Chapter 2

Gray was my first impression. The wide room was gray from the oddly textured walls to the slate floor. My second thought was—where the fuck was I? Strange monitors and items surrounded me. I couldn’t even guess their purposes, but my anxiety brain immediately conjured the worst-case scenario: dissection, experimentation, probing, and such.

My heart began to pound. The beeping intensified, and a blue display near my bed changed with wavy symbols. The same woman as before appeared, speaking in snaps and snarls.

I went to clutch the front of my shirt, but I found nothing but skin. I wasn’t wearing anything. All I had was a thin blanket covering me from my gut down. I tugged the dark blue fabric to my chin, trying to breathe, but my lungs felt like a weight crushed them into my spine.

She spoke again, her tail swishing. I followed the movement. She had a tail. A fucking tail. A purple tuft on the end, like a lion’s, caught my eye before my gaze went up the long appendage, tracing the scales.

What the hell was she?

The snake-woman waved at me, drawing my attention from her tail, and to the monitor she pointed at. I had no idea what she was trying to communicate, but I locked on to the claws at the end of her fingers. Claws were never good, at least in an abduction setting.

Swallowing the bubbling panic, I nodded, and she spoke again. My pulse spiked, and the beeping intensified. I nodded again. She swiveled between me and the rapidly changing display.

“I want to go home,” I whispered. “I don’t know who you are or what you want, but please let me go.”

Her hand made a circular motion.

“Please.”

She gave the same gesture.

A breathy, humorless laugh escaped from my lips. I’d been abducted. By aliens. How in the world had this happened? It didn’t happen. It wasn’t possible. None of this was fucking possible. I gripped the blanket until my knuckles turned white, and my fingers screamed from the strain.

“Please,” I tried again. “Please, let me go.”

The woman didn’t do anything besides stare at me with her slit pupils eyes like a cat’s. So she was a snake-lion-elf creature. Like that made sense. But she was an alien, so what the hell did I know?

Though her nose was human enough. Weirdly, her one human feature comforted me, like a nose made her not as frightening. Then she growled, making the circular motion again, and ruined any semblance of calm I possessed.

When she continued to watch me, my jaw clenched. I’d been as polite as possible, but I wanted to go. While my life was not perfect by a long shot, it was my life. I had Lucy, my apartment, and a job that mainly covered my bills as long as I didn’t need to eat regularly. All of which was better than being abducted by aliens for unknown purposes.

Lucy.

Her name was a knife to the gut. Lucy was home alone. How long had I been gone? I had no family, friends, or even co-workers who would check on her.

Bile climbed my throat at the thought of confronting this snake-woman, but I couldn’t leave Lucy to starve. “I need to go. Now. Lucy is waiting for me.”

She pushed on the touch screen, claws clicking, and made a circular motion with her wrist.

“I need to go,” I said even louder, like, magically, the strange woman would understand me. “How long have I been here? Why did you even abduct me? I’m no one.”

Her fingers flew over the monitor. This snake-woman clearly didn’t understand.

I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and stood, wrapping the blanket around my waist. “Well, this has been interesting and everything. Something for my future therapist to help me work through and all that, but I want to leave.”

When she didn’t so much as glance in my direction, I stalked to what I assumed was a door, which opened with a low whoosh like in a cheesy sci-fi movie. I started to step into the hall, but an invisible force stopped me. Touching nothing but air, I pushed, but the invisible wall wouldn’t give no matter how hard I shoved.

“Seriously?” I asked, thrusting my shoulder into the force. “What in the actual hell?”

More scaled people gathered at the open door, speaking in their aggressive language. Heat swamped my face, probably turning it into a tomato. I was half-naked with a blanket around my hips, pressed against nothing. What a sight I must be. I stepped back, and the door closed, blocking the view of the growing crowd.

When I turned around, I noticed the strange woman hadn’t even shifted. Apparently, I didn’t merit enough of a threat to try and stop. Of course, I couldn’t even make it out the door, so there was that.

With nothing else to do, I wandered around the room. I was in some sort of scientific room with a single bed near the back wall and three more to the left. Each bed had monitors next to them. So a medical facility, I assumed.

On the right was an open doorway framed by windows. I peeked inside and saw shelves filled with odd plants and glass vessels as well as a desk covered in paper-thin screens.

My clothes were nowhere in sight, and I saw no other exit. I was stuck, trapped.

Fighting the black dots dancing across my vision, I sank onto the bed I’d woken up on. I ran through the options, but my mind was shockingly empty. Abducted by aliens wasn’t a possibility I’d ever planned for. I mean who did that? I would have sooner expected a zombie apocalypse or the collapse of society than alien abduction.

New was not my strong suit. People weren’t either. Honestly, my strength was being alone on my couch. I was a potato. I was perfectly happy as a potato. I would like to go back to being a potato.

How the hell was I going to survive this? I mean, that was a bold assumption. Perhaps I wasn’t going to survive. Maybe I was food? Though this seemed like a lot of work for food. Unless I was a delicacy? Were humans delicious? Supposedly we tasted like chicken. Did aliens like chicken?

Calm down, Seth;no need to go to the dark place. At least until they pulled out the carving knives. I had to survive. Lucy had no one else. They’d take her back to a shelter like the one I’d adopted her from. I couldn’t allow that.

I tried to straighten my shoulders, but they wouldn’t cooperate. “I need to leave,” I said as firmly as I could manage, though it came out hesitant. “Please,” I added in case the woman understood me. It never hurt to be polite, especially if they weren’t going to eat me. If they were, I guessed I would be polite food.

She didn’t even acknowledge my words. She picked up a long object with a flat tip about the diameter of a baseball, and I scuttled back on the bed.

Where the fuck did she think she was putting that?

Once again, she didn’t acknowledge my movement and waved the instrument over me. It released a long beep, and she peered at the monitor before saying something. The snake-woman pressed on a panel, and it popped open. She thrusted some clothes into my arms, then pointed at them before stabbing her long finger at me.

“You want me to get dressed?” I asked.

She didn’t speak or turn around.

“Can I get some privacy?”

Her tail flicked, but she gave no other sign she’d even heard me. I twirled my finger to indicate she should turn around, but she didn’t. Seriously? I was going to have to show her my junk. Then again, maybe she wanted to see all of me. I blanched at the thought. I had been naked when I woke up, so she’d probably already seen my dick.

I tried again, but she kept watching me.

Grinding my teeth, I pulled on a pair of black pants and a loose tunic-style shirt with a stiff collar that brushed my chin. The pants clung to my legs, tapering at the ankle, and the blue tunic hung to my thighs, clinging to my paunch, sleeves ending right at my wrists. Finally, I tugged on a pair of socks and boots that went to mid-calf.

While the clothes were not uncomfortable, they didn’t feel right because they weren’t mine. I wanted my hoodie. Everything would be more manageable if I had the familiar bulk hugging me.

She motioned to the door.

My hands curled into fists, but I complied. So far, these aliens had done nothing more than take me. A physical confrontation didn’t seem worth it, not yet at least. Besides, I’d never fought back in my life. Every time, I froze or cowered. No matter how much someone hurt me, my body refused to respond.

The crowd was nowhere to be seen, but two people in black garments with leather body armor and long batons on their hips stood in front of the door. One, of what I was pretty damn sure were guards, was bright pink in color and had short neon green hair. The other was dark purple with black hair falling to their waist. Like the woman, they had elf ears, cat eyes, tails, and scales. Both were taller than me, well into the six-foot range.

They inclined their heads to the side, and one gestured to the hallway.

I sighed. I was apparently going for a walk. To where? I had no idea. For what purpose? Also, a mystery. Wasn’t life as an abductee fun?

The gray walls on either side of me had a wooden texture, and the blue floor had a slight give under my feet like carpet, but it was squishier. Interwoven vines, dense with flowers, covered the ceilings, filling the enclosed space with a light floral fragrance.

If these aliens got seasonal allergies, they were seriously screwed. Plants were everywhere from potted trees to hanging plants on the walls.

Doors lined the corridor, all labeled with strange glowing symbols. We passed by several monitors, all unreadable, but I didn’t spy a single window. I had no idea if I was on Earth or in space.

Space. How crazy had my life become that space was a possibility?

Eventually, we came to a door that opened to reveal a round room. She pointed, and I crept inside. Was she releasing me into the void of space? Was that even a thing? Why hadn’t I forced myself to watch or read more sci-fi?

A moment later, she came inside with the two guards. The door swished closed, and the floor shifted. I jolted, hitting the wall with a thud. She spoke in a soft voice that sounded aggressive to my ears. We moved upward.

It was an elevator. Just an elevator.

The only thing to break the silence was the sound of breathing—mine harsher than theirs. The ride seemed to last forever, and my heart thundered in my ears as electricity danced under my skin.

With a rush of air, the door opened to reveal a short hallway. This one was different, more regal. A gold rug ran the length of the hall abutting the two wood doors the color of whiskey.

The woman nudged my back with her tail, and I lurched forward. Two scaled people opened the doors, and my eyes traveled down the aisle to the person directly at the other end.

He was tall with silvery-blue hair that reached his trim waist and steel-blue scales. His eyes were purple with slits like a cat”s. He had wide features, a straight nose, and a strong jaw. His broad shoulders filled out a shirt similar to mine, but it was sleeveless, showing off his muscular arms. Silver cuffs and studs with gems lined his tapered ears, and he wore several necklaces and bracelets.

The strange man did not hold my attention for long. I was drawn to the windows covering the round walls and the ceiling.

I was in space—like actual space.

Earth floated some distance away. Clouds covered the surface, making Earth look like a marble. We weren’t in orbit since I could see the entire planet. But it was there. Untouchable. Out of reach.

I swallowed. I was in space. Looking at Earth.

A touch alighted on my upper back, and I jerked, whipping around. The woman waved toward the man before pushing me. The man at the end of the aisle immediately snarled, and she stepped back, head tilting to the side, exposing her throat.

Staggering, I started forward.

Stools lined the aisle, all full of people. The aliens watched me with their cat-like gazes, and whispers suffused the room, sounding like the hum of electricity. One alien stood, different from the others. The hulking alien had leathery green skin and a jutting lower jaw. They pointed at me, and a scaled alien tugged them down.

The man at the front stared at me. His expression was calm, but his tail swung and he bounced on the balls of his feet.

“Who are you?” I asked.

He extended a clawed hand toward me, and I backed up. He blinked but gave no other indication he’d heard me. Another person, a woman, moved toward us. She had gray hair and pale purple scales the same shade as the lilac blooms.

She seemed different than the others I’d seen, older maybe. Her scales were rough and lacked the sheen most of the others possessed. The lilac-colored alien held out a piece of glass, except it glowed bright white. Words slipped out of her thin lips, almost lyrical sounding.

When she stopped speaking, the man released a gruff noise and touched the piece of glass. The white gleam turned into a soft green like a new spring fern.

With a frown, he removed his hand, fisting it behind his back.

The woman began to speak again. When she stopped, eyes on me, I had no idea what she wanted.

“Yes?” I asked.

People whispered, but none of them seemed upset. They were all smiling, which was more than a little alarming with their sharp teeth. At least, I thought they were smiling. Maybe they were growling? Maybe they were going to eat me? Was this an elaborate dinner ritual?

The woman held out the piece of glass. I had no idea what was going on, but the other man had touched it and he was fine. Shrugging, I placed my palm on the glowing glass.

The light swirled around my fingers with tickling movements. The white color changed to a deep red that was almost black. The crowd whispered like angry bees. The man beside me stiffened, and his frown deepened, making my mouth go bone dry. A whimper clawed at my throat at the fierce expression, but I swallowed it.

The woman spoke again in an announcing voice. People stood and released a volley of growls.

I jerked, bumping into something hard. I peeked back, and the blue man stood right behind me. This alien was maybe four or so inches taller than I was, shorter than some of the others I’d seen.

He turned me toward him and lowered as if he was going to kiss me, and I yanked back; words of anger sparked on the tip of my tongue. He stopped, forehead creasing. His hands fell away from my biceps, then he brushed my cheek with the back of his finger. My eyes widened at the gentle touch and the burning warmth of his scales. When he stepped back, the room erupted again.

What the hell just happened?