Never Alone

Chapter 1: Part 1

In mid-September, the underground base deep beneath the planet of Locana was filled with the life of everyone starting their day of work early that morning. Gem, a 20-year-old white bunny with short red hair and red lightning bolts that patterned her body, was awakened by the sound of someone pounding on her dorm door. "OI! WAKE UP, GEM!" they yelled, "THE COMMANDER WILL MARK YA AS LATE IF YA DON'T!"

"I heard you already...!" Gem yelled back tiredly. The one at the door walked down the hall and Gem got up from her bed to start her day. She looked in the mirror and saw her hair was once again in two braids that were not intertwined before she went to sleep last night. "Little shit..." she whispered and began to take out the braids.

Once ready, Gem headed down to the training section of the base to meet with the rest of her fellow comrades. On her way down, she kept having the instinctive feeling that someone was on her back. She quickly turned around and stared down the long dim hallway coated in steel, but when she did, no one was to be seen, not a single mammal in sight. She knew what she felt, she knew there was someone there before she turned around, but she also knew now that she would have to keep her guard up for the rest of the day once again.

Gem had been feeling like this for weeks on end, the constant feeling that someone was on her tail every single second she breathed. Their presence followed her everywhere she went throughout the base, the training rooms, the cafeteria, the bathrooms, and even the "safety" of her own dorm. She had yet to find out who or what was following her, but it had been driving her up a wall, making her lose sleep at night, and constantly making her have to watch her back. The only time their presence did not disturb her was when she was allowed to leave the base to go up onto the planet's surface, which was not as often as she hoped, or in large empty rooms where they could not hide.

By the end of the day, Gem was exhausted once again. Training had been getting harder for her to deal with due to lack of sleep. This was preventing her from going on missions up to the surface, which meant she was spending more time with this mysterious lurker that followed her throughout the base. "You feeling okay, Gem?" a leopard asked.

Gem had a tired expression on her face, but smiled at them, "yeah, I'm fine, Serena. I'm just tired from training, that's all."

"Oh, well, if ya need anything, let me know. You know where my dorm is," she said with a bright smile and walked out of the training room.

"Thanks," Gem replied, then left as well.

Gem entered her dorm room after walking back, sitting on the couch, then deciding she could use a shower to relax. When she got into the shower, she could have sworn she heard her dorm door open. Her ears perked up, but she figured she must have been paranoid or just tired, it had been a long day, after all. The warm water felt good against her fur and hair, it had been a few days since she last got clean due to paranoia. The last few times she did, she knew she saw the lurker's shadow sitting on the sink just outside of her shower curtain, the only thing between them. So, ever since then, she took fewer showers or only spent a few minutes in, not having any time to properly wind down after long days in the training rooms. Luckily, this time, their shadow was not present with her.

When she got out of the shower and into her night clothing, she sat on the couch but noticed her dorm door was slightly cracked open. "Did I not shut it all the way?" She asked herself, "did I forget to lock it or something..?"

After thinking, she already knew. She did not lock her door, but she did shut it all the way, she distinctly remembered that part. Which only meant one thing – the lurker was within her dorm again. "You freak." Gem stood up, walking around her dorm, "there is seriously no point in hiding anymore. I am getting pretty sick of this bullshit you pull every single second I am alive," she said with aggression as she went into her bedroom and grabbed her red ruby sword from under her bed. She began scraping her sword along her dorm walls, making a screeching noise against the steel hidden behind brick-patterned wallpaper.

"I know you are here. I know you can hear me. I don't know what you want or what you desire, but trust me, when I find you, I am not going to report you to the commander. Oh no, no, I don't play that way. Quite frankly, you don't even deserve a trial. After all of this mental damage you are doing to my brain; making me fail my courses, touching me in my sleep, and even having the sick mindset to watch me shower? Hell. No. Fuck what the commander thinks, I'll deal with you my way."

Gem stood in the middle of her living room, "I will get my hands on you, freak. It won't be long... But, don't think I will kill you right away, that's not how my mind works, unfortunately. I have a lot of stress built up in me and I am more than willing to let you have a taste..." The room was filled with silence, but Gem knew they got the message loud and clear. "When I go to bed, I better not sense you in my room or wake up to find my hair in braids. If I do, I will slowly tear you in two, then fold you six ways, and leave you for a cat toy, am I clear..?" she asked with a narrowing of her eyes, not getting a response and heading to her room after that.