by Sara Page
I watch in fascinated horror as he dispatches each one until there’s nothing left but carnage.
Turning to face me, he’s huffing loudly, with his shoulders hunched forward. We stare at each other. Me in terror, him coming down from his rage. His red eyes are glowing so bright the light begins to sting my eyes.
Something makes a sound to his right. He roars and stomps over to dispatch it. I turn and flee for my life.
We really need to stop meeting like this.
I make it a few yards before I hear him crashing through the forest behind me. It’s no mere snapping of twigs. It sounds as if the very forest is coming down around me. He’s a tornado of destruction and I’m directly in his path.
Don’t look back. Don’t look back.
I’m running back into the dark, misty depths. Back into the cold labyrinth of trees. I have a little head start but a lot of good it does me as I stumble over the unending sea of fallen twigs and branches. I’m so not cut out for this. Maybe if I was smarter, faster, or stronger I’d actually have a chance.
But I’m a princess. A princess who has been sheltered and protected, a princess who’s never had to worry about the dangers that exist beyond the safe little bubble of her home.
I feel danger coming up behind me and it’s fast.
The alien’s hands grab me by the hips. One second I’m running, the next he’s lifting me up and my feet leave the ground. I scream as his thick arms wrap around me. They’re as tight and strong as two boa constrictors. They squeeze around me in an unbreakable hold.
Knowing he’s stronger and more powerful doesn’t keep me from struggling. I scream and kick at his shins. He squeezes me harder. One beefy arm comes up to trap my arms. I lose my grip on my dress. I cry out in anguish as it falls to the ground.
He says something in his alien tongue. Again, to me it sounds only like coughs and grunts instead of actual words.
I don’t have a lot of energy left. My kicks slow, growing feeble. I feel tears of defeat stinging my eyes.
Why keep fighting? I’m so tired of fighting. I’m so tired of it all.
He’s stronger, faster, and meaner. It was only a matter a time before he caught me. Only a matter of time until it came to this. I’ve been delaying the inevitable and making myself miserable in the process.
I give up.
* * *
“Please just make it quick.” I clench my eyes tightly together and brace myself for the pain to come. Even a quick death is probably going to hurt like a mother.
The alien doesn’t say anything, but I feel him snort against the back of my neck. His arms start to loosen and then he’s turning my body until I’m facing him. I can’t help but peek my eyes open.
He looks every bit the demon. I’m surprised there are not two horns sprouting from his head. He is truly the stuff of nightmares. I bet he’s related to the thing I always feared was hiding under my bed. And it’s not even his red eyes though they certainly don’t hurt. It’s his massive bulging purple body. And it’s the fearsome, I’m going to eat you after I break you look on his face.
I squeeze my eyes shut again. I would rather not see what’s going to come. My arms fall limply to my sides. They ache and feel numb from where he was cutting off my circulation.
He speaks again. It’s a grating growl that scrapes against my ears. I shake my head to rid myself of the sound.
He snorts. I begin to tremble. I don’t know how much more I can take of this. My bravery is fading fast. If he keeps me here, waiting, dreading, I’m seriously going to break down.
“Please, just get it over with, please,” I beg with a whisper.
His fingers tighten once more, digging painfully into my arms. He shakes me as if he’s angry. I cry out. This is it. This is where I end. He immediately stops shaking me yet my body continues to tremble.
I never thought I would go out like this, killed on some backwoods planet by a monster from the dark. Up until crashing here, I never even gave death much thought. There were so many other people always protecting me and looking out for me, I didn’t have to do it for myself. I just let them do it.
The demon pulls me into him. He’s so hard, it’s as if his chest is carved from stone. His hands slide down my arms, I wince as my skin tingles.
His hands go behind me and begin to rub against my back. My eyes fly open in shock.
At first, all I see is just lots of purple skin. Then my eyes slide up, over his bulging pecs and up his ridiculously thick neck, until reaching his face. He’s looking down at me, still intense and glowing, but the way he’s touching my back is soft. For a moment, it actually feels like he’s trying to comfort me or something. But no, that couldn’t be….
A chirp sounds behind him and I watch his face darken, consumed by red. Before I can completely process what’s happening, he hauls me up and throws me over his shoulder.
I’m upside down now with the blood rushing to my head. He takes off running through the woods. My naked butt bounces in the air.
“No, my dress!” I cry out as I spot it in a little pink pile on the ground that grows smaller and smaller.
I don’t even know why I did it. I mean, I know I’m not going to need my dress now with what’s going to happen to me but seeing it left behind, left to rot, just tears at my heart. It’s all I have left, and even though I’m going to die in some horrific way and have no real need of it, I want it. I want my last piece of home.
The alien doesn’t stop, if anything, his pace quickens. He does, however, give me a small pat on the butt. I burst into tears.
Just when I think the situation can’t get any worse, it does. Over and over again, I think I’ve hit bottom but the hole keeps getting deeper and deeper. I can’t even have the small dignity of a quick death. The entire thing has to be dragged out. Why did I even give up?
I hate crying, I just hate it. I hate it because it makes me feel weak and pathetic. I hate it because it makes my skin all blotchy and reddens my nose.
I’m dripping tears and snot all over his back. It’s so nasty and gross.
He runs and runs, his pace never slowing. The trees whip past in one long blur. Occasionally I hear a chirp.
I want to stop crying so I try my best to focus on something else. Chin up, princess. You’re a princess after all.
I feel helpless being naked and thrown over his shoulder. Like I’m just a piece of meat. Like I’m nothing more than hauled away flesh and bone.
I’ve been put on display before. Dressed up and paraded before an entire populace as a living, breathing symbol. All my life I’ve been judged by how I look, who I talk to, what I do, and what I wear. I learned fast that my needs, my wants, my desires were of no interest to anyone else. I have a purpose, a single duty to serve my people and beyond that nothing else really matters. But I still had my clothes.
This is humiliating. This goes far beyond degrading. I can’t stop feeling sorry for myself.
My butt is in the air, there’s nothing I can do to change it. I squirm and twist, but it gets me nowhere. He has one arm across the back of my legs while his other hand rests on the small of my back. There’s a weight of possession to the way he carries me. And I can’t help but notice how his fingers tend to squeeze, even if it’s just a little.
I have no dignity left. I feel every bit like a piece of meat. He’s such a monster, he’s probably completely oblivious. He probably doesn’t even care.
So I hit him. I’m crazy, I know it, completely wacko, but what do I have to lose? He’s already going to hurt me. I just feel the strongest urge to hurt him and make him pay for what he’s doing.
My fists pound into his back. They may be tiny, but they’re powered by anger. I hate him. I hate him so much.
“I hate your guts!” I cry out and give him a one-two.
I hate that not only has he tormented me since I crashed here but now he’s reduced me to this. He’s pushed me into giving up.
I hit and hit but quickly tire. I can no lon
ger muscle up the energy to punch his back, but I’m still so mad. If anything, his complete lack of response to what I’m doing is even more infuriating. I want him to acknowledge my hatred. I want him to be at the very least inconvenienced by it.
I get the bright idea to grab onto his pants. I’m going to give him the biggest, most uncomfortable wedgie an alien can get.
Where did he get the pants from?
The first time we “met”, if you can even call it that, he was completely naked. I remember because I will never forget that what he has dangling between his legs is scary huge. Did he steal them off of someone else? That someone would have to be just as big as him… I don’t even want to think about it. Let’s not go there.
I grab and yank with all the strength I have left.
I hear a smack then feel a searing white hot pain bloom on my butt.
Did he just spank me?
I yank again and sure enough I hear the snap as his hand connects. At first my left cheek stings then the stinging sensation melts into something warm.
His pace starts to slow and I don’t feel so brave anymore. I quickly release his pants and just let my hands hang down. I’m all saggy and innocent now.
He comes to a complete stop. I wait with bated breath, I wait for him to enact some more retribution. Or just put an end to this entire ordeal.
Instead, I hear some beeping then the hiss of air pressure being released.
Uh, what’s going on?
I can’t see anything hanging upside down. I try to twist, but I’m tired and too heavy, it’s too hard to move. He’s extra wide, the only way I’ll be able to see around him is if I develop x-ray vision.
I know it’s not the pod, it can’t be, the only buttons are on the inside and I would recognize that floor. I’d recognize the smell. That means…he’s taken me to another ship. But whose?
Chapter Eleven
The alien carries me across the threshold of a ship. The dirt transforms into a black rubber type of floor. He jostles me and I hear more beeping. A door rises from the floor before my eyes, sealing us in. There’s no symbols or paint on the door to give me the slightest clue of what kind of ship I’m in. It’s just generic spaceship gray, as are all these walls surrounding it.
I’m trapped. The thought makes me anxious at first, but I remind myself that it doesn’t really matter because he’s going to kill me anyway. But what if he has something else planned?
I so don’t want to think too much about that.
He moves forward. My eyes start to blur as I watch the black rubber floor roll past. Just how big is this ship anyway? He turns a corner and keeps on going. I’m considering giving him another wedgie when he suddenly he stops.
There’s more jostling, more beeping. I hear the release as a door slides into the floor. He carries me over the threshold, walks ten more steps and then drops me down on something soft.
I bounce. My eyes cross as my world is flipped upright. It takes me a minute to get my bearings. The blood rushes back down from my head.
Everything begins to focus. I rub my fingers across the soft thing he put me on. It can’t be, can it? I look behind me, then all around me. Finally, I look back at him.
He set me down on a bed. A massive bed. No doubt it’s his bed. Am I about to suffer a fate worse than death?
I scramble backwards, putting as much distance between me and him that I possibly can. I push up against the headboard. I’m still naked.
I bring my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around them. Then I glare angrily at him.
He stands at the foot of the bed, impossibly imposing. His lips are pulled down into a frown and his red eyes are burning into me.
“I will fight you!” I warn him.
And I will. I will fight him if he tries to force himself on me, I will literally fight him to the death. Had I known he wasn’t going to kill me, had I known he would be carrying me to a secret spaceship only to throw me on a bed, I would have fought him back in the forest with everything I had.
He snorts loudly. Was that derision?
“You might as well just kill me already,” I try to convince him. “I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”
He tips back his head and laughs. His chest rumbles, his massive hands hit his massive thighs. I’m seriously disturbed by it. Is he laughing because he agrees with me?
“How can you understand me but I can’t understand you?” I ask and he suddenly stops laughing.
His eyes narrow at me and if I could disappear, I would. Then he speaks. It’s slow but still very guttural and growly.
“I have no idea what you just said.”
He slaps the side of his head then speaks again. He’s speaking dog for all I know.
“Still no clue.”
He comes around the bed. I scramble backward, my heart racing with panic.
“If you mean to force yourself on me, I will fight you! I mean it!”
He reaches for me, I jerk backward and tumble off the bed. For something so big, he sure does move fast. He comes across the bed and looms above me. I shriek and try to get away as he comes down to the floor.
“Don’t you dare!” I scream at him and scoot back.
He crawls forward. My head is throbbing from where I landed on it. The look on his face is so predatory. There’s an unmistakable hunger in the way he’s looking at me.
He’s going to eat me up.
He keeps coming closer and I can’t go anywhere else. I’m trapped in the corner. He comes up to my toes and then reaches for me.
I close my eyes and flinch. “Please….”
He grabs my hand. I try to pull it back. His fingers tighten, they’re so warm...
The alien speaks slowly, softly. I still can’t understand what he’s saying, but it sounds so different compared to how he was speaking before. It sounds like he’s trying to reassure me.
Something brushes across my knuckles and I feel an intense jolt of sensation. Huh?
I peek my eyes open and he does it again. He brushes his lips across my knuckles. Again, there’s a jolt and then something inside me clenches.
“I still don’t understand,” I cry and the tears start coming. Why is he kissing me? Am I having a perverted dream again?
He speaks again, softly and slowly, and strangely I find a bit of comfort in it.
“Are you going to hurt me?” I ask. I feel my nose about to drip so I wipe it with the back of my other hand.
The alien answers softly. For all I know he’s telling me he’s going to rip me apart and wear my skin. It’s the tone that’s reassuring. The tone that brings my heart rate back down and lulls me into a momentary break from the panic.
Surely if he meant to kill me or eat me, he wouldn’t go through all this trouble… he wouldn’t be crouched in front of me, holding my hand? He’s so big. All he has to do is wrap those thick fingers of his around my neck and it’s lights out. I have no weapons, I have no means to defend myself. He can easily take what he wants from me and there’s nothing I can do about it. Yet, that’s not what he’s doing.
We stare at each other. I don’t know what to make of him. In my mind, he’s one giant contradiction. I wish I could understand him.
“Where I come from, we nod our heads for yes and shake our heads for no.”
He nods his head.
“So you are going to hurt me?!” I cry out, thinking he’s answering my question.
He’s quick to frown and shake his head.
“You’re not going to hurt me?”
He nods his head fast.
“Why are you doing this?”
He just stares at me.
Oh, right. Yes or no questions only.
“Are you going to kill me?”
He shakes his head again.
“May I have some clothes?”
He just stares at me again, and I wonder if he didn’t understand the question or something. Finally, he nods his head.
“May I have my hand back?” My fingers
are beginning to tingle.
He looks down at my hand and sighs deeply. He let’s go as if he’s reluctant to do so.
I flex my fingers then pull my hand back. “Thank you.”
We fall into silence. He holds himself very still. I try to think of some yes or no questions that will give me an idea of what he intends or expects.
“When you rolled my pod, I thought you were trying to kill me.”
His eyebrows twitch. Funny, because of his glowing red eyes, I never really noticed them until now. They’re thick, black, and very expressive. I look closer at the rest of his face. For a purple guy with evil eyes, he’s actually not that bad looking. He has a fine nose and full lips. His forehead is broad and his chin is strong, just like the rest of him.
He shakes his head.
“Were you trying to hurt me?”
He shakes his head again and it’s my turn to frown.
“Does this ship work?”
He shakes his head.
“Dammit.”
He nods.
I smile for a second, his eyes flash. I bite my lip to hide my smile. What was that?
I look away. I’m so out of sorts. “May I have some clothes now?”
Maybe it’s because he seems to be respecting me and because he’s answering my questions, but I don’t quite feel like my life is in danger now. The fact that he hasn’t tried to touch me again certainly helps. Though, something weird seems to be happening between us, and I’m not entirely comfortable or sure where it’s leading. The friction has changed. Or maybe it’s always been there but because you were so afraid you didn’t notice it. Or more like I’ve been stuck alone, in a pod for however many days now with no one to talk to and he’s the first… thing I’ve been able to communicate with.
Regardless, I feel exhaustion starting to creep in. It’s been a long day, too much has happened. There’s been too much thinking done and there’s still too much to figure out. If I can get some clothes on, maybe he’ll let me use the bed and rest. Alone.
He reaches for me and I can’t help but flinch and pull back. I’m not sure if I do it because I’m still afraid he’ll hurt me or I’m afraid I’ll feel that jolt.
