A Space Nightmare by Summer Khattak

I dropped the pad on the bedside table. The words kept their place inside my head instead of flowing out onto the device today. I walked to my brother’s room. I poked my head inside; my brother was thankfully awake.
“Hey,” he said. He scooted over and put the book he was reading down. “What’s up?”
“Can’t think. It’s too distracting here,” I said while I clambered onto his bed. “I don’t think traveling was such a good idea.”
“It was,” my brother said. He smiled when I raised an eyebrow. “Now I can put my English skills to good use.”
“Of course that’s all you care about,” I said. I pointed to the book he set down. “That’s probably the reason why you’re reading my book. Last time I checked, I wasn’t literate in English.”
“Ok, so maybe I was a little homesick,” he said. “That’s ok, isn’t it?”
“Not really,” I said. “You’re supposed to protect me, not get homesick.” He laughed and nudged me towards the door.
“Go take a walk,” he said. “They always clear my head.” I climbed off his bed, turning to smile back at him.
“Who needs to clear a empty head?” He picked up the book and shook his head. I stuck out my tongue before making my escape to the bridge. The captain was there, along with the other passenger. Her name was Sohyun, or something along those lines.
“Hello,” she said. She held out a cup of coffee and smiled when I accepted it.
“Thank you,” the English was rough in my mouth, and I knew for a fact it was heavily accented.
“You’re welcome,” her smile became wider, if that was possible. Her eyes crinkled up when she smiled, almost disappearing in the way they squeezed together. “So, why are you in here? It’s not the safest of ships.”
“Oh, I am author. My Ummie? She told me to go see the, uh, the universe. My bro-brother, he come with me,” Sohyun nodded. “And you?”
“I’m on my way to Inglaterra. My girlfriend’s waiting for me,” she sighed; her eyes left me to drift to the side. Her smile fell into a more content expression.
“Girl? Girlfriend?” I asked. Girls don’t have girlfriends, do they? Girls usually have boyfriends, if their parents are careless enough to let them find their own spouse.
“Yeah,” Sohyun said. “I haven’t seen her in ages! Vidchat is useful, but I’d rather be there with her, you know? That way I can kiss her and tickle her silly and tell her how beautiful she is and how much I love her and. . . What about you, anyone special?”
“Ah, no,” I said. Sohyun stuck out her bottom lip, her eyes becoming a little droopy. I furrowed my eyebrows. I was about to ask her what the expression meant when she spoke up again.
“Walk with me?” I shrugged. She smiled again and grabbed my hand to lead me down one of the hallways. She let go a few seconds later, walking next to me.
“What are those?” Sohyun gasped and pointed as we neared the engine rooms. I frowned and watched as she moved closer to the things. Their small circular bodies were covered in hair; they used it to pull them through the air. They were for the most part black, however they flashed a brighter color and vibrated every now and again. “They’re so cute!”
She moved closer and held out a hand. The thing closest to her stretched out several hairs to reach her. The skin on her wrist steamed when the tentacle like hair came into contact with it. One of its companions joined the first and curled around her legs. She tried to move away but landed on her butt; the little aliens used this as a chance to swarm her as she started to scream.
I jerked out of my daze as her eyes met mine, blood falling from the corners and her mouth gaping open. I backed up, unable to look away until the creatures hid her entire body from view. I whirled around then; I raced to get to my brother’s room.
“Sis?” He said. The captain was in there with him, standing up while my brother sat. I threw myself at my brother. He stood and caught me as I started to cry. “Nightmare?” I shook my head.
“Small alien ball sized things,” I choked out. My brother frowned and translated what I said into English. “With long hair and Sohyun. . . She’s dead, they killed her!” The captain moved around behind us as I sobbed into my brother’s chest. He spoke quickly in English and the lighting changed; the room was lit in red now, the lights at the bottom of the walls flashed almost in the same way the creatures did.
Sohyun cried tears of blood.
I yelped as my brother picked me up. The captain gave me something heavy and metal, and when I finally cracked open my eyes I could see it as a gun; it was the type I saw many times in my history textbooks.
“Sis,” my brother said. “Cover us, ok? I know it’s an old gun and the recoil will be horrible, but I need you to shoot if they come too close. The captain said they’re allergic to the lead in the bullets.” I shook my head and held tighter to him; I needed to assure myself that he was alive. We traveled up to the bridge first. There captain typed away at one of the screens. The screen flashed once before turning into a countdown; 4:59, 4:58, 4:57. . . The captain rushed us out of the room and into another hallway I recognized as one leading to escape pods. The creatures started to come up behind us, vibrating and flashing.
“Please,” I whispered. My brother sped up immediately. I raised the gun with a shaking hand. The aliens rolled closer. I pulled back what I assumed was the safety. I pointed it at the closest alien.
Sohyun’s bloodstained face replaced the creature.
I nearly dropped the gun; my tears began to pour down my cheeks again. I slumped in my brother’s arms, and he tightened them around me. He began to run, shouting at the captain to hurry. The captain launched into a dead sprint and then we were in the pod. My brother dropped me on a chair and took the gun. He fired again and again. The creatures melted into goo as the bullets sunk into them. The pod door closed just after he fired his last bullet and he sighed in relief. He turned around to smile, before the expression melted off his face.
“Sis,” my brother said. His voice was choked as he stared behind me. I turned and nearly threw up. The captain was half dissolved, a single creature almost wrapping him up completely. It left the captain, leaving his bones and blood and grey stuff to fall onto the floor. It streaked across the floor and latched onto my brother. His teeth clenched but he didn’t scream.
“No,” I said. I stumbled out of my chair. He pointed behind me and made a gun gesture with his other hand. The captain’s gun was on a table behind me; I raised it with shaking hands and aimed at the alien. It was half covering my brother and slowly creeping higher.
The captain’s bones clattered onto the floor.
I pulled back the safety. It was creeping up his neck now. My brother smiled but his eyes were wide and unfocused.
Sohyun stared at me, her face a mask if terror as blood ran down her cheeks.
I pulled the trigger. The recoil jerked me backwards. I fell as my arm went numb from the shock. There was the sound of something falling, and a fresh wave of liquid washed over my pants. An eyeball floated in front of me; the same warm brown that locked onto mine as his promise rang in my head. The same brown that had stared at me, terrified in his last few seconds of life. I twisted away and emptied out my stomach. It joined the liquid already on the floor, so I pulled myself up back onto one of the seats.
He was dead. My brother was dead. I dropped my head and mourned in the echoing silence of the pod. My heart shriveled and my throat squeezed shut. I struggled to breathe. Sohyun’s eyes were brown as well, even as they dripped blood. The captain’s blue eyes scared me; they were an unnatural color. My brother’s eyes has always been there, always watching to make sure I wouldn’t get hurt.
My brother was dead.