68A/N: This is the second story I've ever posted, and I'm pretty excited, it's one of my favorite stories I've ever written, so ENJOY! don't be shy, review! It's much appreciated!
Ophelia Keegan woke up from her recurring dream of real sun light to the sound of loud, incessant beeping. She sat up and opened her eyes, thinking that the beeping was a new way to wake up the slaves and lesser servants. She looked around the room but nobody else seemed to be awake, no one so much as flinched when she cleared her throat.
"What's going on?" She asked nobody in particular, she paused to wait for someone to yell at her for speaking, but nobody moved, "Hello? Anybody?" she said, a little louder, the annoying beeping was getting louder, too. "Wake up!" she croaked, being so used to not talking at all it was hard for her to yell. She touched the cold marble floor and shivered as she was getting up from the thin pallet she had made with some old, torn up blankets and towels that she had been collecting over the past few months that she had been with this particular house, "Something's going on!" She walked over to the servant girl that was in charge of making sure another servants of a different house didn't steal her in the middle of the night. She shook her, thinking getting someone to wake up was important enough to risk a beating, but nothing happened, "Wake up!" she screamed at her. Nothing happened. She turned to the next bed, "What is wrong with you?!" she yelled as she shook the girl.
She looked around the large open room to see if anyone had woken up because of her screaming, but no one had. She weaved between the beds, cots, and pallets to get to the door when she thought she had heard something get blown apart somewhere down the hall. When a second and a third boom echoed through the hall, each one closer than the one before, she sped up a little. She opened the door as noiselessly as she had glided to the door and peered through as small a crack as she could make. A scream died in her throat when she saw the beings in the hallway.
Tall men; beautiful, graceful, and pale blue, were entering the rooms down the hall. Their polished silver armor shined in the florescent lights as they strutted down the hall, humans in their arms.
When she saw that they were getting close to the room she was in she shut the door and ran back to her makeshift bed. She situated herself so that she looked as unconscious as the people around her and tried to slow her breathing, becoming aware of the fact that, for the first time in her life, she was actually afraid. She had just gotten her breathing even when there were a few muffled thumps, then the crack of wood splintering and the door was kicked in. She didn't hear anyone walk inside, but seeing how graceful they were she hadn't really expected to.
Her face tingled and grew hot when she felt someone looking at her on the other side of her eyelids, and tried her hardest to resist the urge to open her eyes to see who, or what, it was, especially when a smooth, and, surprisingly, warm, finger poked her cheek. "Hey, look at this," the blue person that was bent over her said, she tried not to flinch when she heard the voice use the same language she used, "I think it's having a bad dream," the young male voice said.
"No way, these things aren't evolved enough to dream, it's surprises me they can even talk." A snotty male voice said from a few feet away.
"I'm sure you're underestimating them." Another boy on the other side of the room said.
"Please," the annoying boy from before said, "look at the things their sleeping on. Even one of the wyre wouldn't sleep on these things." he said, he started to pull up on one of her blankets. He kept pulling and almost had her standing, making her think that he had to be extremely strong since she had to keep her body limp to keep up the illusion of being asleep, or whatever she was supposed to be, which added dead weight. He let go of the blanket and she started to fall backward to the hard marble floor. She tried to brace herself for impact with the floor, and right when she thought her head, which had fallen back, since she was limp and couldn't straighten out her neck, was going to break her fall, she was engulfed in a sharp, spicy,aroma.
"Don't do that, you might hurt it," the first guy scolded, as he straightened from the crouch he had gone into in order to keep her from hitting the floor, and it was his arms that were now cradling her against his chest.
"We are taking them to be slaves, not pets, no one cares if their ruffed up a little on the way home."
"I care. They may be slaves, but they're still living, breathing, thinking, beings and I don't want them to think that we abused them while they are unconscious."
"Who cares what they think!" the annoying boy exploded.
"I do," the one holding Phil challenged, holding her a little tighter against his chest, "And I'm sure I'm not the only one. These are the things that will be growing and cooking our food, and, quite frankly, I don't want my food poisoned or spat in."
"Please, these idiots would never dare, or even think, to do anything to our food."
"Gees, Kris!" the one holding her sighed, "Why won't you get it through your thick skull that these things aren't as stupid as they seem…or have you forgotten that some of their kind rival the King?"
"That's grounds for treason, that talk is," the snotty boy said threateningly.
"They can't arrest me for treason if all I said was rival, I never said they were more powerful, no one and no thing is more powerful than King Heritio Karaman Iglesia Taranti Soolidan!" the boy said, getting louder as he went on. When he was finished there was a chorus of cheers from around the room and it was silent again.
The guy holding her didn't seem inclined to pick anyone else up, and she was perfectly fine with that, seeing as that would have been extremely uncomfortable. He was obviously the one in charge of this group, because when he gave the order to get back to the ship she could feel it as the aliens left.
When he put her down on a bed her heart started to race, and the fear she had felt earlier came back. All she could think was please don't hurt me over and over again. She didn't flinch when he took up her hand, nor did she flinch when he put something on her wrist, but it was a close call when he started to talk.
"I know you probably can't hear me, but, in the slight chance that you can I'm going to explain what this bracelet is." He paused as if looking for some kind of answer, which she didn't give, he sighed and continued, "We were ordered to put these on anything that seemed… how do I put this… that seemed, even slightly, more intelligent than the rest, and, because you seemed to be the only one dreaming, if, in fact, that is why you were breathing so hard. But that isn't the only reason…" he paused for a long time, "There's something different about you, I could feel it, and I need to know what that is." He picked her up again, "So, number 89271257, my question to you is: Why is it that, even though I was the first one in here, I ended up at your bed in the back of the room?"
She had the sudden urge to scratch her nose, but she refrained, knowing that if she did that, something really bad was likely to happen to her, so instead she let the itch get so overwhelming that her eyes started to water.
"Hello? What's this?" the beautiful voice said, he moved her so that she was cradled in one arm and used one of his soft fingers to wipe one of the tears from her face. "It's salty," he said, she wondered whether he got that from sniffing it, or if he had tasted it, which, to her, would be totally gross. "You're a very interesting creature," he said, as he walked out of the door, she could feel this planet's fake source of sunlight on her eyelids. She heard him take in a breath like he was disgusted with something, "You really are a different creature aren't you?" She could feel wind wash over her, and, since it's impossible for this planet to generate wind, she decided that not only was this thing super strong, but he was also super fast.
A minute or two passed, and then the fake sunlight disappeared and a weird white-blue glow took it's place. Her curiosity got the better of her and she allowed her eyes to crack open just enough for a blurry image, but, because everything was white, she couldn't make out what anything actually looked like.
She closed her eyes again and concentrated on what was going on around her, what was most unnerving was the fact that, if it wasn't for the slight pressure of his arms, she would never have known someone was carrying her. She couldn't even tell he was walking, there wasn't any swaying or bouncing, then again, he wasn't human.
She heard the whisper of an automatic door slide open and then she was set down on the floor, but the presents of the alien boy didn't go away, "Until we meet again," he said, his lips brushed the back of her hand, she flinched, unused to being touched unless she was getting punished for something.
"What the-" he stood up fast and she could feel the tip of his shoe against her arm. "Are you awake?" he asked, "Speak now if you are awake or be prepared to… wait, what am I doing?" he asked himself, "There's no way its awake, the king himself cast the spell over these things, I was just imagining it." Phil could tell he was trying to convince himself, she could hear the doubt in his voice.
He knelt back down and shook her a little, she did her best to stay limp. He seemed satisfied. She was sure he had gone, then she felt his smooth hands push the bangs back from her forehead, "I'm sorry if this hurts when you wake up," he said, then he pressed the pad of his left thumb to the middle of her forehead.
She didn't feel anything…at first…then there was a searing pain like someone was driving a nail into her skull. She couldn't control herself, her eyes flew open and her body squirmed while he held her head still in a grip of steel. She tried to see the alien that was torturing her, but her eyes were clouded over with tears and she couldn't see a thing. After what felt like forever to Phil, the alien pulled his thumb away. Her head still seared but the tears were drying and her vision was clearing.
After what felt like years, but in all actuality had only have been a couple of minutes, she got her first glimpse the alien that had taken her from the safe house on planet Verion; he was beautiful, even more beautiful than the others that she had seen in the hallway at the safe-house. His beautifully crafted square jaw complemented his wide mouth and his strait roman like nose. His skin was a bit darker than the other aliens she had seen, and his hair was unlike any of the other's, though theirs had been just as outrageous as his, which was blue with spiky purple highlights, which sounds kind of odd, but went wonderfully with his skin. His eyes were bright purple with tiny blue stripes, and she found herself unable to look away from them.
It was utterly silent for the ten seconds that they sat motionlessly staring at each other, then she closed her eyes and went back to faking unconsciousness.
"Wait," he said, shaking her, "Wait, no, what's your name, please, wake up, I need to know." She laid limp in his arms, "I-," he stopped when he heard a couple of roudy aliens coming down the hall, "I'll be back, don't move," he said, as if he really believed that she could.
She cracked her eyes to watch him go, and the second the door closed behind him she stood up. The room had metal walls and thick padding on the floor. As much as Phil wanted to hate the people that had stolen her, she found herself being grateful to them. Not grateful for taking her, but, grateful that they hadn't stuck her and her fellow humans in a small room that wasn't big enough for them to lay out like they were. But the best part, though it may seem small, but it's what really caught her attention, every single person had a pillow under their head, and even as small a comfort as that could keep people from going crazy, with fear or whatever might happen while they're here.
It's better than the human slave holders had done, she thought, then shuddered at the memory. She looked slowly around the room; every single person in the room had on a bracelet like the one she had on.
"Hello?" She whisper shouted, not wanting one of the aliens to hear her, and hoping someone else had been chosen because they had been awake also, when no one moved she said, "Is anyone awake?" Nothing happened, "Hey! Wake up!" She yelled, she could hear people talking outside of the door so she collapsed next to a group of two, hoping it wasn't the guy that had brought her in here.
"Oy! Who was that?!" One of the guard aliens yelled.
"You don't think one of them is awake do you?" a very young sounding alien asked.
"There isn't any way it was one of them, I'm sure it was just one of the younger soldiers playing a trick on the night guard." The other guard said.
"Yes, yes, there's no way one of them could have resisted the king's power." The young one said, reassuring himself.
"Come on Isaac, let's go get you something to eat, you look like you're about to pass out," the other one said, Phil was on her feet before the door was all the way shut. She went back to where the alien had placed her and lay down. Once she had settled herself she noticed that the pain in her head had reduced to a light throb. She reached up to feel her forehead, but didn't feel anything unusual. She smoothed her bangs over her forehead and tried to get some sleep, exhaustion suddenly overwhelming both her body and mind.