Page 92 of Bred by the Alien Prince

A androgynous person holding their belly, dressed in white. On the next wall, the child was cut from their bleeding belly. On the next was the most disturbing sight. Hands reaching out for the child. I removed the clothing from the wall to inspect the last drawing.

I gasped and stepped back, running into him... I gasped and scrambled away, but he gripped my arm, keeping me in place. He was wet and naked, causing me to turn away.

"Horrible, isn't it?" He said, letting me go. His gray eyes looked up at the depiction of the final moment when the child was torn apart and devoured by hungry mouths, the fangs dripping with blood and ripped flesh.

"What the hell is this?!" I asked, horrified.

"The day of their savior's rebirth. The one who would bestow them with enough power to protect themselves against the Rackni. "

"I have no desire to hurt you or your child," he said. He must have known what I was thinking. "I wish to leave this place too."

"You seem to be the head of this whole sick shit!"

"Not the head, merely the one who inherited this." He sighed, holding his hands up to let me know he was of no harm. "I told you to await my signal. Now everyone is looking for you."

"How the hell do you know?"

"I can hear their frantic call to action," he tapped his ears.

"What is this place?"

"This is a sanctuary for the monks here, and this just so happens to be my room." He reached for the clothing I had thrown on the floor and slipped on his black pants and a long black leather vest that displayed his tattoos. "I didn't paint that, by the way. It was here long before I came here." He slipped on his sandals and ran his long fingers along the chipped paint. "By those who have long since gone into their deep slumber."

"I just want to get out of this place," I said shaking from what I saw.

"Understandable. There is a passage that will take us to the wheat fields. From there, I have a boat waiting." He grabbed a sack and his red book, which he hooked to his waist via a strap. "We could have had a much easier time getting there had you not run away on your own. Now, the entire village is looking for you."

"What the hell did you expect me to do?!"

"I expect you to keep your voice down now."

"Fine," I lowered my voice. "Let's get to this boat. Hopefully, we can find my pod or even my ship and get off this planet."

"With pleasure."

CHAPTER 37

Heblewouthiscandles and led the way until natural sunlight replaced the darkness. I smelled the water and wanted to relax, but just getting to the boat was half the battle! I couldn't rest until I was off this planet. As far as it concerned me, I've seen enough of this place to last several lifetimes.

He led me to the towering wheat fields, but it wasn't enough. I heard the screaming rant of a soft voice; it was that young girl, and she was waving off to the side.

"Shit, she saw us!"

"Make haste," Zai ordered, making a run through the field toward the shallow water. The bright yellow and red-trimmed boat looked like one of those gondolas you'd see lining some canal in Italy. How the hell did he plan for us to get away in this?!

Zai was already pushing it to the deep end of the lake, causing me to dive into the water to climb inside.

"Hold on!" he ordered once he was inside and headed to the front, where a crank was embedded. I didn't know how he would control this thing, but there was nothing I could do but urge him to hurry as the villagers pushed through the wheat and made it to the clearing after us.

He turned the crank, and we were off just before they reached us. I grabbed a hook from inside and held it like a weapon, ready to stab the living hell out of the first person who put their hands on this boat. They waded in the water, shouting a barrage of words at us while I grunted like a madman. Between their guttural language and my grunts, the scene could have been mistaken for some sort of caveman spat or something. All I knew was that the primal urge to defend myself and my child was at the forefront of my mind, and I knew I would swing that hook if I had to.

We were traveling further away from shore to the much larger body of water until I felt safe enough to lower the hook and breathe a sigh of relief.

"Only one boat here? What are the odds?" I coughed and tried to swallow to coat my sticky throat, but not even that mattered as I was a step toward freedom from this place. A part of me wondered if this entire thing was just some strange dream, and I would wake up at home in North Carolina, hating everything and everyone again.

"Not really odds. I just sunk the others." Zai pushed along the water like a gondolier. Well, if a gondolier used a crank.

Those crazy bastards followed on the shore until I couldn't see them anymore, and it was just water for miles. I tried to see if I saw anything familiar about our new area.

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