“You’re like one of those wild animals we have on our historical digital files. It’s fascinating, really.” He takes another step closer, less than an arm’s reach away from me. Now I can hear his nasally breathing, and the way his lungs seem to heave and convulse in his chest. His body isn’t used to being without his helmet, or maybe it’s more of the fear of what he always believed would happen if it was ever to be taken off.
I growl again and gesture my hands to my face. I want this metal strap off my mouth, now.
He smirks and lifts his hand to my cheek. He does something that’s too close to my face for me to see and suddenly my lips are free, allowing words to come tumbling out of my mouth uncontrollably. “Eat a dick. You piece of lying alien trash. Rune did nothing wrong and you know it.”
He lunges forward so fast, I only realize he’s moved when I feel his fingers clasp around my throat and squeeze. “Your language is repulsive.”
I gasp and choke and swing my bound arms against his. I slam the metal that shackles my wrists together against his forearms, but his hand just clenches tighter around my neck. Panic rushes through my body in fiery heat. I flail my arms and thrash my body—anything to get his hands from around my neck. I can’t breathe. He’s completely cut off my air supply. My vision thins and his face blurs into shadowy colors.
“Such an inferior gender,” he hisses as he drags me forward and throws me down. My knees and palms collide with the floor and sharp biting pain slices up my bones. I cough and gag on the air I’m desperately trying to gulp back into my lungs. “So easily breakable,” he laughs.
Panting, I stare up at him. My throat is on fire and I wish I could burn him with my words. “Yet, I hold what you need. Don’t I?” My voice is harsh and raw. “Without females, you go extinct.”
His lip curls up in a snarl.
I cringe as I try to swallow. I need to stand back up. I can’t let him think he bested me.
“Only a small part of your anatomy is needed. The rest of your body is nothing more than an empty bag of flesh. Quite worthless,” he says, as he watches me climb to my feet.
It takes me a minute to steady myself and I end up having to lean on the nearest wall for support. I end up looking as weak as he believes I am.
“Why do you fight me?” he asks, cocking his head.
“I don’t belong here,” I croak, still having trouble catching my breath. “None of the women do. You took us. Stole us.”
“And you want to go back to your home, do you?” he whispers.
Then something in his expression changes. His eyes gleam, his features darken.
The hairs on the nape of my neck prickle and straighten. He’s up to something. He’s either going to lunge at me again or—
“Oh, I have the remedy for that, female,” he chuckles, low.
I have a bad feeling. A really awful, sickening feeling curling in my stomach.
He takes a few steps back, smiling, until he’s standing in front of the digital display station again. He reaches out a hand, and without taking his gaze away from mine, he presses a glowing blue button. Just to my left a floor-to-ceiling panel shifts and slides open, millions of stars blinking back at me. In the center of the window, hundreds of miles away, is Earth, covered with the bluest water and cotton-like clouds.
Home.
I lay my palms flat against the surface of the glass. It’s icy cold.
He moves up close behind me. “That is where you want to be?” he whispers into my hair.
“It’s where I belong,” my words crack and tears well in my eyes. My family is there, it’s where I need to be.
He grunts, then pulls a lever and presses a red flashing light.
Sparks of adrenaline pinch and ignite over my skin.What is he doing?“What…what did you just do?” I whisper.
Suddenly a bright white light blinds me and everything seems to move in slow motion. It starts in the middle of Earth, a dazzling flash that expands out and around, raining rocks and billowing fire through the dark matter. An endless explosion of color stretches out, churning my stomach and stopping my heart. It drops me to my knees. I scream and scream. I want the image to go away—to be a lie, a figment of my horrible imagination, but the clouds of gas and smoke swell and pulsate out where my planet used to be.
“That corrects the situation, does it not? The destruction of your entire planet? Now, there’s nothing for you to do but stay here.”
I slam the metal bindings into his legs and knees. Over and over. “Why?Why!”The room spins around me and my limbs begin to shake. “That’s not real,” I say, lips trembling. “It’s not real. It can’t be.”
Pious’s hand grasps my chin and his body looms over me. “I assure you, my little female, it is real. And now, you belong here, with me.”
Claire? Dad? Everyone? Everything?
