The Space Speculation: Book 1

Chapter 14: The Torture

Suddenly Dad dropped to the floor and started shaking and spasming. He looked like a dog trying to get rid of a terrible flea, or a person having a seizure. Then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped. 

Leonard and I gasped. Dad lay on the floor, panting. Chad just started laughing maniacally. 

"What did you do?" Dad asked, struggling to get to his feet and then failing miserably and falling to the floor in pain.

 "Well, you see, Lane, while you were sleeping, I connected a clever little device to the back of your right ear." 

Dad immediately reached back. 

"Don't touch it. It will shock you." 

Too late. 

Dad leaped into the air, shrieking. He landed in a heap on the concrete, his skull banging on the hard floor. I put a hand over my mouth in horror and tried to get out of Chad's grasp. He just squeezed tighter. "I have to help him! You're going to kill him!" I squealed, wriggling, biting, kicking--doing whatever I could to get to Dad. Chad lifted me into the air by my foot and shook me violently so I would stop. I shut up, but tears still dripped off my chin as I watched the evil maniac torture my father.

"I have this little remote," Chad explained, opening one of his seven clenched fists (his other two were holding me and Leonard) to expose a small gray box with a red button on it. 

"If you act out again, Mr. Lane, I'm afraid I'll have to zap you more." 

"That isn't a simple zap; that's a torture weapon! " Dad gasped from his place on the floor. He was clearly too weak to stand. 

"Call it what you will. Well, I have places to be and deals to make; things much more important than standing here and allowing you to spend time with your loved ones. Farewell!" 

Chad turned and dragged us away, leaving poor Dad curled up on the ground in his cell. I remembered something that Bill had told me. About the Neptunians frying your organs or something like that. At the time I had thought he was being dramatic. 

I came up with a plan; one that would, unfortunately, require me to do whatever Chad said and go along with his crazed ideas.

We arrived at the old room that I had when I first arrived, the one with pink walls and curtains.

Tossing me on the bed, Chad called, "Remember, I  am in charge and I can and WILL hurt your weak father if you do not cooperate. Learn to live with it, dear!" He slammed the door and locked it. I heard the sound of Leo's sneakers scraping on the cement floor as he was dragged away to his cell.

I flung my face into the luscious pillows and began to sob. Sure, I had cried a lot the past--however long we had been gone--but this cry was by far the longest and most emotional.

 I cried and choked and wailed until I fell asleep with warm tears staining my pink pillow. 

This was my life. This was now who I was. I had no future. I couldn't finish school and go to college. I couldn't get a job and find a husband. I couldn't have children and live the rest of my life, happy and full of love. I was now bound to a wicked alien who was going to sell me to an even more wicked Martian . 

Blackness surrounded my saddened thoughts as I drifted off into a restless sleep.

This section was written by Amity