Chapter Text
No. No, no. No. Shaking, you unbuckle your seat belt. You hurt all over, instantly. Your mind is jumbled. Suddenly you remember your cargo- you throw a look into the backseat. The small boxes are all thrown around but nothing’s broken open. You’ll have to check more thoroughly once you’re home. At least you’re close to home. You’ll be able to walk. You rub your shoulder and try the door. It’s smashed shut. You weakly climb over the seat to get out of the passenger door. The glance at your car tells you it looks worse than you feel, but that’s not your biggest concern right now. You run over to the SUV that just T-boned you.
“Hey! You alright?” Their car doesn’t look too bad. The driver blearily stumbles out and you step back at the overwhelming smell of booze coming off the young man. He staggers back to look at his car.
“My car!” he shouts. “You fucking…oh fuck.” Apparently even piss drunk he can tell the accident is his fault. He stares at you with wide eyes, and for a moment, neither of you know what to say. You catch movement inside the car- he has a passenger. You run over to the other side and pull their door open, expecting another drunk college kid, but it isn’t. It’s a little monster punching the air bag away from its face.
“Hey, are you okay?” You ask it, lowly.
It- he- looks bewildered then seems to shake himself out of it. He’s a skeleton monster, with red eye lights. He shrugs, then touches his gold fang with his fingers- checking to see if it’s loose, you realize.
“RED!” the driver yells. “Oh fuck. You gotta help me. Magic this shit away!” The monster, Red, is climbing out of the car, a look of annoyance passes over his features, so quickly you might have imagined it. The driver keeps babbling as you walk back towards him with the monster. Neither of them seem to be injured, you note. “…I mean it Red, I can’t get another DUI- fuck!”
“I can’t fix this,” the monster says.
“I can’t go to jail! You-“ the young man suddenly turns to you as if really seeing you for the first time. “You don’t have to call the cops.” He looks back toward his car as if he wants to drive off. You almost flinch at the mention of cops. Still, you casually pull out your phone and start recording him. “Oh, come on!” he slurs. You get a shot of the damage to his car, being sure to get his license plate. You’re thinking as quickly as you can- they probably won’t look in your car, but you don’t want to risk it.
“Maybe we can come to an agreement,” You say, surprised at yourself.
“I- I can pay you,” the young man says. He fumbles in his pockets, pulls out his wallet and starts digging out all the bills. You snort, feeling pang of bitterness: a few hundred dollars isn’t going to replace your car. You glance at the monster, who looks like he’d like to be anywhere else. Your mind races. It’s a stupid idea. You find yourself speaking anyway.
“Throw in the monster and I’ll look the other way.”
The young man gapes at you. The monster seems to look right through you, eye lights gone and sockets black as coal. The young man recovers. “Fuck, really?” He seems to debate with himself for a few moments, then nods. “Take him, he’s yours! Just no cops, okay?”
“Deal.” You hold up your phone. You already have the slaver’s app downloaded. It takes the driver a few fumbling tries, but he sends you the monsters paperwork through the app as well as his electronic signature transferring ownership. Like trading a Pokémon. Your heart’s racing. It’s the same rush you get on a winning streak. You watch the driver climb back into his car and you’re momentarily disgusted with him for planning to drive again- and yourself for letting him. Not your problem, you tell yourself. You turn away quickly and head back to your car. The monster- Red- follows you without needing to be told.
Back at your car, you quickly dig through the back seat, gathering up all the parcels and shoving them into your school bag alongside your books. It’s a tight fit, but luckily this shipment’s small. You glance at the monster, Red, you remind yourself, and in a moment of paranoia wonder if you need to order him to ignore you or to keep quiet- but he’s not watching you at all. He’s turned completely away, staring off into the night where his last owner just drove off. You quickly snap a few photos of the damage to your car for the insurance claim. Feeling a little guilty, you hand Red your gym bag with your work uniform in it. “Carry this for me, would you?” You feel your sins stir a little, but it’s not the first time you’ve given an order to a monster. You shove any crawly feelings down. It may be dark, but you can’t risk looking conspicuous: you carrying everything like a pack mule with your slave empty-handed. Your slave. Your exhilaration is threatening to twist into anxiety. It makes you kind of an asshole.
“So, Red, is it?” you smile brightly. “Is that your real name?” Red shrugs and stuffs his hands in the pockets of his black jacket. He’s wearing what looks like a dog collar over the thin metal of his slave collar. “Did that guy put this on you? Never mind,” you say quickly, “We’ll get it off when we get home.”
“The collar’s mine,” he blurts. “Prefer to keep it, if it’s all the same to you.” He looks at the ground while he says it.
“Uh, sure,” you say, caught off guard. “Well, come, on. Home’s not far from here.” The walk is silent. It would be awkward if you paid attention to it, but your thoughts are loud. Why did I do this? I need to call a tow truck before it gets any later. Should I have tried to drive it anyway? No the axel looked fucked, there’s no way. I own a slave. I wonder if I’ll get anything from the insurance? Probably not a lot. Fuck, shoulder hurts, feels like I just got in a car accident. What was I thinking, anyway? What was that towing company? How am I going to get to school tomorrow? What if the stuff is damaged? On and on your mind races. You sigh loudly. It seems to startle Red and he glances at you before flicking his eye lights away. You decide to be friendly with him, as friendly as you can be. “Hey,” You introduce yourself without looking at him or slowing your pace. “There’s a few ground rules we should go over before we reach my place.” You try to think of anything besides the obvious things and come up short. “Don’t touch either of my school bags, if you need me and I’m in my room, be sure to knock.” Red only grunts. You wonder how many previous owners he’s had. You almost ask but think better of it. You can always check the app if you’re curious.
You reach the apartment complex and start climbing the stairs. Once you’re inside your apartment all you feel is relief. You hold out your hand for the gym bag. Red hands it to you, looking around your humble flat. “Make yourself at home. There’s spaghetti in the fridge.” He seems to perk up a little at the mention of food. “You can eat whatever you want,” you add. “Or whenever you want. Just clean up after.” You feel a little disgusted with yourself, how easily you order him around already. You head straight to your bedroom and shut the door, setting your bags down. Normally you don’t open most of the parcels you’re given, but you need to know if anything’s damaged. You quickly look over the five packages. One is several packs of eye drops all taped together. Nothing is leaking. The other two look like trashy romance novels that have been annotated to shit. You carefully wrap them back up. There’s an unmarked bottle of pills in the fourth one along with a fancy set of lockpicks. Not your business, you smirk. You hesitate on the last package. You already know what’s in it, and if it were compromised, you could tell by looking. The only reason to open it is if you’re planning to do the drop tonight. You’ll have to call your insurance and a tow before you head out, but… Maybe just the one you think. You open the last parcel and pull out a single deck of playing cards.