#flashfiction

Brill strolled hand in hand with Mala through the field. It was a lovely evening to take in the air and luxuriate among the bioluminescent flowers of the park. Tonight was the night he would ask her to be his mate. She blinked her beautiful purple eyes in confusion as he drew her to a halt.

“Mala, I’ve known you since we left the crèche,” he said. “I have deep feelings for you and I think you also have feelings for me.”

“What are you asking Brill?” Her voice quivered in excitement.

“Mala, daughter of the Hive of Tok, I wish you to—“

A loud humming sound drowned out Brill’s words. The night was rent by a blinding light from above. The lovers looked up. Above them was a vast shape, easily twice the size of any flying machine Brill had ever seen. There were no propellers or visible gas bag. It appeared to be made of some strange gray material rather than the wood and reeds that comprised a normal airship.

“Brill, what is it?”

Mala’s voice was harsh with terror yet Brill could barely hear her over the humming that penetrated beyond his ears and vibrated his very core.

Brill felt like he was moving in slow motion as he turned to his lover. His black eyes met her purple and he saw his own fear reflected there.

“We have to run,” he said.

The pair leaped into motion. They ran back the way they had come, crushing flowers underfoot and hurdling rocks and bushes. Brill’s foot snagged a bush and he slammed to the ground. Mala turned to help him and the light stabbed down once more from the strange ship pinning Brill in its baleful glare.

“Run Mala,” he screamed.

The need to help her lover and terror of the strange craft fought a battle to control her features. She stepped toward Brill.

“Run,” he screamed again.

A red light flashed down and struck Brill. He screamed as he was lifted from the ground. Mala shrieked in fear and then finally obeyed her lover and ran.

Brill floated upward toward the craft. The red light held him as solidly as a fist. He could feel his flesh blister from the searing heat of the beam. Up and up he flew, the strange craft growing larger until it filled the world. A black opening appeared in its skin and Brill floated through. The opening closed behind him and then the light disappeared and Brill fell to the ground. It was colder and harder than any stone he had ever felt. He whimpered in the pain from his seared flesh. A rectangle of white light appeared to his right and a large creature appeared.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Brill croaked.

The creature approached him in silence. It was taller than anyone Brill had ever seen. It was entirely white and its skin fit loosely as if it were not attached to the bone and muscle of the creature. It reached out a limb and Brill saw that it had 5 digits rather than the normal 4. The creature grabbed Brill by his shoulders and lifted him from the strange gray floor. It carried Brill as if he were a child. They passed through the lit doorway into a well lit room with green walls that appeared wet. Brill was dropped onto a soft surface and the creature fastened straps around his arms and legs.

Brill heard movement to his right and turned to see another of the creatures. This one’s skin was black and also strangely loose. It had no mouth but instead a square of loose white skin. The black creature pushed something against Brill’s chest and he felt a stabbing pain. The white creature similarly touched Brill and he alternately felt stabs and pressure. Brill screamed in agony and terror. He finally lost consciousness as the white monster shoved a cold hard object up his rectum.

“Brill?”

Mala’s voice came to him from far away.

“Brill are you alive?”

Brill opened his eyes. He was lying in the same field from which the creatures had taken him. Mala knelt over him, concern writ large in her beautiful purple eyes.

“Was it all a dream?” His voice sounded distant and strange.

Mala wept as she heard his voice. “The air ship left and I thought I had lost you but I found you here. What happened, Brill?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I met creatures. I think they were not of our world. Oh Mala, the horrors I endured.”

Brill broke down and wept. Mala wrapped her arms around him.

“It’s going to be fine my love. You’re with me now.”

The stars, no longer beautiful to Brill, stared down at them with covetous eyes.