Kelian

by C. R Corbin

  "He told me that you didn't get into med school. It was alright, he was still proud of you. He was a good man, a good man that didn't deserve this, I know that much. You may hate me, you may yell and spit and claw but know that I don't blame you. I don't know what I can do but if there are any concerns on your part just let me know, just make me aware and i'll do my best. It's the least I can do." she said.

  "Then let me free, let me see him." I said to her.

  She bites her lip.

  "Then don't waste my fucking time." I growled, turning towards the wall and hearing her leave once more. Her sneakers strike the metal and make a distant popping sound as she leaves me in this cold and frigid room once more, without comfort, without love.

  Over the next couple of days the routine is the same, get served bland food and listen to this lady babble on about how she and my dad used to work together. She would ask her questions and I would say nothing, all of it was in one ear and out the other. All she discussed was her research with him, how much of a brilliant man he was. There were these small moments that she would slip in about moments at the lunch table or how she met me when I was smaller. She apparently knew my mother.

  And other days were a bit less benign.

  The TV would flicker on and I would be forced to watch as they battered him with their hands and their clubs. He sat there and took it all, bruises swelling on his grey skin, the purple floating through his body as he shivered from the punishment he was taking. I focused on the chips in his horns, those marks that marred the beautiful bone. He shakes his head and calls out to me, that was the worst part.

  "Penny." he muttered, I could hear his muffled voice. That proud baritone growl was now a low whimper, a plea.

  "I'm sorry, i'm so sorry." I bemoaned, quivering and welling up into a ball in the corner to bawl my eyes out while my love was beaten.

  Without him there was no one, there was no reason to hang on after he was gone. He would be the only man to touch me as he did, the only one to love my curvy body the way it was, the only one to protect me in such a manner ever again. Those old schooldays of getting pushed around and mocked for who I was didn't matter in his eyes. My grey star prince dying on this TV and I could do nothing. A supernova was painless, a gunshot was painless, this was torture, it was unbearable.

  "Stop it!" I yelled after 6 days of them beating on him. He was already starving, his skin cracked and his strength exceptionally diminished.

  Fire fading, his smile hidden behind the embers of that cold mountain. His feet battered, his eyes a low yellow, his horns chipped and the lightning gone. I could feel the cold of that valley consuming me without him, I was almost driven to madness. I could hear it calling in the back of my mind, the growls, the tendrils that threatened to root themselves in my brain and never let me go. They would never bring me back to this place of light with him there, they would never take me back.

  "I can't give up, I can't." I sobbed, the temptation was so great to just bite my tongue or bash my head against the glass to end it all but I had to survive, as long as he was alive I would hold on and I hoped that he would as well.

  "Too bad about your boy. Could've been a good servant." said a new voice, the bass tone rushing through the white room as I glanced at the entrance, a large figure, maybe about 8 feet tall, stands there, grinning and his red eyes locked with mine.

  "Ithyrians are too damn curious for their own good. If he had just done what I said your old man would be alive and we wouldn't have to kill him. Hell if your boyfriend didn't want to run back into the stars he could have just worked for me. He should consider it an honor to work for a Trezodian." he said.

  I say nothing, I couldn't back sass this guy like I could with Markham. He was scary, as in he could change moods at the drop of a dime and bust through this wall. I could practically feel his strength. His exoskeleton was covered in scratches and marks, he had seen a lot of battle, that was apparent. His red eyes shone in this dim fluorescent light and his fanged smile sends shivers down to the root of my spine.

  "We'll break his legs, then his arms, then his ribs. We'll leave him to rot for a couple of days and then do our autopsy. Heal him back up and do some more experiments, inject him with whatever we please, treat him however we please, at the end of that he can die in front of you girl. He can collapse at your feet and spit out his blood onto your hands and then Markham can do what he wants with you. I don't really care. It's been a long time since I got to taste Ithyrian blood." he muttered.

  No.

  "You know I should thank him in a way. I could never get my hands on him when he was here at the facility, I could never tense my fingers around his neck and beat him senseless like I wanted to when your father was around. When the government was around here and they were convinced that he would be worth more intact than dead I could only spit at him and do things discreetly. Now....well I get the pick of the litter." he said and slipped out the door, leaving me there to imagine what sorts of horrid things were being done to my love now.

  #

  Kelian

  Day 8.

  They took out the iron today.

  I sit there with my back against the wall as the iron is lifted after being held over a flame. It is pressed into my shoulder and I do not scream, I do not even blink. I was so weak that even if I wanted to fight back I couldn't. If I had never come to this planet on a tip, on a tip that it was rife for adventure and contracts. None of this would have happened.

  Penny would still have her father and I....my life.

  "Damn.......shit that must hurt like hell huh grey?" one of the soldiers asked me.

  I gazed at the burned tissue, red and black, blood festers and I think of her as they walked out. They would be bringing something a bit more severe soon, they would not leave me here with just a couple of marks. By my death I would be unrecognizable and I would have to accept that fate.

  She was watching me, I knew that much.

  For all of this weakness I knew that she was a spectator. The lens shines in the corner and I watched it, smiling at her, hoping to make her feel better about the situation. That was why I would not scream, why I would not twitch, that would let her know that I was suffering, I didn't need her to have that knowledge, I didn't need her to suffer anymore.

  This was my doing and I would see it to the end on my terms, it was the least that I could do now that I had nothing left.

  #

  Penny

  She was awfully quiet today actually. She just brought me the food and sat there, watching me eat with those sad blue eyes. Those pale blue eyes that shine in the light while I munched on the sandwich and drank my glass of water. I felt ill at having to eat this while Kelian was stuck eating food that had no business being fed to roaches. She waits for me to finish and then takes the dish, remaining in place.

  "What? No stories? I don't give a shit either way, you're just here so you can make yourself feel a little better about the mess i'm in. What did you guys do to him today? Did you beat him senseless with the club? Burn him again? What is it? What has you so distraught oh benevolent maiden?" I asked her with venom in every word.

  She sighs, seemingly tightening her hands at her sides and turning to face me. She had something in her hand, I wasn't sure what but she was clutching it tightly. I bite my lip as she sighs and finally begins to speak, those blue eyes that had been dipped into pools of sadness prior now had a hint of determination.

  "He didn't kill your father you know. It was poison, slow radiation poisoning at the hand of Markham. Your friend is completely innocent, all the pain that he is going through right now is for nothing, it is for one man's ego. He saw the alien as a convenient excuse to have your father killed. First it was the poisoning and then an aim at his heart. He knew your father couldn't stand to see the creature suffer so he inflicted as much pain as the science team would let him. We starved him, shocked him, played recordings and video around his cell over and over again
in an attempt to coax him out. Letting him out was not part of the plan, they were just going to use him as a scapegoat, the alien that is. That way Markham got your father's death and the Trezodian's got an Ithyrian body." she said.

  "I figured as much....why are you telling me this?" I asked her.

  "I can let you out." she said.

  Silence filled the room. It's been almost two weeks we've been in this hell and now she was telling me this? She looked a bit fearful, I would be too knowing what Ezriel would do to her if he found out about this. They likely knew because they had this room wired but maybe she found a way out of that somehow. Or maybe she was just a death seeker at this point, I didn't know and I didn't care. I would take all the help I would get.

  "And? Where is his room? Where can I find him?" I asked her.

  "Around the corner, get out and take a right and then a left. He'll be in the last room. I'll do what I can to distract them but there'll be guards so you'll have to use this." she said, showing me a flashbang, I raised an eyebrow.

  "Why are you doing this? Why?" I asked her.

  She said nothing for a few moments, simply standing there with her eyes directed downwards to her hands. The air in the room got a bit colder and I bite my lip, standing at attention after spending the entire morning huddled in the corner in the fetal position. The grey hairs brush her cheeks, her blue eyes flickering between shades of contentment and resentment.

  Everything seemed to stop, the smell of the room got a bit more metallic, my heart was threatening to beat out of my chest at the prospect that I could make it out of here and save him. She frowned, glancing at her fingers, the wrinkles bundling as she contemplated everything that had led her up to this point. She turned to me and smiled, the first one she ever bestowed upon me.

  "A few years ago my husband died, then my daughter ran off and never called again. This....this is all that I have. Maybe that twisted my perception of things a little, I lost track of what we were trying to achieve and only focused on how we would get there. This is my attempt at atonement, a redemption of a life that is no longer worth living." she said as she turned and pressed the button.

  The cell opens and she turns to walk out of the room. She smiled at me one more time, I got ready and crept up near the wall next to the entrance. She walked down the hall for a few moments, I thought that I would be hearing a flash bang but it would be a much larger explosion than I had thought. I braced myself, hugging the metal wall and frowning as I heard a pin drop.

  "What the fuck?!" I heard a man yell.

  "Holy shit!" another man cried.

  And then it was silence after that. I was nearly defeated from the explosion, falling onto my face with my entire body trembling from the force of the blast.

  "Hold on, hold on Kelian." I said, mustering myself to my feet and stepping out quickly. Luckily I hadn't broken anything but that little stunt of her's was gutsy, I would give her that.

  And then I see her, well what's left.

  There was blood marking the walls, bodies of soldiers were in various pieces and stuck to the metal walls. I stepped out and glanced around, I could hear some of them coming in the distance. I could hear their approach so I stepped on it and made a beeline for his room.

  "Alright so right and then left." I said to myself.

  I slide on the balls of my feet and dashed down the hall. Ashy flesh slides beneath my toes as I edged closer and closer to his cell. A week ago I was at home, stuck on the sofa complaining about my life and then he comes, like a knight, shining. He showed me a better path, because of him I was now braver, I was better.

  And that was why I needed to tell him that it wasn't his fault, that I forgave him no matter what transgressions he thought he might have committed.

  "Kelian!" I cried out.

  "Hey! She's going for the freak!" said a man.

  I managed to dash to the entrance, the door was locked automatically once the explosion did go off so I used her keycard to get in. I step inside and nearly backed away in shock, he didn't look nearly as bad in the video. I stare at him for a long while, frowning and nearly coming to tears. He turns to gaze at my feet, he didn't want to lock eyes and was shocked to see me. I could see the resignation in his eyes however, all of that doubt had already seeded itself into his mind.

  His right horn was chipped, almost cracked and broken entirely and the other wasn't fairing that much better. His golden eyes were now a shade of sickly yellow, his grey skin was even paler and the various markings and tattoos on his body, including the mating mark that we both shared, they were disjointed and colorless, it seemed like the bruising blended with the ink, the burn marks where images I adored used to be. Pain where I used to trace my fingers along his body after a nice night of fun, after a nice night of pleasuring one another. His legs were bruised, maybe even broken. From the looks of it his hands were smashed and purple, he could do nothing except languish. And despite all of this, the greatest pain that was caused to him was the fact that he had hurt me.

  "Kelian." I called out to him, kneeling after locking the door behind me.

  He said nothing.

  "Kelian i'm here to get you out." I said.

  I could hear them coming, especially some heavy footsteps approaching, heavier than any man could be, a Trezodian, Ezriel.

  "It's not your fault....I love you. Please, please let's go, I want to leave." I said.

  He stares at me and bites his lip.

  "I killed your father. I got you into this. Just go without me, i'll just slow you down like this." he said to me.

  "Kelian.....you didn't kill him. It was all a set-up, Markham poisoned him, he had him poisoned!" I pleaded with him.

  It seemed to get through to him a little bit but he was still in a dour mood, probably due to all of the torture. He snapped out of his little grief coma and gets to his feet, trying to muster the energy but he couldn't. He shakes his head at me and I merely stared at him, biting my lip and begging for him to get the energy to come along. He sighed and falls to the floor, his feet were battered, bruised, broken, burned.

  "I'm not going to make it out of here." he said.

  "She's in there, break it down." ordered a human soldier.

  "No, no I'll handle that just fine." said another voice, Ezriel's malevolent robotic baritone reached through the walls.

  "Kelian, we have to leave, I need you with me. I can't do this without you." I said.

  "You need to run. Grab my pistol from that chest along with whatever else you need and run. I'm not making it out of here. I'm broken." he said, a bit of his determination coming back.

  "Not without you!" I screamed and suddenly the door flung open.

  "Hello, little human." said Ezriel, Kelian turned to face him, his eyes still that same despondent shade of yellow but I did see a flicker of red.

  "No, please, please." I begged.

  "You're too much trouble human, guess you're going to have to pay me back somehow and my currency is very specific." He said as he rammed his metal palm into my neck and pinned me against the wall. The jagged edges of his carapace scratching me.

  "No." I said with tears in my eyes, staring at Kelian whose eyes were getting redder and redder, he made an effort to stand but couldn't. His legs were burned, bruised, and broken. No matter how much effort he mustered it would be no use.

  "I'm going to have some real fun with her. Let's see if my knowledge of the human body is still up to date." he said as his claws slide along my cheek and he smiles, tasting the blood.

  "No!" I cried.

  And then it happened.

  A flash of light, I didn't remember what happened after that. I was on my knees, holding my neck with my left hand near red hot steel. I panted, looking ahead of me and expecting to see those soldiers that had come with Ezriel. There was nothing but piles of ash there, I look to my right and I see a massive hole with Ezriel nowhere in sight. I get to my feet slowly, my vision was still a bi
t blurry from that flash of light. I take a few moments to get my senses back but I am suddenly gripped by something strong, something powerful.

  It was a warm feeling, I wasn't so sure of what it was at first. The air still smelled like burnt metal. My hearing was still a bit funky so I couldn't quite understand what was being said to me but my sense of touch...that was working just fine. I open my mouth to call out for Kelian, the only thing I can taste is the vaporized steel and suddenly a pair of lips pressed against my mouth. My vision finally returns once the lips slipped away from me and I could feel the tears welling in my eyes.

  "Hello darling." he said with that grin that I have come to adore.

  "Kelian." I said with a smile.

  He seemed to have regained all of his vigor in such a short amount of time. His wounds were completely healed and he was holding me in the bridal position, glancing down at me and smiling while I fretted underneath him. He stroked my cheek and smiled while I smiled back at him. He brushes the brown locks of hair away from my face and sets me down at a safe spot, his hands were okay, his legs were okay, that golden glow in his eyes was restored.

  But they returned to red soon enough.

  "I can stand being ordered around by the humans. That I don't care about. I don't even care about the fact that I have to be on this pathetic planet for the assignment." a voice rings out and I turned. Kelian's eyes turned red once more.

  "But the one thing I can't stand. Is a little shit who doesn't know his place." said Ezriel.

  Ezriel stepped out, the left side of his body burnt with his entire, gargantuan, left arm missing. The left side of his face was marred with charred marks, black streaks of ash running over to his right side. He was bleeding badly but that didn't mean he was harmless, far from it. Kelian's electrical aura begins to flash once more before Ezriel tackled him against what was the remnants of the glass cage. Ezriel threw a punch at Kelian's face only to be met with shattered glass as Kelian ducked and superheated the electrical energy in his hand.