Bella and Edward meet on an alien planet in this alternate universe thriller. Ed was kidnapped by aliens long ago as a toddler and has since been living with the alien family that bought him. He's now a full-grown young man.
Bella has left Forks and is now a socialite and successful entertainer in New York City. One night while she is entertaining her legion of fans, aliens raid and she is spirited away in a magic-induced deep slumber. She wakes up in a strange land, her hands and legs bound, and is being sold to an alien lord who deals in human body parts.
Isabella is fated to perish but she will meet with Ed, who immediately likes her, and the two plot to escape. Will the two star-crossed lovers survive the massive manhunt that follows?
Chapter 1
Guide to some non-English words in this chapter:
Aha: an alien lord or esquire.
Qmalo: The country on the alien planet to which Bella is taken.
Qmalians: Natives of Qmalo.
Please note use of the word Purchase: Qmalians sometimes use it as a noun describing the victim they have bought at the market.
1.1
Misty bands of gray light swirled into Bella's brain like smoke entering a broken window. Everything seemed fuzzy. She groped for certainty. 'My name is Bella. Sure, I am a woman. I got breasts. I have a face with a nose and a mouth.' She wanted to touch herself as she murmured those words but her hands were bound.
Phantom sounds droned in her head. A meaningless blend of tones ranging from bass to treble. Her left ear whined. She felt like she was being transported on a wave, like she could suddenly be thrust into a void. Time and distance lost meaning, everything merged into one hopeless fog.
In time, her eyes opened without her bidding and the gray shadows that'd been whirling in her head shifted to the corners. A new world fixed itself before her, hazy in areas, but not so blurred as to prevent her making sense of it.
"She is awake," a strange, hollow voice echoed. "Now, Aha, you can take a good look at your purchase in her conscious state."
"No need to worry," another of those scary voices replied. "She is the correct blood type and that's all I need. She will relieve the pressure on my organ waiting list."
'Organ wait list?' Bella shuddered as those words tore into her confused brain.
Before she could let out a scream, a flurry of movement broke. Heavy and light boots grinding and squeaking on bare concrete. A hand grazed her face then flopped to her shoulder. Its touch was pure ice, as though the hand were that of a monster who'd just emerged from a pile of snow.
"It's time I got going," that gravelly voice spoke again.
A few more beams of light pulsed into her eyes, and then everything went dark. Time and distance again became one thing that was just plunging and plunging.
She battled to stabilize her senses. 'How the hell did I get here?' she asked herself. 'And for that matter, where in hell is this place I'm calling 'here'?'
Still struggling, she raked her brain for memories. Scenes from what she could hazily recall as the last four hours of her regular celebrity existence played back in snowy vignettes: the limo ride from the glitzy hotel to the entertainment venue. The throngs that greeted her and her entourage as they emerged from the gleaming sliding doors of stretched Lincolns. The walk over the red carpet, into the seductively lit venue. Little had she known…
"Help me lift her. I have to be on my way," that ghostly voice reverberated once more.
1.2
'Organ wait list,' the words still rang in her head as that sensation of rough, cold hands holding her returned. Now she was being raised but that didn't last long. Her body was soon slammed onto a surface, tendrils of pain plowing into her like blows from a hammer. She blanked out for a moment, but as the shock was ebbing away and she was wriggling and straining to regain her sanity, she won for herself some compensation: her vision returned in full. She no longer glimpsed mere shadows and hazy balls of light, but full figures of objects and ornaments. Presently, an image of a nasty-looking mustached man filled her vision. The man's head was closely shaved and he had scary grey-yellow eyes. He wore robes which made him look religious. His skin was a sickly pale orange, and that gave him a ghost-like look.
"Where the hell is this?" Bella flung her bound hands at the man. "And, who are you?" She resisted being rude at first hoping to get some sympathy.
"Call me Aha Ishobad." A crooked smile came over the man's pudgy lips. "Welcome to Qmalo. Enjoy the ride. It's your last."
"My last…; what the fuck do you mean?"
The man did not answer, only exposed more of his teeth in a smirk.
"Let me go," she barked. "I don't care about your Qmalo."
"No, I can't let you." The man erased his crooked smile. "Because you are mine."
"Me; yours? Are you crazy?"
"Yes, I just bought you. Weren't you awake when I sealed the deal?"
"Screw that, it's stupid."
"Get used to it," the strange man retorted. "You're now mine."
"To hell with you. I'm going." She tested the ropes tying her.
"Earthling, be reasonable," the brute growled. "I have a long list of patients waiting for organs."
Organs? The word sent needles of fear into Bella's stomach but she fought it. "Be serious." She jerked in the bondage. "You aren't making sense."
The man looked at her as though she were stupid. "You will get to see, soon, tramp."
Courage had been building in Bella, but now it drained away as she realized how resolute the monster was. The man turned his face away from her, fetched a set of keys from the pocket of his robes and started an engine.
'Damn, I'm stuck inside a vehicle.'
"Stop, don't go." Bella again flexed her arms against the cord tying her wrists. "Get me out of here." The cord was too tight, though, and it bit into her skin.
She kicked her legs against the rope strapping her ankles. That one wasn't too tight, but it still didn't come off.
"Don't even bother. You got no way."
Hopeless, Bella slumped back onto the uncomfortable surface.
The vehicle started moving, and then gained speed as its engine got louder. The floor she lay on creaked and heaved. Soon the man pulled a lever and the vehicle leaped into the air. The roughness of the motion made Bella's stomach turn.
They nosed farther up, and in a while it became clear there would be no quick return.
She lay back. As she became stiller, more images from her last hours in New York City streamed back into her consciousness. She saw herself getting into the club on Manhattan's glitzy 10th Avenue, all dressed for a night-long gig in a glinting outfit with chains and sequins and studs. On her head she had her signature kitten ears, and on her feet two long, pointy heels. Then the music clicked in and she wowed the crowd. Just like she loved doing. Just like she got paid a million a gig to do. Then probably just one sparkling hour down the line, the music suddenly went dead. The lights blinked and the whole club went dark. For a moment, she and the audience thought it was a joke meant to scare everyone, but soon learned it wasn't, when strange noises began to emanate from the ceiling and from backstage. The doors flew open. Fans began to scream with fear…
Chapter 2
Jove: The God of the Qmalians.
2.1
Laboring on one of the balconies of this castle-like home, a young man of about twenty-two or twenty-three (he wasn't sure which) tried to visualize the person his Qmalian master would be bringing back from the market. Ed did not know how to feel. While it might be nice to glimpse someone human like him, he didn't wish anyone kidnapped and then bought. The secret abducting of people from earth was something that troubled Ed much. He hated it. Being someone who had been stolen from earth at an early age, he always prayed that the evil practice would end. Deep down he wanted to help that come true, but then he lacked the power. He was just a servant and couldn't do anything to his bosses.
His master had left home early this afternoon to go to the market where a plane full of humans had been off-loaded. The person whom Aha Ishobad wanted would be biologically special, for his master was looking for a not so common, if not rare, blood type.
Ed thought about all those who'd been captured and shipped. Almost all would suffer. Many would be enslaved and end up working in terrible conditions in mines, factories, farms and households. Some might become guinea pigs and be forced to participate in drug and medical experiments. The worst would be those unlucky ones who would be killed so their organs could be harvested. A bloody business his master sometimes engaged in.
'Dear Jove,' Ed felt especially sorry for the person his master was going to bring. He or she would be slaughtered in no time. That was something no one deserved at all.
Although he couldn't explain the source of the thought, Ed kept wondering if the unlucky person would not be a sister, niece, brother or nephew of his. That would be a very cruel thing. His eyes moistened. It was at sad times like these that Ed thought about his family, which he'd been robbed of. Were his mother and father still alive far down there on earth? How many other children did they have besides him? Did his siblings suffer the same fate as he? Maybe one could be alive on this horrid planet, slaving for some Qmalian lord. Or they could have been killed for organs.
Ed did not want to think about it anymore. He dipped his mop into a bucket and started scrubbing.
2.2
As they flew, Bella again struggled to free herself. The rope tying her hands was impossible to loosen, so she gave up on it. The one tying her ankles, however, was a bit slack and she worked on it. While her Qmalian buyer was busy with the controls, Bella worked her legs and feet, wiggling, angling, twisting and squeezing until she got her feet out. Her shoes came off, too, in the process. The Qmalian only looked back and frowned but did not take any action. Now using her legs and feet as leverage, she pushed at a seat in front of her and then managed to sit up. She now could see better. This was a real plane after all, though somewhat of a rickety design. The only two seats available were at the front, with nothing at the back. Where she sat on seemed like a cargo hold of sorts.
The plane's windows were low and Bella could see outside. They were flying over a lightly populated area, probably the outlying areas of a large city. Bella could see individual houses and estates. Animals she couldn't properly make out grazed in the fields. If it wasn't that she was captured, she might have thought this was a beautiful alien world.
The small rumbling thing later descended, then landed. It coasted along a gritty runway then halted before a dark station-like building. The strange man, whom Bella hazily remembered had called himself something like Ah Isoband—what a crazy shitty name, or was she messing it—turned off the key and the engine groaned to a stop.
The place was noisy with air traffic, but a cacophony of voices did filter in from the outside. Bella could pick out mostly male croaking, but she also heard the frenzied shout of a female. The language spoken was a broken kind of English, or it could have been something else, but strangely she could understand most of it.
"Tramp, you have already untied your feet, so slide toward the door," Ah Isoband half-rose and reached for the rope tying her hands. He tugged at it. "By the way, this is Egodad, our capital."
"Don't bother me," Bella gave the man a bitter stare. "I need to go. Cut this off."
"No, tramp. Out like that." Ah Isoband opened his door and jumped out. His shoes thudded on the pavement. In a moment the door she'd been previously thrown through was opened.
"Now you come out. And don't test my patience."
Although she didn't know where she'd been taken to, and wanted to be flown back, Bella already had had enough of this crappy plane. She couldn't wait to get off. Furthermore, outside, someone with a merciful heart might come to her aid.
Getting up was a struggle because her hands remained bound. Ah Isoband grabbed her by the arms and dragged her. That was unnecessary; she'd wanted to come out by herself. "Don't treat me like this," she said as her bare feet tasted the hot, uneven asphalt. She glanced back at her heels. "Get me my shoes, you bastard."
"Tramp like you, you think you deserve them. To hell with the shoes; let's go."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Yes, you are," Isoband wrapped his hands around her neck, by way of a threat. He then shoved her. "You are not a boss in this country."
"Monster, stop this before I scream," she braced her legs.
"That won't help." The alien started to pull at the cord, which caused Bella enormous pain at the wrists. "See, now I will beat you up.".
Bella had no option but to follow. As she was being hustled away, she took a better look at the thing they'd come in. The plane, if you could call it that, looked very unusual. It had a small fuselage, and very short wings but its three wheels were huge. Its tailpiece was clipped as though one of the plane's engineers, after assembling the tail and fin, had later decided to just saw off the part.
While they walked, she also kept surveying the small airport. Not that she liked what she saw, but the act gave her a hopeful feeling, as though this were a place she soon would come back to and then fly home. Several planes similar to that of this Ah Isoband bandit were parked nearby. A particularly bigger version of it was wheeling towards the runway.
The building closest to them was hangar-like, with multiple floor-to-roof openings on its front side. Several other structures, of a more compact design and all painted blue, took space beyond the wide pavement. One had a small tower with several antennae on top.
"Tramp, don't waste my time," The Qmalian tugged at the rope. "What are you looking at?"
Bella had had enough of this. Enduring pain, she steadied herself and halted. Surprised, Ah Isoband turned back to face her. He stared at her with exasperation.
"Where the heck you are taking me?" she faced up to him, her voice packed with anger.
"Just walk," Ah Isoband started pulling at her again, this time by her T shirt. His fingers gave her that icy tingle once more.
"I don't want to come. I have family."
"You will have to, now don't let me flog you," he retrieved a whip from his robe's pocket.
Bella ignored the whip and looked around. Where could she run to? Who could she turn to for assistance? Misty—her cat she left in Manhattan—would by now be freaking she wasn't home. It hurt Bella to see nothing could help.
"Now I really am at the end of my patience." The Qmalian raised his whip.
Resigned, Bella started walking.
They reached the end of the tarmac and then turned into a sidewalk. She still looked for somewhere to escape to. Small unkempt bushes with numerous wild flowers bordered the walkway on each side but those offered no refuge. Before she could find anything, they'd reached a parking lot. Bella searched around for lot attendants hoping to scream for assistance, but she saw no one. Before she knew it, the Qmalian had commandeered her to an orange pickup with a covered lockable back.
Ah Isoband fished out the same bunch of keys he'd used in the plane.
He unlocked the truck's back door. "Get in."
"No, I'm not."
The brute took hold of her by waist. Bella tried to push him back, but couldn't. The Qmalian held her tighter, then started to lift her up. Bella braced her legs, but the Qmalian was so strong, she found her feet coming off the ground. Soon, again like what happened with the plane, she got thrown in. The truck's floor was bare metal and the hardness sent shots of pain into her body.
"Stop, I want to come out."
The Qmalian slammed the doors shut.
She flailed her legs and tried to kick at anything she could, but nothing yielded. A bolt in the door-lock clicked into place.
She shook her head. Was this the end, perhaps not. She flailed and kicked some more, but like she knew, nothing happened. Soon the only other loud sound she could hear, apart from her panicked screams, was the droning of an engine.
Was this the final leg of the journey to her death? Or had she already died and was headed to hell? Oh dear me, now what would happen to Misty in her locked penthouse. Wouldn't the lovable feline be starving by now? And what, too, about her mother in Forks. Had Renee heard? Was she tearing her hair off looking for her. Would they ever be reunited, or was that last dinner in Seattle the last…