Page 5 of Kenan's Mate
I’m the one who’s been taken.
The circumstances are vastly different, but my freedom has been stripped and I’m at the complete mercy of a big scary stranger who wants to do God knows what to me.
I open my eyes to find the alien is now crouching directly in front of me. He seems larger and more frightening up close. His black pupils dilate until only a small circle of purple remains in his eyes. I take it as a bad sign and press harder against the back of the cage, as if I might slip through the bars and fly out the window to safety.
“What do you want from me?” I ask, even though I doubt he’ll understand me.
He sets his palm over a panel on the outside of the cage. There’s a brief glow around his hand, and then the door clicks open.
My breath catches so hard in my throat, for a moment I’m choking.
No no no. Please don’t touch me.
“Come here, human.” His deep voice, and his words spoken in perfect English, shock me to my very core.
“You-you understand me?” A stupid question, but it’s all I can think of. Besides, I’m shaking too hard and I’m far too frightened to move toward him, so I stall in the only way I know how.
“My father was human,” he replies with disgust. “I know many tongues from your puny world.”
I gulp and look into his eyes, so dark and mysterious. “You know of Earth? And you’re really pa-part hu-human?”
“Yes, I know of Earth. Your people should have stayed there.”
I narrow my eyes at him, genuinely confused. “Stayed there? How can you say that if you’re part human? Where is your father?”
His lips curl in a dark smile. “He’s dead. My mother’s family killed him after they rescued us from the research facility outside of Capital Acres when I was but a child.”
“Research facility?”
He’s quiet for a moment before he sighs and answers my question.
“My human father took my Kleaxian mother against her will, and when she became pregnant, she became nothing but a scientific curiosity to you humans.”
“But humans only recently discovered Tallia. You look…much older than me, and I was five when Tallia was discovered.” A million questions linger on the tip of my tongue. I suppose, going by human standards and taking into account his alien features, he is probably ten or twenty years older than me. He’s definitely not younger than me. Well, unless his mother’s race ages more quickly than humans.
I’m fascinated by his appearance and his evolution. For a moment, I forget my fear and move toward him, my hands itching to touch him. What does his skin feel like? His untamed hair?
He grabs my ankle and yanks me from the cage. I struggle and kick with my free foot, but he’s impervious to my fighting, and soon I’m sprawled in the middle of the cool floor. He slams the cage shut, preventing me from crawling back inside.
He looms over me, fury radiating from him in sharp waves.
I think he wants to kill me. Or at least beat the living shit out of me. I cower and again think of Theresa Peters. If I scream, will anyone hear me? Will anyone care?
“This will probably come as a shock to you, but your people arrived here over fifty Earth years ago. We—the Kleaxians—warned you to stay away. This is our planet. We claimed it long before the humans arrived, and now we have finally regained our strength enough to take it back.”
His words fill my head and rattle around, not quite settling in as a truth. Had the Earth’s governments lied about the circumstances surrounding the discovery of Tallia? I’m not so naive as to think governments never lie, but this is a big fucking lie. And to hide the existence of aliens, while still bringing humans to visit Tallia, doesn’t make sense.
He laughs, and the cruelty in his chuckle sends a chill racing up my spine.
“I know what you’re thinking, human. You don’t understand why your leaders kept Tallia’s existence a secret for so many years.”
I nod. “Yes. I was taught the wormhole was artificially created by humans, and then lo and behold, as luck would have it, there was a habitable planet on the other side. It’s what everyone on Earth believed.” At five years old, I had huddled around the television with my parents and brother as the fantastic news reports rolled in. Though young, I had sensed the incredible excitement building around me and understood what an extraordinary event the discovery of Tallia was.
“You were taught many lies, human, and now I’m afraid you will suffer dearly for the crimes of your people.” He kneels and tips my chin up, forcing my gaze to his. His fingers are rough, his skin warm but abrasive.
It’s intimate, the tender way he holds my face.
He looks sad for a moment, and I wait with bated breath, sensing he’s about to impart some tragic news.
