Silences' End

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. They being the creatures who snagged us from our beds in the middle of the night. It was always their threat when we stepped out of line. We called it the Hole. That’s what it was. A small receptacle where those who behaved poorly were shoved inside, the hatch in the floor opened as prisoners of all races, human or alien alike, were left to suffocate in the vacuum.

And we all had to watch through the glass dome.

If you look closely enough, you can still hear the scream.

I hear them while I sleep, the deafening silence ringing in my ears.

I guess the Hole was effective. Less and less we misbehaved. Less and less we screamed when we were hauled off the cell block to who knows where. Less and less we dreamed of ever making it home.

People on Earth believe in aliens to a point. The really dedicated believers think they scoop you up, probe you, and drop you off back home. Those people are wrong. We aren’t probed. We aren’t taken home. We would likely never see our homes again.

We were being groomed for sale. To whom or for what, I didn’t know. Despite everything, we were treated well. Like shelter animals waiting for a home. We were bathed daily and fed three meals within what I estimated to be a twelve hour time frame. I’d been here so long that one day I decided to count the seconds, the minutes, the hours.

Every once in a while, an alien I didn’t recognize as the ones who took us would walk around the cell block. Sometimes whatever they chose would be gone within the hour and never seen again.

I have been here for six weeks now. Almost seven

Apparently, I’m not desirable or interesting enough to those who bother to take a look at me. Jealousy of the others weighed heavy in the pit of my stomach whenever they were taken. I shouldn’t feel that way. There was no telling what they went through when they left their cells. Still, it lingered.

It festered.

Until tonight, when everything changed.

I jolt awake, the entire cell block, the ship in turbulence. The gravity field is no longer oriented to the floor. So when the whole ship turns on its side, we all go with it, crashing into the walls, the cell doors. These screams I could hear, loud even if they were muffled within each cell. Lights flash. Sirens wail. Panic sets in, my heart nearly jumping out of my chest.

Then the cabin tilts again. I smack my head against the wall and the world goes dark.

I didn’t know what to expect when my eyes opened, but it wasn't to be dangling upside down, my body flung over something sturdy that rocked from side to side. Groggily, I try to push myself, and I fail miserably, falling limp and hissing at the pain radiating inside my skull.

Something makes a noise to my left, and I look up, peering up through the daylight beating down on me. Something hot presses against my lower back, pinning me in place across the lap of what I can only describe as a demon; red hot with black horns and sleek, black hair, and piercing black eyes. It isn’t a demon, I know that. It’s an alien.

Or rather, I’m an alien. Wherever it is I am, I’m not meant to be here.

It - he? - looks down at me and speaks in what I can only assume is an ancient, demonic tongue. That hand on my back drifts upward and warm fingers rake through my hair. He speaks again. Still, I don’t understand him. I don’t even have a guess for what he could be saying.

“I-” my voice cracks and I notice my throat is dry. I try to swallow and it feels like sandpaper.

My body is flipped suddenly as the demon moves me like a ragdoll, sitting face up in his lap, my head cradled against the crook of his elbow. He reaches for something. A waterskin, and he brings it to my lips. It isn’t cold but it is fresh, and so unbelievably delicious, almost sweet as I gulp at it.

The demon snatches the waterskin away from my lips, berating me through his clenched fangs.

“I don’t know what you’re saying!” Water drips from my mouth as I snap at him. I bet I look like a rabid dog to him. Although, it was a sure thing that he didn’t know what a dog was.

“Keras,” he says under his breath, followed by a slew of other words I was certain were insults.

“Screw you!”

He cocks his head to the side, just slightly, smirking at me. “Sey ruska, mari keras.”

Could he understand me?

“Verah kir, keras,” he says, his voice lower as the arm beneath me tightens and his hand drags along the length of my upper arm in a soothing gesture.

“I want to go home,” I say, nestled against his bare chest. Dark brown leather straps criss-cross over the gleaming red flesh on the demon and I notice the dark cape billowing in the wind once I have a moment to really take in my surroundings.

“Sey ruska lira ta bhaile,” he rasps. “Sey kaari.”

Surrounding us was a desert, and it was… odd. When you think of the desert you usually think wasteland, a sea of golden sand that goes on for miles. This was a dark ocean of black sand and a bright pink and violet sky. It looked like daytime, though what I perceive to be the sun was stark white with faded beams of silver fanned out around it in the sky.

We’re riding atop an animal of some kind, the feel of it moving similar to a horse, only larger. It would have to be to accommodate the demon holding me. I look around, trying to see if any of the others are with us, if there are others like my demon. But I came up short.

I remember the ship tossing onto its side and taking all of us with it. The ache in my head makes itself known once more. We must have crashed here.

Or maybe I died and this really was hell. Maybe this man really was a demon. Although, I couldn’t think of any reason I’d be in hell.

“Am I dead?” I ask the demon.

He shakes his head. Yep, he understands me.

“My name is Kira.”

Peering down at me, he arches a single black brow.

“What do they call you?”

His arched brow flattens, his face relaxing. “Mari aim’n Kai’Rath,” he says.

“Kai’Rath?”

He shrugs and smirks again, looking ahead at our path. “Ta jira fel teya Rath.”

“Rath,” I repeat. It earns me a satisfied grunt from him as he tucks me closer to his body.

It is quiet for a long time then, but not the same way as it had been on the ship. Here there was life. I could smell it on the wind and it washed over us from time to time. It wasn’t loud and maddening silence laced with dread.

I yawn, breaking Rath’s concentration on the road ahead for just a moment. Sleep overcame me quickly then, forcing my eyes shut. All I hear as I slip into darkness is my demon’s voice.

“Ruden, Kira.”