V O N: The Devourer from the Stars

by Tracy Gilmore

  The air hissing sound began to fade from my ear and I thought she changed her mind or a more tempting item caught her attention. Like an idiot, I peered open one eye to see her. Why in the hell did I do that?

  Both my brows rose as I saw her image. A full size squatting behemoth with bulging gorilla type arms, legs covered in fur and her mouth was big enough to not only take my head but swallow my whole body. The bright flash of light from a passing car allowed me a moment to see just what the cat had to endure. Deep in her throat was nothing but rows and rows of sharp teeth ready to tear my flesh off and torture me for however long it would take to kill me. The shimmer of Sparkles collar hung on a back tooth and the stench of blood filled my nose.

  My legs finally got the connection my brain was telling it long ago, to get the hell up and run. I wasn’t just going to sit here and let this thing eat me. I may not be able to completely fight it off but I’d be damned if I was just going to die so easily. My eyes darted to my escape and I found the courage to scramble off the floor. My first inclination being to scream my throbbing head off.

  V59ON7

  I phased through the door and saw the female on the floor. My vision allows me to see all in the room, much like the night vision most Earth creatures have, but I can also see heat signatures. It was unusual the female appeared in a soft yellow. She didn’t seem this way from the vidscreen, I will need to investigate later. Right now I had to take care of the beast on the verge of attacking the female.

  The creature before her, one I am all too familiar with, the Suuwok. No one knows the source, or leader of the Suuwok but any who go there do not live to tell the tale. They are death dreamers. What little we do know of them, they enter one’s dreams manifesting themselves into what a being fears the most and when the specimen reaches a pleasing mortified scent, they kill them in their sleep or in real time just to make the victim more pleasurable to eat.

  Which one in particular this one happens to be is hard to tell, their species are of one mind so their voices overlap and their faces don’t have any distinctive markings to tell them apart.

  They will eat anything. Much like sharks on Earth, they do not care where their meal comes from as long as they can feast.

  I hear her whispers for the creature to not be real. She must be under the impression she is under an alcoholic illusion. She scurries up to her feet coming towards me and stumbles back. My nose is tickled with an enticing aroma. I glance towards the creature the scent isn’t from there. I turn to the female leaning forward, inhaling deeply. The scent is from her! What a divine fragrance. My mouth overflows salivating. I must have her now.

  “Captain, do you see the creature? Is the female still alive? My sensors detect an elevated heart rate and blood pressure.”

  The robots voice clears my thoughts. The females fear has erupted a need in me to eat. She was so succulent, so alluring. She was frightened of me which makes her an even more tantalizing treat.

  “Away foul beast, she is mine!” The creature roars distracting me further from consuming the female. I turn my sights on the Suuwok, my weapon ready to strike it down. I don’t have time for a debate, or to fight the creature. I will take my meal to go.

  MIREYA

  “HELP ME!!!” I roared with the effort of breath I had.

  ‘Thunk’

  I hit something hard and fell back to the floor. I shook my head glancing up at the object blocking my exit. Had I hit the door and didn’t realize how close I was to it?

  Often in a nightmare when you run to a door, or any way out, it usually turns into a long tunnel and running makes it further away, but I couldn’t have hit the door that soon. I lifted my eyes to see just what I ran into and my mouth opened but no screams came out.

  It was tall, almost to the top of my eight foot ceiling. Its body was hard to make out from the dark. The shape when I went to look past it was wider than the door and its arms were as big as one of my legs. It extended one of them out to me and I backed away from it.

  Things went from being ‘fucked up’ to ‘oh shit I’m really gonna die’ when I heard the growl of the beast behind me.

  “Be gone foul creature. You have no business here.” The female creature hissed.

  “It is you that has no business here. This one is mine.” The thing in front of me, a male, stated. Its voice was deep, commanding. His words sounded as if they were too loud in my head and not in the room. I rattled my brainpan, in the same fashion people do when they get feedback from a microphone. When I could look back at the dark shape, I began to cry again. Now I have two monsters in my apartment and they were fighting over me.

  If one is here to eat me, then what is the other creature here for?

  Another flash of light helped me to find my voice again but only scratchy huffs of screams came out. I got a glimpse of the monster, the male thing at the door, not the female thing behind me, and it was hideous.

  It had the body of a snake, with long human type arms covered in black scales and its eyes were the color of forest green with the narrowest of black irises. The mouth opened slowly at first to reveal two inch fangs protruding from the top and one inch fangs at the bottom and it too, was drooling.

  Can this night get any worse? Is this a new version of an alcoholic’s hallucination? If so, I will never drink again. I mean really, what are the odds that two nightmarish beings, who could have chosen a better victim, would want me at the same damn time?

  Wait, I never had a nightmare about a giant snake.

  Panting long slow breaths, I was calming myself down to hopefully attract some assistance. I know the walls of these apartments are thick, but maybe some nosey neighbor would hear my cries. I inhaled deeply, with the intention to scream as loud and as long as I could, but my breath was cut short by the latching of a long moist scaly sticky thing around my waist. It had a strong sour smell, resembling a garbage bin in the summer sun, and it was coiling tightly around me.

  Before I could react I was yoked across the room and held up in the air. My hands gripped the slimy piece but I couldn’t pry it off. It was clinging to me. It was identical to double stick tape only stronger. Great now my hands are stuck.

  “We are Zolian, commander of the Arthek. We know of your kind. This female, she means nothing to you, find yourself another.” The female creature hissed in a long drawn out statement.

  The male began to let out an intense hiss of its own and slithered quickly towards the female creature.

  “I do not care to know your name or your ship. If you know of my kind then you know I will not bow out for the likes of you. I take what I want.” He said then there was another bright light, not from a car on the street but in the apartment. It was a goldenrod color. It appeared and disappeared so quickly I don’t know where it came from but in the instance I saw it, the death grip the beasts tongue had on me was gone and I was falling to the floor.

  Good thing I am fat, or else the two foot plummet might have hurt. Actually it did, but I couldn’t grip anything to stop the process. I landed on my hip, and felt a sprain in my foot. The Velcro tongue thing was still wrapped around me, and now there was the issue of the other creature wanting me. I couldn’t fight him off, run away, or even get up. I jerked my hands to free myself and it was not working.

  The male thing crept closer to me, its fangs retracting, which still didn’t make me feel any better than I was a second ago, but as I glanced over to the other monster whose organs were ruining the hardwood floor, I figured I was going to be okay. So what does the other creature want with me?

  “Don’t think for one second I am here to save you. It didn’t matter which one of us got you, you’re still going to die. Its just that my need for you is greater. Now hold still.” He told me in a rushed angered tone.

  My abruptness to get away was being halted by the super glue and gradually my hands began to feel numb. Soon there was a tingling sensation traveling up my arms immobilizing them. I also felt the tingle around my waist and it was c
reeping its way down to my legs.

  What is happening to me? I pondered.

  “What is wrong with you?” I was asked quite rudely. The snake creature gripped my arm tightly drawing my attention to it. “I asked you what’s wrong.” He demanded.

  I parted my lips, still shocked it, he, the snake man was talking to me. His large eyes weren’t as far apart as a snakes, his face rounded in the front. The scales shone in the light. The slits on the front of his face I can only guess to be his nose but there was some black tube dangling from them. Eww. Alien boogers.

  “Think what you want to say, if you can’t speak.” He told me. Bringing my attention back to the action in the room.

  “I—I can’t feel my fingers. P—please don’t eat me.” I thought to him.

  “Can you feel pressure here?” He asked annoyed squeezing my toes.

  “No, I can’t feel anything.” I mentally told him unable to shake my head.

  “It’s the tongue, its paralyzing you.” He grunted as if offended.

  The snake creature gripped a part of the disgusting thing then opened its mouth which made my heart skip and I jerked away. It tugged me back towards him to drool on the attachment then there was a fizzing sound. It apparently was able to get the Velcro sticky tape off me.

  I kept staring at the creature, it rarely glanced my way. It was so focused on getting me free.

  As scary as the snake man looked, it wasn’t as threatening at the moment while it was helping me. It did so with such ease I felt as though it really wanted to assist me. My knight in black scaly armor. But why does it want to kill me? What is it here for? Why is it helping me? So I thought to ask it.

  “Why are you…”

  The door flung open, I heard Warren screaming then there were gunshots. The snake man wrapped his arms around me, covering me with its massive body. His shoulders fanned out like a shield and I heard him grunt as each shot was fired. I hunched inside of his arms afraid a bullet would pierce him and hit me but the gentle brief caress of his arms around me made me feel safe.

  In the moments I was in his arms, I was breathing too heavily to ignore the scent but he smelled of smoke. Not a burnt choking scent but the lingering aroma of summer barbeques caught in the wind mixed with the fresh scent of wood. I found it weird that he smelled good. I mean did aliens know of cologne or soap or was it the gunfire I was smelling? When the shooting stopped, he exposed his fangs again, its mouth open wide enough to take me in with one gulp.

  Tears fell from the corners of my eyes. I heard Warren ranting and grunting then the tug on my body. I was happy Warren was here, but now that he was, will he be in as much danger as I am? Will the snake creature want to kill him too?

  But then I thought about it more. Warren thinks only of himself. He threatened me earlier and if the giant snake hadn’t been here, Warren would have fired those bullets on me. So three individuals wanted me dead. Wonderful.

  With my body completely immobilized from the tongue, I eventually slumped over. Warren and the snake fought briefly. I saw Warren’s body hit the wall and then the floor. I could barely make out how badly hurt the snake was. Its motions slowed as it turned to face me again, its fangs retracted, his wide shoulders slimmed down and his appearance not an angered one. He lifted its hand before me and a mist made me choke. I had so many questions I wanted to ask, things I wanted to say but soon the once vivid image of the snake-man faded from my sight.

  V59ON7

  I pulled out my laser scalper to slice the demon in half. Threatening to eat my specimen offended me greatly. It lurched towards the female and with one swift flick of my wrist, I removed the head. Its internal organs were spilling everywhere, the foul stench turning my nose. I tended to the female, the urge to eat her no longer in my mind. She resisted my assistance. Why do humans make things so difficult?

  I questioned her, after telling her my true intentions, and she fidgets. She parted her lips but there was no sound. Her vocal cords must have been affected by the venom. I checked to see just how far the effect was. She watched me carefully then began to question me. Why she would think I would desire to eat her now? I guess after the Suuwok tried to eat her, I’m not much of different option, but I don’t consume raw meat.

  I move my hands to the lower part of her body. Inquiring as I go along. It was as I suspected. The toxin has reached her lower extremities. I need to get her to the ship as quick as possible. I began the process to remove the tongue, my saliva acts as a dissolvent, it will not harm her. I just need to get enough…

  Before I could get a decent amount off and stop her rambling thoughts, there was a loud slam and shouting from a male then several sharp pains in my back. I instinctively covered the female. Why?

  Her soft warm heavily scented body was pressed against mine, her head resting upon my chest. She huddled herself closer to me flinching with each blast of the weapon. I had to remind myself she was a meal and needed to focus on the threat in the room.

  When the noise stopped I turned to see where it had come from. It was the male she had evicted. Warren.

  Was he coming back for her or was his intention to kill her? I have no time for this. The discharging of his weapon will alert too many people. I have to stop all actions until I can get out of here.

  Activating the kvich, a small orbital clock to stop time outside of the building, I only have a few minutes to get the female out before anyone else comes in. I hissed at the male as he came at me again.

  “Mireya! What the…what the fuck are you doing to her! How in the hell did you….what in the hell are you?” the male shouted between stuttered words and half sentences. “Get the fuck away from her!”

  The constant clicking of his weapon was annoying, even after it was empty he was still pressing on the mechanism. I noticed the way his gaze widened and then he was palming his head as he saw the female on the floor. He then turned his sights back on me throwing the weapon my way possibly out of frustration.

  “You son of a bitch, you killed her!” he roared coming at me with his fists balled.

  I used my tail to knock him into the wall.

  Stupid human. He didn’t have a chance at fighting me, he is fortunate I don’t have time to kill him now.

  He lifted his head for a moment then fell back down. I groaned from the burning sensation of the metal orbs as they exited my skin, then attended to the female by putting her to sleep before transporting us to the ship.

  “Robot!” I shouted taking her to the medicinal chamber.

  “Yes Captain.” The robot replied then curved its head at me. “Captain, you are injured.”

  I barely noticed blood dripping down my arm. Some of my wounds were already in the stages of healing, a natural process for my species.

  “A Suuwok was there to get the female.”

  “A Suuwok? They are known to be in the area. What did it want with the female?”

  “Didn’t ask. I killed it. She’s paralyzed and under a sleep stasis. Remove the rest of the tongue before it kills her.”

  “Very well Captain. What about our departure?”

  “We will leave shortly, there are just a few things I need to take care of. Just make sure she is secured for travel.”

  “Yes Captain.”

  My mission was to go in quickly and quietly. Now I will need to dispose of many things to make the scene in the residence appear vacant. I can only hope I got her to the robot in time to save her. It would be a waste of food if I hadn’t.

  Heading to the control center of the ship I locked onto the female’s DNA in the residence and transported the entire space. Every item she has touched is now in a secured Earth-friendly storage room.

  “Robot!” It came quickly towards me.

  “Captain, I have her strapped and ready for the jump sir.”

  “Good, get us out of here now.”

  V59ON7

  Since we were a good distance away from Earth, my wounds have healed and the robot scanned the area further for th
e Suuwok ship, I was curious to know what they wanted with the female. A series of tests had to be done immediately.

  “Robot, attach the Caros stone to the female.”

  “Yes Captain.”

  The Caros stone is an oval shaped monitoring unit found in the outer rim of Therion. Many beings use the stone, claiming it to be a piece of jewelry, in order to control the individual wearing it.

  While the female was still sedated I activated the Caros control device and the stone seared itself to her skin without burning her. Once attached, only I can remove it.

  “Robot, strap her to the table then prepare her for the Virtual Orbital Device.”

  “Yes Captain.”

  The ‘VOD’ allows me to place her in a realm where she can see and feel as if she were really there. The other attachments the robot was placing on her enable me to retrieve the necessary fluids to understand the reasoning of the Suuwok. Very much like how humans view aliens probing them, she would not want to be awake while the robot attaches the collection tubes. It would be scarier and more painful than her normal nightmare.

  Activating the test. I searched for her last images, where her fear was at its highest. Her face twitches and her head shakes. Altering the scene to where I do not slay the beast, she screams as the Suuwok grips her in its tongue.

  “Sensory detectors have picked up increased heart rate and elevated blood pressure.” I said as I recorded her activities. “Listening to her display of language is most intriguing. She does exert great stamina. Hopefully she will be a better choice than her male counterparts.”

  “I agree Captain.” The robot announced as it watched the earthling.

  Just before the Suuwok dissolves her, at the peak of her fear, a cloudy liquid expels from her brain into a flask. I turn off the VOD, giving her a serene area, allowing her a moment to rest.