by C F Rabbiosi
With everyone busy preparing for the celebration and the men skinning and gutting the day’s kills, their sleeping quarters on the other side of the village are completely abandoned. Lines of single cabins stand in a row, a high wooden fence behind to prevent anything from stumbling past the invisible plasma dome hiding us.
My back against the farthest cabin, I sink to the ground and the dreams that have been haunting me roll over my surface like a milky fog. All alone back here, I let the afterlife of it wash over my senses. I thought it was Finn I dreamt of, his lower body pressing intimately against mine, the sweet scent inhaled from behind his kiss. I swallow down the sparking between my legs and pull Momma’s knife from its hiding place up my sleeve.
The glint of steel, cold against my overheated leg, makes my breath quicken and the tightening that twists my stomach begins to loosen. As the edge of the blade sinks into the inside of my calf, I am released with a shudder, the sickness ripping away, and warmth like stepping into a hot bath soothes the craving and my slipping sanity from head to toe.
Safe again. From myself and all I promise to do, to my utter horror.
Leaves crack under foot and I whip the knife behind me. The shadow of a man blacks out the shining moon and, too late, I swipe the blood away and slam my pant leg down.
“Thought I saw you come back here,” the man says, and I immediately stand up, the knife behind my back. Alexander, the fallen ruler of Village III to the north, eats the distance between us. He quirks a brow toward my seeping leg, and my secret is now his. Alexander joined our group four seasons ago and is the brother of our own current ruler, Tiberius. Four rulers and their wives to watch over our villages and ensure our way of life is being followed. When the earth grew silent and only crawled with the luckiest of survivors, some rose to a new power, taking the names of great Kings of the past, while my people take names from the heroes in our stories. This original family has seen several generations grow and thrive. With each change in the weather, they move on to the next settlement, never becoming attached to anyone, never allowing even the slightest hint of uprising. If a leader has failed or the rules have become weak, the new season brings around the next one, who is sure to correct it.
Everyone is silent about what Alexander did to be sent here to his brother, but the ladies’ anxious disposition hasn’t eluded me, despite his pleasant appearance. His high lady bride, Leda, stayed back, and I suppose we’ll see her in the next season, Yuletide cold, where she will be reunited with her ruling husband.
Bowing my head, I rush past, my sense of danger pulsing its warning through me.
“Wait a second, girl.” A rough hand encircles my upper arm and yanks me backward. Startled, my scream fails to materialize and the knife clinks to the ground.
“Why aren’t you with the other men?” slips from my lips, and though I asked without thinking and more from surprise, my edgy tone surprises him.
“I didn’t feel well.” His nostrils flair and his eyes track the soaking material of my sock. They flick up at me. “You were hurting yourself. Why would you do that?”
Startled from being caught, the shame of my behavior breaks through the surface and I ask myself what kind of depraved thing cuts into their own skin and likes it? Horrible dread floods me and I think about mother, her own shame and fear if she were to find out. It turns out I am every bit of the mutated defective everyone thinks I am.
I step on the knife. “Did anyone see you come back here?” I growl, and a dark, creeping sensation ascends through my feet, up my legs then hammers into my chest. My question has two reasons: to threaten, and to find out if the two sinister men who follow him will be joining us any time soon. Helsing and Corinthian are twins with that same bottomless leer that Alexander exhibits, as though the three of them are woven from the same thread.
“Answer my question.” He has a playful air about his demand, curious even, but everything about him disturbs me. There is menace in each movement and a cunning edge, as though he is always working something out behind those pools of onyx.
“As you wish. It calms me when I become…” I swipe my tongue over my lips and try to find the right word. “Ravenous.” Success.
Something like delight stains his face and he rips the tie from my hair. “And what would a deformed whore be so hungry for?” My scalp pulls from my skull as he yanks at the fine strands of fiery gold and lowers me until my mouth presses into the bulging area below his waist.. My glacier irises and odd-colored hair mark me as defective, a picture of what went wrong in the world. A reminder to our people that we are inferior to the ones who now rule.
“I heard of your betrothal. Congratulations.” He rubs his crotch against my face and I forcibly halt the urge to bite into him by locking my jaw tight. “That is truly generous of my brother, but the poor boy. He does realize he will have to marry once more in only a couple of short years?” My looks are far from the worst part of my disease; they are simply a mark of what is happening inside. The ones like me are buried deep in the earth at the age of twenty.
Jerking my head away, I spit out, “Let go!” and duck down to grab the fallen steel. A swift kick slams into my outstretched fingers and my head is wrenched back.
A salty palm cups my mouth and his fingers weave into the top of my head. He moves his hips rhythmically, the friction of his pants against my lips. “Silence yourself. Do exactly as I say, and I’ll keep your secret.” I whimper as he pulls his pants down and his male parts pop out. He moves it across my cheek as I turn away. Firm fingers clasping my jaw, he forces me back toward him.
“No,” I plead, then purse my mouth against the drops of liquid he spreads along its surface.
“Shh.” His harsh pressure switches to the base of my skull, and he demands I part my lips to allow him to slip against my tongue.
“Put that thing in me, and I’ll bite it off.” How ridiculous can he possibly be? I nearly laugh at the idea of him doing such a thing near my teeth.
“Let me in there, you bitch,” he forces me up and, ripping my bottoms off completely, he slaps the fresh wound on my leg, “or everyone will find out what you do to yourself. You’ll be punished harshly—with my encouragement, of course.”
On that chilling note, I buckle. Yes, a punishment from the leaders will hurt., but it’s the look on my mother’s face in the forefront of my mind that settles me back onto my knees and makes me drop my jaw. Tomorrow, I will tell Europa, Tiberius’ wife, what Alexander did to me. Everyone will know his crime, and my horrifying deed won’t matter. They won’t look at what I’ve done to myself when he has endangered everyone by engaging in a sexual act out in the open, so close to the invisible shield that leaks oxygen, smoke and intoxicating sex chemicals that a highly sensitive Koridon can be attracted to.
“But what about the rules?” I ask as he strokes his shaft, closer and closer to the hole in my face he would abuse for his pleasure. I shiver, the darkness at my back where anything could be hiding.
“Fables. Myths.” He pulls me once again toward his crotch. “Nothing’s going to happen.” Smooth, rod-like flesh slides over my tongue and Alexander’s legs give with trembling weakness. The end of it nudges the back of my throat with each thrust and I fight to breathe, my wet, choking sounds muffled by the foreign object shoving in and out with pulsing hardness. My body grows cold, sickness sinking me into the ground. Open, vulnerable, I’ve never experienced anything so dehumanizing. He called me a deformed whore, yet I am still good enough to satisfy his debased urges.
I play with the idea of tearing into his hideous flesh like an animal, but my jaw aches so badly, it will hurt far more to exert the force. Saliva drips into the dirt and his back and forth motion intensifies. With a groan, he shoves me onto my back, my lungs paralyzed from the blow and incapable of moving air into them. He angles over me as I panic and snaps my head up, shoving himself down my throat. His sack rests against my chin and my legs kick frantically, shrieks igniting inside me, building up behind my bloc
ked throat. A burst of warm liquid gushes and, finally, he pulls away.
Sweet, beautiful air flows into my starving lungs and I double over to retch from the taste.
He spits as he puts himself away. “Mutated whore. Mmm. That was divine.”
My stomach threatens to give way again but doesn’t have the chance as he grasps my neck and forces me into his face. “Never speak of this again.”
Fuck you, my glittering arctic blues defy.
He rattles me with a hard shake. “If you breathe a word, I won’t tell anyone about your cut-up body. I’ll let them find it, naked and bloated in the middle of the square.” He glows with triumph as he walks off.
I wipe my mouth and rise slowly. “You were named for Alexander the Great, weren’t you?” I call out and his footfalls stand still. “Well, what’s in a name?” My brows jump. “Right?”
3
~Calypso~
The wind tosses the messy locks across my face and something stirs in the brush. Alexander sneers at my comment and comes toward me again. I dash for the knife, when a scream cuts his rampage short. He turns and runs, wiping his hands down his black bottoms.
Another scream.
Frozen against the wall of the male domicile, the trees rustle unnaturally, the forest moving. Breath bated, I squint into the darkness, and though whatever’s out there cannot see me, I squirm as fear lights me on fire. Another shriek from the village sends my paralyzed feet tearing out from behind the housing.
A gathering in the middle around the neglected fire shows hunched women, shaking, holding their mouths. Approaching with caution, I meet Alexander’s gaze and hold it, unsure of why. Gasps and frightened murmurs fill my ears but still I let my mutated irises burn into him over the noise of the crowd.
“Who is she?” someone asks. Alexander brings his attention to the one who spoke—our high lady, Europa. Chaotic voices erupt when Scarlet’s mother breaks through the sea of bodies and, holding back her vomit, knocks into me as she runs away. Working my way through the crowd, I catch a glimpse of her.
Straw colored hair with blood staining the tips, a young woman lies on the ground at Lady Europa’s feet. Her leg twists up, locked in a frightening position over her head, and blood pours from her orifices.
“I do not know who she is,” Oliver, from the hunting party says. “We were returning and heard her whimpering from behind the bushes.” A brown crusted hand shakily rubs across his forehead and several of his hunting companions nod in a state of horror. They’re thinking of their wives, their daughters…
“We ran her here right away,” says another called Horatio, his voice quavering with the shake of his body. “But she died in my arms.”
Our Lord Tiberius, next to his ruling bride, raises a quieting hand. “I will inquire within our closest settlement to see where it is she ran from.” Europa turns from him, her face shading a sickly ivory. This girl may not have run from a human settlement at all. There are tales of the alien creatures keeping humans for slaves. Maybe they tired of her and she was dragged into the forest to be brutalized then left for dead.
“Brother,” Tiberius continues, “does she look familiar to you? I cannot place her.”
Alexander kneels beside the crumpled girl and, without regard, I snake through the villagers to get closer. “Maybe from Outlying area four, if I’m right.” He runs a finger down her cheek, leaving a light trail against the red. “Poor darling. One of those things got her.” Europa bristles as he gestures to the crimson trail pooling underneath her. “Classic signs of their bestial lust. Savages.” He stands and I muse at him, wondering where exactly he was an hour ago, before she was found.
Europa, her composure recovered as though never lost, says, “Our cloaking device is fully active. We are safe.” Her commanding presence speaks to her many years of leading and defending a lost people. “I must ask that you go to your beds immediately. Tonight is no time for celebration.” A few men throw water from the pond onto our celebratory flames and the loud hiss startles me. Europa bows her head and interlaces her fingers in front of her. “We must all be as quiet as possible tonight. The work day will continue as usual tomorrow morning.”
“Calypso,” comes my mother’s voice and, as she touches my shoulder, I whip around to meet her in a quick hug. She hurries us through the scattering crowd.
As we move, Finn cuts in front of us. “You’re all right,” he says taking my hand. “When I heard they had found a girl outside the village…”
Eyeing our touching interaction, Momma cuts in sweetly. “We are very lucky it wasn’t any of ours. May the ground take her now into its restful earth so she may become part of all that gives us life.” He lets go and gives a worried half-smile.
I think of what Alexander did to me tonight and bow my head. Being ashamed makes no sense; I had no control over what happened, but it still somehow transforms me into something even less worthy of him. Such an act has never crossed my mind, no matter what Scarlet and I discussed secretly, our curiosity wandering to sexual discussions after our chores were through. I had certainly never read it in a book. “Goodnight,” I say, as strained and uncomfortable as I feel, and Momma pulls me away.
The door of our little abode slams shut and Momma suffocates the fire with a wet rag. The cold of Hollow’s-Eve time presses into my nerves within minutes as I stand motionless against the wall. Momma pulls on an extra shall and pulls out the food storage containers. “What did the Koridon do to that girl?” I finally manage. We’ve been warned that those creatures kill women, but that outsider, with her body broken and the blood still pouring from her intimate opening, that was beyond imagination.
She pauses mid motion, the full tray of vegetables shriveled and cold upon the counter. “Those things out there…They destroyed our world, and if they find a human female, they will ravage her to death. They can’t help it.”
“That’s the same story I’ve—wait, what do you mean, they can’t help it?”
She waves me over to have some of the untouched food but my stomach roils at the sight of it. She shovels soggy carrot and squash into the container. “I think it would be remiss of me to deny that those creatures have no feelings. No goodness.”
“But, they don’t.” The stories handed down over time tell that two hundred years ago, the Koridons came down from the sky and wiped out every major city on the planet, their advanced weaponry unlike anything our world had ever seen.
If not for the Koridons’ own cloaking devices that a few of the brave were able to steal from them, we would have been hunted down and killed already. A tremble rocks through me, remembering again the sensation of the satiny organ jamming in and out of my mouth. The uncomfortable widening of my jaw. What could have done such damage to that girl?
Momma unties her auburn locks and they bounce around her waist as she tucks into her cot. “I once came into contact with one.” She pulls the covers over her head.
With an inward gasp, I kneel down and rip the covers back. “Tell me everything! How did you survive?”
She scoots back up to sitting. “I was transferring to this sector when I was younger. My mother, as you know, had passed away from the coughing sickness when I was very young and, with no one left, I had to come here to find an aunt on my father’s side.”
I always knew she was from another colony. She has spoken of the ones she used to know over the years, and I always found it so fascinating, other people from other places. She comes from a strange village up north, where heavy snowfall keeps them protected as the alien intruders do not like the cold. Although I have never seen snow before, it still feels as real to me as the oceans and deserts I’ve read about.
“We were resting on the first night of our travels, and the woman on lookout had nodded off. I woke to something crouching beside the older girl next to me, and in that second, she was ripped from her bed without a sound.” She jumps up and slides the drapes over the small crack of night showing through the window.
Fol
lowing her every movement, I can’t believe she’s never told me any of this before. “What happened to her? Did you find her body the next morning?”
“I was too afraid to move!” She settles back into her blankets. “I kept telling myself, get up, say something, scream, anything. But I thought if I did, that thing would kill us all. Growing up, I’d always heard what they did to women. It was too late for her, but I’d hoped his lust would be sated enough for us to keep our lives.”
I heard a group of men speaking once in the dining hall about the possibility that the alien creatures now roamed the land in a feral state, having underestimated our atmosphere’s harshness. They thought that while the Koridons may have once been an incredible species, after many cruel years they had become animalistic in nature, chewing their way through survival.
“I watched with wide eyes all night,” Momma says, clutching her blanket. “But he didn’t return. At first light, she stumbled back in beside me and I couldn’t believe it. She just stared into the sky, her body shaking.” The way my mother gazes into nothingness now, the girl she speaks of seems to come alive inside her.
“She survived? Oh, fuck!”
“It doesn’t sound nice when you say that, Caly,” she says, smiling toward the book lying by my cot, “but she did survive. I must have stared at her for hours that day, looking for some sign of what had happened to her. She limped, telling the leader she had twisted her ankle, but I saw the scratches on her, the dried blood. The swelling of her lips.” She murmurs with remembrance, enchantment sweeping her away. “Something about her sparkled, a hidden grin behind her blank expression.”
“What does it mean?” Did she like what was done to her?
She shrugs and turns on her side. “I’ll never know. But it made me wonder about the ones we fear. I’ve even had a sense of peace since that day, a gift I carry around with me. Hope.”