Voland: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Warriors of Orba Book 3)

by Zara Zenia

  “The caffeine’s kicked in, hasn’t it?” she asks with a smirk.

  “Caffeine?”

  “In the coffee.”

  I’m not listening to her. I’m busy counting every single tile on the ceiling before moving onto the floor.

  “Felicity, I can see sounds.”

  “What?”

  “I’m serious. I’m so awake I can hear colors.”

  She stares at me and stops chewing although her mouth is still full. Her hand seems to have a mind of its own, twiddling a piece of pancake around the fork as she dips it in syrup.

  “Ok. No more coffee.”

  She takes the cup out of my hand and places it out of arm’s reach.

  “I need the bathroom,” I suddenly blurt out. “Bye.”

  And I run away, flinging myself through a set of double doors as I rush to the toilet.

  When I come back, Felicity has finished eating and is sitting staring at something in her hands. As I sit down, I see it’s a photograph.

  “Your son?” I ask.

  “Eh?” she looks up. “Oh, no. It’s my little brother! It’s a picture of him as a kid. Although he’ll always be a little kid to me.”

  She smiles and traces a fingertip over his face.

  “I miss him so much.”

  “You left him behind?”

  “Yeah,” she says. “He’s with his mom, I mean she’s my mom too but she’s a bitch. I don’t want anything to do with her.”

  “I have a mother, somewhere,” I say.

  “Do you miss her?”

  “No,” I say. “Not in the way that humans do anyway.”

  She goes silent for a second then puts the photo back into her bag.

  “When I sort myself out I’m going to go back for him, you know. I’m going to save him from that hell hole.”

  “Your home, with your family, it’s bad? I asked.

  I can’t figure out what she’s trying to say but I at least get an idea that she is troubled somehow.

  “Bad? That would be an understatement.”

  She sips the last of my coffee and slams the cup down with a clunk.

  “I needed that,” she sighs. “Anyway, I don’t wanna bore you with shit about my childhood, it’s complicated and it’s ugly.”

  “I want to hear it,” I insist.

  She looks stunned.

  “Really?”

  “Sure!”

  “You’re a really nice guy, Voland.”

  I’m happy that she thinks I’m a nice guy but that isn’t why I want to hear about her childhood. I want to learn everything about humans and how they develop once out of the womb, maybe she can give me some sort of insight.

  “Well, I’ll make it brief. My mom drank like a fish, had a real penchant for bourbon. Nowadays, she can’t afford the stuff so she’s mainly into beer now. She had me and Ronnie young, hated us almost as soon as she saw us and made sure we knew it. She’d throw things at us, yell for no reason and make us do all the chores. And of course, she’d pick boyfriends over us. I can’t remember how many times she’d leave me alone with Ronnie as a baby. He’d be screaming his head off while she was out having a good time.”

  “Having a good time? Like what you offered me?”

  She purses her lips and begins ripping up another napkin.

  “Kinda. Anyway, things weren’t that easy and we were always piss poor, you know, so I was bullied at school for always bein’ the poor kid and I know Ronnie had it tough too except he had it worse because he’s a boy so they were always beatin’ on him.”

  I’m enthralled by what she’s saying and lean forward on the table to get closer to her. Meanwhile, I run a finger over the syrup on my plate and suck on it, desperate to get every drop of sustenance before we need to leave.

  “So, then what happened?”

  She looks up and narrows her eyes.

  “Then I worked my ass off, is what happened. Took every class I could, joined every club. I ignored everyone and stuck my nose in books until I graduated high school. Then I went to college, got a masters in business studies and now here I am, stuck with a pile of debt and my mom’s still a bitch.”

  “School, I have heard of this. What is it exactly? Like a prison in which children go during set times of the day until their parents want them.”

  She picks at a loose piece of thread that’s dangling from her cuff.

  “That’s just about the truest thing I’ve ever heard, Voland, but that’s not it. We go there to learn about the world, to be educated so we grow up to be upstanding citizens with good jobs so we can contribute to society. Except, it’s not so easy, is it?”

  “All I’ve heard of school is that people hate it.”

  “Yeah, it sucks. It kinda feels like being trapped in a zoo but no one wants to come see you and the food is terrible.”

  “I feel sorry for human children. They appear to grow up into miserable adults.”

  “Yup,” she slams her hand on the table. “Anyway, we better get outta here, that waitress is starting to give us stink eye.”

  Chapter 9

  Voland

  THREE WEEKS LATER

  The room is still dirty and disgusting but it is better than being out there in the cold with the rain pelting down on your face as you shiver. I’m alone on the heart shaped bed, a piece of furniture that Felicity hates. She won’t stop complaining about it and saying how sleazy it is. I’ll be honest in that I don’t really grasp her hatred for it. It’s just a bed, after all, a place to sleep. It’s not as if you’re aware of its shape once your eyes are closed. Anyway, I’m leaning against the musty pillows with the remote in my hand as I flick between television channels.

  It’s all so maddening and disorientating. Felicity has assured me that people watch television to relax after a long day. It appears to be the Earthlings’ favorite past time but all it does is make me feel as though my brain is melting. There are so many fast-moving images, flashing colors and loud voices. I find a music channel and watch it until I can’t take anymore. I don’t understand how all the songs can sound the same but somehow get progressively worse with each new video that pops up. I long for the soft and soporific music of Orba where the notes are distinguished by a lightness of touch I have not witnessed here on Earth. I long to hear the call of a singer whose voice travels across the astral planes and lulls you to sleep like an ambient mother.

  There’s a knock on the door and I look up. Through the slats of the blinds, I can see someone is shuffling about outside.

  “Housekeeping!” a cheery voice says.

  I recognize it immediately, it’s the voice of the man who works in the reception.

  “Come in!”

  He enters with his usual smile.

  “Need any new towels?” he asks.

  “Sure, thank you.”

  He places a bundle on the end of the bed and proceeds to walk into the bathroom where he begins spritzing some foul smelling, green stuff around the bath and sink.

  “So are you enjoying your stay here?” he asks.

  “Yes,” I say.

  He leans against the doorframe with a rag in his hand and hitches up his glasses with a twitch of his nose.

  “How long you been here now, buddy?”

  “Three weeks, I think.”

  It’s hard trying to figure out human time as we don’t have the same hours and days back on Orba.

  “And you’re new to Meridian too?”

  “Yeah,” I nod. “It’s an interesting place.”

  He stares at me for a moment as though he’s trying to figure me out, his eyes lingering on my face as though he’s trying to stare right through to my thoughts.

  “You known the young lady, Felicity for long?”

  He resumes scrubbing the sink.

  “Three weeks,” I repeat.

  “So it’s been an eventful month for you I take it.”

  “Like you wouldn’t believe,” I say.

  Switching the television off, I f
ling the remote to the end of the bed and stand up.

  “What do you like to watch?” I ask as I join him in the bathroom.

  “Sorry? What was that?”

  “On television, what do you like to watch?”

  I perch on the edge of the bath, the cold stone still slippery beneath my weight.

  “Oh, you know, mystery, true crime, murder shows and such.”

  “Murder shows!”

  I’m aghast at the thought.

  “What can I say? I just love me a good murder.”

  He smiles and suddenly I realize that I am in the same room as a maniac.

  “I have to go outside.”

  “Oh really?” he says with a twitch of his mustache. “The snow’s really coming down now.”

  “That’s ok.”

  I make a run for it, pulling on my new coat as I head for the door. I open it and bump right into Felicity.

  “Hey, where are you going?” she laughs.

  I give her a panicked look.

  “What’s up?”

  She looks worried. Behind me, the man begins to whistle and I tense up as he walks up behind me.

  “That’s me, finished folks. You have a good night now.”

  And he walks away, whistling all the way back to the reception. I head back inside and slump on the bed with a sigh.

  “Phew.”

  “What was that about?” she asks.

  She pulls off her hat and gloves, tossing them on the floor before pulling off her heavy coat and kicking off her boots. Walking over to the radiator, she dials it right up and hovers her hand above the warm rays.

  “I don’t like that guy,” I say.

  “Me neither,” she says. “He gives me the creeps. Anyway, you want some good news?”

  “Of course!”

  “Ok, so the bar I’ve been working in… I got some more shifts!”

  “That’s great!”

  “It means we have some more money between us and we can stay here a little while longer although we should probably start looking for somewhere else soon. This place is… gross.”

  She looks around disgusted by her surroundings.

  “You’ve been so nice to me, Flick.”

  “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

  “No, I really mean it. You’ve taken care of me when I thought most humans were hostile. You showed me a kind side to this planet.”

  “It’s a pleasure,” she says. “Although money’s gonna be tight for a while.”

  “Is there anything I can do?”

  “What? Like, get a job?”

  “Yes!”

  She looks down at the floor and steps away from the heater.

  “Maybe soon,” she says.

  “You don’t seem to like the idea,” I notice.

  She hesitates for a moment and fiddles with the remote, switching on the television and flicking through the channels.

  “I just think that… You’re vulnerable. That’s all.”

  “Vulnerable?”

  I’m enraged.

  “How could I be? I’m a warrior, a fighter. I was a member of an elite army back home!”

  “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that your naïve and you can attract attention to yourself sometimes. I’m worried about you being out there.”

  “So I’m supposed to stay in here forever.”

  “No. I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t have to.”

  We both stop talking and stare at the television. Jumping off the bed, I begin tugging at my clothes, yanking them off and leaving them strewn all over the dirty carpet.

  “What are you doing?” she asks as she turns to me.

  “I’m going for a bath.”

  We don’t have baths back on Orba. That’s not to say we don’t like to keep clean but we just do it differently. We usually prefer to walk into a steam chamber that’s usually scented with herbs from the wilderness. But I like baths too because you get to lie down and drift away while the water envelops you and keeps you warm.

  Felicity has told me that we are in the middle of winter, a season on Earth when it gets unbearably cold and everyone needs to walk around wearing loads of different layers made of fur and wool. I hate it. I despise being this cold. It seems so cruel somehow, so pointless. At least baths are warm. Since I’ve been staying in this place, my afternoon baths have been my favorite part of the day and I make sure the water is almost boiling before I sink into it. I run the taps and watch the steam rise and cloud the room. The mirror mists up and I glide my fingertips along the cool glass, writing my own name in the condensation. Then I climb into the hot water and let the heat take all my troubles away.

  I lie back and stare at the ceiling. There’s a patch of green that’s traversing across the broken plaster. It’s gotten bigger since we moved here and I wonder what it is. Felicity won’t look at it. In fact, she barely spends more than two minutes in this room before shrieking and running away but that suits me fine. I like it here.

  Closing my eyes, I begin to drift into a semi-sleep state. There are strange, abstract images in my head, visions of being back home on Orba. I think about Diviak and what he’ll be doing now then I think about Palzu and how he’s probably enraged that I stole the shuttle. I’m on the brink of falling asleep when I hear a beeping noise. Opening my eyes, I see a flashing red light coming from the pocket of my jeans that are lying half in the doorway and half in the bathroom. Felicity doesn’t seem to have noticed as she continues to watch television, her eyes glazed over as she tunes into a music video. Meanwhile, I struggle to stretch over, pulling at the legs of my jeans as I simultaneously try to close the bathroom door. After a few seconds, I manage to grab the communicator that’s flashing red in my pocket and answer it.

  “Saurad, is that you?” I whisper.

  “It’s me.”

  “Why are you contacting me?”

  “You told me they were heading west.”

  “They are!” I say.

  Fuck, I’m in real trouble. He must have realized I misdirected him.

  “But I have some news,” I lie.

  “News?” he asks with his high-pitched voice squealing.

  “Yes.”

  “Well then, don’t waste any time. Tell me!”

  “They were heading out west but they got themselves in some trouble. They’re now heading southwest.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Why should I believe you?” he asks angrily.

  He has a point.

  “You don’t have to believe me,” I whisper coolly. “You don’t have to believe a word I say but if you want to find the Orbans who escaped to Earth then you must take my advice. They are heading southwest.”

  “Hmmm…. And what do you know of this trouble you speak of.”

  “I know nothing, sir and for that I am sorry but I do know that they are heading southwest. My sources tell me they are fast approaching Mexico, a hot sandy country to the south of the United States of America.

  “Interesting….”

  I can hear him moving on the other end of the line, tapping away at something I wish I could see.

  “May I ask you something, Saurad?”

  “You can ask me anything you want but I cannot promise that I will answer you.”

  “Have any of the Orbans on Earth been captured.”

  “No,” he sighs. “Not yet.”

  I smile widely. My team is safe! Little Victorinth and her brother will be ok, Benzen will be happy with Alison and I imagine Ethazol reading happily and learning everything about this strange planet.

  “But we’re going to get them,” Saurad continues. “We WILL find them.”

  My heart begins to race at the thought but right now I can relax at the idea that they are all still free.

  “I will be in touch soon,” Saurad says.

  “Ok,” I gulp.

  “Stay close to your communicator. Don’t keep me
waiting like this time.”

  Chapter 10

  Felicity

  I’m dead on my feet and lean against the bar to ease the pain in my back. The jukebox in playing classic rock in the corner of the room and a drunk girl is dancing around the pool table in a short, denim skirt. A guy, who I assume to be her boyfriend, is leaning against his pool cue and smirking like the cat that got the cream.

  “Ah, young love,” an old raspy voice says.

  I look down to the end of the bar and see an old man who’s been here every day since I started. He runs a hand through his stringy, gray hair and takes a sip of his beer, his face gaunt and sunken as he swallows. He looks right at me and opens his mouth. I see the way his front teeth have rotten away to black stubs while his tongue is coated in white. I look away for fear of seeing anything else.

  “What’s wrong with ya?” he asks me. “What’s so wrong with seeing a young couple happy and in love?”

  I pick up a nearby glass and start polishing it with a tea towel despite it being perfectly clean already.

  “Nothing,” I mutter.

  “I think you look jealous,” he slurs.

  “Yeah, well I think you look drunk.”

  I look up at the clock and see I only have ten minutes left before I can go home. Bert, the manager comes out of his office in a huff and slams the door shut. There always seems to be something going on with him. I’ve only been here a few weeks but he’s always at the center of some scandalous and horrifying drama. He rubs at his eyes and blinks at me.

  “You ok?” I ask as I pour him a glass of water.

  “Ugh… That fucking wife of mine.”

  “What’s wrong with her now?”

  “She found out about my girlfriend,” he shakes his head.

  The old man down the end of the bar erupts into laughter, coughing and spluttering beer all over the counter. A speck lands on my arm and I flinch and shift away.

  “Hey,” Bert places a hand on my shoulder. “It’s kinda quiet in here. You can go home if you want.”

  “You sure?”