12. Lily

Zero morning sunlight swept through the cell. It was the one thing the Prize Pool had over the alien's cell, and that was the natural sunlight. Still, I would give that up for the shower any day of the week.

I rolled over and stretched. My body ached from the day before and I quickly sat up and checked my welts.

They were very faint now, almost gone. I wished I could say the same for the memories that left a stain in my mind…

But last night, with the alien, had certainly helped repair a little of that damage. He hadn't approached me all night — although I couldn't help but wish he'd at least shown some interest.

I peered over at his makeshift bed on the floor and found the blankets empty. He'd left at some point during the night. And I was surrounded on all sides by the cells of other alien inmates…

How was I supposed to return to the Pool now?

The door opened and the alien entered with a plate full of delicious-smelling food. "I got us some breakfast," he said, and placed the plate on his desk.

He lifted the whole thing — desk, books, drawer contents, and the plate piled high with food — as if it didn't weigh a thing and brought it over to me. He pulled a stool up from the corner of the room to sit on.

My eyes bulged at the items on the plate. Eggs, toast, jam, bacon, and even some kind of sausage! My stomach grumbled immediately.

"Where did you find this?" I asked. "I've been stuck with alien food every day. Most of it's still alive and breathing."

"There's good food in the cafeteria… if you get there early enough. Otherwise, the best stuff is gone within ten minutes. The staff said this is human food. I don't know if it's true though. It will taste different to what you're used to."

"Are you kidding?" I said around a broad grin.

I dug in and, although his warning that it would taste different was warranted — I had no idea what animal the bacon and sausages came from but it definitely wasn't a Cumberland — it was delicious.

"Sorry," I said. "I ate like a pig. All I need now to make it perfect is—"

"A cup of coffee?" the alien said, bringing a mug out from behind his back.

If my eyes bulged any wider, they would have popped out of my skull.

"I didn't know if you like milk or sugar—" And he pronounced milk as "miew" and sugar as "soo-ga". "—so I brought sachets of both."

He placed a small grocery store's worth of the items on the desktop. I normally wouldn't have put sugar in my coffee but I was desperate to be reminded of home and added one sachet. I let the flavor roll down my throat and my taste buds sang happily.

"You don't know what this means to me," I said.

"Oh, I think I know," he said, tucking into his own plate of food.

It was purple like jelly and seemed to shift away from his spoon every time he tried to impale it with his fork. But he ate with the same huge grin on his lips as I had mine.

I beamed at him, and the scales and the horns, and the golden eyes faded away and I saw only his spirit underneath. He was kind, caring, thoughtful…

Everything I didn't expect to find at Ikmal prison.

And I felt sad when our time was up.