So Far Away

It was the sound of her cell door that woke her from the dead sleep. At first, she didn't know where she was and then in on single, horrible, gut wrenching instant, she remembered everything.

She was taken by them, the slender, gray aliens with the large black emotionless eyes. They performed horrid, inhuman tests and experiments on her. She was kept in a tiny cell while they fashioned other brutal acts to perform on her. She had no concept of how long she had been kept prisoner on their ship. There were other creatures on their ship as well, creatures that her mind couldn't even comprehend.

Finally, though, she wasn't alone, alone being the only human on the ship. There was another, a man, in the cell adjoining hers. He wasn't from the states like she was. He was from somewhere else, somewhere where she didn't recognize his language.

She suddenly remembered his hand.

She squeezed her hand, the hand that was still enclosed in his, the hand that was stretched out between the two cells via a vent.

The thin gray aliens stood motionless in her door way, staring blankly at her. It occurred that they only ever stared blankly at her, and then she realized they had come for her.

She released the hand of the man whose name she knew, somehow, was Dānoar. She put her back flat against the wall she had laid parallel to all night.

"I don't want to go." she said defiantly, her body beginning to shake, "Leave me alone. Just leave me alone."

There were three, all approximately the same height. The one to the right cocked its head at her. She hated them with a passion that she couldn't even begin to explain. Yet she feared them. She feared their touch. Their smooth, expressionless faces and their black pools for eyes, that only reflected her pale, horror struck face.

She started to feel sick, the wrenching in her stomach and intestines and her shaking became violent. She didn't know much about psychology, or disorders, but she knew she suffered from some kind of traumatic stress disorder.

She knew it was useless but she began her pleading, "Please, please don't do this." she sobbed, "Just leave me alone. Let me die."

She knew deep down that death was not the worst there was. Death would be a release for her. A freedom from the hell she went through while under their control.

They advanced on her, and she simply began to scream.

They were stronger than they looked, this always surprised her.

Her screaming was echoed by a male voice. Dānoar was yelling from the other side of the wall. There was also a rhythmic pounding that came from the wall that split their cells.

The three aliens paused momentarily to exchange glances and then briefly looked at the wall.

They almost never spoke. Sometimes, they would make a clicking or a humming but never any tangible sounds that could be taken for real language.

They pulled her out of her cell and down a long, curved, gray corridor. She had taken this path several times before and it never ended well.

They would hurt her. Perform horrible things on her.

She wished she knew why. Better yet, why her?

When she regained consciousness she was back on her bed. This scenario had happened twice before. She had passed out from the pain and would later wake up back in her cell. She was actually thankful to be back here.

She swung her legs down off of the bed, her bare feet touching the cool metal floor. Her head spun slightly and she was sick to her stomach.

She had tried throwing up before but only this white foam would come up. She hadn't eaten for... she didn't know how long. She had no idea how long she had been with them. She never found herself hungry though, nor did she ever have to go to the bathroom. She had pondered this once, while curled on her bed. The only thing she could come up with is that they put something in her that sustained her and produced no waste.

She briefly wondered if that is how they functioned. What a sad way to live, to never enjoy the taste and texture of food. She pushed the thought out of her head because the thought of food made her stomach turn even more.

She thought of Dānoar. She quickly left her bed and lay on the floor next to the vent. She stretched her hand though and called to him, "Hello? Are you there? Dānoar?"

Like the first time, she slapped her palm to the metal flooring.

Within seconds she heard his voice and was soon holding his hand again. His voice came in a harsh whisper, he sounded almost mad and then his voice changed, to something similar to concern. She still could not make out his words.

"I'm alright," she whispered back, squeezing his hand in a way that she hoped came across as reassuring, "It's alright."

What could she possibly say to him that he could understand? It was more than a language barrier. It was a thick wall of the alien craft.

This time, she spoke to him. When he spoke to her before, she dozed off into a sleep that she hadn't experienced since her arrival.

She told him that they would be in this together. That as long as he was there she would deal with what they did to her until she could come back to him. She told him to do the same. If she had to go back to a cell without someone on the other side, it would surely kill her.

He would talk back to her in soft, quick, words. She hoped that some part of what she was saying, if only the tone of her voice was understood.

The bond between them only grew stronger as time went on. How much time was unknown; it could have been weeks or months, there was no way to measure.

When she listened to him talk she often wondered what he looked like. In the end, she realized that she didn't care. He could have been a green dwarf hunchback for all she cared; in her eyes, he was her hunchback.

When they would come for her she still fought and screamed but at some point, she stopped being afraid and started despising them with her entire being. She began to curse at them, spit, kick, punch, and laugh in their faces. This was a defense mechanism and she knew it; she knew she was doing it for Dānoar. She had him to go back to, she did it for him, and she was strong for him so he could be strong as well.

He knew her name now; he would call her from his cell through the vent, "Jensen?" She would be down on the floor in seconds. She realized that she spent more time on the floor than she did in her strange little bed. She didn't care.

Her outburst seemed to have confused the smooth skinned aliens. She heard more of their strange clicking and humming now than she did before Dānoar came into picture. She also noticed that they were performing other tests on her. The fact that she noticed anything while they tortured her alarmed her. This would mean that she was becoming calloused to what they did to her or that she was truly becoming crazy.

When they took her back to her cell she instantly went to the vent. "Dānoar," she called.

He did not come. Maybe he was sleeping.

She called a little louder, "Dānoar!"

She waited for a few silent moments.

She slapped her hand on the floor, "Dānoar!"

Still, nothing.

Maybe they had him. This startled her; they had never taken them so close together. Panic began to rise in her; maybe they became wise to the bond that they had created and took him to another cell.

Her mind began to race, her stomach turning.

"No!" She scolded herself, "Don't do this. He'll be here, soon."

She waited; and she continued to wait.

She slept in her bed three times and every time she opened her eyes she went to the vent, calling to him. Every time there was no response.

During this time, he did not call for her. There was no sound on the other side of the wall.

The aliens did not come for her for some time as well. Something was wrong, she knew it. She could feel it. They had done something with him, or worse, to him.

Maybe they moved him because they had developed a bond. Maybe they didn't want them to experience emotions so strongly.

When a long period of time had passed her mind she began to lose hope. She began to plummet into despair. If he was not here for her to come back to, then there was nothing to fight for, nothing to live for.

Hopelessness washed over her. She lay on her bed, hugging her knee's to her chest, sobbing. To have nothing, and then something and then to have it ripped away was more than she could bear.

She didn't know how long she cried but it felt like an eternity.

When she descended into that downward spiral of despair she could not stop herself. Everything was pulling her down; being snatched away from her home and her life, the desperate heartache that she felt for the life she once had. The things she wished she could have done, the things she wished she could have said, the loss of a man that she whose face she'd never see.

She knew that she'd have to find a way to get them to kill her. It was time.