AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh yeah. He has…. What’s his name? Kahn. He has Kahn complaining about everything. The guy cannot chill out for even a second. The first time I met me, he hit me. And that’s no way to make friends, you know what I’m saying?”
“Sounds like Kahn,” Zain smirks.
I feel a welling of emotion as I watch this little human who I know does not identify as mine, or my pet, do her very best to cheer Zain up simply because she knows his suffering. I should not be surprised to discover that her own species saw fit to incarcerate her at some point. My pet has a history I am yet to investigate, but she has a spirit that shines through.
“She’s cute,” Zain says, turning his gaze to me. “Be nice to her. Let her go.”
“Yeah. Be nice. Let me go,” Jennifer pipes up swiftly, knowing she has an advantage to press.
“I’m afraid that is not an option,” I reply. “For either one of you.”
“Then why are you here? It’s not a social call, is it, Ark? You don’t come to me unless you want something unspeakable done.”
“I am here because I am your brother. We are family, and family must stay together.”
My pet makes a gesture with a finger into her open mouth. I am briefly mystified as to the possible meaning of it, but the gagging sounds she makes soon clarify. She finds my words sickening. So does Zain, by the looks of things.
“You want something, Ark. You always want something.”
“I want to see you. I want to tell you that I have not forgotten you, and will not forget you. I want you to know that I will be lobbying the council once again for a pardon. All you need do is plead guilty.”
“Never.”
“But you did try to kill Phenix.”
“But I don’t feel guilty about it.”
We have had this conversation many times over the years. I knew he would not be any more remorseful this time than the others, though I had hoped he might have found some remorse in the shadows of his confinement.
“Why did you kill the guy?” My pet pipes up again, all her human curiosity very much on display.
“He killed our father. And I didn’t kill him. I failed.” Zain shoots another dark look at me. “Someone turned me in.”
“Someone stopped you from making the biggest mistake of your life,” I say. “I’m trying to stop you from perpetuating it. You don’t have to spend the rest of your life in prison. You could be free with a proper expression of contrition and a suitable payment to the Wrathelders.”
“Our father would turn in his premature grave if he could hear you say such things. You want to lay down and let them kill us all!”
Suddenly incensed, Zain shakes the bars with rage, his fists turning white at the knuckles with desire to burst free. Unlike my pet, Zain does not yearn for freedom. He yearns for revenge, and his presence here is not so much a punishment for him as it is the only thing preventing him from actually killing the patriarch of the Wrathelders and sparking the closest thing to civil war Euphoria has ever encountered.
Jen
This poor fucking guy. I feel so bad for him. I wish there was some way to break him out of this horrible prison, which is a thousand times worse than the one I got stuck in. There’s no real light here. There’s no hope here. It feels like there’s no air, either, like you could suffocate in the darkness and nobody would notice or care.
“We’re going to get you out,” I tell him. “That’s why we’re here.” I glance back at Ark. “Right? To get you out.”
“That’s sweet, human, but you have no idea what you are talking about. Ark prefers it with me in here. It saves him the trouble of worrying about what I am doing.”
“You don’t belong in here.”
“Jennifer…” Ark’s voice comes from behind me, deep with warning.
“He doesn’t. Anybody can see that. I can’t even fucking see in this shitty light, and I can see that. Let’s break him out!”
“Enough, pet!” Ark’s tone sharpens, and his voice deepens with an authoritative bass that makes me fall silent, not with respect, but with resentment. I don’t like being told to be quiet. I don’t like being snapped at, either. And I especially don’t like being dragged down into some fucked up alien prison to see someone who seems pretty cool suffering a fate he doesn’t deserve.
Zain chuckles, but not with real amusement. It is a dark, bitter sound.
“Careful, brother,” he purrs. “You can’t control everybody by yelling. That one looks like a rebel, and that leash does not look strong enough to contain her when she inevitably decides that your restrictive weakness is not strength.”
