Chapter 3

 

 

"You're an alien," I told him.

"Yes."

"You buzz like them?"

"No. That is their native language. I'm just me. Kalen..."

He had shrunk his antlers. Maybe those antlers were something that could grow and be taken down easily. I didn't know how to look at him. He walked closer to me. He tried to grab my arm. The touchy-feel thing that had always been between us since we were kids.

I jerked away.

"Don't touch me."

"Billy. I'm dealing with this too. I knew I was different. I just didn't know how different. This is all new to me too."

"Why were you on earth...what were you THINGS doing on our planet."

"I'm your brother. Regardless if we aren't related by blood. Don't treat me different all of a sudden. I'm not a thing."

I looked at him. I could tell I had offended him. A part of me looked at this boy who I had loved in so many ways for all these years and wanted to comfort him. Another part of me saw the antlers. I saw the strange thing that clearly separated him from me and I was afraid. I was more than afraid. I was actually terrified of Kaden.

In the next few minutes Shin walked inside. He had this look on his face. Something was wrong.

"I need more time," Kaden replied.

"Time is up."

"I'm not going to let them kill my brother," he replied.

Shin looked over at Kaden, "Kaden. There are 40 standing outside of the door. I will support you, but he will be taken. The judges are outside."

Judges?

"No one is touching Billy.

"Our laws..."

"FUCK your laws. No one is touching my little brother."

God. He sounded just like Kaden. The protective nature that he had was just like my older brother. He was always there to help me. Even right now Kaden was literally standing over me. He was literally standing right over me at this moment.

"What can we do?"

"Take him home. Back to Earth."

Home. I wondered what my mother would be thinking. I wondered if she was afraid. I wondered if my Dad would be suspicious of what happened. Clearly my father must have known what Kaden was.

Shin shook his head, "That's impossible. We are too far away to head back. Even if we were closer the Judges wouldn't risk him revealing us to the other humans."

"He wouldn't say anything."
Shin shook his head, "He dies. I'm sorry Kaden."

Death.

It's crazy that right at this moment the only one that was fighting for my life was Kaden. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know if I could properly communicate to these aliens even if they were speaking English. I had always been an outsider but I never felt so far removed as I did at this moment. It felt like I was a stranger in this world where everyone was alike but me.

 

"Go outside...tell the judges that if they want me to do that thing...that thing they asked me to do then he lives. Period."

Shin shook his head.

"You are giving them an ultimatum? The Judges?"

I didn't know who these judges were. I didn't know what was going on. All I knew was that my life was in danger and my brother...I mean, Kaden...was the only thing standing in their way right now.

Kaden nodded, "That is my only term. My brother should live."

At that moment Shin walked away.

I sat there for a moment and looked over at Kaden. He looked like something was on his mind. He was worried. He was in this deep thought. The way that his eyebrows always sunk down when he was thinking made me know that he was in deep thought. Compared to the other boys Kaden didn't seem so polished and perfect. Kaden was handsome, don't get me wrong but compared to the others he did seem just a little bit more human.

Maybe that was the reason that I found myself going up to him, hoping that somewhere that human Kaden was still there.

"Kaden what's going on. Who are these Judges?"

"They are the leaders of the Antlien. They sent executors to you earlier."

The men who were having sex with me. For some reason I didn't feel comfortable sharing that with Kaden. I just nodded at that moment.

"So I'm going to die."

"No...they want me to...do something for them. They need me to do something for them actually. I'm too important to them. They won't hurt you if I refuse to do it for them."

"Why are you important to them? What are you supposed to do?

Kaden didn't reply.

He just sat there silent. He acted as though I hadn't even asked the question. I repeated myself. Nothing. Kaden just stared out. He was shutting down. He was shutting down like he used to do with my parents. Kaden just crossed his arms at that moment and waited in silence. He wasn't saying anything else no matter what I asked him.

In the next few moments Shin had walked into the room.

He nodded at Kaden. They looked like they had come to some agreement.

"They have agreed. He will come to the home station. I am supposed to be in charge of him while he is there. He will be spared if you do what you have agreed to."

"Thank you."

Shin nodded.

"What you must do begins now."

"Can I say goodbye to him?"

"You have a minute," Shin replied.

Goodbye.

I shook my head. I didn't understand what was going on. Something was so off. Something was really odd. In the next moment Kaden walked over to me.

This time it was me that grabbed him.

"You are leaving?"

"I have to," he replied, "I have to...do something. Don't worry. I'll find you. No matter what happens I'll find you."

"You're just leaving me?"

"I have to. Shin will take good care of you. As soon as I can I'll come for you. OK? I promise..."

 

 

Shin had left with Kaden. I was in the room for myself. I stayed in the room for what seemed like hours. I was asleep when Shin came back to the room all of a sudden.

"Billy. That's your name isn't it? Wear these," he stated, "We've arrived at our destination."
I looked at what he gave me. It was one of the jock strap looking things. He couldn't have been serious. He had to have been joking.

"I am not walking around with these."

"It will be hard to pass you off as Antlien. Unless you want to be raped repeatedly, you'll listen to everything I say. Everything."

"Raped?"

"Raped."

Shin didn't seem to be uncomfortable with nudity. I kind of wanted him to turn around but he seemed confused by the concept of privacy so I just went ahead and changed in front of him. The jock strap thing secured around my ass. The leather strings that went around me were stretchy which was good because I had a bigger butt then most of the Antliens. I realized they were all shaped similar to Kaden. They had perfect perky asses that were tight and a very defined front.

I didn't have a six pack. Everything fit on me a little bit weird.

"How do I look?" I asked Shin.

He clearly wasn't interested in how I looked. He didn't seem to have much of a sense of humor either. He just shook his head, "Follow me."

 

We started to walk. Shin seemed calmer.

"Where are we going?"
"The Home station is what it is pronounced as," Shin replied staring back at me, "It's a space station. You understand? It's our home."

"Don't you have a planet?"

"Our planet was destroyed a while back. The space station is what we have. We have right outside of the Milky Way for some time now watching humans and adapting to human lifestyle. Some things may be familiar to you as for generations we have been preparing."

"Preparing for what?"

"For Kaden."

I was going to ask him what he meant by that but something else took my attention. We were getting off the vessel that we had boarded. It was clear we had landed.

Everyone else on the vessel must have been getting off at that moment.

 

"Stay close to me," Shin stated.

"I have no problem with that..."

We got off the vessel and I looked up to see a glass dome overhead. It was huge. I couldn't see where it ended. It stretched out over the horizon and beyond that was space. As I looked out at this space station I realized that it was more than just a space station. It wasn't a space station like a human would call it. This place was huge.

"Welcome back to home station," a voice said.

It was a robot. It was one of the circular ones that I had seen before except this one was flying overhead. It circled me. The voice then switched to Spanish and repeated the same greeting. It then switched to Italian. Then it switched to another language, a human one that I didn't know. Then it switched to an Asian dialect and continued on.

"Oh my god, this is beautiful," I stated.

Shin smiled at me, "We pride ourselves in beauty. Nice people. Nice architecture. You will like it here. I promise."

There were towers... so many towers. They were sky scrapers. They were connected by walkways and bridges. We were on one of those walkways. The skyscrapers domed up high over us. I had the feeling of being in some sort of futuristic Manhattan mixed with some strange Amsterdam. There were pedestrian bridges everywhere connecting each building to one another. I didn't see an end to the buildings or the bridges.

Everything was white as well. Lights lighted up the bridges and they were so bright that it gave the appearance of daytime even though there was no sun in sight. I wondered where we were in the universe. Shin had said we were just outside of the Milky way but I wondered where outside.

I wished I paid more attention in Astronomy at this point.

"It is modeled off of human cities...only much more advanced," Shin stated, "Follow me. Kaden would be very upset if you got lost."

We started to walk...taking a path to the right.

I noticed others. Male. All male. They were all fucking beautiful as well. They all walked around with barely any clothes on.

I looked over at Shin, "Being a gay male, I am not complaining but do you guys not have any females?"

"Females? Not in the way humans have them," Shin replied, "We have one female. In English, you would refer to her as a queen, but she is nothing like your females. She is more like an immortal being. Twice a year we have an orgy. Sperm is collected from the orgy to given to the Queen to give birth to more Antlien men. That is how we reproduce. See that building. That is where she is...that is where your brother is as well."

Shin was pointing to a tall building. It the tallest one. It domed over the rest of the city. It must have been even taller than the Empire State building. I watched from the distance. It was a white and silver building with a spike on top of it. It was the only building that didn't have a pedestrian walkway on it. I only saw one bridge that led to it.

I wondered if that was on purpose or maybe on a different side.

"What is it?"

"It's our version of your capitol building? Um...is that what you might all it. Your red house perhaps?"

"You mean White house."

"I apologize. Yes."

"Why is Kaden there?"

"He has something he is doing for the queen. Kaden is a hero. You should be proud. You'll see one day. Come this way. Quick now. I know you humans can walk faster than that...even with your small, brittle legs."

I had been staring at the building and hadn't noticed that Shin was so much further ahead of me. I was worried about Kaden. What was he doing? Why wasn't he with me?

 

Shin led me to a walkway away from the others. I looked down. It was the first time I realized that there was glass below us as well. There was no ground! Only a glass. The space station wasn't a dome. It was more like a sphere. I could see space below me. Stars and the dark void below.

I felt vertigo all of a sudden.

"Whoa!"

All of a sudden someone caught me before I fell. I looked up. It was the man from the room with the olive skin tone. The who vibrated his tongue against the crack of my ass.

Shin immediately walked over to him, "Get off..."

"Relax," he stated holding his hands up, "I just wanted to make sure the human was OK?"

"After you attempted to kill him?"

"I was following orders..."

I still didn't understand how sex could kill me.

The man with the olive skin tone smiled, "My name is Vino. It means wine. It means wine in Spanish."

That is what he must have been. I had to admit he had stuck out among the men who had sex with me. Now I was taking him all in. He had this reddish tint to his skin. He had deep dark eyes. He looked so rare and exotic. He could have been Spanish, he could have been Middle Eastern. He could have even just been a light skinned black guy. I wasn't sure. All I knew was that I was so attracted. He smiled at me with perfect teeth.

"Billy let's go," Shin stated.

I looked over at the olive man. He smiled at me, "Billy, it's a beautiful name. It's so human. Don't forget that."

Was he...flirting?
"Billy, let's go," Shin replied.

Shin grabbed me by my hand. I realized by now that the aliens men were staring at me. Maybe this was why Shin was walking so fast. He must have noticed as well. He lead me to a building that looked similar to the others. Everything here seemed to have a resemblance with only small difference. It was similar to the Antlien men. They were all handsome an attractive with only different faces and skin tones. There buildings were different sizes but all seemed to be relatively similar.

It was a strange beauty.

"Make yourself at home," Shin stated, "Is that what you humans say?"

We had taken a bridge that lead right to a certain floor of the building. It seemed like there were multiple bridges that connected to this building. We had walked into something that seemed like it was an apartment. The door opened. Shin seemed nervous as he peered out of the door. I wondered what was wrong with him.

"Yes it is," I replied, "This is temporary right? We'll return back to Earth."

Shin seemed hesitant.

"Yes. We...will..."

I nodded. Good. This was interesting though. I had to say the least. The apartment was white. It looked somewhat like a normal human apartment except everything just seemed a little too perfect. The sofa didn't seem comfortable...but it was functional white leather sofa that would have sold for a fortune. There was one of those robots around. It was making a buzzing noise. There wasn't a kitchen. There was this machine there. It was warm. Maybe 85 degrees. It was no wonder they only wore these jockstraps all of the time. I looked outside of the window.

Shin was still looking out of the window.

"Are you OK?" I asked.

"It's Vino. I think he's following us," Shin replied.

"Who is he?"

"A soldier...of the Judges. He's your version of law enforcement. There is something off about him though. Something about him that I don't trust."

"Your cops get naked and fuck people. That sounds more like a reward to me," I replied remembering how it felt to have the Olive man inside of me.

Shin looked and me and shook his head, "You don't get it. Antlien sex is...intense. We are very sexual beings. We are much more advanced in that way then humans are. You may have been able to survive sex with one Antlien...maybe even two. It wouldn't have stopped though. By the end of it we would have been able to suck all the energy out of you. Antliens have the ability to kill humans through intense sex."

"That sounds ridiculous. Are you trying to say I would have literally been fucked to death? I mean I would have died happy then."

I laughed.

For some reason Shin didn't get the joke. He looked at me like I had just lost my mind completely.

 

Shin shook his head, "No. I'm serious. Semen is like energy to us. No...more than energy. It is like a drug. It can be addictive. Antliens are able to have sex for days on end. Once we get started there they require..no sleep...no food."

"Holy shit."

Yeah. That definitely did sound serious.

"Once we start having sex it becomes addictive. That is why Antliens are only allowed to have sex twice a year with one another. Antlien sex is outlawed. There is no law however with sex with humans which is why you were being raped..."

I did remember how I felt weak having sex in that room.

"So that guy Vino is following me to have sex again?"

"I wouldn't put it past him. Even law enforcement will break the law for sex. Human sex is seen as a sort of delicacy as well. It's rare since we are rarely go to earth. You are perhaps the most desired thing on this home station right now."

"I don't know whether to be honored or scared."

I was trying to make a joke out of it. The idea of sex being dangerous to this race of people blew my mind. Then again I remembered that Kaden never had sex. Some crazy part of me always wondered if he was holding out for me. I mean it sounded sick but I wondered it...even when I did believe he was my brother. I just kept thinking Kaden would turn 18 and we would run away to West Virginia and live in sin.

Little did I know the reason he didn't have sex is because he wouldn't stop having sex until the partner he had sex with was dead.

"Be scared," Shin told me, "It's hard enough for me to be around you now...and I know for sure I have more self control than most."

I watched the way Shin looked at me that moment. I hadn't noticed it before but I knew desire. I knew when someone looked at you in the way that made you think you were wanted. I could tell that he was uncomfortable around me.

"Do you have a shower?" I asked hoping to curve the awkward stare he was giving me.

"To the right. Everything is voice activated in whatever language you'd prefer."

 

I took a shower. The showers there were very convenient. You could tell the shower how warm or cold you wanted it to be and it listened. The same thing went for the water with the sink and the lights. I knew a little Spanish and found myself giving voice activation in Spanish as well. It worked the same. These people didn't separate culture. Somehow they had studied human cultures and put all of them together as if they were the same. Shin showed me my bedroom after my shower. It was a small pod about the size of a twin size bed. There were no decorations. Everything was plain. It seemed like functionality was important to these people before anything else.

 

As convenient as it was though I had this feeling that something was wrong. I had this feeling that something was wrong with Kalen in specific. When I walked into the living room after checking out my room I saw Shin. He was sitting there watching some sort of projector. The projector reflected against a white wall an image.

It must have been maybe their version of the news. Music was playing. There was a buzzing noise on the television. At first I thought it was just static but then I realized that was their language. As I walked up behind him I noticed that a picture was on the screen.

"Kalen."

"Off," Shin stated at that moment.

The projector all of a sudden went off. Shin turned and looked over at me. His eyes were peering at me as though suddenly understanding something. I was confused.

Why had he shut off the projector so quickly what was he trying to hide?

"Have you heard from Kalen?" I asked Shin.

"He will come for you..."

"What's he doing?"

Shin looked over at me and shook his head, "I can't really say. Are you hungry at all. Is there anything that I can get for you. We have a machine. All you have to do is speak what you'd like and it'll show up."

"I'd like my brother."

Silence.

Shin looked at me hard. This time it was clear he wasn't trying to be nice and he was being very clear, "I do want to make it clear to you. You are not much more than a prisoner here. Do you get that? I know human intelligence is limited but do you understand you are not in the position to be ordering anyone around."

I nodded.

"I understand."

I understood very well. He was hiding something. I sat there and played his game. I pretended like it didn't matter but I knew that it did. Something as off here. And I was going to figure out what it was.

 

 

 

"Go ahead...everything's free."

Days had passed. I was growing more and more suspicious of this place. It seemed like a paradise in a way. Everything was based off of socialism. Everything was free. The Antliens worked almost like an bee hive. Everyone had their tasks. Everyone shared in the production. Technology was their pride and glory.

At this moment Shin was taking me to eat out. He never kept me too far out of his sight. I kind of understood why. Every time we went out in public I got stares.

"What kind of food is it?"

We were in a public place. There were Antliens all around. Days had passed and the stares seemed slowly fade down a little bit especially when Shin started wearing his antlers out in public. I wasn't sure why but the antlers seemed to be threatening. Maybe it worked in the same way as animal antlers worked, warding off competition. Shin always kept me close to him as well.

I had used one of their many machines. The machine was literally like a fast food restaurant except without people. I didn't know how it cooked up the food but when it spit it out it was hot and fresh. Everything was beyond convenient here.

It was a dream really. This was like some sort of Utopia.

"I believe the country's name is Ethiopia."

"You guys eat Ethiopian food? Why not your native food?"

"We like humans...we want to understand more about you. Eating human food will help with that..."

"That is friendly."

Friendly but strange. Why? Why didn't they eat their own food? Why didn't they speak their own language? Why were they trying to learn all of earth's languages.

I smiled acting as though none of this bothered me.

Just at that moment someone had gotten Shin's attention. It might have been one of his friends or even a colleague. I had no idea what Shin's position actually was. He didn't tell me much. He told me the very minimum day to day. It was almost as though he was making sure that he didn't tell me to much.

"Have you heard from your brother?"

I turned.

Olive complexion, dark features and dark eyes looked over at me. It was Vino. He wasn't alone. He had a black man next to him that was dark...very dark...almost the darkest complexion of black that I had ever seen. The man had a strong defined jawline and soft beautiful lips. God. I couldn't take how handsome these people were. It just made me so insecure.

The dark man was intimidating. I looked over at him. Shin had called him dangerous. I was scared as fuck all of a sudden. I could feel my heart beating. My heart was racing against my chest.

"What do you want from me?"

"Shin won't be distracted for long. Have you heard from your brother or not?"

"No."

I took a step back. I could scream out. Shin would hear me if I screamed out. The way Vino and this other man were looking at me were distracting. Something about them seemed different. I wasn't sure what it was but they definitely seemed different. Were they dangerous? Could I run? Were the Antliens fast. I could only imagine him chasing me...impaling me in the stomach with strong powerful antlers.

"Listen to me closely human," Vino replied, "Nothing here is what it seems. Do you hear me? Don't listen to a thing that Shin says to you. Don't trust him."
"You are in law enforcement."
"Only by day. There is so many things going on behind the scenes. Things that you don't know. This place isn't the paradise they want you to believe it is."

"You say not to trust Shin. Shin says not to trust you."

I didn't know these people. I didn't know who to believe. They both seemed so desperate to gain my trust really. I didn't understand why. Something was so off about everything here.

"I'll come meet you later. I'll answer any question that you'd like."

"Any question."

Vino nodded, "Anything."

It was different. It was different from Shin. I nodded agreeing.

"Ok."

"Leave your window open. And Billy. Be very careful. Regardless of what you think this is, it isn't. Look past all the beauty, all the handsome men and all the perfect Utopian socialism. This isn't paradise...you humans have a word for what this is."

"A word?"

"Yes. This is Hell."

 

To read the next chapter please go to www.crushedcrown.com