As she often did, she started her day with a run to the park. She enjoyed the fresh air and it felt good to get out of the city. Well, as much as the park was out of the city. She still wasn't used to so many large buildings and missed the abundance of trees.
It had rained last night and not many people were out this morning, but she didn't mind. She went down her normal path and glanced at the leaves as they changed color.
After the first mile, Finnea saw a pair of men jogging towards her on the path. She moved to the side to make room for them to pass.
However, they had other plans. Once they were close, one of them shoved his arm out to grab her across the chest. The other reached for her arms. She slipped a hand free from his grasp and punched him. She then stomped on the foot of the other man before kneeing him in the groin.
"Ah, you bitch!" The main recoiled as his friend got ready for another go. He had in one hand a cloth for some reason.
Finnea backed off. She saw a woman who had been jogging behind her for the past 20 minutes. It was too strange for them to attack her with a witness, so she was suspicious of her.
The man seem to know how to fight, at least. He tried a grapple as he moved the cloth to Finnea's face. She parried his arm and jabbed his chest. Finnea was a scholar, not a fighter, but she picked up a few things over the years.
It didn't last much longer. While the other guy was getting back into fight, the woman pulled a small gun from her bag. She fired a dart into Finnea's abdomen.
Finnea pulled out the dart an stumbled as her vision got blurry. "You are in so much trouble…" She fell to the ground. She could hear the woman talk while her consciousness faded.
"That took too long. Quickly, get her into the van before someone shows up."
***
Branka walked through the hallway in an abandoned warehouse she had modified to serve as her base. The walls had been soundproofed and power had been discreetly wired into the building. It wasn't pretty, but it served her purposes well.
She entered the holding room. Five nude women were sitting in cages. Their latest catch sat closest to the door. While the others cried or begged, she just glared at them. A gold collar was fitted around her neck, as opposed to the steel collars around the necks of the others. According to her college ID, her name was Faye Lang. She didn't have any family in town and had been staying at the dorms.
Branka looked at Doug. "What is with the new collar?"
Doug was one of the guards. He was also the man Faye kicked in the crotch. "She was already wearing it. Somehow she hid it under her choker. I haven't figured out how to get it off. There isn't even a key hole."
Branka walked up to Faye and inspected the collar. It was a gold band, no hinge or seam, with a D-ring in front. It seemed to fit perfectly around her neck. She removed the ball gag. "How do you remove that collar? How did you even get it on in the first place?"
"Only my Mistress can remove it. Tell you what, I'll make you a deal. I have a lecture coming up I need to attend. So if you let me go now, I will ask Mistress for clemency on your behalf."
"Well don't you have a sense of humor." Branka chuckled.
"It's the best deal you're going to get. I suggest you take it... while you still can."
"I think I will take my chances. By the time she notices you're gone, I'm sure you will be hundreds of miles away."
"I assume you have already taken me well outside of the city."
Branka hesitated for a moment.
"I'll take that as a yes. Then she already knows I'm missing. It won't take long for her to track me down... and you." Faye's voice had a rather ominous tone to it.
"And just what is she going to do about it?" Branka put her hands on her hips and leaned forward.
"Depends what she is in the mood for. She might chop you up into pieces, mount you on her wall... or her bed, ride you like a pony, or maybe shove you into this cage, as well as any number of horrible things."
"Well I'll worry about it when I come to that." Branka turned and walked away.
****
It was a few days later. Branka sat behind her desk watching her computer monitor. The dark web auction was going. They had cleaned up the girls, given them haircuts, and prettied them up with makeup. Each of them were chained to steel frames and displayed on webcams.
She watched the bidding rise on the ginger. She struggled in her bindings as could only watch her monitor as the faceless fat cats bid on her fate, her price jumping every few moments. It ended with $3,000,000.
Next up was Faye. Branka would be happy to see her go, although it would be a few days before she could arrange shipping, to wherever that would be. The woman had been nothing but trouble. Sure, she was calm and didn't try to escape, but she was rather creepy. When ever they removed her gag, she would sprout some cryptic threat. It was spooking her men.
It started off at $100,000, but soon took off. $200K... 300... 400, Branka Wilburg...
"The fuck!?" Branka blinked. The current bit was displaying her name. She tried resetting it, but nothing was working. "What the hell is going on!?" She grabbed her com. "Jackson, come in! Something is very wrong with the auction… Jackson… Jackson, come in!" She sighed. "Has anyone seen Jackson?"
There was no response. After a few moments Branka got up and walked out of her office. "And now the coms aren't working… Dammit!" The light in the hallway flickered. "Piece of junk."
As she moved down the hallway, she saw a shadow move in the corner of her eye. However, when she turned to look at it, nothing was there. "Jackson?" She paused. She turned around again when she thought she saw something else move, but again nothing. "Do we have rats again?"
She entered the bidding room. The slaves were all still lined up with the web cam pointing at Faye. However, there no sign of Jackson. "Where are you?" She looked around.
Faye giggled. She looked at the monitor displaying Branka's name.
"Oh, you think this is so funny." Branka glared. She pulled out her cell phone and pulled up Jackson's number.
"The number you have dialed is not in service."
"What?" Branka tried it again.
"The number you have dialed is not in service."
Branka tried manually entering the number.
"The number you have dialed is not in service."
Branka kept trying. "Work, dammit!"
"What part of 'not in service' did you not understand?"
"What the!?" Branka tried other numbers, the rest of her men, even outside numbers, but she didn't get anywhere with them. She then looked at Faye. "You did this! I'm not sure how, but you did this!" She grabbed the woman, who could only giggle behind her gag. "Come with me!" She unlocked Faye's binging, but only so she could cuff her hands behind her back. "We are going to get my men and they are going to have a word with you."
Faye still wasn't putting up a fight as she followed Branka. She led her into the hallway, leaving the other girls chained up for now. "Where the hell is Jackson?" She turned when she thought she heard something move behind them, but again, there was nothing.
Soon, they found Doug and Ken standing guard by a door. "There you two are. Something screwy is going on with the coms and phones. The auction is down too, I think." She moved closer. "Say something!"
She grabbed Doug's arm. When he didn't react, she shook him. He fell over, his head popping off and rolling across the floor.
"Ahhhh!" Branka let go of both of them as she jumped back. She then looked closer at the severed head when she noticed the lack of blood. It was a mannequin head, and a very detailed one, at that. It looked just like Doug. With the buggy lights, she didn't notice at first. "Why would someone make such a thing?" She looked at Ken. He was a mannequin as well.
The lights blinked again. Branka thought she caught a glimpse of a dark figure in the corner of her eye. However, with another blink, it was gone.
Branka turned to Faye. She yanked out her gag. "What the hell is going on!?"
"You should have let me go when I asked. I could have made a plea for clemency. Now it's too late. My Mistress has come. If not her, then someone quite capable. Someone with certain skills... skills that make her a nightmare for people who get on her bad side.
"Who did she send? Liam Neeson?"
"I don't know who that is." A single ceiling light went out behind Faye, shrouding her face in shadows.
Branka felt a hand rest on her shoulder. But when she turned to look no one was there. "What the?"
"Eep!" As Branka turned back she saw Faye being dragged away by a giant, shadowy arm. It pulled her into a supply closet, the door closing after them.
"You're not getting away that easily!" Branka rushed to the door and flung it open. However, the closet was empty. They never used it, so there was nothing but cobwebs on the shelves. Neither Faye nor whatever pulled her away was in the small room. There wasn't even any place to hide. "Dammit!"
Branka's eyes widened as she heard the sound of metal dragging against concrete. She turned to look at a woman slowly walking towards her. She had green skin and tusks. She wore leather armor, decorated by skulls and spikes. In her hand was a green sword, its tip dragging across the floor. The blade, a broad piece of metal with notable thickness and a sharp tip jutting from the side of the cleaver-like end, was stained with blood.
Branka let out a scream before muffling herself. She stepped back, but that only prompted the green woman to move closer. "Who are you?"
The green woman grunted and spoke something Branka didn't understand. She couldn't even tell what language that was.
Branka turned and ran. The supply closet would be nothing but a death trap. So she fled down the hallway, only for the green woman to chase after her. She ran into one of the other rooms. It used to be the main storage area back when this was a warehouse. She quickly grabbed an empty crate and shoved it in front of the door. Finally, she caught her breath.
"That had to be makeup, right? She looked like something out of Lord of the Rings." Branka was trying to calm herself. "Even so, that sword could be real. Without a gun..." Her heart skipped a beat as she saw a pair of glowing eyes and jagged mouth in front of her. She hadn't noticed it before. However, after a moment, she realized it was just a Jack-O-Lantern.
"Dammit, I told Ken not to put out any decorations." She flipped on a light switch. They didn't normally use this area, so a number of the ceiling lights had burned out and they hadn't bothered to replace them. As such, it was still rather dark in there.
The lit Jack-O-Lantern was held by a mannequin; it had to be, it didn't have a head. It did have some strange, pitch black armor. It wasn't reflecting what little light there was coming from between the empty shelves, but she could clearly see the outline against the dark room. In its other hand was a large scythe.
"Could I use that as a weapon?" Branka looked at the blade. It had a blue tint to it. "It's probably fake, but maybe I could scare off that woman with it." With the door banging behind her, she walked closer to the still figure.
However, it didn't stay still. It stepped forward and swung its scythe, barely missing Branka. "Ahhh! What the hell!?" She fell on her butt. Quickly, she scrambled to her feet and fled. She was blocked off by her own makeshift barricade. So she had to run to another aisle of shelves, evading another swing of the scythe as it cut through one of them.
The door burst open and the green woman shoved the crate out of the way. She quickly spotted Branka and chased after her. She shouted something as she gave chase.
An orange ball flew past her, exploding as it hit the shelf. Branka turned to see the headless figure holding out her empty hand, a flame appearing above her open palm a new Jack-O-Lantern soon appearing atop it.
"Crap!" Branka rushed forward, stumbling and avoiding another throw by chance. Soon, she made it out of the aisle, the green woman hot on her tail. She soon found the door, the exit sign above it long since burned out and dark. She grabbed the handle and yanked it open before colliding with a brick wall behind it. "Ahhh!" She fell on her butt.
The green woman closed the gap. Branka rolled out of the way when she swung her sword. However, her follow-up swing sliced through her right arm. It fell to the ground and she yelped.
Branka pushed herself up with her left hand and ran for the corner. She didn't know why she couldn't feel the pain, the shock maybe. Whatever the reason, she didn't have time to think about it.
When she turned to the right, she gripped her stump. She had expected to find blood, but there was none. She looked at it. Instead of a wound, she found a new layer of skin across the cut as if it had always been there. "What the!?"
Branka jumped back when another pumpkin exploded at her feet. The headless woman dropped down from above, likely crossing over the shelves. She swung her scythe and Branka raised her left hand in defense. It sliced through her forearm at a weird angle. This time she didn't even feel anything when it hit the ground. She glanced down and saw a plastic hand on the floor.
She stumbled back. "What the hell is going on here?" She glanced at her arm. Instead of skin, her wound was sealed off by a layer of plastic. Not only that, but about a half-inch of her arm was plastic. Her skin slowly fusing and becoming uniformed. She thought back to the mannequins she saw before. "Doug, Ken..."
She lingered for too long. With a swing of a sword her head came clean off. Time seemed to slow as she watched the floor get closer. It didn't hurt as much as she thought it would, but she still cried out.
In a panic, Branka ran without thinking. From the floor, she watched her body running off on its own, despite missing a head. However, it wasn't long before it crashed into the shelves. "Ahhh!" It fell to the ground, but didn't stop moving. She tried to get back up, pushing herself up with the longer stump.
Branka noticed she could still feel her right arm when she clenched her fist. She relaxed it and tested her movement. She found she still had full control, but couldn't get it off the floor. Her left hand on the other arm was numb.
Branka's body, on the other hand, could still get up and run, but kept crashing into things. She would cry out each time she collided with something she was unable to see.
A pair of armored legs moved into her view. The headless woman picked Branka's head off the pile of lost hair it was laying in.
"What are you doing?" She soon realized the foolishness of asking a question to something that lacked a head. Her struggles soon ended as she felt herself fall again. This time, she was unable stand back up. From the way her body was flailing about on the floor, she could only assume her legs had been cut off. After a while, she relented and relaxed her muscles. Even so, her heart was racing.
The green woman sheathed her sword and spoke in that strange language. She picked up Branka's torso, which she could still feel.
"Hey, watch where you're grabbing!" Branka wiggled as the woman handled her body, causing her to tighten her grip.
A familiar voice spoke in the strange language next. It took Branka a moment to recognize it as Faye's voice. She was still alive. Soon, she came into sight wearing a black dress with green trim, the gold collar still around her neck. After a while she noticed the long, pointy ears.
Next to her was a woman who looked like she escaped from a fetish magazine. She was dressed head to toe in red latex with a mostly black corset, golden trim abound. Her face was hidden by a red gas mask and hood. She had three black straps on each bicep, along with a gold one for some reason. The five of them spoke in the same strange language.
"Five?" Branka hadn't noticed the woman in the french maid uniform before. She wore the same gold collar Faye and the green woman wore. "When did she get here?" She saw her holding a severed head, which was also talking. "What the hell is going on here!?"
Faye smiled. "You should have taken the deal I offered. You might have been able to avoid this and gotten a slap on the wrist. Now my Mistress has sent for me."
"Okay, fine, you can go on your way. You've had your fun. Now just put me back together." Branka begged, thinly hiding her contempt.
Faye chuckled. "Oh, it's much too late for that now. You've made my Mistress intervene. Now your nightmare has just begun."
"So she sent these oversized trick-or-treaters to harass me? And what's with those fake ears, Faye? They don't look scary at all."
"That's not my name, and this is what I really look like. I went through the minimum amount of changes so I could pass for human and learned your tongue. Now because of you, I'm behind on my studies and will have to catch up." Faye, or what ever her name was, held out her arms and Branka screamed as her head was tossed over. Faye caught her and held her up. "My Mistress sent me here to learn your trades and likely isn't happy about that delay. She has quite the menagerie of what you would call monsters – some of which I would call monsters as well – that she can send after you. And this is the night they can blend in rather well. Not that you could take even a small team of humans she could dispatch." She giggled.
The woman in red spoke next. The others started moving. Faye responded to it as well.
"Sorry, but we have to wrap this up. We have a lot of work ahead of us. You have quite the operation here, and we can't have it being traced back to me in any way. The two of us won't be seeing each other again after this. At least, not for a couple of years, anyway. Don't worry, I'm sure you will be reassembled back at the tower. Say hello to Mistress for me." Faye giggled.
"Wait, what's going on?" Branka blushed as she felt her shirt being pulled off.
The woman in red spoke next. "Easy to strip flesh than plaster."
"Plastic," corrected Faye. She then looked down at Branka. "Oh, I will have to offer the rest of your inventory the chance to join my Mistress. I think I will offer a shot at your ass to sweeten the deal. If not, then we wipe their minds and dump them naked somewhere."
The green woman stripped Branka's torso bare and laid her on the ground. She flaied about as the headless woman moved into place. She swung her scythe down, striking her heart. There was no wound, no blood, but her skin started to change. It became uniformed and developed a shine, spreading out from where the scythe was planted and across her chest. She let out a moan as it crossed her nipples, causing them to sink into her breasts and turn them into more perfect orbs.
It didn't stop with her chest or even her torso. She could feel it go up her neck. Even though her head was no longer attached to her body, it locked her jaw into place. Soon, her mind started to fade. As it did, she could only think of what fate awaited her. She feared she was dying, but Faye's words suggested they had something else in mind for her.
The End