7/23/15

Curiosity Killed The Cat
By Hannah Grace Murgatroyd


Amelia crouched behind a boulder, wincing at the noise her breathing apparatus made every time she dared to breathe. It was essential to life here, on Mars, yet it could also be the cause of her death.

How wonderful.

It wasn’t even their fault that they had intruded on the life forms here. Sure, they had landed on the red planet but how were they supposed to know that these… aliens had built underground tunnels? Was it really such a crime to be curious about a planet that had never been visited by a human before?

Apparently so.

Amelia would have sighed if she wasn’t so worried about her life and the aliens that were standing just on the other side of the huge boulder. She could hear them babbling in the foreign language she had come to dread. They used to back of their mouths to speak, much like the Germans, however the language was nothing like German. It involved clicks and obscene squelching noises that never failed in making Amelia shudder.

She heard a sudden movement and she reacted by moving forward. She crashed into one of the aliens and rebounded off of it, the alien still standing strong. She felt a gun against her back and her stomach dropped. They’d known she was there throughout the conversation the two aliens had held.

She craned her head up to look at the alien in front of her. It was tall, very tall. It must have been at least seven or eight foot tall. It had two big eyes, a small nose and a large mouth which grinned at her, several sharp teeth glinting. They had no hair; however their skin was a grey colour and appeared to be very thin as blood vessels could be seen through the skin. They wore no clothes but from what Amelia could see they didn’t have any reproductive organs, making Amelia wonder how they reproduced.

She was answered when the alien in front on her seemed to split into two, and another identical alien appeared in front of her. Asexual reproduction, Amelia mused. Fascinating.

“You shall sleep, human.” The alien behind her gargled.

She felt a jolt run through her body and she knew no more.

*
When she awoke she found herself strapped to her chair and surrounded by thousands of aliens in what appeared to be an amphitheatre. As she looked round she could see many different species of alien, some were the typical green alien while others just looked like the slugs from Earth. Idly Amelia wondered if slugs were Aliens. She shook her head, still drowsy from whatever they had shot her with.

“Human, you are here for us to decide your fate.”

Amelia’s head snapped to the speaker. This alien was strikingly beautiful. It sat on what Amelia assumed to be a throne; its long legs were folded neatly under a long, golden shawl that shimmered in the firelight. It had grey skin yet seemed completely different to the aliens that had apprehended her. Amelia instantly knew that this alien was in charge.

“Why are you here, human?” Its voice was soft, yet loud and demanding.

“We on Earth have always been curious about Mars and the possibility of life forms here.” Amelia explained, trying to sound confident. “We came to discover more about this planet.”

The aliens snarled and jeered at Amelia. She gulped and looked around frantically, hoping that none of them would attack.

“And have we ever visited your planet, guns blazing, because we were curious?” The head alien asked sharply.

“N-No.” Amelia answered timidly.

The alien bowed her head. “From what you have told me, I’m afraid that I have to sentence you to death.”

“What? No!” Amelia pleaded. “I’ll work for you! I’ll do anything!”

Aliens swarmed Amelia and she screamed in agony as she was hit with what felt like electrical currents again and again, each one increasing in intensity. There was a long drawn out shock, and Amelia fitted while the aliens around her laughed.

And as she stopped fitting and her eyes slipped closed for the last time, one saying resonated through her mind: curiosity killed the cat.

And now curiosity had killed Amelia.


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Hannah Murgatroyd is sixteen years of age and has a bizarre fascination with space and string theory. She enjoys reading, writing, and cuddling her two cats and one dog.