Gamma Stellaris

Chapter 21

        Jared froze, Kassidy ramming into his back.

        "What are you-" She started, cutting off as she made eye contact with the alien standing in front of them.

          He grinned. "Well, what do we have here?"

         "We uh... we mean no harm?" Jared said softly, fighting to stop himself from trembling.

           The alien merely scoffed, his eyes narrowing. "What would such hideous creatures be doing on this ship?"

          "Hideous?! Have you looked in a mirror lately?!" Kassidy hissed, the top of her ears going red.

        Despite the fact that Kassidy was easily beautiful, she was always insecure in her looks.

        "Kassidy-" Jared started softly.

        "How dare you talk to me like that?!" The alien hissed.

         "Who do you think you are to be throwing around insults, you pink blob?!"

          "Kassidy!" Jared hissed softly.

        The alien took a step toward them, and Jared took a nervous step back, putting an arm protectively in front of his sister. "Maybe we should all calm down and talk things out before-"

          "Don't take up for this asshole!" Kassidy hissed.

          "What do you think you're doing?! Cut it out!"

         "Listen to the boy." 

          "First of all, he doesn't tell me what to do. Second of all, who taught you to be such an entitled asswipe?"

         "Kassidy please stop." Jared whispered.

         The entire situation felt off to him, and Kassidy elevating things surely wasn't helping anything.

             The alien got an amused look on his face. "An asswipe, huh? Sure that's the word you want to stick with?"

            Kassidy crossed her arms. "I don't know. Now I'm stuck between asswipe and dickwad."

        In the amount of time it took Jared to blink the alien had one of his tentacles attached to Kassidy's forehead. Before Jared could try to pull it away, Kassidy's eyes went glassy as she crumbled to the floor.

           "Kassidy?" Jared whispered, quickly kneeling down beside her, and giving her shoulder a shake. "Hey, hey come on look at me. What'd that guy do to you?"

          The alien let out a laugh. "Truly inspiring last words from her. I suppose I should leave you to mourn."

          "Wake up, Kassidy!"

         ***

        Jared jerked awake with a stifled sob. Sweat clung to his skin and he panted for deep breaths, his lungs suddenly feeling like they were only half the size they were supposed to be. A small shudder ran through his body as he tried to quiet himself down.

         "Are you okay?" Leanne asked softly.

          "Y-Yeah, sure. What are you doing up so late?"

         "I got kinda used to not getting a lot of sleep."

         "Oh. Do you need to talk about it?"

         "No. You?"

        "No."

         They both sat in silence, staring into the darkness.