Lex returns home almost five hours later, tired and worn down with worry. Gripping the handle of her guitar case, Lex climbs the four steps leading to her front door. She withdraws the door key from her jacket pocket and presses it into the keyhole. However, the door opens of its own accord—no key necessary. Fear fills Lex’s heart, making her stomach do flips. After she has had a moment to think clearly, she shakes her head and exhales loudly. Her strange alien visitor. Of course. How could she have forgotten?

“That damn yautja! Look! I told you I wanted you gone. You have no right—”

Before Lex can finish her statement, a strong arm yanks her into the house. A human arm. An expression of sheer terror alters Lex’s face as she takes in her intruder. Dressed in a black suit, and sporting a black hood over his face, the large man stares at Lex with angry blue eyes.

“Ms. Mattley! Or shall I call you, Ms. Woods? I need you to come with me.”

Lex tries to yank her arm free, but the large hooded man only tightens his grip.

“I don’t think so! Just who the hell are you? And what the hell are you doing in my house?”

“The company has an urgent matter they wish to discuss with you,” hooded man says. “I cannot say any more than that. You will come with me now!”

“I said…No!” Lex growls, her teeth pressed tightly together. “Get your hands off of me! I told the company everything I knew a decade ago. There’s nothing more to tell.”

“Oh. I think there is!” the suited figure says, a short deep chuckle escaping his lips. “Don’t make this harder on yourself, Ms. Woods. Come willingly…And I won’t have to hurt you.”

“You bastard!” Lex yells, her blood running cold.

With those words, Lex brings up her guitar case, the handle of which is still gripped tightly in one hand. She wallops the large man just as he prepares to retrieve his gun from a holster at his side. Lex considers her own weapon, locked in its case on the other side of the living room. The club doesn’t allow weapons on the premises. Not after a young woman was shot and killed only feet from the entrance. Lex regrets not having brought the pistol along anyway. She could have left it in the truck. At least, she’d be armed right now.

Lex’s assault with the guitar case momentarily stuns her attacker. He stumbles back a couple of steps, his grip on her arm loosening. Enough for Lex to wrench free. She frees her arm and hits the hooded man with the guitar case a second time. Hard enough that there is a loud crack of wood. Damn. That was a vintage “Frankenstein”. Damn.

With an angry growl, Lex raises the guitar in the air. Her attacker has gone down on one knee. But he isn’t out of the game. He prepares to bring up his gun, now freed from its holster. Lex freezes momentarily, but does not lower the guitar.

“You freaking whore!” the hooded man bellows.

He touches one hand to the battered side of his head and comes away with blood on his fingertips. Even through the black hood, blood drips down onto the floor from the would-be kidnapper’s busted ear.

A bright flash fills the room and the hooded figure’s chest is blown out from behind. His eyes bulge in the spaces left for them to peek out of the hood. He sputters twice before pitching forward and falling face down on the floor. Damn. Now the carpet. Not the carpet.

Lex cautiously lowers her guitar case and sets it down on the floor. She turns in the direction from which the blast originated. Scorvo stands silhouetted against the darkness of the night, the porch light illuminating his massive bulk. Lex takes a step forward and then reconsiders. She pretends to be cross with her unearthly visitor.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Did you have to spray his blood all over my damn carpet? I just had that laid two months ago!”

“I apologize,” Scorvo says, smoothly stepping into the house and shutting the front door. “Next time, I will ask if it is okay to kill the ooman who would end your life. I am sorry about the carpet.”

“Whatever!”

Lex kneels beside the dead hooded man and turns him over. She carefully peels back the hood from his face, shaking her head.

“I don’t recognize him. I’ve never seen him before in my life. I don’t get it! He mentioned the company! Weyland Industries? What would they want with me after all of these years?”

Silence fills the room as a realization dawns on Lex. The only change in her life, as of late, is the darn alien standing in her living room.

“We should bury him,” Lex utters in a soft voice. “I can pretend he never came to see me. I’ll need you to help me rip up the carpet. This whole thing is half your fault anyway. Nathan…My groundskeeper…Won’t be back for a few days. The remainder of the carpeting is rolled up in the shed out back. We can replace the carpet if we hurry.”

Lex climbs to her feet and whirls around. Only to find Scorvo standing directly in front of her. She stares down at his muscled chest and then up into his round amber eyes. Eyes so much like a pair she had once gazed into many years ago. Scar’s eyes.

“That will not help you!” Scorvo says. “They will simply send another…And another.”

“What are you talking about?” Lex nearly yells, her voice tinged with rage and impatience. “Why? And how do you know that?”

“I have already dispatched three such assassins in as many days. They sent one the first evening. The second night, there were two. Tonight, they sent an even better one. I watched as he disarmed your security system and entered your property with relative ease. They will not stop until they get what they want.”

“And just what is it that they want?” Lex says testily.

“You. And me.” Scorvo explains.

“Me? I’ve only just met you! You said the company has been sending these guys for three days now. How could this possibly have anything to do with me?”

“Five days ago, my ship entered your planet’s atmosphere. A day after that, I became aware that they were considering bringing you in. They know I am yautja. They suspected that I would come to you. They wanted to get to you first.”

Lex takes a moment to think. Sucking on her inner jaw, she manages a thin smile.

“What you’re saying is…They’re after you?”

“You could say that?” Scorvo says, his eyes narrowing.

“So…What’s to stop me from just…Turning you in?” Lex replies, her words dripping with sarcasm.

Almost immediately, a trio of red dots appear on her chest. Lex glances down at her chest and then back up at Scorvo, her jaw tightening. The yautja warrior simply tilts his head and smirks, shrugging both shoulders.

“You do have that choice.”

“Look! I don’t need this! After everything I’ve been through…Everything I’ve lost. I just want to live my life. Can’t you understand that?”

“You won’t live long if the company you once worked for has its way. They will kill you. I would think that would be obvious by now!”

“No. No. This isn’t happening. Even if they think you might have made contact with me…Why would Weyland Industries want me dead? What’s so special about you?”

“Not only me,” Scorvo says quietly. “I did not tell you the whole reason for my journey to your planet. Some time ago, word reached our home world that the oomans have one of our kind in a secret facility. That your scientists managed to clone DNA from material found at a site…On a frozen continent. Rumors are…It was the same creature mentioned in the original report of one Alexa Woods.”

Lex’s eyes widen and her mouth falls open with surprise.

“What? How? Those reports were never to be seen. I signed a non-disclosure.”

“We have our ways.”

“I’ll say. I only told them the bare minimum. I had to. How else could I explain how I came to be the only survivor? They would have nailed me to the wall like some kind of psycho killer.”

“I am aware of this,” Scorvo says.

Lex gazes askance at Scorvo and pouts. When she speaks again, her voice is low and filled with sadness.

“Scar…At least some part of him…Is alive?”

“It would appear so! That is why I am here! If my brother is being held in captivity…I aim to free him. And I will need your help to do that!”

Lex swallows the lump in her throat and turns away from Scorvo, emotion welling up in her chest.

“First things first,” Lex says, in a hurry to change the subject. “Let’s bury this asshole. If his blood soaks in any more the wood underneath won’t be salvageable.”