Chapter 9
“Darcy? Darcy!” Stephenie cried, running passed the wrestling monsters on the floor to embrace her best friend.
“Stephenie!” Darcy wrapped her arms around Stephenie’s neck and squeezed. “What the hell is going on? Where are we?” Her voice trembled as she spoke.
“I… don’t really know,” Stephenie admitted as she pulled back to examine her friend and make sure she wasn’t hurt.
“It’s a long story. But we’ve got to get out of here.
We’re not supposed to be here, and if anyone finds us…
I don’t think it’ll be good.” She glanced up and down the empty hallways.
Surely someone had heard the commotion and would soon come out to see what the problem was.
“Stephenie,” Darcy replied, breathless. She glanced down at the large aliens still wrestling at their feet. “What the hell are they? They look like…monsters, like demons or something. Did we open some sort of trap door and enter a new world- like in Monster’s Inc. or something?”
Despite everything, Stephenie rolled her eyes.
Leave it to Darcy to relate something so serious and turn it into something ridiculous.
. “Okay, but seriously. We have to get out of here- now.” She grabbed hold of Darcy’s arm and pulled her along, back down the way Ee-rah and Stephenie had just come from.
At least, Stephenie hoped that’s where they were going…
The hallways all looked the same to her.
Stephenie glanced back over her shoulder to see that Ee-rah was still going at it with the Gray Guy. She wanted to tell him where she was going, but that was too dangerous. What if someone else heard and followed them? She silently willed that he just know that she was returning to his room.
Stephenie drug Darcy through the hallway as fast as she could while trying to remain as silent as possible.
This was a feat proved impossible by Darcy’s constant questions.
“How the hell did we get here? WHY are we here? Am I dreaming? This has to be some sort of bizarre nightmare. I knew I shouldn’t have had that pizza for dinner. Junk food always gives me the weirdest dreams.”
Stephenie was grateful to see the door was still open to Ee-rah’s room. Closing it must be a manual thing- something she didn’t know how to do.
She shoved Darcy inside and pulled her along until they were out of the way of the open door. Now, if anyone was walking by, they wouldn’t be able to see them unless they stuck their head in and really looked around.
“You’re not dreaming,” Stephenie said sternly.
“I thought so too…but, well, it’s not a dream.
The weird monsters you just saw? They’re called Toxhocan, and they come from the planet Toxhoca.
It’s super far away from Earth. Anyway, so yeah…
Aliens are real, and we somehow ended up on this ship.
I don’t know HOW we ended up here. Apparently, they’re a trade ship and happen to be passing through this galaxy.
They’re not supposed to interact with humans at all.
” She paused to catch her breath. Saying it all out loud like that…
God, she was going to need to be admitted to a psych ward if she made it back to Earth.
WHEN she made it back to Earth. WHEN, not if.
“Well, obviously someone did!” Darcy exclaimed. They both winced and glanced around to make sure no one had heard them, and came running into the room to check it out.
“Obviously,” Stephenie replied, nodding.
“But… I don’t know. Are you sure this isn’t some sort of nightmare? Because this kind of stuff doesn’t just happen. Alien abductions aren’t real.” Darcy bit her lower lip and glanced around the room.
“Apparently, they are,” Stephenie said begrudgingly. “I mean, I can’t think of another name for what’s happened to us.” Abducted by aliens. That certainly was never on Stephenie’s life bingo card.
“But WHY? What could they possibly want with two college girls?” Darcy exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.
She began pacing around the room. “I just… I just don’t believe this.
I need to sit down.” She wandered over to the bunk and slumped down with her head in her hands. “God, I have the worst headache.”
Stephenie gave her friend a sympathetic look. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that she had her mental breakdown over the subject, although she had a totally different way of trying to figure things out.
“Seph-e-knee!”
Ee-rah came charging into the room. Before Stephenie could say anything, he lifted her up in the air and swung her around in a circle, and then pulled her close against him in a bone crushing hug.
“My Mate,” he whispered in a gravely, exasperated voice.
“You were not harmed, were you? Are you alright?”
Stephenie found herself relaxing against him.
It was amazing how safe she felt in his arms at this moment.
He had been worried about her… He was relieved to see her.
No one had ever cared about her like that before…
What the hell was she talking about? This was an alien!
They weren’t even a part of the same species!
And she had only known him for a day or so, certainly not longer.
This was…not normal. She needed to get her mind out of the gutter and focus on getting home.
It wasn’t until Darcy started screaming again that Stephenie came back to reality.
Ee-rah sat her down, and Stephenie ran over to cover Darcy’s mouth, cutting her off mid-scream. “Shh!” She said. “We have to be quiet, remember? We can’t let the others know we’re here.”
Darcy, unable to speak, simply raised her hand and pointed.
Stephenie followed the direction of Darcy’s finger. She jumped, but still managed to keep a hand over Darcy’s mouth to keep her from screaming out loud again.
“Ee-rah,” Stephenie said slowly. “W-what are they doing here?”
The gray alien was standing in the doorway.
He was so large that he blocked the whole entrance with his body.
His pointed horns twisted high above his head.
Gray blood dripped down his chest, and Stephenie saw there were four deep scratch marks running from his collarbones to his lower abdomen.
He was obviously older than Ee-rah. Small wrinkles had formed at the base of his eyes, just barely visible beneath the black tattooing of his face.
And he was breathing heavily, still trying to catch his breath from the fight with Ee-rah.
“A-rec is here to help,” Ee-rah explained carefully. He narrowed his eyes at the gray one. “He promises to keep his hands to himself. He will not hurt you- either of you.”
“You trust him?” Stephenie asked. She glowered at the newcomer, not as convinced as Ee-rah.
“I do,” Ee-rah said. He came forward and grabbed Stephenie’s free hand. “I would never let anyone hurt you. I would fight him to the death if he dared touch you. And he knows I would win.” His lips raised into the ghost of a smile.
Ee-rah turned from Stephenie to say something to the one he called A-rec in their language. He gestured to the computer desk, and A-rec nodded.
Stephenie and Darcy stepped aside as A-rec came into the room and closed the door behind him. The sound of the door locking was unsettling. Did Stephenie trust that Ee-rah could take this monster if it came to another fight? Possibly…but she didn’t want to take that chance.
Ee-rah began typing quickly on the projected computer screen as he had done earlier. A red light came from the projection and settled right in between A-rec’s eyes. It stayed there for a few moments before fading away.
“Can he speak English now?” Stephenie asked Ee-rah, never taking her eyes off the one named A-rec.
“He speaks your language, yes,” Ee-rah replied, nodding his head in confirmation.
“Oh, good. Hey, man. Fuck you!” Darcy said, startling everyone. “That was not cool, the way you went all scary monster on my ass, you sick fuck.”
“DARCY!” Stephenie cried. She couldn’t tell if she was humiliated by Darcy or fearful for her. Who knows how this guy could react to something like that?
Darcy shrugged off Stephenie’s concern. “That was such a dick move.”
“Are you TRYING to get him to kill us?” Stephenie asked, glaring at Darcy.
The gray alien named A-rec made a sound that could only be described as a scuff. “It is against our ways to hurt another’s Mate.” His voice was gruffer than Ee-rah’s. Showing his age, perhaps?
Stephenie glanced at Darcy. “Still,” she said, pleading with her eyes for her stubborn friend to listen.
“MATE?” Darcy glared at Stephenie. “The blue one called you that earlier. What the hell does he mean by that?”
Stephenie felt her cheeks warm. “It’s…kind of a long story.” And something she seriously did not want to get into right now. She was still reeling about the whole thing herself. The last thing she wanted was for her best friend and roommate to be passing judgment.
“Yeah, and I bet it’s a good one,” Darcy grumbled. “I don’t trust them.” Her eyes flickered over to A-rec. “Especially that one.”
A-rec straightened up, bringing himself to his full height. “I give my word, I will not hurt you.”
“Oh, is that why you were chasing me down the corridor earlier?” Darcy shot back.
“You misunderstand me, human,” A-rec replied, hesitantly taking a step further into the room. “I wasn’t chasing you to harm you. I simply-”
“Yeah, whatever,” Darcy said, cutting him off. She turned to face Stephenie. “How the hell are we going to get home?”
Stephenie bit her lip. “That… I don’t know.
I’ve run into some problems trying to figure that out.
I have no idea how we got here in the first place- neither does Ee-rah.
He just found me- and it’s not like they can just drive the ship to Earth and drop us off.
” Stephenie turned to Ee-rah. “You can’t do that… right?”
Ee-rah smirked down at her. “No, my Mate. I cannot do that.”
“There is something we can do,” A-rec said carefully. “But it would be risky.”
“Don’t,” Ee-rah growled at the newcomer. He narrowed his icy eyes at A-rec.
“Why?” A-rec asked, raising an eyebrow at Ee-rah in turn.
“She is my Mate.”
A-rec tilted his head to the side and flashed a smile at Ee-rah, revealing his small fangs. “You haven’t told her.” Why did he seem almost gleeful at the fact?
Stephenie glanced between the two. “Told me… What?” When no one responded, she narrowed her eyes at Ee-rah. “What have you not told me, Ee-rah?”
It was A-rec who responded. “There is a way we can get you back to your planet, but as I said before, it’s risky.”
“Well, let’s do it then!” Darcy stood from her spot on the bunk. “What are we waiting for?”
A-rec sent Darcy an annoyed look. “Did you not hear me, little human? I said there is a risk.”
“So what kind of risk? Anything is better than being trapped on an alien spaceship in space.” She shook her head. “God, I just sounded like a bad B movie.”
“I don’t know what a bad B movie is. However, there’s a Transporter on the bridge of the ship,” A-rec explained. “But the bridge is constantly manned, and any time someone uses the Transporter, the date and location are stored in the computer.”
“Wait…” Stephenie said, her mouth opening and closing in disbelief.
She narrowed her eyes at Ee-rah. “You…knew there was a way to take me back home, but you didn’t tell me?
” Stephenie couldn’t explain the ache she felt in her heart, the pain of betrayal that filled her.
It wasn’t as if she CARED about Ee-rah. It wasn’t as if she trusted him.
He was just some weird, blue alien that happened to find her before anyone else.
Yeah, they had a few good fucks, but that didn’t mean anything…
At least not to her. She had only been doing what she thought she needed to do to survive and find her way back home.
There was no way she was feeling some sort of way about it.
At least, that’s what she told herself.
“Seph-e-knee,” Ee-rah said, reaching out his hand to touch her face. He looked desperate now, pleading with her with his eyes.
Stephenie jerked out of his reach. “Don’t fucking touch me!” She cried. “You lied to me. You said you didn’t know how I could get back home. You… You just wanted me to stay here with you, didn’t you? You were going to keep me here, locked up in this room, like some sort of pet.”
“Seph-e-knee,” Ee-rah tried again. He shot A-rec a look of absolute loathing.
“Yes, I knew about the Transporter- but I did not think it was an option because it is too dangerous. I still do not think it’s an option.
As A-rec said, the bridge is constantly manned by many of my people.
I… I don’t know how it would be possible to take you there without being discovered. ”
A-rec opened his mouth to speak, but Ee-rah growled a low, menacing sound that stopped him in his tracks.
“Okay, seriously,” Darcy began pacing in front of the bed. “What the hell is going on between you two? Stephenie, don’t tell me you’re banging an alien.”
“There is absolutely NOTHING going on between the two of us,” Stephenie said, glaring at Ee-rah.
“He’s just some dumb, blue alien that thinks I’m his Mate.
Even though I’ve told him repeatedly that I’M NOT.
I never will be. I’m not going to give up my life on Earth for some…
bone headed monster! We’re not even the same species.
” She paused to catch her breath, though there was so much more she wanted to say.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Stephenie was starting to regret her outburst- after all, Ee-rah was the one who had found her, protected her, and saved her best friend… and she did kind of lead him on.
Darcy finally spoke up. “That’s…kind of rape-y,” she said carefully.
“He’s not a rapist,” Stephenie quickly snapped back. “He’s just…different than us, I guess. His people mate for life. And he needs to learn to take no for an answer.”
A-rec turned to Ee-rah. “Your Mate has denied you.” He said thoughtfully. “I did not know that could be done.”
“Um, yeah,” Darcy said. “A man can’t just decide when a woman is his Mate and her have no say in the situation at all. That’s so sexist!”
A-rec blinked at her. “That’s not how it works, human. A Mating bond is created when-”
“Okay,” Stephenie interrupted quickly. “Moving on. How the hell do we get to the Transporter without being spotted? Because Darcy and I would like to go home now.” She couldn’t bring herself to look at Ee-rah.
She knew she had hurt him deep…and she was afraid that if she looked at him, she would also shatter.
“I think I know a way.” Ee-rah finally said.