Chapter 19

Cleaning out the bathroom had been harder than cleaning the kitchen and living room combined. It stank of foulness and rotting things I didn’t dare try to analyze. Green slime hung from the walls and ceiling, and encrusted the shower. I shuddered at the thought of it being some kind of fungus or mold.

I avoided touching it as much as possible, but to my surprise, it came loose rather easily.

Once I was finished, I gave the shower a tentative once-over, but a quick whiff off my armpits convinced me that getting clean was worth the risk.

The door didn’t lock, but I found a stick I could wedge between the floor and door that would hold it closed unless someone shouldered their way in. And if that happened, the door wouldn’t stand a chance anyway.

Quickly, I peeled out of my now-filthy nightgown and wished I could wash it too, before I stepped underneath the grayish, weak flow of the shower. Despite all that, it felt good to rinse all the crud off me.

I felt better, even after I put my dirty nightgown back on.

Reluctantly, I made my way back down to Gitgo to see what he demanded of me now or if he would finally be inclined to feed me, when a loud commotion from outside and a hammering against the backdoor startled me enough to let out a scream.

Gitgo rushed into the living room, snagged my wrist, and pulled me with him. He stopped by the three-legged table in front of the couch and pushed the stick holding the wobbling table up to the side. To my utter astonishment, it lifted, creaking, off the ground. Metallic protesting screeches followed and a hole in the floor appeared.

“Down,” Gitgo snarled at me, pushing me forward.

Horrified, I stared into the dark abyss. “No.” I shook my head.

He pulled out the remote. “Get down or I’ll kick you down while you’re writhing on the floor,” he threatened.

Hesitantly, I moved forward.

“Now!”

I licked my dry lips and set one tentative foot on a metallic rung leading down. I shifted my body and, holding on the edges, set another foot on a lower rung. “Please,” I pleaded.

He tapped his foot impatiently.

With tears in my eyes, I followed the rungs all the way down until darkness swallowed me and all I saw was his face peering down at me.

“If I hear one peep, I will use this,” he advised, holding up the remote that was connected to my collar, before the metallic plates shifted back in place, sealing me in for good.

Panic set in immediately and I felt like I couldn’t breathe down in that dark, rank hole, which stank of something sour and something my mind refused to define. Frozen, I just stood where I had landed, one hand steadying me against a rung.

What was happening? Was help finally arriving and now I was down here with no way to let them know where I was?

I didn’t hear a sound, but slowly my eyes got used to the darkness surrounding me. One by one I made out shadows on the ground, unmoving and stinking.

Now I knew where the bad smell that I had never been able to get rid ofno matter how hard I cleaned—came from.

Something metallic gleamed at me and my curiosity got the better of me. I let go of the rung and moved forward until I made out a buckle or clasp. Dirty, but shiny in parts, it looked like it was meant to hold a cape together, similar to what Daryus wore.

Daryus. Again, my eyes filled with tears at the thought that rescue might be within my grasp and yet seemed further away than ever.

Wood splintered above me, angry shouting voices froze me.

“How dare you—” Gitgo exclaimed but a stranger’s voice interrupted him.

“We’re looking for a human merrily,” somebody said.

Me!

I sucked in a deep breath, ready to let out an ear-shattering scream, when my entire body began to convulse as an electrical current hit me, starting from my neck, moving down my body and up into my brain, threatening to fry it.

With a whimper, my knees buckled and I landed hard on the ground before my body began to spasm uncontrollably. My legs kicked, my arms swung and my torso contorted under the onslaught of the current running through me. Debilitating and painful.

Every thought left me for the longest time.

It seemed forever until the current stopped, until my spasming body stilled and I took a gasping breath, tasting blood. I must have bitten my cheek or lip I concluded.

“They’re gone, but stay down there,” Gitgo called through the open hatch, which I hadn’t heard opening this time.

Lying panting on the ground, I nodded even though I doubted he could see it, and slowly rolled to my side, hitting my elbow on something hard and sharp.

Darkness swallowed me up again, and again it took several moments for my eyes to adjust. Once they did, I made out a bone sticking out of the ground, which was what had cut me at the elbow. I clapped my hands over my mouth to smother the squeal that tried to make its way out, terrified of being zapped again.

The realization that I was trapped down here with at least one body though, horrified me just as much. I clambered to my feet, blindly feeling for the rungs in the wall, ready to climb up halfway just to be away from whatever was buried underneath the ground.

Rationally I knew that a dead body—a skeleton no less—couldn’t hurt me, but I was beyond rationality at this point. I clung to the rungs like a lifeline for I don’t know how long, wondering if in the near future my bones would join those in the ground and if anybody would ever find me, mourn me.

Daryus came to my mind again.

I had finally found somebody I truly liked, somebody I had had the most amazing sex with, and here I was, terrified for my life, being held captive inside a dark hole.

Why had I escaped the Cryons if I was doomed to be killed by an alien anyway? I didn’t even know what species Gitgo belonged to and that seemed even more unfair to me. Shouldn’t a person know who killed her?

I leaned my head against the cool metal bar, took a few steadying breaths, and speculated on how long Gitgo would make me stay down here, or if he had decided that I wasn’t worth the trouble after all. Maybe his bosses didn’t even know about this little hidey-hole and he would claim I ran away.

Was it my imagination or was the air in here becoming staler?

Panic flooded me and I breathed more frantically until I was hyperventilating, sure I would suffocate any second now. My grip on the rung loosened ever so slightly but the thought of falling back down on the ground sobered me enough to get a hold of myself once again.

I forced myself to breathe steadier, just when I heard voices from above again.

“Search this entire house, tear it down brick by brick if you must,” a voice bellowed.

“Vra, Commander Noctus,” somebody else answered, followed by rumbling and the sound of breaking furniture.

I blinked, stiffened, readied myself to be zapped again.

“What is this?” a voice I knew well called out. Daryus!

Did I dare scream? Did I have a choice?

“Some kind of remote,” the first guy answered. “What is this?” he demanded, presumably from Gitgo.

Gitgo!

He didn’t have the remote any longer! I clambered up the rungs and screamed, banged one fist against the metal so hard, warm blood ran down my arm, but I didn’t stop. “Here, here! I am here!”

“Heather!” Daryus yelled. “Where are you?”

“Down here, down here,” I cried, tears running down my face as I continued to bang against the metal.

“Under the table. Move it!” Daryus kicked something.

“Open it up!” another voice yelled, most likely at Gitgo.

“There is nothing there,” Gitgo protested furtively.

“Now!” Daryus thundered, followed by the sound of something or somebody being slammed into a wall. I hoped it was Gitgo.

Under loud protesting, the metal began to open once again. I pushed my arms through even before it had retracted all the way, felt hands grasp my wrist and pull me up.

The light that welcomed me hurt my eyes and I shut them. But even without seeing, I knew the body I was crushed against, knew the arms enveloping me, the lips kissing my face, just like the voice calling out my name.

“Heather!”

Tears ran down my face. I couldn’t believe he had found me. I feared that I had fallen and hit my head and that this was only a dream. But when he picked me up and my collar hit against his chest, I realized this was really happening.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Daryus said, his hand brushing my hair up and down as if he too had to reassure himself that he was truly holding me in his arms.

“Wait,” I called out. “I can’t leave.”

He stopped and looked questioningly down at me. I pointed at my collar. “It’ll zap me if we leave.”

His features hardened and his heart beat faster and harder against his chest as anger tore through him. I put my palm on his pecs and his expression softened.

“Commander Noctus,” he pressed out, and a grim-faced, older male appeared—by far the tallest, widest Pandraxian I had ever seen.

“He had some kind of remote,” I said, nodding at Gitgo, who lay unconscious on the floor. “I don’t know if there is a key for it.”

“Commander.” A Pandraxian soldier held up the remote he or somebody must have taken from Gitgo’s grasp earlier, handing it to Commander Noctus, who inspected it. “There are two buttons here, but they don’t say which does what. I’m afraid to push the wrong one and zap the lady.”

Daryus put me down on my feet and placed his hands inside the collar. It was no easy feat; there wasn’t much give and his hands were huge, but he managed.

I stiffened, expecting to be electrocuted again at any moment, when Daryus pulled against the collar. Nothing happened.

“Your Imperial Highness.” Another soldier entered my field of vision, holding out a gadget that looked like a gun.

“Idiot. He’ll burn her with this.” Noctus pushed the man aside, shaking his head.

“I know,” a small voice piped up.

Serthia.

She was dangling from the hand of one of the guards holding her by her arm. At Daryus’s nod, he let go of her and she came forward.

“You have to push both buttons simultaneously,” she explained.

“And you know that how?” Noctus asked suspiciously.

“They made me control my mother with it for a while,” she said with a defiant tilt to her jaw that made it clear she wouldn’t discuss this any further.

I had no idea how to judge Pandraxians’ ages, but my guess was that she was maybe ten, but her expressions put her at fifty. Normally I would have felt sorry for her, but after the days and encounters I had with her, I knew she would not appreciate the notion.

Serthia held out her little hand for the remote. Reluctantly, Noctus handed it to her after looking at Daryus for instructions and he nodded.

I closed my eyes, clung to Daryus, and stiffened, expecting pain to ravage my body again. Instead, there was a small ping and the collar opened. Immediately, my hands grasped for it, ripped it all the way off, and threw it to the ground.

Then I flung my arms around Daryus and pleaded, “Take me away from here.”

Wordlessly, he picked me up and carried me outside. I barely heard Noctus command Serthia, “Come,” before I buried my head against Daryus’s chest and closed my eyes.