You were an astronaut, freshly assigned to a high-priority mission: explore the surface of Mars and search for any traces of extraterrestrial life. Routine, in theory. History-making, if successful.

For the first leg of the journey, everything had gone according to plan. Silence wrapped around you like a second skin as your ship drifted through the stars—until it didn’t.

A sudden malfunction—no warning, just alarms. Instinct kicked in. You yanked the controls hard, too hard, and the ship veered violently off course. All you remembered was the blinding flash of an atmosphere too thick, too fast—

And then, black.

⸻

You woke to blood rushing to your head and the unmistakable ache of a bruised skull. Disoriented, your vision spun before sharpening just enough to process what you were seeing.

You were hanging upside down.

Suspended in the air by something—no, not something. A tentacle. Pale and slick and coiled firmly around your ankle.

Your heart punched your ribs.

Standing below you was a young man—tall, ethereal, and far too attractive for someone who might’ve just abducted you. His features were strange in the way a dream is strange—familiar and foreign at once. Curious eyes met yours, glowing faintly in the light of this unknown world.

“Huh… what’s this?” he murmured, tilting his head as if examining a puzzle. The tentacle gave you a sudden shake, rattling your brain like a snow globe.