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It was the dead of night and most of the girls were out working when a figure, cloaked in shadow, sat on the edge of my bed. I hadn’t seen them enter and couldn’t distinguish who they were.
They sat there for a very long time before speaking.
“I know you don’t want to speak to me,” the figure said.
I wondered if Trayem would come speak with me. It’d been his final act of betrayal that took the babe from my arms and given it to someone else.
For the first time since I lay here, my muscles twitched and I felt I might actually be able to move, might actually be able to have an effect on the world around me. I would curl my fingers into a fist and slug him in the face.
That would be my first act. I hoped it would be the first of many.
“I never meant for any of this to happen,” Trayem said. “You have to believe that. What we had, what we shared, it was real. I’ve never fallen in love before. I never thought I could fall in love. You ended that dry spell for me.”
Glad I could be of assistance, I thought. I tuned his words out and focused on that spot on the wall.
He continued to speak and try as I might, I couldn’t prevent his words from filtering into my mind.
“I want to share my story with you so maybe you might understand why I did what I did,” he said. “Krial raised us in many ways. We were always meant to be his personal guard. We became like brothers and sisters. He got us to go on missions for him and to do his bidding. It became a way of life for us to do what he wanted when he wanted. It was what we did because it was what we always did.
“I can’t tell you the number of terrible things we did during those years. They brought us here to this prison. I can’t say I regret doing a single one of them because they all served to bring me here to you.
“And then I did that unspeakable thing, the thing I don’t expect you to ever forgive me for. Of all the things I’ve done, none have made me feel worse than what I did to you today.”
That was it. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I sprung up and slugged him in the face. At least, I aimed for his face. I couldn’t see him clearly in the semi-darkness and smacked him in the shoulder.
When he seemed unaffected by the blow, I drew back and smacked him again. And again. And again.
I beat at him harder and faster than I thought I was capable of, releasing my anger and frustration at him one punch at a time.
He didn’t raise his arms, didn’t try to protect himself. I caught his lip and it cut on his teeth. My fists hurt but I didn’t care. I just kept flying at him and he just sat there, taking it.
Finally, my anger spent and unable to keep up the attack, I fell back and wept.
Some of the girls on the other cots heard the commotion, glanced over, and lay back. I doubted they went back to sleep. It was too much juicy drama for them to pass up.
“How could you do it?” I said, the tears streaming down my face. “How could you take our one and only child and… What did you even do with him?”
He couldn’t look me in the eye.
“Krial is a species called the hayim. They have the ability to live forever. To do that, they suck the life from other living creatures. The younger they are, the more powerful the effect.”
“You… let him feed on our baby?” I said incredulously.
When you lived surrounded by aliens each day, you got used to seeing and expecting strange things. But this…
This was on a whole other level.
I flew into another rage, hurling my fists at him as fast and as hard as I could. I screeched, my voice loud. Anyone who missed the first round would almost certainly hear this one. It would feed their fascination for weeks to come.
For once, I didn’t care what they said.
“How could you?” I wailed, even more tears streaming down my face.
I wondered where they kept coming from.
“Stop,” Trayem said. “Harper. Enough.”
