SpaceHorrors: “What is Normal Now?”

SpaceHorrors:
“What is Normal Now?”

     “Tell me what I want to know, and this will all be over.” Collenna moved her palms slightly away from the sides of his head. The thin lines of a light gray liquid flowing through the clear tube connecting the palms of Collenna to the head of her victim got a little bigger.

     “Why are you looking for Hancron? What are you going to do to him when you find him?” Collenna moved her palms closer to his head again. The gray liquid became thinner as it flowed through the middle of that tube.

     The screaming started. It got louder with each second. Collenna moved her palms within an inch of his head. “Tell me what’s happening on Frankim, and you will live like the others. You won’t like it, but you will live.”

     When she heard several voices coming closer, Collenna stopped trying to get answers from this victim. She removed her hands from his head by bringing the clear tube back into her palms. She leaned into his head to whisper into his right ear. “If you can, tell them I will find the answers to what I want to know.”

##

     A red flashing light started pulsating around that room. Hancron ran into there. He sat in a chair in front of a large monitor. The middle monitor on that side of the wall is filled with monitors. Nine Monitors total on all six sides of that room. A chair for each one.

     Hancron tapped a few buttons on the control panel under his monitor. That turned off the pulsating red light. It also turned on all the monitors there. Tapping some more buttons brings up an image of a wooded area. The other monitors also showed those trees. But they were the same ones Hancron was looking at now.

     Tapping a few other buttons got his view closer to the trees Hancron was looking at. It showed about ten Locals using the trees for protection. Only a little bit of their heads peaked around them. “What do you want?”

     “We just want to talk to you about something.” Came a loud voice that echoed around that room.

     “Go ahead and talk. I’m listening.”

     That voice stepped out from behind the tree. But only the right half of his body now appeared on the monitor Hancron was looking at. “We have a DeathBringer on Frankim. And he’s looking for you.”

##

     “Did you hear that?” Hancron asked after tapping a few buttons to turn off his monitors. “They think that you are a male.”

     “That isn’t all he said,” Collenna answered when she heard Hancron calling her a male. “He also called me a DeathBringer. We were right. I’m a DeathBringer.”

     Hancron got up and walked out of that room with Collenna next to him. “I haven’t been able to find out too much about you. But I have found out a few things with some help from a few other Frankims from the Region below us.”

     “We know that you were created to kill in the image of the race you were only supposed to kill. But something went wrong. Now DeathBringers are killing adults all over the universe again.”

     “Not all of them. I have killed some after you found me. But I’m not like the other DeathBringers.”

     Hancron stopped walking and looked at Collenna. Who stopped too to look at Hancron. “I know you’re not like other DeathBringers. If you were, you would have killed me a long time ago.”

##

     Collenna sat down in a chair opposite Hancron in his underground living room. “Up until a few months ago, I didn’t even know I was a DeathBringer. All I knew was that I was an Alien living among other Aliens.”

     “I didn’t even have a name until you gave me one. I’m sure I have one. But if I do, I don’t remember what it is. Don’t remember anything since I woke up and you found me.”

     Leaning in slightly to whisper, Collena continued. “I don’t know if I want to remember who I am now that I know I’m a DeathBringer.”

     “Look at me. I’m not like anyone else on Frankim. That is why I have been living here for about thirty years.”

     “It’s a good thing that you are living here. If not, I would probably be dead already or living up to who I am as a DeathBringer. That’s why I have been trying to find out who is looking for you and why.”

     Hancron leaned in closer too. But he didn’t whisper. “I already know why they are looking for me. It’s because of the Frankims who are helping with staying alive. The ones looking for me want to know who they are.”

##

     “If you are halfway smart, you will tell me what I want to know.” Collenna had another male Frankim in a Mind Melt. “Do you want to end up being like the other Frankims I have been asking these questions to?”

     The screaming had already started. Only that time it wasn’t getting any louder by the second. It was just one steady non-stop scream. “Why do you keep doing this. Don’t you know that us DeathBringers prefer to kill individuals.”

     “We can do it in groups. And we often do. But we prefer to kill individual adults.”

     Hearing some voices not too far from them, Collenna suddenly stopped her Mind Melt. “Of course, you know we prefer individual victims. That’s why you’re here alone.”

     “It’s because you want me to start killing you. It gives whoever is following you a chance to catch up. You shouldn’t have gotten so far ahead of them.”

     Collenna removed her palms from the head of her latest victim and placed them in front of his chest and back. Then she started killing him again. Only now the liquid was an always-changing colored liquid. It wouldn’t be too long before this victim was dead too.

####

     Hancron sat in the chair in the center of his Monitor Room. From there he could swivel in any direction he wanted to go. He had just done that. Now he faced a large monitor showing him about ten Frankims walking among the trees in that Wooded Area. Hancron slowly started looking around them. But he could see Collenna.

     “Where are you, Collenna? You should have been back here a long time ago.”

     Looking at another image of some more Frankims who appear to be trying to find someone or something. It was probably Collenna, her latest victim, or him. Most likely a combination of all three. “Is that the reason why you haven’t come back here yet? How many Frankims are in the Wooded Area today?”

     Hancron got up and started looking at the monitors. One close-up after another. Almost face to monitor with them. He saw about ten Frankims on each monitor he looked at. But no Collenna. “I know you’re there somewhere. Watching these Frankims like what I’m doing. Waiting for your chance to come back here.”

     “You don’t need to do that. These Frankims aren’t going to find me through you.”

##

     A female stopped. She raised her right upper arm to parallel to her side. Then she raised her lower arm and hand straight up. Creating a fist in her hand she lowered her arm. The other nine Frankims with her stopped too. Slowly, they all started to look around them.

     “Thought I heard something. And it didn’t sound like a group of Frankims either.” The female Frankim said after looking at the other nine with her.

     Another female from toward the middle of that line stepped out of it. “I think I heard it too. It came from that direction.” She pointed in the direction where the loud cracking sound came from.

     Hancron had been watching those Frankim on one of his monitors. Getting closer to where the second female was pointing, he could barely see Collenna with all the trees around her. At first, he didn’t see her. But after looking in one spot for several seconds, he did see her.

     Only Collenna wasn’t alone. She had another male who was about to become a victim. Collenna had just placed her palms on the side of his head. Then her clear tubes left her palms and connected to his head. Hancron watched as she started her Mind Melt.

##

     The screaming couldn’t be heard because of the tree extension flowers stuffed into his mouth. “I don’t need to tell me what I want to know. It’s easier if you tell me, it yourself. But I can do it without your help.”

     “It’s not too late. You can still tell why you are looking for Hancron.” Collenna closed her eyes.

     “I’m not sure how long this will take.” The screaming tried to get louder. “I do know the longer it takes the more painful it will be for you.”

     For several minutes it didn’t seem that Collenna wasn’t doing anything. Her victim was, though. He kept trying to scream. But he still couldn’t do it. All he could do was start to shake. His arms and legs started shaking wildly. Making it hard for him to stay on his feet. The only reason why he was on his feet now was because of his connection to Collenna.

     Suddenly, Collenna removed her connection to her latest victim. Her victim fell to the ground. Collenna started to walk away. “Now I know why you have been looking for Hancron. It’s because you aren’t normal like everyone else on Frankim.”

##

     “I haven’t been normal for almost thirty-two years.” Hancron had been watching what Collenna was doing to her latest victim on one of his large monitors. “Why have they waited until now to try to find me? What are they going to do if they do find me?”

     “There must be another reason why they are looking at me. I just don’t what it is yet. Maybe Collenna can tell me what it is when she gets back here.”

     Just then Collenna got close enough to set off the red flashing lights in there. A few minutes later she was in there with Hancron. Before the sliding entrances started to close, Hancron spoke. “What else did you find out from your latest victim?”

     “Not too much. He didn’t know all that much. Just that they are looking for you because of the helpers helping you from this region. They want to know who they are. He didn’t know why.”

     “I do. It’s because of me. I've strayed so far from normal now, I'll never find my way back. And the truth is, I no longer want to."

##

     The red flashing light started flashing again. Hancron went to the Monitor where this light was coming from. Tapping a few buttons eliminated the flashing. It also got him closer to why the light started flashing. Two Frankims were standing on both sides of Collenna with their weapons pointed at her.

     “I knew Collenna went out to do some more killing. What happened? Somehow, they must have caught her. Why haven’t they killed her yet?”

     Tapping a few more buttons, Hancron spoke. “What do you want?”

     One of the Frankims pointed his weapon at the head of Collenna. “We want you, and the ones who are helping you to live on Frankim.”

     “I can understand why you want me. But not why you are after who has been helping me. Are you going to kill them too or is it just me?”

     “We want to know who they are because they have been helping you. If you don’t tell us who they are, we are going to kill this DeathBringer.”

     Hancron smiled evilly. “You are going to kill her too whether I tell you anything. So, you might as well do it now. Because I’m not going to tell you who has been helping me so you can also kill them.”

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