Apex

Chapter 8

•Kriss•

It started with a twitch. It was enough to wake me. I blinked sleepily. The ground shook again as Zoryne jerked. It rose and fell quickly as his breathing changed. His heartbeat slammed against me.

He stirred, the grass rustling beneath his heavy body.

"Zoryne?" He paused at the sound of my voice. Then his stirring became violent.

I grabbed his shirt beneath me as his body moved about. His head whipping back and forth. His hands clawed at the ground. He moaned and mumbled words in his native tongue. My ribs protested at the movement. 

Tears sprung from my eyes in fear. After everything this is how I die. He could crush me on accident. He would kill me in his sleep.

He screamed.

The sound nearly made me lose my grip on him. My ears rang.

"Zoryne, stop!" I cried. "Please stop! Snap out of it!"

With another scream, he sat up so quickly I lost my hold. I rolled down his stomach, falling to his lap. My mouth opened in a silent cry as pain racked through my entire body. I wheezed out a breath, my chest on fire.

His breathing was ragged above me. Zoryne looked around as if he was remembering where he was.

"Kriss!" His hand went to his chest, clutching his shirt like he still expected me to be there. "No, no, no, no! Kriss!" He scanned the ground in the darkness until his eyes fell on me.

•Zoryne•

Kriss lay in my lap, her face a mask of terror. She looked at me like she thought that I was going to hurt her, that I was going to kill her.

And most certainly could have.

Images from my dream slammed into me. Crushed humans beneath my boots, screaming for mercy. My stomach churned. I scooped her out of my lap and onto the grass, then stood and stumbled away. Gripping a nearby tree, I leaned over and vomited out the contents of my stomach. The acid burned my throat. I coughed and spit the last of it before leaning my sweaty forehead against the rough bark. It was a dream. It was just a dream.

But it wasn't completely false.

I remember that child crying for her mother. I remember her face when I lifted my foot over her, her scream of terror as I prepared to crush her.

And her trembling form when I backed away and told her to run. When she clumsily fled deeper into the neighborhood, away from her dead mother.

This wasn't supposed to be complicated. They were destroying the planet, they were killing each other. They were brutal and blood thirsty creatures. We were the ones saving their world. But that look that child's eyes, the look in Kriss's eyes when the experiments began...it hurt. It hurt me when it shouldn't have.

I stumbled back to Kriss. She had curled herself into a ball, her hands covered her ears as she whimpered. Every step I took had her flinching. I fell to my knees and she yelped. Tears were falling down her cheeks again, her body trembled as she cried.

"Kriss," I choked out. She sobbed at the sound of my voice. "Kriss, look at me."

She shook her head, shrinking further into herself. She was going to reopen her wounds if she didn't calm down. She was hurting herself. I grit my teeth.

"Stop it, Kriss." I commanded. She let out a loud wail. I reached out, pausing centimeters from her when I noticed my hand shaking, forced to look at the size comparison. Her entire body could fit in my palm. She was completely at my mercy. I was a threat to whether I wanted to be or not.