"Wake up, kid."
Groggy, I slowly open my eyes in the early morning light to find I'm lying on my side on the floor. My ribs hurt but my shoulders feel numb from being strained backwards for so long. I moan in pain and squeeze my eyes shut before the smell of bacon and eggs wafts around me and makes my stomach grumble. Food… I need food. And water. I'm so thirsty…
My gaze wanders to Ben's legs, then traces up his naked torso to his smiling face and across his arm to a steaming plate of food. My mouth waters and I swallow hard.
He cocks his head. "Hungry?"
"…Yes," I reply curtly.
"Well I might be inclined to share if you ask nicely."
We stare at each other. Ben raises his eyebrows, willing me to speak, and I clench my jaw. Suck it up, Rey. You need to get back to Leia.
I clear my throat. "May I please have some food?"
Ben's smirk widens and he steps closer. His long fingers brush my hair back, sweeping it from one shoulder to the other, and he lowers the plate in front of his crotch. I try to wrestle down my pride and manage to get on my knees to arch my neck towards the food, stomach growling. He runs his fingertips down my cheek and across my shoulder while I awkwardly take bites as fast as I can.
Halfway through, Ben tilts the plate so the rest of the food spills on the floor. I stare at it for a moment and when I look up at him he gasps like he's surprised.
"Oopsie," he sighs. "Such a klutz."
I'm too hungry to ignore it and I know he won't give me more. Trembling with anger, I shuffle on my knees to bend over and eat the food off the floor while Ben looms over me. It tastes gross, but I'm used to food that isn't exactly a delight to the senses.
Ben circles behind me to unlock my handcuffs when I'm done. When I try to stand up he pushes me back down on my hands and knees. I stay that way for a full minute before he speaks again.
"Crawl to the bathroom," he drawls.
I have to grind my teeth to keep from screaming at him. He walks close behind the entire way and starts the shower after I crawl across the linoleum floor. I wait, agitated, until Ben murmurs 'up' and I can get to my feet. He peels his shirt off me while I'm facing away from him and wraps an arm around my waist to yank me against his chest. His lips drift across my neck, wet and hungry, and he runs a hand over my stomach while the other curls around my throat.
He doesn't say anything. I figure he's waiting for me to break and resist again, but I'm not a complete moron. I let him do what he wants until he gets bored and shoves me into the shower.
After I wash myself I use the toilet and brush my teeth. Ben dresses me in one of his shirts again but a pair of his black shorts, too, which come down past my shins. He pulls on a shirt and changes into jeans, then hangs his tranq gun over his hip. I frown as he handcuffs my wrists in front of me and attaches a long chain that he wraps around his forearm.
"Is this really necessary?" I grumble.
"Yeah, unless you want someone to grab you."
Ben drags me off the RV into bright sunshine and the loud clamor of people buying and selling at a marketplace. He locks the door and I blink in surprise at the mess of tents before me. People are dressed in all kinds of different clothes, mostly jeans or thick cargo pants, and they're all wandering around a dusty desert with a stark blue sky overhead. It's busy. Really—
A hand seizes my elbow and I shriek in surprise. There's a huge blonde guy standing right up next to me and he leans over to smell my hair, splitting his cracked lips in a toothy grin.
Ben punches him in the face before I can get a word out and the stranger collapses in the dirt. The other men milling around burst into laughter as blood pours from the guy's nose and stains the sand. Ben spits on him and kicks dirt in his face before taking my elbow and leading me through the throng.
The heat is oppressive, but I think I dislike the stares of the men even more. They turn in interest to ogle me like a piece of meat and Ben actually bares his teeth like a dog at a few of them. This isn't the world I left a few years ago. It's hungrier; more dangerous. There's a vague sense of tension in the air and I feel like an antelope that stumbled into the den of a pride of starving lions.
Ben stops to buy food and drags me in front of him, shielding me with his body from the interested men. I smile slightly at the shopkeeper, an elderly man with a hunched back, and he smiles, too. Ben exchanges money that I've never seen before—white and red—and pushes a bag of groceries into my chest that I narrowly catch with my elbows. He moseys down a few stands to one with alcohol and cigarettes and I roll my eyes.
"You can't smoke," I snip. "I have asthma."
He laughs and adds the bag to my arms. "Then I won't smoke around you."
We start to walk away and now Ben's hands are on my hips. He's kneading his fingers, but I think it's because he's just as nervous as I am. The men part slowly, staring at us. They all look dirty and miserable and hungry. I feel so uncomfortable. The world is not the same way I left it.
"Hey, Solo."
Ben stops and stiffens. He turns around with me still safely wrapped in his arms to see a slightly short man with wavy black hair and wide, expressive dark eyes watching us from a few feet off. He has a sharp jaw and a scruffy beard, and he's dressed in a brown vest with jeans. To my utter shock, a woman is flanking him who has two buns on top of her head. She blows a bubble and eyes me.
"Poe." Ben's heart pounds on my back. "What do you want?"
Poe puckers his lips and saunters closer, also packing a tranq gun on his hip. The woman he's with has a bright red collar around her neck and she's wearing a white tank top with baggy green cargo pants. She has a regular holster and a dagger.
Poe stops a foot in front of me and smiles wryly. "This one's cute. Are you selling her?"
"No," Ben says coldly.
The woman snaps her gum, circling Ben and me. "You always sell them, Ben."
I bristle when Poe reaches out to touch me and snap at his fingertips. He draws back and scowls, but it makes all the other men, including Ben, laugh. Ben kisses the side of my head and I glower at Poe.
"Connix," Poe says without taking his eyes off me, "would you mind checking Solo's little pet for me? I think she may be more interesting than he's letting on."
Ben has his tranq gun pressed to Poe's forehead before anyone can blink. But in the next second, everyone around us takes out their various weapons and points them directly at Ben. His arm trembles next to my head like he's furious and he spins the weapon back into its holster. He grinds his teeth in my ear and holds my hips firmly.
I look around, confused, then squeak when I find Connix standing directly in front of me. She smiles cruelly and abruptly slips her hand down the front of my pants.
The men whistle and jeer and Ben's fingers dig into my skin. I just stare at her in rude shock while she stares back and slips her fingertips through my curls, delicately along the inside of my slit, and taps once near my entrance. My skin sticks to her like it did Ben and her smile gets even more eerie. As she pulls her hand back out, she pauses for a brief second to swirl her fingertip around the top of my vagina and I shiver with unexpected pleasure.
Connix sucks her fingertip, smirking as she turns to face Poe. "Virgin."
Somehow, everything turns more sinister. Poe raises his eyebrows and nods. The group around us murmurs and I can see men touching their swords and guns.
"That's a lot of money," Poe says. "Couple million, maybe. But it's always nice to fuck a virgin."
A hand touches my calf and I look down to find a scrawny old man trying to stick his hand up my pantleg. I scream and whirl around into Ben's chest, terrified, and he holds me with one arm and brandishes his tranq gun with the other. I can feel their eyes… I can hear their horrible thoughts…
"I'll pay you a thousand for a handjob," one offers.
"Two thousand!" shouts another.
Oh god. I want to puke. What is this sick fucking place? Is this real?
Ben scoops me up with one arm and I hear the electrodes snap out of his gun, buzzing into someone I can't see. They hiss back and snap again to another man.
"Keys, kid," he snaps. "Now."
I scramble for the keys in his pocket and get them out just as he backs into the RV door. Panicked, it takes me two tries to get the lock open and Ben's tranq gun spits the electrodes out once more, roping them back just as the door to the RV slams shut.
Ben drops me on the couch in the living room and rushes back to the driver's seat. I roll over, spilling groceries everywhere, and hurriedly pick them up as he peels out of the area. The men chase us like crazed beasts, waving their arms and shouting at Ben to stop, and my eyes well up with tears. What is this hellish place? Is this the life I have to look forward to now?
"Hello there."
My head snaps up to see a young man with blonde hair looming over me. He descends as I start screaming for Ben and thrash and kick my legs. The stranger moves quickly, pinning me to the couch and frantically yanking on my pants until Ben crosses the RV in three strides. He drags the guy to the driving area and punches the hell out of him until blood is spraying on the floor.
I scramble up with my pants down to my thighs and start crying. Ben kicks the man down the stairs and returns to me with bloody hands, panting. All our stuff is lying on the floor.
He snatches the chain and jerks me upright by my wrists to drag me over to him. I'm hysterically sobbing as Ben leans over and kisses me hard, slipping his tongue in my mouth and smearing blood on my face. He crawls on top of me on the beige couch and stains it with his bloody handprints.
"I want to go home!" I beg. "This is a nightmare!"
Ben nods, throat bobbing. "I know, Rey—but this is your home now."
He takes advantage of my inability to move and my pants being down to my thighs and drives a knee between my legs to force them apart. Ben kneels above me to unbuckle his holster, casting it aside, and unbuckles his belt to get his jeans open. He keeps his briefs on as he leans against me, hard and hot and hungry like the others. I can't move—I can only cry and wait for it to be over.
I'm his property, something coveted, and that gives him pleasure.