Feel Again Read online

  “How can you take me to a club. Is that not a blunt object which people use so that they may hit each other over the head and seriously maim or possibly kill them?” She seemed sincerely confused in such a manner that Lionel did not even know what he could possibly say to justify her complete lack of social skills.

  “Wow, Sam. I guess you really don’t get out all that much.” That was about all he could come up with in response to her inept mannerisms and infinitely perplexing responses.

  To Sam’s surprise, it did not take very long at to travel to this place which the Earthlings referred to as a “club.”. It was very hard to walk in the weird shoes with the sticks holding up the backs, though. Earthlings on the strange square portal, often referred to as a “television,” always called them “high heels” and Sam really did not see the point of such ridicoulous fashion objects at all. Regardless of how much Lionel has talked about this place on the way there, nothing could have prepared her for what was inside. There were these strange lights in all different colors and lots of people were drinking beverages of all different colors that seemed to make them go completely insane. A girl about Sam’s age was on a platform singing. Lionel said her name was Loretta J. Apparently she did not have a last name like other earthlings. Strange. Samakri was fascinated by the music.

  You were my hero, my bonafide

  You were my savior, my shining knight

  When life went wrong

  You made it right

  And then she came along,

  I faced my fear

  I was in need;

  You disappeared

  You are my poison, my cyanide

  You are my evil, my afterlife

  When I am lonely,

  Alone I cry

  Right from the beginning

  Of my days living

  You understood

  What no one would

  You were my hero, my bonafide

  You were my savior, my shining knight

  When life went wrong,

  You made it right

  But after what only seemed a day,

  You began to slowly slip away

  What I though would be addition

  Confirmed my superstition

  You are my weakness, my kryptonite

  You are my ending, my null and void

  When I am frozen

  You close my eyes

  After many a moon,

  That fated June,

  You walked away,

  So far, too soon.

  You were my hero, my bonafide

  You were my savior, my shining knight,

  When life went wrong,

  You made it all right

  You are my ego, my the one who lies

  You are my secret, my mind’s desire,

  When I am broken,

  Alone I fight.

  “That was a wonderful song,” Samakri told Lionel with as much sincerity as someone like her could produce. “It is such a shame that I do not understand anything whatsoever of what it was about.” How typical of someone as unusual as Samakri.

  “You will someday.”

  For a brief moment, Sam allowed Lionel’s eyes to meet hers. And, in that moment, she felt something, and it scared her, because Zebdians did not feel any human emotions. At the same time, Lionel watched as her yellow eyes turn blue for the tiniest fraction of a second, and then she looked away, her irises returning to their original shade.

  "Let's leave this place," she said, showing a rather sudden lack of interest in the very thing with which she had just seemed, in fact, quite fascinated by.

  "Okay," Lionel replied, having no immediate desire to argue with someone as disagreeable as Sam.

  Just then, the singer, Loretta J, came running out of the club. A crazed woman with dark hair and a red sweater was chasing her out of the back door. The overzealous fan was holding a gun and Loretta J was in tears. Before Lionel could react, Samakri ran out past them and grabbed the gun from the fan. She did not anticipate that Loretta would take it from her. The singer shot her crazy fan in the chest.The woman began to hemorrhage and lost consciousness. Loretta J was still in tears. A security guard spotted them and began to chase Loretta J. Without thinking, Sam grabbed her and pulled her into Lionel's car. They began to drive off.

  "Thank you so much for saving me, but who the hell are you?" asked the singer.

  "Do not ask me any further questions. And, also, please get rid of that thing," Sam said, reaching for Loretta's loudly ringing smartphone, which she then proceeded to throw carelessly out of the window of the beat-up black pickup truck.

  "Hey, what the hell are you doing,” Loretta J inquired, showing how upset she was at the thought of losing her cell phone. “My manager's number is on there and I paid like five hundred bucks for that thing! It’s my baby!"

  "You will not be needing it unless you plan on going to prison," Samakri said in response to Loretta, though her facial expression suggested that she was, in fact, quite confused as to what a prison really was.

  "Do you mind if I sing while you drive,” Loretta J asked Lionel meekly. It helps me with my anxiety,” she added, as if someone with as much anxiety as she claimed to have would be capable of the act that she had just committed.

  "Go right ahead," Lionel said. "I have pretty good focus."

  I live in the heart of a dreamer

  and that's all I want you to know

  I was once a non-believer

  and it just goes to show

  I never give up

  I never give in

  I never let go

  I always win

  You haven't seen the worst

  I'll hit you where it hurts

  and I ain't backing' down

  I'm a beast; you let me out

  You'll lose out on a lot

  So look before it's gone

  I have a broken heart

  but you'll never wear my crown

  I live in the heart of a dreamer

  and I don't want you to go

  You're a first-rate deceiver

  but I'll never be alone.

  I never give up

  I never give in

  I never let go

  I always win.

  You don't have a head start

  no matter what you thought

  I'll hit you with my dart

  You'll see what I hath wrought

  I never give up

  I never give in

  I never let go

  I always win

  "Impressive," Lionel commented.

  "Where I come from, we would say 'owulg' not 'impressive.' I think it means the same thing, however," Samakri added randomly.

  "You people are really weird," Loretta J said.

  "I am not weird. I am brilliant and resourceful," Sam remarked. Lionel laughed to himself.

  "Do not laugh at me, Lionel."

  "Sorry."

  Chapter Six

  Lionel was driving the weathered Ford pick-up for what seemed like forever, as Samakri instructed him to drive continuously in random directions. By then, they were probably in New Jersey, by the looks of things. Sam had insisted that she could drive, but Lionel was not going to take any chances when it came to the safety of a pop culture icon.

  “I can drive. You do not need to,” the strange girl said matter-of-factly, just as they passed a decrepit farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Just before they drove too far away, Sam added, “Stop. We’re going there.” She used her arm to make exaggerative gestures toward the farmhouse.

  Lionel beckoned for Sam and Loretta to get out of the car. As they waded through tall, overgrown grass and past rusty tractors lined up along a rotting wooded wall, Samakri surprised Lionel yet again; in a way which he could never have anticipated.

  “We are in Albany, not New Jersey,” she said. Lionel felt a shiver run up his spine. Samakri knows what I’m thinking. When he looked up, he caught a wry grin form in the corner of her mouth. She had caught that
too. Nothing was safe from her. Just then, he got an idea, just to see if it would work.

  I hate that stupid bitch. I bet she’s from Mars or something and she’s probably a whore. She looks worse than someone from MTV with all that disgusting makeup on. I wonder if she’s really that much of a dog that she needs to cover her face.

  Samakri pegged him off. He supposed that it was a universal signal for sure now. That explained why his Russian chemistry teacher had known it all too well. Oops. Lionel proceeded to trip over the root of an oak tree and fall flat on his face. Samakri laughed at him and that really pissed him off. But, why was he letting that weirdo get to him? He figured that he should not allow that to happen, but it would be really hard not to be annoyed by her if she could read his mind. Loretta started to sing again.

  You’re sitting in a classroom

  On that almost summer day;

  You’re stuck in endless silence,

  But the pain won’t slip away

  Let your imagination run wild,

  Let your dreams soar with mine;

  Let your heart fly away tonight,

  Let everything be alright

  You’re standing in the corner

  Of the street in the rain;

  You’re the one still waiting

  For the ride that never came

  Let your imagination run wild,

  Let your dreams soar with mine;

  Let your heart fly away tonight

  Let everything be alright

  You’re lying in the silence

  And you just can’t fall asleep;

  You’re waiting and you’re wondering

  If you’ll ever see a dream

  Let your imagination run wild,

  Let your dreams soar with mine;

  Let your heart fly away tonight,

  Let everything be alright

  You’re trying and you’re crying,

  And you feel like it’s in vain;

  You’re hoping and you’re praying

  For a better day

  Let your imagination run wild,

  Let your dreams soar with mine;

  Let your heart fly away tonight,

  Let everything be alright

  Let everything be alright

  There had to be a way to block her out. They walked along until they reached the craggy door of the farmhouse, with it’s brick-colored paint peeling around the edges, and thick blue-green moss coating what was left of the lock. Without hesitation, Sam pushed the door open and the Lionel followed.

  “Where’s Loretta?”

  “I removed her from existence. She was annoying and superfluous.”

  “Seriously, Sam?”

  “Yes. I cannot lie. I also cannot read your mind anymore, as I have broken the thought bond which connected us, that is, once I came to realize that your mind is filled with nonsense and disgusting cuss words.” Her voice suggested that she held quite a distasteful disposition with regards to Lionel’s thoughts, especially those which pertained to her.

  “What the hell is a thought bond?” Lionel was super confused now. He really did not even want to know what a thought bond could be.

  “That’s for me to know and for you never to find out.”

  Lionel was now alone with a murderous girl who was presumably from a foreign planet that did not exactly seem normal to him and, to put it quite frankly--she was hot. It was probably okay to think it now that she could not read his mind any longer, at least, he hoped she could not read his mind. He would be really pissed off at her if she had lied to him. When she was not looking, he glanced over at her for just a moment, and saw her, really saw her, for the first time, with her pearly white skin, her flowing purple hair, those enduring yellow eyes, and that body. She was not human, but she was, however, suddenly beautiful to him, though he did not know exactly why he was beginning to feel that way.

  Samakri left Lionel alone in the main room of the farmhouse for a few minutes to get them some ripe red apples that were growing on a tree by the back door leading to a dismal mudroom. The main room in itself was in dire need of repair. The grey-brown floorboards creaked under Lionel’s feet and they were covered with ash and dust, which also coated the cobweb-ridden furniture and choked the life out of the hideous green rug. Lionel was surprised, though, when Sam came back, mainly because she did not have any apples.

  “Where the fuck is my food?” Lionel pressed. “I’m starving, and it’s the least you could do considering you brought me here without even telling me anything.”

  “There’s a lot you need to know, Lionel,” Samakri said. “As you know, I’m not human. I have powers, like the ones you saw, but I also have weaknesses, too. People of Earth would call me an extraterrestrial; an alien, perhaps. I come from a planet called Zebda, where the people are like me. They look very different, and, also like me, they cannot feel human emotions. However, when my father, the Armpha, or ruler, of Zebda, killed your parents, it was because we needed you in order to experiment and find the cure for the apathy that ails us.”

  “You’re dad killed my mom and dad!” Lionel bellowed. “I HATE YOU!”

  “Let me finish,” Samakri replied. “My father, Blekrin, wants me to destroy you as well. He wants me to dismember you alive with a special sword made of Yalmax, the single element of our planet, then extract the cure from your flesh, blood, and bone so that we may learn to feel as humans do. However, I have come to know, when I looked into your eyes as a child, and when I look into your eyes now, that we have a connection. You make me feel something, and I know that you know, that this is true.”

  Lionel gulped. He did know that he and Samakri had a connection, and that made him even more afraid of her than he could ever have been had he not felt that way about such an elusive young woman. But, how could he possibly admit this to the girl that had witnessed--even partaken in--the murder of his parents, causing him so much misery at the hands of so many neglectful foster families; so much torment at the hands of bullies who did not know what it was like to suffer the pain of true loneliness which Lionel had so often felt at their hands.

  “You are silent; does that mean that you deny what I have said?” Samakri asked.

  “That’s not what it means. It just means that I’m too afraid to say it.”

  “Then that means that I’m too afraid to kill you as I have been instructed.”

  “So, if you don’t want to kill me, then how exactly, are you going to fulfill your duties to this Zebda place where you say that you come from?” Lionel inquired. However, he was not entirely sure that he wanted to know the answer to his own question.

  “There are two courses of action that could increase the chance that you will get out of this ordeal alive, Lionel.”

  “What are they, Sam? Just tell me.”

  “We could go to war, and hope that Earth wins, or we could call a truce; sign a treaty calling for peace between our home planets. However, there would be an inevitable catch to such a treaty.”

  “And, this ‘catch’ would be...”

  “The two planets would have to combine and become one, symbolically of course, and also become one race. This would likely be the result of our union.”

  Chapter Seven

  Lionel froze, not knowing what to say. Deep down, he was intrigued by Sam’s proposal, yet he was far more afraid to speak that thought than he had been to admit that he felt a connection. With that said, there was only one thing for him left to say.

  “Well, then, I guess it’s war.”

  “Very well,” Samakri responded calmly, with not a hint of disappointment in her voice, nor an indication that she would allow Zebda to lose for Lionel’s sake. In a way, Lionel was the one who was disappointed, and he was also aware of the fact that Sam would have no mercy on his kind, to say the very least. The otherworldly vixen pulled a strange device out of her handbag; something resembling a cell phone, only consisting of a much more advanced technology. She pressed a button, and it seemed to zap her with a jo
lt of electricity. Her entire body lit up in a strange green light, and, suddenly, a man appeared in the musty farmhouse parlor. He was as pale as Samakri, with the same yellow eyes, and orange hair. A chill ran down Lionel’s spine. It was Blekrin.

  At that point, Lionel was completely speechless; he remained stuck in his own fear; consumed by it. Samakri turned to her father and said to him, “The earthling has declared war on Zebda, dearest father and Armpha.”

  “Is that so?” he asked. “Well, in that case, let the fighting begin.” That was the last thing that Lionel remembered before he fainted.

  The young man awoke in a strange place. He was in some kind of weird building. It was made of a strange material, or, rather, element. Yalmax, he thought. He was on Planet Zebda, and the war had begun. Just then, he noticed an army of what he assumed were Zebdian soldiers. They were charging towards him, their translucent Yalmax swords in hand; raised in favor of ending Lionel’s life. Then, he realized what horror actually befell him. The war was not waged as Zebda vs. Earth; it was waged Zebda vs. Lionel Davidson.

  “Get him; get the traitor!” a teenaged soldier screamed at Lionel. The boy, who was at least a handful of years younger than Lionel himself, had the same skin and eyes as other Zebdians; with bright blue hair colored like the Atlantic Ocean. Then, Lionel noticed that some of the other soldiers did not have the same skin and eyes; they sported a pinkish or taupe dermis and eyes primary in color. That could only mean one thing. The boy was Samakri’s brother.