by Marie Dry
Hers grabbed her and placed a palm over her mouth. His body was tense against hers, his palm rough over her lips. She placed her hands over his, more for comfort than a desire to push it away. She was surrounded by strangers, didn’t know her own name. In this cold metal hell, he was the only thing familiar to her. The reptiles grunted at each other. The one that held her shook her slightly. “I’m going to lift my palm and, if you scream, the doctor will make you sleep.” He leaned down. “Nod your head if you understand. You’ll tell Viglar what’s wrong with you. Why you are behaving like this.”
She nodded.
“Larz, lift your hand, let her speak,” the woman said.
So that was his name. Larz. She didn’t know how, but she was sure the other woman didn’t like her. The woman was trying to be fair but her feelings came through. The other creatures had no expressions on their faces and still she knew they didn’t like her. Didn’t want her around.
He, Larz, lifted his palm, obviously ready to slap it over her mouth again if she screamed. She kept hold of his hand. It was heavy, as if his bones were made from something denser than human bone. She clung to the heat in his hand, her thumb tracing the raised veins on the back of it. She didn’t know how long the human woman would stay, so she’d hold off on the screaming for now. If the nightmare took a turn for the worse, she could always start again.
A third reptile thing walked into the room, holding a rectangular silver gadget in his hands.
“Is he, is he a lizard-man doctor?” Even out of her mind and hallucinating, she knew she sounded stupid.
“Quiet, Marcie.”
“I’m only asking some reasonable questions. And stop calling me that. I’d rather be called human than that.”
The two aliens looked at each other. Though neither one showed any emotion, that look exchanged a lot of information.
“I’m a doctor,” the new monster grated at her, sounding as if he’d rather kill her than help her. His English was more stilted than Larz’s. He also flashed a fang at her, and she nearly fainted when he briefly extended and retracted vicious claws. The one holding her snarled at the doctor. None of their faces showed any emotion that she could read. But she knew, as if they shouted it at her, that they hated her. The way he’d extended his claws had been pure insult and threat.
The woman kept her distance, still half behind the green and gold thing. As if afraid I’ll attack her. Why does everyone treat me as if I’m a leper? She looked down at her strange body, and a terrible fear took up space in her stomach.
Larz grated something at the doctor.
She tried to order her thoughts. At least the doctor was totally dressed and didn’t seem inclined to touch her. Maybe this was her mind’s way of getting her some help. Maybe it created this one to show her the way out of the nightmare. Please let this be a nightmare and not real. She wanted to wake up, needed to wake up, with her memory restored.
“Can you help me wake up?”
He ran a silver instrument up and down her body. “Tell me everything you feel.”
She took a deep breath and let it all spill out of her mouth. “I think I dreamed, something about a picture and then I woke up and...well, he was there.” She pointed at Larz. “I couldn’t remember how I got here, or my name, or anything else, and my body and hair look wrong. I screamed and he stopped me and then more lizards came.” She gulped in air. “Oh, and I can’t wake up from this nightmare and I think my mind created you to help me with that. And my name isn’t Marcie.”
He took out another thin silver gadget and ran it up and down in front of her. As long as he didn’t touch her, she didn’t mind what he waved at her. “What is the last thing you remember?” he asked.
“Larz, you’re so big,” the woman said suddenly and walked out from behind the creature. “When you lay on that slab, I didn’t realize how big you actually were.”
“Not now, Mother.”
The third creature growled at him.
“It’s all right. He’s just concerned about Marcie,” the woman said.
She should save her sympathy for the human in this room who needs it. If I don’t figure out what was going on soon, I’ll go out of my mind.
“What is the last thing you remember?” the doctor asked again.
“Waking up with the lizard m--I mean, him next to me,” she said and pointed to her lizard.
He crossed his massive arms over his chest. “Woman, stop calling us lizards. We are Zyrgins.”
She cringed at his harsh words. All right, calling someone a lizard might not be polite, but they had green skin and sharp teeth. What was she supposed to think?
“So what’s a Zyrg...”
“Zyrgin. We are from the planet Zyrgin.”
“You’re aliens?” This was one hell of a dream or hallucination. She really, really, hoped that was what this was. A drug-induced hallucination that would wear off.
The doctor grunted and ran the silver gadget in the air in front of her. “Tell me your name,” he said.
She opened and closed her mouth a few times before she could speak. “I can’t.”
“It’s Marcie,” her lizard, um--alien, said.
Her soul shivered when he said that name. She might not know anything, she might have woken up naked with a green monster, but she knew one thing with absolute certainty. That wasn’t her name. “No, it’s not.”
“That is your name,” Larz said.
“And I tell you, I know that’s not my name.” She slapped her hand over the strange large breasts that sat heavy on her chest. “Right here, deep inside, I know that name’s wrong. I don’t know what my name is, but it’s not Marcie. Please believe me.”
They grunted at each other and then her lizard turned to her.
“Do you remember my name?”
“She called you Larz. That’s all I know. I’ve never seen you before,” she moaned. “I can’t remember anything that happened before I woke just now.”
Suddenly, he loomed over her, as if he’d grown. “Human, do not lie to me.”
She nearly peed herself. “I--I’m not lying.”
“Larz, you’re frightening her,” the woman said.
The doctor stepped forward. “I am going to put you to sleep. If you do not have your memory back by the time you wake, I’ll do some more tests.”
A scene flashed through her mind. She saw the doctor injecting her while she kicked and screamed. She stepped away from him. The other one, the one she’d slept with, was at her back and stopped her from running. Did they experiment on her before, was that what she remembered?
He held her against his impressively muscled body and lizard two pressed something against her neck. She felt a strong sense of déjà vu. As if all this had happened before. She sagged, suddenly so relaxed her legs wouldn’t hold her. It was a good kind of feeling, her mind pleasantly buzzing instead of panicking.
They grunted at each other and the doctor left. Larz picked her up and laid her gently on the bed. Her whole body burned, blushed when he took off her clothes.
She couldn’t move, couldn’t stop him, and slowly all outrage and tenseness disappeared. Her eyes wouldn’t stay open.
“Please don’t let me dream,” she slurred.
She didn’t know her name, but she knew nightmares haunted her.
She lost the battle with sleep, only vaguely aware of his warm body settling next to her. She dreamed of hovercrafts, a man teaching her to fight with knives, and a box where she suffocated.
She opened her eyes, still gasping for breath--the memory of the dream fading fast--and wanted to go back to the blessed oblivion sleep had provided. She knew immediately that she was still inside the nightmare because the texture of the blanket over her was wrong. The color was wrong. The color of everything around her was silver. Wrong. She still couldn’t remember her name, and that was wrong too.
With absolute reluctance, knowing what she’d see, she looked at the space next to her. He lay on his back, still as
a corpse. An alien. Who’d have thought it was possible to lose your memory and wake up next to an alien? He slept so still and quiet, she looked at his chest to make sure he was actually breathing and alive. The only thing worse than waking up next to a reptile would be waking up next to a dead one.
She reached out, bit her lip, and pulled back her hand. Then working up the courage, she touched the ridge bisecting his head. It was hard, as if it could be used to protect him in battle. His skin was warm and pleasant, not slimy at all.
She drew back again, watching him carefully, but he was still asleep. Maybe his kind went into some kind of hibernation state when they slept. Alien--he’d said he was an alien last night.
She looked at the walls and could’ve screamed. No windows, nothing to tell her if it was night or day.
The alien next to her drew her as if invisible strings stretched between them. She touched his pronounced brows over his high cheekbones. Watching him closely in case he woke up, she pulled back his lips to look at the sharp incisors. These creatures weren’t created for peace. Those claws and teeth and tough skin were made to kill. She looked down at its feet. Did he have claws there too? The others had worn boots last night so they were civilized.
Suddenly scared, she scooted back and lay down again. She closed her eyes and willed herself back to the oblivion of sleep. She could be on a spaceship. Maybe that was why there were no windows. The thought scared her so much she closed her eyes and escaped into sleep.
She woke, still in the silver room and alone in the bed. The man-reptile--and he could call himself what he wanted, she could see he was some kind of alien reptile mutation--stood next to the bed.
“Take a shower, get dressed, and don’t take forever painting your face. I’ll wait for you in the kitchen.” He walked to the door.
“What?”
He paused in the doorway, didn’t turn to face her. “Viglar said you’re losing dangerous fat. I will monitor your meals.”
He walked out through the wall that slid open for him. It stayed open this time. So that she knew where to exit? Losing dangerous fat? Losing weight? From what she’d seen this body could stand to lose some pounds. She pushed away the need to pull the covers over her head and hide from reality. She’d cope, no matter what life threw at her. She’d always coped. Wait. What? The vague knowledge disappeared like wisps of smoke.
Shaking her head, she looked around for the bathroom. And clothes to wear. Even as she thought it, the wall slid away, revealing shelves with clothes on them. She sorted through them, chose a green T-shirt and jeans, and was on her way to the open door to find the bathroom, when another wall slid open to reveal a silver gleaming en-suite.
Slowly, she walked through the doorway and jumped when it slid closed behind her. She tried to see a handle but it was just smooth silver walls around her. Too close around her. Frantically, she touched the wall all around the area that had opened, but she was trapped inside.
Panic clawed at her. She wouldn’t be trapped, shut away while insects crawled over her. “Open,” she screamed and slapped the door. She nearly cried when it slid open at last. She was about to rush out and keep running, but checked herself. She had to get clean, get dressed, and figure out what was going on and how to escape. Find a way to remember. She inched toward the basin and relaxed slightly when the door stayed open.
A square piece of the silver was more polished than the walls. It shined like a mirror and she went over to the sink and slowly, reluctantly looked up. Last night, she’d been too panicked to wonder what she’d look like in a mirror. Inside her something screamed to stay away from the mirror--never to look in a mirror. She clutched the edges of the sink, staring at her hand, with its long painted nails that looked wrong, the skin light and freckled. For a moment, she knew what it should look like and then the knowledge drifted away.
She wanted to see herself in the mirror, at the same time she felt a strange reluctance. Taking a deep breath, she looked up into the shiny silver oval protruding from the dull silver wall. Into the face of a stranger. An old ugly stranger.
She screamed and screamed. Suddenly the man reptile loomed behind the ugly person in the mirror. She should stop screaming because he said he’d gag her, but she couldn’t stop.
He grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Quiet, Marcie.”
She kept screaming and, when she couldn’t stop to tell him about the ugly stranger in the mirror, she frantically pointed to it.
He shook her again and, thankfully, the screams stopped bursting from her mouth.
She hiccupped and stared up at him, grateful not to look in the mirror anymore. “That’s not me. I want to wake up. Please let me wake up.” She clutched his uniform jacket, only vaguely aware of how soft the silver material felt under her hands. “I’m not old and my hair isn’t red. My eyes, my God, even my eyes are wrong.”
She grabbed her head, pulled at the strange red hair. “I want to wake up. Please let me wake up now.”
CHAPTER 5
“Marcie, stop this,” he said. His voice echoed dully in the bathroom that was alien, but also strangely human. This had to be a nightmare. Any time now she’d wake up and she’d know her name. She’d be in a normal house with humans.
“I’m not Marcie.” She pointed at the stranger in the mirror. “That isn’t me.”
She stared at the redheaded voluptuous stranger with the sultry face and the alien who towered over her. For a moment, she’d had a clear vision of what she should see in the mirror. Then it disappeared, like knowledge of her name and where she belonged disappeared. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t hold onto it.
“Who are you?”
“I don’t know who I am, but that’s not me.” She gestured at the polished silver where their images showed. “Everything is wrong.”
She wanted to get away from him, escape, but escape where? He was all she knew. He might be an alien, but he was also her haven. She swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “This can’t be happening. People don’t just wake up without memories, among aliens.”
He picked her up and, walking into the bedroom, sat down on the bed with her on his lap. “You will not cry.”
She nodded and he grunted. She remembered him doing that last night as well. His voice sounded harsher and deeper than a human’s. They sat quietly and she became aware of his warm legs beneath her. Tight, very-well-developed muscles flexed under her and, in front of her face, his uniform jacket outlined the beautiful muscled chest she’d seen last night. She really was going crazy, if she was admiring his body. To take her mind of their intimate position, she looked around the monotone room again. It still looked like a cabin in a space ship to her. If that was where she was, how would she ever get back to Earth?
“Where are we?” she asked.
She sounded timid and she knew that was wrong, as well. Whoever she was, she was not supposed to be timid. Though, any person would be if they woke up in bed with a lizard-looking man and not knowing who they were. Or where they were. Something stirred in her mind, some memory, a purpose, and then it disappeared. But that one stirring frightened her because she knew that, deep inside her, something frightening lurked.
“You will stop saying these things to convince me you have lost your memory.”
“I’m not pretending.” How was she supposed to convince him? How did you prove that you didn’t know your own name? “Please tell me where we are.” How could she not know her own name? How did one forget such an ugly...alien. “Tell me what you are. Why you caught me?”
He stared down at her and she was really grateful that she’d pulled on a large T-shirt before entering the bathroom. Sitting on his lap, her thighs naked, felt like some dark forbidden act. For the first time, the realization that he was male hit her. His voice was deeper like a man’s, his body muscled and solid like a man’s. Aroused like a man’s.
She tried to inch off his lap but he held her tight.
The hand around her waist slid upward, unti
l he cupped her breast. “We are in Montana, what you know as the Rocky Mountains.”
She breathed in so deep, her lungs nearly exploded. She should be repulsed, jump off his lap and slap his face, but her body reacted as if it recognised his touch. She had to concentrate not to lean into that touch, not to squirm with a need that didn’t make sense.
“I know where that is. How can I know that, but not who I am?” She also knew all of the big cities. In some of them, she knew the best places to eat. Other little details. Montana was only a vague place in her mind. At least she was on Earth. She could’ve cried with relief.
He cocked his bald head in a way she thought rather reptile-like and her stomach churned. She’d woken up in bed, naked. With this alien.
His hand on her breast moved in a subtle caress. “You’re afraid of being executed for your actions.”
Her heartbeat changed, became heavy. She didn’t know if it was fear or this strange desire for the alien being that caused it. “What actions?”
He made it sound as if she was part of whatever community they were in. As if she wasn’t merely a captive but also a criminal.
“You tried to murder a Zyrgin warrior.”
The bottom dropped out of her stomach. “I tried to kill someone?” Who was she? Killing someone was a horrific thing that she couldn’t imagine doing. Soft wrinkled skin, the old woman’s neck in her hand and the knife slashed, cutting the artery. She bit her lip to keep in the moan. What kind of monster was she? Was that a memory of the person she used to be?
His big claw cupped her head, held her still while he spoke in her face. She sat absolutely still. If he wanted to he could break her neck with on twist of his hand.
“I’m getting tired of your lies. I claimed you, knowing you had no honor. It was a big sacrifice for any Zyrgin to make, having a woman without honor. Do not think because I was willing to claim you, that I will tolerate these lies.”
