In The Deepest Space
Chapter 3 - Milk Bath
LISTEN to this Chapter
Glossary:
Down this red hall, the walls are red, the carpet is red, the ceiling is red, but at the end of it, a shiny, silver door. It is not red. The lights are all red, but the door is not. A fist floats up from nowhere and makes a soundless knock, and a scream is let forth.
I wake sitting straight up in my bed and screaming a silent scream. My mouth is open in an O, but I can’t speak. My chest rises and falls, and I slump back to the bed, realizing it was a dream. Just a dream. Not even a frightening dream, but disturbing? Yes. I hear movement outside of my door and think about getting up to inspect, but I am a guest here. It would be rude to go wandering into places where I may not be welcome.
A voice cries out, my name being carried through the air, and the need in the tenor of that voice hits me squarely in the chest. I jump out of the bed and run to the door, waving my hand across the censor, but the door does not open. I try again and again, but the door doesn’t budge. I’ve been locked in. I shuffle back to the bed, feeling tired and useless and drift off to a dreamless sleep.
An ocean, red.
Tingling lips.
His lips. Oh sweet baby Jesus, his lips.
My door slides open, and I hear low voices speaking before I open my heavy lidded eyes and see anyone. I feel like I’ve been sleeping for weeks straight or perhaps only minutes. The three women in the family all enter my room and walk over to my bed. Roe-salie wrinkles her nose and walks out of the room, and I wonder what I have done to offend her this time.
Esssme also wrinkles her nose, saying, “Ssssstahn.”
I have no idea what she is saying, and I look to Ah-lissss, whose face tells me she agrees.
I look back to Essssme, asking her, “Stahn?”
She wrinkles her nose at me and taps it with her fingertip. It clicks then. She’s telling me I stink. Lovely.
I pick my arm up, and as unladylike as it is, I smell my armpit. Yep, I fucking reek. “I stink.”
They look at me in confusion. “Smell, stink, stahn,” I say, and pinch my nose to further my explanation.
“Ssssssmell, sssssss-tink,” Essssssme tries out the words, then nods in accomplishment.
The two of them pull me from the bed, and I have no choice but to walk with them to a small ante-chamber, the bathroom. I have never in my life been so excited at the sight of a bathtub. It is a long, white, perfect square, and I cannot see where the water comes out since there is no faucet, but I have no doubt that there will be water in it soon.
Esssssme moves behind me and begins to unzip my suit. I feel frozen in place, not knowing whether I should tell her that I can undress myself, unsure if that would be rude because of the courtesy they are bestowing on me. I ponder the notion too long and forget that I’m being undressed by a female alien instead becoming mezmerized by the way the water fills the bathtub. The water comes up from the bottom, from slits along the side that I can’t even see. It must flow forcefully, because in just moments, the tub is filled. I stand naked before the three other women.
I look down into the bathtub to see that it is not water, like I am expecting, but a milky substance that has a very slight pink hue to it.
“What is that?” I ask, pointing at the liquid so they understand what I’m asking.
Esssssme pulls my hair from my neck, wrapping it up in a cloth that resembles muslin, and answers, “It is the nectar of the Ssssoom. It hassss many healing qualitiessssss that will aid you in your recovery. Your ssssshell hasss experienced a taxing hardsssship.”
She grips my right hand, and Ah-lissss takes the other, both pulling me toward the bath. I don’t argue with them, because my body is achey, and I did almost die.
One leg goes in, and the other. The hands holding onto my hands help me ease in until I am finally submerged up to my shoulders. I don’t notice it at first, the temperature of the liquid is neither warm or cold, but the same as my skin’s temperature. Slowly, it begins to heat up. It warms and warms until I feel like I’m wrapped in an electric blanket. Tingling starts in my toes and fingers, then travels up my legs and arms, when it reaches the trunk of my body. It feels more like a pulsing than a tingle. The pulsing makes my eyes heavy, and I worry that I’m having an adverse reaction to whatever they’ve put me in. I may be allergic or something. I want to panic, tell them that something is wrong, but my tongue feels heavy and bulbous in my mouth. My eyes slide shut, and I float once again.
I see the green of his eyes, the golden bronze of his hair, the holes behind his ear. He chants my name over and over in his adorable alien accent: “Bell-a,Bell Bell
I want to seek him, find him and do many unmentionable things to him.
Colors dance around me, all unrecognizable as they swirl into one another making different colors while still remaining their true color. They all fade to a velvety plum pigment, and I can almost feel the texture in it. It gets closer and closer until I am wrapped in it, and it is warm and soft - ever so soft.
I wake up at the sound of a woosh and quickly sit up, noticing that I am in bed once again. I look around for an indicator of the time, but there is none. Essssme and Ah-liss stand at the door, looking at me expectantly, and I quickly move to get out of the bed. I lose my head a little, getting dizzy when I move to fast, and sway toward the floor, but the two women are over to catch me before I can hit the floor.
“Oh, sorry. Or, um, sa-ahn. I’m sorry,” I mumble.
Esssme lets out a sound that I would consider a chuckle, and I give her a rueful smile, remembering not to show my teeth.
“It issss the time for your nourishhhment,Bell
I expect them to jump away from me in terror, because that seems to be the thing they do when my body performs normal function or when I try to seem nice and thankful. Instead, they both look at my tummy curiously.
Ah-lisss finally asks, “Does ssssssomething reside within you?”
I giggle a little but keep it as quiet as possible, take a deep breath, then answer Ah-liss. “No. I’m hungry, and my stomach is growling to further express my hunger.”
“Hunger?” Ah-lissss asks.
I nod my head at both of them, put my hand up to my mouth and pretend that I’m taking a bite of food, mimicing chewing. I gulp nothing down, then say, “Eat.”
“Eat,” Essssme replies, and I nod at her.
Ah-lissss copies the word, and while they dress me in clothes resembling theirs, they practice my English words. As we walk down the corridor, they request new words from me, and so I teach them words that I can use some kind of charade gesture to help explain what they are. This goes on until we come to a room that almost resembles a normal kitchen, except for the utensils and cookware.
The rest of the Alien family is sitting around another fucking kidney bean-shaped table and eating. BANO is nowhere to be seen, and I wonder if he is alright, worrying a little. The two women sit me in a chair at the table, and I see that it is the last chair. It is BANO’s chair, and I notice Roe-salie eyeing me. Emmeet says something to her and draws her attention from me.
Carlissss is to my left and turns to look at me. “Are you feeling in better health,Bell
“Yes! So very much. That milk bath worked wonders,” I tell him, and it’s the truth. I feel so much better than I had before the bath.
From behind a long island, or partition, Esme corrects me, “Ssssstahn. Not meelk,Bell
I look from her, to Ah-lisss to Roe-salie, confusedly. “But, it felt like milk, kind of. If it wasn’t milk, what was it?”
Roe-salie and Ah-lisssss look at each other, then to Essssme and back to me. Essssme comes out from behind the counter and over to the table, placing a bowl of some soupy mixture in front of me.
“Asss I’ve sssaid, it is the nectar of the Ssssssoom. The sssseed. Hisss esssssence,” Essssme says, sitting down in her seat on the other side of Carlisssss, then ladling a spoon full of the soup into her mouth.
She slurps it a little, and the sound of it makes something in my brain click. Seed. Essence. I look down into my bowl, and although it’s not the same color, it is the same texture. The fact that it is a liquid makes me want to puke my guts out.
I’ve recently bathed in the jizz of some fucking space creature. Just fucking wonderful.
My stomach churns, and I think I’m going to throw up. Actually, I know I am, but before I do, a horrible, painful, terrifying scream travels through the ship. At once, I know that it is coming from him.
Esssssme and Ah-lissss jump up at once and yell, “Edwaird.”
I yell, “BANO!” All eyes fall on me, and I begin to run.
Chapter 3 - Milk Bath
LISTEN to this Chapter
Glossary:
Bowsh - cut it out
Shahn - NO!
Soom - a horse-like creature
Sa-ahn - sorry
xhuh-xhuh - more of a sound then a word, kind of like a breathing in sound, but it is the slang for intercourse.
Shahn - NO!
Soom - a horse-like creature
Sa-ahn - sorry
xhuh-xhuh - more of a sound then a word, kind of like a breathing in sound, but it is the slang for intercourse.
Bella's POV ~
With the door open, it is so, so, so much more intense, maybe more than I can handle. It’s like I’ve snorted a pure concentration of liquid SEX. If I could capture this feeling of euphoria into pill form, I’d make millions. Yeah, yeah, there is such a thing as ecstasy, but I don’t think it could ever compare to how I feel right this fucking second.
I have to look away, because if I don’t, I’m going to attack him, and since I’m a guest on this ship, I don’t think that would be the best idea. Even so, he looks like he wants to attack me too.
From behind me, I hear several sets of footsteps, but my attention is quickly drawn away from that to the beautiful being in front of me when he begins to growl. This growl he emits is both terriffic and terrible at the same time. Terrific because it creates a tidal wave of sensation inside of me. My body warms to the point of sweating, and my nipples harden; I fucking get damp between my legs. Needless to say, I worry that they will be able to detect these...feelings going on inside of me. But seriously, what the hell is going on with me. Why should I feel turned on by a growl?
I hear more footsteps behind me and even louder growling in front of me. Beautiful Alien Number One seems to be growling at his own family. Ah-liss holds her hand up at the on-comers behind me, and she turns to look at “BANO.”
“Bowsh!” Ah-lissss exclaims and BANO immediately stops. The rest of his family behind me has stopped several feet away and murmur amongst themselves quietly. Ah-lissss gives BANO a look that says “relax asswipe” and walks over to the others.
Unsure of what to do or where I should stand, I remain where I am, studying my socked feet. I have no idea what they’ve done with my suit and my boots, but they’ve left my socks on my feet. I pretend my feet are the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen in my life, while my body yearns for the stranger in front of me. What the hell is wrong with me? Seriously? I keep thinking about the holes they have behind their ears, and all I want to do right now is touch his. I want to slide my finger ever so lightly over the ridges behind his ear and over the holes. Okay, maybe I want to probe them with my fingers ever so slightly. Ever. So. Slightly.
I hear a very low rumble and look up, seeing BANO staring at me. It’s him making the noise, and I realize that he has been staring at me the entire time. He must have been watching me and picking up on God-only-knows-what. My chest is even heaving a little, and I wonder what he really can sense. Oh shit.
He rumbles a little louder and takes a step toward me. I want to stay and place and step backward, away from him, at the same time. My feet do nothing as he takes another step in my direction. His family doesn’t see any of this, and I begin to panic a little, I know I should say something to get their attention, but my mouth isn’t working. Nothing on me is working, and all of a sudden, he is right in front of me, in my personal space and breathing his breath down on me.
He is tall and lean, at least a foot and a half taller than I am, and God-almighty-in-heaven, his scent is divine. I maintain some semblance of manners and a brain to not reach up on my tip toes and lick his chin, but I want to. Yes I do. My fingers twitch in their want to touch those holes, and I flex them, then ball them into a fist.
He keeps eye contact with me and then, taking a really long blink, leans in toward my ear, and whispers, “xhuh-xhuh.”
“Xhuh-xhuh?” I ask, not knowing what the fuck he is talking about. No longer able to control myself with his warm breath on my ear, I reach up and gently brush my finger over the three small holes.
They are smooth, like silk, and as my finger passes over each one, they flare a little bit. BANO jerks his head away from my hand and stares at me. He grabs onto my hand, pulls my arm straight, then leans in to examine the crook of my arm. He grunts a little, seems frustrated about something, grunts louder, then jerks me in toward him, and finally spins us into his room. Behind us, the door slides closed, and BANO clicks something on a panel. I can hear the others banging on the other side, and for the first time, I feel afraid. What have I gotten myself into? Is he angry that I touched him, and his weird ear holes? Is that something sacred that I wasn’t supposed to touch? Oh shit, what have I done?
I should be polite, make conversation and just, do something. “Um, hi.” Brilliant.
“Ummm, hhhhi,” he imitates.
Just lovely, I have a comedian. “My name is Bella Swan. What is your name?”
BANO cocks his head to the side, but says nothing. Instead, he reaches his hand out to brush my hair away from the back of my ear, and I understand that he is looking for my ear holes. When he doesn’t find any, he jumps back several feet from me, shaking his head and mumbling nothing that I recognize. He begins to pace back and forth across his cabin, speaking only to himself, so I sit on a weird kidney bean shaped bench. Seriously, what is it with these people and furniture shaped like kidney beans?
I rub behind my ears, remembering in my mind what BANO’s holes felt like, and in an instant, he is beside me again, kneeling this time and pulling my hand away from behind my ear. This time he inspects my ear and head more closely and sighs in exasperation.
“What? I’m sorry, I don’t have them. I’m not like you,” I tell him, feeling frustrated and defeated and unworthy. I don’t understand any of that because why should I feel like that? And unworthy?
I’m broken from my inner thoughts by his finger running behind my ears once more. “Edwaird,” he says slowly. His finger makes another slow, sensual sweep behind my ear, then his finger is tracing the shell of my ear and nothing. Nothing has never been so erotic.
What is wrong with me?
There is more banging on the door, and BANO, I mean Edward, is unzipping the zipper on the back of my bodysuit. Is he undressing me? I attempt to scramble away, but he grips onto my arm, making that sound that Essssme made to calm me earlier.
“Ahhh-ghizhhhhhhh,Bell
His fingers spider-crawl up my spine, and I have to fight the urge to giggle; he stops moving when he gets to my right shoulder blade, and his other hand moves to the sleeve of my body suit. In a swift and unsuspecting movement, he quickly pulls my entire right arm from the sleeve, kneels at my side, then lifts my arm up to his face with both hands. Several times he bends and straightens my arm, concentrating on the crook, with one of his hands cradling my elbow.
There are times in life when you have moments, moments where something happens, and you think to yourself, “This has to be a dream. It must be a dream, because weird shit like this just doesn’t fucking happen.” This is one of those moments. In fact, this may be the moment. BANO lifted my arm up to his face and fucking sniffed...I said sniffed the crease of my elbow.
Insert dumbfounded expression here!
BANO attempts to pull my other arm free of my bodysuit, but I’m beginning to regain a little bit of brain back. As he pulls at my other sleeve, I slap at his hand like a cat batting it’s paw at a toy. He looks up at me and jumps up, once again pacing the room. I quickly slip my arm back into it’s sleeve but don’t even attempt to zip my suit back up.
I walk over to the door and wave my hand in front of the censor. Things are getting too crazy in here, and as much as I’d maybe like to jump this...alien’s bones, I want to jump an alien’s bones for crying out loud. This can’t get any fucking weirder, and I think that maybe I did die back on Mars.
“Shahn!” BANO shouts at me from where he paces in the small area of the cabin, but comes running over toward me. His hands grip my face gently, and he turns my head from side to side, studying it angle by angle. He begins to emit a low pitched sound that I can only explain as seismic. I feel it all through my body, but most of all, I feel it under my jaw. Ripples of heat wash over my body once again, and he leans his temple to mine, much like the way I had seen Carlissss doing with Esssme earlier.
My body begins to grow even warmer, and once again, I begin to feel like I’ve been left in the throes of passion with a partner who thrives on torturing me. The tension in my tummy twists, and I can’t help the pants that come out of me.
Something changes suddenly, almost like a switch flipping right in front of me, but BANO, errr, Edwaird, reaches his hand over to the door panel, and I hear a buzz. Ah-lissss immediately rushes in, but the others stay out. Edwaird slumps slowly down to the floor, and I watch, worried, as Ah-lisss coaxes him up and over to the bed. I move to follow them, but Esssssme seizes my hand from the hallway and pulls me out to her.
My body doesn’t want to leave the room. Hell, I’m not sure my mine or even my fucking heart want to leave the room, and I was dying to get out of it only minutes prior. All I know is that as soon as I’m out of that room and into the hallway, I feel utterly alone and so so very confused. Esssssme pulls my face up, looking at my eyes, and I hide them from her, knowing she will see confusion, sadness, and tears. I don’t want her to see the tears, they could just be one more thing that we don’t have in common as two different species.
Behind me I hear Ah-lissss speaking to BANO, and I hear my name fall from his lips several times before I’m pulled away and into the next room. Essssme and Roe-salie flit about the cabin, reminding me of how my Gran always prepared the spare bedroom for me when I would go to stay with her. It makes me incredibly homesick, and all of a sudden, I feel really tired. My feet begin to go out from under me before I know it, but I am being cradled in Roe-salie’s arms before I hit the ground. She feels comfortable and seems to be able to hold me as if I weigh nothing.
I am placed on the most comfortable bed I have ever laid on. This bed could seriously be a cloud, and the bedsheets, angel’s hair. It goes without saying that the second my eyes close I am asleep.
With the door open, it is so, so, so much more intense, maybe more than I can handle. It’s like I’ve snorted a pure concentration of liquid SEX. If I could capture this feeling of euphoria into pill form, I’d make millions. Yeah, yeah, there is such a thing as ecstasy, but I don’t think it could ever compare to how I feel right this fucking second.
I have to look away, because if I don’t, I’m going to attack him, and since I’m a guest on this ship, I don’t think that would be the best idea. Even so, he looks like he wants to attack me too.
From behind me, I hear several sets of footsteps, but my attention is quickly drawn away from that to the beautiful being in front of me when he begins to growl. This growl he emits is both terriffic and terrible at the same time. Terrific because it creates a tidal wave of sensation inside of me. My body warms to the point of sweating, and my nipples harden; I fucking get damp between my legs. Needless to say, I worry that they will be able to detect these...feelings going on inside of me. But seriously, what the hell is going on with me. Why should I feel turned on by a growl?
I hear more footsteps behind me and even louder growling in front of me. Beautiful Alien Number One seems to be growling at his own family. Ah-liss holds her hand up at the on-comers behind me, and she turns to look at “BANO.”
“Bowsh!” Ah-lissss exclaims and BANO immediately stops. The rest of his family behind me has stopped several feet away and murmur amongst themselves quietly. Ah-lissss gives BANO a look that says “relax asswipe” and walks over to the others.
Unsure of what to do or where I should stand, I remain where I am, studying my socked feet. I have no idea what they’ve done with my suit and my boots, but they’ve left my socks on my feet. I pretend my feet are the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen in my life, while my body yearns for the stranger in front of me. What the hell is wrong with me? Seriously? I keep thinking about the holes they have behind their ears, and all I want to do right now is touch his. I want to slide my finger ever so lightly over the ridges behind his ear and over the holes. Okay, maybe I want to probe them with my fingers ever so slightly. Ever. So. Slightly.
I hear a very low rumble and look up, seeing BANO staring at me. It’s him making the noise, and I realize that he has been staring at me the entire time. He must have been watching me and picking up on God-only-knows-what. My chest is even heaving a little, and I wonder what he really can sense. Oh shit.
He rumbles a little louder and takes a step toward me. I want to stay and place and step backward, away from him, at the same time. My feet do nothing as he takes another step in my direction. His family doesn’t see any of this, and I begin to panic a little, I know I should say something to get their attention, but my mouth isn’t working. Nothing on me is working, and all of a sudden, he is right in front of me, in my personal space and breathing his breath down on me.
He is tall and lean, at least a foot and a half taller than I am, and God-almighty-in-heaven, his scent is divine. I maintain some semblance of manners and a brain to not reach up on my tip toes and lick his chin, but I want to. Yes I do. My fingers twitch in their want to touch those holes, and I flex them, then ball them into a fist.
He keeps eye contact with me and then, taking a really long blink, leans in toward my ear, and whispers, “xhuh-xhuh.”
“Xhuh-xhuh?” I ask, not knowing what the fuck he is talking about. No longer able to control myself with his warm breath on my ear, I reach up and gently brush my finger over the three small holes.
They are smooth, like silk, and as my finger passes over each one, they flare a little bit. BANO jerks his head away from my hand and stares at me. He grabs onto my hand, pulls my arm straight, then leans in to examine the crook of my arm. He grunts a little, seems frustrated about something, grunts louder, then jerks me in toward him, and finally spins us into his room. Behind us, the door slides closed, and BANO clicks something on a panel. I can hear the others banging on the other side, and for the first time, I feel afraid. What have I gotten myself into? Is he angry that I touched him, and his weird ear holes? Is that something sacred that I wasn’t supposed to touch? Oh shit, what have I done?
I should be polite, make conversation and just, do something. “Um, hi.” Brilliant.
“Ummm, hhhhi,” he imitates.
Just lovely, I have a comedian. “My name is Bella Swan. What is your name?”
BANO cocks his head to the side, but says nothing. Instead, he reaches his hand out to brush my hair away from the back of my ear, and I understand that he is looking for my ear holes. When he doesn’t find any, he jumps back several feet from me, shaking his head and mumbling nothing that I recognize. He begins to pace back and forth across his cabin, speaking only to himself, so I sit on a weird kidney bean shaped bench. Seriously, what is it with these people and furniture shaped like kidney beans?
I rub behind my ears, remembering in my mind what BANO’s holes felt like, and in an instant, he is beside me again, kneeling this time and pulling my hand away from behind my ear. This time he inspects my ear and head more closely and sighs in exasperation.
“What? I’m sorry, I don’t have them. I’m not like you,” I tell him, feeling frustrated and defeated and unworthy. I don’t understand any of that because why should I feel like that? And unworthy?
I’m broken from my inner thoughts by his finger running behind my ears once more. “Edwaird,” he says slowly. His finger makes another slow, sensual sweep behind my ear, then his finger is tracing the shell of my ear and nothing. Nothing has never been so erotic.
What is wrong with me?
There is more banging on the door, and BANO, I mean Edward, is unzipping the zipper on the back of my bodysuit. Is he undressing me? I attempt to scramble away, but he grips onto my arm, making that sound that Essssme made to calm me earlier.
“Ahhh-ghizhhhhhhh,
His fingers spider-crawl up my spine, and I have to fight the urge to giggle; he stops moving when he gets to my right shoulder blade, and his other hand moves to the sleeve of my body suit. In a swift and unsuspecting movement, he quickly pulls my entire right arm from the sleeve, kneels at my side, then lifts my arm up to his face with both hands. Several times he bends and straightens my arm, concentrating on the crook, with one of his hands cradling my elbow.
There are times in life when you have moments, moments where something happens, and you think to yourself, “This has to be a dream. It must be a dream, because weird shit like this just doesn’t fucking happen.” This is one of those moments. In fact, this may be the moment. BANO lifted my arm up to his face and fucking sniffed...I said sniffed the crease of my elbow.
Insert dumbfounded expression here!
BANO attempts to pull my other arm free of my bodysuit, but I’m beginning to regain a little bit of brain back. As he pulls at my other sleeve, I slap at his hand like a cat batting it’s paw at a toy. He looks up at me and jumps up, once again pacing the room. I quickly slip my arm back into it’s sleeve but don’t even attempt to zip my suit back up.
I walk over to the door and wave my hand in front of the censor. Things are getting too crazy in here, and as much as I’d maybe like to jump this...alien’s bones, I want to jump an alien’s bones for crying out loud. This can’t get any fucking weirder, and I think that maybe I did die back on Mars.
“Shahn!” BANO shouts at me from where he paces in the small area of the cabin, but comes running over toward me. His hands grip my face gently, and he turns my head from side to side, studying it angle by angle. He begins to emit a low pitched sound that I can only explain as seismic. I feel it all through my body, but most of all, I feel it under my jaw. Ripples of heat wash over my body once again, and he leans his temple to mine, much like the way I had seen Carlissss doing with Esssme earlier.
My body begins to grow even warmer, and once again, I begin to feel like I’ve been left in the throes of passion with a partner who thrives on torturing me. The tension in my tummy twists, and I can’t help the pants that come out of me.
Something changes suddenly, almost like a switch flipping right in front of me, but BANO, errr, Edwaird, reaches his hand over to the door panel, and I hear a buzz. Ah-lissss immediately rushes in, but the others stay out. Edwaird slumps slowly down to the floor, and I watch, worried, as Ah-lisss coaxes him up and over to the bed. I move to follow them, but Esssssme seizes my hand from the hallway and pulls me out to her.
My body doesn’t want to leave the room. Hell, I’m not sure my mine or even my fucking heart want to leave the room, and I was dying to get out of it only minutes prior. All I know is that as soon as I’m out of that room and into the hallway, I feel utterly alone and so so very confused. Esssssme pulls my face up, looking at my eyes, and I hide them from her, knowing she will see confusion, sadness, and tears. I don’t want her to see the tears, they could just be one more thing that we don’t have in common as two different species.
Behind me I hear Ah-lissss speaking to BANO, and I hear my name fall from his lips several times before I’m pulled away and into the next room. Essssme and Roe-salie flit about the cabin, reminding me of how my Gran always prepared the spare bedroom for me when I would go to stay with her. It makes me incredibly homesick, and all of a sudden, I feel really tired. My feet begin to go out from under me before I know it, but I am being cradled in Roe-salie’s arms before I hit the ground. She feels comfortable and seems to be able to hold me as if I weigh nothing.
I am placed on the most comfortable bed I have ever laid on. This bed could seriously be a cloud, and the bedsheets, angel’s hair. It goes without saying that the second my eyes close I am asleep.
oOo
Down this red hall, the walls are red, the carpet is red, the ceiling is red, but at the end of it, a shiny, silver door. It is not red. The lights are all red, but the door is not. A fist floats up from nowhere and makes a soundless knock, and a scream is let forth.
I wake sitting straight up in my bed and screaming a silent scream. My mouth is open in an O, but I can’t speak. My chest rises and falls, and I slump back to the bed, realizing it was a dream. Just a dream. Not even a frightening dream, but disturbing? Yes. I hear movement outside of my door and think about getting up to inspect, but I am a guest here. It would be rude to go wandering into places where I may not be welcome.
A voice cries out, my name being carried through the air, and the need in the tenor of that voice hits me squarely in the chest. I jump out of the bed and run to the door, waving my hand across the censor, but the door does not open. I try again and again, but the door doesn’t budge. I’ve been locked in. I shuffle back to the bed, feeling tired and useless and drift off to a dreamless sleep.
An ocean, red.
Tingling lips.
His lips. Oh sweet baby Jesus, his lips.
oOo
My door slides open, and I hear low voices speaking before I open my heavy lidded eyes and see anyone. I feel like I’ve been sleeping for weeks straight or perhaps only minutes. The three women in the family all enter my room and walk over to my bed. Roe-salie wrinkles her nose and walks out of the room, and I wonder what I have done to offend her this time.
Esssme also wrinkles her nose, saying, “Ssssstahn.”
I have no idea what she is saying, and I look to Ah-lissss, whose face tells me she agrees.
I look back to Essssme, asking her, “Stahn?”
She wrinkles her nose at me and taps it with her fingertip. It clicks then. She’s telling me I stink. Lovely.
I pick my arm up, and as unladylike as it is, I smell my armpit. Yep, I fucking reek. “I stink.”
They look at me in confusion. “Smell, stink, stahn,” I say, and pinch my nose to further my explanation.
“Ssssssmell, sssssss-tink,” Essssssme tries out the words, then nods in accomplishment.
The two of them pull me from the bed, and I have no choice but to walk with them to a small ante-chamber, the bathroom. I have never in my life been so excited at the sight of a bathtub. It is a long, white, perfect square, and I cannot see where the water comes out since there is no faucet, but I have no doubt that there will be water in it soon.
Esssssme moves behind me and begins to unzip my suit. I feel frozen in place, not knowing whether I should tell her that I can undress myself, unsure if that would be rude because of the courtesy they are bestowing on me. I ponder the notion too long and forget that I’m being undressed by a female alien instead becoming mezmerized by the way the water fills the bathtub. The water comes up from the bottom, from slits along the side that I can’t even see. It must flow forcefully, because in just moments, the tub is filled. I stand naked before the three other women.
I look down into the bathtub to see that it is not water, like I am expecting, but a milky substance that has a very slight pink hue to it.
“What is that?” I ask, pointing at the liquid so they understand what I’m asking.
Esssssme pulls my hair from my neck, wrapping it up in a cloth that resembles muslin, and answers, “It is the nectar of the Ssssoom. It hassss many healing qualitiessssss that will aid you in your recovery. Your ssssshell hasss experienced a taxing hardsssship.”
She grips my right hand, and Ah-lissss takes the other, both pulling me toward the bath. I don’t argue with them, because my body is achey, and I did almost die.
One leg goes in, and the other. The hands holding onto my hands help me ease in until I am finally submerged up to my shoulders. I don’t notice it at first, the temperature of the liquid is neither warm or cold, but the same as my skin’s temperature. Slowly, it begins to heat up. It warms and warms until I feel like I’m wrapped in an electric blanket. Tingling starts in my toes and fingers, then travels up my legs and arms, when it reaches the trunk of my body. It feels more like a pulsing than a tingle. The pulsing makes my eyes heavy, and I worry that I’m having an adverse reaction to whatever they’ve put me in. I may be allergic or something. I want to panic, tell them that something is wrong, but my tongue feels heavy and bulbous in my mouth. My eyes slide shut, and I float once again.
I see the green of his eyes, the golden bronze of his hair, the holes behind his ear. He chants my name over and over in his adorable alien accent: “Bell-a,
I want to seek him, find him and do many unmentionable things to him.
Colors dance around me, all unrecognizable as they swirl into one another making different colors while still remaining their true color. They all fade to a velvety plum pigment, and I can almost feel the texture in it. It gets closer and closer until I am wrapped in it, and it is warm and soft - ever so soft.
I wake up at the sound of a woosh and quickly sit up, noticing that I am in bed once again. I look around for an indicator of the time, but there is none. Essssme and Ah-liss stand at the door, looking at me expectantly, and I quickly move to get out of the bed. I lose my head a little, getting dizzy when I move to fast, and sway toward the floor, but the two women are over to catch me before I can hit the floor.
“Oh, sorry. Or, um, sa-ahn. I’m sorry,” I mumble.
Esssme lets out a sound that I would consider a chuckle, and I give her a rueful smile, remembering not to show my teeth.
“It issss the time for your nourishhhment,
I expect them to jump away from me in terror, because that seems to be the thing they do when my body performs normal function or when I try to seem nice and thankful. Instead, they both look at my tummy curiously.
Ah-lisss finally asks, “Does ssssssomething reside within you?”
I giggle a little but keep it as quiet as possible, take a deep breath, then answer Ah-liss. “No. I’m hungry, and my stomach is growling to further express my hunger.”
“Hunger?” Ah-lissss asks.
I nod my head at both of them, put my hand up to my mouth and pretend that I’m taking a bite of food, mimicing chewing. I gulp nothing down, then say, “Eat.”
“Eat,” Essssme replies, and I nod at her.
Ah-lissss copies the word, and while they dress me in clothes resembling theirs, they practice my English words. As we walk down the corridor, they request new words from me, and so I teach them words that I can use some kind of charade gesture to help explain what they are. This goes on until we come to a room that almost resembles a normal kitchen, except for the utensils and cookware.
The rest of the Alien family is sitting around another fucking kidney bean-shaped table and eating. BANO is nowhere to be seen, and I wonder if he is alright, worrying a little. The two women sit me in a chair at the table, and I see that it is the last chair. It is BANO’s chair, and I notice Roe-salie eyeing me. Emmeet says something to her and draws her attention from me.
Carlissss is to my left and turns to look at me. “Are you feeling in better health,
“Yes! So very much. That milk bath worked wonders,” I tell him, and it’s the truth. I feel so much better than I had before the bath.
From behind a long island, or partition, Esme corrects me, “Ssssstahn. Not meelk,
I look from her, to Ah-lisss to Roe-salie, confusedly. “But, it felt like milk, kind of. If it wasn’t milk, what was it?”
Roe-salie and Ah-lisssss look at each other, then to Essssme and back to me. Essssme comes out from behind the counter and over to the table, placing a bowl of some soupy mixture in front of me.
“Asss I’ve sssaid, it is the nectar of the Ssssssoom. The sssseed. Hisss esssssence,” Essssme says, sitting down in her seat on the other side of Carlisssss, then ladling a spoon full of the soup into her mouth.
She slurps it a little, and the sound of it makes something in my brain click. Seed. Essence. I look down into my bowl, and although it’s not the same color, it is the same texture. The fact that it is a liquid makes me want to puke my guts out.
I’ve recently bathed in the jizz of some fucking space creature. Just fucking wonderful.
My stomach churns, and I think I’m going to throw up. Actually, I know I am, but before I do, a horrible, painful, terrifying scream travels through the ship. At once, I know that it is coming from him.
Esssssme and Ah-lissss jump up at once and yell, “Edwaird.”
I yell, “BANO!” All eyes fall on me, and I begin to run.
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