A kennel

The first thing Lucy noticed when she came to was the cold. She was naked again, and her skin was touching metal.

Opening her eyes, she realized she was lying in a cage. Through the bars of its walls she could see more cages, rows and rows of them, all filled with dogs. Sleeping dogs, growling dogs, barking dogs. She was being held in a dog kennel.

Lucy's cage was so small that she couldn't sit up. Her only way to reduce her contact with the cold metal was to get on her hands and knees, and she had to keep her head down so it wouldn't hit the top of the cage. She tried the door in front of her, but it was locked tight. All she had to show for her efforts was a racket that agitated the animals in the cages surrounding hers.

There was nothing in the cage for Lucy to interact with. There were no people in the room she could ask to let her out, and if she shouted nobody outside the room would hear her over the noise of the dogs. All she could do was shiver and shift her weight slightly, her knees aching from the cold hard metal.

At some point the double doors at the end of a row of cages opened and a man wearing a kennel uniform pushed a cart into the room. Slowly he wheeled the cart forward, stopping at each cage to slide in a bowl of kibble followed by a bowl of water. When he entered the row Lucy was being held in she started pleading with him to let her out, but the man ignored her as he continued sliding bowls into cages. Lucy raised her voice, demanding to know what was going on and cursing when she was still ignored.

When the man reached Lucy he pulled out a metal rod and slammed it against the bars in front of her, producing an awful noise that hurt her ears. "Shut up, mutt. Goddamn barking."

He dropped the rod back on his cart and shoved two bowls at Lucy, splashing her with cold water as half their contents spilled. The shock made Lucy jump, knocking her head against the ceiling. Dazed and in pain, Lucy watched the man walk away.

When she was alone again Lucy dipped her hands into the bowl of water and brought them to her mouth to drink. She wouldn't touch the dog food. But nobody else came into the room for hours, and she was growing weaker from all the shivering. She'd had only one real meal in the last two days, she needed the energy. For a moment she considered simply lowering her head into the bowl to eat, it was only inches below her face as it was. But that would be like admitting Kim was right, and even with nobody watching Lucy refused to entertain that thought. It was more effort, especially in this cramped space, but she used her hand to eat like a person.

A person who was eating kibble in a cage, naked except for a dog collar, but still a person. She had to hold on to that thought. She didn't know how many people Kim had convinced or paid to go along with this insanity, but she would escape them somehow.

Her family! Yes, her parents and her little sister were coming to visit her today! They wouldn't fall for whatever lies Kim fed them, they would find Lucy and get her out of this hell.