The Planet Keeper

Chapter 13

"Let her go! She's done nothing to you or anyone else!" Jake screamed, pleading.

"Jake, come on now. We both know this isn't about her." The familiar female voice echoed throughout the dark room.

"Let her go!" he demanded, his voice raspy.

"She's special Jake, and you know it. You knew this day would come. You knew Jake."

"Let her go. Please." he began to sob silently.

"You know I can't do that."

"Please." His voice fell to a whisper, but was still filled with pleading and anger.

"You fell in love with her, didn't you?"

"...."

" Oh you poor, poor, love sick boy. You knew the plan all along, and yet you fell in love with her."

"..."

"Wasn't it you who said you could take on this task with no problems? Said that love didn't exist, that feeling any emotional attachment for her was impossible? You were the one who said-"

"STOP! Just stop. Thats enough," he seethed, interrupting her.

"Now Jake, it's rude to interrupt a lady," she scolded.

"You're no lady," he scoffed.

The sound of heels knocking on the concrete floor quickly made its way across the room, a loud smack ended the echoes from the heels and created new ones from the skin to skin contact, causing me to cringe and feel pain in my cheek as if I was the one receiving the hit.

"You fell in love with her, and you knew better. You allowed yourself to feel empathy and emotion towards this human girl when you well knew her fate."

He began sobbing again, starting out softly and slowly, allowing it to grow louder with every word she spoke. My heart felt as if some iron hand was squeezing it as tightly as possible, my eyes poured silent streams of tears down my cheeks, but the rest of me was unmoving and unaffected.

"We can find someone else. Keeper please."

"There is no other human like her, no other human that is even close to being like her at all. She is the one. She always has been, and she always will be."

"We can clone her, and you can sacrifice the clone. Please, Keeper. Let her go," he pleaded desperately.

"You will have some time before the sacrifice to say your goodbyes to her, but you will not be rewarded for completing this task, for you have broken the number one rule, the rule that love shall never be felt, given, or portrayed in any shape, form, or way to our prey."

His sobbing became louder and violent.

"Release him and have him washed and ready for the ceremony," she said to the guard as she walked out of the room, her heels echoing throughout it with each step.

"Right away your highness."

After injecting him with a needle, two guards unchained Jake, and carried his struggling yet lifeless body out of the room. The door slammed shut, leaving only me, the echo, and the dark trapped inside.