Feeding time was always a strange time. For upwards of an hour, once a day, the sentience that fascinated his caretakers vanished, replaced with images that haunted them as they went home to their wives and children. Cleaning up was always some poor soul's job, and even as he lay in the corner heavily drugged beyond consciousness, whoever had that unfortunate duty of the day always left the enclosure with an upset stomach and a bruised psyche. Whether it was the aftermath or the dozing devil in the corner, the turnover for the position was frequent and transfers to different departments were the norm.
Today, another new face. The large male paced steadily behind the plexi-steel, his long cobalt head tilting curiously as though trying to grab a scent through the clear barrier, white-tipped claws clicking audibly on the sturdy concrete floor. The face twisted in apprehension as he pulled another in tow, this one donning a classy bag over the head, execution-style. Even in the air-tight enclosure he resided in, the xenomorph could read fear from the obscured human, making his thin lips curl back in a silvery-toothed grin. The executioner for today seemed more uneasy with his newly acquired responsibility than some of the others before him, visibly quivering. Lurking near the feeding chute, his blue, armored body tensed with impatient hunger, abdomen heaving with an excited snort. Briefly, the intercom used to communicate over the barrier crackled to life, the voice of the caretaker shaking with uncertainty.
"Make this one last; there won't be any snacks tonight, Khar." The human's face scrunched, as though he disgusted himself with giving that little reminder.
The creature behind the plexi-steel seemed to shake with a chuckle, his tail lashing and striking the feeding chute with tempered impatience. The caretaker grumbled to himself, snagging the xenomorph's dinner roughly by a bound arm and shoving him into the laboratory side of the feeding chute. The hydraulics on the lid squeaked faintly as it closed, the other side opening into the thick stench of death from within the enclosure. Now the panic from dinner was more apparent, causing Khar to shiver, stretching in a feline gesture before approaching the human with slow, deliberate strides. Underneath the sack obscuring his vision, the human was already hyperventilating, the bag forming an 'o' where his mouth hung open in panic.
Khar'thiss emitted a long growl, thick with sensual hunger as he circled his prey, his rasping breath hot on the shoulders of the bound man. His ridged tail coiled around his large form, the bladed appendage flicking in a strangely dainty manner to sever the bindings on the human's arms. Immediately, the man threw his hands up and ripped the sack from over his head, wide eyes darting for a second before he scrambled completely out of the chute, uselessly scampering into a corner and putting his back to it. He was quickly followed by the xenomorph sharing his prison now as Khar loped effortlessly to keep him cornered, rising onto his back legs with a drawn hiss.
Towering over the other moreso than he already had been, the sapphire creature loomed for a single second before a clawed, gangly hand shot out to clutch the human in an iron grip, grabbing an exposed wrist and flinging him carelessly across the enclosure. A loud pop echoed in the cage, quickly punctuated by a shriek of human agony as the limb dislocated, the scream shortened from the impact of the wall. Snarling through his amused grin, Khar'thiss turned and made the long pounce on the stunned human, completing the injury with a swift movement of his head, long teeth sinking into flesh, rending it with pain and tearing the arm from its owner with little more than a millisecond of consideration. His meal yowled over the snapping and tearing of muscle, quickly muffled by the xenomorph's large hand on his face, blue and white bony, chitin-covered fingers wrapping around his skull as though created to cradle it perfectly. The man's other arm flailed, his legs kicking in vain efforts to free himself of the creature's grip as he bled out onto the cold, unforgiving concrete. Beneath his palm, Khar could feel his breath desperately clinging to what it could pull from the largely blocked airways, eliciting an excited growl and a shiver from him that ran the length of his long body.
Relishing in the human's panic for a second more, the large xenomorph clutched at the heaving chest underneath him with his other hand, wrenching the flesh from the natural bone cage protecting the human's vital organs, the off-white glistening through the bright crimson spilling forth from the wound. His prey's now constant wailing vibrated against his palm, easily willing Khar'thiss to do it again, his claws curling through muscle and around the bone, snapping each rib outwards like the pulling laces from a pair of shoes, revealing quivering organs woven with webs of veins and arteries. The smell of panic and blood sent the large male reeling, his sleek head tossing with a bloodthirsty shriek before he buried his muzzle into the flesh housing, suddenly slinging back with a large mouthful of soft, tender organs, a sheet of blood trailing from the misplaced flesh and arcing over him as he swallowed the supple vitality from his meal whole.
Having fallen into the throes of a slow death, the man gurgled thick, red-black blood into the xenomorph's palm, his eyes staring vacantly past the sleek, blood-spattered dome that lowered its maw into his chest again. The stench of death, the continued snapping of bone and the slurping of blood didn't permeate the plexi-steel, yet the caretaker found himself kneeling over the nearest trashcan, his entire body lurching forward with each objection from his stomach. There was an abrupt splattering noise against the barrier that was audible even outside of the enclosure, making him raise his head from the vat of his stomach contents to look. Thick ropes of blood almost obscured the trail of intestine that slid down the transparent wall with disgustingly sluggish movements. Holding back the threatening rise of bile, he dared a deeper look into the cage, watching with morbid curiosity as Khar clutched what was left of the man's head and cracked it against the concrete like a raw egg, the exposed bone falling to pieces just as easily as any eggshell. The caretaker quickly lowered himself to his trashcan again, hurling indefinitely as the creature finished his meal.