She had lost count of the days since they had made her kill Tom. Seven she guessed. And she still had no good idea what these guys wanted from her. Kill more people?

  She sat in her meanwhile favorite corner, dirty as it was. The memories still haunted her, now mixed with the pain of her mutilated voice. And the dread of having her body changed further without her consent, just when she had begun to enjoy her new body. The one woman had said they wanted to change her legs. And they all just called her beast. They had mutilated her voice to make her sound like a beast. She certainly didn't want more changes, which dreaded to make her an actual beast.

  She was awoken from her thoughts by the hiss of the door to her cell sliding open and she saw the gruff guy whom had spoken to her first after her abduction. The other mobsters seemed to call him Bo. "Hey beast, got a first job for you. Nothing difficult. Just look intimidating."

  "Ha'm not ha b'st", her protest was weak, more out of habit instead of actual protest, and also due to lack of power in what remained of her voice.

  "Yeah, we all saw that. That was a real bloodbath, my lady. Don't need to do anything like that today though. Some some fangs, hiss at the right moment and make sure the guy pays. I'll do the talking."

  He threw something at her, "Work outfit. Put that on."

  She instinctively caught the bundle. It smelled like leather. She unwrapped it; a black leather top and something like a slip, with some silver metal applications, tooth shaped, or maybe claws? She dropped the pieces and curled up.

  He kicked her, not hard, but unpleasant enough, "No sleeping now, beast."

  "Ha chht hu." It was probably better if he had not understood that.

  She was prodded with a boot again, harder this time, "Move it beast, get dressed and into the car! Guy won't wait for us forever."

  Just a few seconds later she felt pulled up at her ears and her attempt to scream turned into a painful hiss as her voice failed her again.

  She grabbed his wrists to tear his hands from her ears, just to be punished by more pain as he didn't let go, and when he did, the next thing she received was a punch to her chest which sent her to her knees, gasping for air and tormented by pain.

  "Listen beast! I am your master now. If I say get dressed, you get dressed, and at once!" He shouted at her and she hastily grabbed the pieces, which she was supposed to wear.

  He let her get up, and while she changed with her back towards him, she heard him, "Seems you understand. Something else you need to understand, beast. The police wants you for murder, and they won't let you find shelter in the mind bank if they get you. You'll serve all the years in prison, every single one. The deal is, you work for us now and we'll keep you safe. Keep that well in mind."

  She nodded but said nothing.

  "Do you understand? Answer me!" He shouted again just when she had gotten dressed.

  "Hess", her attempt to say yes.

  "That is 'yes master' for you now", another shout which hurt her ears.

  "Hess mast'r." Fate seemed set to mock her, master was a word she could say almost correctly.

  Now she was dressed, reminded to look intimidating and sat in a hovercar with him. Outside it was raining lightly, raindrops gathered and ran over the windows as they were driving at a steady pace. The car was set on autopilot, it was one of the models where people sat across each other, rather than besides. And Bo had a stun gun, not directly aimed at her, but still present enough to shoot her any moment.

  She had said nothing so far. With her mangled voice she didn't feel inclined to say anything at all. And she particularly didn't want to talk to this guy. He had arranged the massacre to kill Tom and probably her abduction too.

  Bo looked out of the window for a moment, distracted by something she didn't care for. She kicked his gun upwards, jumped from her seat and hit the side of his neck with all force that she could bring into the chop. He was out immediately. She just hoped he was not dead. Quickly she fetched the gun, checked the setting. Stun, that was good. She shot him once, and once more for good measure. Then she checked his pulse and breathing. He was alive. She needed him alive, as witness for the police.

  She stopped the car and hit the emergency call button on the control panel.

  "Police, please state the nature of the emergency."

  "Voiss bad. T'xt", she tried to explain the problem.

  "I can't understand you, the audio is full of noise. Switching to text", came the reply.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The panel helpfully switched to a virtual keyboard automatically.

  "Mobsters kidnapped me, killed my voice. Forced me to kill my guardian. Help!" She typed.

  There was a very unpleasant moment of silence in the line before a response came, "We've got your location. A patrol is underway. Can you identify yourself?"

  She typed again, "Name is Vivian, my guardian was Thomas Morgan."

  Silence again, "I've got a matching record. Are you alone?"

  "One mobster in the car with me. He's out. Shot him with a stun gun. Twice." Typing took so much time compared to speaking.

  "Got it. Patrol will be there in a minute. You said you've killed someone?"

  "They drugged me and made me attack Tom. Tell patrol I cannot speak. They killed my voice", she typed quickly.

  "Vivian, we found the body of Mr. Morgan. And I have your record here. At the moment you are wanted for murder", the officer told her.

  "Yes. Ask the mobster. He was there. Witness. Take a memory scan", she so wished she could speak.

  "We'll do that. The patrol will be there in a moment. Follow all instructions."

  "Tell I cannot speak", she typed again.

  "Got it. Forwarding the info to the patrol. Follow the instructions", he told.

  She could hear the police sirens in a distance, coming closer fast.

  "I can hear sirens", she typed just to pass the time.

  "Open the window of the car so that they can speak to you. Stay in the car till we've sorted this", she was instructed.

  "Don't let the mobster run", one last and important message to get out.

  "If you shot him twice he'll be out quite a while", she was informed.

  A police car stopped in a little distance and two officers jumped out, guns trained at car she was in.

  She activated the window opener. With a light whirring noise the glass panel sunk into the door and fresh and clean smelling but also humid air flowed into the car.

  One of the officers came closer, gund pointed at her, "Madam, open the door and step out of the car. Hands above your head."

  She opened the door, swung her legs outside first, leaned out of the car to gain balance over her feet, rose her hands and managed to stand properly just between the car and door. She felt too uncertain of her voice to try to speak and just stood with risen hands while raindrops hit her face and dampened her fur. Soon she'd look like the literal wet cat.

  "That must be her", the other officer stated.

  "Step away from the door and put your hands on the car's roof, with your back to us. We must arrest you", she heard them say.

  She nodded, and did as instructed.

  Two more police cars arrived and now six officers all had their guns aimed at her, at least from what she could see.

  Someone approached her, she could hear boots on concrete, "Record says you lack self control. I have to search you anyways. Don't move."

  "Stun meh" She really hoped they understood at least the stun part. If that man touched her the wrong way it would end badly.

  "Stun?" He seemed confused.

  She nodded, "Stun meh" and pressed her forehead to the car, waiting for the shot.

  ----

  Meanwhile she was almost used to waking up like this. Just don't move, keep your eyes closed, keep the migraine away. From what she could feel, her hands were free and she laid on her back, something soft and warm was below her. Soft and warm, pleasant impressions, which she had not felt for quite a while.

  After a while she heard a voice, "Vivian, can you hear me?"

  She rose a hand. Moving the head was too dangerous now.

  "You've been stunned before?" It was the same voice. It seemed to be a man speaking.

  She rose the hand again.

  "Seems you know the drill. Transcript from your call said the mobsters killed your voice. I still want you to try and say something", the man prompted her.

  She kept her eyes closed. If she was careful she probably could say something without triggering the dreaded post-stun migraine. She tried to pronounce carefully, "Chllo 'nsp'ctor."

  She heard papers being moved, "Pretty clearly that's not the voice you had during your registration."

  She gave a thumbs up.

  "Can you sit up already?"

  She tried, all in slow motion, without opening her eyes and using the direction of the voice to determine which side of the bedding to orient herself to.

  "I have a tablet for you to write. You can chose to have the text stored or synthesized by voice", the man told her.

  "T'me. N'd more t'me." Words with light vowels were the horror.

  She heard steps and something was put into her hands. She carefully opened her eyes. A tablet. And there was a man, wearing a gray herringbone pattern suit. No police uniform, but she could see iron bars behind him. She was in a cell of some sort and sitting on a bunk bed.

  She typed, "Hello inspector" and hit the synthesize button. The tablet spoke the words with a neutral voice.

  "Hello Vivian. I'm inspector Howard. Did Mr. Morgan destroy your voice? Did you kill him because of that?"

  She typed, "Tom was good to me. The mob got him. Then they got me. Don't know why. They drugged me to kill him. Then they killed my voice", and hit synthesize.

  Finally a way to communicate properly.

  He fetched a chair from farther in her cell and took seat near her.

  "If you agree to it, write down the full story for the protocol. You have the right to remain silent. You are charged with murder and you have the right to consult a lawyer before we proceed."

  "Ask the mobster who was in the car with me. He was the one who did all this. They drew blood on Tom on his command and drugged me on his command", she hit synthesize to make the tablet read it out loud.

  "Do you have him?", she synthesized right after.

  "Yeah, we've got him. We'll ask him too", he confirmed.

  "How to set this to record?" She made the tablet speak for her.

  He got up to change some setting on the tablet, "Everything you write now is being recorded."

  "Good. I was showering at the sports club. Someone must have shot me with a stun gun. When I woke up I was in a strange room ..."

  It was a rather lengthy story, interrupted by many questions and the tablet both recorded and read out her writing for the inspector to hear.

  She looked at inspector Howard and typed eventually, "I want my voice back."

  He nodded, "If your story is true you can sue the mobsters for redress. The next days you'll have to stay here though."

  "Is there a chance for therapy? The memories how I've killed Tom are haunting me", she made the tablet read out.

  He nodded again, "I saw Mr. Morgans body. Someone thrown into a lion's den couldn't look worse. I can understand why you want therapy if you did that. Sadly, I don't think anyone will pay for it."

  "So, sit here and wait?" She hit 'synthesize' once more.

  "For the moment, yes. I'm sure I'll have news for you next day already", he let her know. Then she was left alone once more. At least he had let her keep the tablet with the voice synthesizer.