Page 123 of Homebound
They were a mix of humans and aliens. There was crusted blood frozen onto some of the bodies. One’s head had been bashed in, like the Tana-Tana’s.
“I did.” He didn’t sound particularly contrite.
Gemma turned to look at his face, searching for guilt and remorse in his alien features, and finding neither.
“Who were they?”
“Customers.”
She had trouble forming words. “You mean, people who came to trade with you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” she whispered in utter dejection.
“They saw me.”
She cupped her hands over her mouth. Except for her, he had killed every single creature he’d come in contact with since making his escape from the prison.
Something broke inside Gemma. “But… you can’t!” she shrieked at him. “You can’t go around killing people because you feel like it! It’s wrong. You have to stop. You. Have. To. Stop.” Her voice had gone shrill, and she was losing it.
Simon, correctly reading the deteriorating situation, slapped a hand over her mouth and scooped her up, easily overpowering her puny resistance. He quickly wrestled her inside the house, shutting the door behind them to stifle her loud yells.
As soon as his hand left her mouth, she screamed at him, “Even wild animals don’t kill unless they’re hungry. Killing is wrong! Lives matter.”
“No, they don’t,” he countered calmly.
His careless attitude outraged Gemma. “Did these people threaten you? Harm you? No, they didn’t. You have no right to take lives.”
Something of her vehemence must’ve gotten past the impenetrable layer of indifference covering his emotions. He leaned down to be eye-to-eye with her and got into her face.
“How do you humans put it? Loose lips sink ships. It takes one casual comment made on the street to out this place. Believe me, you won’t be so self-righteous when Dr. Delano and his merry band of orderlies come knocking. I can’t risk my safety. I won’t risk yours.”
Gemma sucked in a deep breath, unnerved by his anger but also somewhat subdued by his mention of Dr. Delano.
“But killing, Simon? How could you?”
“Easy.”
He straightened up and left her, yanking the curtain with feeling as he passed, ripping it off the rail.
Great, now there was nothing between their bed and the dead Tana-Tana.
They didn’t talk for the rest of the day. Gemma went into the bathroom and took her time there, lingering under the spray. When she emerged from behind the partition, Simon was gone, and so was their dead landlord. She went to bed without waiting for Simon to return and fell asleep unhappy and uneasy.
She woke up suddenly, feeling a presence in the room. The night was almost over, the first light of dawn lightening the window behind the tattered drapes.
Simon was standing over her.
“Where have you been?” she asked, her voice thick with sleep.
“At the ship. I worked on the oxygen circulation system.”
“Oh.”
“What did you think I was doing?” His eyes were flat and challenging.
“I didn’t think anything.”
