Releaser - Dawn Stefanie

Where am I?

What happened?

Those are the questions I asked myself as I awoke from cryogenic sleep, only to learn I'd been held prisoner for almost a decade.

The aliens who had abducted me from my home on Earth had kept me frozen in time until they needed me--or more specifically, until they needed my body.

But I'm not the only one who was abducted.

One of the other girls held captive with us keeps telling me fantasies of being rescued by another alien race - the Synths. She promises me it's true, but I can't bring myself to believe her.

When two of them show up at the bars of our cell, I don't know what to make of them. Are they friend or foe? Why do they want to help us?

All I know is that I can't take my eyes from him.

His sandy-toned skin is dappled white, and I find myself wondering how it would feel to touch it.

Our connection instant. It sears into my mind further when he reaches through the bars and touches my cheek, apparently as smitten with me as I am with him.

But I'm a prisoner here.

He says he'll come back for me, and he promises me a future with him.

I'm torn with wanting him to return and wanting him to stay away. My captors are dangerous and won't let me and the others go easily. Every second my newfound Synth friend spends trying to rescue me puts him in danger, and I'm not sure my freedom is worth his life.

When my worst fears are realized and he's captured too, any hope I had of a future outside of captivity disappears. But I can't give up hope and simply wait for my captors to kill me with their vile experiments. I need to find a way out of this mess, before it's too late for both of us.