VICTORIA'S POV
I opened my eyes. Then quickly closed them.
Too bright.
I opened them again, but still couldn't see clearly. Everything was moving and nothing was clear. I blinked a couple of times until my vision cleared. I was lying on my back. I was looking at a white ceiling.
Where am I? This isn't my room.
I tried to remember where I was and bits and pieces of my memory came to me.
Take out... car stopping... jogging home... frozen in place... stars... spaceship... aliens!
"It wasn't a dream?" I whispered.
But that's impossible. It can't be possible. It just can't. Maybe I've lost my mind. Maybe, at this very moment, I'm in an asylum.
Then I noticed the weird devices surrounding me.
A tiny laugh bubbled out of me. Then another, and another until I was full out laughing. I laughed so hard tears began to form and fall down the sides of my head. I couldn't stop laughing. I laughed so hard my sides began to hurt. I tried to grab them but my movements seemed sluggish and off.
Have they drugged me?
I noticed a movement in the room when my laughter finally died down. He was standing on my right. How did I not notice him?
Has he been standing there all along? Did he witness my mental breakdown?
He moved closer to me until he stood right next to me. I saw a hint of sympathy play on his features. But it was quickly removed and replaced with a blank stare. I turned away from him.
The one thing I couldn't stand was people pitying me.
"What did you do to me? Why do I feel so weird?"
"You fell and hit your head."
I remembered blacking out. I don't remember hitting my head.
"You lost a lot of blood. We had to sedate you so that your wound could heal. You have been given shots to keep the pain at bay and calm your nerves. This will have you disoriented for a couple of hours."
His accent sounded kind of English. How did i not notice before?
Calm my nerves!
"My nerves wouldn't need any calming if you hadn't kidnapped me."
I shot back at him as I looked at him. I was staring again. Why was I always staring at him? I mean, I knew he was gorgeous, but he hated my guts, for some unknown reason. And I hated him, for kidnapping me.
I wasn't one to look people in the eye, in fact, I avoided people all together, yet I found myself drawn to his emerald ones. I wasn't a people person. Me and people didn't go well together.
He completely ignored what I had just said.
"You need to eat."
I looked at him about to protest when my stomach rumbled in reaction to his mention of food.
Traitor!
I tried to sit up, but my elbows were too weak to bear my weight. I tried to sit up again, and I would have fallen back down if not for his arms holding me. He helped me sit up and I would have pushed him away, except the whole room felt like it was spinning out of control. My head was resting against his left shoulder while I clung to his right arm for dear life. His left arm was still holding me in an upright position. We stayed like this for a couple of minutes until I felt I could sit up on my own.
I shoved him away, admittedly, it was a pathetic shove, considering how weak I felt and tried to remain upright. In my attempt to rebel, I stayed just as I was, not moving or acknowledging his presence.
"You need to eat," he said again.
Is my pride really worth starving for?
I swung my legs over the bed slowly, grateful that I didn't feel the dizziness I had earlier. However, this small task took a lot out of me. I felt weaker now.
The small rectangular steps appeared again. I had placed my right foot on the first step with the intention of placing my left on the next step. But my legs gave out. I probably would have fallen flat on my face and embarrassed myself if he hadn't been there to catch me.
"This won't do," he said.
As I was figuring out what he meant by that comment, he had bent down and scooped me up in his arms.
I was surprised he was able to get me off the floor.
"I'm too heavy! I'm too heavy! Put me down!" No matter how much I protested, he didn't budge. I hadn't realised that I had closed my eyes. I opened one, then the other, and looked at the ground. I turned to look at him but he had already started walking. We moved through the sitting area and onto the kitchen where he placed me in one of the stools. He then walked around the table and went to the device he had said earlier was the heater, or was it warmer? I couldn't really remember. He took out a tray from it. The tray had a bowl on it. He moved to the cooler and took out a small glass filled with a blue liquid. He came back around the table and lay the things in front of me.
The bowl held some sort of cereal in it. It looked like oatmeal.
He went to a drawer and removed what looked like a spoon, except with a really long handle. He reached above him and opened another drawer and pulled out a small vial of a clear liquid which he said was concentrated water.
He came with these things in hand and set them before me as he sat on the stool next to me.
"Eat," he ordered.
"So that you can poison me?" I had recovered from the shock of him carrying me.
"If I wanted to kill you, I would have let you bleed out on the floor. Now, eat."
He had something about him that just oozed authority and power. Maybe it was the way he spoke, or the way he held himself. All I knew was, as much as I wanted to be rebellious, crossing him seemed like a big mistake. But that didn't stop me.
"How do I know you didn't save me just so I could clean up the mess?"
He got the spoon and shoved some food into his mouth.
"You may have an antidote ready for yourself." I stubbornly said.
He responded with a sigh. "Are you Earthians that untrusting? Eat or don't eat. The one who is starving is not me."
I held onto my rebellion for all of twenty seconds longer and then lifted my hand, my shaking hand, to the table.
Why did moving take so much energy?
I moved it across the table until it reached the spoon. I was concentrating so much on this menial task. I tried to clutch it but failed on my first attempt. With renewed determination, I tried again. This time I was able to hold it, albeit loosely, and lifted my hand to the bowl. Just as the spoon was about to reach the lip of the bowl, it fell and would have clattered to the floor if he hadn't caught it. He moved so fast I almost didn't see it.
Those are some pretty good reflexes.
I expected him to place the 'spoon' back in my hand but he instead scooped some of the cereal and held it out to me.
I looked at him.
Is he trying to feed me?
"I am not a baby."
He lowered his hand.
"You're right. A babe would be able to feed itself."
I gasped and he took that moment to shove the food into my mouth. As soon as it hit my tongue, I couldn't help but quietly moan at the delicious taste. He continued feeding me for some time.
"Why are you helping me now? It seems like this is the last place you want to be in. Where you reprimanded because I got hurt?" I couldn't keep the bite out of my words.
He looked down at the bowl, then directly into my eyes. Just like before, I was caught in his spell. They were so green.
Focus.
"I owe you an apology. I should not have left earlier."
"That's what you're apologising for? How about your behaviour towards me?"
It looked painful for him to formulate the words.
"I should have been more understanding of your situation."
"Oh, you mean the one you created by kidnapping me?" I tilted my head slightly and glared at him.
He heaved another sigh and closed his eyes for a moment.
That's right.
He opened them up again, but this time I was prepared, they didn't faze me, not much.
"What is your name?"
Wait, what?
He raised his eyebrows slightly.
For a second I was confused, but then said, "Vickie, Victoria. Everyone calls me Vickie, it's my nickname."
Why was I rambling?
"Victoria." He sounded out my name.
He lifted the spoon again to my mouth and this time I opened it without hesitation. I was too busy trying to figure him out.
What I thought was cereal, actually wasn't. This stuff was amazing. It tasted like chicken, no beef, no chicken, maybe both. It was so good. He scooped more of the stuff and fed me three spoonful's when I asked, "What is this?"
"Lumpum." He said.
"Lumpum." I sounded it out as well.
"What is it made of?"
"It is made from the Lumpia fruit, popular in my land. They crush the fruit and ferment it for a day then mix in it some crushed Multa seeds. It is then stored in Grajomi jars, made from the Grajomi tree."
The Gra what?
"Your land?"
"I shall answer all your questions once you have eaten."
He scooped more of the Lumpum and fed me until I finished the bowl. Honestly, I wanted more, but I was too proud to ask.
He lifted the glass of blue liquid, and held it to my lips.
"Drink."
I parted my lips and saw how focused his eyes were on my mouth. I drank, trying as hard as I could not to make that swallowing sound. The liquid was sweet.
"Drink comfortably," he said.
Why am I trying to look good for him?
I pushed down the inner girl in me and practically drained the entire liquid in one gulp. I expected him to say something, but he didn't.
He put the glass down and lifted the vial of water. Then I remembered him saying something about me only needing one dose a day. He lifted it to my lips and I looked at it sceptically.
"This is concentrated water." He said as way of explanation.
"What do you mean concentrated?" I asked.
He paused for a second before answering. "Mm the chemical engineers were able to..." he looked for the words to say, his eyes concentrated on the vial in his hand, "compress and alter the particles so much so, that this little vial," he lifted it a little, "would be enough to replenish any lost water in your cells." He looked up at me to see if I understood.
I just nodded my head, trying to process what he had just said. "So, if I drank the water from one of those vials, it would be the same as me having drunk a lot of water? Is that why I only require one of those," I nodded my head in the direction of the vial because I was too weak to point, "per day?"
"Not exactly. The particles act to replenish and give your cells the water required to function efficiently. It varies as to how much replenishing it does per person and its effects only last a day."
He lifted it to my lips and I drank it. It didn't taste like water, exactly. Actually, it was more or less tasteless.
I felt much better after having filled my stomach.
He cleared everything away into a latch I hadn't noticed before. It was under the warmer and cooler. He turned around and said, "This is the disposal latch. You insert all items here once you have finished eating, including empty vials."
I couldn't understand his sudden change in behaviour. He wasn't being rude anymore, he was polite, but I could sense the coldness behind it. What was going on?