“Well, for starters we can make her decent.”
Gonadal reached for the front of her shirt again. Before Selena could get away, he had grabbed it in both hands and ripped it right down the front, baring her breasts.
“There. Decent,” he said, nodding with interest at her as Selena scrambled to cover herself.
“You bastards!” She backed away from them both, her voice thick with anger and tears. She knew she was probably making things worse for herself, antagonizing the guards, but damn it, they were stealing her life from her! She was being railroaded into an alien prison for a crime she hadn’t committed! She couldn’t just stand there and do and say nothing when she was being framed like this—could she?
“Prisoner, no covering yourself!” a new voice said in her ear.
“Wh-what?” Selena blinked away the tears of rage that had gathered in her eyes and saw one of the Court guards, dressed in black and white, at her elbow.
“Dependent Females shall not cover their breasts—they must be on display for all to see,” the guard snapped.
“Oh…” Selena swiped at her eyes. Never had the Ma’shorkan law that women had to go topless made her feel more miserable. She had managed well enough when Valen was acting as her Master, because she felt safe with the big Kindred. But now, thrust into the Ma’shorkan prison system where abuse was commonplace and with no one to protect her, she felt intensely vulnerable and alone. Still, she had no choice but to let the ragged edges of her ruined t-shirt fall to her sides as she stopped trying to cover her breasts.
“This prisoner is for the holding cell?” The guard asked, looking at Gonadal and Yorbus.
“She is—but only for a day and a night. This time tomorrow, she’ll be for Hammerdown Prison,” Yorbus said.
“She’ll try to get you to contact her personal Defender, but don’t let her,” Gonaldal added. “Fucking little bimbap stole from Empress the Third herself—she must be punished—her Highness demands it.”
“Understood.” The Court guard nodded curtly. “I’ll spread the word.”
“Good man!” Yorbus clapped him on the shoulder. He pointed at Selena. “Have fun in Hammerdown, bimbap. If you want to know the secret to making it in there, it’s to find the biggest male inmate and fuck him right away. If you’re lucky, he’ll like the feel of your pussy wrapped around his cock enough to protect you from the other males.”
“If he doesn’t though, be prepared to do lots more fucking,” Gonadal added. “Because you’re going to get passed around a lot. Foreign bimbaps usually do.”
Both of them roared with laughter and Selena felt her stomach turn over in horror. Were they telling the truth? Was she really going to a prison where she was going to be assaulted every day and night? Valen’s words about the Ma’shorkan prison system suddenly came back to her.
“Rape and murder are commonplace there,” he’d said, when he was explaining why he had to punish her in front of the Emperor, rather than allowing her to go to the High Court to be tried.
Which is exactly where I ended up after all. Oh God, what’s going to happen to me? Selena thought, filled with horror and despair.
“Come on, you.” The Court guard took her by the arm and dragged her down the hallway. “It’s into the holding cell—but only until tomorrow. Don’t worry,” he added, as he fit a key into the lock of a heavy metal door. “You’ll have plenty of company. Our last transport to the prison already went out today but the Courts have been busy—so there’s plenty of other criminals you can make friends with.”
As he spoke, he pushed open the heavy door, revealing a large room that was divided into two cells. The cells were made of floor-to ceiling Plexiglas—or something that looked like Plexiglas anyway, Selena thought. At any rate, it was clear and had air holes about the size of a large coin poked through it at regular intervals. Of course, “clear” was a relative term. In some areas, the surface of the cell walls had been smeared with all kinds of unmentionable substances—though at least most of them dried to red and brown stains.
One of the large cells was filled with male prisoners and the other had female inmates. The moment Selena walked through the door—or rather, was pushed through by the guard—the male inmates started shouting and catcalling, while the females simply stared at her with sullen hopelessness. Selena looked, but didn’t see the female shopkeeper who had been one of the defendants before her—apparently the hapless woman had already been carted off to prison.
“Come on.” The Court guard tugged her forward by the arm when Selena shrank away from the awful sight of the dirty, crowded cells.
Pulling a long metal baton from his belt, he flipped a switch, causing the end of it to crackle with electricity. He waved the baton menacingly at the female prisoners.