by Marie Dry
Susannah hurried to the farmhouse, unsettled at the alien’s claims. Surely it was impossible to do such things? But then, she’d never thought something like a TC could exist until Caine gave her one. The first time she’d watched a news program, she’d been unable to sleep for months. Everything they said contradicted what Joseph had taught them. If everything she’d learned since the day she was born was wrong, how could she believe what the people in the TC told her?
If only it had kept working. She could use the way Caine had shown her, but she had no way of knowing if the resistance would check the drop off point, now that he was dead. Agony speared through her until she doubled over, clutching her chest. Losing him and Noah was a physical ache she’d never escape.
Suppressing a whimper, she stood up straight, continued on to the farmhouse. Caine was forever lost to her. Her step faltered, but she forced herself forward. Noah was alive, and she wouldn’t rest until she found him. The fear that kept her awake at night dug talons as sharp as those of the alien into her. What if she found him and didn’t recognize him? Couldn’t recognize her own son.
Now she had a wounded alien on her hands. One that thought he knew everything. She hated him, hated him the way the bible said was a sin, but she didn’t care. Now that the others were gone she could think and feel what she wanted without fear of punishment.
She kicked at the dirt. She’d captured the alien. She was the one with the upper hand. She just had to remember that. He was bigger than she remembered from when he suddenly had appeared in front of her four years ago, and she’d remembered him as pretty big. There was an aura of evil and anger around him that gave her the strong urge to run and not to stop until she reached No Name Town.
She opened the door, grateful to still have a door. She’d heard the others talk about taking it off the hinges to use on the new farm they’d occupy. If she dared say anything, Joseph would’ve punished her, but she’d always thought the way they used the land, and never put anything back then moved on to the next farm, was dangerous and short sighted.
She pushed the door with her shoulder, entered the house, and smiled at Killer who barked at her. The bark that scolded her for leaving him alone. “I know you want to go out, but you’re too small. I’ve seen strange big birds around, lately. They would fly away with you.” She couldn’t bear the thought of losing Killer too. Before Caine gave him to her, she’d never even known dogs called teacup yorkies existed. She wouldn’t have believed they could be so small.
Soft paws pressed against her ankle through the folds of her long dress. He whined, a soft sound. He tried to be fierce, but his little body wouldn’t make large sounds. No matter how many times she left him, he always sulked. When Caine gave her the tiny dog, she’d been enchanted. And also afraid that Joseph would kill him out of spite. He might pretend to be a good brother, but she knew his ugly soul. If it wasn’t for Caine, Joseph would’ve killed her dog.
Killer was a light in her grim existence. She’d told everyone she called him Killer to give him confidence. But she’d known that day, when she stood with the baby dog on her hand, that he would kill her troubles. Had known his name should be Killer.
She grabbed her sketch book and half expected to turn around and find the alien coming at her with those ungodly red eyes blazing. She stilled with her sketchbook clutched in her hand, only vaguely aware of Killer’s excited barks. What if he’d had a weapon? He could’ve shot her from inside the hole. Another thing she should’ve considered before she started to dig that pit deeper. It was as if her brain stopped functioning from the moment she realized if she caught him she could get the money she needed.
She forced bitterness down, deep down into that place where she used to hide whenever Brother Josephatus punished her. No. Joseph, just plain Joseph, she reminded herself. Soon she’d hand the alien over to the resistance, and, with the credits, she’d hire someone to find Noah and get him away from the brothers. The alien had said he could give her anything she wanted. A crazy thought came to her, and her heart hammered with hope, but she pushed it aside. If she let him out of the pit, he’d kill her or take her away with him without keeping any promise she forced out of him.
Killer danced around and then sat back and looked up at her with his round eyes. His bark was soft, entreating. He knew she couldn’t say no when he did that. She’d love to let him out more, but there were so many things that could hurt him on the farm. He barked again, his soft enquiring bark and her heart melted.
“All right, you can come with me and look at the alien. If he gets out of the hole, bite off his toes.” If he managed to get out of the hole she and killer were done for. It might be cruel, but she was counting on his wound weakening him until she could hand him over.
Killer followed her with prancing steps. Caine had told her he was a teacup yorkie and a very scarce breed. Also a very fragile breed. She doubted he could even bite off half a human toe. Let alone a tough alien one. She’d protect her precious little dog with her life, but she knew she would stand no chance against that green devil sitting, wounded, in her pit. Killer danced in circles around her, barking and biting at the folds of her dress. “Don’t go too close to the edge of the pit and stick close to me,” she cautioned. She would’ve preferred to carry him, but he hated that.
Her cousins had objected when she talked to him as if he understood every word she said, but he was uncannily intelligent. She’d made sure to hide him the days before everyone departed. Brother Josephatus would’ve killed him simply to deny her the comfort of his company.
The day Caine had given her Killer was one of her best memories, almost as good as the day her mother managed to give her a gift on her birthday without the others finding out.
With Killer barking and running around her ankles, Susannah went back to the hole. Worrying the alien had somehow gotten out, she also kept out an eye for the large birds flying around. She couldn’t figure out where they came from. One moment you rarely saw any birds and the next giant ones flew all over the place. Cousin Maria said they were eagles, she’d heard her father talk about them, but they were supposed to be extinct. Maybe the aliens brought them.
She approached the pit carefully. She should’ve brought the shovel, just in case the alien got out. Killer went down on his belly and crawled toward the hole, the hair on his back standing upright. “Careful Killer.” She’d seen programs on the TC about lions, like the ones in the bible. Sometimes Killer thought he was a lion.
Keeping a safe distance, she peered into the pit. The alien sat lazily jiggling the stick in his shoulder, and her stomach turned. It was a gruesome and downright unnatural thing to do. What kind of creature didn’t feel pain from such a wound? Maybe they truly were the spawn of the devil like Joseph said, crawled out from deep inside the earth, from hell, sent by God to punish humans.
He looked up at her, those evil black eyes filling with red tendrils. A shudder went over her body and, next to her, Killer went even lower on the ground. “Stray back, Killer.”
The alien’s eyes narrowed on her, and his posture changed from almost lazy to deadly. “Who is this, Killer? Show him to me.” Her guilt about leaving the alien in the pit, wounded and bleeding, disappeared.
“Killer is none of your concern, alien demon.”
“My name is Azagor.”
Sometimes, when Brother Josephatus had tried to make her do things she didn’t believe was right, she’d managed to irritate him just enough to make him furious. It drove him crazy.
It was a different thrill from having irritated the alien. She felt more alive than she’d been since her mother died.
He stared at Killer who’d crawled forward until he could peer down at the alien from the edge of the hole. He growled and barked at the being in the pit and then backed off from the edge.
If she didn’t know better, she’d have thought the alien was terrified. He didn’t cower like she did when Brother Josephatus was determined to punish her, but he’d gone still, and his eyes watched Kill
er in a way that didn’t bode well for her little dog. Maybe he was hungry, and they ate dogs as well. Just let him try. She’d show him what she could do with a shovel.
“Get back, Killer,” she ordered. She breathed a sigh of relief when her dog backed off even more. His small body vibrating with excitement. He might be a very intelligent dog, but he thought every new person he met was a potential play mate. “Don’t you dare eat my dog.”
“You have a rat,” the alien said between teeth clenched so tight, she half expected them to crack and those dangerous looking incisors to bite through his lips. He stared at Killer with some emotion and, if she didn’t know better, she’d think he was scared of her dog.
“It’s a dog, don’t call him a rat.”
“It’s a rat, kill it,” he ordered with an arrogance that set her teeth on edge.
She grabbed Killer and kept a wary eye on the alien who looked as if wanted to chew through the trapdoor and crawl out of the pit to kill her dog. He gave the iron grid above him a measuring look, and she thought she saw his lip curl in contempt. Surely, he couldn’t break through steel.
“Stay still, Killer.”
He wriggled in her arms, wanting to investigate the being in the pit. The iron grill was too small for the alien to get out, but Killer would fall through easily. She shuddered to think of having to watch as the creature ate her dog. Killer yipped, and the alien tilted his head in a curiously reptilian fashion. Shuddering in revulsion, Susannah pulled Killer’s excited little body closer to her and settled down with her sketch book on her lap.
“What are you doing?” The alien still sounded strange. Earlier his voice had been rough and sort of gravelly, but now that roughness was more pronounced.
“I’m going to draw you, as proof to the resistant that I have a real alien.”
He flashed a fang at Killer, who thought it was the greatest game ever and flashed his smaller fangs. “And how do you plan to get your primitive renderings to the resistance?”
She suppressed the hurt at his dismissive tone. Brother Josephatus found one of her sketches once, and he made everyone gather and showed them her ungodly ideas, telling everyone that if God had meant her to draw, the drawing would’ve been good at least. Then he’d punished her. After that, she’d wrapped her sketchbooks and hidden many of them all over the farm. They’d belonged to her mother and, ever since, Susannah had been extra careful not to be found when she gave in to the need to draw.
“I’ll find a way. Now sit still.”
To her surprise, he sat absolutely still while she tried to get down all the little details about him. His skin was green and copper again, with snake like striations. Caine had told her about the theory that humans used to be apes when they were at an isolated area of the farm where no one could hear them. He’d been much more informed than Joseph. She didn’t want to appear ignorant to him, of all people, so she’d never said anything, but she thought that theory farfetched. For one thing, humans weren’t covered in hair all over like the apes used to be, and humans could speak. Also, apes had tails. But if it was true by any chance, could the aliens have been snakes once?
In spite of his strange skin and strange eyes, he was almost handsome with his clear-cut features and the ridge that ended just above his eyes. She drew the ridge on his head. “Does the ridge on your head look the same on all of you, or does it have differences you use to recognize each other by.”
“We speak and introduce ourselves. We also have different faces,” he said, and she knew she’d offended him. Good. It wasn’t close to what she’d had to endure because of him, but she’d take her revenge wherever she could.
“Are you mammals like us. How come your eyes can change color, what does it mean? And you didn’t answer me about your ridge.” She added the last to torment him. She drew the shape of his eyes, the regal brow. She missed having the TC. She’d learned so much from it. When they were free, she’d get another one and learn all the time. She would know things, and a know-it-all, like the alien, wouldn’t be able to tell her tall tales, thinking her ignorant enough to believe them.
“Pull back your lips from your teeth. I want to draw your incisors in detail.”
Silence and when she looked up from his lips to his eyes, she had to concentrate hard not to run screaming.
“Be very careful, female.”
“Why? You didn’t mind my drawing your ridge and your eyes. What’s so different about your teeth?”
“You do not command me. I am a warrior, descended from a superior race with technology humans can only dream about.”
“You keep saying that as if it’s supposed to mean something, but you’re the one in the pit, and I’m up here.”
“Things are not always what they seem.” He relaxed again, sat back, and started that nauseating fiddling with the stick in his shoulder again. She stared down at him. What if he stayed down there for reasons of his own and could get out anytime he wanted. What if he was playing with her?
What if she went to sleep and woke with him standing over her? She held Killer tighter. He yipped in protest and tried to jump away from her. “Sorry, Killer, but I’m not letting you loose.”
To hide her fear, she continued drawing her captive. There was something fascinating about him, about the differences and similarities in their bodies. She didn’t dare look at Caine during relations, that wouldn’t have been proper behavior, but she’d been curious. She didn’t want to, but she wondered if Azagor was built like a human in his private places.
“I caught you, and you’re at my mercy, and things are exactly what they seem.”
He bared his teeth. She wasn’t sure if the gesture was supposed to show her contempt or if it was meant to scare her. He succeeded. “It took you several attempts. I would’ve captured a human the first time.”
“I admit my first trap was too primitive. How did you get out of it anyway?” She’d learned to catch food for the farm since she was a little girl. By the time she’d turned sixteen, finding any wild animal had been almost impossible. She was the only one who managed to bring home meat, and, still, Brother Joseph managed to blame her for the lack of game. Though the alien had been harder to trap than she’d thought he’d be, the moment she realized he was lurking around the farm again, she’d been determined to get him. It had only been after several failed attempts that she’d realized that if she could manage to catch him and contain him, she could sell him.
“I tore it off before it could tighten around my foot.” He sneered. “I am a Zyrgin warrior. Inferior human rope cannot hold me.”
Susannah eyed the steel grid over the hole. If the others hadn’t taken all the locks, she’d have put another one on it. She frowned at the heavy lock. It looked cleaned, and even the trapdoor had moved easily over the pit. That had been her biggest worry. That she wouldn’t be able to close it fast enough. Brother Joseph must’ve cleaned and oiled it before he left. She shuddered. Did he plan to come back here when she was alone and punish her? Sometimes he looked at her in a way that made her very uncomfortable. She pushed that disturbing thought away.
“Your second attempt may have worked if you were trying to catch a human male.”
“How did you break that tree, it seemed torn off and not sawed or anything.” The snare was designed to jerk him off his feet and hang him upside down from a tree branch. She only found a broken branch when she checked the snare. Now that she’d spent time with him, she was grateful she’d only found the broken branch and not an angry alien waiting to kill her.
He shrugged, a very human motion. “The branch broke under my superior Zyrgin warrior weight, and your inferior human rope snapped. I executed a summersault and landed on my feet.” He cocked his head, as if considering his words. “I deliberately stepped into your crude trap to see if it might work. It did not, but it was a good effort. For a human. A female human.”
His condescending tone set her teeth on edge.
“I did wonder if I wasn’t supposed to see the
trap with a small sharp end that I assume was supposed to wound me when I became overwhelmed with hunger for the berries put on the trap.” He smiled at her again--she supposed it was a smile, but every time he did it, she jerked back, and Killer growled his play growl. Her dog needed to sharpen his survival instincts. Those berries had been the last of the season.
“I find it encouraging that you also wanted to feed me along with trapping me. Our courtship is progressing.” He crossed his hands behind his head, causing the stick to stick out of his shoulder at an odd angle. “Now if you would care for my wounds.”
“Courtship, I wouldn’t lower myself to...to...how dare you?” Susannah couldn’t even think in clear sentences, she was so shocked. She’d never do something like that. Have a relationship with a...a thing. “If you ever say something so disgusting and ungodly to me again, I will shoot you and then burn you in this pit.”
Chapter 4
Sensing her mood, Killer stood, his small paws gentle on her knee, and barked his frantic, angry bark that was too soft to intimidate anyone.
The alien slowly stood, each move deliberate with what she was sure was vicious intent. She eyed the steel grid and prepared to grab Killer and run if it looked like he could break through it. She should’ve brought the shovel.
He pinned her to the spot with his mean gaze, and every hair on her body stood upright. It was as if he became the demon she once thought him. If he got loose, she and Killer were dead.
“You find me disgusting,” he said, barely above a whisper, but she heard him loud and clear.
She had no doubt he’d make Brother Josephatus’ punishments look like child’s play.
The threat, the promise of violence. Her doom. Killer vibrated against her, and she pulled him closer to her. He reacted to her emotions. Or maybe to the alien. “I know right from wrong, and consorting with your kind is wrong.” She wouldn’t let this creature intimidate her into denying her principles. Not even the most open-minded human would consort with a creature like this.
