All I could take in was their terrifying eyes and the sheer size of them. There were so many of them, at least twenty and their attention was solely focused on me. Their muscled bodies towered over me and I resisted the urge to cower back.
I am stronger than that. I reminded myself numbly.
A smooth, masculine sounding voice broke the silence between us.
"Well, looks like it worked. I didn't think they could pull it off. Guess this means we have to hold up our end of the bargain, huh?" One of the aliens piped up sarcastically. I looked up at him in shock; whatever I had been expecting them to sound like had flown right out of the metaphorical window. Hell, they were even speaking English.
"She looks just like us," Another marveled, peering closer. God, their accent was probably the most attractive thing I had ever heard.
I cringed back, away from his sudden proximity, not believing that this was actually happening. The army vehicle that had thrown me out onto the ground had long since sped away, across the dessert sand and exited a border-like checkpoint with armed guards and high fences before disappearing completely from sight. I had watched it turn in to a small little black dot in the distance. I was officially on my own.
"I wonder if her eyes are real or if they're trying to fool us with those squishy eye-saucers humans use to change the colour of their irises and correct their vision." Another piped in. I furrowed my brows at him in confusion, temporarily distracting me from the terror going on around me.
Does he mean contact lenses? I pondered. Who says squishy eye saucers?
There were murmurs of agreement throughout the group of men. I resisted the overwhelming urge to roll my eyes.
All that were left around me were aliens. No one spoke as we studied each other. My eyes darted back and forth between them, considering the options laid out in front of me. One thing I knew for sure was that I didn't want to be brought inside their facility. I doubted I would ever get out if that was the case. They were probably far worse, much more brutal than anything I had experienced under the government so far.
Currently, no one was blocking the path between myself and the gate. I turned slightly, positioning myself so that I could make a mad dash towards the exit where the vehicle had left through. I had no plan once I got there and it would probably be at least a fifteen minute sprint, but hey; if the guards shot me at least it would be quick.
It was only seconds that passed between moment I made the decision to run and my body attempting to follow through with what my brain wanted, but I found myself unable to move my legs from where they were currently planted on the ground.
"What the fu-?" I shrieked, startled with the foreign feeling of being unable to control my own body. I attempted to yank my foot from the ground and instead, it remained where it was, seemingly stuck to the dirt below. I inhaled, then exhaled shakily.
I slowly looked back at the men behind me. My shoulders were tense and my muscles were strained with the unknown weight bearing down on me, making me unable to move in the slightest.
They looked like warriors. Like they could snap me like a twig if they really wanted to.
The one that looked to be the leader came closer, "Stop being a brat. Whether you like it or not, you are stuck here now. You might as well behave." His voice was cold and detached.
Brat? My thoughts went wild, thinking of all of the ways I could kill him. Who did he think he was? It's not like I was throwing a tantrum because my latte was cold. I was literally tortured and turned into a mutant and then thrown into a den of aliens who wanted to do god knows what to me.
Well, I actually had a pretty good idea with what they wanted from me. I cringed at the thought.
His condescending tone finally made me look up and fully take him in, albeit with narrowed eyes. As I did so, my eyes widened slightly and my mouth went dry at the sight of him.
His eyes drew me in like a magnet. They were an electric blue like all of those around me but... they had a fire... an electricity within them that I couldn't really explain. He was tall and his muscles were perfectly toned. His dark eyelashes framed his otherworldly eyes as he stared down at me suspiciously.
He was a total asshole.
His hair was the colour of obsidian, a shade that seemed impossibly darker than black that suited him completely. I had never seen someone more perfect; and he wasn't even from this planet.
Figures. I shuddered, shaking myself from the illusion I was sure he had forced upon me with his alien mojo.
I glared. I had reserved judgement on these assholes, hoping they would be better than the ones I had just endured. I realized now that it may be a lost cause. My façade hardened as I stared him down. He was partly responsible for my torture and mutation. They all were... and I was not going to pretend to be friendly in the slightest.
The men snickered behind him, amused at my attitude, I was sure. I wasn't having any of it as I glowered at them all before turning to face him head on.
"Go to hell. I'm not going anywhere with you." I snapped, glaring at him under my eyelashes.
He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at me. "It's funny you think you have a choice." His voice was flat and emotionless now. It caused goosebumps to travel up my arms. He was terrifying in a way I had never experienced before. A terrifying that for some reason thrilled me at the same time.
Wait, what? This alien should not be thrilling me in any way. I chastised my inner thoughts angrily.
I scoffed, "None of this has been my choice. Do you even know what they did to me?' I practically snarled, my eyes darting to all the men surrounding me. I stepped towards him aggressively.
I felt like a caged animal, and I was about to snap. I sensed that they could feel it too, as they seemed to ready themselves for something to happen. They looked so uneasy that I almost laughed. The big, macho aliens were scared of a little girl.
"Calm down." The gorgeous man ordered, just as angrily. If I had needed any further proof that he wasn't a nice guy, I didn't need it any longer.
"Why don't you make me?" I growled. My mind had gone to fight or flight, thinking only of how I was going to escape this prison they had sentenced me to without my consent.
"I wouldn't suggest taunting him like that, cutie." One of the other aliens piped up. He had blonde hair and tanned skin. He was also unnaturally attractive. I glared back at him, and he smirked in response.
"Suit yourself," He muttered lightly, raising his hands in a surrendering motion, moving into the background once more.
"Kade, we've got to get her up to the boss." The blonde piped up again. So Kade was the big bad hottie that was currently matching my hostile glare.
Typical name for a hot douche bag. The name suits him perfectly. I thought to myself bitterly.
I dug my feet into the dirt, ready for another fight. I was suddenly extremely scared and wished none of this had ever happened to me. It was unfair.
Kade studied me intently, and I stared right back at him unhappily. "Calm down," He commanded once again. It only angered me more.
My body began to feel hot. All over. I stumbled on my feet as I felt a burst of energy that was extremely foreign overcome my body. I felt weird.
"Kade, we've gotta get her inside now," Blonde boy urged, glancing at me uncomfortably and back towards where the scientists had come from and where the guards were monitoring from a distance.
Kade grabbed me by the arm roughly enough for me to hiss out in pain. However, that was replaced quickly with some sort of weird vibration that made my bones feel like they were melting into a pool of honey. His hold loosened slightly but he continued to drag me towards the building in front of us.
"I don't want to go with you!" I growled out, struggling against his hold to no avail. I still felt hot and sick to my stomach with the weird sensation that had overcome me earlier, but Kade's warm hand around my arm was doing a great job at distracting me.
"Too damn bad." He snapped as we reached the door. The men were trailing behind me, I supposed in case I managed to break free; but that was very unlikely considering the strength I could feel radiating off of Kade.
He tugged open the rusted door and yanked me through, and the men piled in quickly after us. I gasped in shock at the darkness, but more so the fact that our skin was glowing.
"Wh-what the hell?!' I shrieked. I was about to lose it, I could feel the hysteria of the situation sinking in. My skin was blistering hot as I fanned myself desperately in an attempt to put out the flames. My fingers tingled and my vision was starting to get spotted.
Suddenly I felt an overwhelming rush of calm and my knees began to feel like jello as they buckled beneath me. As my eyes began to droop, Kade scooped me up into his arms as if it were the most normal thing in the world. As if he had been anticipating it.
"No....t... cool." I whispered weakly as he walked through unfamiliar hallways.
Yet again, I had found myself imprisoned.
My eyes fluttered as I struggled to stay conscious. I blinked slowly, feeling very at ease despite the panicked thoughts running through my mind. As my brain worked to clear the lingering fog, I gasped. They had totally tried to knock me out with their weird alien freakiness. I shivered as I realized they were capable of so much more than I had originally thought. I was completely out of my element here.
"You bastard." I hissed out angrily, suddenly coming to. I shoved against Kade's muscled chest. To my surprise, he didn't attempt to keep me trapped in his arms, he simply let me throw myself right out onto the concrete floor.
I groaned in pain. "Dick." I huffed, trying to catch my breath. The only thing I had managed to accomplish was knock the wind out of myself.
Kade growled at my outburst. "You wish, Princess."
It took me a moment to catch up to his words. "Excuse me?" I laughed incredulously at his own cockiness. "No, you wish Kade." I threw his name at him like an insult.
He hissed out an impatient breath and combed his fingers through his hair out of frustration.
"Someone get her down to the mess hall. I'm going for a walk." He all but muttered as he stalked off down the opposite hallway. I didn't know what I had been expecting, but the hallways were utterly empty except for the men I had been brought inside with. Where were their people?
As I sat on the ground, now recovered, I took in my surroundings. It looked as though we were literally inside of a space ship. The walls, floor and ceiling were made of some sort of metal and there was a strange hum that seemed to vibrate through the vents that lined the wall. I felt completely claustrophobic.
No time for that, Emily. You can freak out later. I attempted to reason with myself, knowing the walls weren't really closing in on me, it just felt like it.
The blonde guy from outside stepped forwards when no one else did. I was sure they weren't willing to deal with a moody woman unless they had a gun to their heads.
Well... I could arrange that. The more evil voice in my head suggested. I rolled my eyes at my own thoughts. I sometimes wondered if I should be checked into a psych ward with the things that filtered through my mind.
The rest of the men, besides one or two stragglers decided the fun was over and went off to do their own thing.
"Well...." The blonde guy cleared his throat, "how about a tour?" He suggested awkwardly.
I huffed, looking away with my arms crossed. If I was being honest, I was quite content just sitting on this floor for the rest of the night.
When he didn't go away, I sighed.
"And your name is...?" I drawled out, attempting to sound bored and uninterested. The more I thought about it, the more a tour sounded like a great idea. I was dying to see how aliens really lived. I didn't have to get invested. I could just distance myself from this situation mentally and pretend this was just an episode of MTV's 'Cribs'.
"My name is Darius. Most call me Dare. And you are?" He managed to sound like a Beverly Hills mean girl, purposely raising his voice to sound stuck up.
Not able to help myself, my lip turned up into a half smile. I hadn't been around anyone with a sense of humour in what felt like eons.
His sarcasm and goofiness would be a much needed distraction from the real world.
"I think you know my name, Darius." I raised an expectant eyebrow. I was half joking, but I did somewhat want to see if he knew the answer.
I decided I was tired of sitting cross legged, so I flipped back onto my back. I stared up at him with my arms crossed against my chest.
"I do. Or do I? I don't think you'll ever know if I really knew your name in this very moment. Perhaps I did but I'm faking it, or maybe, just maybe, I don't know it and I'm just delaying that fact while I brainstorm what your name actually is."
I rolled my eyes. "Well, that made my head hurt." I paused, staring at him with my eyebrow raised. "You're not exactly what I would imagine an alien would be like. Especially after meeting your boss."
Darius had been loosely pacing the room, but stopped when I said this. He turned to face me with an amused smile.
"Actually, you're the alien thank you very much. Or... at least you were, until they made you in to one of us." Darius stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
I scrunched my nose up. "Uh, you're on my planet. That makes you the alien." I responded dully. In reality, he had totally made my brain spin on what actually classified an alien. They clearly weren't human. And they were on Earth. A planet that was not theirs.
"Yeah. No, you're definitely the alien here." I said with finality.
Darius laughed. It was a pleasant sound, and I found myself liking the sound of his voice.
"Well, Kelly. It's time we get on with the tour." He announced, snapping his fingers.
At the snap of his fingers, suddenly I was standing upright on my two feet. I inhaled sharply, bringing my hand to my chest out of shock.
"Okay, what in the world was that?" I breathed out, trying to calm my racing heartbeat.
Darius laughed, "You've got a lot to learn, Princess." He motioned for me to follow behind him as he headed down the long corridor. The two other men followed a little farther behind, deciding that whatever we were doing was more interesting than anything else going on at the moment.
If an alien was staying at my house I'd probably be interested too. I pondered silently as I followed Darius through the metal entombed walls. These guys were acting as if telekinesis or teleportation, whatever he had done to make me suddenly be standing up was the most normal thing on the planet. I didn't even know where to start with that one.
We passed many doors as we walked to the mess hall, as Kade had called it. Darius filled the silence humming to some song that I didn't recognize.
When we finally arrived, it was no more lively than the hallways had been. It was utterly empty besides the faces that were starting to become familiar from before. Despite this, there was a warming station with freshly cooked food waiting for us.
My stomach growled at the smell.
Darius laughed at the sound. "I guess Kade was right. This way to the food, Princess."
I furrowed my brows. "Right about what? And why do you keep calling me Princess? It's because you really don't know my name, isn't it Derek?" I hid the smile in my voice, pretending to have forgotten his name.
He shook his finger at me. "Uh, uh. I am the one person in this establishment that you are not allowed to forget the name of." He teased, seeming to enjoy the light banter between us. If only Kade were as nice.
"And why's that?" I pondered, my eyes flicking between him and the food waiting for us.
"Because I'm the best tour guide in this building." He stated, gesturing for me to follow him to the delicious smelling cart.
He paused before lifting the cover off. "Now, don't judge a book from it's cover. Trust me." I was pretty sure that his words had a double meaning by the way he was looking at me, but I pretended he was only talking about the food.
"Okay, I'm starving. Hurry up!" I urged him, embarrassed when he laughed at my angry stomach once more. I couldn't quite remember the last time I had eaten a full meal.
Darius lifted the metal lid off the containers. I stared at them, not quite sure of what I was looking at. There were what looked to be roasted vegetables but I didn't recognize any of them, some sort of meat looking product, something that resembled seaweed and an assortment of what seemed to be pastries.
I paused, looking up at him. "What is this stuff?" I inquired, looking to the vegetables.
Darius snorted, amused with my hesitation. "Marleed," he pointed to what sort of resembled a pepper on earth, "Jian," he pointed to a green bushel type vegetable, and rattled off several others as I nodded in response.
"They're safe to eat for humans?" I inquired, inspecting them closely.
Darius paused, "Well... I don't think we've ever had a human in our facility before. Let alone try the crops from our homeland. Not to mention... you're not supposed to be human any more."
He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. I blushed, knowing he must be thinking of the real reason I was supposed to be here. I would get to that problem when I found the person in charge of this place.
"Yeah, but what if I didn't actually turn in to one of you and they just managed to change my appearance?" I cringed at the thought. Being stuck between a human and an alien sounded like something worse than what I already was.
Darius sighed. "I wouldn't worry based on what we've seen so far. However, I know tomorrow they plan on inspecting you and testing out your abilities, if any."
I nodded, suddenly extremely nervous for tomorrow. Death by vegetable didn't sound the greatest, but I was hungry.
I gingerly picked up several different pieces offered on the cart. I gestured towards the meat.
"What's this? Some sort of space cow?" I cringed away, imagining all of the possibilities.
Darius gave me a flat look. "It's chicken, you drama queen."
My face must have shown genuine shock because Darius's now familiar laughter suddenly bounced loudly off of the walls of the mess hall. I blushed.
"Oh. Fair enough," I responded, plopping a couple pieces onto my plate.
We ate in silence at a nearby table. The food somehow tasted more delicious than anything I had eaten in a long while. I even helped myself to seconds as Darius watched.
When I was finished, he took my plate and put it in a tray with soap and water. He winked, moving his arm so it was hovering over my shoulder.
"Let's go. I've got orders to bring you to your room for the night. You must be exhausted." He said, leading me down another hallway. We headed up an elevator to the first floor, where he punched in some sort of code, and added his thumb to the keypad. The door opened and he led me down to the last room on the right. He pulled out a key and handed it to me.
"Here we are." He smiled, leaning against the doorway. "The room should have everything you need in there already. If you need anything else, there's an intercom that will let one of us know you need assistance. Someone will be here to pick you up for breakfast at ten o'clock in the morning. Any questions?"
I took the key from his outstretched hand and shook my head. I was suddenly overcome with tiredness. "I think anything else can wait til morning. Thanks for everything Darius." I smiled, thankful for his kindness. I only hoped that this time, it was genuine.
I hoped that they were different.
As I made my way inside the room, I locked the door behind me. It looked like a regular hotel room might besides the fact that there was no window. It had what looked to be a king sized mattress. A small mini-fridge was in the corner of the room and it had a small en-suite bathroom attached as well.
I was too tired to even change out of my dirty clothes. Not wanting to get the bed sheets dirty, I laid down on top of the soft comforter. I would deal with my problems tomorrow.
Right now, it was time to sleep.
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Wowza.
I just have to say THANK YOU to everyone who suggested a name for my main guy character when I posted wanting some help. You guys are awesome. As you can see, I opted to go with Kade :) However, I liked your suggestions as well and opted for Darius for another character and will see what I can do to incorporate other suggestions for more characters in the future :)
What do you think is going to happen next!? Please comment and vote, I love hearing what you are thinking and it really motivates me to update.
Love you,
Kyla :)