Free Yours by Aubrey Dark

reach out and give him a taste of violence. Control. I had to keep control.
    “Look at me.”
    Now she looked up dully, the tears streaming across her cheeks.
    “Kneel.”
    She shook her head no, and El Alfa punched her in the stomach, then caught her before she could fall. Yanking her up with one hand, he took hold of her dress with the other and tore. She screamed as her dress turned into shreds. Her underwear was pink, I saw. Pink with small white daisies. I felt sick.
    “No!” she cried. “I’ll do it! I’ll do it!”
    She fell to the ground, kneeling awkwardly. El Alfa kicked her in the side. She curled over.
    “Sloppy girl. Next time, obey me right away or I’ll take more than your clothes.”
    She whimpered.
    “I’ll make her obey,” David said, stepping forward boldly. El Alfa shook his head.
    “Don’t feed her. We’ll work on her tomorrow.”
    David rubbed at the side of his neck as he stood back dejectedly. He had a sunburn, and where his fingers scratched, white curls of skin flecked off of his neck. When he saw me looking at him, he dropped his hand and looked away.
    “Come,” El Alfa said. He was talking to me. “I will show you a girl who already knows how to obey her master.”
    He opened the door across the hall. Inside, an Asian girl was curled up on the floor. I could see that she wasn’t chained at the wrists but at the throat. A thick black collar wrapped around her neck, attached again to two chains hanging off the walls.
    El Alfa snapped his fingers. Immediately the girl scrambled up, her eyes bleary with sleep. There was a dark bruise on her stomach.
    “You know how to kneel, don’t you?” he said.
    “Yes, master.” Fear flashed in her eyes.
    “Kneel for me.”
    She bent down slowly, her back rigidly straight. When her knees touched the ground, her body folded forward. Her forehead bent down, almost touching the ground. Her hands stretched out in front of her, palms upward as though begging for something. If I had seen her anywhere else, I would have thought it was a yoga pose.
    She held the position, her hands trembling only slightly, as El Alfa walked around her. He nudged at one foot that was angled slightly outward and she immediately straightened out.
    “There. That’s how they should do it. Not perfect, of course. You can ask any of the girls upstairs if you want a proper demonstration.”
    “They all have the—uh, the training?”
    I had to act interested. I had to act like I wanted this job. Jesus, it was hard. I realized why two of Ten’s men had already died in this place. If I didn’t keep myself completely in line, I would be next.
    “That’s right. Once they’re ready, we let them upstairs.”
    I nodded, trying not to look as sick as I felt.
    “You did well tonight,” El Alfa continued, “but there are many things harder to do than to kill a man. To get a woman to obey you, for instance.”
    He chuckled at his own joke and I put on an acid smile, feigning amusement.
    “So,” he said. “We will see if you picked out the right girl tonight.”
    “What do you mean?”
    He led me back out into the hallway and opened yet another door.
    My heart fell as I saw Jessica already in chains. She was pulling hard at her cuffs, and her gag was still in.
    “I think you may be in for some trouble,” El Alfa said. He tore off the gag and Jessica began to scream.
    “Help!”
    He slapped her, then shoved the gag back into her mouth.
    “Take the gag off before you leave her tonight,” he said, winking conspiratorially at me. “That way she’ll scream herself hoarse. It’ll be easier to work with her then.”
    “What do you mean, work with her?”
    “You have control over this one,” he said. His grin was sickening. “Good luck getting her to kneel. I think it will take more than a few hours for this one. You’ll want to get her out of her clothes. Most girls listen better when they’re naked.”
    “Wait,” I said, my mind spinning from all of the orders.