Arranged to the Alien

6 | Nightmares

*Dialogue in italics are in Kyros's language*

~ fear is used to control you ~

From then on, over the next few days, quite a few things have changed. While Posie's trust in Kyros has been growing slightly, her trust with the other things on this planet has diminished. She's spent her whole time fearing Kyros, trying to escape, but that's quickly taken a turn.

She almost drowned, nearly froze to death, was almost killed by two alien creatures, and a flower of all things. She's come to the conclusion that she couldn't make it back to her space pod on her own, but she also didn't like being held captive. She's decided she needed to learn more of his language and gain mutual trust if she was going to ever make it back to her space pod.

While realizing everything on this planet was designed to kill, she didn't love the idea of sticking around with Kyros either. He could kill her in a second in he wanted to and she wasn't sure why he hadn't. She thought herself of a nuisance to take care of.

She wanted to go home. Her family must be terribly worried about her now. How would they ever know she left the entire planet?

The whole situation was so overwhelming, it started it take a toll on her. It started with nightmares. She'd wake up, drenched in sweat, unable to fall asleep again afterward. Then her nightmares progressed to where she'd wake up screaming.

Kyros was always immediately by her side, trying to help in any way he can. "Posie safe, Posie safe." It didn't matter to him that it was the middle of the night, he stayed with her until she came to.

She thrashed and clawed to get away, still in a daze. She panted, sweat coating her skin, and her eyes red from lack of a peaceful night's sleep. "Not you - gosh, not you." She snapped.

Kyros always considered himself as frightening and the look in Posie's eyes confirmed that for him. He normally didn't mind, he used it as an advantage. He knew he was intimidating, frightening, lethal, a weapon, even. But she was the last one he'd want to make scared. It was a little like getting punched in the throat. He hated being the monster in the story.

"Kyros no hurt Posie." He mumbled, doing his best to look as small and least intimidating as possible.

He saw the blank look on her face and wanted to make sure she wasn't having a night terror. He hesitated again, before moving a strand of hair away from her face, causing her to jump violently and stiffen in his touch.

"Hey," he whispered, softly. "Where Posie?"

The pure shock of him being there seemed to shake her out of it - just not enough to keep him from looking haunted, some ravaged excuse of a terrible thing.

Her scowl softened. "Your home," She whispered, shakily.

He wanted to correct her and call it their home, but he didn't. He concentrated on keeping his breathing even, his touch gentle. "Yes. Good." Recognizing her surroundings meant she was beginning to pull through.

"No." She choked on her breath instead. "No." She struggled to sit up despite having nothing that held her down. The invisible weight of fear on her chest was enough. It felt suffocating. "It's not good - I can't - I can't -"

"Hey," he said again. He slid his hands down and lightly pushed her shoulders back. "Posie safe. Posie know Kyros?" Do you know who I am, is what he meant.

She stilled and stared wildly at him. The tears in her eyes overspilled, a broken little hitch of a sob catching in her throat.

He didn't really think, he just acted on instinct. It was strange for him. Normally he always planned thing out, it's what he was trained and broken to do. Yet, he found himself cupping the back of her head, stroking her absurdly soft hair as if that might reach through and untangle the snarls of bad memories too. "Safe."