Page 4 of Alien Kraken's Prize

It’s like I have been plopped down directly under the light, which is only shining on me.

I read a book once where a woman got a sunburn from being directly in the line of a planet’s star and, panicked, I shuffle backwards on all fours until I’m in a cooler patch of shade.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

A horrifically loud sound cascades through the air towards me, and the tentacle tightens back up around my ribs.

“Too tight,” I wheeze, smacking at it. When it doesn’t let go, I whack it again and it loosens completely, plopping onto the ground.

The ground… which is made up of teeny-tiny particulates, slightly shining, a pale, pale yellow.

I wrinkle my nose. I always thought dirt was brown, or black, or even reddish brown, based on old Earth vids Aileen and I would watch when we got lucky and found one in the station’s virtual repository.

Maybe the colors were screwed up.

Or… maybe this isn’t dirt.

Or maybe dirt isn’t the same color wherever the fuck I am.

Not on the fucking Starlight Lottery Hub, getting ready for a perfectly lovely new life.

A tear trickles down my cheek, and I use the back of my hand to wipe it away angrily.

I don’t have time to cry and feel sorry for myself.

However, I could use a hug—a hug and some water. I smack my lips. I am freaking-fracking parched.

I pick up the tentacle and it wriggles happily, the tip of it slapping my cheek enthusiastically as I hold it close, sniffling.

The not-dirt sucks uncomfortably at my feet, which are now bare, and I mentally pour out a drink at the loss of my shoes, because I don’t have one. If I did, I probably would drink it though, not pour it out.

I amsothirsty.

The tentacle scooches up my chest until it’s draped over my neck like a very rubbery scarf. Sighing, I continue to trudge across the ground, until I finally make it to where the light doesn’t reach.

Relief at the coolness is short-lived, however, because now, instead of being scorching hot, I’m clammy and chilled.

Shivering, I wrap my arms around my waist and peer up as far as I can, trying to figure out what, exactly, is causing this massive shadow to be thrown.

There’s nothing there, save the strange flickering of light reflected… in a way that makes absolutely no logical sense. I mean, I’m not the smartest human who ever lived, just ask any one of my many employers—they’d be all too happy to expound on my many failings—but I did okay in physics courses, and the way that light is acting up there is not normal.

I bite the inside of my cheeks, petting the tentacle.

Oh, how far have I fallen, to be petting the tentacle voluntarily? For my own comfort?

“Pretty far indeed,” I tell it, and it wriggles again, pleased to hear my voice. Or feel its vibrations, because as far as I can tell, the damned thing doesn’t have ears.

My nose wrinkles and I turn in a slow circle, trying to get my bearings.

Stalky leaves protrude from the ground. I tilt my head, slightly freaked out by them. Not trees. Not plants, not like any I’ve ever seen pictures of before, at least. They look wrong.

They look artificial, like someone plunked them straight down into the dirt, single leaves that tower over me.

The feeling of wrongness grows as I look back up, up, up at where the sky should be, and only see flat nothingness.

My eyes narrow and I shield them with one hand, trying to suss out whatever the hell it is that’s so clearly fucked with this place.

“Oh my fucking fuck,” I mutter, my eyes going wide as it hits me.

---