Star Singer

Twenty Three

     As time passed, the aching pain began more bearable. It was as if a shield had been activated in the rooms the humans were in and the pressure lessened considerably. Anna wiped her nose and glanced around, not having dared to before in case anyone came at her with accusations again. Lauren had passed out and was laying motionless on the floor while Kass and Kelly were looking about as bad off as Anna. There was not much in the room and it was fairly small; maybe about a similar size to an average human living room.

     Kelly's storage container sat silently in a corner of the room where it had slid when the ship began to move. As they all got used to the strange sensation, Kelly slowly crawled over to the container. It looked weird, though. There was a blur to everything and an echo to every image. Kass coughed lightly, but the sound seemed to be thrown away; Anna only heard perhaps a half second of it before it was cut off.

     The strangeness of everything around made Anna's head ache. Her eyes were strained from trying to figure out what was going on- none of the aware of how incredible fast they were traveling. Anna tried to stand, but the pressure would not allow it. She felt weakened and exhausted. Instead of trying to make things more difficult for herself, Anna curled up into a ball.

     After a long time, Anna felt a light touch on her shoulder. She opened her eyes groggily and looked up to find Boy crouched over her. All of his wounds had reopened and were bleeding freely, but he did not seem to care much. He held his hand out toward her, but she turned away, unwilling to Connect or whatever else he might have wanted.

     He smiled pitifully and settled down next to her, ignoring the suspicious glowering from both Kass and Kelly. Lauren had started to come to, but her eyes were glazed over and she seemed to be in a daze. She did not move form where she lay.

     Boy quietly sat beside Anna, waiting for her to acknowledge him again. It was impossible for either of them to speak; any time there was a sound, it was only there for a split second before being whisked away. After awhile more, Anna could not stand it any longer and reached her hand out toward Boy. He carefully grabbed her hand, lovingly caressing it, and spoke directly into her mind.

     Do you think you are up for eating something? We've been moving for a few hours now.

     Anna assessed her mental and physical state, but she felt anything but hungry. She shook her head at him, her mind spinning at the motion. Boy hunkered down even more until he was lying against her. He hesitantly wrapped an arm around her waist, keeping contact, and began to gently stroke her hair with another.

     Do you hate me? He asked.

    Anna mulled over his question, but not for very long. She did not hate him. She hated what had happened on Star Singer and she hated that he had tricked her, but she did not hate Boy himself. She did not hate Child or Maggot or Unwanted. Nor did she even hate Kelly. She just hated her situation. But she certainly feared Boy. He claimed he would never hurt her purposely, but how was she to know if that was true? And if it was true, would it always be?

     I see, came Boy's voice and Anna realized he had been reading her thoughts. He did not seem to have been able to do such a thing before. Perhaps it was due to the amount of times they had Connected. Or maybe because of the strength of her emotions. Boy, for once, offered no explanation.

     Anna could feel a trickle of emotion. Emotions she knew were not her own. Relief, affection, hunger. They came from Boy. He continued to slowly stroke her hair, his fingers untangling it, his other arm pulling her closer to him. She did not resist him. Maybe it was because they were sharing emotions and thoughts in that moment. Most likely it was because she needed comfort. She wanted to feel like a small child wrapped safely in the arms of an adult. Anything to replace the terror and stress from everything that had happened.

     At that point, Anna started to cry softly. She curled up around the alien's hand and wailed, knowing no one would hear her. No one but Boy. She had no where to go; there was hostility from Kelly and perhaps even Sirius and Sam still. It would be impossible to return to Earth. Who knew what would await her if she tried? 

     You'll stay with me, Boy told her as he nuzzled the back of her neck affectionately. I won't let you go. I will never harm you; you will live a long and good life, he promised.

     This time Anna was inclined to believe his words.

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Figured you guys would enjoy a bit of fluff.

Note: I don't know jack sh-- about traveling so fast, but I know for a fact the human body would not be able to withstand it. So I'm making stuff up. I didn't do well in my science classes, so don't expect some logical explanation.

Here is my thought process :

Faster than the speed of light = things get funky -- honestly, they probably wouldn't be able to see at all, but where's the fun of that?

Speed of light vs Speed of sound = light travels HELLA faster so...who needs sound?