A chill ran down my back as I saw him standing outside my prison cell with a grin on his face. He had come for me, Titeq had come for me, and I knew what he was thinking. This is what he had promised he would return for.
"Yes sir," the guard said as he followed orders. I stared at Titeq with narrowed eyes wondering how I could defend myself from him. The chains on my arms were heavy. But he did not shackle my ankles. Perhaps I could run at some point, I thought to myself.
Titeq yanked on the chain and led me out of the prison cell. We went down the stairs and into a busy hallway. I searched the faces of every single warrior that we passed. I was looking for Viqer. I did not see his face anywhere. I wanted someone to warn him. I loudly said, “Where are you taking me? Has Viqer asked for me?”
I noticed a few warriors turn around and look at me. But I did not know if they would try to find Viqer just to let him know that I spoke his name.
"We are going to my tower living quarters so that we may have a conversation, in private. I promised you that we would have one before I was done with you,” Titeq said as he dragged me along.
I knew this meant he was going to try to take advantage of me. I could not let that happen. Perhaps I could wrap this chain around his neck and strangle him. What would the Corillion do anyway to me? I was already sentenced to die for killing one leader. They couldn't sentence me twice or kill me twice. I try to remain calm and keep focus. I made a note of every turn and door that led to the outside world. Finally, we were at the bottom of the staircase that looked a lot like the spiral staircase that led up to the prison tower. It's seemed to be the same building, only this was much more luxurious. He unlocked the door and pushed me in. His room was the entire tower floor, which on the other end comprised of five different prison cells to which one I had lived in. There were large windows that look out over the launch site as well as the green rolling grasslands.
"I can see why you would want Cultan dead. You just wanted to live in his quarters,” I said loudly.
Titeq gave me a mean look and said, “Never repeat that again. Lower your voice.”
"Why? Are you afraid that someone might overhear that you wanted the leader to be dead?!”
"I was going to be nice to you, but now you leave me no choice,” he said as he pulled on the chains and threw me to the ground.
He laughed. “Don't say that to me. I already know that you are not some strong assassin and that you killed the leader Cultan only with luck. You will do no harm to me,” he said as he loomed over me and began to take off his clothes.
"Try me,” I said to him, using only my confidence and my reputation to try to scare him. For a second, he flinched. I think he really did think that I could take him on, me, the tiny little social worker from Brooklyn taking on an eight-foot giant with so many muscles and hard scales that I could never compete against.
But then he continued to get naked until he was completely nude in front of me. I began to crawl backwards on the floor away from him. He smiled and put his body on top of mine.
"Get off of me! Get off of me now!” I shouted as I also screamed at the top of my lungs in fright.
He loomed above me with a big smile. He was about to lean down and kiss me. He opened his mouth, but then to my surprise and disgust, blood poured out of his open mouth. Then the edge of a dagger appeared from his throat.
Titeq rolled off of me to the side and lay dead on the floor. Standing above us was Viqer with a bloody dagger in his hand. I could not believe my eyes. Viqer had just killed his leader. He had an angry look on his face; he was in a complete rage. He was angry, and I did not know if he was about to take that anger out on me too. Did he know that I did not ask for this? I was not the one with Titeq on purpose, but the way he was looking at me made me think that was exactly what he was thinking.
"Get up,” he said with a growl. I was in such shock, I got up to my feet quickly. He grabbed the collar of my dress and pulled me to him. He sneered at me and then turned me around with my back facing his chest. He held the bloody dagger in his hand and put it to my neck.
I was shaking so badly with each step that I took. I opened the door and walked down the stairs to the bottom where there were two guards standing by.
"The human female has killed Titeq! I will kill her now! I will kill her and take her body to Earth, as was the request of Titeq! Ready a ship now!” he shouted.
There was complete chaos and commotion as a few guards ran up the stairs and others ran down the hall in the direction that Viqer was taking me at knife point. The entire fortress was buzzing with activity, and it was all because of me. The leader had been murdered again, and to the Corillion warriors, it was the same assassin that had killed their first leader, Cultan.
"Let me go,” I said under my breath to Viqer. “How could you do this to me?”
Tears began to fall down my cheeks as I stepped defiantly with him behind me. I almost wanted to make a quick movement so that he could just stab me right then and there. I had enough of this brutality, and now my heart was broken.
Why did I trust him at all? Titeq had even warned me himself. Viqer did not even tell me that he had a wife. Now I realized that he was just using me the same way that Titeq had to used me. Viqer had his own agenda. He wanted to be the new leader, and I was the perfect way to make that happen. For Titeq, it all happened by accident, but Viqer had planned it out. He waited until I was alone with Titeq, that way no one would see that it was him that killed Titeq, and not I.
It was the perfect plan. Now no one would know the difference. Viqer would be the hero that would take me and kill me and take my body to Earth and look like the Corillion warrior that carried out the mission that Titeq wanted him to. Titeq had already named him second in command, and everybody was there to witness that order. Now all Viqer had to do was grab it at the first opportunity. Having a human female assassin at the fortress was the perfect way to do it. Sure, I knew and Viqer and Titeq knew that I was no assassin, but the rest of the Corillion tribe still thought of me in that way. There would be no one to tell them otherwise.
"You are a rat. You are using me just so that you can be the new leader,” I said to him.
"No. Do not be foolish, Saramina. Just do what I say. Do it, or I will jab this knife into your neck this second,” he said.
"Fine. Do it already. I am sick of waiting for it. Just take my life,” I said, crying hysterically.
"No, that is not what I want. Just keep walking,” he said again in an angry way. I was so confused by his insanity as he forced me out of the fortress onto a launch pad.
"Open the door! There is no time to lose. The longer this human female stays here, more Corillion will die! I will take her down to Earth to kill her and put her on display as Titeq wanted!” Viqer shouted.
The guard saluted him and in a frenzy, opened the door to a small spaceship. Viqer pushed me inside, and I landed on my knees.
I crawled on the floor further into the ship. Viqer entered the ship and closed the door behind him. He picked me up off the floor and sat me in a chair and chained me to it.
"Don't move,” he said as he sat in the pilot chair and began to push on controls, ready for lift off.
"Listen to me. I need you to shut up so I can get us out of here. Now I have gotten us this far, but at any second they can shoot us down. Now do you want to escape or do you want to sit here and argue with me about how my escape plan hurt your feelings?!" he shouted at me with an angry look. My mouth fell open in shock. Then he smiled at me and said, “That's what I thought. Now I need silence so I can get us out of here.”
"You piece of shit! You had me scared shitless! This is your escape plan?” I shouted at him.
The engine turned on, and we were set to take off. As he pushed buttons and pulled on the levers, he continued to be annoyed with my questions.
"I'm sorry I did not have the time to inform you of my plans. But I really didn't have a good plan and I just kind of went with it. I didn't plan on it happening like this. But a good warrior is able to improvise. Firing engines for lift-off,” he said as the ship shot straight into the air and into the blackness of space. He sighed in relief.
"So you are not going to kill me?” I asked him, still not sure of what was going on.
"No. That was all just for show so that we could get out of there. I had to make it look real. You had to look scared for real and not fake it. I am not going to kill you, Saramina. How can I kill you when I am in love with you?” he said to me.
"Putting her into hyperspeed. There is only one place where we can be safe now. That is where we are headed,” he said as the ship shot forward.
He got up from his chair and came over to me. He unlocked the chains and pulled me to my feet. He held me against his strong chest and against his hard blues scales.
"I love you, Saramina. I love you with such passion and furiousness that I cannot control it."