Her uniform was in tatters, stained with all manner of fluids, some her own, but most not, and torn in more than a few spots; it barely covered her most intimate areas now. Unfortunately, it was all she had to cover herself with. The only way she could try to find some warmth in the dank barn that had more become her home; her Hell. She looked like she’d been hit by a semi and drug beneath it for several miles, but the truth wasn’t nearly as kind or simple.
Two weeks prior the young dragon had been leaving her place of employment, a small diner connected to a truck stop, when she’d been taken. The men that had abducted her claimed to be hunters, but when had hunters become so cruel? Initially, she’d fought back, injuring two of the four men, but that’d been before they’d begun to starve her in an effort to weaken her. Thin by nature, Melody was now more so and only showed signs of getting worse. Before long she’d slip into a coma, if the starvation didn’t kill her. Could she be killed that way?
Huddled in her cage, Melody had stopped hoping to escape alive; now she prayed for death. Originally, that had been the hunter’s intent, killing her, but they hadn’t realized what she was. They still didn’t know, the idiots, but when conventional methods failed they got creative. Guns and blades had little effect, her skin shielding her from the worst of the damage. Their solution? Drag her behind their truck by the neck for several miles.
That had certainly left a mark, but still didn’t have the desired effect. Every day they’d tried something new in an effort to kill the monster in their possession and every day they failed. Melody had thought it funny, despite the pain, but her humor died when the hunter’s intentions changed. Maybe it was frustration that lead to their course of actions or perhaps it had been the alcohol, but a week into her captivity the hunter’s had turned to raping her.
“If we can’t kill her, then we’ll break her,” one had promised. Melody had dared them to try. Now, she wished she’d kept her mouth shut. That first night she’d fought back with such fervor that she nearly escaped, but after she was subdued, they removed her last line of defense; her teeth. Sure, they’d grow back in time, but Melody doubted she’d survive long enough for that to happen. God, she hoped not.
Hovering on the edge of unconsciousness, Melody jerked awake as the familiar sound of the hunter’s truck approached. Am involuntary whimper escaped her as she pressed herself to the back of her cage, body shaking lightly. They were back early. Why? Her stomach rolled and a small wisp of smoke curled up from her nostrils as she watched the barn door, terrified of what was to come next.
“Smurfette we’re home!” sang the ring leader, his mates laughing as they all wandered in, bags in hand. They’d brought more than beer with them. Maybe they were going to feed her today? Shivering, she curled in upon herself, waiting for one of them to yank her out of her cage by the hair. She didn’t have to wait long and whimpered at the cruel treatment, her body protesting any form of movement.
In her terror, she almost missed the sound of a second engine, the unfamiliar rumble drowned out by the blaring music they always played. Just before it died, she heard it. Had they been followed? Her trembling intensified as a vehicle door whined in protest, her eyes darting about her captors as one roughly removed what remained of her attire. They either hadn’t heard the other vehicle or were expecting the unknown party. Feeling ill, despite her stomach being painfully empty, she didn’t fight back as she was drug toward a pile of hay.
