Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nita was a killer now, she had killed Reyes. You killed a human, Nita. You, who were so proud of what little crumbs of morals you had left. 

Kovit had stopped shivering. He stood over Reyes’ bashed in skull. Blood, hair, and bits of skull speckled the cement. 

Here is what’s left of my so-called-morals. Pieces of Reyes’ skull.

No, I didn’t kill anyone. Kovit did, he smashed in her skull. I just shot her in the shoulder.

Oh, just shoot her did you? Stop shifting the blame on him. He’s a monster but your hands aren’t clean either. You both killed another human being.

Not that Reyes was much of a human. She was more of a monster than anything. Barely even human really. What kind of human kidnaps teenage girls, sells their body parts then kills them? 

Nita still had her gun raised in Kovit’s direction. He stood still, watching her. Searching for something. For what? Nita wasn’t sure. Was he looking for an opening to grab her gun? Or was he just trying to see if Nita was going to shoot him too? 

Probably the latter.

She tried to make a smile. A ‘don’t worry, I’m not going to shoot you’ sort of smile. It felt crooked and uncanny on her face. 

Kovit didn't smile back. He just made a ‘is that how I look when I smile? Fuck that’s creepy’ face. He looked over Reyes’ dead body. “Why?” he asked.

Why didn’t I let Reyes’ blow your brains out? Or why am I not currently blowing your brains out?

“I owed you, for not cutting off my fingers when Reyes ordered you to. For telling me where the gun was.”

Kovit smiled. It’s so obvious that you’re bullshitting him. “And?”

“And I need help to get the hell out of here. It doesn’t seem like you’re enjoying jungle purgatory all that much, so I thought you’d be interested.”

Kovit kicked Reyes’ corpse in the leg. He gave it a long look in the face with his eyebrows scrunched. Is he going to do something to the body? Enact some sort of revenge? Maybe he’ll smash in the skull some more. Reyes did keep him as a slave.

Finally he looked up and met Nita’s eyes. “Yes, I’m interested.”

Nita held out her hand. “Partners?”

His face twisted into a genuine, almost sweet smile and clasped her hand. “Partners.”

Chapter Text

Kovit was quick to dig into Reyes’ pockets. He pulled out some keys, a small pistol, and a cell phone. But no wallet or money.

“She doesn’t carry cash?” Nita asked.

He shook his head. “Doesn’t look like it. I doubt she really ever needed to, people around here are terrified of her.”

Nita eyed the body. She studied the head, torso, legs, and arms. She thought about the brain, lungs, heart, ribs, and muscles hidden underneath the skin. Here is all that was left of Reyes. Just another body.

“Why? I mean Reyes was a scary woman but there’s plenty of scary people over here. It’s a body parts market, I doubt there is a dealer here who isn’t scary.”

“I don’t know all the details, but apparently Reyes deposed her predecessor. He was some black market bigshot. I’m sure you’ve heard of him, the King of Parts.”

“I’ve heard of him. He’s the one who killed his enemies and sold their parts piece by piece back to their families for burial, right?”

Kovit cracked a small smile. “That’s the one. I heard Reyes used to be his right-hand woman but she gunned him down in his own office. Then she took over his business, and sent pieces of him to all the other bigshot players in town.”

Nita chuckled, but then she stopped herself. I can’t believe I find Reyes’ exploits funny in any capacity. 

“It’s okay to laugh, it’s ironic how the King of Parts ended up. Into parts himself.”

“So she became the Queen of Parts then? And her name is ‘Reyes’ which means ‘kings’ . There’s no way that was her real name.”

Kovit looked amused. “No one uses their real name over here. Or anyone who has connections with the black market.”

Nita paused. Of course no one gave their real names here, Nita hadn’t even used her real name since she left Madrid when she was a kid. 

She glanced at Reyes. “So... since we killed Reyes does that make us the new King and Queen of Parts?”

“I think that just makes us the people who killed Reyes.”

Nita roared in laughter. God what a jump. I can’t believe I just murdered someone, and am laughing about her death. 

Kovit chuckled a little with her, but he cut it short and puffed his chest. “So, what’s the plan?”

“We need money to bribe the guards to turn the other way so we can escape. We also need money to pay for the boat ride to Bogota.”

“That’ll be a hard sell, since the guards know me and that I’m Reyes’ property.”

Nita raised an eyebrow. “They know you?”

“Yep, when I was given over to Reyes she made sure all the guards at the dock knew she was my new handler. She also made it very clear what would happen if any of them let me slip out of here.”

“You can’t intimidate them into turning the other way? You’re a zannie, people are terrified of zannies.”

“True. But Reyes terrifies them more than any zannie.” Kovit took out one of the keys he picked off Reyes’ corpse. “Reyes used to lock me in the compound, but I managed to steal a key off of Lorenzo after he snorted a bunch of unicorn bone and got out. I tried to convince what I would do to the guards was more immediate than whatever Reyes would do to them. Worse than Reyes would do.” Kovit smiled humorlessly and brushed his fingers through his hair. “I wasn’t convincing enough.”

“Reyes locked you in here? Why?”

“She did at first, she was worried I’d go into the market and cause problems. But I never did and she eventually stopped bothering.”

Nita breathed and slowly took all the information in. What problems could Kovit have caused if he even went into the market? He’s a monster, but everyone here is. But he is a valuable monster. Or at least his blood is. It’s one of the most potent painkillers there is in the world.

Nita smiled wide. “If there’s anything my mother taught me, it’s that a fat dose of cash is enough to soothe most of all fears.”

Kovit smiled a wide smile back, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I think I know a way to get that ‘fat dose of cash’. Why don’t we sell Reyes’ parts? You said you were dying to dissect a body.”

Nita frowned. “Reyes? She wasn’t an unnatural. Was she?”

“No, but it’s not like anyone cares or can check. We’ve sold plenty of useless unnatural parts, and most of the time they’re indistinguishable from regular human parts. With zannie blood people will know by testing if it numbs their pain. Other unnatural parts people don’t know if they do anything. We’ve also had regular human parts in the mix and claimed they were unnatural parts. People still buy them to see if it does anything. It’s a scam, everyone knows it.”

“That’s quite an idea. So you think we could pass Reyes’ parts for some sort of unnatural’s?”

“Definitely.” Kovit laughed through his teeth. “I guess I really have become the new King of Parts, huh?”

Nita eyed Kovit’s arms and studied his veins. She would have to look for a syringe in the workroom. “We also have your blood, oh new King of Parts. People would know for sure that what they were buying was zannie blood.”

Kovit chuckled uncomfortably. “You know how to draw blood safely, oh new Queen of Parts?”

“I do... well I have only drawn blood from dead bodies, but the procedure should be the same. Live bodies and dead bodies all have veins.”

Kovit rubbed his arms with his hands. “Should be? That doesn’t sound very promising.”

“I think it sounds very promising. We take a pint of your zannie blood and say that Reyes’ parts are zannie parts. I’m sure people would pay a lot, enough to cover a bribe and a boat ride.”

Kovit didn’t look convinced. He tugged at the sleeves of his shirt which covered the veins in his arms a little. Nita wished he wouldn’t do that, his veins had a lovely green tint to them.

“Unless you have a better idea to come up with a lot of money in a short amount of time?”

Kovit pulled out the keys again. “This is the key to Reyes’ house. We could break in and steal her cash.”

“She has a house here?” Who the hell would build a house in the middle of a jungle, smack down in a black market that deals in body parts?

Kovit seemed to catch onto her confusion. “Yep, lots of dealers have houses here. They use them as their base of operations. Trafficking unnatural parts is a very profitable business, enough to pay for builders to work in this miserable heat and keep their mouths shut. I’ve been to her house before, I can take us there.”

“You’ve been? Do you know if she keeps money in her house?”

“Reyes never trusted me with money, so I have no idea where her money is. But she’s bound to have money somewhere in her house, where else would she store her earnings?”

“There’s no guarantee we’ll be able to even find her money,” Nita argued. She turned her eyes to Kovit’s half-covered arms. “But we’re guaranteed to make money from selling your blood. All I need is a syringe and a bottle, and we’ll be in business.”

Nita looked longingly at Kovit’s veins. They looked green under his warm brown skin, but that was just a trick of nature. All veins are translucent, and all blood is red. But the layers of skin filter the red in the veins and the eyes perceive them as blue or green.

Kovit shifted uncomfortably under Nita’s gaze. She straightened herself, and turned to look Kovit in the face. If it was Kovit’s corpse lying on the ground, I could open his veins and drain all the blood from his body with no resistance. Then I could watch all that pretty green disappear into a syringe, and turn into a beautiful red.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.”

Kovit covered his veins with his hands, no longer trying to be subtle. He gave her a dirty look. “Did you also not mean to drool? Because that’s what you were doing.”

Nita wiped her lip, and tried to give Kovit an apologetic look. Her face failed her intentions. He didn’t move his hands in the slightest, not that she blamed him. “Look, why don’t we try your plan first? If we can’t find any money in Reyes’ house then we do my plan.”

Kovit sighed, looking at Nita’s gun. “Promise me that you’re not going to murder me and harvest what’s in my corpse, and we have a deal.” He moved his hand slightly, and Nita caught a glimpse of his pocket knife. She didn’t even realize he was holding it.

Nita smiled another ‘don’t worry, I’m not going to shoot you’ smile. It felt even worse on her face than the last one, and Kovit definitely noticed. “Deal.”

Chapter Text

“It won’t be too long, Reyes’ house is a fifteen minute walk through the jungle.”

Kovit opened the front door to the outside world. Nita had gotten so caught up with murdering Reyes that she had forgotten that the Amazon jungle was outside. She scratched one of her many bug bites.

“Let’s look around for some mosquito repellant before we go outside, and a syringe if possible too,” Nita said. 

“I think we should leave now, before it gets dark.” 

“But... the mosquitos...”

“Trust me, you don’t want to trek the jungle at night. It gets pitch dark, the trees and block out the moonlight. It’s impossible to see anything. There’s giant spiders and poisonous snakes crawling around. You will encounter them, if not a jaguar or two.”

Nita sighed. “Fine.” 

Kovit held the door and gestured outside. “Ladies first.”

Walking in the jungle was miserable. Of course there weren’t any roads to Reyes’ house, just a narrow pathway of stomp-on grass. Now Nita had to walk through the thick humidity, heavy foliage, and swarms of blood-thirsty mosquitoes. She regretted not pressing the mosquito repellant issue when she had the chance.

Kovit was leading the way, with Nita trailing behind him. It was starting to get dark, but what did that matter? The house was only fifteen minutes away. They still had hours before nightfall when the jungle would become too dark to travel through, they had time to search for mosquito repellant.

He was probably worried I would find a syringe and kill him when his guard is down and take out all the blood from his corpse. Not that he shouldn’t be. I could kill him. I have a gun, I could shoot him in the back of the head and then I’d have another body. A far more valuable body than Reyes’. 

Damn it, Nita. You're not your mother. Are you seriously thinking of murdering someone, cutting up their corpse and selling their body parts? I am... but this is about survival, nothing personal. I need money to get out of here. It is Kovit after all. He’s a depraved zannie who has probably tortured countless innocent people.

Mirella would want me to do it too. She had wanted Reyes to kill him. It’s what Reyes was probably going to do if I hadn’t shot her in the shoulder. Lead the zannie outside, kill him and harvest what’s left of him to sell at the market. 

Nita swore she could feel Reyes’ severed finger twitch in her pocket, like it was itching to pull the trigger Reyes never got to. Kovit said they’d need it to unlock the house, her house had a biometric lock that’d only open to her fingerprints. Kovit still had Reyes’ keys in his pocket, as well as Reyes’ second gun somewhere on his person. 

No, I can't kill him. Not yet anyway. I might need him to survive, I don’t know if I could manage to find any of Reyes’ money without him. Or if I’d even be able to sell his zannie blood at the market without being caught by Boulder or someone else at the Death Market. I can’t get enough money to escape on my own.

Plus, if I pulled out my gun on him I’d might be the one to be shot dead.

“We’re here.”

Nita gasped. “Wow, that’s one big house. It’s more like a mansion!” The house was the most impressive building she’d seen here. Not that any of the buildings around set the bar high. But it still looked well-built and as large as her father’s house in Chicago.

“Oh yeah, fit for a king,” Kovit said sarcastically.

“If black market dealers have enough money to pay builders to build a house this size in the middle of the Amazon jungle, then Reyes must have some extra money lying around her house,” Nita whispered, then turned to Kovit. “Right?”

“Hopefully,” Kovit mumbled.

Kovit took the keys from his pocket and held it near the front door. “Put Reyes’ finger on that screen over there, but don’t open the door. I have to unlock the door with the key fob, otherwise the whole first floor will be filled with mustard gas.” 

“Reyes’ security sure is excessive. Did she think anyone would have been daring enough to steal from her?”

“Well, we are. Plus she acquired a lot of enemies from killing the King, I’m sure a lot of people out there wanted to do to Reyes what we did.”

“Figures.”

Nita took the severed finger from her pocket. It was warm, whether from being in Nita’s pocket or from the jungle heat she wasn’t sure. But she thought it still felt like it was still alive, and the biometric lock thought so too. A green light flashed when Nita put it on the screen.

Kovit pressed the key fob, and nervously opened the door. Kovit put out his hand in front of Nita before she could take a step, and took a whiff of the house. “We’re in, and no mustard gas,” he sighed in relief. He took her hand and led her into the house.

Nita couldn’t help but be relieved to feel the air conditioning, even with the threat of mustard gas looming over her. She took in a deep breath of dehumidified air, but then she realized something. 

Nita blinked at Kovit. “You stuck your head in a house, thinking there could be mustard gas in the air?”

“Well, I had to check before we went in.” 

This is one strange zannie. Why didn’t he allow me to go in first, and see if I reacted to the mustard gas? I can heal myself, he can't. Unless the effects of mustard gas aren’t immediate. Are they immediate, or do they take time to affect you? Honestly I have no idea. It’s not like I have the internet to look that up. I only know mustard gas smells like mustard.

“No ‘ladies first’ this time?”

Kovit laughed and brushed his hair with his hand again. “Sorry, I’m not always a gentleman.”

Nita looked around. There was literally nothing in the room, or the two conjoining rooms from the looks of it. “Such a big house, and with nothing in it.”

“Everything is upstairs, Reyes didn’t want to get mustard gas on anything on the off-chance someone did try to break in.”

“Well, let our treasure hunt begin then,” Nita joked.

There was no money to be found anywhere upstairs. Honestly there wasn’t much of anything upstairs besides some sparse furniture, a desk with a computer, and a fridge with some food. Reyes didn’t even have many clothes in her closet, just a few variations of the same clothes Nita always saw her wear.

She and Kovit dug through all the drawers, and only found a few documents and false IDs. Kovit also found a stun baton that didn’t even have batteries in it. The house was clean and well-organized, but that wasn’t much of a feat considering how barren it was.

Was Reyes even really a person? What kind of person doesn’t have any personal possessions around their house? Not just some pocket money laying around, but like jewelry or even a wall painting. There's nothing here.

It’s like a ghost’s house. Like there was no one alive that lived here. Was Reyes some sort of ghost? 

Nita laughed to herself a little. Well, she would be now if anything.

God, when did I become such a psychopath?

“Nita! Look what I found!” Kovit waved a small black book. “It’s my passport. The Family must have given it to Reyes after they dropped me off in this hellhole.”

Kovit opened his passport to an ugly design of an American eagle next to a ‘We the People’ transcript in a blue background, and handed it to her. He had told her he was born in Thailand, but this passport had his place of birth as Los Angeles. Definitely a fake.

I really should try getting a fake passport too. Not an American one. There’s no way I’d ever want a picture of my face on something like this. Why is there grain next to the eagle? Why did the designer put a semi-transparent star pattern behind the eagle? Who the hell would hire the designer who made this atrocity?

“That’s good, now you can be ID'd and go from country to country.” Nita handed it back to him. At least the cover is fine to look at.

“Yep! At least we got something from Reyes. I couldn’t find any cash, or hack into her computer.”

“I think I’m going to change into some of Reyes’ clothes.” Nita pulled on Kovit’s shirt she was wearing. “I’m sorry, but I sweated all over yours.”

Kovit shrugged. “It’s alright, if we manage to get out of here I’ll be leaving all my favorite clothes behind anyway.”

Nita’s eye twitched. “You mean, when we manage to get out of here,” she huffed.

Kovit raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t take you for an optimist.”

“I’m not, I’m determined. I’m here right now because I was determined to survive. You are too, aren't you?”

Kovit laughed, this time with a softness in his eyes. “I think you’d have to be to make it as far as you have. I guess I am too, but I’m a bit more realistic.” He paused, then whispered, “We might not make it out of here alive."

Mirella and I would have. We would have made it out of here together, and left you for Reyes to find.

She thought about Mirella. How Boulder shot her dead, how he kicked her corpse into the water like she was nothing. If I was the one who checked the docks instead, it would be my body at the bottom of the river now. 

Nita glared at his stupid, defeatist face. But it wasn’t me. That will never be me. “You might not, but I will.”

Nita stalked off to change. She knew that Kovit hadn’t meant to rub salt into Mirella’s shot wound. But it still hurt, like it was Boulder who shot Nita instead. She ripped open the closet to raid any article of clothing that looked like it may fit. 

Mirella is feeding the piranhas now, and I left her there. Nita felt a spasm of regret. Really, what could I do? Wait until Boulder left and go for a swim to find her body, dig a grave with my bare hands and bury her? Yeah right, that wouldn’t look suspicious to the other dock guards.

No. I did what I did to get here. What else am I going to do? Just lay down and die with Mirella? There’s no fucking way I’m dying here. I’m going to make it out of here alive. With or without that ugly-passported zannie.

Only one of Reyes’ shirts Nita found fit her. It was a rich purple, a color which Nita thought complemented her far more than Kovit’s plain black shirt. Kovit was around the same height as Nita, but his shirts were cut for the male form and didn’t have as much room for her chest and hips as she’d have liked. 

Nita looked at the pile of Reyes’ shirts that were too small for her. She had forgotten Reyes was actually a bit shorter and slighter than her. Reyes had a presence that was so self-assertive, so imposing. It made her feel much bigger than she really was. But she was just another person in the end.

Nita was smoothing the clean shirt over her torso when she heard a rushed knock on the door. “Come in.”

Kovit swiftly opened the door. A dead serious expression on his face. “We’ve got trouble. The guards-Lorenzo and Jorge-are coming to the house right now.”

Chapter Text

Nita peered out the window. There they were, Lorenzo and Jorge walking to the house. She studied their body language, neither of them seemed to be on edge. They look like they’re just taking an afternoon stroll, they must not know Reyes is dead yet.

“Maybe if we hide and stay quiet, they won’t notice us and go away?”

“Not a chance. The mustard gas has been disabled and we left the door unlocked, they know someone is in the house. They’re both armed too.” 

“Well, we both have guns... but I don’t have a good shot.”

Kovit took out his pocket knife and readied himself. “I don’t like guns, they lack finesse.”

“You’re not seriously bringing a knife to a gun fight?”

“Yes. Yes I am.”

Nita could hear the guards’ footsteps coming up the stairs. They're already got into the house? Well, isn't that just fucking perfect. 

“If we attack and even one of them gets away... well, let’s just say pieces of us would be for sale in the market within the hour.” Kovit sighed, “We’re fucked, aren’t we?”

“Not yet we’re not. They don’t know Reyes is dead yet, otherwise their guns would have been out.”

“I’m going to see what they want, if anything goes wrong. Shoot them.”

Kovit opened the door with his pocket knife in hand, Nita hid behind the wall to stay out of sight. She didn’t dare try to sneak a peek outside. I can’t risk them even catching a glimpse of me. 

“Jorge, Renzo...” she heard Kovit say.

“Kovit...” one of them started to say.

“Have you seen Reyes?” Kovit interrupted.

“She’s not here?”

“She called me, but I haven’t seen her.”

“Why’s your knife out?”

“I heard footsteps.... and ah well, you can never be too careful. Right?” Kovit sounded gleeful. Like he was hoping that his two colleagues were actually intruders. “What are you guys doing here?”

Nita could hear the fear in Lorenzo’s voice. “Jesucristo, Jorge. I can’t talk with this monster. You talk to it,” Lorenzo said in Spanish.

“No. I can’t speak English, remember? Just ask him about the package, that’s obviously why Reyes called him here.”

“There a problem?” Kovit asked. 

“Reyes asked us to pick up a package,” Lorenzo answered, his voice shivered as he spoke. Nita smirked, those two were terrified of Kovit. She now saw why Kovit liked to play up his creepy smiles and veiled threats. It was funny to have people shiver in fear of you.

“Ah, that is a problem. See I can’t give you the package without Reyes’ permission.” Nita could hear Kovit smile. “I’m sure you understand.”

“The boat is due to arrive any minute. Given how much the customer is paying, I don’t think Reyes would want any delay.”

“Unfortunately for you two...” Kovit made a purposeful delay. Likely to build up their fear. “That isn’t my problem.”

Lorenzo was quick to switch to Spanish, and take out his gun from what Nita could hear. “Fuck this Jorge! Let’s just take it ourselves.”

Nita could hear Kovit’s pocket knife flick out. She held her gun close, readying herself for a shootout.

“No Lorenzo, stop that. Let’s just call Reyes, have her tell him to give us the arm.”

“We should just take it! No one’s going to miss this zannie.”

“I’m not messing with that pain-eating psychopath. Are you?”

Nita sighed in relief, but then felt a twinge of jealousy. If only people shook in fear of me like they do Kovit. I probably wouldn’t even be in this Death Market anymore, the dock guards would be scared to stop me.

I would still need money for a boat ride to Bogota. I may have also been killed and my parts be sent to the Death Market for sale, instead of being kidnapped and my parts sold while still alive.

Nita shook herself from her thoughts of what could be. They want an arm? That could have either been mine or Mirella’s that was auctioned off. If they leave empty-handed then there’ll be an angry client, and word might get out that parts are missing. That might bring the attention of the wrong people, and that’ll be the end of Kovit and me.

I’m sure Reyes’ won’t be missing her arm any more. We need to give them an arm and then they’ll leave. Kovit doesn’t know that, he can’t understand Spanish. I need to get him over here to tell him.

But how? I can’t exactly call him without the guards hearing.

Nita looked at her hand. She still had her pain circuits turned off, and last time she turned them on it brought on the worst pain she’d ever felt in her life. I’ll just turn on my pain circuits in my pinky, and hope that it won’t give Kovit any ideas of making a meal out of me.

Nita covered her mouth, and did what she had to do. It felt like her finger bone was being shattered. She bit her hand to keep her whimper from coming out. The rest of her body trembled from the pain. This better get his attention.

There was a sharp intake of breath in the hallway, followed by Kovit saying “I’ll go check if Reyes left any messages on my phone. Be right back.”

Kovit slipped into the room with her, and closed the door behind him. He gave her a small smile, and whispered “You called for me?”

“They came for an arm, either mine or Mirella’s. They won’t leave without it.”

Kovit sighed, preparing his pocket knife. “Well then...”

“Wait.” Nita grabbed his hand, and nodded to the window. “I’m going to get an arm. Give me the keys so I can get back into the prison.”

He handed the keys to her, then asked “Who are you going to get an arm from?”

Nita arched her eyebrow wordlessly. From Reyes?

“Oh.”

“I’ll call you from Reyes’ phone when I get it.”

“Are you sure you can find your way back to the prison yourself?”

Nita withered a bit, but then straightened her back. “My life depends on it. I need to go, we’re running out of time.”

Nita made her way to the window, and looked down. The ground below was soft with jungle grass, but she was on the second floor. If I jump, I won’t break anything if I land right. It’s definitely going to hurt. I can still heal myself... but I need to land right or I might be too injured to heal myself quickly...

“Nita, want me to help you down?”

Before Nita could answer, Lorenzo called out “Did you get a text message?” His footsteps were loud on the wood floor.

Fuck, no time. They’re coming.

“Kovit? Did you hear me?”

Nita prepared for impact, and jumped. She landed hard on her feet, then the rest of her body fell backwards onto the grass. Her legs stung but nothing was sprained. Nita moved her ankles, she still had full control of them.

Then she got up and began the healing process. She pumped her legs with adrenaline, then ran into the jungle. There was flattened grass that made a sliver of a path to the prison, all she had to do was follow it. She looked back at the house, she could see that Kovit was still by the window. He was closing the curtains, obscuring her from the view of the guards.

Run Nita. Keep running, follow the pathway Kovit stomped on to get here and pray you don’t get lost in the Amazon. Pray that you can find your way back to the prison without Kovit to lead you.

Nita’s prayers were answered for once, and she found herself in front of the prison she had spent two weeks trapped inside. It was a godsend that she lived in so many different places over the years, her sense of direction was fine-tuned enough to get her through the jungle.

It was later in the afternoon, but the sun was still out. If the Amazon wasn’t in the range of the equator, it would have likely gotten dark an hour or two before. Nita sighed in relief, and took out the keys to the prison.

Reyes’ corpse was exactly how she and Kovit left it. Bits of brain were seeping out from the skull, but otherwise unchanged. Nita quickly went into the workroom and found a bone saw in the corner.

She made quick work of dislocating the arm from the shoulder. Just like all the other dissections she performed over the years, this was nothing new to her. But cutting through the bone was a challenge with a manual saw. Nita had always used an electric saw to cut through the bones of the bodies her mother gave her. Not only did electric saws make cutting much easier, but the cuts were also much cleaner.

Reyes’ phone went off, it was either Lorenzo or Jorge calling. Don’t answer it, Nita. Don’t even touch it. They’ll know you’re not Reyes, and it would look suspicious if you hung up on one of them.

I just hope I can get back to Reyes’ house. If I somehow got lost in the jungle and couldn’t get back quickly, that would look even more suspicious. Those guards would eventually catch onto Kovit. Then there’d definitely be a shootout, and Kovit being so in love with his stupid knife I have no doubt his arm would sent out in a package soon after.

The guards would also come back to the prison, and find the cells empty and Reyes dead. Then who knows what they’ll do to find me. My body parts are worth a lot of money to them. They’d probably tell every dock guard to capture or shoot me if they ever catch me trying to leave. If I don’t get eaten by a jaguar while lost in the jungle.

The last layer of skin was severed, and Reyes’ arm finally came off. Nita’s arms were sore from sawing, but she couldn’t rest yet. She ditched the bone saw, and swung the arm over her shoulder. Reyes’ phone went off for the third time. Nita wasn’t sure how long cutting the arm had taken, but three rings was too long for her liking.

Nita ran to the door, but felt Reyes’ finger wiggle in her pocket. She froze. Fuck. Reyes’ severed finger! 

She swung her head back, and saw the arm with a missing thumb was still attached to the body. Nita gasped heavily in relief. Dios mio, thank God I didn’t take the wrong arm. The guards would immediately be suspicious if the arm was missing a part.

Nita barged out the door, but then froze again. Fuck, I can’t just run around with a human arm in my hands.

Or can I? This is the Death Market, I’ve seen worse than this already. 

Nita scanned her surroundings. No Lorenzo or Jorge, not anyone. It looked like there was still enough time before nightfall. It looked to be, but Nita wasn’t exactly an expert on the Amazon. She took a deep breath of the humid air, casting all hope onto herself. Then she increased the adrenaline in her legs again and ran back into the jungle.

Chapter Text

Reyes’ phone had rang another two times before Nita made it to the house. She didn’t even stop to check the time, all she could do was focus on running. On surviving. The door was still closed, and the window Kovit watched her run away from was obscured by curtains. 

Nita took out Reyes’ phone, but realized she couldn't unlock it. She didn’t know the passcode. Fuck! How am I going to tell Kovit I have the arm?

She crept up to the house, avoiding any windows. She didn’t hear any gunshots, she didn’t hear anything. Was Kovit still alive in there, or did Lorenzo and Jorge shoot him dead? If Kovit killed the two of them he’d have probably waited outside for her, cleaning their blood off his pocket knife.

But there was no one outside, only her. I bet the guards are still waiting. I have to get Kovit’s attention again. She pulled her hand to her face, picking which finger to sacrifice to the pain.

Nita chose her ring finger, then hissed from the pain. Her finger felt like it had been slowly sawed off like she did to Reyes’ arm. Reyes’ phone rang not a minute later. The caller ID was Kovit, but Nita hesitated to answer.

Did the guards kill Kovit and steal his phone? No, they couldn’t have. It’s too convenient, they happened to call me right after I activated my pain circuits? There’s no way they stole his phone. Is there?

There’s no point in not answering, I’d be fucked either way. If Kovit is dead, then those guards will make it so I will soon follow.

“Hello?” Kovit’s voice. I never thought I’d ever be happy to hear it.

“Kovit, I can’t use Reyes’ phone. It’s locked.”

“That’s alright, I got the message.” Message? He’s talking about my pain circuits. Lorenzo and Jorge must be listening.

“Listen, I have the arm. I’m going to throw it into the window I left from. Can you open the curtains?”

“I see, if that’s what you want. I’ll go get it from the study.”

“The study? You want me to throw it through the study window?”

“Ok, Ms. Reyes. If you say so.”

He hung up on her. How the hell am I supposed to find the window to the study room? I’ve only seen the house from the inside.

Nita remembered the study was on the left side of the stairs, so she ran towards the left side of the house. Her eyes scanned the house, looking at each window. Kovit’s head popped out of the middle one, and she readied Reyes’ arm.

Nita flung the arm at the window and Kovit held out his hands to catch it. But it hit the side of the wall and flopped back on the ground. Am I really going to die because I can’t throw? That has to be one of the worst reasons to die.

Kovit turned his head into the house and gritted his teeth. Fuck, Lorenzo and Jorge are coming. Throw, Nita. Like how your father taught you.

Nita flung the arm again, it hit the side of the window but Kovit still barely managed to catch it. He brought the arm into himself, and walked into the house out of Nita’s sight.

Kovit got it. I’m safe now.

Nita fell onto the grass and leaned onto the wall of the house. It was hard and very uncomfortable, but Nita felt boneless on it. She stayed where she was, she didn’t even care if the mosquitos would swarm on her and bite her. Nothing could touch her now.

But then the sound of a door opening and closing came from her right.

“Why don’t I meet up with you later?” Lorenzo’s voice came out from Nita’s right. She snapped out of her short-lived solace and froze.

Dammit Nita, you couldn’t have hidden behind the house? Calm down... they haven’t seen you yet. If they turn back around they’ll see you out of the cage. Then it’ll all be over.

“Not a chance, you’re just going to snort more of that powder again.”

“Fuck off.”

“I mean it Renzo! If Senora Reyes catches you again she really will give you to Kovit.”

“Now that you mention it... why was he in Reyes’ house? He never said.”

“Didn’t you see him come out of her bedroom? Senora is a woman, she’s bound to get lonely sometimes. The zannie is easy on the eyes too. But it’s not like he has any other options, he doesn't have money to buy a girl at the market.”

Nita felt a strong urge to throw up. Don’t make a sound, don’t give them any reason to turn around. Nita couldn’t help but twitch. Thoughts of Kovit and Reyes in bed together assaulted her mind. She covered her mouth, not trusting herself to not gag. If only there was such a thing as brain bleach. Just stay silent, how hard can that be? I can’t fuck this up, I’ll never live it down.

Yeah, because I won’t be alive. 

“Bleh, two monsters sharing a bed. Sounds about right. They both probably get off on torturing the little girls in the cages.” 

“You better hope Kovit doesn’t sweet-talk Reyes into letting him torture you. Just keep off the powder.”

“I’m not worried about the zannie, I’m going back to Italy soon anyway. You should come with me Jorge, the ladies are all wearing sundresses this time of year.”

Yes... keep walking. They’re almost out of sight. Keep talking to each other. Don’t turn back.

“I don’t want to go to Italy, I like it here.”

They disappeared into the jungle. That was too fucking close. Not hiding was almost the dumbest mistake of my life. Nita curled into a ball, the top of her head touched the soft grass.

Before she could even take in the feeling of grass in her hair, a sound of crunching grass came from her right. She stiffened. I guess I spoke too soon. They’re back, aren't they? She barely had time to kick herself for not hiding again, but Kovit’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

“Yo! I have to say, you got a real great throwing arm on you,” he joked.

Nita couldn’t help but laugh.

“While I agree it’s definitely time to take a break and curl up into a ball, let’s do it inside where there's air conditioning.”

Nita laughed louder, and covered her face with her hands. Her pinky and ring finger twitched from remembering her pain. But she felt none now. All she could feel now was ecstacy.

Air conditioning. My favorite words in the world.

Nita had sat herself right under the vent. Her mind had been so preoccupied by Reyes’ arm and wishing for brain bleach she hadn’t even noticed she’d gotten her new pretty purple shirt soaked with sweat. Dry sweat was coated all over her skin. But she couldn’t bring herself to care, all she could do was smile.

Lorenzo and Jorge were gone, Reyes was dead, and cool air was blowing through Nita’s hair. She closed her eyes, soaking it all in. At this moment, all was right with the world.

Kovit had to bring her back to reality. “Hey,” he said to her.

Nita opened her eyes to find Kovit standing over her, waving a fresh water bottle in her face. Her mouth suddenly felt extremely dry.

“Thanks.” Nita took the water bottle from Kovit’s hand. She took deep gulps from the bottle, basking in the cold water falling down her throat. Then she stared at the wall, content. But then she noticed Kovit was still standing over her, with a face skewed in mild discomfort.

She blinked up at him. “What is it?”

“It’s nothing... just that the last time I brought you water it didn’t go so well for me.”

“You mean when I knocked you out?” Nita giggled.

“I let you win.”

Nita smirked. “Sure you did.”

Kovit gestured to the space next to her. “Mind if I share some of the cool air?”

Nita blinked at him again, still in her post-survival stupor. “Oh, ya sure.” She scooted to the other side to make way for him.

Kovit dropped down next to her and drank from his own water bottle. They sat there together and drank water in silence for a good few minutes. Kovit was the first to break the silence.

“This reminds me, when I was young I had a friend who wanted to scare her brother. So she snuck a plastic snake into his water bottle.”

“Did he freak out?” Nita asked.

“No,” Kovit laughed. “Her brother didn’t notice. So he swallowed the snake and had to go to the ER.”

“Well that’s a fucked up story.”

“Yeah... yeah it is.”

Nita was silent for a short while. Then she asked, “Was your friend part of.... um, ‘The Family’”

“Huh? Oh no, she was from an online chat. Practically all my friends as a kid were from the internet. I never met any of them in person.”

Internet friends? You can make friends on the internet?

...Of course you can. Anyone can make friends with someone if they talk enough times. I wonder if I could have made friends on the internet, if my mom hadn’t watched me whenever I used the computer as a kid. .

Nita jolted. The internet! I almost forgot about Reyes’ promotional video. That video of me healing is still up on the darkweb for everyone in the black market to see.

“Nita, what’s wrong?”

Nita felt like she should want to cry at this moment, but she just felt like shit. “It’s nothing,” she sighed. “I just realized how fucked I am.”

Kovit smiled humorlessly. “I guess that makes two of us. Once the Family finds out I killed Reyes, they’ll come after me. I know too much about their business, where their skeletons are, how they hide from the authorities. They’d never let me go free.”

“Can’t you just run away?”

“No, if I ran they’d send my information to INHUP. Proof that I’m a zannie. Then my face would be plastered on every news outlet in the world. Then anyone with a gun and a hero complex would start monster hunting.”

“There are still places to hide from the police.”

“Yeah, but I can’t hide from a wanted poster everyone in the world can see.”

“Oh...”

“Even if I could hide from the wanted posters, I couldn’t hide shivering from feeding on pain forever. I don’t have control over it, and everyone knows how to spot a zannie. Since zannies are on the Dangerous Unnaturals List, anyone could shoot me on sight. No legal repercussions.”

“Shit... I’m going to be on the run from every bad guy in the world and you’ll be on the run from all the good guys.”

“What do you mean?”

“Thanks to Reyes’ promotional video, face is plastered all over the darkweb. I’ll be hunted for the rest of my life.” Nita squeezed her eyes shut. “That is, if we’re able to make it out of here.”

“No when we make it out of here?” 

Nita stared blankly at Kovit and didn’t answer. 

Kovit cleared his throat. “Can’t you do things with your body? Maybe change your face so no one can recognize you?”

“No, I can’t. My ability is limited to functions my body already performs. Like healing or producing adrenaline. Melanin production too... I guess I could change my eye color. Maybe the shade of my skin. I’ve never tried though.”

“What if you made your cheeks rounder by adding fat or something?”

“With years of practice maybe. But even that’s risky. I do have some control over my body, but not full control. There might be consequences if I mess around with my internal functions, like if I tried to distribute more fat in my face. But would up accidentally clogging my arteries?”

“Yesh.”

“I could still feel the prick of a mosquito bite even with my pain circuits supposedly turned off.” Nita sighed again. “My point is it’s not a perfect science.”

Kovit raised his water bottle. “To us then. Unnaturals against the world, both well and truly fucked.”

“How inspiring.” Nita couldn’t help but smile, and raised her own bottle and bumped it against Kovit’s. “Cheers.”

“Cheers.”

They drank the remaining water from their bottles together. Sharing a kind of camaraderie only they could share together.

Chapter Text

“So... what now? How are we going to get out of this mess?” Kovit asked.

“The only way out of here is by boat, but that costs around two-hundred dollars... but we only have forty. We also need extra money to bribe the guards.”

“How are we going to get more?”

“Sell your zannie blood? It's worth more than any of Reyes’ parts.”

Kovit sighed, and covered his arms again. “Do we have any other options?”

Nita scrunched up her eyebrows. “Why are you so squeamish? Are you afraid of needles?”

“I’m not... I’m afraid of you with a needle.”

“I’m not going to miss your veins, they’re very visible. I told you, I’ve drawn blood thousands of times before. It’ll be a quick prick, just like a check-up at the doctor.”

Kovit looked away and shifted in discomfort. “It’s not that... it’s just, well, you said you were thinking of ways to dissect me yesterday. You know, after you trapped me in the cell.”

Nita paused, but then grinned a grin that was too wide for her face. Kovit backed away, his hand moving for his pocket knife. “Are you seriously scared of me ?”

Kovit did not answer, he kept his pocket knife on hand. His finger was on the thumb stud, ready to bring the blade back out. His eyes did not leave Nita’s.

He can’t be serious. This is a joke right?

“You’re serious?”

“Do you really need to ask that? Nita, you’re one seriously dangerous unnatural. You overpowered me in an instant and knocked me out after I tried to give you water. Not to mention you told me you dissected ‘lots of zannies’ before, and that you feel the ‘need to dissect things’.”

Nita’s brain paused, her grin fell. He is serious. I can’t believe I scare him, a zannie. Oh how the tables have turned. To think I was scared to turn my pain circuits back on around him.

“I thought you said you let me win?”

Kovit blinked. “I just said that to save face... Nita I don’t know if you’re noticed, but you’re really fucking powerful.”

Nita looked at her hands and arms, then flexed her muscles. She was powerful, she could manipulate her adrenaline and testosterone levels to reach unnatural levels. She snapped the bones in her hand punching the glass in her prison cell, she knocked out Kovit with one blow to the neck.

Nita turned back to Kovit, who still had his pocket knife ready in his hand. His finger was still on the thumb stub, the blade was still hidden. 

“I’m not all-powerful. If I was, I wouldn’t be here.” She scooted closer to Kovit and tilted her head. “Plus, we’re in this together.”

Kovit’s hand twitched, but still he kept hold of his pocket knife. “Yeah?”

“Yeah... we’ve come this far together. We should do whatever it takes to leave together.” Nita pursed her lips. “And well, after all this... I kind of think of us as friends of sorts.”

Kovit arched an eyebrow. “Friends, huh?”

“You know how the saying goes. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Kovit paused, then slowly put away his pocket knife. “Can’t have too many friends, am I right?” He joked with a smile.

Nita laughed. Mirella would hate me for befriending her torturer. But Kovit and I aren’t really friends, we just need each other to escape. It’s not like we’re going to be hanging out if both of us make it out of here. This is all about survival. If Mirella were still alive... if she was alive then Kovit would be the dead one. It would be me and Mirella trying to escape this place.

Nita thought about Mirella’s missing eye that was ripped out of the socket, no doubt without anesthesia. There was also the affair with the severed arm, Lorenzo and Jorge had just accepted Reyes’ white arm and went on their merry way. If it were Nita’s arm that was sold, they’d have probably been suspicious it wasn’t brown like Nita.

The arm that was sold must have been Mirella’s, not mine. If we hadn’t escaped when we did, they’d have cut off Mirella’s arm while she was still alive. Nita shivered at the thought. Maybe they’d use that manual bone saw I used to cut off Reyes’ arm. Mirella would struggle and scream. It would take time, more time than I took cutting an arm off a still corpse. 

Kovit cleared his throat and asked “You still want to draw some of my blood?”

Thoughts of Mirella with her missing eye and a missing arm still swirled in her head. “Yes, let’s go back to the prison. There must be a syringe around.”

“Oh there’s a whole box full in the workroom. I’ll show it to you.”

Nita should have probably felt relieved to know that there were indeed syringes in the prison, but she felt a shot of dread. In the workroom. A whole box full of syringes, huh? All for the prisoners no doubt. 

There’s not just syringes in the workroom, I saw all sorts of tools. As well as a table with straps on it. No doubt to hold down the prisoners when one of their body parts were sold. How many countless unnaturals were strapped to that table while their parts were ripped out of them alive?

Three of Nita's fingers twitched. All ordered by Reyes. 

“We still have Reyes’ body too.”

Kovit smiled at that. “We do yes, still itching for a dissection?”

“Oh yes.”

Chapter Text

First I put on the medical gloves. “It means no worries...” Then I prepare my scalpel. “It’s our problem free...” Now I cut a Y-incision into the chest cavity. “Philo-”

“Are you singing the Lion King?” Kovit called out behind Nita. 

“Sorry, force of habit.” She had her scalpel in the body, stripped of clothing and sterilized. Nita had cut off another two fingers and stored them in her pocket with the severed thumb. “Everyone needs something they like to do for peace of mind. Mine is singing Disney songs while I dissect.”

Kovit eyed the hand with two fingers left. “Any reason why Reyes is missing three fingers now?”

“I’m sure you know why. Poetic justice and all that.”

Kovit laughed nervously. “Poetic justice indeed. The Queen of Parts, ending up cut into parts.”

Nita looked back at him, he looked tired. It had been a long day, but Nita was just getting started. She had just finished the Y-incision and was preparing to remove the organs. “This will take a while. You should go rest... unless you want to help me store the parts in jars?”

“I think I’m good.”

Nita laughed. “You know I’m just kidding. Go rest and stay hydrated. You’re getting your blood drawn in the morning.”

“Let me know when you're ready and I’ll go sell the parts.”

“Oh Kovit,” Nita said with a grin. “We’re not going to be the ones selling the parts.”

Kovit grinned back, and left Nita to do what she did best.

Six hours of peaceful dissection, and Nita couldn’t have felt more refreshed. The sun was coming up and she hadn’t slept all night, and barely slept the night before. But she didn’t feel tired, she felt renewed.

All of Reyes’ parts were properly jarred in edible preservatives, ready to be sold and consumed by hungry customers. Nita took out Reyes’ phone, which she figured out the combination for. The pattern lock was easy to guess since Nita watched Reyes unlock it several times before.

She texted Kovit. All done. Everything is ready for sale.

Good. I told Jorge and Renzo that Reyes wants them to sell something today. As well as a few vials of my blood.

All right. Who are we saying the parts are from?  

“Dolphin girl,” Kovit said behind her. Nita looked back to see Kovit by the door. He has a wide grin on his face and mischievous eyes.

Nita felt a squeeze of anxiety. “Reyes was more white than gray.”

“Her parts look grayish in death. Close enough to dolphin girl. Besides, Jorge and Renzo were fooled by Reyes’ arm.”

“You think we’ll get much money for them?”

“It’s a barter market over here, who knows what we’ll get. Honestly my money is on my blood, zannie blood is pretty expensive.”

Nita smiled at him. He didn’t have any bags under his eyes, so he couldn’t be hungry for pain. “Have you eaten regular food this morning?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, I ate some bread. Drank plenty of water, followed all of the doctor’s orders.”

“Good, roll up your sleeve. I’ll go wash my hands.”

Kovit rolled up his sleeve, but did not make a move to sit down on the table with the straps that Reyes had laid on the night before. Nita had cleaned and sterilized it after she finished packing up Reyes. But Kovit avoided it as though she left the blood and leftover tissue all over it.

Nita came over with clean hands, a fresh pair of medical gloves, and a new syringe. Kovit stuck out his left arm, and Nita cleaned the inner elbow area with an alcohol wipe. “Stay still. I don’t have a rubber band so I’m just going to grip your forearm.”

Kovit winched when the needle went in. But he stayed perfectly still. Behaved like a proper patient. Just like being at the doctor’s. Nita couldn’t help but smile as she watched the pretty green turn into a brilliant red in the syringe.

Once the vial was filled with Kovit’s blood, Nita took out the needle. She grinned at the vial before putting on a cotton ball with a bandaid over the wound. When she looked up she saw a deep frown on Kovit’s face.

“What? I didn’t miss,” she said, still smiling.

“Yeah... but you had this twisted expression on your face when you were looking at my blood.”

Nita’s smile twitched, but didn't fall. “Oh, I just get excited when I take things out of people’s bodies. ”

“That is not comforting to hear. That is literally the opposite of comforting.”

Nita clutched the vial in her hand, then turned around. “C’mon, let’s get Reyes’ parts ready! Don’t want to make Jorge and Lorenzo suspicious by not being ready by the time they come.”

Kovit sighed, but walked after her.

They made quick work of packaging Reyes. Kovit took out the boxes and carefully put away each jar. Nita labeled each box for each part. Liver. Kidney. Ribs. Collarbone. Toes. Fingers.

“Why are there seven fingers in this jar, and three in this one?”

“Oh wait, Kovit! Don’t pack up the three-finger jar. That one is mine.”

Kovit blinked at her, holding two small jars with human fingers inside. “You want to keep Reyes’ fingers for yourself?”

Nita took her jar from Kovit and held it close. “Yes, I put this one in formaldehyde. It’s inedible now, so there’s no point in selling it. Customers would be able to smell it’s not right anyway.”

“Again. You want to keep Reyes’ fingers for yourself?”

“Can’t I have a souvenir from here? It’s only three fingers.”

“You want Reyes’ fingers as souvenirs?”

“Well yes. I don’t think I told you this, but I liked to keep some of the parts from the bodies my mother brought me for dissection. You know, certain bodies that were interesting so I wanted to keep a small token or the parts that caught my fancy.”

“Caught your fancy?”

“Yeah, it was mostly eyeballs. But I’d like to keep Reyes’ fingers.” Nita hugged the jar to her cheek. “It was interesting dissecting her, and her fingers caught my fancy.”

Kovit stared at Nita for a little while, and the jar containing three severed fingers next to Nita’s face. Then he shook his head and went back to putting the jar with Reyes’ other fingers in a package. Nita put the jar with three fingers in the same pocket she had kept Reyes’ thumb. They finished packing in silence and brought the packages to the front door. Nita handed Kovit the vial with his blood.

“Alright, looks like we’re ready to go,” Nita said while she stretched. She now felt the effects of not sleeping all night and wanted to let Kovit take care of the rest and go to bed.

“Not yet, Jorge and Renzo will want to talk to Reyes to confirm what I told them is true. Can you pretend to be her?”

“I can try, but I don’t know if I can get the accent right.”

“Keep it short, just confirm I’m speaking for Reyes and they need to follow orders.”

Nita nodded, and before she knew it Reyes’ phone began vibrating with Lorenzo’s caller ID popped on the screen. She mentally prepared herself, and pressed the answer button.

“...Reyes.”

“Ah, Senora! I’ve finally reached you-”

“What do you want? I’m busy.” Yes, he buys I’m Reyes!

“Sorry. The zannie says you’ve ordered the dolphin girl’s death and her parts to be sold at the market.”

“I did. And?”

“He also said you want to sell some of his blood, half a pint. Are you selling it to Boulder?”

What? Boulder? Nita paused, debating on what to say. Say no? Why are they asking if I’m selling zannie blood to Boulder? Unless Reyes already sold some to him. Fuck, what if she already sold zannie blood to Boulder? Then he comes to the prison or the guards and doesn’t find any...

“Yes,” Nita answered curtly, forcing herself to keep out the surprise of her impersonation of Reyes. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping against hope that it was the right thing to say. Kovit did not understand Spanish, but he tensed up at the anxious expression on Nita’s face.

“I see, it’s for his men who were burned yesterday. Isn’t it? Ah, I was just calling to confirm.”

“It’s confirmed. Don’t waste my time again.” Nita hung up. She no longer felt tired, she felt an all-encompassing sense of fear.

“What did Lorenzo say?”

“He said that Boulder’s men were burned, and asked if we were selling zannie blood to him. I panicked and told him yes.”

“Fuck, I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Boulder wants to buy zannie blood?” Nita gasped. Ugh, why’d I say yes? Now we can’t sell it in the market... did Reyes sell Boulder zannie blood? Did she not? What if she sold zannie blood to Boulder for information? Then we’d get no money!

“Apparently. If his men suffered burn wounds recently, then they’d want to buy zannie blood as painkillers. It’s not like they can go to a doctor for a prescription here.”

“What if Boulder already bought zannie blood from the market? Then when Jorge and Lorenzo try to sell it to him, he’ll already have some and turns them away! It would look suspicious, since Reyes would have probably asked him first. Right?”

“Calm down Nita. We’ll figure it out. Gotta keep a level head in tense situations, otherwise you might make a hasty decision you might regret.”

Nita huffed. “Alright, alright... okay... all we know for sure is that Boulder’s men have been burned and are probably in a lot of pain.”

“Yes, and that they probably want zannie blood. We don’t know if they already have any. They may or may not.”

“What if they do? They might not want to buy more.”

“They might... but Boulder might want to stock up just in case.” Kovit paused, but then gave Nita a twisted grin. “Zannie blood is expensive, and I bet Boulder would like to save some money.”

Nita caught on and grinned back. “We could sell it to him below market price. Then we’d get money for sure!”

Kovit laughed. “I’ll talk with Jorge and Renzo about selling my blood to Boulder at half the regular price. I’m sure that’ll entice Boulder.”

“Then when we get the money, we can send Lorenzo and Jorge on some bullshit errand while we sneak off to the docks.”

Kovit’s phone buzzed. “They’re here. Nita, go hide someplace. I’ll take things from here. Get your gun ready too, if for whatever reason they enter the building and go to the empty prison cells. Shoot them.”

“Remember, we have half a pint of your blood,” Nita whispered as she snuck off into the workroom where she left her gun. She disappeared from sight, switched the safety off of her gun, and readied herself.

Kovit opened the doors. “Jorge, Renzo. So glad you could make it.”

Chapter Text

Kovit closed the prison doors, so Nita couldn’t hear or see what was happening. She stood behind the door of the workroom, her gun ready in her shaking hands. I hope Kovit doesn’t slip up and the guards get suspicious and come into the prison. Then they’d have to die, and we would have to sell Reyes’ parts and Kovit’s blood ourselves.

I doubt we could pull it off. Boulder is out there, if he sees me outside he’d shoot me like he shot Mirella and have my corpse for dinner. Kovit selling in the market is risky as well. Even if Jorge and Lorenzo were dead, there would still be people around who would recognize him. 

People might get suspicious that Reyes’ pet zannie who is always in the prison is out and about. They’d probably try to tell Reyes, and it might get out that she's dead. Kovit couldn’t sell his blood to Boulder either. Boulder would immediately be suspicious and try to tip off Reyes her zannie is out. No, Jorge and Lorenzo are our only hope of selling anything.

Nita heard the front doors open. She bit her lip and held her gun close, not making a sound. 

“Nita?” Kovit called out. Nita sighed in relief and walked away from her hiding spot.

“Kovit, how’d it go?”

“It went well, they bought it. They offered to sell my blood to Boulder for half the regular price and he accepted. They’re going to his house to drop it off, then they’re going to sell Reyes’ parts in the market. They were suspicious why Reyes took some of my blood though.”

“What’d you tell them?”

“I told them I misbehaved and so Reyes took some of my blood as punishment. Told them it was why I was at her house the other day. They didn’t ask any other questions.”

Nita fell onto the ground with her face to the ceiling. She felt alertly euphoric and bonelessly exhausted. She hadn’t slept all night, but she doubted she could sleep just yet. Kovit joined her on the floor.

“You think we’ll get enough to bribe our way out of here?”

“Definitely, but we won’t get the money until the end of today. The market is open all day and only closes at night. We won’t be able to get a boat until tomorrow.”

Nita grinned at Kovit. “Ah... but we’ll be out of here. They bought it and we’re going to get our money for sure.”

Kovit grinned back, and said “We are.”

They sat in silence on the floor for some time. Nita considered crawling over to Kovit’s mat of a bed and making up for all the sleep she lost to dissecting Reyes’ body. But she was too lost in euphoria.

I am getting out of here. Our plan worked, and I’m finally getting the fuck out of here. Back to civilization. Back to regular everyday life. Back to where the police are. 

“When I get out of here, I'll immediately report this place to the authorities. Everything that I’ve witnessed, every dealer I’ve met. Everything. I’ll tell it all. Then all the black market dealers like Boulder... they’ll be the ones in prison cells.”

Kovit stared at her blankly. “What do you mean report to the authorities? INHUP has no power here, it’s the Amazon.”

“Not INHUP, the Brazilian police... actually I don’t really know exactly where we are for sure. Are we in Peru?” 

“Neither, the Death Market is at the border at the moment. But it won’t be forever, it moves around to wherever unnatural trafficking laws aren’t strictly enforced. It’s why almost all the buildings are made of wood, they’re temporary.”

“It’s not like the Death Market will be moving any time soon. When I report it, the Death Market will be raided. Like the one that was raided by INHUP a few years ago. They arrested all the traffickers and freed thousands of unnatural children. Maybe not INHUP for this since they don’t have power here, or the Peruvian police since Peru doesn’t really have unnatural trafficking laws. So the Brazilian police.”

Kovit looked at her as if she were out of her mind. “Free? None of the prisoners here will ‘be freed’ if the Brazilian authorities do decide to raid the Death Market.”

“What do you mean?”

“The moment any of the dealers here catch wind that the authorities are coming, they’ll kill every single prisoner they can get their hands on and try to sell their parts as quickly as possible. Then they’ll cut their losses, torch the place and move somewhere else.”

Nita couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What?”

Kovit ran his hands through his hair, then sighed. “Nita, everyone knows a raid will eventually happen. They can’t hide this place from the public forever. But the dealers have a lot of people in their pocket. People in positions of authority. They’ll tip off when a raid will happen. By the time the authorities come, everything will have been torched to the ground. There’s no saving the prisoners here.”

“Oh..” Nita gasped. “Well, fuck.” 

“You really thought if you reported this place, the police would come?”

Nita fidgeted, she did not like to feel dumb. “Well, y-yeah.”

“Why didn’t you call the police on my phone then?” Kovit tensed up. “Unless you already did...”

“I didn’t call the police, I don’t have the number for the police. It’s not like there’s any wifi over here so I can look it up, and I can’t go asking any people around here. They’d know I was a prisoner.”

Kovit breathed a sigh of relief, but then scrunched up his eyebrows at Nita. “If you didn’t have the number for the police, why didn’t you just call INHUP and ask them to give your the number of the nearest police?”

“Oh... I didn’t think of that.”

“It’s good that you didn’t call them. I’d rather not risk a raid anytime soon, no matter how unlikely. We’d both be fucked if the dealers got a tip. I’d rather not get caught up in a body parts selling scramble.” 

Nita curled into herself, she felt small and helpless again. Like she was still trapped in her prison cell. Even when I get out, the Death Market won’t fall. Unnatural girls like me and Mirella will still be trafficked and their body parts sold. Body parts dealers will still go on with business as usual with no one to get in their way. 

Boulder too. He’ll keep buying the parts of unusual unnaturals and eating them right in front of them while they’re still alive. Then they’ll be killed for the rest of their parts and sold to the highest bidder.

Unnatural trafficking generates so much money, money that can buy whatever and whoever dealers want. The world will just bend for them. It doesn’t matter what I do. Nothing can save unnaturals from being trafficked...

Kovit cleared his throat. “Nita, why don’t you rest now? I already made my bed, you can sleep in it.”

Nita looked up from him. She felt a warm wetness on her cheeks. I didn’t even notice I was crying. 

“I’ll keep watch, I won’t bother you unless something important happens,” Kovit carefully said. His expression was kind, comforting. 

She wiped her eyes but tears still fell. “Alright.”

Kovit held her hand and slowly walked her to his bed. It was cleaner than when Nita last saw it. She dragged herself onto the mat and Kovit covered her with the blanket.

“Don’t you worry, get some sleep. I’ll take things from here,” Kovit whispered to her. He patted her hand gently, then he got up and was making his way to the door. Nita suddenly felt a powerful twist in her chest.

“Wait, Kovit!”

He stopped in his tracks and turned back. “What is it?”

Nita was silent for a short time, then said “Will you stay here with me? At least until I fall asleep.”

Kovit blinked at her, and was silent himself for a short time. “Oh, yeah sure.”

He sat down next to her, saying nothing. Nita said nothing too, she shut her eyes and tried to welcome sleep. But sleep wouldn’t come quickly, and so would open her eyes again and see Kovit was still next to her. Then she’d close her eyes again.

Sleep did eventually come, with Kovit still by her side.

Chapter Text

Nita was back in Chicago with her father eating one of his delicious home-made empanadas and wearing black graduation robes. It was only her and her father in the house, there was no one else. Her father was telling her he was so proud of her for getting into the University of Toronto.

It was odd that she wasn’t twelve though, she was her current seventeen-year-old self. Nita hadn’t seen her father since she was twelve, that’s when her parents split and her mother took full custody of her. She and her mother were moving to and from different countries while her father stayed in Chicago by himself.

But no... not here. In here everything had played out differently. After her parents split, it was her father who had full custody. Nita hadn’t seen her mother since she was twelve, she hadn’t moved around all her adolescent life. No, she had stayed in Chicago and continued to go to public school.

She was with her father all these years. Nita was in her final year of high school, she was preparing for her graduation ceremony at the end of the school year. She had applied to several universities that had specialized unnatural biology curriculum earlier this year, and had gotten her acceptance letters in the mail. In her father’s hand was her acceptance letter to her dream school!

The University of Toronto had the finest unnatural biology education the world had to offer. The best facilities, the best professors, the best opportunities. It was her dream come true. Nita cried with happiness in her heart, but sadness in her soul.

Her father saw she was crying, he held her hand and asked “What’s wrong mija?”

Nita had a mouth full of empanada, but her voice came out clear. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m crying because I’m so very happy but so very sad.”

“Why are you happy and sad?”

Nita wiped her tears with her half-eaten empanada, and said “Because I’ve been with you my whole life... but I’ll be leaving for university soon.”

“Nita, you have such a long and bright future ahead of you! You should only be happy, not sad!”

Her father laughed, and so did Nita. But she was drowning in her tears. It was choking her.

“Nita... Nita, wake up.”

Nita grunted. She was having one of the sweetest dreams she’d ever dreamt, but something was shaking her shoulder. Her face twisted in disappointment as she woke.

“Nita, Jorge and Renzo are coming.”

Her eyes immediately shot open and her body spasmed with life. Fuck. I need to come back to reality. I’m not in my father’s house in Chicago... I’m in the Death Market... still inside Reyes’ prison...

She looked up at Kovit, who was leaning over her. His eyes were serious, but his mouth was playful. “Good evening sleeping beauty. Jorge and Renzo are coming back now.”

Nita blinked groggily, taking a little time to catch up to speed. “Then we better get ready for them.”

Kovit nodded, and helped her to her feet. “I’ll get our money, but they’ll probably call Reyes again. I was barred from ever handling money, so they’re not going to hand it over unless Reyes says so.”

Nita had a bad taste in her mouth. “What if they don’t buy it?”

“Then I’ll lure them into the prison towards the cells, and you shoot them from behind.”

Nita narrowed her eyes. “If it comes down to that, we may have a lot of bills stained with blood. Won’t that raise questions when we use them to pay off the guards?”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. All the money over here is bloody.” Kovit winked.

Nita nodded, and they both got into position. Nita hid behind the door of the workroom, and readied her gun and held onto Reyes’ phone. She was out of sight, no one would see her from the hallway. Kovit opened the front door and leaned on the doorframe. They waited.

It wasn’t long until Nita heard Kovit say “Jorge, Renzo... how was the market?”

“Fine,” Lorenzo grumbled. Nita could hear the rustle of packages and the clank of jars. I can still hear jars tapping together... that means they didn’t sell everything.

“How much did you make?”

“That’s for Reyes to know. She said to never give you money.”

“Guess you’ll have to call her and check then.”

There was a brief silence, broken by Lorenzo switching into speaking Spanish to Jorge. “The zannie is saying Reyes wants us to give him the money. But all of the earnings are supposed to be stored in the vault, there’s no fucking way she agreed to let the him carry it.”

“There is no way she’d want us to give him money. What is he trying to pull here?” Jorge pondered.

Lorenzo grumbled “Yes... I don’t want to call her again. She said not to waste her time, and I don’t think asking if the zannie can have her money is really ‘worth her time’.”

“Something’s not right here... we haven’t even seen Reyes today or yesterday. Why is she letting Kovit speak for her anyway?”

Nita’s finger twitched on her gun’s trigger. She grit her teeth, mentally preparing herself to kill again.

“Maybe she left to attend some business? So she left the zannie to take care of things on the prison-front.” Lorenzo offered.

“No, that can’t be right... Reyes should still be around. Someone had to cut up dolphin girl. It couldn’t have been Kovit, he doesn’t know how to perform dissections. Reyes must have cut her up yesterday, why would she leave without telling us?”

“What’s the holdup?” Kovit interrupted. “If you’re unsure, just call Reyes.”

Lorenzo and Jorge ignored him, they kept speaking among themselves. Nita was sweating bullets, Kovit had no idea what they were saying. But she did, and she did not like what she was hearing.

“No, you’re right. Reyes must still be around. Boulder is coming soon to drop off the money for Kovit’s blood and the payment for dolphin girl’s eye,” Lorenzo said, still speaking Spanish.

“Oh, you’re right. He should be here soon. Reyes should be here to receive him... where is she?”

Nita’s whole body quaked, her heart was beating so hard she was worried Jorge and Lorenzo could hear it from outside. Oh fuck... this is not going according to plan...

Her hand gripped Reyes’ phone so tight she thought she might break it in half. Boulder is coming to the prison, and he’ll probably expect Reyes to be here. The docks are closed now, Kovit and I won’t be able to get a boat out of here until tomorrow.

I have to tell Kovit what’s going on.

Nita used Reyes’ phone to call Kovit, she heard his phone ring.

“Hang on guys, Reyes is calling me,” Kovit excused himself. “Yes Ms. Reyes?”

Nita whispered harshly into the phone, “We have a problem. Lorenzo and Jorge are suspicious that Reyes is letting you handle the money. Also Boulder is coming to the prison to drop off the money for your blood and Mirella’s eye tonight .”

“I told them what you told me. Should I show them to the back?”

“No, then we’d have to deal with their bodies. Boulder is coming... they said he’ll be here soon. What if Boulder arrives before we can clean up their bodies? How would we explain that ?”

“What do you want me to do then?”

“Tell them that Reyes is preparing for Boulder’s arrival, so that’s why she’s been too busy for them... and tell them Reyes agreed to give you half the profits from selling Mirella’s parts. For your blood donation.”

“Alright, alright. Are you too busy to take a call to confirm what you told me?”

“No, I’m not. Tell them to call me.” 

“Alright, I’ll tell them.”

“And Kovit,” Nita interjected before Kovit could say anything else.

“Yes?”

“Good luck,” Nita whispered. We’re both going to need it more than ever now. She hung up and prepared her best Reyes impression. 

Kovit relayed the rest of information Nita had given him, they both seemed to buy it. But were still wary.

“Reyes said to tell you to call her to confirm. She told me to tell you she’s giving me half of the profit we made off of dolphin girl.”

“Why would she give you any money?” Lorenzo asked critically.

“I donated some of my blood, didn’t I?”

Lorenzo breathed in sharply. “Oh, so that’s why you allowed Reyes to take your blood?”

Kovit sighed. “Why else would I agree to that? You can call Reyes to confirm it, she said you can now.”

Lorenzo and Jorge mumbled something in Spanish that Nita couldn’t hear. If she focused more of her energy on listening she may have, but she was practicing her Reyes imitation under her breath.

Reyes’ phone rang with Lorenzo’s caller ID on the screen. Nita quickly breathed in and slowly breathed out. This is it. No fuck ups.

She answered with a curt “Reyes.”

“Senora. The zannie said you made a deal with him, that he’s getting half of the money you made off of dolphin girl.”

“I did, and?”

“Nothing senora, it is very smart. The zannie won’t be getting much this way,” Lorenzo said with a chuckle. 

What was that supposed to mean? Did Reyes’ parts not sell well in the market? 

“How much?”

“Just over two-hundred dollars.” Geez, that’s like nothing. And Lorenzo was going on about how much money Mirella’s arm sold for... oh that’s probably it. Most buyers would want proof that what they were buying was really an unnatural, that’s why they’re kept alive in the cages.

Nita tried not to gulp. “Give him half, and put the rest in the vault.”

“Yes senora.”

Nita hung up the phone. She felt the strong urge to fall on her knees and cry. But not yet. She’d have plenty of time for that when she got out of here.

“Alright Kovit, here’s your share. One hundred dollars.”

“Just a hundred?”

“Sorry it’s not a lot,” Lorenzo apologized without sounding a bit apologetic. 

Nita bit her lip. Not enough for a boat ride, let alone a bribe. If only I said all the money, then I’d have enough money for a boat ride out of here... I’d have to leave Kovit behind though. I’d feel bad if I ditched him, even if it means my own survival. But we’re in this together.

Nita heard the rustling of packages and Lorenzo and Jorge quietly talking quietly between themselves. She couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying, but they sounded to be in a rush to pack up and leave. Kovit still scared the shit out of them, and it pleased Nita deeply.

Reyes’ phone pinged with a message from a contact named ‘Boulder’s Lackey’. Nita’s pleasure quickly turned to distaste. She opened the message to read what it said.

Ms. Reyes, we are preparing to come over to the compound to drop off the payment in 30 minutes. Please be prepared for our arrival.

We have received half a pint of blood that was donated. Is it at all possible for another half-pint of blood to be donated as well? 

Nita frowned at the wording. She found that she hated it, but she wasn’t sure why she hated it.

We are willing to pay full-price for this second installment. Please let us know so we may deliver the payment along with the rest of the money tonight. 

Nita studied the text messages. She realized why she hated them, Boulder’s Lackey didn’t mention the blood they were buying was zannie blood. They were talking in code, wording it like a regular business transaction. 

It was just like coded text messages she used to send to her mother and father. Criminals like them texted in code to avoid any suspicions from the authorities. Even the criminals here in the Death Market.

Nita smiled when she heard the front doors shut. She wrote her own coded message back to Boulder’s Lackey. I will have a full pint ready when you arrive. My pet and I will be waiting for you.

“Nita?” Kovit called out. She immediately came out of the workroom to greet him.

“Kovit! I have good news!” Nita exclaimed.

“Well, I have bad news. I only got a hundred dollars from those two idiots,” Kovit sighed as he handed her the bills. She took them gracefully.

“It’s alright, Boulder is coming by in thirty minutes with the money for Mirella’s eye and a pint of your zannie blood.”

Kovit raised an eyebrow. “Not half a pint?”

Nita gave him a twisted smile. “Boulder received half a pint of zannie blood, and just now I told him he can buy another half-pint at full price. He’ll be coming over to drop off a lot of money.”

Kovit smiled back at Nita, his even more twisted than hers. “I see. Well, let’s prepare for our guests’ arrival.”

Nita brought out her gun and asked “Shall we?”

Kovit took out his pocket knife and answered “We shall.”

Chapter Text

Nita and Kovit were in their prospective positions, ready to attack Boulder and his men. Kovit was by the front doors, ready to receive and lure them into the room with the cells. Nita was by the workroom doorway, ready to slip out of sight and shoot them once they had their guards down and their backs turned.

Their thirty minutes of preparation was going to pay off.

“They’re almost here,” Kovit said. “There’s five of them.”

The front doors were closed, there were no windows in the prison. Nita looked around, concrete walls were the only things either of them could see.

“How can you know that?” Nita asked warily.

“I can feel their pain,” Kovit explained. “Everyone’s always in pain. Could be a hangnail, a sore joint, a muscle cramp. Emotional pain, too. I can’t eat emotional pain, but I can feel it. No human is never not in a little pain.”

Nita eyed Kovit. Emotional pain too? Makes sense. The brain cannot distinguish emotional pain from physical pain. I wonder how exactly zannies can feel other people’s pain, and how they can pinpoint where exactly the pain is coming from...

Her ring finger and pinky twitched. Even with my pain circuits turned off, Kovit can still feel my presence. My pain circuits send signals through my spine, so it doesn’t reach my brain. My brain can still get signals for emotional pain since that’s all in the brain. But I’d have to be in emotional pain for him to sense it.

There was a knock on the door, Kovit nodded to Nita. She quickly hid behind the workroom door and covered her mouth and nose to keep her breathing as quiet as possible. She heard the door open.

“Boulder! It’s been too long. How’ve you been?” Kovit exclaimed jovially. Nita could hear the twisted smile plastered on Kovit’s face. Nita smiled too, she had been unsure if Boulder would come in person instead of just sending his lackeys. Her finger rubbed the trigger on her gun as she smiled. 

“Fine. Where’s Reyes? I brought the money,” said Boulder. Nita grinned as she heard his voice. She covered her mouth and tried not to giggle.

“Oh she’s in the back. Please, allow me to take that suitcase off your hands.”

The sound of heavy footsteps was in the air. Nita peered from the workroom door, still keeping herself from being seen. She watched as four shadows passed by, her mouth hurt from the huge smile slashing into her face.

“Does Reyes have the zannie blood with her? My men need more,” Nita heard Boulder say. His voice was closer. He was in the prison building. Nita edged closer to the door.

“Oh yes. You want blood, let us give it to you... Now!” Nita heard Boulder scream in pain. She slammed the workroom door open with her gun raised in the direction she watched the shadows go.

“What are you! What is this?” Boulder cried from behind her. But Nita dared not look back, she only had eyes for Boulder’s men.

There they were. Four men, two were bandaged with visible burn scars on their skin. The other two looked to be in fine health. They weren’t looking at Nita, they were looking at the other side of the room. Their hands going for their guns in their holsters.

Nita aimed for the men who weren’t in bandages. Her gun spewed bullets. They went down quickly and in screams, even though her shot was very inaccurate. Nita watched a knife pierced right through the head of one of the bandaged men and he fell with a gurgling sound. He landed still and quiet. Dead in an instant. 

The last man standing was the most heavily bandaged. Both of his hands were bandaged, so he could not grip his gun. He tried to take it out of his holster, but it had pathetically fallen onto the ground. He had a face of utter defeat as he looked at Nita, then Kovit, and then at his fallen comrades. Tears fell from his eyes. 

Nita’s gun had run out of bullets. She dared not turn her back on the man, despite his weakened state. He had fallen to his knees and laid his face on one of the dying men on the ground. The air was filled with the bandaged man’s sobbing and the groans of the other two dying men.

We’re lucky that one of the men was too injured to hold a gun. Kovit and I would be have been royally fucked if that one could shoot.

Kovit’s voice came from behind her. “Nita, shoot the last one.”

Nita turned her head to Kovit. Both of Boulder’s hands had been stabbed, his blood was flowing onto the floor. His gun holster was empty, and his gun was in Kovit’s shivering hand. 

Kovit dropped Boulder’s gun on the ground, and kicked it over to Nita. She quickly plucked it from the floor, and spun around to look back at the bandaged man. His form was so small now, hunched over the dying man. His crying hadn’t stopped yet.

Nita walked closer to the sobbing man as she unhooked the safety. Covered in bandages he was. With burn wounds marring his skin. His bandaged hand gripped the hand of the dying man laying on the floor. She readied Boulder’s gun.

Nita pulled the trigger and shot him right in his head. His body spun from the shock of the bullet, spraying blood onto the man he was crying over. His sobs could be heard no longer, but Nita could see into his lifeless teary eyes. He was dead.

But the other two groaning men were still alive. Their bullet wounds were bleeding heavily. She turned back to Kovit and asked “What should we do with the last two?”

Kovit had gotten Boulder into a chair, and bound his hands with rope. “Leave them. They’ll be dead soon anyway.” He grinned at the half-dead men, their pain causing him to shiver in pleasure. “I can always tell.”

Nita nodded, and looked at Boulder’s furious face as Kovit wrapped rope around his torso. Binding him to the chair. Kovit bound Boulder so quickly, no doubt he’d done this before. Surprisingly she didn’t shudder at the thought as she walked towards Boulder in the chair.

Nita looked down at Boulder, at the fear in his green eyes. Afraid of the monster standing over him. The same fear he saw in Nita’s eyes as he stood over her and ate a piece of her flesh. ‘I’m going to kill him.’ That’s what Mirella had said. That she was going to kill him. Karmic justice would be for Mirella to kill him, not me.

“What the hell is this?” Boulder growled from his chair. Nita loved the look on his face. His eyebrows furrowed to make himself look fierce, but his eyes gave away his fear. He looked like a cornered animal baring its teeth to try to appear intimidating but failing.

Nita laughed, she covered her mouth and tried to stop. But she only laughed and laughed more. I don’t know why I’m laughing... in a room full of people I just shot dead. With the rest dying as I laugh now.

She eventually stopped and smiled at Boulder as she stood over him. He did not shrink in her shadow, but Nita could make it so his corpse would shrink under her feet. Just like the sobbing man she shot in the head. Her smile widened. She felt amazing, she felt powerful. She felt like shooting him and smiling over his corpse like he did to Mirella. 

But then her smile fell and she frowned. Killing him would give me something to smile about, wouldn’t it? When did my life become like this? Wanting to kill someone, and then gloat over their dead body.

“The suitcase with the money has a combination lock. I can’t get into it,” Kovit said from behind Nita. She looked at him and smiled and turned back to Boulder.

Well... I can’t kill him just yet. He’s the only one alive who could know the combination.

“Mr. Boulder, my friend and I require capital,” Nita said with pride in her voice.

Boulder grit his teeth at her. He looked like he was a cornered animal, trying to look threatening but just coming off as desperate to live another day. “I’m not giving you a cent! You have no idea who you’re-”

“Fine,” Nita interjected. His voice grated in her ears. “If you don’t want to answer me, then you can answer to my friend.” She gestured for Kovit to come forward. He quickly came over with a twisted smile full of dark promises.

Boulder shrank into his chair as Kovit’s shadow came closer to him. Nita turned away and walked into the workroom to let Kovit do what he did best. All the while with a smile on her face.

“He caved,” Kovit said with an unlocked suitcase in his hands not even five minutes later.

“That was fast. I thought you said torture wasn’t really good at getting information. That it was only good for punishment,” Nita said, genuinely surprised the torture actually worked. She was honestly planning on letting Kovit torture Boulder as she tried to find some tools in the workroom to open up the suitcase herself.

“Torture does work. But only if the person knows what they’re saying can be quickly checked, so to stop their pain from continuing. Hence why he gave me the right combination so quick.” Kovit winked and patted the suitcase with bills spilling out.

“Ah, well let’s count our money.” Nita grinned. Kovit set the suitcase on the dissection table and opened it fully.

The suitcase was stacked full with one hundred dollar bills. Not a sol or real in sight. Which was odd, considering they were between Brazil and Peru. 

“I doubt there’s a guard in the world we couldn’t bribe with this,” Kovit said as he sorted through the money.

“Why is it all in US currency?” Nita asked as she sorted the money along with him.

“Oh, it’s probably because Boulder is a crime lord of some American organization,” Kovit explained.

“Really? A crime lord? He looks awfully young to be the head of anything. What, isn’t he like thirty-something?”

Kovit chuckled. “In a business where most people die young, his age isn’t at all an outlier. Reyes wasn’t that old either, I think she was probably in her early forties.”

Nita frowned at that. She knew that unnatural trafficking had a very high mortality rate. But she didn’t know for traffickers too. She looked at all the money in front of her.

Why the fuck anyone want to go into the unnatural trafficking business? High risk of getting killed, risk of getting caught by the police, risk of getting tortured by zannies like Kovit. And for what? Money? 

They both finished counting the money, they had about three hundred grand at their disposal. Nita could pay for college tuition and then some. All this money, all in cash. Really, what’s the point in having so much money? Why the hell would anyone risk so much just to make more money? Don’t they ever think about having normal jobs or selling normal things?

Why do these people even bother to buy and sell unnatural body parts? Most of the time they don’t do anything, and a lot of the time they’re not even worth the money. They just kill and ruin people’s lives, and for what? For money they don’t even need? Boulder literally has three hundred thousand in cash to fork over. I doubt he really needed any more money than what he already has.

“Looks like freedom to me,” Kovit said dreamily. Nita remained silent, her eyes on the stacks of dollar bills. She knew she had a dead look on her face, and Kovit definitely noticed. “Nita... you thinking about something?”

“Seeing all this money... just reminded me that even when I get out of here, that video of me healing is still on the darkweb. Black market dealers will be hunting me until I die, my life is ruined.”

“How about living anonymously?” Kovit offered.

Nita shut her eyes. “I don’t want to live my life in fear... I... I’ve always wanted to be a scientist. Go to conferences, publish papers in unnatural biology. Be someone. I want to be able to live my life freely, not hide it.”

“I think you’d make a great researcher,” Kovit said gently. Nita opened her eyes, his face was full of warmth. Not even her father ever said that to her. He never encouraged her to follow her dreams to go to university. Any time she brought up her future to him, he told her just to listen to her mother.

“Really?” Nita asked. Her body buzzed with pride. As though she was being praised.

“Definitely,” Kovit said with a smile. But then frowned. “...if you can find a way around that video.”

“Exactly! I was wondering... if I was as feared as Boulder. Then no one would try anything. I could be free to live my life.”

Kovit’s face softened as he looked at Nita. It wasn’t a pitying look, but it was an unhopeful look. “Boulder’s power made him a different kind of target. And in the end, it didn’t help him. Neither did it help Reyes or the King of Parts.”

Nita bit her lip. Kovit is right... I can’t rely on fear alone. My mother relied on fear to keep me in line. But even then, I still disobeyed her and freed Fabricio. Fear doesn’t work forever.

But... I don’t need fear. Do I? I just need to keep fighting. In the movies the hero always manages to fight their way out of their predicaments. Sure, they have obstacles to face. But they fight their way out! Kill or beat up their enemies into submission, save the day, and whatever problem they had is resolved in the end.

Then there was the sound of a door slamming open. They both spun around. Nita thought that since everyone was always in a bit of pain, Kovit would have been able to sense it. No one could have been able to sneak up on them. Or they shouldn’t be able to.

But there was Jorge and Lorenzo at the door, both grinning ear to ear. She looked to Kovit, and wondered if he betrayed her to them to save his own skin. But the confused look on his face told her he was just as surprised as she.

“Sorry to interrupt this heart-to-heart!” Lorenzo sneered.

BANG!

Nita looked back at the two, and saw Lorenzo holding up a smoking gun. She couldn’t feel pain. But she could feel her body rock from a force in her shoulder.

She’d been shot.

Defeating all of your enemies... that sort of thing only ever happens for action movie heroes. But me. I’m no hero.

Chapter Text

Nita was on the floor. She was still alive, still awake. She couldn’t feel any pain, but she could feel the bullet that invaded her body. It had pierced into her shoulder, shattered a little bone on its way in. Thankfully it missed her brachial artery. If Nita’s brachial artery was severed, she’d have lost consciousness in seconds and died within a minute. 

Nita manipulated her body to stop some of the bleeding, but the torn muscle and broken bone would take longer to heal. Her wound didn’t feel real without feeling any pain. It was surreal. It was like she was watching a movie where someone was shot. 

I still have control over my body... but I feel dizzy. That can’t be a good sign.

Kovit had ripped some of the fabric from his shirt and put it on her bloody shoulder. Lorenzo stood over them, his gun pointing at Kovit while Jorge gathered up the money from the briefcase.

“Get her up,” Lorenzo demanded.

“Let her lie here for a minute. She’ll be easier to move when she’s not dripping blood,” Kovit answered smoothly.

“Ha! You expect me to believe you care? I know you’re just stalling for time.”

“Time for what? You got a gun on me.”

Lorenzo showed off his grit teeth. “Pick her up. You can carry her.”

Kovit shuffled slowly, stalling for as much time as he could. He gently put his arms under Nita and carefully lifted her to his chest. Nita clutched her bloody shoulder as she was moved, worried for the bullet lodged inside. The more she moved, the more of her blood vessels would break.

“Is Boulder dead then?” Kovit asked.

“Not yet. He’s still tied up at the moment,” Lorenzo chuckled.

“I assume he won’t be surviving, since you’re stealing his money.” The stacks of cash that Nita and Kovit had taken out were gone. There was only the briefcase, with Jorge holding it in his hand.

“No. You stole his money. We have no idea where you put it.”

Jorge raised the briefcase to Lorenzo, then nodded to Kovit. “Let’s go,” he said in Spanish.

Kovit carefully carried Nita out of the workroom. His steps were deliberately slow. Nita knew he was stalling, but she had no idea what. If Lorenzo and Jorge wanted to kill them, they’d have done it already. Was Kovit stalling to buy time for her to heal herself? 

Nita tried to ignore any distracting thoughts swirling in her head. She had to focus on healing herself. She pushed her body like she never did before. Healing her collarbone, her torn flesh. Trying to dislodge the bullet from her shoulder.

They crossed Boulder still tied up in the chair. His eyes were closed, Nita wondered if Lorenzo lied about not killing Boulder. But then he moved slightly, gritting his teeth and wincing. His mouth was soaked in blood, one of his teeth was missing.

“How did you find us?” Kovit asked as he walked. Stepping over the bodies of the guards Nita shot, avoiding the pools of blood. They were all dead now.

“We got a call,” Lorenzo laughed. He gestured to a corpse with a bloody cell phone in its hand. “Didn’t think to take his cell phone away, did you?”

Nita groaned and gripped her shoulder tighter. Kovit held her tighter to his chest. Cell phone. How could we be so stupid? I deserved to be shot for how dumb I’ve been. I should have searched them for cell phones. Or reloaded my gun and shot those remaining two dead. Something. I’m an idiot.

Kovit smoothed his hand on the small of Nita’s back. They had both made so many mistakes, piled up and now they were going to pay for it.

“Why would he call you?” Kovit asked as he walked towards the cells. Nita took a sharp gust of breath. The cells were the last place she ever wanted to see again.

“He didn’t. He called Reyes, to tell her that her pet zannie got out. But couldn’t reach her, so he called me. It wasn’t hard to figure out the little girl was out of the cage. Suddenly all those suspicious calls made a lot more sense.”

 “I’m curious, how’d you sneak up on us?” 

Lorenzo barked with a high-pitched laughter. “Unicorn bone.”

“Unicorn bone?”

“You think we’re stupid? Everyone knows zannies feel pain. The only way to sneak up on them is to have no pain.”

That was smart. Smarter than Nita would have given those two credit for. A lesson for the future, never underestimate the intelligence of underlings. As well as the resources at their disposal. No doubt they had access to Google when Nita and Kovit didn’t.

“I see,” Kovit said coolly as he stood in front of the cell that Nita was kept in the past week and a half. She shivered at his voice. Lorenzo did too. It was a voice that did not need to speak of what horrors the speaker could inflict. It spoke a universal language, promising a world of pain for the two men.

Jorge opened the cell’s glass door. He tried to avoid looking directly at Kovit. He didn’t need to understand English, but Kovit’s tone had shaken him. Nita shut her eyes and thought about what horrors Kovit would inflict on the people who shot her. It made her feel better as she felt herself being moved.

Lorenzo gestured with his gun. “Back in the cage you go,” he said with an uneasy smile. 

She heard footsteps disappearing and Lorenzo and Jorge’s laughter in the distance. But didn’t open her eyes until she felt her back on the mattress. When she opened her eyes, she saw Kovit looking over her. 

Back in the cage. She was right back where she started. But this time Kovit was in the cage with her. “Is there anything you need me to do?” he asked, looking at her bloody shoulder.

“The bullet,” Nita hissed. “Get it out.”

“Okay...” Kovit pulled out his pocket knife, clean of Boulder’s blood. Nita hoped that Kovit had disinfected after he had stabbed Boulder. But there was no use in asking at this point. 

Kovit leaned in close to her. She shut her eyes, not wanting to watch. Nita heard the bloody fabric of her shirt being cut apart. Kovit pressed his hand on her chest. It felt so warm. Then she felt his knife plunging into her shoulder. Digging for the bullet.

Nita didn’t move. All she did was feel. Feel the alien sensation of Kovit’s hand on her chest. When was the last time I had any real human contact? ...with another living person. My mother would sometimes pat me on my head. That is, before she sold me.

My father used to give me hugs and kisses, but I haven’t seen him in almost five years. I’ve brushed people while walking down busy streets. I helped clean the blood from Fabricio’s head from where his ear was cut off. But that was with a paper towel, I didn’t actually have any skin-to-skin contact with him.

Nita didn’t like being touched by others. She honestly hated it. But she still felt a little sad inside. Besides her mother petting her head, the only real human contact she had in years was with a pain-eating psychopath who was digging a bullet out of her shoulder. 

Stop thinking about that... focus on healing. Healing and escaping this place.

Nita felt her flesh move and her bone scraped as the bullet was taken out of her. Kovit really was very skilled with a knife. The bullet came out along with a gush of blood that splattered on his hands. If she hadn’t been able to turn off her pain circuits, Kovit would have been shivering the entire time. She did not want to think about what would happen once she turned her pain circuits back on.

“Gone,” Kovit said as he held up the bloody bullet.

“Thanks,” Nita sighed.

“Need anything else?”

“No, I just need to lie here and heal for a bit.” Nita looked at the glass wall, Kovit’s eyes followed hers. She smiled a bitter smile. “Familiar, isn’t this?”

“Like deja vu,” he agreed.

“Except this time we’re both on the same side of the cage.”

Kovit leaned his back on the glass wall and tossed the bloodied bullet to the other side of the cell. “We were both on the same side of the cage before. Now we’re just on the wrong side of the cage.”

“We should have finished off those guards,” Nita sighed.

“Probably, but what’s done is done. We have to figure out a way out of here.”

“Will they even come back?”

“They’re not going to just leave us. They’ll come back,” Kovit nodded to the feeder with pieces of plastic and homemade playing cards littered around. “They have to feed us sometime.”

“Assuming they feed us,” Nita grunted.

“Either to feed us or kill us. Either way, we’ll have our opportunity once they come.”

“Good idea.”

Kovit winked at her. “I can’t take all the credit.” Nita smiled a genuine smile at that. Then she closed her eyes and focused solely on healing her shoulder. They said nothing to each other as they waited for the captors’ return. Kovit picked around the cell, looking at every item as a potential weapon. He settled on the blanket Nita had used to trap him.

Nita fell asleep at some point, she had repaired most of the damage. It was exhausting work, and she had an exhausting day. When she woke it was to the sounds of footsteps and then immediately looked over to the other cage.

“Mirella?” she mumbled. Nita lifted her head up and blinked at the empty cage. In her mind fog, she expected to see Mirella still huddled up in blankets. Still shivering in fear of Kovit. But she saw no one.

Kovit crouched down to her, and asked “You ready?” He had his pocket knife in his hand.

Nita looked at the zannie across from her, and was surprised that she didn’t flinch in fear at him. She had forgotten the past three days. But only temporarily. That’s right... Mirella is dead. It’s just me and Kovit trying to survive now.

Nita sat up, her shoulder was still weak. She needed more time and energy to repair it. Jorge and Lorenzo came into the hallway, rolling a large black box in a trolley. They opened up Mirella’s cell and carelessly dumped the box onto the floor.

Kovit was the first to speak up. “I didn’t know we were going to have more merchandise come in. I guess business goes on as usual, even without Reyes?”

Nita looked closer at the black box, it had small holes that were barely visible. But they were there, she could see them. She also saw some movement as Jorge kicked the box to the back wall. 

There was someone in there. Another unnatural for sale. Nita thought back to when she had woken up in the Death Market. She wondered if had been put into that same black box, and if it was Jorge and Lorenzo who dumped her in the cell she was in. 

Jorge and Lorenzo ignored the two of them, they were focused on the box. They slowly opened it up and out came a young unnatural girl. She had shiny black hair, light skin, and brilliant red feathers for ears. Beautiful red wings sprung from her back. Nita couldn’t believe what she was looking at.

A phoenix. They kidnapped a phoenix.

The girl’s eyes were open, but they looked dead. She looked dead. She didn’t move at all, Jorge took her by the armpits and pulled her to the corner of Mirella’s cell. Now her cell, whatever her name was. When Jorge took his hands off of her she fell lifelessly like a doll onto the floor.

But her eyes blinked when she hit the floor. Her mouth moved too, but no sound came out. There wouldn’t really be a point in putting a dead body in a prison cell. The girl should still be alive. But her eyes. They were so... dead. Nita had seen a lot of corpses, and the girl definitely looked like a corpse.

“Is she... is she dead? Or drugged?” Nita asked no one in particular.

“Oh, she’s alive,” Kovit sighed. “She’s not drugged either.”

Nita looked at him. She didn’t want to look at those dead eyes anymore. Dead eyes were easier to understand than live ones to Nita, but the girl’s. Her eyes were something Nita never wanted to understand. “How can you know that?”

Kovit took his eyes off the girl too, and looked at Nita. “She’s in a great deal of pain. I can feel it.” He wasn’t shivering at all, he was sitting perfectly still. He wasn’t eating her pain. Which meant the great deal of pain this girl Kovit was feeling was not physical. It was emotional.

Jorge shut the cell door with the dead-eyed girl trapped inside. She still laid where he tossed her, her wings folded into herself. She was indeed alive. Her eyes still blinked, but they stared at nothing.

Jorge and Lorenzo walked over to Nita’s cell and stood over the two. Nita could get a closer look at their captors. Jorge’s eyes were bloodshot from coming down on unicorn bone from earlier. But Lorenzo’s pupils were so dilated they nearly encompassed the blue of his irises. He was glistening with sweat.

Lorenzo had been using again. Definitely unicorn bone, and definitely way too much of it. Clearly he took Reyes’ absence to indulge himself. 

“So... who’s the phoenix?” Kovit asked Lorenzo. 

“Oh, just one of the permanent residents of the Death Market,” Lorenzo croaked. His eyes were peering down at them, but his gaze was unfocused. Like he was seeing something that only he could see.

“Permanent resident?” Nita asked.

Kovit looked at Nita, his eyes tense. “He means that girl’s been living here for some time now.”

Living? Here in the Death Market? Nita wanted to ask why an unnatural as rare as her hadn’t been killed for her parts. But she already knew why. Phoenix feathers were extremely rare and highly in demand for their beauty. Counterfeits were common. The only way to truly know feathers were authentic was to see them plucked from a phoenix.

How many of her feathers were taken from her in front of how many buyers, for who knows how long? She was too valuable to kill for parts, not when her parts continuously made money while she was still alive. Phoenixes grew their feathers back, the feather supply would only end with her death. Her pain would only end with her death.

Nita looked at the girl’s fiery red wings. They were beautiful, but there were patches where feathers should be. Nita now understood the dead look of her eyes, and shivered from the thought.

Another set of footsteps came from the other room. Nita tensed. She forgot all about the phoenix girl’s dead eyes when she looked up again.

Boulder walked in, sneering with rage. Nita was shocked to see that he was still walking. She was sure that Lorenzo and Jorge would have killed him when they stole his briefcase of money. His mouth was stained with a hint of blood around the gap between his teeth.

Chapter Text

Lorenzo and Jorge made way for Boulder as he walked up to the cell. There were three of them now. All on the right side of the glass, and only Nita and Kovit on the wrong side.

Kovit smiled a deadly smile. “I didn’t think you were working together.”

Boulder smiled a deadly smile of his own. “I found myself in need of some employees. They found themselves in need of an employer.”

“The perks are great. Better than with Reyes,” Lorenzo squieked behind Boulder. 

“Speaking of Reyes... what did you do with her?” Boulder asked.

Kovit grinned. “You saw the parts Jorge and Renzo were peddling all day.”

“But... that was dolphin girl...” Lorenzo trailed. Jorge looked at him confused, when Lorenzo translated. They exchanged horrified looks.

“Well. Reyes was weak,” Boulder grumbled.

“Oh, was she?” Kovit gave them all a big psychotic smile. “As I recall, you gave everything up in thirty seconds.”

Boulder quickly took out his gun and pointed it towards Kovit’s head. Nita knew that Kovit wanted to goad them into opening up the cage so they could try to escape. But what would the point be if Boulder just shot him through the glass?

But Boulder lowered his gun and looked at Nita. “What was your name again, girl?”

“Nita,” she growled. 

“Nita. You were acting high and mighty earlier. You referred to this zannie as your ‘friend’, no? But you know, they’re not terribly loyal.”

What’s he getting at?

“I hear you can’t feel pain,” Boulder continued. “That must be useful, dealing with this monster. But it is a monster. It’ll turn on you the moment it thinks it has something to gain.”

Nita froze, and looked over to Kovit. He still stood next to her, looking up at Boulder. Not her. Fuck... the worst part is I don’t think he’s wrong that. Even I would betray Kovit to save my own skin. I doubt anyone wouldn’t if it meant survival. You don’t need to be a monster to do that.

Boulder smiled down at Kovit. “Zannie. I have a proposition for you. I’d like to shoot you and sell your body. But having a zannie gives me a bit of a reputation, you know? I’m willing to overlook yesterday and let you live out your days in that cage and torture the people I bring to you.”

Nita took a glance at everyone. Kovit next to her. Boulder, Lorenzo, and Jorge standing over her. The phoenix girl who remained unmoved since the last time Nita looked at her. No one moved. No one said anything besides Boulder.

“See, I want to eat that girl in there with you. To gain her immortality. Every day I’ll come and ask you to cut off a different body part. Once she’s all eaten, I might consider letting you out.”

No... he’s not bluffing. He’s already tasted my flesh, and now he wants more of it. Is this my punishment? To be cut up while I’m still alive just like Fabricio? To be eaten piece by piece?

Her mother had cut off Fabricio’s parts to keep them fresh, but she’d eventually have gotten frustrated and killed him within a week. But Nita? She could regenerate her flesh like the phoenix girl could regenerate her feathers. How long would Boulder keep her alive to eat her parts fresh? 

A month? A year?

A decade?

“So...” Boulder had his gun pointed to Nita. “What shall we start with? Something small. An eye?”

Just like Mirella. Nita could still see Boulder dropping Mirella’s eye into his mouth, swallowing it whole. Could still hear Mirella screaming as Kovit tortured her.

“No, eyes are a delicacy. Only two of those. Better to save that for later. A toe then, I bet you won’t even miss it. Bring it to me, zannie.”

Nita slowly looked to her side. She couldn’t bring herself to look at his face. Afraid to see a face full of hunger. “Kovit...” Nita kept her gaze on Kovit’s feet. He turned towards her, and took a small stop to her. She edged back onto the mattress, with her hands gripping the sheets. 

Kovit. We’re friends, aren’t we? But really, how much is friendship worth to freedom?

He took out his pocket knife. Nita braced herself, readying the blanket. Her body was so tired from healing her bullet wound. She hadn’t eaten since probably yesterday, so she had no more energy to spare. Nita was at her brink.

If that’s how it is. I’m sure as hell not going down without a fight. I can still pump some adrenaline into my system.

Kovit raised an eyebrow at her and knelt down. “What?”

Nita choked on a breath of relief. “Don’t scare me like that.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Kovit defended himself. She gave him an unamused look.

“All right. I did think about it. For half a second,” he admitted. Then he sprung to his feet and pointed his knife at Boulder. “You think I’m a fool? I see how you hate me. Once I cut off that toe, you’ll shoot me anyway,” he jeered. 

Boulder raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Aren’t you going to do it just in case?”

“No.” Kovit twirled his knife in his hand while he grinned up at Boulder. Despite Boulder being brawnier and taller than Kovit and protected by a wall of glass, he slightly flinched. “If you want that toe, you’re going to have to come in here and get it.”

“Fine. I will.” Boulder nodded at his two new henchmen. All three readied their guns, Lorenzo put his shoulder to the door and prepared to open it. Kovit really was good at goading people into doing what he wanted. 

Nita got up and kept the blanket in hand. She pumped her system with as much adrenaline as she could muster. It was barely above normal levels, but it was the best she could do. Kovit pointed his knife at the door. 

This is it. I’m ready... I wish I had the element of surprise like last time but I guess this is better than nothing.

The door creaked open. Only an inch.

Boulder shot Kovit.

Nita screamed as the bullet propelled Kovit into her. She didn’t realize she was standing so close to him. She still had enough room to throw the blanket around them both, obscuring them from their captors’ sight.

But also obscuring them from her sight. Kovit fell to the floor, Nita tried to dodge Lorenzo and Jorge’s hands, but they tossed the blanket away. She tried to duck and go for the door, but Lorenzo grabbed her by the neck and pulled her to him.

Jorge was coming towards her, a knife in one hand and a gun in the other. Nita bit into Lorenzo’s arm, ripping his skin off with her teeth. The taste of salt and iron flooded her mouth. 

Nita felt a sharp fist to her cheek and spat the blood out, aiming for Lorenzo’s face. Her neck was still trapped between his forearm and inner elbow. She tried to strengthen her muscles, pushing herself to the limit. But her blows didn’t seem to be doing much to Lorenzo. Lorenzo’s fist came down on her face again and again while she punched him as hard as she could. She felt warm blood pool from her nose but none on her fists.  

She could do nothing but kick and scream as Jorge rushed towards her with a knife. Jorge managed to grab Nita’s right leg despite her kicking, in a few seconds off came her shoe. All she could do was watch as the cold knife sliced her baby toe clean off.

Blood. Blood was everywhere. 

Screams. Her screams filled the air.

Pain... there was none. No pain receptors to signal her brain. But her eyes saw it all.

Lorenzo carelessly threw Nita into the corner like a piece of trash. She hit the wall hard. Her screams were cut short. Blood was coming from her nose, it was all over her face. Blood was all over her foot. All over the floor. Nita pulled herself together as quickly as she could then twisted her head towards the glass.

I can heal the damage... my right pinky toe is gone. I have to repair the damage with what little strength I have left.

Lorenzo and Jorge were already out of the cage, back on the right side of the glass. Boulder stood proud and tall with her bloody severed toe between his fingers. He was grinning a hungry grin at her. So full of himself.

“Well that was unnecessary. You should’ve just cooperated, just look at yourself now.” Boulder gestured to his new henchmen, not taking his eyes off of Nita. “Jorge, get me a glass of water. With a lemon.”

Nita burned with rage. I’m going to kill him.

“To immortality,” Boulder sighed as he mockingly toasted her. He downed the glass, swallowing her severed whole. “Ahhh... so sweet. I just love toes. They’re so small and easy.”

Nita felt the blood cool beneath her fingers. She looked at Kovit, he was laying still. His blood from the bullet had spread on the floor. It mixed in with hers.

She crawled to him. “Kovit,” she whispered to his unmoving body.

“It’s about time that zannie got a taste of his own medicine,” Boulder grinned, his teeth stained pink with her blood.

“I thought he was giving you a taste of yours earlier,” Nita growled.

“Cute. His bad humor rubbed off on you. You got a real bad attitude, Nita.” Boulder gestured to the opposite end of the wall, to Mirella’s cell. “But don’t worry. We’ll fix that. You’ll see. Just like Birdie here saw.” 

Nita had forgotten about the phoenix. This whole time Nita hadn’t heard a peep from the girl. Birdie, that was the girl’s name. Nita looked behind the three men who stood over her to Birdie’s cell.

Birdie was no longer lying lifelessly at the corner of her cell. Instead she had moved to sit up by the glass. She still looked as lifeless as when she was laying on the ground. Her eyes stared at Nita’s direction with no hint of expression on her small face. Unblinking.

She must have watched Kovit getting shot and Nita’s mutilation unfold with those dead eyes of hers. Yet she said nothing. She didn’t even have the decency to look conflicted or afraid. 

Nita wanted to hate her. But Birdie... she looked so devoid of any semblance of anything. Like she couldn’t even have it in her to be afraid. Nita couldn’t find any hate in herself for the pitiful girl.

“I’ll be back tomorrow to try something different. Perhaps an eye...” Boulder trailed off. Savoring Nita’s growing horror. “Or your sarcastic little tongue.”

Nita was helpless to do anything as Boulder stood over her behind the glass. Despite her power, limited as it was, she couldn’t overpower two normal humans. Even if she could, Boulder would have just shot her like he shot Kovit. Just as Birdie was helpless to do anything when Lorenzo and Jorge tossed her into Mirella’s cell. Birdie knew it. Nita knew it. They all did.

Boulder seemed satisfied with the results of his play of power and gestured towards his replacement henchmen. The three men walked off, laughing and joking amongst each other.

I want to kill them all. 

Every last single one of them.

Nita looked at Birdie again. Her face remained unmoved, but her lifeless eyes were focused this time. Nita followed her train of sight to Kovit as he slowly bled out. Dead eyes locked onto him.

Chapter Text

They were all alone now. It was quiet again without those three men. Kovit wasn’t moving, but he was breathing heavily. Nita had swallowed a few gulps of blood from her bloody nose. The blood still trickled down her face.

Birdie was silent still. She watched as Nita wiped her bloody face and pulled her broken nose back into alignment. Birdie’s gaze unnerved Nita, it was like she was waiting for something to happen. 

Why the hell is she just staring at us? Not saying a word, not moving a muscle. Was she brought here just to watch us suffer?

Nita didn’t want to ask why, any answers would just be unpleasant. Nor did she want to say anything to the unnerving girl. It’s not like Nita could really stop her from staring so she focused on healing her wounds.

The broken nose. The areas of her face that came into contact with Jorge’s fist. The place where her baby toe once was. Nita had managed to clog the bleeding wounds, now she just had to repair what was left. 

What was left... the rest of herself. The rest of her body parts that tomorrow Boulder had promised to slice one off and eat it in front of her again. Would it be her “sarcastic little tongue”? Or one of her eyes? Would they drag her screaming into the workroom and rip out her eye from the socket like they did Mirella?

No... don’t think about that. You can’t stop Boulder tomorrow, you can’t get out of this cell. Focus on what you can do for now. You can heal yourself... you’ll survive this for now.

Kovit. 

He was clutching his bullet wound and grunting in pain. He was still alive. 

Can you help heal him though? Will he survive this?

She crawled over to him and leaned over him. His blood got onto her hands and knees. He whimpered when she came close enough to breathe on him.

“Kovit, where were you hit?”

Kovit squeezed his eyes sharply as he spoke. “On my side.”

Nita’s hand hovered over the bloodied side of his shirt. “Do you know how deep?”

“No idea.”

She pulled at the hem of his shirt and pulled it to uncover his wound. But Kovit cried out and clutched his side even harder. 

“Kovit, I need you to move your hand so I can look at it.”

His face contorted in pain as he slowly moved his hand away. The rest of his shirt moved with it.

Blood was everywhere. Nita ran her hand over the gooey warm flesh until she found the small hole the bullet went through. She used her other hand to feel underneath Kovit’s torso and found the bullet.

Non-fatal. The bullet entered through his torso and exited out the back. She breathed a sigh of relief. An inch closer and it would have probably hit his kidney.

Kovit would live. For now. But not much longer if his wound wasn’t properly treated. Which would need water and soap... and stitches... and something hot to cauterize it.

There weren't any tools in the cell for that. Well, besides the bottled water. But water wouldn't be able to disinfect and stitch it. Not while it still bled.

Nita took the switchblade laying on the floor next to Kovit and cut off the cleanest piece from Kovit’s shirt. She doused the cloth with the remaining water in the bottle, then pressed it onto the wound as Kovit gritted his teeth. The shirt cloth had become warm with blood, if only Kovit would willfully clot the wound more quickly. She wished she could transfer her healing abilities to Kovit.

They were silent for a short time until Nita broke it. “I’m sorry Kovit.”

“For what?” Kovit gagged out.

“For doubting you. I was wrong... I thought, well. That you were going to turn on me.”

Kovit squeezed his eyes and wheezed out, “You don’t have to apologize.”

“No, I do. It’s my fault we’re here. It was my plan to steal money from Boulder.”

“And it was mine to lure them into the cage. Look how well that went.” Kovit opened his eyes again and focused on Nita’s face.

“How’s the wound?” he asked.

“Which one?”

He smiled despite the pain. “All of them.”

“Fine. It’s be worse if I could feel pain. How about you?”

“Awful, I’m not good with pain.” She blanked at that. Kovit smiled wryly. “I know, I know. The irony.”

Nita felt no pain at all. She wondered if eating her flesh really would grant some of her powers. But then she remembered Boulder from two weeks ago and his bright white teeth. Chewing the bloody flesh Kovit had cut off her arm. He knew Nita could control her body to not feel pain, he said so himself. Yet still he caved to Kovit’s... ministrations from yesterday. 

Boulder still felt pain, so he didn’t gain any control over his pain receptors. Nor did he gain any extra healing abilities it seemed, not while the gum where his tooth once was still reddish. If he was Nita, he’d have been able to manipulate his gums to have completely healed by now.

It took years for Nita to learn how to heal her wounds though. But she knew she could control her body for as long as she could remember. She could feel it. But Boulder? He would have been able to feel the control he had over his own body if he did gain some of her power.

No. He didn’t gain any of her powers from her piece of flesh. There would be no way Boulder could immediately control his body the way he wanted. If he had he would have probably asked her how exactly she controlled her body. Nor would he still be hungry for more of her. He hadn’t gotten what he wanted, if he did he’d be readying to sell her parts instead of keeping them to himself.

He’s probably waiting for his body to digest Nita’s pinky toe. To see if her meat and bone granted him power that her flesh didn’t. If it does he’ll know. If it doesn’t... well he’ll cut off more of her parts to eat.

“We’re really fucked, aren’t we?” Kovit sighed. He had managed to move himself by the glass. Birdie was on the other side still, watching them as they talked. Silent as the grave.

Nita nodded, trying to avoid looking directly at Birdie.

“Any more bright ideas to get out of here?” Kovit asked.

They were both trapped in the cage. There was no food, no more water. But there were bottles of water in Birdie’s cell. They were spilling out of the black box that Lorenzo carelessly left in her cage. Nita’s throat was parched, she had lost a lot of blood. She considered drinking from the pools of blood on the floor before they dried.

Boulder and the guards didn’t bring any food for either of them. Nita didn’t even dare cry to conserve the water in her body. Did they mean to starve or dehydrate them? Make them both weak so Kovit would succumb to his injuries faster and then harvest his zannie body parts? Nita so she wouldn’t have the strength to fight back while they carved her parts from her body?

Not Birdie though. She had plenty of water. If only... if only they could get out of the cage. They needed to get out of the cage. But then what?

“Even if we get out of this cage, then what? How are we going to get out of the Death Market?” Nita asked no one.

“One step at a time,” Kovit sighed. Still alive. Defeated, but still alive. He had his switchblade in his bloody hand and began doodling small drawings on the glass. Nita smiled slightly at him. He wasn’t much of an artist. But he was still alive and mobile enough to draw. A small victory.

They need to get out soon. Kovit wouldn’t live for long if his wound wasn’t treated. A plan, a way to get out. Nita had managed to heal enough of her wounds well enough, but it had taken the rest of her depleted energy to. 

There was no way she’d be able to punch her way out, even if she did have the energy to imbue herself with unnatural strength. There was nothing else in the cage but a torn book, torn bed sheets, and a blood-spattered mattress.

And Kovit’s switchblade. Sharp enough to engrave lines on the glass. Nita didn’t have that the last time she was trapped in here.

“Any way we could use that knife to escape?” she blurted out.

“It’s a switchblade, it can’t cut through the glass.” Kovit twirled the knife in his hand while he eyed Nita’s shoulder. “You can do things with your body. Can’t you do something with your muscles? I just watched you heal a fucking bullet wound.”

“I tried to punch through the glass when I first woke up. I can make my muscles stronger, push myself to the limit, but it didn’t work. I ended up ripping a tendon and shattering my fingers.”

Kovit’s face twisted into a devilish smile. “Nita, I grew up in the mafia. I can teach you how to throw a punch.”

“Oh. I’ve already pushed myself to the limit healing myself, I don’t have the energy to do that again. I’d need protein to help build my muscles, but I haven’t eaten meat since probably yesterday.”

His smile fell. “Oh. Well shit.”

They sat in silence again. Kovit spun his switchblade around in his hand. Nita wondered how he hadn’t cut himself doing that. She also wondered if drinking the blood from the floor would help her. Blood was mostly protein.

“If I could strengthen my muscles again, could you teach me how to use the knife to break the glass?”

“That I could,” Kovit laughed. “How are you going to get the energy though?”

Nita dug into her pocket and procured the last of Reyes’ parts. Three human fingers. Still fresh from two days ago.

“I thought you said you put those in formaldehyde, isn’t it poisonous to eat?” Kovit asked.

Nita blushed as she twisted open the jar. “Oh well, I lied about that. There wasn’t actually any formaldehyde in the workshop, just preservatives.” 

They both eyed the three fingers floating in the opened jar. Nita bit her lip as she slowly plucked one out and held it to her mouth. The preservatives make the finger feel slimy in her hand. Her empty stomach suddenly felt very full.

Just eat it. This is what happened to all the body parts you cut up... they were eaten. It’d be a waste of a body to not eat it, right?

“Do you want me to feed it to you?” Kovit asked carefully, squeezing his side tighter.

“No... I... I can do this,” Nita breathed. She could do it. She could eat human flesh for survival. She wasn’t like Boulder or any of her mother’s customers who ate people for power.

This is cannibalism, right? People have engaged in cannibalism to survive when there weren't any other food sources around. 

She flung the finger into her mouth and chewed as hard and fast. Her teeth crunched into the bones, which she spat out onto the floor. Her pain receptors were turned off but not her taste receptors. 

Kovit tilted his head as Nita swallowed. “So... what does Reyes taste like?”

“Like... raw beef. But chewier,” Nita mumbled. She fished out the other two fingers and finished them off. Cannibalism and bones aside, the fingers weren't that hard to eat. It wasn’t like it was the first time Nita had eaten raw meat. Raw beef was regularly served with pho in Vietnam.

She could feel her body digesting the fingers and her muscles building themselves. Nita flexed her arms, reinvigorated by the protein. Meat was meat after all.

Kovit had pushed himself off the floor and handed his switchblade to Nita. She changed her body chemistry to how it was on the day she woke up in the cell. Adrenaline gushed through her system, her arm muscles densified with vigor anew. Testosterone too. 

I’m definitely going to feel this later.

Nita gripped the switchblade hard. Kovit repositioned her arm behind her head. “You should try throwing first.”

“Throwing? I doubt throwing it will break the glass”

Kovit nudged her uninjured leg forward into a new stance. “We just need to cut through it and then we can take it from there.”

She sighed, eyes on the glass. “A little switchblade shattering through glass? C’mon.”

“It’s all about how sharp or big the switchblade is. It’s the physics of it, the velocity, the angle.”

Nita’s mother had taken her out of school when she was in the sixth grade. She never learned about velocity. The majority of the science she learned was from biology journals.

Do I need to know physics to go to college? I’ll have to look that up. There’s probably a lot of stuff I don’t know that I’ll need for college. 

Kovit gently moved her hips into a tilted position. “There, looks good. Now you have to know how to throw.”

Nita arched an eyebrow. “You don’t just aim and throw it?”

“No no, it’s all in the hips. Swing them like this.” Kovit moved his body in demonstration. He winced in pain as he did so. Nita copied his movements. “Loosen your shoulders... yes you’re ready.”

She threw the knife. It sliced right through the glass and halted at the guard. The glass slightly cracked around the sliver. No shatter. 

The result was very underwhelming. She ate human flesh and pushed her body past its limits just for a small cut? She should have aimed near the lock mechanism. Maybe she could carve out a hole big enough to fit her hand through if she threw the switchblade fifty times? Then unlock the cell from the outside.

Kovit had other ideas when he placed his bulky dinosaur-aged phone on the blade’s hilt. 

“What are you doing?” Nita asked.

“Like a hammer to a nail.” Kovit studied his hand as he held the phone in place and moved his body to make way for Nita. “Here. Punch it. Hit above the handle. The force will knock the knife into the glass.”

Nita inhaled. Oxygen. Adrenaline. Testosterone. She hit as hard as her body allowed her. 

The knife and phone flew, along with Nita. A wave of glass followed her, shards were everywhere. As she landed on the cold, hard floor the shards cut shallowly into her flesh.

“Are you alright?” Kovit asked her trembling body. Why was her body trembling? From shock? From the force?

She gave a thumbs up. I’m so glad I don’t have pain receptors right now.

Kovit grabbed her arm and pulled her up. Nita looked back at the whole she made. A few glass shards hung loosely around it. 

Freedom.

From the cage.

Not from Boulder. Not from the Death Market. 

“We should probably let Birdie out,” Kovit muttered. Nita turned around to Mirella’s old cell. Behind the glass was the little phoenix. Red wings splayed on the ground. She was sitting upright, looking right at them. 

Nita had forgotten about Birdie again. She didn’t really have the presence of a person. Her’s was akin to that of an object like a life-sized doll or corpse.

Nita shuffled her feet, uneasy. Birdie was one creepy unnatural. Phoenixes weren’t considered dangerous by INHUP. The only danger was the fire hazard they posed after they died. 

Well, phoenixes never truly died. Phoenixes are born in flames. When phoenixes reach the “end” of their lives their body bursts into flames and they are reborn as the same newborn baby with no memory of their past. Their lives are just reset. It is supposedly an endless cycle. 

They’re all essentially immortal. Supposedly.

“Yeah... we probably should,” Nita sighed as she carefully stepped around the broken glass on the floor and unlocked Birdie’s cell, then slid the door open. Birdie didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Didn’t even blink.

She just remained staring at Nita, but with the look like she was looking at nothing. 

Jesus. She’s literally a breathing, barely moving corpse.

If Kovit found her lack of response unnerving, he probably didn’t care. His bullet wound was likely of far more importance to him. He still gripped the bloodied area of his shirt.

“I guess we can wait for her to come out on her own,” Nita grumbled and turned back to Kovit. “Let’s get you stitched up.”