Alex Wales: Promise

humans and aliens left to die on the sidewalk, in alleys, motel corridors, and bars. It was never a pretty sight, but it was something she’d mostly become desensitized to.

As a kid, dead bodies had been a frequent occurrence, too. Wherever her father went, he always seemed to attract the wrong kind of attention. Fortunately for him, he’d gotten shot a lot, but never killed. Some of the people who shot at him hadn’t been so lucky. Louis Wales had a steady hand and spot-on accuracy.

On her tenth birthday, he’d stuck a blaster in her hand to teach her how to aim and shoot-both to injure and kill. She’d gotten so good at it so quickly, he beamed with pride. Alex could still remember how happy it made him to know that she could take care of herself if he wasn’t around. He’d said it a lot, but she’d been too young to suspect he actually meant it.

Still, she’d never killed anyone. She had no problem shooting someone’s hand off or disabling them by blowing out their knee, but she was glad she hadn’t had to kill. Yet.

She blinked as she stared at the corpse Damon had led her to. It had been dumped inside the garden labyrinth, and he’d had no trouble finding it.

I’ve never seen anything like this before.

The dead body didn’t have a clean bullet or laser wound anywhere. It no longer looked human, resembling a lump of meat with various open sections, several limbs missing, and the head left twisted at a sickening angle. It was completely covered in blood, with deep-etched claw marks wherever there wasn’t a limb missing. A pool of crimson spread out below the remains, with other darker stuff. It reeked of feces and death.

Alex took another step back, disgusted. For once, she was actually glad she’d spent so much time amongst degenerates and criminals. Otherwise, she’d have already thrown up.

Damon stepped forward, and his fingers slid away from hers. He’d held her hand since the moment they’d left the room and continued to hold it even after they met up with the others. She hadn’t resisted his touchy-feely action, because his warm skin made her feel good. It kept reminding her of what he’d done to her.

If that’s how he heals all the time, there must be some really sick women around Eden.

When his bare toes dipped into the edge of the blood puddle, she cringed. How could he act so natural around something he claimed never happened around here?

She reluctantly turned her gaze back to the corpse and caught sight of a shiny bone peeking through a particularly nasty wound, in what had to have been the chest. Was that a rib? The way the moonlight glistened on the sharp end only added to her revulsion. She wondered if this had been a woman or a man.

Priestess Aleena stood across from them, on the other side of the corpse. She stepped forward, and the hem of her long, white dress almost dipped into the blood. “Do you know what happened to him, Damon?” The blonde stood with people on both sides. The grim-looking man who kept glaring at Alex with a sour expression on his face had taken a step at the same time as Aleena.

Shrubs lined the expanse of wall behind them, and blood was splattered on some of the leaves.

There seemed to be a lot of walls around here. Damon kept referring to this place as a village, but it looked more like a castle or a fortress.

Alex wondered if the population built as many walls around themselves as they did in this seemingly safe haven. For crime not to exist, something strange had to be going on behind the scenes. To not have crime while living in such a concentrated population didn’t sound realistic. It wasn’t how humans behaved, and since she’d only seen bare-footed, blue-eyed, and blonde humans walking around so far, she assumed the population was all human.

She stared at Damon, with his beautiful, caramel skin and black hair. He might have light eyes, but his pallor wasn’t the same as everyone else’s. Why?

“Well, Damon. What do you see? Anything that can help us figure out what happened?” Aleena asked again.

He squatted a little closer and narrowed his eyes, as if he were scanning the corpse and the area. “He was definitely murdered.”

A chorus of gasps sounded around Alex. She looked up.

Aleena lifted a pale hand in front of her mouth. Levi’s eyes were so wide, they looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets. Another man gasped in horror beside him. The tall, skinny one with the constant scowl glared at Alex. What the hell is his problem?

“I think whoever killed him took several bites first,” Damon added with a small shake of his head. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“What?”Aleena’s complexion turned waxy, as if she were getting sicker by the minute. “Could it be one of the birds?” She looked up at the dark sky, as if checking to see if she could find the answer written above.

“I doubt it,” Damon said. “They usually peck at their prey. This isn’t pecking. Someone tore him apart, and it looks like he was feasted on, but not the same way a bird would.”

“Speaking of feasts,” Aleena said, turning her attention to Alex. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to postpone the celebratory feast in your honor. For the moment, at least…I hope that’s not a problem, Alex.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I understand.” Not that she’d wanted to partake in any sort of feast about a hocus-pocus solution to whatever imaginary problems these people had. After seeing this dead body, maybe she’d been too quick to judge their utopian society.

“How could this have happened?” the nameless, angry man asked.

“If not the birds, then what did this? We don’t have any wild beasts within the village walls.” Levi’s voice was low, barely more than a whisper.

Alex wasn’t sure it was a good idea to have a teenage boy witness such a barbaric act. Then again, he seemed to be Damon’s assistant or something.

“You have wild beasts outside,” Alex observed. “I heard one roar earlier.”

Aleena’s brow furrowed, but she didn’t say anything.

“I think you’re mistaken,” the sour-looking man said, with a stern shake of his head. “There are no roaring beasts in the jungle.”

“I’m sorry, but who are you? I didn’t catch your name.” Alex crossed her arms. This man definitely had some kind of problem with her, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it. The last thing she needed was someone with an agenda against the ‘space traveler’.

The man lowered his gaze, sweeping over her cleavage with obvious disapproval. When he met her eyes again, a smirk curved his lips. “My name is Elroy. I am the consort of our Priestess and head of security.”

Alex had to admit that she was curious. She found it strange how they all referred to their obvious matriarch as a Priestess, but she hadn’t seen any statues or chapels so far. To hold the title, one had to somehow be connected to a deity. So who did Priestess Aleena worship? What deity did she preach about to the population of Eden?

The more she learned about these people, the less she liked being stranded here. There was something very odd about them, and she had no intention of getting caught up in their insanity.

She considered the man who didn’t like her. “Well, Elroy. Maybe it’s time for you to consult your magical stones. Or whatever it is you use for security around here, because it’s been officially breached.” Alex unfolded her arms and placed them on her hips instead. She hadn’t bothered with her jacket and was only wearing her dirty tank top at the moment, but she didn’t appreciate the man’s disapproving scrutiny.

“Maybe we should take youin for questioning. It seems a little too coincidental for something this violent to occur almost as soon as you arrived.” Elroy’s suggestion echoed around them.