Darkness swept over me. I made out nothing but the soft skin of Chax and the flames as they wrapped around him like a wreath. He threw his head back in agony and screamed.
I shot up in bed, the trail of the scream dying on my lips. I wrapped my arms around my stomach and felt like I was going to be sick.
I leaned over the side of the bed and was surprised to find a bucket already there. Thankfully, it was empty otherwise it really would have shoved me over the edge.
My eyes felt heavy. I could barely keep them open. I tossed the bedsheets aside. I was wearing a hospital gown—a real one this time—and not the sheer negligee the Changelings had dressed me in.
I lowered my feet over the side of the bed. The soles of my feet felt the sterile ice of the metal floor. At least my sense of feeling had come back. But there, along my left leg, I saw something.
A thick scab. White cream had been smeared over it. Medicine? I thought back to the surgeon who’d bent over me with his device. He’d been working on my leg, hadn’t he? I didn’t touch it. My skin around the wound was red and tender like I’d been severely burnt—
An image shot into the forefront of my mind. The flames enveloped Chax like a wreath and he threw his head back in agony and screamed—
Chax.
Where was he?
I glanced over at the other side of the bed but he wasn’t there. I checked the rest of the tiny room. He wasn’t there either.
Maybe he’d already recovered. Titans did have an amazing ability to heal, after all. He would come in and gloat and show off how he was already back to normal. The thought brought a smile to my lips.
I was in yet another alien room I’d never been in before. It was stark and bare with little more than my bed, which was nothing more than a squeaky cot, and a pile of boxes in one corner.
It was not futuristic and clean like the previous room I awoke in. It was about the size of a prison cell.
A prison cell.
At least there was a door this time.
The most surprising thing about being there was waking up in the first place. I remembered the place with the shuttlecraft and path we carved through the wet dewy grass.
We reached the shuttlecraft before the time ran out. We still had maybe half an hour or more to go. Iron Hoof had found us and taken advantage. He let us get close enough to the shuttlecraft for us to think we would escape. Then he destroyed it, along with our hopes of returning home.
When the first grenade struck, the fire was intense. Large chunks of twisted metal descended from the sky in a molten haze.
Iron Hoof had grinned. Drool seeped out the corner of his damaged mouth as he reached for another grenade attached to his person and placed it in the launcher and fired.
I recalled a whining sound that grew in volume and pitch from the shuttlecraft. I had no idea what was causing it but it didn’t sound good. I didn’t want to know what would happen when that noise reached a crescendo.
And then Chax said those words that still made me tremble.
“I love you,” he whispered in my ear. “I will love you until the end of time.”
That’s when I knew it was over. There was no escaping this time.
The shuttlecraft exploded with metallic blue light and brought a wave of intense yellow fire in its wake.
Then the shooting began.
Lasers zipped through the air from the woodland behind the shuttlecraft. One beam struck Iron Hoof and knocked him off his feet. He was quick to toss the launcher aside and run for cover. The launcher exploded with his own grenade.
The fire was fierce and intense as it washed over me and Chax. He took the brunt of it. Though there was pain in his face, his eyes were on me the whole time. He brushed a strand of hair from my face. Then he threw back his head and screamed in agony.
Unable to keep his feet, we fell to the ground. But Chax’s arms remained wrapped tight around me.
“Someone came!” I said to him in disbelief. “Someone came!”
Chax’s eyes were shut.
“Chax?” I said.
I ran my hand over his face.
“Chax?” I said. “Wake up.”
A red line marred his cheek and when I turned his face to one side, my stomach twisted. His suit had been burned from his body. His back, arms, and legs were charred black, his flesh pungent and crisp. Only his face, chest, and front were untouched by the flames.
My leg hurt too but it was nothing compared to what he’d gone through.
Armed figures came running through the night. A female Yayora dropped to her knees beside me and doused the flames still alive on Chax’s body with her hands.
“Take it easy,” she said. “Try to relax.”
“Chax,” I said. “He’s hurt. He needs your help.”
The female Yayora turned to him. His skin was red and raw where it hadn’t already burnt off. She returned to focusing on me. Couldn’t she see he needed more help than I did?
“Help him,” I said. “He needs help!”
The female Yayora took something from her pocket as more of her species ran over. Their eyes were big and yellow and wide, looking for any danger that might come from the dark.
“We don’t have long,” one of the Yayora soldiers said.
The female Yayora jabbed something in my leg. I was in so much pain I barely even noticed it.
“He needs help,” I said. “He needs…”
The words turned to nonsense on my lips as my head dropped back on the grass and I fell unconscious.
Save the few random sounds
