Not Human

Chapter 6 - Nightmare

"Do you know what she is...?

"No, isn't she just a human girl?"

Who is speaking? Where is this? It is pitch black and cold. A purple light turned on, blaring at Lily. She has to squint her eyes to see the room she is in. She is lying on a bed without a blanket or a pillow and constraints are holding her in place. She has a metal piece hooked to her head wired to a machine by the bed.

The room is full of futuristic-looking technology that all has a purple symbol on it. The symbol is two circles overlapping each other.

"She's special, young one." The first voice explained.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean...she-"The voice was cut off by a piercing scream.

"He has escaped!" The second voice alerted. "THE PRISONER!"

Lily saw a boy, covered in sweat and stained in blood wearing nothing but his own skin. He looked beaten, tired, and fearful. He was panting heavily, assessing everything around him. He kept looking behind him. The voices were getting louder.

Then, he saw her his eyes traced over hers for a short moment, full of sheer terror. In that one look, his eyes spoke a thousand words at once. "Wait!" The boy stopped for a minute, he looked at her once more that same look in his eyes and he said, "We are all going to die."

"By what?" She asked.

"Aliens. They're chasing me." She tried ignoring the fact that he was completely naked. She was glad they didn't take her clothes away. He must be cold. Why did they call him prisoner earlier she wondered?

"s**t, no." The boy ran for the door too late. He was trapped by two tall dark figures blocking the doorway. Lily couldn't move, all she could do was lay there watching it all. They grasped him by the arms roughly.

"Hah! We got the little rat!" It was an alien with red bulging eyes, gray skin, and 7 ft to 8 ft tall.

The first one, all the same, but the eyes were white. Lily knew that alien was the same one she first encountered. It must be the leader of them. "Lose the arms, he doesn't need to resist", The leader barked, flashing his razor-sharp teeth.

"Yes, sir." The alien dutifully obeyed. Jostling the boy firmly onto the wall, twisting both his arms back working on the left one, she bent it further back the boy cried loudly pleading for her to stop. But the alien didn't. She showed thrill in her red eyes, and a smile Lily didn't think it was capable of doing.

She assumed the alien was a girl, just because the voice was feminine, and the alien was a shade lighter gray. But who knows if they even have genders. How do they multiple then? She kept asking questions to herself. She had too many.

"NOOOO, STOP IT YOU'RE HURTING HIM!"

The alien didn't stop bending the arm, even when there was a loud snapping sound indicating that the bone broke. She tore the arm out of its socket, blood seeping out like heavy syrup. She used her teeth and green acid from her mouth to melt the bone and shattered it, just like a twig.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" The boy howled, painfully. The arms both fell to the ground like a waste. Lily winced at the entire horror that happened right in front of her. She couldn't do anything about it. She felt useless.

The alien dragged the boy out by his leg, blood trailing behind. The boy continued moaning in agony. This time his eyes were dead, nothing there.  He finally accepted his fate and gave up. He knew he'd die soon, either from blood loss, or more tests, science experiments, and torment.

"No, don't kill him! Stop it, let him go!" She shouted but to no avail. They didn't care. She bit her lip, holding back tears.

"Lily Valerie, don't cry for those tears will be wasted on human garbage like that boy." Darkness crept into the room. A chill went down her spine, goosebumps formed on her bare legs. She wore a gown, a plain ugly white gown. "You're important to us. Very special." The leader lurked in the corner of the room. He flashed his teeth, a monstrous grin on his features.

"NO, I'M NOT SPECIAL YOU MONSTER!"

"Oh, but you are. For example, Lily how can you understand us? No human hears aliens talking we make noise, grunts, growls, roars like animals. But...you hear us."

"No, this is a f*****g dream! Get out of my head!"

"Just wait, you'll see."

"AH!" She jumped wide awake, shaking, drenched in sweat. She tried breathing slowly, but it didn't help. She couldn't breathe with this fear, and her heart in her throat, she was drowning.

The door swung open Blade came to her bedside quickly. "Lily..." He breathed. "Did you have a nightmare?" He extended his arm out to her but stopped in midair. "...was...it about the aliens...?"

"...Yes..." She sighed. He looked like he wanted to say more to her but stopped himself. It was quiet, for a moment they just sat there.

"It's okay, I'm here." He surprised her, by reaching out to her. She flinched thinking of the aliens and how they treated that poor boy. But it was Blade not an alien. "It's okay." He said again. This time touching her face, his hand resting on her cheek. It was warm, she could feel his body heat radiating off of him. He wiped a tear from her right eye, she didn't realize was even there.

Had she been crying in her sleep?

"Thanks." She must look stupid, her being the only one to cry in her sleep waking him. Blade was the last person she wanted to see her like this. She only wanted to look strong in front of him, capable of doing things on her own. Not someone who had nightmares and cried.

His room was just across hers. The only one on this floor. The others were under this floor.

"I'm guessing you don't want to talk about it." He removed his lingering hand, and the warmth was gone. He sat on her bedside.

"Not really." She shrugged it off. Talking about it would be like reliving it again. That dream felt way too real for her. It was another dream or nightmare for that matter.

"Er, well, just know if you ever do want to talk about it or anything I'm here always." He said, ruffling her messy nest of blonde locks. She always woke with bed hair.

"Okay, thanks. You can talk to me too you know." She wanted to know more about Blade. He was a mystery in himself.

"Can I?" He chuckled. "About anything?"

"Yeah." She said, not understanding what he meant.

"Maybe I'll take you up on your offer, later." He stood up. "well, it's early but better earlier than late." He left leaving her feeling a tiny bit happier than before.

She peered back at herself, she saw dark bags matching her gray eyes, dried tears on her cheeks. She reddened thinking about Blade and how he caught her crying even wiped away a leftover tear. How embarrassing.

She turned the tap on undressing. She felt the soothing warm water wash over her relaxing her tensed muscles. It was refreshing, she tried shutting out any thoughts of aliens. Every room had a bathroom installed in it.

Lucky rich bastards!

She would love her own personal bathroom. Well, technically she had that. But she lived alone so no 'duh' it was all hers. Although her friends crashed her place quite a lot so maybe not.

"Ah, that was nice," She sighed, a comfy towel protected her body, and another rolled up on her head.

"What was nice?" A sly voice asked.

"Ah- the f**k! You scared the s**t outta me, Andy."

"Well, you gonna answer my question?" She smirked, kicking her legs up on Lily's bed. "Hey, no fair your bed is softer than mine. Oh, I see Blade has favorites, does he now?"

"The shower was nice that's all. What are you getting at anyway?" She scowled at Andy. "Plus, who the f**k sneaks up on someone taking a shower? I still need to change ya know."

"Sorry, Mrs. grumpy. Just checking on you. Everyone is already down eating. Also, you're gonna waste all the hot water taking a shower that long. You might have to share a shower with Blade from now on." She had a satisfying smile on her face seeing Lily's eyes widened and her cheeks burn red.

"Let me get dress now, please, if that's all." She tugged the towel off her head, wet locks falling to her shoulder. Andy gave her one more smirk before she turned on her heel. Lily did a once over in the mirror before heading to the dining room.

"Good morning, Lily." She took a seat next to Blade.

"You too, Blade." She said, picking up her fork. "Thanks, Mike, Joe, and Mary for the food." She smiled at the two butlers and maid. They nod at her saying they're just doing their job. She eats quickly excited about training today.

"Hey, slow down, you hungry cow." Andy jabbed Lily in the side giggling.

"Shut up, pig." She jabbed her back laughing her head off. Nixon looked at them both like they were a disease.

"Someone is lively this morning," Cherry said, looking at them both.

"We try to be. But thanks to Blade's dark roast we can be." Andy drank the coffee down asking the butler Mike for me. He looked tired and irritated. He took the mug giving her an annoyed look.

"Uh, I think we should keep, Andy away from that coffee." He whispered to Cherry who was on his left.

"I heard that." She glared at Nixon. "Maybe we should keep Nixon away from the library. He might just take all of Blade's books."

They continued the silly chatter. Blade listened in amusement. His eyes wandering on Lily every few seconds. He wanted to know what her nightmare was about. But she didn't want to talk about it which was understandable.

He knew she must know something else she's not saying. He could tell talking to her in the bedroom. The way she flinched, and her eyes widened. She was spooked. Maybe he's overthinking it again. It was just a nightmare. After all, it has been a crazy week. No wonder she had a nightmare. It is only human.

"Sorry..." Jax kicked Cherry under the table.

"For what?" She glared at him. "Just the kick?"

"No, for yesterday. The way I behaved was...indecent.." He had to forget his pride for now. He wanted Cherry to stay happy with him. It was annoying when she'd play the 'you're invisible game' or 'talk to the hand' he hated it.

"You are forgiven for now." She said, folding her arms. She kicked him back harder.

"Damn, harsh much." He snickered.

Angelica was by Zane eating her food quietly. She saw Zane was crafting a smiley face with the ketchup on his plate. A giggle slipped out, and she cupped her mouth quickly averting her eyes to her own plate.

"Don't think I didn't notice you laughing at me." He peeked over at her.

"No, you must have imagined it." She said, suppressing her smile.

"Sure, I did." He turned to Blade. "Hey, Blade, how do you like my artwork, bro." He lifted the plate, the ketchup dribbled down as he raised it. The smiley face now looked like a crazed serial killer or a vampire who had just finished a meal. 

"Yeah, Zane, frankly it looks like a kid could do better." Blade said, not one for lying. He was frank with everyone. Everyone but Zane laughed.

"Okay, fine it was just supposed to make you laugh anyway. See it's  a friendly smiley face." He smiled, puffing out his chest proud of it.

"Uh, Zane, that smiley is scaring the s**t outta me. Is it going to drink my blood next?" Nixon asked, shivering dramatically.

"How funny, Nixon-" Zane stopped, turned the plate facing himself. "Oh, you're right."

...

"Looks like you wore the right clothes this time, Cherry." Blade studied her attire. She wore a sparkly tank top and pink booty shorts.

"Yeah, sorry about yesterday."

"You got lucky." Jax slung a heavy arm on her. "It wasn't too bad. The obstacle course was a piece of cake." He flexed his biceps. "See I already do training on my own. Do you want to feel me up?"

"Oh, nice." She said, smacking his hard-built muscle.

"Hey, gentle, sweetheart." He said, rubbing his arm.

They all finally made it to the place. The training place. Lily was most interested in the target dummies. She wanted to use a gun. It sounded fun. She couldn't wait to see what Blade had planned for today's training.