The Human Hunter (Alien Overlords 1)

I spent one single night in the forest. I saw the flying colors dance. They answered to nobody and nothing. They were not aware of their existence, and yet I envy them their freedom.

Now I am behind bars. I am locked in the dark. I am naked and I am afraid. Rath told me I had to obey. Then he turned me in. What was the point of that obedience?

I crouch down on the floor and put my face in my hands. It feels as though all the world is drawing to a close. I used to feel as though I was a very special inhabitant of this great city. Now I am nothing more than a captive, an outcast. Lower than scum. I almost wish Rath had destroyed me when he first caught me, but for the sliver of hope he left me just before my capture and his second betrayal.

* * *

Several hours of miserable captivity later…

Rath said that Krush wants him dead. He said I needed to be loyal to him. I hold on to that conversation, playing it over and over in my head. Rath appears to have instantly betrayed me the second it was convenient for him. He also seems to have put me in mortal danger for reasons he can’t be bothered to explain. I wish I were one of those cool, calm, heroine types who could deal with captivity. I’m not. I’m one of those panicked, frazzled, desperate-for-this-all-to-be-over types. Every second I sit in the cell is another second I imagine some fate worse than death befalling me.

The korabi who put me here handled me professionally and without much interest. I was more a book to be filed than an enemy to be destroyed. That is what I am used to from these alien overlords. It was almost comforting to be in the presence of those who treated me like I was nothing.

“So this is the one you have hunted for more than a year.”

Footsteps are coming closer. I can hear the korabi talking about me. One of the voices is Rath’s. My heart skips a beat, because my heart has not caught up with the fact that Rath is a traitorous, opportunistic asshole. He’s obviously been lying to whoever he is talking to. If that one believes Rath has hunted me for many months then he has been thoroughly taken in by Rath as well. Years? More like hours. He barely noticed me until he needed me. Until I became a convenient target for his machinations and manipulations.

“One year,” Rath confirms. “She hid brazenly in plain sight within our own mechanizations of human justice.”

He is throwing me into the jaws of metaphorical doom out there. Source of all evil?

“I would speak with her alone. You know the way humans are, lying for audiences with compulsive regularity. If she speaks to me by myself, she will not be tempted to draw you into her web of deceit.”

“I would not believe a word out of her human mouth. I know very well they are nothing but generators of fantasy,” the other korabi laughs.

“True, but that fantasy can be very convincing. It is best I handle her.”

“Alright. Come and get me when you’re done.”

I hear Rath approaching my cell alone. He comes to look at me through the bars. He is shirtless and somehow still damp from the river. Betrayal runs over him in small rivulets.

I don’t want to look at him, but I can’t stop myself. There is something about Rath which draws me even when I don’t want to be drawn. Even when anger and loathing pumps through my veins thicker than blood.

“Lyric.” He says my name in that soft, rough tone which would usually make me melt. I refuse to melt for him today. I have not been provided a blanket. I have not been given food. There is no water in this cell. There are only smooth plastique surfaces and the knowledge that this is one of the last places I will ever see. “I came to see you as soon as I could.”

This korabi has more nerve than any human being ever could. He lies without compunction. He is clearly hiding his true agenda from both the other korabi and me, his human prisoner.

“I don’t want to see you.”

“That is not a choice you have. I have decided to tell you some of what is going on, in the hopes that it will help you handle the pain you will be forced to endure.”

That is probably the least encouraging sentence I have ever heard. I sit there, silent, waiting to hear more lies.

“I was made an outcast from the korabi quarter. I was once one of the king’s guard. He was assassinated on my watch by a group of human rebels, led by one particular human who made a mockery of our dominance and encouraged those around them to rise up against us.”