“Mars,” my sister mumbles from her spot in the corner, where she has been rocking back and forth for the past two hours. She had lost the most on Earth—her husband, her kids...gone in an instant.
A sharp pain bolts through my chest, the vision of their lifeless bodies scattered across the asphalt. What was supposed to have been a grand opening celebration for my sister’s fashion boutique had turned into a hellish nightmare. Oh, please let it be a nightmare!
“Mars? We couldn’t possibly live on Mars without suitable shelter to block out the galactic cosmic rays. It will radiate the shit out of us.” I know she is aware of this. I believe her brain is the consistency of oatmeal right now and she is grasping at straws. Our world has become extinct. What are we supposed to do?
Biting my nails, I survey the room. No one else aboard ship seems to be coherent enough to form a complete sentence. We are hollow bodies just doing our best not to completely lose our shit, which is exactly what I want to do. But me losing it will send her over the edge. I must keep it together for her sake.
Asha wipes the string of snot from her nose and links eyes with me; the first time since we boarded ship. “Not if we freeze to death first. But do you have any better ideas, Veda?” Her words are laced with malice which is oddly more comforting than her silence. Thank God! She’s still with me.
I am the reason her family is dead.
My mistake led to all of this, and my sister is paying the ultimate price.
I would give anything to trade places with her, absorb all her pain. I wish it were me dead instead of her family. “No, I don’t have any better ideas, Ash. But I truly am sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen…I just thought—”
“You just thought what? That if you opened Pandora’s Portal, everything would be fucking fine?!”
To this day, I still don’t know why I had done it. In that fragment of time in the middle of the street, I was a puppet and the universe my puppet master. I had spoken in a language I didn’t realize I had known. And when that portal opened, oh my fucking God, life, everything we knew...changed forever.
The electric-blue portal cracked with white, blinding light, allowing other dimensions to rip through earth.
Then they appeared. Massive, hungry, and vicious. Their eyes burning like embers, their skin yellow and scaly—dragon-like beasts.
Ice seeps into my veins recalling the past forty-eight hours, and I hug myself, my nails digging into my bare skin. Mars will have to get in line. This memory just might do me in because...aliens are real, not some horror story you tell around the campfire at night.
They. Are. Fucking. Real.
How naïve of us humans to believe we were the only intelligent life-forms that existed in the universe. We weren’t prepared for something of this nature.
For them.
And they are after me.
But why? My mind feels numb going over every possible reason, some parts of my memory still fuzzy. I feel I did them a favor by opening the portal, giving them access to our planet. At least they could have shown us some fucking gratitude and let humans live. But no. The feuding alien species had to fight over their claim to Earth. They corralled us humans like cattle, our resistance a fatal mistake.
We became casualties in a war not meant for us. Now, our race is on the brink of extinction like Earth.
My God. Earth! I glance over my shoulder to peer out the small window. Nope. Still gone.
Guilt riddles my soul. Things will never be the same, and this is a horse pill I can’t begin to swallow. I wish I could turn back the hands of time. Then maybe, just maybe, my sister, Asha, wouldn’t be trying to kill me with her penetrating gaze.
Tears well in her eyes again. I am surprised she has any left to shed, and the sight of my strong-willed, older sister on the verge of an emotional breakdown, is all it takes to unleash the icy grip over me. “I am genuinely sorry, Asha.” I fall to my knees beside her, holding her ever so tightly. She has lost everything, but I want her to know she still has me, and we are going to survive whatever obstacle comes our way. I am going to make damn sure of it. It is the least I could do after all I’ve done. “We are going to get through this, I promise.”
“How can you promise something like that?” she screeches at the top of her lungs. Her voice snaps everyone around us out of their daze. “My family is dead. Our planet has been blown to fucking dust. We are not getting through this. We are as good as dead!” Asha throws her body into me and stands up. Her eyes narrow. “Never speak to me again.”
My words get caught in my throat as she storms past the crowd, exiting through the chamber doors. Away from me. The doors seal up and it is as if they are closing over my heart. Soon everyone is wearing the same face of hatred. I have become the enemy. Heaviness consumes me as I fold into myself, the tears threatening my eyes. The person I look up to wants nothing to do with me.
Asha, I am so sorry. I hang my head in between my shoulders. I am trapped inside this sterile box with a group of people, and I have never felt so alone in my entire life.
I am unsure how much time has passed once I finally peel myself from the floor in search of Asha.
“Ash?” I call out in the corridor outside our assigned living quarters. Luckily, the guy I fucked last week was an astronaut. That is how we were able to get a spot on this ship.
No answer.
“Asha? Please, I’ll do anything. Just talk to me.”
“Ah, there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”
Speaking of a drunken night I’d like to forget. I pivot around and plaster on a smile so fake I think my face will break. “Hey, Carter.”
“Locked out of your room?”
I sigh. “Yes, Asha has both our room keys.”
“Well, looks like you are in luck.”
I raise an eyebrow. “How so?”
His smile accentuates his chiseled features. “I have the master key.”
Carter’s hooded eyes trail the length of me, smirking as if he is reliving a steamy memory. Don’t get me wrong, he was a good fuck, and he’s looking incredibly fuckable right now with his chocolate-brown hair slicked back and his black spacesuit outlining his taut muscles. Yet, the thought of how clingy he became after we were intimate puts a damper on the insatiable urge blossoming inside me; as a free-spirit, I’m not ready to settle down—a girl needs to have her options, you know?
He opens the door to an empty chamber with a single circular window. Ironically, our room has a view of where Earth used to be. The reality stalks me at every corner, I swear. I grimace as a bigger hole forms in my heart. I really fucked things up this time. Asha won’t be able to save me from myself.
“Hey?” His hand grazing along mine brings me back to the present. “Is there something going on between you and Asha?”
“She’s just having a difficult time.”
Carter leans against the door frame, folding his arms with a grim look on his face. “I can’t imagine...” His eyes close and he shakes his head. “Losing my family like that…” Carter is the most empathetic man I know. The poor sap was ready to marry me and dedicate the rest of his life to fixing all the problems I wasn’t ready to face.
God bless his soul.
Carter will make a woman extremely happy one day. That woman just isn’t me, and I feel I am doing him a solid for rejecting all his advances. I am a jaded bitch in a dark place—the last thing I want to do is ruin a good man like him.
I mean, Carter is an intelligent, good-natured soul who is easy on the eyes. And his softened blue-eyed gaze right now makes my heart strings tug a little.
“Yeah.” Guilt from what I’ve done weighs on me as I rub the back of my neck. “She’s not in the right head space right now, which is why it’s important I find her.”
“I can help.”
Oh, Carter. So eager to please. “I wouldn’t want to interfere with your work.”
“It’s no problem. I’m taking a break. Come on. Maybe she
went this way.” He reaches for my hand and leads me down the corridor to a set of sliding double doors. He goes about punching in a key code on the touch screen panel, thereafter, holding up his badge to the scanner.
“Why would she be this way if you need a code and everything to get through here?” I ask.
“We are taking a shortcut.” A grin appears on his face that is laced with wicked intent.
I swallow a dry lump in my throat and let go of his hand. The hair on the back of my neck stands up, suddenly something about him feels off. “You know what? I think I know where she might be. Thanks for all your help, Carter.” I pivot on my heel and speed walk in the opposite direction.
Carter’s hand meets my wrist, and he spins me around. “Where in the hell do you think you are going? I told you she must be this way.”
“What the hell has gotten into you?” I ask, narrowing my eyes. It’s not like him to be so aggressive with me.
“Stop being so ungrateful, I’m just trying to help you find your sister.”
“I’m not being ungrateful. I have expressed several times that I am thankful for all you have done for us. But, right now, you are not acting like yourself.”
“Is anyone acting like themselves at this point? Earth is fucking gone, Veda. Maybe there’s something wrong with you because you have been so fucking calm about all this.” His face reddens as he yells inches away from my face.
I start to question my sanity. Maybe he is right. Maybe there is something seriously wrong with me. I want to believe I have been so calm because I keep telling myself this is all a dream. That I will wake up any second and all this will be a fading nightmare.
But the real question that I’ve been avoiding is... What if deep down I wanted this to happen? I needed an escape from the reckless life I was leading. After our parents died, I had taken the philosophy of life being too short to the extreme. All I did was party and bullshit. No direction whatsoever. Slept with a different guy every other night. Then I was evicted, and I had to crash on my sister’s couch until I found a place.
I never did. So, I ended up watching her kids while Asha and her husband Jeff worked their asses off to support us.
Asha finally started her own fashion boutique with Jeff running the logistics behind the scenes. In the beginning, they were barely home. The kids had missed them so much, but I admired their drive and partnership.
Also, I think Asha felt she had our parents’ weight on her shoulders, needing to fill their shoes, so to speak, being the eldest. Eventually, Asha’s business took off. Man, she was living the all-American dream—her fall collection was featured in Milan’s fashion week. She and Jeff were going places.
Until they weren’t.
Her life, her dream, her family—everything she had worked so hard for—fucking imploded the moment I opened the portal, and now her life doesn’t exist anymore. Isn’t that some shit? The ultimate bitch slap to the face. How could I do that to her after everything she has done for me?
My head feels heavy as I keep cycling through the events over and over inside my mind. Frustratingly so, the more I do, the less I seem to remember. Never mind that right now though; I’m hoping in time the memories will piece together. In this moment, I need to focus on Carter standing in front of me. So, I place my hands on his chest, hoping to simmer down the anger inside him.
His gaze instantly redirects from my face to my hands. He shuts his eyes; his Adam’s apple bobs up and down. “God, Veda. You have no idea how I have missed your touch.”
Next thing I know, my back is up against the wall, Carter’s large body is pinning me there. His lips capture mine in a desperate kiss. I hesitate at first but give in, wanting to feel something other than the guilt haunting my body like a ghost. “Carter...” Our kiss intensifies as our bodies gel as one, his desire for me poking me in the thigh. A dull tingle spreads throughout my body, a slow burn heating my skin as I cling onto his muscular body even tighter.
Those plaguing memories are soon replaced with one’s involving us, pleasuring each other until our bodies are sated. Us on the pool table in his basement, on the floor by the fire. With my arms snug around his waist, I explore his mouth with my tongue, letting out a small whimper in between breaths.
“You are all I think about, Veda.” His hand slides down between us in search of my center.
BOOM!
We are jolted sideways, high-pitched screams echo in the distances. Another explosion goes off, more violent this time, and me and Carter go skidding across the floor.
The lights flicker off and on.
“Critical damage incurred. The ship will begin the purge process in 3…2…1.”
Carter and I look at each other in horror. Fuck! Goddamn it, where are you, Asha?!
“Come in, Major, we need your assistance in the control center, ASAP. Do you copy?” his wristwatch crackles.
“Roger that. Over and out.” He helps me to my feet and nearly pulls my arm out of the socket when he drags me to the double doors again.
“Access denied.”
“Shit!” He bangs his fist against the door. “Hopefully, we are not the section being purged.” His fingers frantically glide across the screen in a second attempt.
No luck.
“Control Center, come in. I have no access,” he says into his watch.
But there is no response.
“Carter, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“This is all my fault.”
“How could any of this be your fault?”
“I—”
Another explosion rattles us, and the impact sends us headfirst into the titanium doors. A ringing noise ricochets through my brain as I clutch my head tightly, the pain taking over.
“Airlock breach,” the system warns.
“Oh, no.” I gasp. The sound of metal on metal sounds behind us followed by footsteps that shake the ground like an earthquake. A heavy pull twists inside my stomach as we both crane our necks to the source of the noise.
In my peripheral, I notice Carter’s jaw unhinge causing my heart to do backflips in my chest. My blood is now running cold knowing our troubles are far from over.
Blue light. Blood. Chaos. Fire. Destruction. Death.
My mind goes numb, the vague flashbacks take over my vision once again. It’s like goddamn Groundhog Day inside here!
Focus, Veda!
A small shadow lingers in the corridor.
“Asha.” Her name barely leaves my lips I am trembling so bad. Not again!
A bigger shadow swallows up the corridor behind her, a low grumble sends a chill down my spine.
Carter clears his throat, standing up brave and tall, pushing his broad chest out to shield me from the savage invader holding my sister hostage. “Let her go.” He raises his gun.
He just won’t stop.
“Trade.” The alien’s growl vibrates against my bones, shaking the space surrounding us. Asha has gone still in his grasp, her eyes vacant of any emotion. She’s so close yet so far away from my reach. Stay with me, Ash.
“I won’t let you take her.” Carter partakes in a stare down with the alien hunched over us. He’s so massive in size with his muscles rippling and yellow scales fluorescent in the light; he barely fits inside the corridor of the ship. A glare so possessive, eyes the color of fire. I should look away, but I can’t, and even though his eyes are burning into mine, I shiver in response, feeling as if I am standing naked before him. My soul laid bare like he seems to know all my darkest secrets.
The alien’s sharp black claws extend outward as he tosses Asha to the ground only to snatch up Carter. “This isn’t a negotiation.” Flinging him into the air, Carter collides into the door behind us with a loud thud. I waste no time helping Asha up by her waist; I steady her onto her feet, moving her auburn hair away from her pale face. “Asha, I was looking everywhere for you. I’m so glad you are okay.”
Glancing back at Carter knocked unconscious, I frown
, realizing we are out of options. There is nothing left to do but hold onto my sister for dear life. Soon, the memories of our childhood flash through my eyes instead of the catastrophic end that was Earth being ripped apart from all angles. Dragon-like aliens vs. reptilians in futuristic warships. A time when Asha and I were inseparable. I once thought nothing could tear us apart.
I was wrong.
Asha snaps out of her daze and hugs me back. I relish in the warmth of her arms around me and I exhale the breath I have been holding onto forever. “I love you, Asha.” I kiss her cheek and reluctantly release my hold. “Take care of Carter for me.”
She shakes her head, her eyes brimming with tears. “Take—wait, what are you doing?”
“You know what will happen if I don’t go. More people will die.” I am done running. I have been running away from my problems for as long as I can remember. Where has it gotten me?
Nowhere.
It is time to face the music.
Or in this case…a ferocious alien with sharp teeth and claws, but somehow looks human. When he’s not flapping his giant wings and breathing out fire, that is. How does he do that? Aliens confuse the hell out of me.
“No!” she screams. “No!” She reaches for my hand, but I step away from her and closer to the beast so hell-bent on claiming me as his.
My smile is faint as I continue to shiver. “We are super fly…”
She chokes out a laugh through her sob. “Sisters, we ride until we die.”
“I’ll die for you, Ash.”
I feel his claws close around my shoulders.
“God, no! Please!” she screams, falling to her knees, pleading to the being that has shown us no mercy.
“By—”
Asha
Witnessing your entire family die and your younger sister being abducted by a fire-breathing alien, is a fate worse than death. I’d much rather be dead so I wouldn’t have to feel this soul-destroying pain ever again. It’s crazy to think now, that at one point I had everything—a loving husband, two beautiful and smart children, and a successful business. I thought nothing could stop me until the person I least expected betrayed me.
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