nobody was looking. Even so, she continued to frolic through the hallways with the handcuffs still attached to her wrists.

The others, on the other hand, were escorted by Beo and Issan to the courtyard. They went through several hallways until reaching one of the entrances to the courtyard. Isaan opened the door and Beo escorted the girls outside. They were immediately greeted by the sight of Nanu and other men who stepped into the way, laying