I was a murderer. Well, I suppose it was more apt to say I'd been a murderer for a month and hadn't been aware of it. But to be fair to myself, I'm not sure killing a creature who looks like it came out of a child's nightmare counts as murder back on Earth. If anything, people would have praised me for it. It would be like when I was killing rats just as Mr. Mosely had compared it to, but rats they were not.

The snatchers were a people, a civilization. They had houses and markets. Livestock and tools. Craftspeople and guards. Some snatchers even wore flamboyant white dresses– Puncher and his group were rather immodest in comparison. No, It wasn't a den of monsters as I had feared. There was a sense of order about the place. I would have explored with a smile if I weren't so utterly and completely stripped of my freedom. Instead, I hung suspended from a bone with blood dripping down my arm from where the ropes had bitten in too deep.

Puncher led the way as we marched through the subterranean town. We were on what I think was the main road. I assumed because at the end of the road, near the center of the main cave, was a giant crystal-like cluster. The structure was tall enough to reach the cave's ceiling and emitted a fluorescent glow that irritated my eyes.

I found that anything that emitted even a little bit of light had become weird to look at–the mushrooms on the cave door had done the same to a lesser extent. I was certain the problem lay with my night vision.

Night vision allowed me to see in the dark, but as a consequence, it made lights, except those from magic, into minor flashbangs. Every time I swayed to the side in the bone undercarriage, the crystal structures' blinding light would flash me. It was like I was gazing at something holy.

The crystal structure continued irritating me, so I squinted, but I refused to close my eyes. And not for do-gooder reasons or educational curiosity. As much as a marvel everything was, I was in enemy territory. I needed to find a way to escape while I still had a life worth saving. My plan of blasting my way out like a one-ball wrecking crew wasn't going to cut it.

I put my mind to the task of my escape while my eyes surveyed the snatcher people. The snatchers were what I imagined early Earth civilizations would be: vibrant, resourceful, and busy. Not even one took a moment's glance at the snatchers carrying an alien through their streets. They focused on carrying bones, cooking large unidentifiable meat over a fire, and wheelbarrowing some sparkly rocks–yes, they had wheelbarrows—to and fro.

It turned out I wasn't as important as I thought.

As we got halfway to the crystal, one of the guards escorting us purred in a series of rough grunts directed at Puncher, who responded in kind. The exchange was brief, lasting only a moment, but what followed was the two armored snatchers drawing bone blades from their hips. If that wasn't bad enough, the two guards pointed back and forth between Puncher and me as if we were in collusion. And while I wasn't sure what was said by them, the purrs didn't sound like pleasantries.

I leaned my head to the side to catch a glimpse of Puncher. I wanted to check his reaction because, at the very least, he didn't seem like he wanted to kill me with a bone blade like the guards were seemingly prepared to do. If I wanted to survive, I needed to stay with Puncher and his group for a little while longer. They wouldn't have brought me to the cave just to kill me, I hoped.

When I finally got my head in a position to see Puncher, it only made me more stressed because Instead of preparing for a fight, he was kneeling down and motioning with his hands to the sky–the cavetop in this instance. He looked like a fool. A damned fool. I'm unsure if he was looking for something up there or if there was a snatcher God he was praying to, but neither comforted me.

The guard, dissatisfied with Puncher's response, if that wasn't evident by the drawn weapons, purred again in a bigger, more boisterous set of purrs that brought attention from passersby. Some stopped and pointed. Others kept along their way. And none stepped in to stop one of the guards from rushing at me with his weapon drawn.

I squirmed around, and the snatchers at the foot end of the bone dropped me to flee in the opposite direction. I tried to kick out, but it was useless with my feet tied to the rope. The big guard reached me quickly and picked the bone up on the foot side, which prompted the snatchers holding my head side to drop the bone altogether.

My head hit the ground. So hard that I was sure I got another concussion. When I got my bearings back, I was already upside down. There was nothing I could do. Blood rushed to my head. And I got lightheaded very quickly.

The guard holding me purred to Puncher again, who had walked over to the second guard during the fiasco. The guard near Puncher wasn't holding his weapon any longer. It had replaced with all of my belongings that Puncher had handed over on our arrival. They were speaking in their language about something, but it didn't matter to me unless it was: 'We should let him go and send him in his merry way.'

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After they finished the exchange, the guard handed my belongings to Puncher, all but the compass watch, which the guard kept on its belt loop. It was the one item I didn't want to lose. I'd even told Mr. Mosely I would take good care of it. I was tired of being proven a liar.

That settled, Puncher greedily snatched my belongings from the guard's hands and filled his pockets. The guard who stole my compass watch purred to the one holding me upside down, and the giant dropped me. Luckily, I didn't hit my head, but I did wince as my legs hit the ground. The pain was becoming my new norm.

The two guards purred something to the crowd, dispersing them, and headed back in the direction we'd come from, which left Puncher, Stabby, Pokey, and I alone in the street except for the occasional passerby. But there was a big difference between the current states. For one, I was face down, smushed into the hardened stone tile, while the other three stood. I was also covered in spit and slobber that had leaked through my mask, but somehow, I doubted any of the trio was going to hand over a napkin so I could wipe my face.

Puncher purred to Stabby and Pokey, who ambled over to me and plucked me off the ground like I was a sack of flour. They must've been born stronger than the other four snatchers who'd run off because the two didn't struggle at all. They hoisted me up high so I wouldn't scrape the ground and carried me over to Puncher, who was waiting with my belongings.

My nemesis–Puncher, from now on, would be forever one of my nemeses–was leaning on an empty wheelbarrow and purring as he tossed my food stores into the street. The interaction with the guards hadn't seemed to phase him. It was as if we'd never been in danger at all. I would remember the moment.

We left the scene and moved toward the crystal at a renewed pace. Puncher wanted to get somewhere fast. He made sure to purr continuously to Stabby and Pokey and shot a glare down at me whenever I tried to loosen my grip. I was under his watchful eye. But Unbeknownst to my newfound nemesis, I slowly broke off pieces of the hard wax in my mouth.

Once I had broken down the pieces of hard wax, it would be much easier to talk. And If I could talk, I could do magic. I would need to spit out the pieces so it would be easier to talk, but that was the easy part compared to the actual escape.

I kept chewing secretly as the snatchers carried me to the town center. I did a good job at concealing the task. Puncher didn't seem to notice me at all. By the time we reached the crystal, my mouth had only a few pieces of wax, and [blast] was raring to go. I only needed to say the actual word. But that's where the problem lay.

The snatchers were congregating around the crystal. They had formed a crowd so dense I could feel each snatcher jostling beside me for the position. It got worse when I opened my eyes. The crystal was so bright it felt like retinas would burn out their sockets. I couldn't even tell how many were near me, only that they were loud and, for some reason, marching in place. And when I pushed through the glare to catch a glance, all I could make out were the snatcher's legs.

I couldn't even keep track of Puncher in the crowd. I knew where Stabby and Pokey were because they were carrying me, but Puncher had moved somewhere in front to push through. He wanted to get us closer to the crystal, a wish I did not share but would have to see through.

Whatever he did, it worked. I could feel myself moving forward steadily, and eventually, the crowd thinned. The crowd parted the way for us. Every bump and brush no longer tossed me aside, and the purrs had dwindled to a mutter. Eventually, it reached the point where I felt and heard nothing besides movement. All was calm.

I peeked through a squinting slit in my eyes, fully expecting to be blasted full of rays of light, but was instead met by a smoky room housing all types of snatchers. Tall and short. Pale and yellow–that was new. The room was inside of a hollowed-out crystal. And was filled with sleeping snatchers–they looked asleep to me.

I fully opened my eyes when I ascertained the blinding light wasn't coming back and searched for Puncher. It was hard to distinguish him among the many, but I saw a snatcher who fit the description. Puncher was on the other side of the crystal talking to a tall snatcher–probably seven feet. The taller snatcher wore a robe of white like some of the snatchers I'd seen walking the city and wore a headdress adorned with tiny bones and an elongated skull. The skull wasn't a human, thank God.

Puncher pointed at me as if to explain my presence to the tall snatcher. He then waved us over. Pokey and Stabey obliged. The two of them quickly arrived at Puncher's side, where Puncher was exchanging my items for a small piece of white fabric similar to the white robes the tall snatcher wore. Puncher traded me and all my belongings for a few dress pieces.

Puncher finished their trade and purred something to Stabey and Pokey, who then walked me to a giant stack of stones. They were located on another side of the room and organized into a circle. There was an opening in the center with a bucket next to it. I couldn't see the inside of it hanging as low as I was, so I didn't know what was at the bottom.

I would soon find out. Stabey and Pokey lifted me over the hole. As I realized what they were doing, it was too late, not that it would have mattered. Stabey and Pokey set both ends of the bones down in a position that placed my whole body in the hole. Both snatchers took out their sharpened bone weapons and cut the ropes. I watched in horror.

“[Blast]!” The muffled word was hot on my tongue. I nearly swallowed the spare pieces of wax stuck in my teeth as I shouted.

The red beam formed near my hands, right above the bone, and went in the direction of who I think was Pokey. I missed it. The blast flew off into the distance, hitting the crystal ceiling in the background. I could hear the murmur of shock from the snatchers at my magic. I prepared to shout again, but I was too late. My action had done nothing to throw off Pokey and Stabby from their task. They cut the ropes, and I fell.