Not Human

Chapter 15 - Oculos

He couldn't communicate with her. She couldn't either. They were completely different yet the same. Both trapped.

"I couldn't understand anything she said..." David said, in a daze looking back at the past.

"Then how did you talk to her?" Lily asked.

"I'll tell you once I get there."

~Flashback~

She kept coming back and he continued waiting for her. This routine went on like the sun setting and rising again every day.

However, in their case, just the lonesome stars and infinite darkness–Outerspace.

She was the only thing he had. The only living thing that kept him company. He started falling for an alien. Did he go mad after the abuse and the trauma? Maybe.

But he didn't care. One day he was searching the room out of pure boredom and stumbled upon a pen or what looked like a one, just a different design.

It produced purple ink. So, it worked. He wrote on the silk sheet. Words.

Hey, this is David. What's your name?

Sunflower.

You can understand this?

I'm a quick learner. This makes more sense than your strange words.

He figured it out. The alien could translate his writing. They could communicate.

Sunflower: I've never met one like you.

David: what do you mean? One like me?

Sunflower: A human, like you.

David: I could say the same for you. Why haven't you killed me?

Sunflower: I don't like killing. Plus, you're quite the looker.

David: I assumed humans would appear ugly to aliens. We look so different.

Sunflower: No. You just look different less boring. We aliens look identical.

David: No, you don't. Your eyes... they're... something else...

Sunflower: I'll take that as a compliment. Any more questions?

David: Yes. I want to know why your kind is doing this.

Sunflower: You mean inflicting pain on humans like you?

David: Yes.

Sunflower: Fear. We don't like the unknown. We don't know if your kind means any harm.

David: You know I bled for days in that cell. I was covered in my piss and s**t. Then in and out of the lab. They put tubes in my body. Shots, needles, medicines were injected into me. What kind of cruelty is that? Does fear justify that?

Sunflower: It is cruel. Oculos are known to be soulless. Although, the soul is dependable on the eyes. The eyes are the key, David.

David: Oculos? What's the name of your species? Elaborate, please.

...

They wrote back and forth about their differences and similarities. Then they did something their species didn't know was possible.

Made love.

Two different species humans and Oculos.

The last words she wrote on the sheet were: I love you, David.

She was pregnant with, Lily. There baby girl. But she left her in the crib in the getaway spaceport with David. The one they stole together and made plans to leave in it together as a family.

But no one anticipated an army of Oculos awaiting. They needed a distraction. Sunflower took the role upon herself and died saving them. He cried as they went their separate ways.

He saw from the corner of his foggy eyes hers: Golden orbs, warmth in them, and pure love. Her eyes say goodbye. Her kind tore her apart, ripped through her gray flesh as she bled black blood. Her life ended that day while Lily's just begun.

~Present time~

"...that was the last time I saw her..." A tear trailed down his cloudy eyes. "I-I'm so sorry, Lily "

"So, I'm part alien or part Oculos? Is that why I can understand them?"

"Yes." He frowned. "Your mother was different. S-she wasn't like them. She didn't kill."

"I'm leaving!" Jax disrupted. "I didn't come to listen to this sappy crap!" He pushed his chair in and was in the process of storming off when Zane grabbed him by the collar.

"Sit down. Show some self-control. Some respect." Zane's eyes crinkled and his mouth slightly tilted up at the corners. He was fighting the urge to smile at Jax's facial expression. "How about it, Jax." He taunted.

"Yes, I agree with him. Sit down." Blade gave him a warning look.

"Fine." He balled up his fists the knuckles turning white. He wanted nothing more than to ram them into Zane's idiotic face.

"Good." Blade sighed. Trouble already. He'd have to talk later with him.

After that settled down Nixon cleared the deafening silence with a curious question. "How come, Lily, doesn't look like an Oculos?

"Good question. I don't know." David thought about it for a long minute. why was that? She looked nothing like her mother.

"I have an idea. Eh, Blade, we still got that salt, right?" Jax smirked. "Why don't we put Bill's theory to test now" He looked in Lily's direction.

"Don't be stupid." Nixon tried to reason with him. "She looks like she got most of the human genes if you ask me. So, I doubt it works."

"Yeah, do you think she lived her entire life dodging salt?" Zane laughed. "Man, you are brainless."

Lily seized the table salt off of the table and poured it purposely on her food in front of Jax and took a bite from her salty food. "Would you like some?" She flung it at him. He fumbled around catching it and ended up spilling it on his pants.

Everyone burst out in a fit of laughter. Jax's face turned sour and he tried to hide his embarrassment. "Real funny." He growled.

"Well, I say we head to bed. It's late. That was a long story." Blade said.

"Indeed," David said gathering his dishes and washing them at the sink.

"There's an extra mattress in our room," Nixon offered. "Your welcome to it."

"Thank you."

Blade watched everyone go but Zane. The room was quiet. His shadow was unmoving, lingering in the windowsill. "Hey, go to bed. It's late, alright?" Blade broke the silence.

"Alright, sir," Zane responded his eyes never leaving the window.

"Blade will do just fine. Call me Blade." He walked off to his room.

"Alright, Blade," He corrected.

Once he vanished from the hall and was gone it was dark again. He let the darkness consume him.

There was light out the window: moonlight. The light could be seen even through the endless darkness.

How was that possible? He never understood it. The past protruded his mind I unwelcomed. It won this time. It replayed in his head yet again that terrible night.

*10 years ago*

A young boy sat on the window sill. His jet-black hair in a clutter, cold blue eyes fixated out the window surveying the snowfall. He pressed his long fingers against the glass frame tracing over the scenery beyond the glass pretending to touch it. But he was stuck inside. Like, a caged bird.

Suddenly, alcohol seeped into his nostrils burning as he inhaled it gagging on the distasteful smell. It sickened him. The drug consumed people and all it did was hurt, people. The cons weighed out the pros. It was a terrible thing.

Father must be here he imagined. Like everyday alcohol was his favorite hobby. "Zane Lycan, my son.." He chortled. "The one and only son. No, Lycan of mine, boy. " He expressed, darkly. "Come on now be a man and face me. Stop hiding behind that curtain like a girl." He ridiculed Zane with a satisfying smile on his face.

"I'm watching the snowfall, Bradly," Zane articulated, in a low voice. "It's beautiful."

"You sound like your mother..." Bradly drawled. "Still calling me by my name. I'm your biological father..." He talked with venom drenched in his tone. "And, she just had to leave me with a wuss." He took another swig at his bourbon and nearly downed it all at once. "I need another bottle." Bradly pouted at the droplet left in the bottle. "Fetch me one. Make yourself useful boy." He waved him off like a dog.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Zane challenged him without realizing what he'd said outloud before it was too late.

"What did you just say?" Bradly asked in a deadly calm voice. "Did you just tell me no?" Zane didn't answer instead he gave him a look of dread. "Oh, boy you asked for it filthy rat." Bradly lunged forward missing his chance of seizing Zane and landed harshly face-first into the marble floor.

He didn't waste time. He made a break for it. He ran outside. The cold wind whipped at his bare face and exposed arms. He wore little warm clothing. Not planning on going in the cold. A short-sleeved top, and sweatpants. He moved his legs quickly, running through the thickness of the pale snow. He heard a loud booming voice shouting threats not far behind him. He didn't want to stay around to see if the threats his father was making were empty threats or real.

He could see his breath, hazy. He panted compelling his legs to keep moving and hanging onto hope that he can defy physics and that he could make it out of his father's grasp but that hope was crushed instantly by his father.

Bright red was the color of the snow. A bourbon bottle in the clutch of Bradly's hand as he had finished his job satisfied. Zane howled in pain, a reminder left on the right side of his chest; a scar. His patch of skin peeled off like a banana peel. It was a deep cut.

"That'll teach you, boy. Don't forget your place." He stomped on his son's hand pushing it into the cold blankets of snow. "I'll cut you deeper next time." He laughed, darkly.

...

From that day on Zane despised his father much more than he already did. He was thirteen when he had that scar on not just his skin, but his heart wounded. Everyone has a motive. His father's motive was to hurt others to make him feel better.

~Present time~

"Hey...Zane..." A voice pulled him out of his deep thoughts. A soft hand touched his shoulder. He tensed up.

"Angel..." He glanced over his shoulder to see Angelica there, a concerned look plastered on her pretty face.

"Please, come to the room. Go to bed." She begged. "I won't pry this time. I-I...didn't mean to look at that..." She lowered her gaze where the scar would be on his right side but the shirt covered it. "Oh, sorry, I did it again." She mentally slapped herself. Her cheeks burned a rosy red.

"Alright." He hid his small smile.

"Really?" She looked at him long and hard trying to see any signs that'd help her read his mind. But found none.

"Why such the long stare. Is there something wrong with my face?" Zane interrupted her thoughts.

"No, it's perfect." She said, quickly without thinking. "I mean, no. Forget it." She blushed furiously.

...

The room was dim. The beds are one foot apart. The sheets cotton. The blankets were warm, and the breathing was slow and steady. Angelica was lying wide-awake gawking at the ceiling. Zane tried to keep his eyes on his side of the room but kept finding them glued to Anglecia's side instead.

"Can't sleep?" Zane asked.

"Nope. All the alien crap makes it hard too." She huffed out.

"Oculos now." He teased.

"Well, whatever they're called. It's just finding out my best friend I knew since high school is half-alien is kinda crazy. Don't you think?" She said.

"Yes, it is." He laughed.

He watched her pull her blanket closer to her chest, and turn her body facing him. Their eyes met and wavered for a long moment. It was like time just paused for them.

"Good night, Angel." Zane broke the spell.

"Good night, Zane." She whispered back closing her eyes thinking of his deep blue ones.