Captured: You should not be here.
1134 Words
---
The walls of Lumora trembled with an eerie pulse, the once-glowing surfaces now dark and shifting.
Kael’s grip on Dahlia’s arm tightened as he pulled her through the corridor. The air was thick with a strange energy—one that sent a shiver down her spine.
"Move faster," he urged, his glowing eyes scanning their path.
"Where are we even going?!" Dahlia gasped, her heart pounding against her ribs.
Kael didn't answer immediately. His expression was tight, unreadable. "Somewhere they won’t find us."
But before they could take another step, the ground beneath them lurched violently.
A deafening roar filled the air as the walls around them warped, shifting like liquid metal. Dahlia stumbled, but Kael caught her, his bioluminescent hands burning hot against her skin.
Then—darkness.
A sudden, blinding pulse of light erupted in front of them. The air crackled with energy, and in an instant, figures emerged from the shadows.
Dahlia barely had time to register what was happening before a sharp voice sliced through the air.
"Stand down, Kael of Lumora."
Her blood ran cold.
That voice—she knew it.
No. No, no, no.
The figures stepped into the dim glow, and Dahlia's stomach twisted into a knot.
Her father stood at the head of the group, clad in his Agency uniform, his expression cold and unforgiving. Behind him, armed agents surrounded them, their weapons trained on Kael.
Dahlia’s breath caught in her throat. "Dad?"
He didn't tell me the agency has a spaceship of theirs
Her father didn't even look at her. His gaze was fixed solely on Kael.
Kael, who hadn’t moved, his glowing eyes narrowing in quiet fury.
"Let her go," her father commanded.
Kael's jaw tightened, his grip on Dahlia's wrist lingering just a second longer before he slowly, reluctantly released her.
Immediately, two agents grabbed Kael, forcing him to his knees. His glowing skin flickered, the energy pulsing beneath it shifting in agitation.
"Dad, stop this!" Dahlia shouted, moving forward, but another agent grabbed her, yanking her back.
Her father finally turned to her, his face impassive. "Dahlia, you’re coming home."
She shook her head violently. "You don’t understand! Kael is not our enemy—"
"He’s an alien fugitive," her father cut her off, his voice sharp. "And he will be contained."
Dahlia struggled, but the grip on her tightened. "No, you don’t—!"
She barely had time to finish her sentence before one of the agents pulled something from his belt. A thick, metallic collar.
Kael’s glowing eyes flickered to it. For the first time, she saw something close to alarm in his face.
The agent clamped the collar around Kael’s neck.
And everything changed.
The glow of his skin dimmed instantly, like a flame snuffed out. His body tensed, muscles locking as if something unseen was constraining him. He let out a sharp, ragged breath.
Dahlia watched in horror as he slumped slightly, his glowing energy completely nullified.
The realization slammed into her like a truck.
They had neutralized him.
"Let him go!" she screamed, thrashing against her captor.
Kael lifted his head slightly, his gaze locking onto hers. There was no anger in his expression, no panic. Just quiet resolve.
"Dahlia," he said softly.
And then the agents dragged him away.
---
Dahlia didn't know how long she had been locked in her room.
Hours? Days?
The moment they returned to Earth, her father had grounded her. And not just in the "no phone, no going out" way.
He had assigned her a punishment—a humiliating one.
Laundry. Dishes. Cleaning the entire house.
Like she was some misbehaving kid who had just talked back instead of being dragged away from an alien planet and watching her father imprison the only person who had ever truly fought for her.
Her fingers ached from scrubbing. Her arms burned from carrying baskets of laundry up and down the stairs. Her skin smelled like detergent and sweat.
And still, she wasn't allowed to leave the house.
Every time she demanded to see Kael, her father shut her down. "He’s dangerous," he’d say. "We’re handling it."
Like hell they were.
Kael was alone, locked away somewhere in a cold, sterile room, trapped in that collar that stripped him of everything that made him him.
And she was stuck here, wiping down countertops.
Her heart pounded as she threw down the rag in frustration.
She needed to see him. Now.
Dahlia glanced at the door, then at the security cameras her father had installed.
He had underestimated her.
Big mistake.
---
The walls of Kael’s cell were nothing like Lumora.
Cold. Unfeeling. Dead.
The metallic collar around his neck hummed faintly, pressing against his skin like an iron shackle.
He could feel its effect like a weight on his chest, like something inside him was being smothered.
He had felt pain before. He had felt exhaustion. But this?
This was something else entirely.
The energy that had always been part of him, the hum of power in his veins, was now silent.
He closed his eyes briefly, trying to focus. But the silence inside him was deafening.
Then, the sound of the door unlocking made him lift his head.
The last person he expected stepped inside.
"Dahlia."
Her breath hitched when she saw him. He knew why.
He looked different now.
The glow of his skin had completely faded, his usual sharp, otherworldly presence dulled. He looked... human.
And he hated it.
Dahlia stepped forward hesitantly, her eyes scanning the collar. Her hands clenched into fists. "I'm going to get you out of here."
Kael exhaled a slow breath. "You should not be here."
"You think I care?" she snapped, kneeling beside him. Her fingers brushed the collar, her touch light but desperate. "This thing—how do I get it off?"
He looked at her. Really looked at her.
She was exhausted. He could see it in the shadows beneath her eyes, the way her shoulders sagged. She had been fighting battles of her own.
His fingers twitched.
I should not care.
But when she looked at him with that fierce determination—when she touched him—he realized something.
He did care.
More than he should.
"Dahlia," he murmured. "They will find you here."
"Then I better work fast," she whispered.
And in that moment, as she knelt beside him in the dim light of his cell, Kael realized something terrifying.
Dahlia wasn’t just fighting for him.
She was fighting with him.
And for the first time in his life, Kael—warrior of Lumora, a fugitive with no home—was afraid.
Not of the Agency.
Not of the collar that stripped him of his power.
But of the way his heart ached when he looked at her.
- Writer
