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This is the unedited version of The Collected. You can now get the completed version with the link
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The story of a lost boy, a fisherman's daughter, a heartless soul and a lonely mechanic lost in the stars.
The Collectors a...
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He looked so different.
No red hair, eyes with no life. He was much taller than me now, he wasn't before. Muscles ripped just under his skin, how had an alien made those.
We'd caught Max up with our ever failing plans of escape and he introduced us to the being across the hall. Zillah. A 'warrior of her people'. She was standoffish, protective over Max. Nicholas couldn't say any of his usual things without getting snapped at by her, she almost seemed to frighten him.
Max had inched himself as close to the cell door as his chains would allow, as close to Zillah as he could get. I could never tell if he was talking to her, or himself, because she never answered the things he muttered under his breath. It worried me. What happened since he was taken from us? What has that alien inside him done, if that even was the case. I couldn't see what else it could be.
Andrea and Nicholas talked about escape, Estelle, argued a bit, and eventually fell asleep, leaning on each other. This left me alone, hunched against the wall.
It was so quiet here when no one was speaking. Back in the other cells, there was always distant cries for help or strange languages I could never understand. Eventually, Max was asleep too, his strange whispers, the last of the sound, sniffed out.
I didn't want to sleep. I didn't want to close my eyes again. In fear that my horrid dream would return. The deaths of the ones who had cared for me.
First my father, as his boat crashed into the rocks hidden beneath the waves.
Then Char, the alien who saved my life and continued to do so until he sacrificed it for me.
A tear slipped down my cheek. Every time I thought I had a family they were taken from me. Even Max, I had felt safe with him and eventually, I thought he had died too.
Was this much different?
He wasn't the same Max who arrived with me onto this ship. I hoped I could still find the piece of him that I could recognize. The boy who would do anything to save someone's life before his own. The boy who didn't care that he was a weak human with no sharp teeth or claws.
He wasn't only human anymore.
Did that change the prophecy? For some reason, I didn't think so. He's still human, just with something else inside.
"You care about him, don't you?" My head snapped up, eyes resting on Zillah's face. Her red skin reminded me of Max's hair, shaved away for reasons he never shared.
"I do, he was my first friend here. Only friend really." I answered slowly, eyeing Andrea and Nicholas. As much as they always fought, they always had each other. Estelle consistently clung to Nicholas and Torryn hated us all, only recently he's started to speak to me. It was always Max and I, it was easy that way, I knew I could trust him. I couldn't anymore. Not after he choked me at first sight, my throat still burned.
