The next chapter is here!

WARNING: Brief scenes of attempted suicide in this chapter. If any of these elements are too sensitive a topic to some, I suggest readers skip the first half of this chapter.

Enjoy :)

Natalie seems to be losing hope and a piece of herself each day that goes by.

Making her think about her current situation and what her future might be like, she started to feel extremely depressed and hopeless. She found herself going down a deep dark hole, one that she may never get out of again.

Tears started to form in her eyes, making her vision blur.

She reached out towards the thin pillow on her cot and reached for something hidden underneath it. And pulled out a broken plastic knife. They tend to give her plastic eating utensils with her meals.

And when they came back and took one of the last treys, she kept one of the plastic knives.

Natalie had snapped it in half, and what was left behind was a very sharp point that stretched from the tip to the middle of the piece of plastic.

She looked down at the sharp object in her hand. A few tears started to leak from her eyes. A part of her didn't want to go through with this. But if this was to be her life, then she didn't want any part of it anymore.

The young woman held out her other hand, palm up and started to press the sharpened end to her wrist.

Natalie made sure to have her back to the camera, so they couldn't see what she was doing. She felt the first sting as she dragged the sharp edge over the inside of her wrist.

Given that it was plastic, she may have to press down quite hard.

Yeyinde sat with his back against the wall. He was clenching and unclenching his fists in agitation as he glared down at the floor.

The incision in his side was starting to itch. The gassed him in his cell yesterday, and when he woke up later, there was a dull ache in his left side. And when he looked down, he saw, a small incision roughly three inches in length running diagonally over his upper right side over his lower ribs.

One could only guess what they took from him this time.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the female in the next room. And it sounded like she was crying again. He huffed and tried to ignore it this time.

He sat there for the next three minutes, trying to cancel out her cries.

They weren't loud. Her sobs were always fairly quiet, like she was trying not to be loud or possibly try and hold in her sobs. Only this time, they sounded...different. More agonizing if you will.

Yeyinde tilted his head and listened.

Then he huffed, got up, and went over to the wall to see what was going on. As he got within a few inches of one of the viewing windows, he stopped and peaked through. What he saw, made him froze.

He saw the female sitting on her cot in a slightly hunched over position. And the young hunter saw her holding something long and thin in her right hand. She was pressing it over her left wrist.

Yeyinde looked closer and his eyes slowly widened when he realized what was going on.

'What the pauk is she doing!?' His mind screamed.

He then saw her pressed down harder and swore he saw a very minute amount of blood trying to push through the surface of her skin. She was intentionally hurting herself.

He let out a short bark to get her attention.

The young hunter watched her jump and pull the small sharp object away from her wrist. And her glassy gaze shot to the window where she caught him looking in on her.

Natalie realized she had been caught by the alien being.

A rapid set of clicks left him, followed by some chirps. Then to her surprise, she thought she heard some strange words coming from him. It definitely was a weird sounding language. And it was the first time she ever heard him put together audible words amidst the clicks, chirps and grunts.

It certainly captured her attention. And distracted her from what she was doing.

He didn't say many words. And she could only imagine what he was trying to say to her.

Natalie slowly let the broken plastic knife drop from her hand onto the cot next to her crisscrossed legs. Then she slowly got up and started to approach him at the wall.

Once she was less than three feet away, she heard him start making that strange purring sound again.

For the first time since she's came here, Natalie thought she saw concern flash through those strange alien eyes as he stared down at her. It's almost like...he knew what she was trying to do. And perhaps communicated with her to stop her.

She wasn't stupid, every time the young woman looked into those eyes, she saw intelligence with their depths. He was no mindless beast. This much she could tell.

And he was smart enough to notice that what she was doing; was wrong and dangerous.

Natalie slowly closed her eyes and squeezed them shut as a couple more tears left her eyes and soaked her cheeks. When this happened, his purring increased in volume and revved up a notch.

For the first time in a long time, a small smile slowly appeared on her tear-stained face.

As she stood there, it made her feel like there was someone there that cared. That she wasn't a nobody like that horrible Lieutenant had told her a while back. She was somebody.

He continued to purr to her for the next few minutes. Then it abruptly stopped and was quickly replaced by a growl, And Natalie noticed him looking around.

That's when she saw white plumes of steam or gas starting to fill his cell. She saw this many times before with him, unfortunately. He would fuss and roar a little at first. Then he would abruptly stop, and she would hear something heavy drop to the floor. Right before she would hear the door to his cell open.

Then she would hear a group of men grunting, followed by a soft thud as something heavy was put on something. Then she heard squeaks and squeals like something was being wheeled from a room.

This was only confirmed, when she jumped upon her cot and stood on it, trying to get a better look across the room through the tiny window slits.

She saw as many as six people in white lab coats standing around something in there and watched as they knelt forward to push something out.

It didn't Natalie long to put two and two together. They were using some kind of gas to knick the large alien out. And then the scientists would come in and collect him and cart him off. Mostly like down to a lab somewhere.

Sometimes it would be what felt like hours before his cell door squealed open and then the same men would come back, and she'd hear a thud as they placed him back in the cell before they rushed back out. Then he would awaken a short time later.

Natalie watched on sadly, as he let out a few bellowing roars and slammed his fists into the walls a couple times before he finally dropped to the floor. It made her feel bad, what they were doing to him.

Then she heard a faint hissing sound. But it wasn't coming from his cell. This was much closer. Then out of the corner of her eye, Natalie saw the same kind of gas seeping out of the air vents in her cell!

'The fuck!?' Her mind screamed.

The young woman looked around frantically as her cell began to rapidly fill with the gas. She went to cover her nose and mouth. But it was no use.

Natalie began to cough, and her eyes started to water. Then after a couple minutes, she started to feel lightheaded and tired. Her eyes began to droop.

She clumsily stumbled over to the cot, because if she were to pass out, she'd want to land on something softer than the hard metal floor.

The young woman barely made it. And as soon as she made it onto the cot on her hands and knees, she collapsed onto it, and everything went dark.

When Yeyinde awoke, he found himself back on the floor of his cell.

He slowly sat up and peered down at himself. He didn't see any sign of any new marks on his body. And he didn't feel any slight discomfort or pain coming from anywhere.

'Strange, there doesn't appear to be any new incisions or anything. Just what have they done this time?' He wondered.

The young hunter stood up and saw something out of place out of the corner of his eye. His gaze shifted over to the cot off to the left side of the cell. Then his eyes widened at what he saw.

The female, the one that was in the cell next to him. She was here, lying on his cot, and appeared to be asleep.

'Just what the pauk are these crazy oomans up to now!?' Yeyinde thought.

He cautiously made his way over to the large cot and looked down at her. He didn't understand. Why would they put her in this cell with him? Weren't they concerned he may hurt or kill her?

Not that he would. She was an unarmed female. And it was also clear she had no part in his capture.

The young hunter looked her over, trying to see if she was injured in any way. Then his gaze went up to one of her wrists that was up resting by her head. He drew closer and leaned over her a little.

Then slowly reached out and lightly grasped her left wrist. He carefully lifted it up to inspect it. And saw a few small red raised welts there from where she dug the sharp part of the object into her skin.

There were thin angry red lines where blood had crept to the surface but didn't fully break through and seep out.

Yeyinde still didn't understand, why she would do that to herself. But he knew well enough that it was still something someone didn't normally do. After all, who would intentionally want to harm themself?

Movement started to come from the female. And he quickly dropped her wrist and stepped back.

Natalie slowly opened her eyes, she felt groggy as hell. And it took her a few moments for her vision to regain full focus. When it did, she saw something large standing before her a couple feet away from where she was laying.

She squinted her eyes and slowly tilted her head back to get a better look.

When she did, she really wish she hadn't. And Natalie looked up into a very familiar pair of strange eyes. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw the rest of the being those eyes belonged to.

He was fucking huge! With a lean, muscular build to him, dark greenish skin that surrounded a cream-colored torso. He had a large forehead that slanted back a bit from the rest of his skull. And strange black tube-like appendages stuck out from the crown of his slanted back forehead.

But what freaked her out most of all was his face. More specifically his mouth. It was unlike any mouth she had ever seen!

Four elongated appendages, each one ending in one long tusk jutted from his cheeks. And when they opened, there was a smaller mouth in the center of these four movable appendages.

The mouth was lined with a few sharp teeth. This thing looked like something straight out of a nightmare. And he was standing not far from where she lay.

Yeyinde tilted his head slightly to the side and let out a few clicks. The female just stayed where she was, not moving a muscle. Then he caught a whiff of her scent. This ooman practically reeked of fear.

He wasn't the least bit surprised that she was afraid of him.

He had come to find, a lot of these oomans were when they first caught sight of him. Though none of them have ever seen his face, before he came here. The hunter never bothered to remove his mask at all during his hunt.

But once he was brought here, they took everything away from him, mask included.

Yeyinde heard her say something. Unfortunately, he still couldn't understand her.

Natalie was extremely afraid at the moment. This is probably the most afraid she has been since she came to be here. This whole entire time, she was relieved that a wall separated her from this being.

Now, the worst has happened, and for whatever reason, these people decided to stick her in a cell with him.

She noticed as she was staring at him, he was staring right back at her. Like he was studying her as much as she him. It just made her all the more scared. And she couldn't stop the words from leaving her mouth.

"Please...don't hurt me." Natalie pleaded.

He titled his head again and squinted at her.

If she didn't know any better, she would say he was confused. Which would make sense, because she knew for a while now that he didn't understand a word she was saying.

"I don't understand what you're saying, female." He replied, in his strange language.

Yeyinde saw her face scrunch up in confusion as he spoke.

The young hunter huffed. This language barrier really was becoming quite a problem. And he would like to find a way to work around it. He does recall his brother telling him once that as strange as the oomans' language was, it really wasn't all that difficult to pick up and learn.

Remembering this, it gave him an idea.

But first, he has to find a way to let the female know he doesn't mean her any harm. The question is, how? He slowly approached her, and as he closed the distance between them, he saw her tense up.

The young hunter stopped. He was now standing a mere few inches away from the side of the cot. Then a thought hit him. And he placed his hand over his chest.

"Yeyinde." He said.

Natalie furrowed her brows, as she watched him place an open hand to his chest and say something. He cocked his head slightly and tapped his chest with his hand this time.

"Yeyinde." He repeated.

Then he moved his hand from his chest and pointed at her.

She slowly sat up, never taking her eyes off of him. He repeated that same word again, and then pointed at her.

'Was? Did...he just say his name? And now...he's pointing at me.' She thought.

She was still a little unsure if that was the case. But she repeated the gesture anyway.

"Natalie." She said, tapping her own chest.

A couple clicks left him.

"N'aat'allieee." He repeated, attempting to say the word.

He believes she did get the idea, and that was her name she just told him.

It was rough, deep, and heavily accented. But it was her name that he repeated.

She slowly nodded.

Now that they have exchanged names, Yeyinde is hoping this will help put her at ease. So, that they can move onto something more important.

"Well, good news is he hasn't attempted to rip her face off. And it clearly looks like he is attempting to try and communicate with her. This is going a lot smoother than we thought it would." Lt. Pearson stated.

"Do you think he is capable of learning our language? That strange mouth of his suggests otherwise." Another man stated.

"He seems intelligent enough, Hicks. I'm sure given time; he'll be able to pick up some of it." He replied.

The man known as Hicks turned back to the screen. The cameras gave them a clear image of what was going on in the cell. But it didn't pick up sound. So, even if they wanted to speak, they unfortunately wouldn't be able to hear any of it.

But still, if the woman could teach him some words in their language, then just maybe he'll begin to understand enough to be able to communicate with them.

Until Next Time ;)