Free In Chains by Michelle Abbott Page B

“Sure he does. But he’s had so many shocks he don’t notice them anymore.”
    “Why does he have that collar?”
    Getting up, he sits behind me, wraps his arms around my waist and kisses me on the neck. “Coz he’s a disobedient fucker who don’t do what he’s told.” He laughs near my ear, it tickles. I lean back into him as he nibbles at my earlobe. Time is flying by and I want to stay here in his arms forever.
    Everyone is chilling out now. Kaci and Clay are lying on the grass tangled around each other. Trent is lying on his back, his hands clasped behind his head. Picking up his mug, Kayden tosses it towards Trent who looks up as it lands on his stomach. “Top that up for us will ya?”
    As Trent hands Kayden his drink I ask if they all grew up in the same pound together. “Yeah,” says Trent, as he sits down in front of us. “We were all in the same classes.”
    “Was it horrible there?”
    “Yeah, I was glad when I got sold.”
    Kaci stands up, pours her and Clay another hooch, then wanders over to us. Clay follows behind her. They sit down between Kayden and Trent. Clay shoots me a hateful look before kissing Kaci on the head. I wonder what happened to him to make him hate us so much. “What you guys talking about?” asks Kaci.
    “The pound,” says Trent, taking a mouthful of hooch.
    “Remember that guy they had in the prison?” she says, looking at Kayden. “The one we saw set on fire.”
    I feel Kayden nod his head and I turn around to look at him. “What prison?” I ask.
    “There’s a prison part in there,” he says, hooking my hair behind my ear. “They put you in there if you kill a human, before they kill you.”
    “Do they have their own trials too? Do you get a lawyer?” They’re all looking at me blankly.
    “We don’t know what trials and lawyers are,” he says. “All I know is, if you kill a human they chain you up in the yard for a few weeks and then they kill you.”
    Clay speaks to me for the first time. Fixing me with his cold stare he speaks loudly and aggressively, spitting the words at me. “Kayden and Kaci saw a guy burned to death. The place stank of burning flesh for weeks.” He drains his mug of hooch. “You humans can beat shit out of us whenever you want. If we dare to defend ourselves, hit you, even just threaten to hit you, they’ll cart us off to the pound.” He’s red in the face and his jaw is clenched. “And do you know what happens to us when we get there? Do you, human?”
    He says ‘human’ with such scorn and hatred. He scares me. I reach for my cigarettes and try to light one but my hands are shaking too much. Kayden takes the cigarette and lights it for me. He has a puff of it before giving it back to me and he whispers in my ear. “Don’t worry baby, I won’t let him hurt you.” He turns to Clay. “Lay off her man. It’s not her fault. She’s a good person, she’s been kind to me.”
    “Maybe she has,” Clay continues, “but it’s her kind who do this shit to us. If she don’t know about it she fucking well should. Do you know what they do to us human if we ever dare to hurt them?” He’s really raising his voice and I’m too afraid to speak, so I just shake my head. “If we’re lucky and we just attack a human, then we have to stay at the pound for a year’s re-training. If we kill a human they have steel poles cemented into the ground. They chain us to the pole. They chain our arms above our head and our ankles to the floor. They leave us chained standing up like that for fucking weeks. Do you have any fucking idea how much your legs would ache having to stand on them for weeks?”
    He doesn’t wait for my answer. Not that I have one, I’m horrified at what I’m hearing and imagining. No wonder he hates us so much. “Do you have any fucking idea how much your arms would ache? How your hands would go numb? Have you ever fucking tried sleeping standing up? They don’t get anything to eat; they just get water