The Other

I don't know how long I have been here - Minutes. Hours. Days. Darkness surrounded the room and I was afraid to speak in case I break the long and suffering silence. The tangy smell of copper filled the dark cell, once my eyes adjusted to the darkness i could see the blood on the walls, the floor, even on the cell bars. It was everywhere and the scent was overwhelming as I thought about the victim. Questions rushed through my head at rapid speed, what did they do to them? For how long? Is that person dead? And more importantly, am I next? Clink! Clink! Clink! My eyes start to water just as these creatures return to my cell.

"I must stay strong..." I whisper to myself as these things open up my cell door with their fingers and one advances towards the back of the wall, where I currently am.

"Do you remember your name?" The creature speaks in a monotonous voice, like its a burden going into this filthy cage and speaking to a filthy human, of all things. Well, I guess it kind of is for them.

"Dean." I reply sarcastically. Talking to me like I'm stupid, they are the ones who are stupid.

"Why are you here?" Again, the creature talked in a monotonous voice that is making me resent this species all over again.

"Oh, I don't know.. maybe because you're crazy and wanted to take over earth!" The further this conversation goes on the angrier I become, "Why huh? Why did you take me away from my parents! My s-siblings! My b-best f-friend! Why did you d-do it?!" I screamed at them while my chest was on fire, my throat was closing up as I felt the tears escape my tear ducts. I couldn't see through the waterfall running down my face but i could hear the thing coming towards me. Goosebumps were visible on my skin and the hair prickled at the back of my neck as the fowl stench of the creature became stuffed up my nose. The smell was like expired meat that smelled like death and decay. The creature grabbed my upper shirt and shoved me against the wall before screaming in my face.

"We are the other, an ancient race whom are better then vile humans! Our planet was hit by asteroids causing the planet to die. Only a selected few escaped before the planet exploded causing us to have fewer numbers," The other explained with a snarl, "We found this planet accidentally and read that it had intelligent life-forms. HA! So we kidnapped everyone over adolescent age or 18 for you humans and began changing them." The cheshire grin on its face showed me all of its sharp, pointed yellow teeth and made me fear them more.

"C-cha-change th-them?" I questions fearfully, thinking of how to escape this hell hole.

"Yes petty human, change them into one of us and breed to increase our population, since we only have a couple thousand living left." That reply make me freeze. Breed?! Before I could reply, the other smashes my head on the cold and bloody wall causing me to lose consciousness and the black world swallowed me whole.

The first thing I see is two clear blue eyes staring at me that I thought I would never see again. I knew it. I was dead. The blue eyed person slapped my face so hard my eyesight was blurring again. Looking up again I see a familiar face. It's lily, my best friend of 10 years. The confusing hit me causing me to blink. Lily isn't 18 yet not until the 8th of September, why is she here?

"Hey..? I whisper, voice hoarse from the other strangling me.

"Oh my god! I thought you were dead! Don't ever do that to me again!" She shouted with tears in her eyes. I couldn't reply so I just hugged her and kept reassuring her that I'm fine, she's fine, we are both fine. After a while of crying together I finally brought up the question.

"What are you doing here?" And with that she replied with, "My 18th birthday was yesterday..."

I couldn't believe it. So much time has passed without me not knowing. How many humans are there left? Are my siblings safe? What does the world look like now..

"We have to escape." I say without thinking, knowing that I had someone precious with me now. I looked into Lily's eyes and could see the fear in them. Although she was scared I was more scared of what they would do to her. So we created a plan. Not a good one per say but well enough that we should have about 70% chance it will work.

The next day when the creatures went to open our door to feed us scraps, we quickly grabbed a rock from inside the cell and threw it at the creature, causing it to fall over. Lily saw this as time to escape but I could feel something wrong.

That was easy, maybe too easy... Before I could hold back Lily and stop her from falling for the trap she was out of the cell and into the hallway. The pleading in her eye was enough for me to follow her just to make sure she will survive. Even if I don't.

The wind whipped through my hair as we rounded another corner, nearly losing my step and falling head first. Lily was ahead by 10 metres or so and suddenly she stopped. She was pulled into a room by long rotten arms that were around her arms and mouth.

Screaming until my throat hurt I followed her through that door and saw her bleeding at the waist. I was overwhelmed by the smell of blood that I faulted my steps. Lily's chest was rising and falling but her breath was ragged. Before I could walk over to her I saw the other behind her. He cut off his hand and stuck it inside her cut stomach. Her scream cut through the air in a loud dull fashion, slowly cutting through my sanity like a scalpel.

I whimpered as the Other produced a long dirk from its sheath and proceeded to tower over her with a crazed look in its large, dark and unforgiving eyes. I didn't process what happened next. It happened too fast to fully comprehend. Lily's eyes started to glaze over and become milky like a saucepan of curled milk. Her body began to twitch and stir while her face angulated and skin began to decay at a rapid speed. She jumped up suddenly while the Other laughed manically as she was going for the kill.