"Er..." When I looked over his face, Ittisk displayed a highly exaggerated smile. I reached up to scratch my head. I was certain that a few minutes ago I was being taken as a sacrifice to some morbid cause. The way the whole atmosphere changed left me speechless. "May I go back? I... I can't stay here."
"What do you mean?" Ittisk's eyes bored into my soul. "We can all be family here. What might your name be?"
I opened my mouth to speak truthfully, afraid that I may set my captor off if I answered with anything else other than a name. I was stopped by my own thoughts, though. If I were to disappear, they would most likely dump all my information to several groups. Even though my appearance stood out significantly, I knew to keep a degree of anonymity. " My name? It's... It's Acabio." I felt a wave of embarrassment. Perhaps I shouldn't have used my uncle's name, but it was the first one that came to mind.
"Acabio, huh?" Ittisk look away, rubbing his chin. "I'm almost jealous. That's a good name. So, Acabio, do you have any talents?"
I fired through my head and slowly shook it. "No... I'm not terribly good at anything. Just mediocre."
My captor made a low grumbling noise. "Fine. That's fine. You can still land a decent job if you try well enough."
It was at this moment that Thrack spoke up. "Ittisk, should he work as..."
The other alien turned around, then back at me. His eyes squinted as he deeply inspected me. "Yes... That could work."
I felt my heartbeat steadily gaining speed. "What could work?" I was starting to become afraid that I would have to do some potentially illegal activities.
"A cashier. Are you okay with numbers, or are you mediocre in that field too?" Ittisk expected a reply.
"Numbers..." I began to think once more, remembering how well I did in mathematics. "Good enough for a cashier, I believe."
As time went on, I started to formulate an admittedly haphazard plan. It was built on the idea that if I was left unattended, I would have a better chance at escaping and randomly searching about until I either found a school member or stumbled upon the hotel.
Ittisk seemed to buy into my acceptance to become a cashier. A smile spread across his face once more. "Well, thanks! We'll have you start working tomorrow, but we can get you to your workplace and show you around now if you'd like."
I almost refused. It seemed too easy; Ittisk showing me the layout that would help ensure that I make it into the streets unscathed? Nevertheless, I tried to hold back my ecstatic reaction. "Sure. After a little bit, though. I'm a little tuckered out from walking."
Ittisk still played along and signalled to Thrack, who sat down shortly after. "It's good to have you on board, kid. I just knew that I was going to use that translator device someday."
I smiled, something that I hadn't planned to do but accepted. It would help me build a temporary and useful friendship with my captors. "Translator device?"
"Yes." Ittisk pointed to his ear. "That small orb I shoved into your ear. It's infused with some magic that can both read what people are saying in other languages and change your speech to suit those. It's neat, huh?"
I nodded, partly out of pure curiosity. It was interesting, to say the least, what people could do with magic. "Yeah. Where'd you get it?"
"Oh, someone just had it and it happened to have a price tag. A hefty one at that," Ittisk sighed. "Are you good to go now?"
I rubbed my legs and nodded. "Yes. Yes, I'm fine."
Ittisk stretched when he stood up. Thrack followed mere seconds after. "Alright, let's get going!" He enthusiastically opened the door and beckoned me out. His assistant was behind me, most likely making sure I didn't run away as we were walking.