Chapter Four: Skylar

Skylar's eyelids felt like concrete blocks resting on her face, perhaps that's why they wouldn't open. Or maybe it was just completely pitch black. It could be just a dark place after all.

The screaming though, that told her otherwise. It was rage-filled screaming, something that sounded furious and scared all at once, and then there was silence. Had it been Kayla's yell she heard or was she only imagining that it sounded the same?

 Before she could question herself she was already sinking back under the black wave of unconsciousness.

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The next time Skylar surfaced, her mind was clearer than before. Whatever darkness that had been consuming her was receding as she moved a hand to shield her eyes from the fluorescents above. 

Soft clicking sounds began to beat at her throbbing head and demanded her attention.

Maybe it was her clock on the bedside table. The green and white Marvin Martian - and K-9, she couldn't leave that cute alien pooch out- clock had been hers since she was five and often that clicking sound had helped set her to sleep. But right now she wasn't in the mood to hear it and it was beginning to sound aggravating. 

She rolled over onto her stomach and covered her head with her arms to burrow away but like a chorus of cicadas, the sounds only intensified into a crescendo before she was quickly nudged with a heavy foot. 

Skylar froze for a moment as the feel of fur registered beneath her hands. She was not in her bed. This was not her room either, and that foot did NOT belong to anyone she knew. 

Her stomach dropped like an anchor as the memories clambered back inside her mind. 

Her eyelids snapped open under the safety of her crossed arms, the light was leaking through them just enough to help her adjust. She peeked out from behind her ineffective defenses. There was nothing familiar if you didn't count the seven, maybe eight-foot, giant in the room. 

Nausea began to tingle in her throat as she sat up and scrambled off whatever pelt it had placed her on. She did not expect the foot drop but it didn't bother her that her wrist hurt when she began to wretch. 

Her captor, who had been watching her carefully, quickly slid an empty box-shaped container to her. So it cared for its flooring. It was a civilized creature then.

While it stared in silence she tried to keep her bile down but it didn't work. Alongside her already aching head she threw up what little she had in her system until there was nothing left except for choking and dry heaving.

When that finally stopped she laid her head on her arm and stared up hesitantly. Her vision wasn't at it's best but she could see it approaching slowly. It was large and a dark color, a shade of green she noticed as her vision came back into focus.

It stopped halfway from her, looking down as she looked up. 

She didn't know if it would hurt her, but she wasn't sure she had it in her to fight back. Whatever she was dealing with, probably a concussion of some sort, meant she was most definitely not moving.

It lifted a pack, her pack, from the other side of the lofted bed for her to see. She feebly reached out for it but her bag was too far for her and she lowered her hand soon after.

 A low, steady round of clicking sounds began emitting from it as it tilted its head. The sound didn't seem like it was aggressive since it's body language was calm as it edged a bit closer. 

Even though it was so massive it almost seemed wary of her, the distance between them did not go unnoticed by Skylar though she was admittedly grateful for it.  She took a deep breath and glanced around the room for analysis. 

'Okay, okay, I'm okay. I can get out of this place and find Kayla along the way. I just have to be calm. Oh God, how am I gonna keep calm?' She inhaled deeply once more to soothe her nerves. She didn't need it getting suspicious of her so she turned her eyes off the room and back onto it.

It didn't seem like it mattered though because it was too invested in exploring her bag. There was a sharp click before it dug its claws into the bottom of the bag and sliced it open. Water bottles, jerky, trail mix, two cans of Chef Boyardee, a box of emergency pop tarts for Lala, books and a camera all tumbled out to the floor.

She almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation and the clear fact she overstuffed her bag. She felt like she was on the edge of a breakdown as she choked on her giggles. 'Keep it together, this isn't the time for laughter. You're not dreaming Skylar.'

 It looked at her as she covered her mouth and she stilled completely. Her blue doe eyes gave her the illusion of being prey as she stared at It like a deer in headlights. Though was it an illusion when she was facing what was in front of her?

It raised one of her water bottles, staring at the thin plastic for a moment in silence. She didn't make a sound, she barely even dared breathe while she waited for it to do something.

It turned to face her again before tossing the bottle her way, she would have been grateful really, her throat was sore and her tongue felt thick and dry as cotton, but she could barely move to try and catch it. 

She cried out weakly as it struck her forehead and she leaned back on her palms to support herself. The creature began to release rapid clicks and when its shoulders moved she knew she was being laughed at. 

 "It's not funny" She muttered quietly.

It stopped laughing. 

There was a silence between them as she uncapped her water and drank from it in small doses. She knew that she'd just vomit it all back into that now putrid container and she didn't need to waste her water while she had it. 

 After a moment she decided to ask the question she wanted to be answered most and secretly dreaded the answer to. "Where is Kayla?" 

 "Kayla?" It repeated her name in question. The voice was echoed from inside the strange helmet it wore. 

Skylar's mouth opened in shock. "You-" She paused, she didn't know how long it would talk to her for -it didn't seem like the talkative type-. Her less important questions could wait. "Yes the girl with me, she had blonde hair?" 

That head tilting repeated once again, she was starting to learn what that meant in regards to it. Confusion. 

"Her hair looked like this," she lifted her red-brown waves and held them to her gold locket carefully. It wasn't human, that much was obvious, but maybe it could understand even more of what she was saying than she thought?

It stared in silence as she lowered her arm and hair, a minute past, and then another. "H'chakde's," It finally said.

Her face scrunched in confusion, what language was it speaking? Those clicks and other tones were not anything she had ever worked with before. "I don't understand..." She gave an apologetic look before continuing. "Okay, how about this. Do you know if she's unhurt or not? Is she alive?" 

"Alive,"  The speaker inside the helmet repeated her voice back to her again in response. She was amazed at the intelligence and yet horrified by it too. It was going to be difficult to escape the creature before her.

'Take what you can get, Kayla is alive!' Her mind cheered as she felt her heart rate decrease into a more steady path. It would have been more ideal if Kayla had escaped and alerted authorities, but being alive was the most important part. 

"Who are you?" She spoke softly, eyeing the creature with timid curiosity. It had taken her to where God only knew, it could at least explain something. 

 "Who are you?" It asked back.

She didn't want to answer first but she wasn't in the place to make demands to a seven-foot something, 300 lb, clawed beast. "I am Skylar, Skylar Rosenthal." 

It remained quiet at first before pointing at her, "Servant." The helmet's voice was different this time, not her own but also no one's she recognized. 

"Do you mean to say I was taken to be your servant?" Skylar clenched her hands as she tried to keep her fear and anger in check. 

"Servant." It pointed again and crouched in front of her, yet somehow it still managed to tower. above her like a statue. "Servant" It, no, He, repeated once more before making a clicking sound.

 Up close he was more obviously male with the flat chest and loincloth as evidence. Or maybe it was female, she couldn't really take alien biology as a course in college, could she? But she had to make some form of assumption, call it intuition but she was almost certain it was male.

"Kweide's" again he pointed at her and then to himself. 

"Is that what you are? A Kweide?" She sat up straight to stare at it and gain a more even height advantage. 

It shook its head and placed an open hand onto its chest. "Kweide."

"Then..." She paused as she looked at him. He seemed intent on getting this message across and his body language screamed frustration. "You are called Kweide?" 

The response was immediate, gentle clicks were made and she felt like he was agreeing with her despite not knowing what he was saying. 

"Okay, alright." Skylar nodded, letting out a deep rush of air. "If I am your servant, then what do I call you?"

He did not say anything as he looked away. Did he not want to tell her? Or did he simply not know?

"Kweide,"  He said. 

'I call him by his name? Shouldn't his title be something more...sinister or something? Like Master or the dark alien lord?' She looked at him quizzically. She opened her mouth to speak but another wave of dizziness and nausea hit her.  Whatever else she wanted to say could wait. 

She lifted a hand to her mouth as she tried to settle her stomach. The pelts of fur she had been sleeping on looked mighty inviting at the moment and she wanted nothing more than to go to them for a little longer. "Is this area mine?" She pointed to the furs.

He nodded and then pointed to the bed raised above it, "Kweide's"

"And that's yours..." It made sense she wouldn't have a bed of her own although she felt a little perturbed about it. It didn't matter though since she didn't plan on staying there anyway. The moment her head didn't feel like a woodpecker was making a home inside and she was rested enough to run, she'd find Kayla and get the heck out of dodge.  "Can I see Kayla soon?"

The important part was finding her first. She couldn't try and escape blindly from a place she barely knew. She'd get caught and getting in trouble could spell disaster for them. 

"H'chakde," he stood and looked down at her with a dispassionate stance,  "n'yaka-de". 

She helplessly shook her head, "I don't know what you're saying. I really don't."  With a withdrawn feeling crawling through her body she climbed onto her bed just to get off the cold floor. 

He looked down at her and spoke some more of his unintelligible language, probably trying to explain, but she could only blink at him in confusion before she fell backward onto the pelts and passed clear out. 

He stared at her collapsed body unsure of what to do. So he waited.