“And you left the quarters, a drunken rat.” He chuckled again but there was no mirth behind it.
“You do know I forgive you. Never held it against you in the first place. I knew what alcohol did to a person and had been around it enough to know what could happen. What happened afterward,” she looked back at the door, “was always a possibility.”
The conversation stalled between them and the distant, shallow pinging of the sirens was the only sound to fill the air.
She had left their room in the middle of the rest cycle, drunk and uninhibited, to go to the lavatory. She’d been caught with her pants down when another crew member came in. It had been quick, the shock of discovery—terrifying and freeing at the same time. And although she was out of her mind and still giddy from the booze, she remembered the man’s face as his eyes zeroed in on her privates.
She’d flown back to her quarters, woken her dad and before the alcohol had a chance to wear off either of them, they had deployed an escape pod and vanished into space, leaving everything behind.
They’d purchased new identities to avoid arrest for stealing tech, dropping the pod at the first opportunity, and remained landside on a border planet for six months. That was how long it took for the money to run out, and then choices had to be made. Her dad signed up for another mining job. She had followed him once again.
Another six years of living in a man’s world, another six years of pretending, passed by until they’d been caught and thrown into a brig.
“We’ll make it through this. Like we made it through that,” her dad said.
A thunderous roar from outside suddenly shook the room.
“Elodie!” Her name took shape in the sound, horrible and thick. The door rattled and her dad shot to his feet.
A gun was in his hand and he was struggling with the safety the next second. “What the hell!?”
Elodie’s hands clenched and her heart pounded.
Gunner. He’s found me.
They stared at the door as Gunner pounded on the other side. Sweat dampened her palms.
“Let me,” the roaring turned into growled words, “in, dammit!” The pounding increased in intensity, jarring the entire room. He was furious.
“Ely, get back!”
Metal caved inward.
“I can’t,” she hissed, rising to her feet.Gunner came for me.
The door shot open and a man she barely knew stood in the doorway. A face materialized over the shattered threshold, shaded and framed in pulsing red. He was bare-chested, draped in ribbons of red, and the only thing she recognized was the blistering red orbs of his eyes.
The outline of his body was partially hunched, crooked, and heaving, his breath rocking his entire frame. Steam from the machines behind masked his form in an obscure, terrifying halo-of-hell.
Elodie’s lips parted, her mouth dried up. Goosebumps pricked her flesh. Shadows accentuated the monster’s features; the high-spiked ears, the partially-formed snout, the deep-set eyes sockets. The red glow coming from his pupils glinted off his metal teeth.
The parts of him that were metal were covered in condensation, the rest blood.
“Who the fuck are you!?” Her dad yelled, shielding her with his body as he raised his gun.
“Gunner,” she whispered.
“What. The. Hell!?” her dad stammered and yelled again when the creature didn’t answer, driving the two of them slowly deeper into the room.
She grabbed the back of her dad’s shirt and pulled, never taking her eyes off of Gunner’s, which speared her on the spot. “Lower your weapon,” she begged. “Please.” It was meant for the both of them.
“Like fuck, I will!”
Gunner didn’t even notice her dad.
“Please!” Elodie pleaded, stepping forward.
“You weren’t in the brig.” His voice breathed fire. It burned the very core of her soul.
