quiet retreat unnoticed in

with tremors and felt a trickle run down her thigh. She had wet herself. And she couldn't care les

gue bloody, dug her fingernails into her palms until they bled. Anything it took to stay quiet. The Alphas were close, the shooting stars in the sky a sign they descended through the atmosphere and would touch

rward another step. It took her over an hour to stagger the short distance to the s

d collapse beyond their notice. While they loot, she'd suffer alone. She'd suffer a thousand days of pain for her mother. She'd suffer the guilt of watching other families grieve their stolen children upon her return. And once the sun set, their ships burstin

ternity of fire in the center of the ugliest hell. For hours she lay, cold and ill, with her body's temprature rising and with rough roots digging into her spine. Hours lost in pain. And then the Alpha ships began to rise into the setting sun. One by one, dozens of vessels filled the sky and began to disappear beyond the atmosphere. With them went the source of her torment. Expanding her ribs in her first full breath since before the sun had risen, she twitched her fingers, then her toe arms, legs, all movement slowly began to return. Damp with sour sweat, caked in drying

he spirit