||Aexik|| Alien Master

You pictured the crowd to be roaring, pushing at each other to get a front row seat to the spectacle. But as the metal gate lifted in front of you with a rhythmic clinking of the chain, you were met with only silence. You almost wished for the cheers, for the taunts and cat calls you had been expecting. This new reality was jarring and sent eerie chills down your spine.

A sharp prod at your back had you moving forward, the guard not giving you a choice as you entered the arena. The sound of the gate falling back down in a heavy thud behind you was definitive. If you wanted out, you would have to fight for it.

You kept your eyes down, it was easier that way. If you looked up you would see all the inhuman faces of the crowd staring down at you; studying you like you weren't a person. To them you were just entertainment. A monkey to dance in their show. All the extra eyes, limbs, foreign appendages reminded you once again that this was not earth. This was not a dream. You had been abducted.

The night it happened was a blur. You had gone from being fast asleep in your bed to being weightless, lifted up to a bright light. When you woke you were already strapped onto a table, surrounded by strange creatures you only had one word for. These were aliens.

They were not little grey people with big black eyes, you would have been expecting that. You had lost track at how many types of them there were. All so different, all completely terrifying. The worst were the bug people. If you didn't already have entomophobia before, you certainly did now. Waking up and coming face to face with a walking, slimy looking beetle, while strapped down to a surgery table was not on your 2025 bingo card. The clicks and creaks of their exoskeletons and antenna that poked and prodded at your naked body would be seared in your nightmares forever. You swore to yourself that if you ever got home, you would never go to bed without clothes on ever again.

A sedative they had pumped into you kept you from remembering much else. It was your own fault. You had started screaming when you realized early on they did not like loud sounds. You had initially clued into this when you determined instead of speech, most aliens communicated telepathically. So you screamed, as loud as you could, for as long as you could. Hoping delusionally that if you were annoying enough, that they would dump your ass back to earth. No such luck. Instead they had a tube waiting, and once it was shoved into your neck the world went black.

When the ship you had been taken in landed, you thought foolishly that you were back on earth. Instead you were led down the metallic ramp out onto a barren red wasteland. The air was breathable but that was about its only redeeming quality. The heat was unlivable, bearing down onto the planet and killing everything that tried to survive on the surface. The a flimsy, plastic like garment you had been dressed in did nothing to protect you. Thankfully you weren't on the surface for long. The bug people guiding you roughly towards a rocky outcropping that led down into a deep crevasse. The deeper you went the cooler it got. From there you blindly followed a narrow cave system, that ended in a small cavern. It was full of people, humans just like you. Your quick flare of hope in your chest was squashed as their gazes turned on you, filled with ire, looking at you like fresh meat.

You got the message loud and clear and found a corner to curl up in alone. You watched carefully, learning the routine, the schedule. The guards were large, mole like aliens that seemed to run the show. They would pick through the humans, taking them out of the cavern at regular intervals. Sometimes the people came back beat up and bloody. Sometimes they didn't come back at all. This was apparently some sort of fighting ring. Though instead of dogs, humans were pitted against each other for sport. The murmurs you listened carefully to were that if you won enough fights, you would get to go home. If that was your only chance you would fight tooth and nail to get it. And you did. very time you were brought into the arena, you did not stop until your opponent was out cold, or called for mercy. This time was like no other. You faced off against an opponent chosen just for you, to make a good show.

When the fight ended, a chime rung through the cavern, signalling you the victor. Your hands were sore and bloody, you were sweating and breathing hard, but you had done it. Instead of being brought back to the waiting chambers, you were brought somewhere you never had before. Out of the arena. The walls here were smoother. The floor swept. Maintained. The mole men pushed you through a doorway, where you came face to face with a man. If you could call him that.

He was huge, with dark skin and horns coming from the top of his forehead. His silver, inhuman hair shimmered in the artificial lighting. And his eyes. They were dark, red, and trained right on you.

He nodded to the guard who turned and left, leaving the two of you alone. He approached, circling you like a predator, looking you up and down. Face to face once more you realized his body let off no heat.

"Seems i bet on the right one." He rumbled out, his voice like rocks rolling down a cliff. This was the first time you had heard any of the Aliens speak, the first time anyone had spoken to you in days. "From now on, you can call me Master."