Chapter 6
"Seven days."
They were the first words I had heard since my captor left me in the cell. I had been fed once and given only a bucket of water to drink. I barely had the strength to raise my head to look at the Klimnu who stood on the other side of the bars staring at me like an animal in one of the zoos back on Earth. His mouth curled up in a disgusting, skin-crawling smile and I could see that he was looking at me in much the same way as the one who had captured me and told me he wanted to keep me as a pet.
That creature appeared behind the one at the door and pushed him aside, opening the door and stepping into my cell. He knelt down beside me and I felt him touch me. My body recoiled and his hand wrapped more tightly around me. He leaned forward and ran his tongue along my skin, causing bile to rise in my throat and my chest to constrict painfully.
"Are you sure you don't have anything to tell us about the Denynso?" he asked, lifting his head away from my arm and bringing it to the other one so he could repeat the lick.
"I told you that I don't know anything about them. I am just an art student. I'm not a scientist or a researcher or anything else. The whole reason I'm here is to learn about them."
I sobbed as his teeth dug down into my skin, drawing fresh blood to join the dry streaks from other bites that covered my body. This had been the greatest torment; him coming into the cell with me to lick and touch me without speaking, then biting or clawing me when I had no information to give him.
********
"Thirty days."
My captor stepped into my cell and I raised my head to look at him. The weakness in my muscles made it almost impossible, but anger and bitterness were replacing my fear. They kept me so close to the edge of death, hovering just on this side of life, that I didn't feel that I had anything to fear any longer. It would take only a moment to finish me and then at least I would be free. I refused to cower from him any longer.
The creature came into the cell and sat down beside me. This was strange. He had never sat with me before. After a month I had become accustomed to him coming into the cell and torturing me, prodding me for information, touching me in ways that made me feel sick. Sometimes he would feed me. More often, however, he didn't.
He reached out and touched my leg and an idea suddenly occurred to me. Perhaps I could lure him into trusting me. If I could use what I learned from the time with the men, I might be able to lower his guards and find a way to free myself.
I didn't withdraw from his touch like I usually did and he looked at me. His sickening hands tore my shirt away from me, but I continued to fight the revulsion. As if testing me, he leaned forward and bit into my breast savagely. I drew in a pained breath, but still didn't move away. The creature shredded my pants with his claws and suddenly I was in nothing but my bra and panties. I was thankful for the relative warmth of the room, but felt exposed and ashamed as he looked at me. I closed my eyes and brought myself to the distant plane of existence I had trained myself to escape to when I was under the hands of the men who felt they owned me.
When his touch finally left my body, I quickly covered myself and curled against the wall.
"You never told me why you wanted to come here," I said cautiously, trying to start a conversation with him that may both lull him into complacency and give me information I could use to help me if I ever managed to get out of the prison.
The Klimnu hesitated for a moment, and then looked at me.
"We want Criea."
"Who is that?"
"The king of the Denynso."
"Why do you want him?"
"The Klimnu feed off of the temper and aggression of the Denynso. The more we provoke them, the greater the benefit. Even more powerful than their temper, however, is their blood. Their blood gives us even greater strength. We are already the far more superior species in terms of intelligence and capability. Their blood gives us the intensity and power of their warriors to make us the ultimate race."
His words were some of the most terrifying I had ever heard and I could sense his growing agitation, so I allowed the conversation to end. He left and a few minutes later another of the group brought me food.
********
"Forty days."
In the ten days since I had begun to give into the roving tongue and prodding fingers of my captor, I had learned more about the planet where I was now imprisoned and the powerful warriors who lived there. He stepped into the cell again and I immediately started talking.
"You never explained to me why you want Criea," I said, hoping to dissuade him from touching me.
"To get back at him," he said, reaching forward and running his fingers down my shoulder despite my hopes.
"Why?"
"The Klimnu were once beautiful creatures," he said and I withheld an exclamation of surprise that this wretched creature could say that anything like him had ever been beautiful.
He continued to talk and I learned that there was a time when the Klimnu were strong, beautiful, and powerful. Knowing their own planet was on a rapid path toward destruction, the Klimnu decided to take over the lush, healthy, and clean planet of Uoria for themselves. The Denynso, however, had been there since the beginning of their kind and were not willing to let the Klimnu take over. As they tried to take over, the Klimnu came into contact with plants that contained toxins so potent and virulent they immediately began to transform the once lovely creatures into the contorted, disgusting versions.
I listened to my captor talk, horrified yet fascinated at what he was telling me. He told me how they approached the incredible healers of the Denynsos and asked that they heal them. These healers agreed to provide the antidote to the toxins if the Klimnu agreed to leave the planet and stop their efforts to take over. They refused and only increased their violent attacks. The more violent they became, the worse their condition became. Finally they appealed to Criea to command his healers to remove the toxins and return them to their health and strength.
"The king refused," my captor said, his voice seething with anger, "He said we deserved what we got because of our selfishness and cruelty."
"If you wanted so much to be healed, why couldn't you just promise peace and find another planet?"
As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I knew I had gone too far. His eyes flashed with fury and before I even saw his hand moving I felt the vicious tips of his claws slash across my back, opening the still-healing wounds form the hooks that had held me in the ship.
"You are not the only human we have attacked," he told me through gritted teeth, "The other survived because he was mated to the most powerful warrior of the Denynso race. You will not be so lucky."
He fell into a frenzy, biting me all along my body and slashing at me with his claws. When he finally had his fill and left, I lay on the floor quaking with pain, feeling the life draining from my body. I closed my eyes, welcoming death.
********
"Fifty-five days."
Death had not come as I had prayed. My captor had toyed with me, leaving me just at the edge of life so that he could return as my body healed and torture me more. I couldn't remember the last time I had eaten when another of the creatures stepped up to my cell and slid a plate of food toward me. It took all of my strength to eat what had been given to me and the creature seemed to take pleasure in watching my struggle. Suddenly I heard a scream reverberating off of the walls on the corridor in front of my cell. It was muffled as if it was coming from a different area of the building, but it was undeniably a woman screaming for her life.
My eyes darted around me and the Klimnu laughed.
"You hear our new guest," he said and my ears pricked up, "She is different than you. She is special."
"What do you mean?" I struggled to ask.
"The Denynso will come for her. She belongs to one of them and he will ensure they find her, which means he will bring the warriors right to us."
As soon as he said that, I knew this was my only opportunity. I was already so tiny and on top of that became grotesquely thin. The next day I pushed myself through the bars of my cell as soon as my captor left and made my way through the halls. I moved as fast and I could and went until I couldn't go any further. When I fell, I was sure that was it. I knew the Klimnu would realize I was gone and come to find me. But then I saw a woman coming down the hall toward me and I used the very last of my strength to ask for help.