the unknown space

chapter 12

On the other side of the door was another creature but not one from before this one was human-like. The creature stood a bit taller than us at least a foot. Its skin looked slimy and gray. Its arms were long and skinny, it had long lanky fingers. Its tail wrapping around itself on the floor. It's neck was almost not even visible. It had large black eyes that stared us down. The creature took one step forward with his long skinny legs and was almost touching me.

"We have been expecting you," the creature cracked out which shocked me it seemed to not have opened his mouth. I just stood there i had no idea what to say, "and you, Karen, you are on tough gal we have tried to kill you multiple times but was only able to injure the one person we needed," at this i looked over at karen who was shaken so much that it made me start shaking.

"What do you want?" I managed to squeak these words out. The creature choked its head to the left. A large slimy tentacle came out of his mouth which I assumed was his tongue. It wrapped around my throat

"Evander!" Karen ran up to me but the alien reached out his arm and smacked Karen in the face, sending her back into the animal tile room, dart fell off Karen's shoulder and the door closed behind her, squishing dart. I heard Karen yell out. I tried to escape from the aliens grasp but it only got tighter around my neck. I felt my feet leave the floor. I struggled to breathe

"Listen to me, I will force you to kill 'friend' if you show any affection to her. I did not respond, "GOT IT!" I didn't respond, instead I felt anger surge through me, my eyes turned red. I graped the alien's toungue and his face and ripped his tongue out of his mouth. I fell to the ground as he let out an ear piercing scream. The tongue wiggled around throwing black ooze everywhere.

"You figgler!" the alien screamed black blood leaking out of his mouth making a puddle on the ground. He eventually fell to the ground and his body had stopped moving. I think he was dead. I fell to the ground and started to cry. I didn't know why but I did. I sat there and the door opened behind me. Karen walked in, she let out a little gasp when she saw the scene. She sat down beside me, reached her arms out and gave me a hug. I fell into her chest and cried. I let out all the tears I've been holding back. I was scared but I didn't want to admit it.

"I-I didn't want to kill it," I sobbed out.

"Shh, I know," Karen said in a soothing voice. We stayed like that for a few minutes until I had finally stopped crying and regained my composure. I sat up and looked around the room we were in. It was a fairly small room but by far the most unnerving they had visited. There were screens all across the walls of different hallways and rooms. I looked at one of the screens, it showed Karen and I in the monster room. I saw myself leaping towards the monster and Karen shooting a magic beam from her hands. The video slowed as the beam hit me in the leg and then the monster slammed its giant paw into my chest, throwing me across the room flashbacks flooded my mind. I looked at another screen, it was me walking down a hall.

I watched as I suddenly stopped walking and curled onto the floor. This must be when I had the panic attack, I thought to myself. However as I watched the screen a giant, slim, gray creature padded in front of me. It was one of the aliens. It started scratching at the stone wall and I watched as the wall fell away into the ground. The alien then looked back at me before running into the hallway. I shivered as the Evander on the screen lifted his head and stood up. The last time I looked down the hall and jumped back, I remembered the pair of eyes I had seen at the back of the hall and felt myself go pale. It wasn't my imagination after all. I had seen something in the hallway, I wish it was my imagination. Another shiver went down my spine.

"What is this?" Karen stands up to inspect the videos closer.

All I could say was "i-" I was terrified all my nightmares have come true.

"Are these past videos of US?"

"I. . .don't. . .w-wa-want. . .b-but it m-must be," I was able to spit that out.

"This is not what I wanted this trip to beeeee liiike!" Karen starts to hyperventilate. I couldn't move, I was frozen in fear. It was hard to believe that everything we had been doing we were being watched. Not only that, but everything we had done had been orchestrated by the aliens. Was there even a point? I remembered the conversation we had with the commander, he had said something I couldn't exactly remember what, something about test subjects?

"Are the aliens test subjects?" I asked myself.

"No," Karen answered my question, "I think we are."

"But why?" I asked, knowing that Karen wouldn't have a response. Karen just shrugged. "The aliens clearly have planned this," I said. "Which means we are in this room for a reason. Now we just have to wait for something to happen, I'm sure that it won't take long. We figured it out," I yelled out. "You might as well move onto your next step or whatever we're here for!"

"Evander! Don't make them mad," Karen started.

"How could I possibly make them mad? If anything they made me mad! I don't want to kill but if it means saving you I will. Have no doubt that I will kill every one of these aliens!" my voice started to rise, my eyes turned red. I punched a tv screen causing bits of glass to lodge into my knuckle causing me to bleed.

"Aww that's really sweet, and also a bit disturbing, and WHY THE HECK DID YOU JUST DO THAT?" Karen yelled at me grabbing my arm. She pulled me towards her, away from the broken screen. She examined my hand and started trying to pull out the small pieces of glass. She had been working for a few minutes when there was another scratching sound. We both whipped around to see a doorway collapse into the ground and behind that three smaller aliens stood. They looked identical to the one before which still lay on the ground, but these only reached to about my shoulder height. They walked in and circled us, I felt Karen hug me, blood was still dripping from my wound. One of the aliens stopped in front of me.

"Hand, now," the alien points to my injured hand. I stood there. "Hand, NOW!" I jumped and gave the alien my hand. It pulled out what resembled a bandage and started to wrap my hand in it. He held onto it for a few minutes when he unwrapped it my wound was gone. My eyes widened. "That is how wounds should be healed," the alien said in a rough voice while staring at Karen who looked at the ground.

"T-thank you," I stuttered. The alien nodded.

"Come, we will guide you to lady Isolde."

"Who's Lady Isolde?" Karen asked. One of the other aliens just nudged her harshly towards the door, I quickly followed. Once we had walked through the doorway we were on the side of a high up cliff with a small wooden force. We were still inside some sort of cave but it looked like a whole mountain had been dug out and replaced with an alien village. The most prominent feature of the village was a large castle in the middle, it was sparkly and blue. Around it were smaller hut looking houses. I could see large patches of grass where different creatures roamed. Other than that it was hard to make out many details except for the plethora of aliens that walked throughout the streets of the town.

There was an alien walking in front of Karen and I, two more behind us. We were walking down a twisted path that slowly made its way down the cliff. Once we had descended the cliff we were led deep into the town. There were huts that seemed to be like shops with unique smelling food and intricate objects. There were odd clear flowers scattered on the ground and plants that swayed even though there was no wind. As we walked many aliens of all sizes stared at us intrigued.

Finally we made it to the center of town and in front of the impressive stone castle. We stopped at a gate and one of the aliens walked up and opened it for us. I walked in and Karen started to follow only to be halted by an alien.

"This castle is not for you," he said.

"What am I supposed to do then?" Karen asked, clearly offended.

"You wait," he growled. "One of us will stay behind to supervise you." I looked back at Karen with an apologetic glance before walking inside with two of the aliens. Down a long hall was a giant throne and in it sat the largest alien I had ever seen.

"Welcome Evander, we have been expecting you!"