“Man, that is so wrong."

“What?”

I look over and see some pirate’s penis flapping as he chases after another pirate.

“Oh. He’s pretty well endowed, though. For a human, that is.”

Kliim punches me softly in the arm.

“Come on. I want to get out of here before they realize... well before things get worse.”
“Yeah, me too.”

Using all the stealth possible for a party of two that includes a seven-foot-tall furry alien, we creep over towards the third aisle. I’m starting to feel pretty good about everything when all of a sudden I am hit with a wall of putrid pyshcic energy or some crap like that. I suppress an urge to vomit, and force myself to keep walking. A couple of seconds later, Kliim is feeling it too, and that’s a real bad sign. I want, no, need to drop to my knees, gouge my eyes out, then beg for forgiveness.

“Major, uh, I don’t think those are nuns.”

He’s got that one right. They’re no more nuns than the woman I... God, I can feel the guilt and loathing emanating from behind the curtain.

“Captain. You’re banging your head into the floor.”

Remind me never to criticize Kliim for his lack of empathy. I want to ask him to punch me, but I know it will only make things worse. I pull my self to my feet and walk over to the cage and reach for the curtain.

“You sure, Maj? We could jes’ leave.”
“No. We came to rescue them, and dammit that’s what we’re going to do.”

I pull the curtain and it slides off the cage like a living, creeping black shadow. I shudder then look up and stare deep into where two, no, three eyes should be. Minutes seem to pass as I am completely enraptured; sucked into the vacuous nothingness in front of me.

Just when I think I can’t take it any longer, it, no, she is addressing me. For a minute I think that maybe she has a mouth somewhere I can’t see. I look closer and realize that her mouth is where it should be, except that it’s a mass of criss-crossed scars. She is speaking to me in my head and I can hear it as well as if she was whispering sweet nothings in my ear.

“Welcome Major Gellert. We’ve been expecting you.”

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