11
When I woke up, darkness surrounded me. It took me a second to gain my bearings, but eventually I realized I was slouched in some kind of chair. It was a darkness like nothing I had ever experienced before. It was so thick I wouldn’t have even been able to see my hands in front of my face even if they weren’t bound behind my back. There wasn’t even a beam of light coming in from under a door. It was a darkness like nothing I had experienced before. I went through the last things I could remember and the image of the unfamiliar Vepar crashed into my memory. The last thing I remember was looking into his eyes… Eyes that were completely black as if his pupil had taken over everything, and a pasty face as if he had no pulse. A shiver raced down my spine at the memory.
I was getting tired of being kidnapped. I’d take waking up in a mansion in a sunny room over this experience any day though. I tugged on the bindings on my wrist, trying to see if they would loosen at all, but they held firm.
“Hello,” I called out, feeling like one of those girls in the horror movies right before their death.
I waited for a moment, but I couldn’t hear anything. I opened my mouth to call out again when the strangest thing happened. It was like all the darkness was sucked out of the room in an instant and suddenly there were glowing brick walls all around, and the strange Vepar stood in front of me. I watched as the last remnants of darkness were sucked into him.
I had never seen anything like it.
The man wore the same black shirt and jeans Derrial had on when I first saw him. He slowly studied me before beginning to circle me. He stopped in front of me, and I watched, again amazed, as the blonde hair that he’d been using to impersonate Derrial melted away, leaving a Vepar with hair so dark that it matched his strange black eyes. I gasped. That was the most alien thing I’d seen so far.
Staying on the theme of horror movies, he looked like a character from one of those movies that portrayed people who were possessed by demons. Except I was pretty sure the creature standing in front of me was far scarier than a demon would be. For one, I’d seen enough flicks and read enough to know what a demon was. But this thing in front of me… I had zero clue and that terrified me. I shook in my chair, desperate to run. Except, I was stuck inside a room.
Another prison.
And this time I was with a monster.
“So fascinating,” he whispered in a voice that was as smooth and slick as oil. The voice seemed to emanate from inside my brain, and I shook my head at the strange feeling.
I knew I shouldn’t say something, but my curiosity won out. “What’s fascinating?” I asked.
The creature grinned. Unlike the other Vepar I’d seen who all seemed to have perfect movie star smiles, this one carried a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, kind of like a shark. I had been thinking that this creature was a Vepar, but now that I had seen the strange teeth, I wasn’t so sure. All I knew was that this being made Derrial and the others look as friendly as a teddy bear compared to him.
“It’s something I’m sure they weren’t anticipating,” the creature muttered to himself, still staring at me avidly. He must have seen the look of confusion on my pale face because he smiled again, flashing those horrid teeth that had me pressing back into my chair. “The bond, little human. You’re the first successful human/Vepar bond to be completed since they started trying. And by completing the bond, you also became the target for every Vepar enemy in the vicinity.” He chuckled and the sound was like knives down my arms.
Nope, nothing good would come from this thing in front of me.
I must have still been staring at him with a dumb look on my face because he continued. “Humans normally don’t even appear on our radar. Your species are like ants scurrying about with no idea of anything that’s going on around them. Only higher-level beings garner any interest.” He raised his chin, his shoulders back.
He went on, “Vepar and all the rest are almost like glowing figures in night vision goggles, they’re easy to spot. While they appear as a faint glow, you my dear are like the fireworks. You light up the darkness like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Every creature within a hundred galaxies will want you. And I got to you first.” His voice darkened and he almost drooled at saying those last few words.
I was trying to absorb his words and their meaning. “If what you're saying is true, how did you get to me so fast. The bond only just happened.”
He smiled again, his teeth sending sharp shivers of dread throughout my body, and I decided right then I loathed his smile. Better he grimaced.
“We had something planned for the Summit. But when I saw you, everything changed. You were too good to pass up,” he answered with a shrug.
“What are you?” I demanded.
The room started to darken, black mists erupted from his skin until it started to envelop everything, creating that same all-encompassing blackness as before.
“We are the Khonsu,” his voice whispered, seeming to be coming from all around me. I could feel something stroking my face, almost like a hand. It was as if the dark mists were an extension of him.
Suddenly the faint touches changed from a soft sensation to what felt like a whip lashing across my face. A jolting pain shuddered across my cheek, and I screamed as the lashes spread all over my body, ripping at my skin.
I screamed and tucked my chin low, but my hands tied at my back kept me locked to the chair.
A piercing pain seared across my body worse than a branding iron.
It was impossible to tell where the next lash would hit next since I couldn’t even see an inch from my face. All my mind could comprehend was pain. I lost all thoughts; all I could do was burrow my head into my chest. Away from the pain radiating me, burning me alive.
The assault never relented, never stopped, never gave me a chance.
Blood soaked my torn clothes, each new strike a sharp bite to my flesh, ripping me to shreds. My throat grew raw from cries, but they went unheard.
In those moments, I prayed for my death, to be taken because I couldn’t take another second.