In Search of Home

Chapter 75

Muffled words and shouting filled his ears, and he came into consciousness with a jolt of fear. He was still in the car. Something was pressing him onto the seat. They were putting something around his neck.

They were putting something around his neck.

He let out a scream, raw and angry. His limbs were sluggish and slow to respond to him, but they did the job. He jabbed an alien in the eye and the hand holding him down released him a second later.

"Ugh! This feral little bastard!" the alien shouted. "He got his -" The buzzing in his ear made him wish he'd pass out again. "- fucking claws in my eye!"

"Wash it out later and stop being a hatchling," another snapped. "I can't get this collar on without help."

Collar. Despite the cotton in his head, the pain in his gut, and the fear clogging his throat, Viktor found the strength to surge upwards and try to get away. Something smacked him on the side of his head and knocked him back down before he could even get up.

"No, no, no, no," he mumbled in their language, a desperate plea for them to change their minds. He knew it wouldn't work. It never did. But he could try.

"Spirits, since when could they talk?" the alien that smacked him said, surprised.

"Does it look like I care?" the alien cradling its face snapped. "Get the collar ready. I don't like being near its face. Don't wanna end up like Zorrash."

It held him down, making sure to press his arms into the seat. It was kneeling painfully on his stomach, and he thought he'd die before they got the collar on. He couldn't move. They were going to put it on him. And he couldn't do a damn thing about it.

They snapped the collar around his neck, cinching it tight enough to pinch. It was metallic. It was a fucking shock collar. The prongs dug into his skin right where they had been the last time. Viktor screamed the entire time.

"Give him something to scream about," the driver of the car snarled from the front. "He's going to make me deaf."

"Gladly," the alien he had jabbed in the eye growled. Viktor had one second to look at the glowering alien fearfully before his world lit up in agony.

He forgot how painful electric shocks were. His entire body stiffened as electricity ran through him. They must have turned the power all the way up on this damn collar. It was nothing like the small shocks he got at the arena and more like touching a fallen electric pole wire.

He couldn't even scream. His mouth moved but no sounds came out. When the shocks stopped, the pain still lingered. His limbs twitched without his input. Breathing was hard and thinking was even harder.

"Thank the Spirits. Stupid thing's got lungs on him," someone mumbled above him. Was he underwater? "Where's that damn cage?"

"Klaggr was supposed to get it," was the sullen reply. "Now he's in pieces! I told you this wasn't a good idea."

"The ransom we'll get from him will pay off the debt we got for Krrkh. If you wanna blame anyone, blame him. He's the idiot who got caught."

"Don't say that!" 

"Scared of the dead?" 

Foggy from pain, Viktor couldn't even feel the horror that was welling up in him at the mention of the ringmaster. "No," he whimpered. The aliens shifted their attention to him, and he flinched at the movement.