Pain rips through me as my body arches off the wall, trying to get off the hook. The sinister voice is loud in my head. “I will not let you do this! You must complete your task!”

“No!” I scream back at the damn voice plaguing me. “I won’t do it! No matter what. You cannot make me!”

My body is shaking and banging against the wall. The room seems to be spinning, and I feel as if I’m falling away. Into a dark abyss.

Arms run around me and words are murmured. My head is pounding, and the loudest voice screams like it’s being tortured. The other voices join in, but they’re moving further away.

The sounds keep going until all I can hear are the words, “Come back to me, Kataline.”

My breath comes back, and I inhale deeply then open my eyes to find Kerr wrapped around me. His lips press against my neck.

“Kerr, I’m okay.” I can barely breathe. My body hurts.

He takes me off the hook and lets my hands free. Pushing the robe off my body, Kerr runs his hands over the back of my shoulder.

“Oww!” I flinch away from his touch.

“You have a bruise here.” His lips touch it. His hand runs over my bottom. “You have bruises all over your ass, Kataline. It looks as if you’ve been beaten.”

“I recall my body smacking hard against the wall.”

He picks me up in his strong arms and takes me to sit on the bed. “I should have strapped you to the soft bed instead of hanging you on the wall. I didn’t think about how it might try to get off the hook and hurt you in the process.”

He has me naked on his lap and strokes my hair. “Soon this will be over, baby. Soon we’ll be on our way to Euthenia in a cloaked vessel. Soon whatever is inside you making this happen will be removed.”

Pain starts deep inside me. As if a knife is plunging into my stomach. I take in a sharp breath and grab at my stomach. “Kerr!”

His arms wrap around me, and he holds me tight, but the pain doesn’t stop. “Kataline, don’t let it take you. We’re so close.”

My body starts shaking, and I fly off his lap and into the wall. He rushes to get to me as I’m held to the wall by some invisible source.

He gets close enough to reach me, and suddenly he’s thrown backward and hits the opposite wall.

“Leave her alone!” the sinister voice shouts out of my mouth.

I struggle to get myself under control. But the pain in my head is back, and the pain in my abdomen is nearly killing me.

I watch Kerr struggle to get back to me. And he seems to be making progress as he moves against what looks like a strong wind. Then he flies back again, pinned to the wall.

His face is turning red as it looks like he can’t breathe. I cannot allow this to happen to him.

No longer able to keep the voices away, I close my eyes and concede to the sinister one. “Take me! Leave Kerr alone and take me!”

I can hear Kerr screaming, “No! Kataline, do not give up!”

But I have to, or this thing inside me will kill the man I love. Inside my mind, I tell it again, “Take me. I will fight you no longer.”

My body falls off the wall, and Kerr is picking me up before I know it. I’m myself. Not the monster I thought I’d become.

“Quick, take these,” Kerr tells me as he pushes something into my mouth.

They feel small and round, and I swallow to take them down. He gives me a drink of water and picks me up and puts me on the bed.

“What was that, Kerr?” I ask as my head feels light and my body listless.

“That will put you to sleep for the rest of our journey back to my planet. It will keep that thing from taking you and making you do things you don’t want to. You will sleep, and I’ll carry you to where we need to go.” His hand moves over my brow, and his lips touch my cheek.

“Thank you, Kerr. When I wake again this horribleness will be over, won’t it?”

He nods and presses his lips to mine. “Sleep, my love. I will take care of everything. Worry about nothing. It will be over soon.”

My eyelids feel heavy, and I’m barely aware of him pulling a purple, long dress over my head and body to dress me. He lifts my body and places the golden cloak he said is made from a protective material, around my shoulders.

He lays me back and Bet steps inside with a couple of bags in her arms. “Oh! She looks so tired. Did you give her the pills?” she asks Kerr.

“I did, and they seem to be working. The thing inside her has grown so strong it nearly choked me to death,” he says as he looks through the bags.

My heart skips a beat as I hear him talk of nearly choking to death. The thing inside me is quiet. All the voices are eerily quiet. I feel as if I’m falling.

The light fades away, and I am going under some deep blue water. It’s warm and cozy, and I want to be here. Floating in the strange depths and feeling like this is amazing.

I never want to leave this place with its warm, soothing waters.

Just leave me here, in this place, forever.