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For two weeks I got into a good routine with work. I had a suspicion that me and my partner was getting stuck with the easy jobs no one wanted. There was no shortage of jobs that we just needed to hands off a package to an almost human appearing creature then getting their signature. For a while, I almost thought I might not come across any problems with my job. I was dead wrong.

I walked into the Zero room and saw Max arrived first. Our package to deliver strapped to his back. Good thing I had him because there was no way I could carry such a wooden large box. It was covered in odd writing and paper also with strange symbols on them. I could have sworn I heard the box rattle when I stood next to Max.

“We’re heading into a red light district to drop this off. It’s on the supernatural side of things, so they’ll be a lot of creatures.” He explained adjusting the straps on the box.

My attention was drawn from the box by his statement. Not only dd he mentioned that we were headed to a pretty adult kind of place, he suggested we could be going into somewhere dangerous like The Maze. I really hated The Maze. It changed every time I went inside and nearly die there a few times.

“Where is this red-light district? Like Inside the Maze or something?” I asked trying to make sense of it.

He shook his head and directed his attention over to his sister who gave him some sort of silent approval to explain a bit more.

“There are different worlds. We never really bothered telling you because, well, no one thought you would live long enough to go to one.” He admitted.

My surprise was ruined by everyone’s lack of faith in their only human delivery worker. I suspected a whole multi-verse idea but never really thought too much about it. After all, The Maze wasn’t a part of the same realm of existence I lived on. I never considered just how many other dimensions might be out there. And what was The Maze? How far did it go? Was it larger than where I lived and housed countless creatures ready to overtake our world? And what kind of place would a supernatural red-light district be?

“It’s best if you don’t think too deeply over this. It can get confusing really fast. You’ll be fine travelling to a different world than your own. Just don’t drink the water.” Max said and he took my hand so we could get a move on delivering the huge box ion his back.

“What happens if I drink the water?” I asked.

His response was a tight smile. I did not want him to go into details about what could cause that expression. I just followed along with him and out the door into a place where humans rarely went besides as food for the creatures that lived there.

At least this answered the question about where Max lived and how he lacked knowledge of human culture when we first met. If he didn’t live on the same level of existence than myself, we may never had met if I didn’t get this job. That made me wonder again what Max was. He's never told me a name for his species. He may look like a cute dog person, but I’ve seen hints of how scary he could be. My thoughts derailed when we arrived to our destination.

The long streets were crowed with countless different creatures of all shapes and sizes. Others called out in languages that no human tongue could ever form. Max kept a good hold of my hand so we didn’t get separated. Because we wore mail uniforms, the creatures acted pretty respectfully towards us. Some shuffled out of the way the best they could to let us carry on with our jobs. The buildings were pretty much piled onto each other with a mixture of glowing flames and floating lights of different colors shining through the night. I glanced over at some sort of food stall selling what looked to be grilled rats. It smelled far too good for what they served.

As we walked deeper into the long main street, I felt my face flush seeing the other advertisements in the windows and on the pathway. Some practically naked human appearing creatures were trying to lure other creatures inside. This place really lived up to its name, I didn’t want Max to see such a thing being the innocent creature he was. To my horror, a woman only wearing some very well-placed ribbons came over to us. Max appeared to know her and they spoke in a strange language. She gave his head a little pat and kissed his forehead before letting us go back to work.

I stared at him trying to make sense of the interaction. He noticed and showed a smile my way.

“I’m very popular here.” He said without a hint of shame.

My feet got glued to the ground as my world view started to tumble down. Max was popular with the girls. My cute innocent Max was being recognized by pretty much all the workers here. His clued into what I was thinking and finally corrected my train of thought.

“Oh, my father comes here often. I’m popular through him. I don’t use any services they offer but all the workers like to say hello when they can.” He explained which helped ease my mini heart attack.

We started walking again but knowing Rufus got around didn't help my mood at all. I did not want to think about him hiring these kinds of services either.

“So, Rufus and your sister’s mother isn’t together anymore?” I asked.

If he was here often that meant he wasn’t married, right? Max shook his head and paused to think of a way to explain in a way a human may understand.

“He got married and had my sisters as a power move, if that makes sense. They’re still married in order to combine the family's strength. In fact, I’ve been promised to marry and produce a child with my step niece in order to boost the whole power thing more. My dad can go off and well... be with any kind of creature he wants as long as he doesn’t produce another child. But I feel as if that did happen on accident, we would just accept the mother and child into our family. I never hurts having another helping set of hands.”

I chewed on my bottom lip unsure of how I felt about this. It was clear Max loved his sisters and not matter how much they tried to hide it; they loved him too. I didn’t like the idea of him being forced into a relationship just for the sake of making another strong creature to back up the family's ranking. I stopped walking again, holding onto his hand feeling uneasy.

“Are you alright with that? Sleeping with someone because you were told to?” I asked.

He gave a shrug but I could see it bothered him a little more than he wanted to let on.

“Right now, I don’t even have a step niece. If one comes along, it’ll take a few hundred years before she gets old enough to marry. My step aunt might not even ever have a daughter. I’m not overly worried about it. But if it happens well... I think I can deal with it. It won’t be traumatizing if I need to sleep with someone I don’t care for.”

We both stood in the middle of the crowd thinking over what he said. I kept a tight grip on his hand feeling the warm soft pads against my palm. Max lived in a completely different world than myself. He was raised in an environment with a whole culture that I wasn’t a part of. Most likely he’d known he would need to marry someone he didn’t love since he was a child. For his kind, marriage was for power and not for love. It wasn’t my place to judge their system. It still didn’t sit right with me. Max could read my silent expression and gave me a quick hug trying to assure me he really was fine with his planned future. I found it hard to hug him back because he still wore that huge box we needed to deliver.

We started walking again going through the crowd. Max paused to go buy some sort of meat on a stick which I declined to try a bite of.

“So uh, what if you fall in love with someone and want to marry them? Would you not be able to do so?” I asked trying to clear up some questions.

“I guess it depends on the creature. But we have no limit on spouses. More the better where I come from but it’s different from family to family. Honestly, I’ve never been interested in that stuff. I wondered if it’s because I just became a full adult but... I like thinking more about what to eat the next day than getting all romantic with someone, you know?” Max said between bites of food.

I understood him. Aside from the shame of still holding a V card at my age, I really didn’t feel motivated to find a girlfriend. Now with work I found a bunch of friends I cared for. I didn’t feel that lonely anymore. It would be nice to have someone to come home to though, but I didn’t feel pressed on finding a partner right away.

After a long walk we finally found where we needed to deliver the box to. It looked like a large dark warehouse. A sliding door was open for us. The moment we walked inside, the door closed leaving us in a very dimly light open space. Max didn’t look scared in the slightest. I shouldn’t be as frightened as I felt but couldn’t help it. This was spooky.

“You are both a little bit late. Did you take a break to enjoy what some of the shops have to offer?” A voice asked from the darkness.

A man came forwards into the light. He wore a sharp suit and had perfectly styled hair. Aside for, his yellow eyes and scales on his cheeks, he looked human. His voice had a hint of an accent that matched his confident pose. Two more men came to stand behind him. They might as well be triplets. They all looked the same besides the unnatural eye colors.

“We did. Sorry.” Max admitted as he walked over to place the box down.

“He got something to eat.” I quickly corrected.

The leader let himself smile for a second at us. He signed the sheet Max offered saying we finished our job. For some reason Max moved fast afterwards. He took long steps back to me to take my arm. I found myself being hustled away as the man in the suit bent over to pull a piece of paper off the box. I looked over my shoulder to see him lift off the wooden lid, and then the box fell apart.

I knew why Max wanted me to leave before I saw what we delivered. The moment my eyes landed on what was inside, I planted my feet hard on the ground. I turned my body back around ready to deal with what I was seeing.

Inside the box was a sleeping person. I guessed them to be male even though they had long hair. Well, it wasn’t really hair. They only wore a long white shirt over top of a transparent body. The long hair looked as if someone shaped it out of gelatin. The figure moved after spilling out of the open box. They sat up, barely able to keep their head raised, both arms firmly tied behind their back. The man in the suit reached down to take a hold of the poor person’s arm to lift them on their feet. Once standing, a scared expression came over the creature’s face. They looked over in my direction and our eyes met.

They had a round spot of transparent orange that reminded me of egg yolk inside their head. It helped give their face some definition. I could see the frightened expression clearly. This person begging me for help.

“What are you going to do with him?” I asked in a low voice.

Max appeared stressed beside me but didn’t say anything. He took a hold of my hand as if he wanted to protect me from something. The men in the suits gave a smile that twisted my stomach. The one wrapped a hand around the clear creature’s waist and it made the poor thing turn their head away in disgust. But they knew better not to try and escape from the men.

“Where do you think we are? It's clear we’re going to put this little thing to work.” The man said and the two behind him joined in with a low laugh.

I felt sick. The room spun for a second. We were a part of this. We delivered this person to these monsters. I refused to let this happen. I took a step forwards, Max trying to keep me back with his hand over mine.

“He’s a person! You can’t-” I started; my face hot in rage.

“You’re human so you won’t understand.” The man cut in.

“That doesn’t have to do with any of this! You just can’t force someone into that kind of work!” I pressed.

Max pulled me back, his concerned face calming me down before I snapped in a fit of rage. The man shook his head with a sigh as if he was dealing with a child.

“This creature is artificially made. Due to them being so new, they don’t have a species name. But some have taken a liking to calling them Bedroom Tools. You can understand why, can’t you?” He said with a terrible smile on his face.

I gritted my teeth wanting to punch him, to do anything to bring this poor creature out of this situation.

“But, let me rest some worries you may have. Normally these creatures have no sentience of their own. They can only do what they are told. Like an empty doll. This one not only has a rare coloring, but also hold intelligence.”

He removed his hand from around the creature's waist to grab under his chain in order to force him to raise it. I nearly did punch him then for handling the creature in such a disrespectful way.

“It’s illegal to use the sentient ones in that sort of way. Because they’re race is considered property, you are able to own one, but if they are aware of themselves, you cannot force them to do such work.” Max interrupted.

A small ray of hope appeared only to be put out a few seconds after.

“Recently we found a spell that removes their sense of self. If they are no longer aware, then we can use them however we wish? Correct?” The man asked.

He pushed the creature aside so his two back up could take a hold of one arm just in case the creature made a run for it. They weren’t being rough but made it clear they would be if it came to that.

“That spell hasn’t been proven to work yet. We don’t know if the creatures are not fully aware, or if you’re just sealing their expressions.” Max said, his hair started to puff up in the way it did when he was angry.

My partner’s tone sounded calm but he gripped my hand so tightly it hurt. I didn’t pull away from him wanting the pain to override my sense of dread.

“That’s not our issue. We now own a rare specimen of a highly sought out species. After using a spell we can legally put him to work. We need to make what we sunk into this thing back, so unless you have something to offer, we’re done here.”

“What do you want for him?” I asked quickly without letting myself think.

“Toby...” Max said as a warming.

His concern came too late. The three men’s eyes lit up. Literally each of them flashed color for a second. The lead wasn’t able to hide a brief smile. They wanted me to make an offer. But I was human, what would they want from someone like me?

“You’re a virgin, correct? No sense in lying. We can smell it from here.”

It felt like my entire body sunk into the ground. I looked between the men staring at me as if I was a piece of meat. Then I looked at the scared face of the creature I wanted to save. Did he ask that question because he wanted me to take that creature’s place? I swallowed hard, considering my options. My body shook as dread over took my thoughts. Not matter how much I hated the idea; I would agree to switch places with that creature if it came to that. No wonder why Max didn’t want to stick around after we finished the delivery.

“I am.” I said in a weak voice.

“We want your blood. In exchange, we’ll trade for this creature.” The man replied in a cool voice.

“That’s it?” I said shocked.

I knew my blood was sought after because it helped creatures heal faster but I never assumed it would be worth as much as a person. Max gave my hand another warning squeeze. He clearly knew something I didn’t.

“How much of it?” I asked, the fear coming back.

A wide grin appeared on his face that sent chills down my back.

“All of it.”

The creature I wanted to save turned their head away. They knew I would refuse to give up my life to save them. I frantically ran through the offer in my mind trying to think of a way to make out of this alive. I didn’t want someone being forced into such a dreadful life, but I also didn’t want to die either. I looked over at Max considering the trade. Besides him and my co-workers, would anyone really miss me that much? I’ve been saving my pay from this job and my father would be comfortable if I died that day. He may be upset if I died before him, but it wasn’t as if we really talked that much now a days.

“Alright. We’ll trade you the same amount of blood a human of his size holds in exchange for ownership of that creature.” Max said and his words startled me.

I did consider giving up my life, but I didn’t think he would have thrown me to the wolves with such a calm voice. I panicked a little wondering why Max would do such a thing. I knew he cared about me. There needed to be a trick in his words somewhere I wasn’t seeing. The three men started to get closer, their expressions making me take a step back.

“But I’ll also offer you two Lunar Flowers in exchange for you keeping this trade a secret.” Max said.

That made the men stop walking. They looked at each other almost nervous. I once again, had no idea what was going on.

“How would someone like you two have accesses to such a thing? We’ll agree to such a trade only if you can provide what you’re offering.” The one said in a low voice sounding very threatening.

He assumed Max was playing some sort of game none of us really knew about just yet. My friend smiled as if he didn’t have three very menacing people staring him down. With a nod he let go of my hand and gestured for them to let the creature go.

“Alright. Both deals are good. Can you let go of him now? He looks scared.” Max said.

The men looked at each other and finally pushed the creature towards us. They hesitated and took careful steps forwards on shaking legs. To them, they were just traded to a pair of people they didn't know if they could trust. I quickly took off my jacket to offer it to the poor clear person shaking from fear. After a second, they reached out a hand to take the jacket and quickly wrap it around trembling shoulders.

Then all at once those men were around me. Eyes blazing with color, teeth sharp and claws out.

“We’ll take our half of the trade now.” A low voice rasped out.

My heart started to race. If Max had a plan, now was the time to say so. I walked back into my friend and he took a hold of my shoulders to keep me in place. I almost doubted him for a few seconds.

“I’ll call Dr. Fillow. He already has taken Toby’s blood and has it stored. He also holds onto the flowers for me. If you would like, I can ask him to mix the flowers and blood into the medicine I assume you three want it for.”

The men let their monstrous expression drop. They all looked pretty confused on what Max offered. I wanted to kick myself for being so stupid. I’ve been donating blood as often as possible since I started to work as a mailman. I didn’t think there was so much stocked up, but of course that would be what Max would offer first. The three looked like they wanted to accept the offer, but didn’t want to admit they got played by a cute boy with dog ears.

“Well, since we were going to hire him to make it ourselves, this would save some time. But you are covering the cost of the mixture.” The leader said, crossing his arms. His followers mimicked him.

I finally relaxed a little as Max made the phone call. I directed my attention back to the creature we saved wondering what to do with him. Or her? I really couldn’t tell. Maybe they could work delivering mail... Then again, seeing how scared and weak they seemed to be this job might be a bad idea.

“Hey uh, sorry you went through all of this. I promise I won’t touch you. In fact, no one is going to touch you without your permission, ok?” I said hoping that eased some fears a little.

They blinked a pair of oddly transparent eyes at me. The shaking slowly stopped but they didn’t really look fully relaxed just yet. Max told us Dr. Fillow would be there in a few minutes with what they asked for. I wondered what kind of medicine he was making. It must be really powerful if so much of my blood and some mystery flowers was going into it.

“Before he arrives, we need to do one thing.” The man said making us look over to the three.

Again, to my shock, all three of them got a few steps before the clear creature and then got on their knees. At the same time, they all bowed so low, their foreheads touched the ground.

“We’re sorry for mistreating you!” All three said at once.

I once again... Had no idea what was going on. They stood up and brushed the dirt from their knees all looking like much kinder people. They dropped the imitating expressions that made them all appear like completely different people. They noticed my expression and one decided to explain their actions.

“We’re all Wyrms. I suppose a human like yourself wouldn’t understand, but we’re seen as lesser than other supernatural creatures because we’re related to Dragons. All of us have been bought and sold, then finally ended up here.” One explained.

I glanced at Max who filled in a little bit more.

“Dragons come from a different world that goes beyond The Silver King’s realm. Nearly all creatures don’t respect them because they don’t follow the King’s orders.”

I’ll have to ask him to fully flesh out that concept later.

“Our current owner has been very kind to us. She’s given us a great deal of freedoms, but fell ill. We wanted to get something to make her better and heard a human was working as a mailman. We pooled our money together to buy this creature hoping you would offer your blood in exchange.”

That information made my mouth drop open. These three were acting the entire time? Was this creature ever even in any risk of being forced into such terrible labor?

“If you refused, we were going to find a place for this creature to go. We all have been forced into some jobs we didn’t want to do. We like our jobs now, but didn’t want another person to go through the same thing we did.”

I wanted to be mad. I really did. But in the end, everything turned out just fine. I got so scared for my life over nothing.

“I assumed that all might be the case after you three requested us and had such a large package to deliver.” Max chipped in with a smile that puffed up his cheeks.

I also wanted to be upset that Max was smarter than myself in seeing through their actions. He knew off the bat that I would start bargaining for the creature and thought of a way for everyone to get what they wanted at so little of a cost.

Soon Dr. Fillow came by with a jar in hand. The three men swarmed him excited to have the coveted medicine in hand. I couldn’t bring myself to dislike them after everything. Since he was here, Dr. Fillow came over to do a very fast check up on my arm. It hadn’t been giving me that many issues now a days. I’ve pretty much gotten use to how stiff it felt and other minor issues with it.

“I didn’t think you had so much of my blood on hand.” I commented.

“I didn’t. We made some synthetic blood from a minor amount of yours. A drop can produce a litre so it’s been very useful in the clinic." He said after he finished looking over my arm.

The three in suits paused to look at their jar now suspicious of the content. Fillow noticed this and tossed over two very small glass vials to them.

“One is a drop of normal blood, the other is synthetic. If you can tell the difference I’ll let you drain Toby right now.” He stated in a huffy tone.

“What?”

My fears were ignored again. Thankfully after a long debated none of them could tell which held the produced blood and accepted the medicine was good enough. I now understood why Max tossed in some extra flowers in order to keep this deal from getting out. If creatures found out I would trade my blood for a life, the forced trades would never stop. A sound of someone saying Knock-Knock made me look over to the main door to watch Rufus of all people walk inside. Thankfully he had a new leg and walked pretty steady on this one.

“What are you doing here?” I asked but was still happy to see him.

“Max told me of the friend you picked up. I doubt the slime creature can talk right now. I’ve raised a bunch of kids so I offered to get them up to speed.” He said in his friendly voice.

I looked at the clear creature realizing it did look a lot like those slime people from newer anime. I haven’t watched any in a while so didn’t clue in until now. Rufus went over to them and held out a hand. He was so friendly and kind the slime creature took his offered hand right away feeling comfortable with the offer.

“Do you have a name?” Rufus asked the creature.

They shook their head and then for some reason looked over at me. Since I traded my blood, I sort of owned them. I didn’t like that idea at all. But I didn’t want them to go without a name either. I could give them a nickname for now and they could change it later.

“How about Sunny?” I asked wondering if that would be too weird or not.

A smile finally broke through on the creature's face. Sunny it was. And the bright expression really suited them. They made a move to give me back my jacket but I said they could hold onto it for a while. I did have a backup one after all. With that settled, Rufus gladly went with Dr. Fillow so they could give Sunny a checkup. I didn’t know how long Sunny might be gone for. But at some point, I needed to make room for a new person in my apartment until we thought of some better arrangement.

With all that settled, we were about ready to leave. For once, I was in a good mood after a job that had been somewhat scary for me. The three thanked us again for agreeing to such a deal and taking care of Sunny. I nodded telling them to take care of themselves.

We should have left sooner. The few minutes of polite good byes was my undoing. A shape moved in the darkness of the warehouse. Due to the place only being partly lit, I had no idea how large it really was. A sound came and I soon clued into it was breathing. The fear came back when I realized something very, very large appeared in the dark watching us.

“What are my three little ones doing? Hmm? Bothering the delivery workers?”

The voices sounded kind, far too kind. As if they were trying too hard to not sound threatening. It tugged at my nerves. The three men smiled to look back at the darkness. A set of eyes flickered open to stare at us. Eyes so large they dwarfed us in size. Then more eyes opened in the dark reflecting the light back. A hoard of very small creatures stared at us between those other massive eyes.

“Mistresses! We heard you got sick! We arranged to get some medicine for you!”

In front of this hidden monster the men started to act as excited as children. I had a different reaction. My heart almost stopped when a very large finger came from the dark. It carefully gave each man a small pat on the head with the very tip of the claw. Then the eyes turned their attention back in me nearly making me faint.

“That is very nice of you. I am feeling fine now. Keep what you earned for the future in case I fall ill once again. For the human, I thank you for putting up with these three. In exchange for being so kind, I shall sleep with you once. Any time you like.”

I shook my head before the monster stopped speaking. I’ve faced death so many times and yet I rarely got this frightened. I didn’t want to know what this creature looked like, let alone take it up on the offer. A laugh came from the dark that made my teeth chatter.

“Oh, you shall accept. At some point. They always do. Come now you three, you have work to do.”

The eyes closed and I heard the monster turn to leave. The men followed behind after giving us a wave good bye. Max noticed how shaken I was after such a short interaction. He picked a short cut to get back to the Zero room and I suspect he ensured we got very easy jobs for the rest of the day.

By the time I got home I felt so shaken I could barely do much more than curl up in bed wallowing in my own dread. Besides just how frightening a massive creature like that could be, I was mostly scared of what kind of hold it had on me. I shook my head no at the offer and yet internally my mind wanted to say yes. That monster’s offer had a pull on me in a way nothing ever had before. I just wanted to sleep and forget about it.

It took a few hours but I forced myself to think about the new roommate that was going to move in shortly. If I didn’t focus in that, I might let my mind drift back to accepting that offer. I knew if I did, I no longer could return to myself. Planning out what I could do for Sunny really did save myself that night. But I find even now, a very small part of myself whispering it wasn’t too late to find and meet that dark Mistresses. I just pray I never really listen to that part of myself.