"Hey." Argit looked up to see a human. He didn't know if he had met him before. All humans looked kinda similar to him. Their language was difficult to understand. This one seemed smaller than the others. Perhaps he was a child.
He wanted to go home. He had no idea what was happening. There were people he didn't recognize. He had gotten into trouble on his home planet, and then? Everything was a blur. He knew he was in a cage. It was better than the burlap sack he had spent a few hours in earlier that day.
"What planet are you supposed to be from?" Said the human child in front of him. Argit didn't understand. He seemed to be asking a question, though, as he'd heard other humans talk with an upward inflection at the end of the sentence and another human would always say something. Should he say something? The human probably wouldn't understand his native language. He only knew a few words in English, and he wasn't sure of their meaning. He decided to try his best.
"Fuck," he tried to respond as well as he could in English. The human in front of him laughed. "Planet fuck?" Argit stared at him, hoping he had given an acceptable answer. "Okay, sure. I'm from planet Earth. I wish it could be renamed 'fuck' though, that'd be great." Argit heard the phrase 'Planet Earth,' which was similar to 'Planet Fuck.' He decided to try the conversation going. Maybe he'd learn something.
"Earth," he said. "Yeah, I'm from there. I just said that. What's wrong with you?" He asked this earnestly. He had only talked to aliens that knew English or had translators. Why couldn't this one talk? Was he not sentient? He frowned, trying to figure this alien out.
Argit noticed the frown, and backed away defensively. "No," he tried. He had witnessed other humans use the syllable to get others to stop, and he hoped it might work for him.
"No, I'm not from Earth, or no there's nothing wrong with you?" The human asked. He didn't stop frowning. Did the magic word not work for aliens, Argit wondered? The human sighed, and leaned back a bit. "Whatever. What's your name?" He pointed at Argit. Argit stared.
The human decided to start, because the alien probably wouldn't. "I'm Kevin." He put his hand on his own chest. "Ke-vin," He repeated slowly. He put his hand through the bars, trying to put his hand on Argit's chest to to show it was his turn to talk, like he'd seen in the movies. Argit backed away.
Kevin sighed, and took his hand out of the cage.
"Argit," said Argit, hoping that this was what he was supposed to say. "Argit? Is that your name?" Asked Kevin. Argit face lit up at the sound of his name. He hadn't heard it in a while. Kevin pointed at him. "Argit," he repeated, then he pointed to himself. "Kevin,"
"Kevin," Argit said. Kevin smiled. Argit smiled too. He was glad to talk to someone, after being ignored for days.
"Kevin, what are you doing? You should be in the rec room where I left you! If you can't follow orders..." Kevin stood up quickly, rolling his eyes. At the sound of more adult humans, Argit shrank into the corner of the cage, no longer smiling. Kevin walked off with the Proctor, and once again Argit was alone.
XxxxxxxxxX
The human hadn't come back in a day, and Argit didn't expect him to. He tried to wriggle out of the cage bars, but every time he did he heard the footsteps of a guard and he pretended to have been sitting quietly the whole time.
Eventually, despite what he believed, the human did return. "Hey Argit!" He kneeled down in front of the cage, peering in. "Kevin," Argit said, not sure what else to say.
"Want some food?" He held out half a slice of bread. Argit tried to grab it. "Not yet. Say food," he intended to teach him English. Argit stared. "Food!" Kevin repeated. He pointed at it like he had pointed to himself and Argit a while ago. "Food!" He repeated again, hoping he'd get the message.
"Food?" Argit said quietly. Kevin handed him the bread. "Great! You got it! You wanna learn some swear words?" He smiled. Argit's mouth was filled with the bread he'd just gotten, but he smiled back.
Again, someone walked by. "Again Kevin? Why bother with them. You should be showing the new kid around!" Kevin sighed. He got up. "See you later," he told Argit, and walked off.
XxxxxxxxxX
Argit waited eagerly all day for Kevin. He did not try to escape the cage, because he didn't want to get lost without seeing a friendly face again. He had been given some sort of disgusting pellet food to eat, and he only ate it because he knew he would die if he didn't. He was scared of dying. He knew all about death.
Kevin didn't show up until the lights had gone dim. They did this periodically, and would do this for about eight hours. Then they'd be fully lit for sixteen. He wasn't sure why this was. His home planet went on a much faster time scale.
He missed his home planet.
He wished he knew how to tell Kevin.
Kevin held out another half slice of bread, but again kept it far enough away that Argit couldn't reach it. In his other hand he held a piece of paper with six differently colored circles on it.
He sat down, and tore the bread into pieces. He pointed to the red circle on the paper. "Red," Kevin said. "Red," Argit said back, realizing how this would go. Kevin gave him a small piece of the bread. They did this with every color. Then Kevin tested him.
"Which one is red?" He held out the paper. Kevin hoped Argit's species wasn't colorblind. Argit pointed to the red circle. Kevin smiled. He was glad to know that Argit was really learning English, and not just repeating what he heard.
Kevin wasn't sure why he was trying to teach him anything. Would it help his life stuck in a cage like a lab rat? Was he going to write bestselling novels trapped in the null-void?
"What else do you want to learn?" Kevin asked. Argit tried to decipher what he was asking. "Food?" He asked. He was still hungry. "More food?" Kevin said.
"Planet more food?" Argit has no idea what this meant, as he was just putting words together. Kevin didn't know what this meant either.
"I could try to bring you more things, or something. Like books or music. How about that?" He smiled, and so did Argit.
XxxxxxxxxX
"The "Red Death" has long devastated the country. No pestilence had-" "Red death?" Argit asked. He had learned Red yesterday, but he didn't know what the word death meant. Kevin was reading from an old book, and he wanted to know what was so important that humans would keep it in written form.
"Well, you know the color red, and death is like..." he thought for a second, then mimed a knife across his throat. He then lay dramatically on the floor, holding his breath. "Oh!" Argit said, mimicking a sound that he guessed meant understanding for humans. He assumed then that "Red Death" meant blood.
"... ever been so fatal, or so hideous." Again Argit was confused. He hadn't really understood the first part of the sentence. Kevin sighed. He didn't really get the story either. It was all he could find in the complex.
"So, the Red Death makes people die. It has made more people die than any other plague," he guessed. He had no idea if the red death was supposed to be a plague or a serial killer.
Argit was still confused.
Kevin decided to try to act it out again. He made his fingers stand on the ground, like tiny humans. He labeled one 'red death' by pointing to it, and the other 'person'. The fingers labeled red death stomped on the other, killing it. "See, the red death kills. That's what they mean by pestilence."
Argit nodded. A man dressed in red was killing people. Killing lots of people is what humans call 'pestilence'.
Again, someone walked by and spotted Kevin talking to Argit. It wasn't a guard.
"Proctor Servantis!" Kevin exclaimed, standing up. Servantis was red, as he was already part cerebro-crustacean. Argit pointed at him.
"Pestilence!"
Kevin laughed nervously. Servantis wasn't laughing at all. "Okay, let me explain. I'm trying to teach him English, and..."
Kevin grabbed Servantis' arm and pulled him away from Argit; he was safe from punishment for now.
XxxxxxxxxX
Kevin was back. He had more food. This time he had some more stale bread and a couple of old grapes. He taught Argit the words for them, and decided that he'd talk about his day instead of fancy old literature. He had printed pictures to illustrate what he meant.
"Today, I had French toast for breakfast," he showed him a picture of French toast printed off the internet. "Then I played video games with the other kids here," he showed him a picture of a Xbox controller and a stock photo of people playing video games. "I went to the gym they have here," he showed a picture of a treadmill. "Then I showered," he showed a picture of a shower.
"Today food," Argit guessed. "Today you ate food?" "Today you ate food," "No, it's 'Today I ate food.'" "Today I ate food." Kevin nodded. "Today I ate bread," said Argit, and Kevin smiled.
"Tomorrow, Servantis is going to show me where the weapons room is." Argit nodded. If 'today' means past, 'tomorrow' must mean future.
"Tomorrow, I eat bread," he said. "Probably," Kevin said. Argit was getting the hang of human language. He tried more sentences. "Tomorrow, pestilence ate you," Never mind, Kevin decided.
"If you're referring to Servantis, yesterday he told me to tell you not to call him that." "Yesterday?" "Yeah, like there's tomorrow, today, and yesterday." He gestured with his hands.
"Yesterday I ate bread," Argit tested. "Yeah, like that," Kevin said. "Yesterday Servantis ate bread?" He asked. "Did Servantis eat bread yesterday? I don't know. Probably," Kevin said.
"Did you eat bread yesterday?"
"Yes,"
"Did Servantis eat you Yesterday?"
"No! Argit that's not how it works! People don't eat people! What do you mean by eat?" Argit mimed biting. He stuck his hand through the bars and gently hit Kevin.
"Do you mean hurt? He didn't hurt me. He's nice!" Kevin said. Argit rolled his eyes, copying what Kevin did sometimes.
"Tomorrow I hurt Servantis-" "Woah! Okay, one, it's 'will hurt', singular, and two, you can't hurt him! He gave us all homes! We both would be kicked out if we aren't nice. So don't say that."
"He will hurt you,"
Kevin leaned back, scowling.
"His friends hurt you. His friends hurt me. My friends don't hurt me." Argit said. Kevin stood up. Argit tried to stand, but he couldn't in the cage he was stuck in.
"If you can't be nice, it's not your fault when you get kicked out."
"Fuck you!" Argit tried to hit him through the bars of the cage. Unfortunately for him, Kevin was already walking away.
XxxxxxxxxX
Kevin didn't return for days. During that time, Argit was put into a different room. This one was bigger, and there weren't any bars. Instead, there was strong glass. This room had a bed, a sink, and a toilet. He absolutely loved how soft the bed was, and how much freedom he had to walk around.
When Kevin finally returned, it seemed that he knew exactly where to find Argit.
"Are you sorry now?" He asked. "What's sorry?" "It's when you hurt someone and wish you didn't." Argit nodded.
There was a hole in the glass where the guards could put food and rocks through. Kevin put his hand through. Argit stared. "Give me your hand. Well shake on it, and then we won't be mad at each other." Argit put his hand in Kevin's, and they shook hands.
Kevin smiled at Argit. "You know, I do like you. I don't want to fight you." He sat down in front of the glass. Argit sat down too. "I like you," Argit repeated, hoping that it meant what he thought.
"I'm sorry I got mad. I don't want Servantis any more mad at you than he already is. I don't like him when he's pissed off."
"I don't like you when you're pissed off." He said, replacing the word 'he' with 'you', making his own sentence. Kevin scowled. "I said I was sorry!" He said. Argit sighed. He was learning human communication quickly.
"Should I teach you more words?" Kevin asked. Argit nodded. Kevin tried to think of what Argit would need to know.
"Do you like this room?" The only word he didn't know in the sentence was the new one (room), and he gestured at the room. Argit nodded. "You can say 'yes' or 'yeah' to say you like what someone says." "Yes."
"Do you like the food here?" Argit thought for a second for the right answer, then responded with "No. I like bread and grapes,"
"You have low standards," Kevin said. The bread and grapes had been table scraps, and he hadn't ate them because he found them gross. "They taste bad compared to some of the other food on earth..."
"Taste?" "If you like food, you like the taste of the food." Argit nodded. "Fuck the food here. The taste is bad."
Kevin laughed. "You can't say that all the time! It's considered a bad word!"
"A bad word?"
"Yes, you can't say them! At least, not in front of Servantis."
Argit waited a bit, the said quietly, "fuck."
Kevin sighed. "Where did you even learn that?" "Servantis has friends that say bad words." "Okay, well don't say them. You'll get in trouble." "Say more bad words!" "No!"
After a few moments, Kevin brought his face to the hole in the glass. "Shit," he whispered. He laughed. "You didn't hear it from me! Servantis told me to stop swearing around the other kids here." Argit nodded.
"Do you know what shit means?" Argit shook his head. "It means poop!" He laughed, because this was the pinnacle of comedy to an eleven year old, and Argit laughed too. "Pissed means either angry, drunk, or peed." He laughed again, mostly because it was taboo to talk in depth about swearing.
"Fuck means sex." "Whats that?" Kevin realized that he'd backed himself into a corner with this one- now he had to talk about sex. He wasn't sure he even knew enough about it to explain it to Argit.
"It what people do to make babies. They put their junk together and then the girl gets pregnant." "Whats junk?" Argit asked.
"Oh, you know..." he gestured vaguely, not meaning anything in particular. He regretted bringing it up. "It doesn't matter. Let's talk about something else!"
XxxxxxxxxX
After a few days of regularly meeting up, Kevin brought Argit a radio and some cds. He played some classic rock for Argit, hoping to teach him what conversations about their day to day routine can't.
"What's gold?" Argit asked. They had been listening to Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven. "It's a metal on earth that can be used to trade for things. It's worth a lot."
"I want gold," Argit said.
"Don't we all," Replied Kevin.
"What's glitters?" "It's when... it's like a bunch of tiny dots of light. Girls like it. I think it's stupid." Argit knew what girls were from a previous conversation. Apparently they weren't as cool as boys, but Kevin said that he only liked girls and not boys. Argit was confused, but he decided he didn't care enough to ask.
"What's stairs?" Kevin pointed at the end of the hallway. "It's those things over there."
"Whats heaven?" Kevin didn't want to talk about the intricacies of human religion. That cold take them hours. "It's supposed to be a really nice place. It's the opposite of hell, where we are right now." He laughed to himself.
"Are we going to get out of hell?" Argit asked. "Sometimes, Servantis has me go out to run errands. I'm always tied to here, though."
"Let's leave then!" "No! We can't! This isn't literally hell, I was making a joke."
Argit sighed. He hated how Kevin always insisted that Servantis was a nice person. He wasn't sure if what he remembered from the burlap sack was real. He leaned against the glass.
They continued listening to music together.
Kevin decided to change the subject.
XxxxxxxxxX
He was back in the cage. He didn't know what he did to deserve this. He also didn't know how he got there.
Kevin sat in front of him. He was talking in a gentle manner. "Where..." Argit started. Kevin reached a hand through the bars of the cage and patted his shoulder comfortingly. Argit sighed and leaned into it. It was comforting.
"Are you doing alright?" Kevin asked. "I don't know what happens to the aliens afterwards. I know that humans are fine, but..." "I'm fine. Where am I? Why am I back here?"
"You're... safe. I don't think they'll kill you, but I'm worried they won't need you anymore and toss you out into the null-void." Argit knew of the null-void. He didn't know if he'd ever been outside, but he understood where they were.
"I don't want to leave you," Argit said, putting his own hand on Kevin's shoulder. Kevin's smiled to himself. "That's kinda gay," he said. "Whats gay?" Argit asked. "Well, it's like, um, two guys dating or kissing or something. Like, a guy and a girl isn't gay, but two guys is gay." "Whats two girls called?" Argit asked. "Uh, I think it's Lebanese or something. I don't know!"
"Whatever," Argit said, copying what Kevin always said to change subjects. "Why would they toss me out into the null-void? What did I do?" "You didn't do anything! You just..." Kevin wasn't sure how to put what happened into words.
"We sort of... used your DNA to give one of the kids here superpowers. There's other aliens here, and other kids with different superpowers. We're going to join together to fight this guy that's going to destroy the universe and stuff."
"Oh." He didn't really get it, but he decided he'd figure it out later. "What's superpowers?" "They're cool stuff you can do that regular people can't." "Oh. What superpowers did the kid get?" "Whatever superpowers you have. Spiky hair powers I guess."
"Hair?" "You know," Kevin ran his hand through Argit's hair. Out of surprise, he backed away, quills standing on end. "Like that!" Kevin said. "It's not a superpower." Argit told him. "Fine."
To Kevin's surprise, Argit covered his face with his hands. After a few seconds, he composed himself, and looked back up.
"I want to leave." He said. "I can't stay here." "Hey..." Kevin said, trying to comfort him. He patted him on the shoulder again. "I can convince them to put you back into the nice glass room, Okay? Everything will be fine."
XxxxxxxxxX
Kevin was in huge trouble with Servantis, and Argit feared it was his fault. He had snuck out of his cage, onto the ship taking Kevin and some other kids to earth and he had stopped Kevin from completing the task he had been asked to.
Servantis was pissed. Argit was really scared of what he would do to them both.
Argit was in the cage again. Guards stood on either side of it, so there was no hope for escape. Kevin was nowhere to be seen. He was probably talking to Servantis somewhere. He really hoped he was alright, considering none of this was Kevin's fault.
One of the guards knelt down in front of the cage. Both guards exchanged looks, and the one that was standing left the room.
"So, I heard you got yourself into trouble," the guard crooned. Argit backed as far away as he could. The guard reached into the cage and grabbed his arm. He pulled Argit close and grabbed his face. "Proctor Servantis won't have any misbehavior. Maybe I should punish you..."
"Whats punished?" Argit asked. He struggled against the guard. "Oh, I can show you if you want-" "Thanks I get it now!" He tried to pull away from the guard.
"How about I let you out?" The guard asked. Argit, fearing that this was a test, shook his head as best he could under the guard's strong grip.
"Fuck you!" Argit exclaimed. Kevin's explanation of what the word meant hadn't really made sense, but he knew of something similar that he didn't know the English word for. He regretted what he had just said. He didn't want to do it with the guard.
"Oh? Would you like to?" The guard teased. He let go of Argit's hand, and Argit used the extra strength to push against the cage bars. The guard let go of his face, and Argit was flung back against the back of the cage. The guard laughed. He stood up, and resumed standing next to the cage as the other guard rushed in and stood next to the cage as well.
Servantis walked in. Kevin walked next to him. Servantis unlocked the cage.
"Follow me."
They walked through halls Argit had never seen before. Kevin was being quiet, and Argit didn't know what the subtle facial expressions he made meant. What was going on?
They stood besides a large door. "What's happening?" Argit whispered to Kevin. "It doesn't matter what I say. You won't remember," Kevin said. He didn't bother whispering. The whole situation seemed weird.
Argit took Kevin's hand. He didn't receive any complaints, so he held tight.
"Are we going to die?" Argit asked. Kevin didn't answer right away. "...no," he said eventually. Argit wasn't reassured.
He never quite recovered the memory of what happened after that. He could only remember waking up in the mull-void next to Kevin, with monsters crying in the distance, and no buildings in sight.