I am dragged into the shell of a former gas station, where toppled shelves lay on the floor and fossilized packages of food are left scattered around on the counters.
It was hard to see anything other than that in the darkness, and the Smoking Man moved us through the building quickly, leading me across the room towards a metal back door with "Employees Only" taped to the front.
I was aware that I could have tried destroying the building with my star shine, but I had no idea how strong it was at the moment. After previously creating an illusion to shield me and speaking to me through my dreams—a power that was only mentioned in great warrior legends—I could not feel the warmth inside me, and the glow in my chest was almost nonexistent.
Stars, I already missed Alan's warm laughter and his comforting touch.
How could I have been so foolish as to argue with him?
The Smoking Man forces open the door, and I squeak when he grabs me by the elbow and wrestles me into what appears to be a dimly lit hallway. "Let go of me!" I scream, desperation setting in the deeper I'm dragged into the hallway. "You can't do this! I have a life and people who are going to come looking for me!"
"Cyrus!" The Smoking Man calls back from over his shoulder while I struggle in his arms, kicking and trying to rip free from his grasp. "Come help me out here, boy!"
Cyrus reluctantly appears behind the man, shoots me a hesitant look, and then raises his hand slowly in my direction. And I know what's coming, even before I feel the sensation of sluggishness taking over my body.
I scream as loud and hard as I can and dig my fingernails into the walls before being ripped free and thrown over the man's shoulder as if I weighed nothing. My human form slides away against my will, lavender replacing the lightly tanned, freckled flesh that I always wore.
"I know you're going to find a way out of this place, Luna..."
I hear Alan's voice gently surrounding me as I slump forward a little, my eyes sliding closed.
"You're the strongest little alien in the galaxy, okay?"
We end up walking down a flight of concrete stairs and into a basement, and that is where the horror really begins. This awful human had essentially created a prison, fashioning bars at the entrance to keep whoever was inside from escaping. It was well-lit by battery-operated lanterns strung up from the ceiling, but the smell down here was atrocious—a combination of sweat, mold, and fear creating thick dampness.
"Oh, you're going to fit right in, darling!" The Smoking Man sings, and he swings open the metal door. "You'll have no trouble staying busy—you have lots of friends here. Least until it's my turn to figure out what I'm going to do with you." He pauses to inspect me. "I'm curious to know how a Tau warrior does in bed. Spicy little alien fuckers, aren't you?"
My stomach threatens to spill its contents.
"I will never mate with you," I tell him, my voice low. "I would rather disembowl myself slowly."
He laughs at that, then gives me a shove into the room.
I fall and stumble and hear the door slam behind me, but whether I run for it or not does not matter. With Cyrus able to sedate me on command and the alien boy so loyal to his captor, there was no way I would be able to get more than a few steps down the hallway.
Instead, I slowly turn around when I feel several sets of eyes on me and come face to face with several figures lounging around in the dark, most, if not all, of them much taller than me. My star began to beat faster out of nervousness because Tau were regarded as one of the most hated species in the galaxy, and it was entirely possible that I could be ripped apart on sight.
"He must be getting desperate," A voice purrs, "This one looks like you could break him in half. He won't last a night with a human, even if he tried."
I take a step back when a man with dark red skin and horns steps out of the darkness. He was dressed in black leather pants and what appeared to be a man's dress shirt, with the arms cut off and stained. His dark hair was cropped short, giving his red face an even fiercer appearance. From behind him, a long tail with a spiked tip curled around him and twitched slightly.
"Who are you?" I squeak out, and I hold onto the bars, "I will not hesitate to kill you if you touch me!"
"Lay off him, Dheven," The alien behind him speaks up, and I become aware of the second figure huddled in the corner, "That's a Tau warrior. Can't you tell by those scars on his wrists? He'll probably cut us up nice and slow if we piss him off."
"He doesn't look that tough to me," Dheven replies, and he snorts a little in amusement, his arms crossing. "He's all squishy and sparkly looking like a little doll. You a doll baby?" He sneers in my direction. "It's too bad Charlie got his hands on you. Aliens like your kind don't do well here. They just wither away and die, we've seen it before. Isn't that right, Rie?" He asks the seated figure.
"I told you not to call me that." The other alien, who was evidently named Rie, replies, "It's Riesling. We've been down here for almost a year, and you still haven't gotten it through those thick-ass horns, have you?"
"A year?" I respond, finding it hard to believe what I am hearing. "You have been down here for a year?"
"Hey, welcome to the basement, little guy," Dheven replies. "We're waiting for that Smoking Man fucker to die of cancer so we can find a way to bust out of here. Time doesn't really affect us since both of our species live to be over a thousand, so it's cool."
I slowly sink down into a crouching position and hold my face in my hands.
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