Callisto: Bound to the Alien Commander |18+

Chapter 7

"Clarisse!" I scream and reach out as if it would help somehow.

The cement rumbles and falls completely into the rushing river. My mind and body don't have time to process my next move before a flash of light momentarily blinds me. Squinting toward the sky, I'm met with... something floating above the water.

Is it a flying train car? A cryo-pod? It's difficult to tell. I've never seen anything like it...

Someone dives down into the water and reemerges only a few seconds later, with Clarisse in her arms. A metal ladder is lowered down and the person climbs up, one-handed, holding Clarisse.

A moment later, the same person is hanging on the ladder in front of me, gesturing for me to come. It's a woman...

My body is frozen.

I'm hallucinating. This isn't real.

When she grabs me and yanks me up into her arms, I'm so confused that I hardly realize that we're inside. She looks human but...not. She's too big, too strong... too silver.

She dumps me beside a trembling Clarisse and goes down the ladder again for Santi. With my arm around her shoulders, I hug her tightly while looking around the strange vehicle. It doesn't look like an airplane but it's hovering in the air. There are three more... people in here with us.

One of them steps forward and starts to speak just as the woman climbs in with Santi in her arms.

He keeps speaking but I don't recognize the language. Looking at the others, I can tell that they don't either.

When he steps closer, bending down, I can see his eyes and I gasp, stumbling back. The woman that saved us pulls a visor from her face and I can see her eyes, too. Blues, purples, and greens, swirling together. It looks like a galaxy, speckled with stars. They all have long silver hair and silvery skin.

Well, for a moment they had silver skin. The woman's skin seems to be changing color. The silver is fading into a rich brown.

Screaming, I slide myself back, scrambling to get as far away from them as possible in this small space.

"Oh my God," I gasp as the man's skin starts to change color too. Santi frantically utters something in Spanish and the man turns to him, replying in Spanish.

"You speak English?" The woman asks with a light, clear accent.

Clarisse and I stare with open mouths. I think I may have nodded my head.

"Are you of Earth?" Her head tilts to one side as she asks.

"Of Earth?"

"Yes." She offers no further explanation. Reaching forward, she takes some of my lifeless hair up between her fingers, studying it.

"Um... yes."

They turn to each other, speaking their language so rapidly that I can't even piece together enough to figure out where they are from. Are they speaking Russian? It doesn't sound like any language I've ever heard.

"He kept asking if we're from here..." Santi whispers. "They speak many 'earth' languages, he said."

"Do you have more companions?" The man turns to me, the same curiosity in his eyes as the woman had.

"No, we don't," Clarisse answers for me when I don't respond.

Of Earth.

Of earth? Does this mean they aren't... of Earth? They definitely look...different. I want to scream, to run away, to escape them. Instead, I sit motionless, cold sweat rolling down my spine.