Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 8: Night Without End

Laz's body went limp in this crazy girl's grip. She only looked at his face for a few seconds, before flicking her arm and tossing him away. He rolled when he landed, only stopping once his body hit the tree she was previously standing by. He appeared dead, but her sharp hearing could still detect the gentle sounds of his weak breathing. Her face was unreadable and there was no way to tell her thoughts.

Standing in the weak light of the moon, the chill had no affect on her as she looked up momentarily as if deep in thought. Sudden rustles of feet on grass dragged her out of her thoughts.

"My princess!" came the melodious voice. Although slightly deeper, it barely sounded male.

The princess turned her her eyes in the direction of the voice. She knew they were here but she only chose this moment to acknowledge them. Turning her head away from the sky, she moved her body to face these newly arrived guests.

"Report."

"Yes princess," the man in front reported, while dropping down on his right knee, balling his fist and crossing it in front of his chest. The others behind him adopted a similar pose.

"The teams have all began to move. The information gathering is proceeding at a favorable pace. This planet doesn't have use of large scale detection technology and has no concept of energy manipulation," the leader reported. He was dressed in a loose fitted uniform that appeared to be made out of the same type of material as the Princess's dress. The outfit looked easy to move in and made no sound. It's dark green coloring made blending into the night effortless. His eyes reflected a dull yellow that resembled a natural predator of the night.

"Have my sisters made contact yet?" the princess asked in an unconcerned manner.

"Yes princess. They have all reported similar information. This planet seems to pose little threat to us," the leader replied with a small smile on his face.

"Mistakes have been made before and our enemies are numerous. The moment you show arrogance is the moment you walk the path to your own end. Remember this."

"Yes princess," the man replied, not daring to raise his head.

"Get ready to move, the initial reports show this land mass to be rather large and we only have a few teams on this side of this world. Luckily, this world isn't too big," the princess commanded as she took a step away.

"Princess, what about that thing," the man asked, while pointing to the pile by the tree.

"Leave it. I'm actually surprised it's still alive. I'm actually curious to see if it will live through tonight," the princess replied while a small smile appeared on her flawless face.

The man couldn't help but gulp and almost take a step back in fear. This princess didn't smile. Her face was normally like a sculpture, frozen in time. No matter what she did, she did so with no feeling apparent on her perfect features. It was a legend among the princesses.

It made her different from her several dozens of sisters. And anything that made them different would make them stand out which could be both good and bad. There was a lot of competition among them and as they all looked rather similar, differences were often times more noticed than similarities.

There was one more part of her legend though, one that was just as important as the legend of her expressionless face.

When she smiled, it meant that she had found something that interested her and whatever that thing was, it had only two choices.

They could either submit to her or be destroyed by her. She never failed to do so. No matter what choice was made, the object of her attention would suffer unimaginably.

He didn't want to think about this anymore and instead, chose to stand and following after the princess. In less than a breath of time, everyone had vanished. It was eerily quiet once again in the large abandoned lot.

------------------.

Laz had a long dream, one in which the silhouette of the dangerously beautiful woman would appear many times. He could not help but be afraid, even in his dreams.

He didn't know where he was, or what was happening, but when he woke up, he felt the searing pain in his chest. It was like getting stabbed with a knife and having it wiggled around while still inside. His world was nothing but the pain. He knew that he would die if he didn't move. So he tried to focus on that.

Time seemed to stand still as the waves of burning pain hit him over and over again. He wasn't far from home in the first place, but he had no idea how he would get there. There was no one to call even if he had his phone. He was going home to no one either. It was this loneliness that brought him out of the madness the pain put him through.

If he didn't do it, if he couldn't do it, he would die.

Standing up took more strength than he had to give, but he was able to do it. Making his way one step at a time, foot fall by foot fall. Every second took forever. When he could no longer stay upright, he fell forward and used his hands to break the fall. The welcomed feel of the cement under his fingers let him know that he had reached the stairs.

If he was able to make it up these, he would at least be able to die at home.

Crawling up stair by stair, he pulled his broken and lifeless body towards his front door. He knew that since it was late, his grandpa wouldn't be awake and won't wake up until morning. He knew he couldn't wait in the cold that long. With the grace of a drunk zombie, he made it to the top of the stairs, reached in the old iron mailbox to grab his key and was able to unlock the door.

His body gave out finally once he made it inside and closed the door. The last thought that went through his head was he had never been so glad to see the horrible pink shag.