MY ESCAPE FROM A HOME BELOVED was of sheer and unqualified
necessity. My people and I have been overtaken by a scorpion race of alien
malefactors whose intent towards us is not one of beneficent intervention, but
that of utter conquest.
If it were only the mere subjugation of a weaker species, we
might have acquiesced, although begrudgingly. However, the terrifying reality
enjoined upon us proved to be the conquerors' brusque insistence that their insatiable
hungers be satisfied with our quailing flesh. These interlopers, these
transgressors of a most cruel and avaricious sort, have invaded my world.
Alas, my escape from this nightmare -- from which there will
be no awakening -- has been conjured up in my mind. I grieve that kith and kin
do not possess the incipient mental devices of escapism that I have owned since
the womb. How and why I differ from them is a story I need to tell you, but time is no more.
We have all been jailed; however, I suffer less than they. These very real horrors are deftly slid into a compartment of my mind, locked away
tightly, key jettisoned.
Damn . . . damn these invaders from Earth.