Walking down the hallways of the high security section of the Creh-2 trade hub, Mark felt his mouth salivate, while there weren't many people around he still felt his hunger being stimulated by the few that were around
'...So hungry'
Having gone from the guild with no delicious negative feelings out into the sprawling hallways of the trade hub was like entering a room smelling of grilled chicken, even if he hadn't been hungry before, (which he was) he was ravenous by now
'Food…'
Mark continued walking down the hallway, he swallowed his saliva twice before he started looking for a snack, as he approached the security checkpoint he picked up a savory smell
'That smells good…'
Following the scent, Mark realized all too late that he had smelled it before and as he turned the corner he came face to face with 3 people he didn't want to see
"Oh, hello there Mark, what a coincidence"
Standing before the security checkpoint were Lisa Fiorica, Alcia and the large sacred man from the Guild, two intimidating looking androids stood flanking Lisa on either side
"...Shit"
Cursing out loud Mark turned right around and walked the other way
"Hey! Are you just going to leave from seeing my face!?"
Lisa ran after Mark with surprising speed and grabbed his hand, Mark turned around to face her and was about to shake her hand off when it happened, the entire station shock as it did Mark's perception of time slowed down, an instance passed before the two security androids that followed behind sparked violently outwards, arching sparks between them
'What the fuck!?"
As Lisa grabbed his entire lower arm, Mark felt the artificial gravity of the station give, and he quickly clicked the heels of his boots together to magnetize them a moment later a bolt of lightning passed through the ceiling annihilating the large scarred man in an instance
'SHIT!'
A moment later, the lightning blot expanded as it ripped a large hole through the ceiling, Mark grabbed a railing to avoid getting sucked out into the cold vacuum of space with Lisa still hanging onto his arm as she screamed
"What the fuck is going on!?"
The instance stretched out until Mark saw a wave of bulkheads closing ahead of him, Alcia that hang onto to a railing a few meters ahead of them realized this a moment too late and had her entire left arm crushed and served by a closing bulkhead moments before she was pulled out into space.
Her scream was abruptly cut off as another bulkhead closed ahead of Mark and Lisa, an instance later the bulkhead behind them closed as well, sealing them in
"Well, shit"
As Lisa were busy catching her breath as her panic set in further, Mark found the scent of her negative emotions too tantalizing to ignore, ignoring her panicked confusion Mark unlocked the glove of his vacuum suit and threw it to the side before he grabbed her by the neck
"M…a…rk..!"
Mark briefly registered some sort of protest from his prey, but he was too enraptured in feeding to notice, let alone care. Even as Mark tightened his grip around its fragile neck, his senses were completely blocked out by the delicious, deep-rooted despair of being born the betrothed of a 368-year-old noble that already strangled, beat and tortured 11 wives into an early grave before you were even born, underlined with a profound body dysmorphia and self disgust all topped up by a spicy taste of intense panic and fear
"That's the stuff…"
Mark's vision blurred as his feeding frenzy continued, a few moments later he finished eating and let go of Lisa that floated off in the low gravity
"Well then… What the fuck happened…"
Mark walked across the closed, sealed room and grabbed the glove he had thrown away to feed on Lisa's fear and despair and put it back on his hand before he sealed it to his suit again, then he took out his terminal and spoke
"Little one, are you there?"
A moment passed before the screen of the terminal went dark as the Ficer inside it shattered as a small hydraulic piston pushed out a metal spike to crush a weak point in the crystallized structure, shattering it completely and totally. This naturally wasn't due to external damage, it was a deliberate function to deny anyone from getting information out of it by rendering it inoperable
'Hmm… Or to stop it from communicating… So keep still and stay silent?'
Mark clicked the heels of his boots together again to disable the magnetic lock before he flew off the floor and spun around to face Lisa, her long platinum blonde hair floated around her face shrouding it, by now her long dress fluttered slowly around her as she slowly floated towards the floor of the sealed room. As Mark watched her slowly land on the floor, Mark had a sudden realization
'I get it… It's because she's pretty… Wait, that sounds weird…'
Having realized why he felt so annoyed with Lisa, Mark flew over next to her and brushed aside the platinum blonde hair that covered her face, her eyes were shut closed as a large bruise were forming on the pale skin of her neck from where Mark had strangled her
'...'
Mark reached out a hand towards her neck for a moment before he paused and removed his glove, then he traced his hand along the bruise he had made on her neck
'...Yep, this is my fault'
It was because she was pretty, as weird as that was, but it was more than that, she was gorgeous
'Hourglass figure, slender limbs, flawless skin and almost perfect proportions… No wonder I found her so annoying to look at… It's like looking at the most perfect meal without feeling any hunger for it'
Whatever Mark was now, he felt none of his former libido. Whether this was due to immaturity or simply because he now functioned on some other biological needs, Mark didn't know. However, he did now feel more than a little sorry and embarrassed on how he had treated her
"It's unlikely you will survive this either… However, having fed me such a nice meal and how I've treated you, I might as well help a bit…"
Having decided to help her out a bit, Mark picked her up from the cold metal floor and carried her to the center of the room and curled her up before he began to search the panels that made up the sealed room the two were trapped in
'Hmm… Given how much I remember of the local area before it was sealed, this side should be a habitation block?'
Mark pressed in on a panel until it bent inwards slightly, letting out a sound of the metal panel warping
'No luck…'
Mark moved to the side a few meters before he bent another panel inwards in the same manner as the last with a similar result
'Nope…'
Mark continued bending panels until a hollow echo sounded out along with the metal warping
'Jackpot…'
Having found what he searched for, a panel behind which was air to make an echo sound out, Mark continued warping and bending the metal panel until he could squeeze through it, behind the panel he found a hotel room
"Neat…"
Mark returned to the hallway and picked up the unconscious Lisa and carried her into the room where he wrapped her into a blanket and placed her on the bed before he returned to the sealed hallway and brought back a few loose panels
'Alright, now for the seal…'
Mark retrieved a small metal cylinder that kind of looked like a baton from his belt, which he pressed against the sides of the panels before he pressed the button on the back which ignited the front of the cylinder that quickly welded the panel to the wall
'...This stuff is more useful than I thought'
Using half an emergency welding stick, Mark managed to seal off the entrance to the hallway, then he checked over the hotel room, finding a stacked mini fridge, a large bathroom with a tab that were luckily still running Mark flew back into the bedroom where he crossed his arms and settled in
'I wonder how Lisa is going to handle this…'
-
To no one's surprise, Lisa wasn't exactly thrilled over waking up in a pitch back room without gravity, let alone with a person she didn't know, let alone trust even before he had choked her until she passed out with an enraptured look on his face
'Well, Stockholm syndrome is one hell of a drug…'
Sure Lisa had screamed, shouted, insulted and attacked Mark for the first 3 days, but when hunger and thirst had set in fully by the 6th day he had won her over somewhat and now by the (Estimated) 2 week of having been trapped in the same room Lisa hardly showed any anger towards Mark, nor any of the distrust or disgust with his unhuman abilities she had shown at first sight of them
'If anything, she's become a little too attached…'
Mark glanced at Lisa that were attached to his right arm, hugging it tight as she slept to conserve energy
'Well, now at least I've discovered several of the physiological effects of long term feeding…'
The despair Lisa felt about her current situation had only increased with time, slowly turning it increasingly savory and delicious, however with Mark's continued feeding it seemed to temporarily relieve it. The key part was of the previous statement was the word temporarily.
The relief was far from permanent and seemed to have resulted in a physiological if not physical addiction to having Mark feed on her negative emotions
'Oddly enough, I am not growing tired of this taste either… Oh well, I doubt she'll survive more than a week longer at this rate…'
Looking at Lisa her perfect skin had bruised and slowly turned an unhealthy shade of pale with dark circles deepening below her increasingly hollow looking eyes
Mark picked up the Ficer terminal he had hardwired with a cable into the Ficer network of the hotel and reloaded the internal server he had found for new information
'Nothing new… The station is fucked, from the lack of outside support the entire system and nearby systems have likely been fucked over too and from the lack of contact from the little one the one doing all this fucking is still keeping an eye on the station, which isn't exactly great'
Mark shrugged, Lisa dying on him was regrettable, however in the now mostly destroyed station it wasn't like he would be starving. Gently tracing the rim of Lisa's ear with his finger as she shook slightly in her sleep, her nightmare lessened by Mark's feeding touch
"It's no skin off my back anyhow…"