Women Designer Bags, I walked down the odd, narrow hallway and stopped in the doorway to peer into the room. The stiffening corpse of an older man was still tangled in its bedsheets. One of our knives, glistening black and crawling with flies, protruded erect from his neck, like an empty flagpole. I tore myself away and found an empty room, and pulled some stool-like apparatus up to the window to keep watch. My men would notice I was missing before long.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, and let the images run through my mind. Our first glimpse of this alien dimension. How we marveled at the straight sidewalks and rectangular buildings, and how everything glowed under the bright moon\'s face. Knives piercing sleeping skin. People screaming, running into the street.
A weapon in my hand and something sticky all down my arm.
What had I done? What had we done?
I didn\'t come to massacre. The fliers told me to help save our world, claim new territories in a strange new dimension. It was supposed to be a simple mission: take control, cut off communications, and get into contact with the squadrons in other cities. But, of course, things didn\'t go according to plan. The people fought back, fiercely. They wouldn\'t follow orders. We became desperate.
We became murderers.
It turned to slaughter. We panicked and just killed everything in sight. And then the sun rose, and we had to face what we couldn\'t see in the Women Designer Bags night. By moonlight, it was easy to rationalize: they weren\'t humans, not our type of humans anyway. By moonlight everything looks foreign and terrifying. You don\'t see the whole picture until the sun rises.
It was a woman, darker-skinned than I, but paler than the Women Designer Bags other natives here. Her hair was ember-red and matted to the side of her head. Blood crusted around her mouth and trailed down her face. Her eyes, half-lidded, fixed on mine, frightened and hopeful at the same time. Begging for mercy and imploring for help.
I stood there a long time, and listened to the whimpers come from her mouth. And suddenly I was filled with exhaustion. I should probably kill her, I realized. To appease my friends, and to put her out of her misery. But I wanted to pull her from the ruins and save her, too, because I recognized the desperation in her eyes. The same desperation that I\'d seen in my comrades last night, when we realized how far from home we were, and how far from heaven we were. When we realized nobody would save us from the horror we\'d created.
I turned my head and walked away. It was hard at first, but as I took more steps my strides became stronger and more resolved. And I hated myself for it. I hated that I didn\'t have the Women Designer Bags strength to fight back. But I didn\'t have the will to try any more.
While again struggling to get out of the straps on the bed, he hears approaching footsteps. The man\'s heart is at the point of stopping due to fear itself. The footsteps sound closer and the door creaks open.
\"Let me out of here!\" he screams.
The stranger enters the room and approaches the tray in the corner. The bloodied scalpel is in the stranger\'s hand and the stranger approaches the man. With a swift movement of hands the scalpel makes a slash on the man\'s chest. A bucket is grabbed to collect the blood while a piercing scream is heard from the man. Barbed wires are suddenly placed on the man\'s arms and are yanked off brutally by the stranger. Another scream is heard.
\"Let me go please!\" the man shouts in desperation. There is no response from the stranger. The man sees a strange contraption in the stranger\'s hand. The contraption is quickly hidden. All of a sudden the man feels a searing pain across his face. The pain comes from the slashes of a knife owned by the stranger. This goes on for two hours. After the process, the stranger leaves the room and the door is locked.
\"Come back here!\" shouts the man.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, and let the images run through my mind. Our first glimpse of this alien dimension. How we marveled at the straight sidewalks and rectangular buildings, and how everything glowed under the bright moon\'s face. Knives piercing sleeping skin. People screaming, running into the street.
A weapon in my hand and something sticky all down my arm.
What had I done? What had we done?
I didn\'t come to massacre. The fliers told me to help save our world, claim new territories in a strange new dimension. It was supposed to be a simple mission: take control, cut off communications, and get into contact with the squadrons in other cities. But, of course, things didn\'t go according to plan. The people fought back, fiercely. They wouldn\'t follow orders. We became desperate.
We became murderers.
It turned to slaughter. We panicked and just killed everything in sight. And then the sun rose, and we had to face what we couldn\'t see in the Women Designer Bags night. By moonlight, it was easy to rationalize: they weren\'t humans, not our type of humans anyway. By moonlight everything looks foreign and terrifying. You don\'t see the whole picture until the sun rises.
It was a woman, darker-skinned than I, but paler than the Women Designer Bags other natives here. Her hair was ember-red and matted to the side of her head. Blood crusted around her mouth and trailed down her face. Her eyes, half-lidded, fixed on mine, frightened and hopeful at the same time. Begging for mercy and imploring for help.
I stood there a long time, and listened to the whimpers come from her mouth. And suddenly I was filled with exhaustion. I should probably kill her, I realized. To appease my friends, and to put her out of her misery. But I wanted to pull her from the ruins and save her, too, because I recognized the desperation in her eyes. The same desperation that I\'d seen in my comrades last night, when we realized how far from home we were, and how far from heaven we were. When we realized nobody would save us from the horror we\'d created.
I turned my head and walked away. It was hard at first, but as I took more steps my strides became stronger and more resolved. And I hated myself for it. I hated that I didn\'t have the Women Designer Bags strength to fight back. But I didn\'t have the will to try any more.
While again struggling to get out of the straps on the bed, he hears approaching footsteps. The man\'s heart is at the point of stopping due to fear itself. The footsteps sound closer and the door creaks open.
\"Let me out of here!\" he screams.
The stranger enters the room and approaches the tray in the corner. The bloodied scalpel is in the stranger\'s hand and the stranger approaches the man. With a swift movement of hands the scalpel makes a slash on the man\'s chest. A bucket is grabbed to collect the blood while a piercing scream is heard from the man. Barbed wires are suddenly placed on the man\'s arms and are yanked off brutally by the stranger. Another scream is heard.
\"Let me go please!\" the man shouts in desperation. There is no response from the stranger. The man sees a strange contraption in the stranger\'s hand. The contraption is quickly hidden. All of a sudden the man feels a searing pain across his face. The pain comes from the slashes of a knife owned by the stranger. This goes on for two hours. After the process, the stranger leaves the room and the door is locked.
\"Come back here!\" shouts the man.
