CHAPTER 6
REBOUND
FALAX
I hate this. I hate everything about it, including the fact that I had to leave Becca behind. My heart is throbbing in my chest, sinking and twisting in horrible ways that I start to worry I won’t even make it to Alani’s planet. It was a huge risk leaving my wife behind to carry out the rest of this mission. I knew she wouldn’t understand, especially when I tried to explain this weird feeling I had that was drawing me to Alani. I felt that there wasn’t a better way to describe that to her without her losing her mind.
I lower the dropship, following the coordinates past the horizon of Proxima Twelve. My head is spinning, possibly from the anxiety of carrying out the rest of this mission, or possibly because once I’ve done my part I’ll have to face Becca again and she’s not going to be happy. I only know that this is going to put a strain on our newly forged marriage, and there’s got to be something I can do to make up for it.
Alani’s place has certainly changed thanks to the incredible wealth she’s accumulated over the years. I step out of the ship and walk towards a massive set of golden stairs leading into an enormous mansion. A lanky four-armed butler hustles down to greet me. “Ms. Alani is in her room,” he explains hastily as he leads me towards the house. “She says she’s been expecting you today.”"Really?" I ask. My heart does a strange flutter. Suddenly, I'm back to another time, the first time I went back to Alani's place. The rest is certainly a blur. The last time I saw her was from the window of my cockpit as I flew away, my clothes bloodied and torn from my escape. To this day I'm not even sure what happened to me. Hopefully, by talking to her, I can get some answers.
I’m guided through her enormous house. She has certainly upgraded from her swanky penthouse apartment. Another giant staircase takes up the foyer, and the open room is lined with dozens of doors. Who knows where all of them lead? Probably to her sex dungeon or something, which may have been the place I had escaped from.
We head into a dining room, where a long table stretches from our side of the room all the way to the other end, hundreds of chairs tucked into it. All of them are empty except for one at the very very end. I can see the white speck that is Alani, but her voice booms through the high-ceiling room. “Falax, darling!” She cries. “Um, I’m not your—“ Before I can finish, she shoos the butler away and leaps onto the table. She rushes forward with incredible speed and ends up in front of me in a matter of seconds.
“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t come,” she pouts, her soft lip doing a strange quiver that makes me feel a little odd. A strange want, perhaps. No. Think of Becca. Think of that great beautiful body, her lovely musical laugh. Not this. Not Alani staring down at me with her massive blue eyes. “I have some business I need to conduct with you,” I say, straightening myself up.
“Ooh, do tell,” she swoons, stepping off the table. She’s wearing a flowy gown that wavers around her, almost like water. The neck sweeps far down past her sternum, the opposing sides of the dress struggling to hold in her breasts. I don’t stare, but I’m feeling a little lightheaded again.
She guides me to her ‘office,’ as she calls it, which looks more like an aquarium of some kind to me. There’s a desk in front of it though, so I’ll give her that. I try to keep my distance the best that I can, but somehow Alani ends up by my elbow whenever she’s trying to show me something. “I’m not here for a pleasure visit,” I tell her firmly. She shakes her head. “What a shame,” she says. “I thought you were. I certainly don’t see your wife anywhere.” "Don't talk about my wife," I say, my knees shaking a bit. I feel a sharp pang of guilt piercing my stomach. I think about Becca's suggestion. We could have done this together, but for some horrible reason, I had it in my head that we couldn't. It's like something is penetrating my mind, preventing me from thinking rationally.
“I’m here for the gems,” I remind Alani as she sorts through her massive desk. “I’m sorry,” she says. “When you say gems do you mean my Hearts of Reina?” She presses her delicate hand lightly against her bare chest, just barely pushing at the clinging fabric.
“Well, you know,” I stutter. “They’re technically Kagin’s Hearts of Reina.”
“I see,” she says. “And as a smuggler, you should know that these kind of things aren’t just given to you for free.”
She sits on her desk, crossing one leg over the other. I turn away so I don’t see her lacy panties glittering underneath the layers of her dress. She knows what she’s doing, and I know that I have to get these gems and get out fast before she pulls any weird tricks. First I just need to know where the hell they are.
“You said you’re into precious gems now,” I remind her. “Would you be interested in a possible trade?” "A trade? For Hearts of Reina? Surely you don't have anything more valuable than that." She's caught me. I certainly have no idea where I'd find anything rarer than the ones she's got locked away. I rack my brain, trying desperately to improvise but Alani is such a distraction. My mind picks up a particular image, one sparkling gem that could possibly pique her interest. "My wife's wedding ring," I say. Of course, I don't mean it, but I know it's the right thing to say. Alani's jaw drops, exposing her tiny pair of fangs as she gasps in surprise. I'm expecting her to laugh or to shun me away, but instead, she claps her pale hands together with delight, shaking her arms with such excitement that her breasts wiggle under her dress.
“My, what a negotiator you’ve turned out to be,” she says as she pushes herself off from the desk and saunters over to me. I take a few steps back, but she’s already inches from my face. “I guess it’s true. I really do have an effect on men, especially if you’re willing to sacrifice your marriage.”
“Not my marriage,” I clarify. “Just the ring.” The corner of Alani’s mouth twitches, giving a strange air of crazy to her smile before it fades. “I see,” she says, slightly disappointed. “When will you deliver the goods, then?”
“I’ll return to my ship, and bring it back,” I say, trying to mask the tension in my voice. “But first, I need to make sure you actually have the Hearts of Reina.”
On my flight over here, I concocted a hasty plan: Say a couple things to Alani, get her all excited with a trade, get her to show me the goods (the gems, not like… well you know what I mean) steal said goods while they're exposed, and bounce out of there before she sinks her hooks into me again.
My plan is halfway into fruition until Alani surprises me. I check my surroundings. There's no safe, no painting on the wall with a secret compartment, just her in this dress. My feet start to feel like lead weights, and suddenly the possibility of escape doesn't seem very clear. "You've been looking at them this whole time," she says. She must recognize the confusion on my face because she slowly begins to pull down the straps of her gown. I put out my hands to stop her. "That won't be necessary," I tell her, but she shoves my hand away. "No, silly," she says with a high-pitched giggle. "I really am carrying them."
In a flash, she drops her gown to the floor. It piles around her, and I avert my eyes from her lacy glittery undies once more. "Being true to the name," she says, her hands trailing down her chest, over her breasts, and towards her stomach. "I kept the gems in a very safe place. Close to my own heart."
The next few seconds are the most horrifying seconds of my life as she digs her fingers into the flesh of her sides. With a sickening rip, she pulls apart her own ribcage. Her flesh tears easily from bone as she opens herself up like some kind of fucked up kitchen cabinet. I stumble back, trying to catch myself and my breath as I see the Hearts of Reina sparkling in a glass tube lodged in her chest, next to her throbbing purple heart.
I wish I could say, “Nah, I’m good.” But I’m on a mission here, and if I’m being hasty, I’ll have to reach right in and rip them out myself. Before I can, though, she closes herself back up, her skin snapping perfectly into place as if nothing happened. “Scared, Falax?” She says. I feel like something is up now. I figure it’s better to li
ve a life dodging Kagin than to die in the horrible clutches of this monster. “Not scared, just a little grossed out,” I make the mistake of saying. “I think I’ve had just about enough of this freak show. Keep your gems. I’ll take my chances with Kagin.”
Alani grabs for my throat before I can turn to leave. So much for a graceful exit. "So soon?" She asks, but instead of her loving smile, she looks at me with heated malice. She leans her face closer to mine, and just…breathes. But there's something sinister about it. My head is pounding now with a horrible headache. I'm dizzy again, and suddenly I begin to realize this situation is starting to be a lot like one that happened a long time ago.
With incredible strength that I didn't even know she had, she throws me across her marbled floor. I squeal to a stop, trying to recover myself but it's too late. She's bounding towards me. In a desperate attempt to contact Becca for backup, I pull out my communication device. The screen flashes as it starts to record. I don't have much time. "Alani's house!" I cry out, my face sweating and my breathing heavy. "Proxima Six! You have to—" In the screen, I can see Alani's near-naked body and before I know it, I'm thrown onto my back with her milky white legs straddling over me.
I barely have time to even transmit the message before she lashes a dark, long, spider-like leg at me. Then…familiar darkness.
CHAPTER 7
MISUNDERSTANDING
BECCA
I’ve been telling myself over and over it can’t be true. I’ve watched Falax’s transmission dozens of times, just trying to understand…why? Why would he go off on his own? Why would he film himself with his ex, let alone send it to me? The image of her on top of him is still burned into my retinas, and I clutch the steering wheel of our main ship with white knuckles at the thought of her putting her filthy hands on him.
The first time I saw it, I was completely floored. Falax crawling towards the camera, his mouth moving but for some reason, there isn't any audio. Maybe he's trying to warn me of something. Maybe he did realize that it was dangerous for him to go alone. Or maybe I'm just making that up to feel better about all of this. I can't help but feel this nagging feeling in the back of my mind. All I can see is him drenched in sweat, his breath heavy as I see those legs wrapped around him. It's almost hard to believe that it's not intentional.
Of course, I drank a lot. Went through the whole bottle of my best stuff. It's all too familiar like I'm on my cross-country road trip in my beat up van again. In that life I was alone, and I'm starting to feel like I'm getting closer to that life a little bit more.
I know Falax would never hurt me like that, but after the argument, we had about him wanting to go see her again, and alone for that matter, only left me with more questions about him. I decided that I needed a second opinion, and I had just the person who could help me. Maybe then I could know if Falax was sending a warning or if he was as intoxicated creating the message as I was when I watched it.
The door of the tiny restaurant opens, and Quin peeks her giant eyes through the open crack. Even on other planets, a girl can recognize another girl in need. Once Quin sees my distressed state. She yanks me inside her ‘hovel' and places me directly in one of her spinning chairs. A cart is wheeled towards me with a freshly brewed cup of tea without any more questions. This is why we're such good friends.
Quin sets herself down, crossing her spindly legs and taking off her goggles that resemble chameleon eyes. "Someone screwed up," she says bluntly. I really, really don't want to cry, especially when I don't have all the details. But I find my face growing hot, a lump forming in my throat, and it's only a matter of time until my teacup is ten percent tea and ninety percent saltwater.
“Falax sent me this transition,” I bawl. “He went on a solo mission to his ex’s house. All the signs point to something wrong, but I don’t have the audio to find out if he’s really doing what I think he’s doing. I mean, he can’t really be cheating on me, right? We just got married, but this is the only time he’s ever brought her up and I’m worried that—“
I pause to sniffle, looking up to see Quin’s eyes wider than I’ve ever seen them. She puffs up her cheeks, what she usually does in uncomfortable situations. “Wow,” she says with a deep breath. “I guess I wasn’t prepared for the…depth of this situation. I thought he maybe forgot to clean up around the ship or something.”
“I wish it were that simple!” I say with another sniff. Quin searches around her desk space, awkwardly pawing at stacks of papers until she finds a tissue with some black grease stains on it. She hands it to me, and I’m a little wary of blowing my nose into it. It’s somewhat comforting nevertheless.
“Sorry,” Quin says. “I was just caught off guard a little bit. I don’t get out of here much if you couldn’t already tell. My counseling is a little…rusty.”
I stare into my cracked mug, feeling tired and confused, and just plain irritated. Damn it, I really wasn’t prepared for this. “But you mentioned something about missing audio?” She adds. I nod quietly, and she extends her lengthy fingers out towards me. “Cough it over,” she says. “I’ll see what I can do.”
I hand her my transmission device and she gets to work. The squeaky wheels of her chair scoot up as she pulls down a large monitor hanging onto a long arm of some sort. I watch with interest and anxiousness as she connects her flurry of wires to the device. The screen crackles to life as my last video message from Falax begins to silently play on repeat. Again, the pain stabs into my chest as I see him crawling on the floor. He looks like he's moaning. "Yeesh," Quin says as she fast-forwards frame by frame through the video. "This is quite the accidental message if you ask me."
She looks over to see my infuriated expression and shrinks further down into her seat. "Ah, see? Social cues…not at peak capacity right now." She painfully rewinds the video, playing it over and over. "Welp, I think you have your answer," she finally says. "Just give it to me straight," I tell her plainly. I'd rather just know the truth and get on with my life. "So quick to judge," Quin says shaking her head. "He's definitely not cheating on you, Becca. See for yourself."
As she goes through it again, frame by frame, there's something odd that captures my attention. Right after that trash bag ex of his climbs on top of him, there's something thin and dark that inches down from the top of the screen. "It's here," Quin says, pointing to the thin line. "And if I just scrub a little bit further…it's there too." Towards the very end of the video, almost impossible to see upon normal viewing, is another spindly black leg, almost like a spider. It spreads out from behind the girl's pale leg before the video cuts off.
“So, he’s into spider chicks is what you’re telling me?” I ask. Quin gives me a grave stare. “Falax was never into her,” she explains. “There’s a reason why he’s never told you about their relationship.”
“And what’s that?” I ask.
“Because he doesn’t remember a single second of it,” she explains. I feel a strange void forming in the pit of my stomach. “But that’s impossible,” I say. “He’s called her his ex. How does that show he doesn’t remember her at all?”
“Because his ex was a Yansi. They’re a rare species, but certainly very powerful.”
“Must be their looks, right?”"Well, that's part of it. Yansis are very beautiful in their humanoid form. Similar to a black widow spider on your planet, a Yansi lures its prey with its charm as well as the special pheromone that they secrete. Once they latch onto someone, they can render them unconscious for long periods of time whilst sucking the very life out of them."
In my head, I can almost hear a bomb going off. It all makes sense now. “If we just unscramble some of these frequencies…ah, there we go. Let’s see what your man has to say now,” she says as she plays it again. The same scene plays, but the context is totally different now. “Alani’s house! Proxima Six! You have to—“ Falax’s terrified cries blare through the tiny workspace, and all of a sudden I feel like a complete idiot.
“He’s in danger,” I rea
lize. “I have to get to Proxima Six right now.”
“Becca, there’s a reason why Falax wanted to go alone. If threatened by the opposite sex, the Yansi will become extremely aggressive and powerful in its true form. If you’re going to Proxima Six, you’re going to need a great cover.” "I'm all about that," I say. Though my streak isn't too hot right now with our big Kagin mess up. Perhaps this is my chance to really set things right and to save my husband from being eaten alive by that…monster.
“What do I have to—“ I begin, but nearby a printer is already at work. “I did some digging,” Quin says as she snatches a fresh paper from the printer. “Wow, in those three seconds I was talking?” I ask."I'm a multitasker, what can I say?" Quin shrugs as she hands me a shimmering card of some kind. I tilt it back and forth, the golden letters shining up at me: I hereby grant you an invitation to the annual Golden Gala. Dress code: Black Tie.
I skim through the rest of the formalities. “Alani has this every year,” Quin says. “I’ve heard it’s one of the largest gatherings of gangsters and real bad boys…and ladies too.” I can almost see the fantasy in her eyes. She has a weird thing for notorious criminals, a strange fascination with smugglers and the like. “I hope you got something nice to wear,” she adds.
“I’ve got something in mind,” I say, my mind already wandering. “Thank you, Quin, for everything.” "Anytime," she says. "Wait! I almost forgot." She springs from her seat, digging through a box of electronics until she pulls something out. "You're going to need this," she says, holding out a small lipstick-tube sized device. "It's going to cause a hell of a ruckus."
CHAPTER 8
FINESSE
BECCA
Once again I find myself in heels. Apparently, black tie is understood on all corners of the galaxy, so there was no way I could get away with sneakers. I can feel every part of me shaking, the gems hanging from my gown making small tinkling noise as I take a nervous sip from a complimentary glass of champagne. I'm in the back of a hovering limousine. The people on Proxima Six don't play around here, and luckily I was able to bribe one of the last available cars for my grand entrance.
Forbidden Reunion (Galaxy Smugglers Book 2) Page 4