SpaceHorrors: Learning From My Victims

SpaceHorrors:
“Learning From My Victims”

     The screaming stopped when the always-changing colored liquid started coming out of his mouth, ears, and nose of that Jeehon. A growing stain on the lower part of her body said that liquid was coming out of other parts of her body. Her skin-tight clothing getting bigger also indicated that.

     Her head was slightly held back. Shooting that liquid at an upward angle all over that room. Including The DeathBringer who was also taking some of that liquid into his body through the clear cylinder in his palms and on her back and chest. That DeathBringer wasn’t just killing her.

     “Tell me more. I want to know everything you know.”

     The latest victim of that DeathBringer couldn’t have spoken. First because of the screaming and then the liquid that came out of her mouth. “You don’t need to speak to be heard.”

     “That’s what a Mind Drain is for.” Suddenly, the liquid stopped flowing and that DeathBringer removed his hands from her. He didn’t look back at her still stiff frozen body as he walked away from her.

     “I learned a lot about this planet from here.” Surranon, the DeathBringer walked up toward the Reading Material in that room.

##

     Surranon liked to walk around that room. Talking to himself while he did it. Usually, he was talking about what he was reading. Either reading out loud or commenting on it. “Wrong again. Like most inhabited places where we are, there are a lot of things they don’t know about us.”

     “Most of the universe still thinks we feed off the victims we kill, but we don’t do that. We were created to kill. This is just the way that we do it.”

     “Another thing the universe is wrong about us is that we don’t speak. We can speak. Most of us just don’t do that. I’m one of them that do. I also eat too. Most don’t do that either.”

     Surranon closed the reading material he was reading and returned it to where the others were. He selected something else to read and started reading it. “We were also created to learn too. It was originally intended to get secrets from the Kesims during the war between the Vexions and the Kesims, but we went beyond that. At least some of us did.”

##

     “This Jeehon may be very young, but he has learned a whole lot in life already.” Surranon walked away from the stiff frozen form of this Jeehon.

     “His name was Weinom. Under normal kills, I don’t learn the name of my victims, but when I do a Mind Drain, I do.” Surranon stopped and looked back at Weinom. Almost all of his skin-tight clothing was no longer there. It had melted away from the liquids flowing out of his mouth, ears, etc.

     Surranon slowly looked up and down his body. What skin he had left melted to his bones. Showing that skin in the shape of those bones. It was very hard to see Weinom used to be human.

     A few seconds later, the body of Weinom turned into dust and dirt in the shape of his body. Then it collapsed into a small mound of dust and dirt where he once stood. “One more Jeehon still here. I wonder where he’s at?”

     “I know you’re here somewhere.” Surranon started sniffing the air around him. He continued sniffing while he started walking toward the entrance out of there.

##

     “There are only about a million who are also called Mind Drainers. I am one of them. we want to learn everything there is about where we are. That usually means planets, but it can be anywhere where there is an inhabitation.”

     Surranon stopped walking around that room. Next to one of the desks there. He sat down behind that desk. “Most of us are also Roamers. We go from place-to-place learning all we can about where we are.”

     “I have been living on this planet for almost four years. I’ve been all over it. Every place is like this one. I have been at this one for the last six of their ten months.”

     “Usually, I only stayed at these places for about a month. Then I move on to the next one. Normally, toward the opposite side of this planet, but this place is different.”

     Surranon got up and started walking around again. Waving his upturned hands at different parts of that room. “Look at this place. It doesn’t look like anyone has been here in years. Yet occasionally a curious group shows up here for me to kill.”

##

     The screaming got even louder. His body started shaking and quivering worse. Causing Surranon to lose his grip on him. The cylinders connected to his body popped out. Spurring the liquid from within his body and the cylinders to spurt out from where that connection was.

     Quickly, Surranon retreated his flapping and spurting wildly cylinders back into the palms in his hands. He placed his palm on a different part of the body of his latest victim. It was on the small part of the back. Now it was the shoulder area just below the back of his head.

     Suddenly, the body stiffened straight, and the screaming stopped. “It doesn’t happen too often, but sometimes the freezing of a victim doesn’t happen.”

     “When it does happen, the killing takes longer to do and it’s a hundred times more painful. Personally, I don’t like it when it happens. Most DeathBringers like it like that. The more pain, the better. I’m not one of them.”

     “I only kill because I was created to do it.” Surranon started the killing of his latest victim again. The screaming also started again. Only it wasn’t as loud or as painful as it was before.

####

     Surranon stopped killing her latest victim. First, he withdrew the clearing cylinders from his body. Then the cylinders returned to the palms of his hands. Surranon turned and started to walk away from this older Jeehon. He only takes a few steps before he stopped and turned his back toward this victim.

     Just in time to see the human form of dust and dirt become a mound of dust and dirt that blew away because of the slight wind there now. Turning her head back to face the reading material he was heading toward, he started walking again. Only now he was smiling. Yes, DeathBringers did smile.

     “Most DeathBringers don’t like to kill older victims. They say it doesn’t take that long to do it. That they want the killing to be as long as painful as possible.”

     “I’m not one of them. I like killing the old. Not because of how long it takes or the pain it causes, but because I’m a Learner. The older they are the more they know.”

     Surranon got to the reading material and started looking for something to read. “This old one had a lot of life in him.”

##

     “It has been almost a month since there was a victim for me to learn from. Maybe my existence here is known, and there will be no more victims.”

     “This has happened a lot of Jeehon. It’s one of the reasons I haven’t stayed in one place for too long.”

     Surranon stopped walking around that room and slowly started looking around it. “I’m kind of surprised I have been staying here this long but look at this place.”

     “Look at it. This is probably the reason why these Jeehons keep coming here.”

     “I could leave here, but where would I go? There is very little of any place I haven’t been here on Jeehon. If there is any place I haven’t been already.”

     Surranon started walking around again. He did that a lot. If he wasn’t killing a victim or reading, he was walking around. “It isn’t just where I have been, but what I have learned from them.”

     “Maybe I have learned all that I can from this planet. If that’s true, then maybe it’s time for me to leave Jeehon. From what I have learned here, there are several planets like Jeehon near here.”

##

     Running up to the tall windows there, Surranon stopped. Yes, DeathBringer could run. Most chose not to. It made the killing better. Again, I’m not one of them. I didn’t run too often, but sometimes I do. Especially, if I think I hear something.

     Squinting her eyes to almost be closed, Surranon hovered up to look out those windows. Yes, we can hover and float too. After getting to those windows, Surranon started looking out of them. He could now see a large transport heading toward that place. Yes, DeathBringers could see a great distance if they wanted to do it. It was one of the best ways they got a victim. To separate one from the others if there were a lot of them.

     Surranon smiled. “Maybe it’s not time for me to leave Jeehon just yet after all.”

     “It looks like there are some more victims for me to learn from. From the size of this transport, there are going to be a lot of them.”

     Suddenly, Surranon stopped smiling. “Oh, No. I can’t, and won’t, kill most of these Jeehons. They are Young Ones. Most of the universe calls their young ones Young Ones. Jeehon is one of those planets.”

##

     “I’m kind of mixed when it comes to Young Ones.” Surranon kept his eyes closed as he floated into some darkness next to that large window. He kept peeking around the edge of that window every few seconds to watch that transport get closer to him.

     “I agree that Young Ones shouldn’t be victims, but I don’t about them know about us and what we do. Most of them already know who we are and what we have been doing. Especially, the older Young Ones. The ones who are about to become adults.”

     Surranon was using only one eye to look out that window, but she couldn’t stop doing it now. “That transport will be here in a few minutes. What am I going to do?”

     “Should I stay in the darkness until they leave? Maybe I should leave before they get here? It’s kind of late to do that, but I could still leave.”

     “I have been thinking about leaving Jeehon for a long time. Maybe this is a good time to do that.”

     Suddenly, Surranon smiled. “I was wondering why these Young Ones were coming here alone. They aren’t. From the height and weight of them, there are a few adults with them.

##

     “One, two, three, four.” Surranon pointed his finger at each adult as he counted them off. Keeping his voice low enough that only he could hear himself. He was on one side of that room while his visitors were on the other side. So, he could have spoken up a little bit more.

     “Killing these four adults isn’t going to be easy. There are forty Young ones. Ten Young Ones per adult, and the way the Young Ones are hovering around them, these adults are using them as protection against me. At least that’s the way it looks to me.”

     For a long time, Surranon didn’t do anything. He just stared at these four adults and the Young Ones protecting them. “I have two choices. One choice is to not learn anything from these adults. The other one is to do it in front of these Young Ones.”

     “Almost all of us DeathBringers don’t think that Young Ones should be seeing what we do to the adults. Especially, the very Young Ones. I’m one of them but considering what these adults are doing I’m going to go back on my thinking. Whether the Young Ones are here or not, I will kill these adults.”

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