I thought being abducted and experimented on by aliens was the worst things could get. But I was wrong. Because when I tried, and failed, to escape, I promised to protect an alien-human baby. And then we were thrown into a new cage.
And my cell-mat...
It felt like I just got Lani back when they returned for her.
Despite the lack of bars between our cells, Ronan and I still kept to our sides of the cell. It was an unspoken rule. He was... overwhelming enough from his presence across the cell. In the time since the lizardmen returned Lani, I'd mainly just been lying with her on my chest, listening to her breath as she slept.
I hadn't let myself slow down and think since Lani was born. It was hard to remember a time without her now. When I was first abducted, all I felt was anger. A burning rage at the unfairness of it all. After all their experiments on me, the torture, I think I'd become numb to it all. My anger burned out, and all that was left was a shell. I went through the motions– I didn't fight back, and I did what the lizardmen asked of me.
Then came Lani's mom. Our attempted escape. Meeting Ronan.
At first, I was wary of him. But he'd been nothing but respectful and honestly helpful so far. I had no reason to believe he'd betray me.
Now, I had someone else to fight for. We had someone else to fight for.
So, when the lizardmen took Lani from me again, I yelled at them. "You can't take Lani! Skin-to-skin contact is important for human babies. If you don't leave her with me, she'll die." I couldn't remember why exactly skin-to-skin contact was important, but it was. Grey's Anatomy told me it was. She wouldn't die without it; that was my bluff. But what did they know?
"Specimen 001 will be returned for this "skin-to-skin" contact, but Experiment 056 will be initiated with proper incentive, as promised." The lizardman's red eyes glinted, sinister. He left, taking Lani with him.
They'd bring her back. At least they'd bring her back.
While I had been talking, if you could call it that, to the lizardman that had Lani, two others brought in a chair and were strapping Ronan down to it.
The third lizardman returned, standing near me. Ronan's gaze hardened on him. "Don't fucking touch her." His voice rumbled.
Even strapped into a chair, he looked more menacing than the stupid lizardmen. His words finally filtered through to my brain. Don't touch her? Me? What did he mean? Why were they strapping Ronan down?
"What– what're you doing?" I asked the lizardmen, voice shaky, all the bravado I had vanishing. I don't know why I asked– it wasn't like they had a habit of explaining themselves to me.
The lizardmen said nothing.
Ronan lifted his eyes to meet mine, and they held some sort of resigned acceptance. "It's fine, Aanya."
"You sure, big guy?" I chewed on my bottom lip. This did not look fine.
He nodded, sombre. One of the lizardmen pulled out a cattle prod stick and tested it, electricity crackling. Memories of my failed escape flashed before my eyes.
No– no, they couldn't be doing that! Not again. The lizardman turned the cattle prod stick on, and it vibrated, setting my teeth on edge. He advanced towards Ronan.
Running on pure adrenaline, I threw myself forward, so the cattle stick hit me instead of Ronan. Ah! It hit my back.
Searing pain lanced through me, and I fell to the ground as they kept shocking me. The cold floor contrasted my fiery back.
"Aanya!" Ronan roared, but I barely heard it as I shuddered on the floor, convulsions uncontrollable. It felt like bees were crawling through my skin. The pain took over my brain, consuming every thought.
This was so, so much worse than last time. The setting must've been higher than the one they set for me last time. I writhed, my scream strangled in my throat.
Ronan bucked in his chair, trying to get out, but the restraints held. "Stop, stop this, please. I'll do whatever you ask of me. Please let her go!"
"No," I gasped out. "I won't. Whatever you do to me, I won't." The rest of my words became intelligible as they kept shocking me.
The lizardmen paused, having some murmured conversation, but I couldn't focus on that. I laid limp on the floor in front of Ronan, each breath a struggle.
Without warning, they hit me again with their stupid cattle prods and the pain sharpened as I convulsed. When would it stop? God, I just wanted it to stop. I couldn't even open my mouth to scream, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't–
With an inhuman roar, Ronan tore out of his restraints. He ripped the cattle prod stick out of the lizardman's hold and flung him against the wall with a resounding boom.
The other lizardman rushed him, and Ronan shocked him with the cattle prod in his grip, sending him to the ground.
Ronan and the third lizardman were at a standoff, both brandishing their cattle prods, until Ronan abruptly threw his to the side and rushed the lizardman, catching him by surprise.
We did it! We could go find Lani and try and escape again and–
The sound of claws clacking filled the hallway. A dozen lizardmen were running down the corridor. All the hope swelling in my chest popped.
We weren't fighting our way out of here.
✶ ☾ ✶
AUTHOR'S NOTE
How're you doing? Update me in the comments and let's chat! I'm busy with class work for uni but I've also been having a great time hanging out with friends.
Also, I had some SFW artwork of Ronan commissioned that I wanted to share!
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Which do you prefer, the white or black outline?
I shared the artwork first with my patrons on Patreon. I'm thinking of starting a tier for exclusive commissioned artwork– both SFW and NSFW 😉
