Stellar date (Earth Time): 01-30-2914
I woke up to a monster.
At first I thought I was dreaming still (a really horrible dream, mind you). It had the look of something from the old Diablo video games, red and purple, demonic, horned, fanged, broad, ugly and malformed.
Then I realized it had a hand on my neck and fingers in my hair.
I screamed.
Its eyes popped open, yellow and slit-pupiled. It threw itself back and clicked its teeth in a mad chatter, taking several strands of my hair with it. Ow.
I dove towards my phone, which worked more like a small, interactive screen with the rest of the space station than it did an actual phone. My hand went past it, though, to the collar pin that pared with it and squeezed the buttons on either side hard.
"Levi! Alien! Levi!"
Said alien shook its head, as though to clear rattles from it and gave me an unmistakable, human-like frown.
This startled and unnerved me more than an actual demon ever would. It reminded me a an extracurricular class I took in college once studying the mechanics of horror entertainment, be it in books in movies. An important aspect of making something 'terrifying' was to mix the familiar and the unfamiliar, making it 'uncanny.'
That alien's frown made it the perfect mixture. I was terrified.
The pin buzzed. "Jo? You're awake?"
The alien's yellow eyes shifted to the button. The big, pointy ears on either side of his head twitched. A little tamer, they could be elf ears. That didn't help.
I snatched the pin to my chest in case the alien thought of making a dive for it, which wasn't the greatest idea looking back. "Demon alien," I choked. "Here. In the observatory." The yellow eyes flicked back to me and my breath caught in my throat, making my voice come out as a high pitched whine. "It's looking at me."
"Try to stay calm, Jo. Breathe. Don't give it a reason to—just hold still and breathe. I'm coming right now."
The demon was still frowning at me. I swallowed a whine and tried to breathe, as he said, but I only succeeded in making my nose whistle.
It ducked its horned head towards me, to better level it's creepy yellow eyes on me, and I swallowed back another scream.
It clicked its teeth again, this time behind closed teeth. A long, purple mane hung about its shoulders, broken only by the spike like horns on its head. A tail swung behind it, slow and steady, like a cat ready to pounce. The purple hair covered the tip of the tail, failing in hiding the black spikes within.
I thought of Joshua and venom.
My attention shot back up to the demon's face when it gave a low croon from its chest that vibrated through the floor to tickle the one heel I'd gotten out of my covers. A strange warmth went over my mind, as though a wave of hot water had brushed over my brain.
Safe. It didn't come through words, or even images, but in feelings and intention that, at first, I thought were my own, but then realized it couldn't be.
I shuddered beneath the reoccurring waves of safe across my mind, though it only served to make me feel just the opposite of that.
I pinched the communicator. "It's got some sort of telepathy. It wants me to think I'm safe with it."
Its eyes flicked down to the pin in my fingers, then to my mouth. Its tail gave a sharp flick.
"It can communicate with you? Damn, wait, did you say demon?"
"I-I think it could be what killed Joshua."
Levi cussed, then cut out. He'd sounded breathless, which told me he was running. That alone gave me hope.
But just as struggled to breathe, blood spiked, fighting against my mind of just sprinting out of there, the demon did something stranger yet.
It lowered itself onto all fours, then onto its belly on the floor, its eyes never leaving me. Then it rolled over and laid on its hands, which I hadn't gotten a good look at before then, but I knew had been clawed. It spread out its draconic legs and looked up at me, it's horns forcing its face up towards me whether it wanted to or not.
Safety washed over my brain.
My heart pounded just a bit slower.
It crooned again. This time I could see the bob of an Adam's Apple in its throat with the sound.
Now it was my turn to frown. Yet another human-like characteristic I could have done without. But then I started to notice more: its long, Roman-like nose, thick lips, a torso like a man's with prominent deltoids and abdominals, though the collarbone stuck out more prominently than would be normal on any human, and much broader. His eyebrows were hairless too—
His.
"Are...are you a male?" I asked, my eyes automatically going to where that question would be answered.
But there was only a shell like bulge between his—its legs. Not clothes, but definitely better than seeing alien dong and bits.
For some reasoning, the crooning turned to a purr and its tail end curled, making the spines jut up into the air. Its lips curled back in a terrible grimace, revealing a pair of very, very unhuman-like fangs as long as my finger. They shone too-white against its dark purple mouth.
I shuddered and quickly looked away from its groin, hoping I hadn't pissed it off too much.
Just for the door to the observatory to hiss open and Levi to slide in, rifle up, eye level with the site.
Faster than I thought possible, the alien flipped back onto its back feet, jaw dropped to bear those terrible fangs with an ear-splitting hiss. It had its hands raised in an obvious threat and, yes, they did have claws. Long, black things, thicker than the spines, which I now saw ran all along the line of its spine as they rose like the quills on a porcupine. Even its main seemed to inflate, long hairs bristling. It's huge, reptilian feet spread, as though lowering itself in ready for a fight, scaled, clawed red toes somehow making me think of Godzilla.
"Levi—"
"Don't move," he murmured. He had that look in his eye again, one of a formidable commander, sharp and closed.
The alien lashed its tail, narrowly missing my knee with its spines. I pushed up against the wall next to my sleeping pad. I bit my lip.
For a long moment in time that felt like an hour, but could have only been a few seconds, Levi and the alien faced each other, one hissing, the other glaring down the barrel of a rifle.
Then a muffled pow—an explosive hiss—and blood spurted from its high cheek bone, speckling the floor.
"Levi—"
Another shot, and the alien hunched, eyes rolling.
Then, just as supernaturally quick as it had been getting to its feet, it swung round and dove towards a vent, which had its grate beside it in a tangled mess.
Its spines and hair seemed to shrink in on itself. Its collarbone seemed to completely collapse up into a big V about its head.
Even so, it wasn't enough. It got its head in only to realize, too late, it couldn't fit, and Levi finally stopped shooting like a Storm Trooper and landed a bullet in its thigh. But that only seemed to enrage it and Levi more, as Levi stomped closer and it spun around to face him. Something tinged with pink dripped from its open fangs. A terrible smell of brimstone filled the air, rotten eggs to the max, and I gagged. Its spines screeched across the floor.
"Levi STOP!!"
He did, but his knuckles were white on his gun.
It was just enough hesitation for the alien to strike.
Okay, so, let's get a few things straight. I am not a coward. Having a tough body had given me perhaps a dangerous sense of security in my own strength, and it had given me a somewhat manish attitude to match my body. But I also wasn't stupid to think I had anything on a seven foot horned, venomous demon from hell armed to the teeth.
Nor was I stupid to think Levi could either.
I chucked my pillow at it.
It hit dead on its face. It froze in place, blood streaming from the outside of its thigh, fangs still dropped open, claws outstretched for Levi.
In a second it had folded back its fangs and looked at me in such a human expression of 'what?' that it felt as though I'd missed a step down the stairs.
Levi fired.