The Cell Mate Pt. 01

I felt the air change around me and turned my head, straining my eyes to see through the lightless cell. It looked darker than usual…

It grabbed me then. It coiled around my neck and held my wrists at my sides. One heavy tentacle slid between my breasts and to my mouth, covering it from the outside while tip poked past my lips and the weight of it held my head down. The sound of my scream was drowned out almost entirely and I felt a very thin tendril slide along my jaw gently and along the shell of my ear, wriggling its way inside. And I heard music.

It was soft and melodic and shocking enough that I ceased to struggle a moment before my own musky scent caught the air around me, reminding me of its earlier violation. I bucked against its hold, shouting against my gag.

"Shhh…be still…" They weren't words exactly. It was the lyricless music. But it was clear. And I wasn't buying it. I kicked a leg out and felt a great wide tentacle catch my calve and hold it tight, lowering it slowly to the ground.

"If you help me, I will help you," The Perikos music filled my head again, steady and calming.

I tried to ask it why I should help it after what it did to me, but my words were incomprehensibly muffled against the tentacle blocking my mouth. It seemed to understand anyway.

"Neither of us should be here. I can't get out alone. If you take me outside, I will take you from Kragosa." It paused a moment, perhaps registering my surprise. "You may speak normally. I understand your meaning through your heat, tone and the vibrations of your voice. I cannot risk anyone hearing you speak."

Questions bubbled through me like boiling water. How do we get out? Why me? How could it do those things?

One tendril brushed the hair from my face again and stroked my head. Gentleness, contact felt really good after more than a year without it. It appalled me. This thing had done me nothing but wrong so far. "I needed to find a place to hide."

That was confusing. A place to hide? What was that supposed to mean?

"All entrances in and out of Kragosa have UV bands around their perimeter. The Perikos government wanted to keep me here. They financed it."

I tried for a moment to imagine light-phobic tentacle creatures on dark planet holding congress and drawing up budgets. I shook that thought from my head. Where do I come in? And how did it get here then?

"I traveled inside of you."

It took me almost a full minute to process that. Then I went ballistic. I began to writhe and scream in earnest now, twisting and bucking against the creature, heedless of the strain to my arms and neck. I felt a tentacle weigh down my free leg so that both ankles were held together and my arms were now pinned at my sides. The tentacle at my mouth remained still while the one at my neck tightened slightly; the last continued to stroke my face.

"Shhh…be still…" It said again and I was forced to heed it, exhausted from my fruitless struggle. "I haven't harmed you." The tentacle in my mouth muffled my furious protest. If it understood my curses it chose to ignore them. "I've been here three years. In a box. In pain every time I feed. I'll die if I stay here any longer. You'll die too. Three females have been sent to Kragosa since I came and two died after what the Warden did to them. I could tell by the way you feel inside that Brogn hasn't had you yet." I flushed furiously. "He will."

I tried to squint through the darkness to actually see the Perikos. I didn't know how they fed or what they ate but if exposure to UV light was lethal and that flimsy cardboard box was its only refuge, then I'd be desperate to get away too. But desperate enough to rape someone?

"It wasn't rape."

"It was! I didn't want it!" I shouted into the barrier against my mouth.

"Perhaps. But you liked it. And you want it, even now." The tentacle stroking my hair slithered down my frame to stroke the dark curls at the apex of my legs. They were damp, I could tell.

My whole body tensed as I held my breath. Perhaps I held it too long as the tentacle teased me, because I heard the soft, drifting melody whisper "breathe" in my ear and the tip of the tentacle came to rest just above my mound. I felt strangely disappointed. "Now is not the time," it said softly.

"But you couldn't fit. Your entire body? You're huge. Twice the size of me," I muttered, my words slurred. It was true. There was no possible way it could have happened thee way the Perikos said.

"Mass is irrelevant," the Perikos responded, as though that answered my question. "In darkness, in shadows, I am how I choose to be. I can fill this entire cell and crush you or fit in a cardboard box, or indeed, something smaller." The tentacle at my mound inched forward, stroking my abdomen lazily. I felt an embarrassed little thrill shoot through my abdomen right below where it stroked me. There something dark, almost possessive to the tone and tempo of the melody now.

Then why not just grow until you burst through the cell wall and then keep going? I wondered.

"To where? Neither your cell nor mine are outward facing. They have UV lights in the quarry yards and even if I made it over the wall without being caught, where on this barren stain of a planet could I hide in daylight?"

The Perikos had obviously thought about this harder than I had. I had no idea my cell didn't face outside. And I knew almost nothing about the climate or terrain outside of Kragosa. The only reason anyone from other systems knew about Kragosa was for its intergalactic, hi-security prison. Surely that wasn't all that was here. And there must have been daylight too, although they only let me into the quarry at night. Because I'm scared of the dark.

"So, what's the plan then?" I mumbled.

"As I said, if you help me, I will help you. I cannot escape past the UV bands across the exits unless I can hide. They let you into the quarry. I will help you escape if you promise to come with me until we leave by ship."

This was getting ahead of me. By ship? What ship? Where? Was there a port station nearby? I remember traveling for hours by shuttle when they brought me here. That would be days on foot. Not to mention I'd never piloted any interplanetary vessels before. One question struck me harder though.

"Why are you here? What did you do?" I asked.

I felt the tentacles around my neck and wrists tighten a moment before relaxing again.

"I can't trust you at all until I know," I said.

"Treason," it whispered, its music barely audible. "Regicide."

I swallowed hard. I owed 60,000 credits. The Perikos killed its leader. I was out of my depth.

"Unless you plan to massacre civilians during peace talks you have little to fear from me," it said quietly. The tentacle stroking my abdomen pushed back towards my mound again, rubbing against my nub. "Nothing real to fear anyway." I moaned against the one at my lips, thrusting my hips upwards. "If you stay here though, you have much to fear."

There was no denying that. No matter the pain, the danger or the embarrassment it was better than waiting to see what Brogn had in store for me. It was better than spending the rest of my life in a dark, windowless cell, naked and alone and forgotten.

The rubbing between my legs ceased and the tentacle resumed stroking my abdomen. "Okay, so how do we do this?" I slurred through the appendage.

"I will hide. You will act as though nothing is different. You must act normally. They will take you tonight – "

"No they won't." I interrupted.

"It is every third night, is it not? You spent one with me and one asleep."

"That long?" I asked. But if that was true, they would come for me.

"You will exit to the quarry yard and make your way slowly to the northern wall, halfway between the guard tower and the East Bastion. Find the darkest area you can and wait. Be patient. I will not reveal myself until I know we have the best chance of escape."

"How will you know?" I asked, not thinking too hard about my role as the mule in all this.

"I will hear sounds. I will sense nearby movement and light. I will sense your heart rate and blood pressure. That is why you must remain calm. If there is a problem, I will need to know about it. This is the only chance we'll get before they realize I am not where I should be."

And I go see Brogn, I thought. But can I do this?

"You can," it answered. "Now I will hide."

"Now?" My question became a shout and I felt my heart race.

"Now. Relax, breathe deeply. It will feel uncomfortable but it should not hurt." The tentacles around my neck and wrists released me and slid down my frame along with the one blocking my mouth. The size and shape of the creature seemed to retract, though I could barely make it out in the darkness. It released my ankles and I felt it grow smaller. One remained at my ear while another pressed lightly on my abdomen. And then I felt it between my legs, like the Toothless snakes from my dreams. It was thin enough but it tickled and squirmed through my passage and I couldn't help but remember how alive it was. I almost squealed from the fullness of it as it pushed forward into my womb.

"Be silent. Be strong," was the last thing I heard it say before the pressure outside my abdomen disappeared and the tendril at my ear withdrew. I stifled a groan as I felt it pulling itself through my tightness, glad for my arousal from earlier for easing the way.

And there it was. A cold, gently moving mass deep inside me, somewhere so personal not even doctors had seen it. Now I understood why I felt bloated earlier, touching the outside of my belly in the darkness and feeling a very small swelling. I noticed it now that I knew what it was. It felt full and heavy and alien. I looked around my dark cell and felt strangely alone. This might be my last night here. Or it might just be my last night. The darkness was all around me and now even inside of me. I curled up on my blanket against the stone wall and cried.

The morning and afternoon were mostly uneventful. I didn't have much of an appetite for the cold, greyish sludge they pushed through the slat in the door. It didn't taste like anything but there were strange, chewy chunks in it that I'd always thought were meat, though what kind I'd never ruminated on. To Kragosa's credit, it had only twice made me sick and it must have contained some nutrients for I hadn't wasted away to bones. With the heavy weight at my core and the nervousness I felt at the idea of escaping, I could only manage a few bites. The hours flew by so quickly I didn't feel them until the lights went out and I waited to be collected for the quarry.

I heard the guard's footfalls in the hall and the lights flickered on again. I took my time getting to my feet, feeling the weight shift inside me. I stood as straight as I could and walked towards my cell door. The guards led me down the hall to the quarry exit. As we crossed the threshold I saw the UV band around the doorway. It made me wonder why the Perikos government would go to such lengths to imprison the creature rather than just killing it. Then I remembered the cardboard box and the bright lights. To be tortured with no allies anywhere. A horrible way to die.

They pushed me out into the quarry yard. It was approximately the length the width of a football field and guarded on three sides. It was usually just bright enough to see the large rocks in front of you before you broke your foot on one. It hadn't taken me very long to figure out that the chalky rocks we were told to break up and pile at the center were worthless. We were just moving dirt designed to be as labor intensive as possible. I seemed to share a timeslot here with a Vlornan and something else I had only heard pronounced once and couldn't replicate. Big, heavy hulking creatures but as far as I could tell more strong and aggressive than they were problem solvers. The wall was thirty feet high and wire at the top ran a current. Nothing was allowed in the yard that could possibly hope to scale the wall or break through it. I looked down at the swell of my stomach. I suppose that's where I came in useful.

I walked as slowly as I dared towards the north wall, for visibly slacking was a good way to get noticed and in trouble. I found the darkest patch halfway between the guard tower and east bastion, between an enormous slab of rock and the wall face just behind me. I should be able to hide at least for a little bit – I was frequently punished for not working hard enough anyway, since there was no way to explain to a Kragosi guard that malnourished human females could not by their very nature lug two-hundred pound rocks around the quarry.

I tried to still my breathing and my heart rate. We weren't in danger yet. It occurred to me all of a sudden that if we were about to get caught the Perikos might forget himself completely and rip me to pieces to escape and perhaps not even feel sorry for it. I counted slowly down from ten. That line of thinking wasn't helping my heart rate.

I waited for almost twenty minutes, watching the guards patrol the west wall on the far side of the quarry. I heard my quarry mates breaking stones with their hammers and it occurred to me for the first time since my second week here that either of them could have killed me by accident a hundred times by now. I really didn't belong here.

And then all hell broke loose. The bright lights in the quarry extinguished entirely and strange, haunting siren began to sound. And I knew why. The Perikos was missing.

I began to hyperventilate between the darkness of the quarry, fear of Brogn and the guards and misery. We weren't going to make it out.

I felt a strange cramping feeling in my belly, like something twisting, stretching. And I feared being torn apart and left as a diversion. Then the pain was gone and I felt something cool and serpentine in my passage. I covered my mouth to stifle a groan and I felt the coolness twist around my thighs and then my ankles. The lights were off! We stood a chance at least!

Brogn must have realized this too, for I heard his grunt rip across the quarry and the lights went back on again. The darkness would have worked for me; I wouldn't have moved. Now the dark quarry was being traced by bright spotlights the same as the ones outside the Perikos' cell. A beam was heading right for us, tracing the path I'd taken across the yard. The Vlornan and the other alien had stopped working and seemed to be looking around as well.

"Now what?" I whispered, not really expecting a response. Now we get caught, I thought. The Perikos seemed to pounce at me again, wrapping itself around my back and neck, coiling around my shoulders and into my hair and ear again.

"Run!"

I didn't wait to ask what direction – the light beam was almost upon us. I took off towards the west wall as fast as I could run. I heard a jumble of voices – of course we'd been spotted, but we were harder to shoot. It was too late I realized the Vlornan was headed towards me, fast, faster than I could stop or change direction. Something flew in front of my field of vision then I felt like I was flying. I felt my body hit the wall first and slide down. Everything was spinning and it felt like my head had been split open. I looked up to see another spot heading towards us and then my vision went all dark as I heard a loud cracking sound. Like an old gun I thought and wondered for a moment if the darkness meant I was dying. Suddenly the light returned long enough for me to see an arm of shadow reach out to the Vlornan who hit me and knock it ten feet in the air so the creature landed on its head with a sickening crunch. My own head throbbed then and I felt no pity.

Suddenly I was growing. I look down to see shadows had engulfed my legs and hips, cool and undulating, as well as my arms. The darkness expanded, coating my waist and breasts, surrounding my aching head except for my eyes and nose. The shadows where my legs were grew tall, almost the height of the quarry wall. I heard those reverbing gun cracks again and wondered how they could miss us.

The Perikos's shadow enveloped my eyes and nose as well now and I felt a strange vaulting sensation and then my stomach went into my throat. We were falling! I couldn't see and I couldn't breath. I was surrounded by darkness and falling.

Note: This is my first submission to literotica I've been meaning to for a while but I'm extremely shy about this kind of thing.. I intend to publish Part Two soon. I'm pleased to hear any feedback or suggestions.