NOTES:
New characters! New planet! Also new problems. ACTUAL problems. Oh and lots of bickering bc that’s just what Ictha loves doing :)
I stalled so much on this chapter and I don’t know how I got it done… ummmm but I guess I like making people tall. And… I like making very short scenes very drawn out for suspenseeeeeeee.
ANYGAYS- this chapter took 10 pages in word and is exactly 3.5k words (AKA THE LONGEST CHAPTER YET)
this chapter is in Zach’s perspective (don’t forget his name is actually Zacharias :D)
“Who are you?!”
Two girls just fell through the ceiling. I haven’t seen them before. I turn to fly away from these intruders, but I’m stopped.
“You can’t go.” One speaks.
Her grip is strong. I look to Zane. He’s not moving. “Go! Run!” I yell, but the girl grabs Zane’s wrist as well. I try to fight, but there’s no use.
“Stop! You’re clearly hurting them!” The other girl pleads, grabbing onto the first girl’s arm. I’ll call them ‘Girl 1’ and ‘Girl 2’.
“They’re fine. I’m just making sure they don’t get away and tell someone about us.” Girl 1 says.
Girl 2 looks worried. “You’re able to hurt people mentally too! They’re going to have trauma from this!” Girl 2 pulls on Girl 1’s arm, unsuccessfully trying to stop her.
“So? I don’t care.” Girl 1 says. She looks back to me. “Stop struggling or I’ll never let you go. I have all the time in this world. And you don’t want to know what it looks like for me to be mad.”
I whip my head around and bite her wrist, drawing blood and causing her to let go of me and Zane. I immediately push Zane around to make him snap out of it and get on running. “GO! GO!”
“DAMMIT!” Girl 1 grumbles, holding her hand tightly. “He fucking bit me!” She turns to Girl 2. “Well, go get them!” Girl 2 hesitates but eventually runs after us.
Zane keeps freaking out and stopping, allowing Girl 2 catch up to us. “Keep moving!” I yell.
Girl 2 jumps to grab me, but I fly higher towards the ceiling. She grabs Zane’s arm instead. “I’m so sorry.” She whispers. “She doesn’t mean harm; she just gets heated easily!”
“Get off him!” I kick the girl’s stomach. Not enough to severely hurt her, just enough to make her let go. Girl 2 stumbles back and grabs her stomach. She looks behind herself to see Girl 1 running this way. I look to Zane who is now having a panic attack.
I start to feel dizzy, so I fall to the floor. I can’t feel or control my limbs. I see a glimpse of Girl 1. A black ooze or something is pouring out of her mouth. It’s getting… dark…
Next thing I know, I’m tied up outside, face down. My hands and feet are tied together above me. I think of moving my head, but I assume I’m probably being watched. Is Zane tied up too? Or did they let him go?
I must’ve moved or something because I hear Girl 1 say, “You’re finally awake. Took you long enough.” I flinch and shut my eyes tight, trying to drown out everything around me. “Your buddy is already awake.” Before she even finishes her sentence, I fly up.
I haven’t even taken account of where I am. I hit the ceiling of the thing I’m in. I don’t even know what it is. It has lots of buttons… a steering wheel… Is this a vehicle? It looks like it’s also a room though. I see Zane. He’s sitting on the floor. With food. They kidnapped us. Are they feeding us so that we have more meat on our bones so they can eat us?!
“Can you come down here please?” Girl 2. She seems nice, but she’s still helping Girl 1 hurt me.
“No!” I yell back.
“Get down here or I’ll make-” Girl 1 gets cut off by Girl 2’s hand.
“We’ll untie you and give you food!” Girl 2 pleads. Girl 1 shoves the hand away from her face.
“Don’t cut me off like that.” She looks back up to me. “You’re lucky we’re even offering food. We’ll starve if we do, but I guess that’s karma for kidnapping you.”
I hesitate, but I lower myself enough to get untied. Girl 2 unties me, and I swoop over to Zane immediately. “Did they hurt you? Are you okay?” Zane, still chewing, holds up an apple. Did they brainwash him? He looks to Girl 2, then back to me, and back at Girl 2 again.
“Oh, uhh, do you want food now? We don’t have much.” Girl 2 asks.
I don’t answer, glaring.
Girl 2 gives me a face of sympathy before turning to Girl 1. “Why did you need them? You could’ve just let them lay there at the school.”
“I just do.” Answers Girl 1.
“For what? You’re not the type of person to kidnap people—we have to send them back!”
“We need a place to sleep and some food to eat. I don’t even know why you gave them some of ours.”
Girl 2 lowers her voice. “But how else are we supposed to bribe them…?” Girl 1 sighs and walks to a wall. It opens to the outside world. I quickly stand up.
“Ah-ah-ah. You aren’t leaving.”
“What?!” I protest. “I could maybe give you food!” This is probably my best and safest bet. “Only… if you let us out.”
Girl 1 looks back. “Fine. Don’t go running though. Don’t wanna have what happened at your school happening again.” She turns around again and walks out.
“C’mon Zane.” I follow Girl 1 out of this thing I’m in. “Hey, uhh, miss, what is this thing?” I ask, pointing at the odd shaped vehicle-room something.
“A spaceship.”
“But aren’t they supposed to be way bigger? And taller?”
“It’s an extra part. An emergency craft that now belongs to me.”
“Who did it belong to before?”
“Stop asking such stupid questions. It’s mine now, so who’s it was before doesn’t matter.”
“I’m sorry, but I have one last question.” I leave space between us in case she gets mad about what I just said.
“What is it?” She groans.
“Whats your name?”
“Don’t know.”
“How don’t you know your own name?”
“It doesn’t matter. We won’t even know each other for much longer anyways.”
I stay quiet for the rest of the walk. Once we make it out of the forest, we both realize that Zane and Girl 2 aren’t with us. “Were they… supposed to come along?”
“Yeah. Let’s just wait here. They’re coming.” Girl 1 sits in the grass, against a tree.
Not long later, Zane, Girl 2, and two others start to appear in the darkness of the forest.
“They’re here.”
“I see that.” Girl 1 says, standing up. “You took too long. Now it’s getting dark.”
Zane runs over to me, and I fly up to his level. “Where are we going now?” I ask, hesitantly.
“Wherever you live. Unless you have some stash of food somewhere else.” Girl 1 answers.
I look to Zane, then back to Girl 1. “When are you planning to leave? I mean, this planet?”
“As soon as possible. And trust me, I’m not planning on tracking this boring thing.”
“Hey! It’s not that boring.”
“Compared to others, it is.”
“Anyways, I will bring you there as long as you give me your names. And you specifically, do you have a nickname or something?”
“Yeah. I do.” Girl 1 rolls her eyes. “How else would these three refer to me?
Girl 2 comes to my rescue again. “Please be nice, Ictha. I know I keep asking you, but it’s important.” She looks to me. “Sorry about that. My name is Sofie.” Sofie points to the other two that have been silent this whole time. “That is Larra, and the shorter one is Mary.”
“You got our names. Now hurry and show the way.” Ictha demands.
“Fine.” I mumble. I drop to the ground and start walking. I have no clue where we are, but I just keep walking. They couldn’t have taken me far, so I’ll find my way around soon.
It took a while, but we finally made it to my house. It’s now pitch black out.
“You’re lucky my parents don’t care that I’m out all the time.” I say before turning the doorknob. I open one of the two doors, the smaller one on the left, and walk in. When I look back, I see wide eyed, jaw dropped people.
“Are you rich or does everyone have these types of houses?!” Sofie asks.
“I guess you could say I’m rich.” I turn around when everyone stars filling in.
Two massive creatures, my parents, appear from the kitchen. They don’t say anything, just standing and staring.
“Everyone, these are my parents. I’ll show you my room. You all can sleep there.” I continue through the building.
“Why’s your house so scary…?” Sofie asks.
“Yeah, creepy as hell.” Larra comments.
“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it.” We arrive at my bedroom. I fly up to the middle of the door. With almost everyone in this house being so tall, the doors have to accommodate that, along with the handles. I push open the massive door to a massive room with massive furniture. “Here it is.”
“How is this your room?! It’s so big!” Mary exclaims. There’re a couple oohs and ahhs as background noise.
“Well, you saw my parents out there.” I look off into the room. “I will be that big and powerful someday.” I look up as if there’s some kind of light shining over me.
“Really?” Someone pipes in. I look back to see Larra. “It looks to me like you got bad genes.” She—I think it’s she; it’s hard to tell—smirks. “Or maybe you’re adopted.”
“Larra, did you forget we are orphans…?” Sofie attempts miserably to whisper to the other.
“No.” She frowns. “He didn’t need to know that though.”
“You shouldn’t be a hypocrite.” Ictha says.
“Says you!” Larra yells.
“Can everyone stop fighting?!” I sigh. The yelling gradually settles down. “This is my room. This is where you will be staying. Please, please, do not trash it. As you can see with the bunk bed-”
“Which is massive, like everything in this room.” Larra interrupts.
I side eye her before continuing. “As I was saying, the bunk bed shows this isn’t only my room. It also belongs to my older brother. Hence, you shouldn’t trash it.”
Out of nowhere, a claw looking hand appears, reaching into the side of the doorway. The people who are standing in the doorway, Mary and Zane, jump out of the way.
Someone similar to my parents peeks his head in. “Hey, bro, who’re they?”
“Shit, get out!” I fly up and try to push him out, but he’s too heavy for me to do so.
Shrink, shrink, shrink.
“Why are…” he squints, looking at everyone, “…five strangers in my room?”
Everyone looks at him in shock. He’s just barely taller than me, and apparently, I’m short.
“It’s my room too.” I say, floating back down.
“Wait, how- what?” Sofie questions.
“This is my brother. Our family can change to be more of our hybrid type or less. I haven’t developed that skill yet though…”
“Yeah, this dude’s a late bloomer.” My brother puts his arm around my shoulders.
“Hmph.” I furrow my brows and look to the floor.
Suddenly, this retched—to most—sound bellows through the house. Everyone except my brother and I shut their eyes and cover their ears.
“Gotta go.” My brother says before sizing up again and running off.
“Sorry, me too. Just get settled in here and come out to the kitchen when you’re ready for food. Zane, I know you probably don’t want to be around everyone at once, so you can join us or stay in here if you want.” I say. Zane nods. I walk out and to the kitchen.
That ‘retched sound’ I talked about earlier was actually just my parents saying, “Boys! Come help with dinner!”
“Why do I have to help?” My brother groans, dragging himself towards the stove.
“Because, Zaed, your brother brought guests into our home, and we need to make more food for them to eat.” My mom explains.
“But why do we have to feed them? I’d let them starve.” My brother complains.
“No buts. Get to work.” My mother turns to me and continues, “You can help too.”
I nod and swoop over to the food.
Not much later, dinner is done.
As I’m setting up the tables, I see the strangers walking over. “Hey, it’s almost done.” I fly down to their level and jog over.
“What is it?” Ictha asks, intrigued by the aroma.
“Quesabirria. Smells amazing, right? Wait ‘till you taste it.”
“Hah? The fuck’s that?” She cocks her eyebrow up.
“Riiiiiight…” I sigh. “It’s a special taco if you even know what that is.”
“I know what a fucking taco is.”
I furrow my brow. “Our table is this way. They get the big table; we sit here.” I point at the little table in the corner of this massive room.
“Wait, why? Oh! So, what you’re telling me is that your parents and brother don’t love you enough to sit with you even for meals. They all sit up there, big and proud, then you stay down here. Alone.”
“What? It’s not that at all! You don’t have to be snobby!”
“Yeah, you shouldn’t be mean.” Sofie agrees.
“With my type of hybrid, once you’re a certain age, you get tall. I have ancestors that are more human and ancestors that are more of the hybrid.”
“What’s up with that? All this hybrid shit.” Asks Larra.
“I- you don’t know?” I put a hand to my face for a couple seconds. “Whatever. At some point in my family tree, something happened, and it made some kinda glitch or I don’t know. With my parents, they can’t change between forms anymore like my brother can. Get that?”
“Your brother could still sit with you.” Ictha pries.
“He does sit with me. There are just too many people today, so he has to sit there.”
“Well, I’m personally very grateful for this. If not for you, we would’ve starved.” Sofie thanks.
I’m glad at least someone cares. “No problem.”
“Hey, foods ready. Get seated.” Zaed says.
I narrow my eyes at him and get in my seat. The others sit around the table and wait for the food to be passed out.
“Is Zane not eating?” My dad asks.
“I guess not. He has really bad social anxiety, so I let him stay in my room.” I answer.
“Okay, his loss.” My dad sits in his chair at the end of the big table.
Once we all have our food, the girl who I remember to be named Mary immediately starts eating.
“Hey, we never said grace. You have to wait.” I demand.
She turns her head up. “Hm?”
“Zach, not all people say grace. They don’t have to if they don’t want to.” My mom informs.
I frown and mumble, “But this is our house. And it’s disrespectful.”
“It’s more disrespectful to force people into practices they don’t follow.”
I don’t continue after that. We say grace and just get on with our meal.
“How exactly do you eat this?” Sofie asks.
“That juice is for you to dip it in. Eh- I’ll just show you.” I pick up a cup of the birria juice and tilt it slightly so the quesabirria will fit. I dip it in the juice and take a bite. I set it back down and swallow the piece.
“Oh, okay.” Sofie starts eating. Mary and Larra do the same.
“What’s in it?” Ictha asks, glaring at the food as if it just told her that her bangs look like she grew out a bowl cut.
It does. Even if the food said that, it wouldn’t be wrong.
“Beef, cheese, tortilla, etcetera. The rest is pretty much just seasonings. I don’t really know.” I reply.
She takes a good look at it before barely nudging it away. “I don’t want it.” Seriously? She didn’t even make a disgusted face. Her expression this whole time has either been emotionless or angry.
Sofie looks over to her friend and then glances at me with empathy just before continuing to eat.
Ictha sits up straighter and tilts her head up a bit. “What’s that?”
“What’s what?” Sofie asks with her mouth full of food.
“That smell.” Ictha slowly turns her head to the right and leans back in her chair. I can tell by her face that something is wrong, but I can’t pinpoint what it is.
Almost everyone starts trying to smell the air, and honestly, we all look like idiots. I catch this black smoke coming from the hallway to our rooms. Zane is that way.
“Hey, what’s that?!” I quickly stand up and try to fly over there, but Ictha grabs my ankle. I start kicking at her. “Hey! Get off me! Zane’s in there! What if something caught on fire?!” What if he caught on fire?!
“Whatever you do, do NOT go over there.” Ictha sets me down. “That’s either poison gas or some kind that’ll make you sleep.” The gas is now touching the ceiling and spreading quickly. “We all need to get out!”
“Since we’re much bigger, we should be harder to poison, so we’ll let you go first.” My parents offer.
The rest of everyone stands up from their seats and starts running through the massive house. I hear noises coming from behind: crashing, stomping, gushing of probably smoke, glass shattering, and more.
I fight the urge to let tears out. You’re not the only one scared. I say to myself. Zane will be alright.
Right?
The smoke is coming in fast. I don’t know how that’s even possible. “What is this from?!” I yell, “you seem to know!”
“Just run! Talking will wear you out!” Ictha says. Why does this house have to be so big?!
“Will Zane be okay?!”
“Probably not! The smoke came from your room! Now shut up!” It seems like everything is going in slow-mo other than the smoke.
Once we see the exits, one for the taller ones and one for relatively my size, we go right through the little door. We run across the lawn and to the other side of the street. Some of us collapse onto the ground from exhaustion.
I look back and notice something odd. The other door isn’t opening. Smoke is pushing through the normal size doorway. The smoke made it through the whole house. My parents didn’t. My parents are still in there.
“Shit! How didn’t they get out?!” Ictha yells, frustrated. “Kid, don’t follow me.”
“What?!” I stand back up and do the opposite of what I was told.
“I just said don’t! Now stay back!” She takes a deep breath and runs into the disaster. I stop in the middle of the road. My heart is pounding in my head. I feel like I can hear everything and nothing all at once. My vision is blurry.
“Zach!” Zaed turns my around and wraps his arms around me. “You were about to fall. Are you,” he sighs, “are you okay?” His voice is trembling.
I drag my feet around to face him. I lean into him and shut my eyes tight, sobbing and sniffling my nose. “They aren’t coming out, are they?” I manage to ask between rough breaths.
“I don’t know…” Zaed says.
Ictha comes rushing back out of the house. “The intruders are gone!” She’s panting heavily. “Dammit. I knew we should’ve left days ago.” She runs to me and Zaed. “We need to leave now.”
I tilt my head back up. “No! They’re still in there!” I yell.
“They are gone kid! Deal with it! You can’t change what just happened!”
I stare at the girl without knowing exactly what to say. In a rush of curiosity, many questions flood my mind. When did they get stuck in there? Why couldn’t they open the door if they even got that far? How did they get trapped and not us?! Why would anyone want to take my parents?! More came to me. I’m too overwhelmed.
“Listen to me! Do you want to save your friend and your parents?” Ictha asks. I nod. “Could you handle riding a spaceship?” I don’t know. “If you want to, then you need to come with me. I can’t guarantee you’ll ever see this planet or the people on it ever again though.”
I look up at Zaed. “Will you come with me? To save them?”
“I… I will” he replies. We both look at Ictha.
“We have to come with you.”
Sofie walks to Ictha. “Isn’t this too many people?! And his parents won’t even be able to fit in the ship.” Ictha glares at Sofie for this. She must have said something wrong. I could care less right now. All I need and want is to get my family and Zane back.
We walk down the street, now darkened by the night sky. And here I was, thinking my life would actually be normal.
NOTES:
THANK YOU FOR ANYONE (that I doubt exists) WHO READ THIS FAR
Please leave kudos and comment SOMETHING if you did 🥲