by Ken Warner
He spoke to the man at the desk and explained the situation.
“So, can I file a missing person’s report, or do I have to wait till she’s been gone 24 hours?”
“No, in fact, it’s best to file the report as soon as possible,” the man told him. “Chances are she’ll turn up, and there’ll be some simple explanation. But in case that doesn’t happen, it’s best to have the report on file.”
Miguel gave him the information he needed.
“You should be all set,” the man told him. “We’ve got your number, so the deputy will be in touch if there’s anything else he needs. And in the meantime, if Ms. Hastings does turn up, please give us a call and let us know.”
Miguel thanked him and went out to his truck. There was one more place he wanted to check for himself.
He drove back up Route 23 and found the stretch of road where Sydney had told him the UFO activity was occurring. Pulling over to the side of the road, he got out of his truck and had a look around. But there was nothing to see here.
As he was getting back into the truck, he noticed a little dirt road up ahead. Curious, he walked over to it. There were fresh tire tracks.
Knowing it would probably be a waste of time, he decided to have a look anyway, just to cover all the bases. He set out on foot, following the tire tracks a few hundred feet up the road. But they ended there, with no sign of a vehicle anywhere nearby.
“Stranger and stranger,” he muttered to himself, heading back to his truck.
He got back to his trailer and tried texting and calling Sydney one more time. But there was no reply. Miguel didn’t know what else he could do but wait and see if she contacted him.
Chapter Fifteen: Missing Time
Sydney opened her eyes. Her head felt foggy, and her vision was blurry. As she moved, she found she had a splitting headache.
It took her a minute to remember where she was—the motel in Kansas.
She felt like she had a bad hangover, yet she didn’t drink the night before.
Looking at the clock, she said, “Oh crap!”
It was quarter to nine—she was supposed to be meeting Miguel for breakfast in fifteen minutes. She got out of bed as quickly as she could. There was no time for a shower, so she washed her face and went out to her car.
Ten minutes later, she pulled up at the diner. Miguel’s truck wasn’t here, but it was nine sharp, so she figured he’d arrive soon. She decided to wait for him in the car.
Checking her phone, she saw she had quite a few missed calls and text messages from him.
“What the hell..?”
The messages were all asking her where she was. And then she realized it was Thursday, not Wednesday.
Sydney felt confused. How could it be Thursday? She’d arrived here on Tuesday, of that she was sure. After checking in at the motel, she’d gone out to meet the Johnsons. And she’d gone out to eat at the Chinese restaurant with Miguel for dinner. That much she could remember clearly.
After dinner, she’d come back to the motel and gone to bed reasonably early.
“Wait a minute…”
She’d had trouble getting to sleep… and she’d gone out to Route 23!
Suddenly, she remembered meeting the teenager with the drone.
“What was his name…”
She checked her phone and found the contact she’d created for him.
“Right, Owen…”
And then she’d returned to the motel… hadn’t she?
No… she had no memory of actually returning to her room.
“Wait…” There had been a light in the sky… she’d taken off in her car and ended up driving down a dirt road…
“Oh, shit!”
There was a UFO! She’d been abducted!
But beyond rising into the air and moving inside the flying saucer, she simply could not recall anything else.
She called Miguel.
“Hey! Where the hell have you been?! I’ve been worried sick!”
“I’m sorry… I… it’s tough to remember anything. Miguel, I think I was abducted…”
“Oh, damn… where are you?”
“I’m at the diner. I thought it was Wednesday morning, so I came here to meet you for breakfast…”
“Alright, stay put. I’ll be right there.”
Sydney waited for him in her car. She was feeling a little woozy and thought staying seated would be best.
When he arrived, she got out of the car and met him at his truck.
“Mornin’!” he said, pulling her into a hug.
“Thanks for coming out,” she said. “I’m sorry for standing you up yesterday.”
“Wasn’t your fault,” he replied. “You alright?”
“I think so… I don’t know. My head is foggy.”
“You hungry? Wanna get some food?”
“Yes! I’m famished; I feel like I haven’t eaten in days, and now that I think about it, that might be the case…”
They went in and sat down at a booth by the front windows. The waitress brought them coffee and took their order.
“I have to tell you,” said Sydney, “I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
“I know what you mean,” he replied. “Shook me up pretty good when I had my experience, too. So, you feel up to telling me about it?”
She told him the whole story.
“You know, I had a feeling that maybe something like this had happened,” he said when she was done. “I went out to that stretch of Route 23. I found these tire tracks on this dirt road, but they ended, and there was no car there.”
“I think that was me,” said Sydney. “But I have no idea how the car got back to the motel—or how I did, for that matter…”
“And you don’t recall anything after going inside the UFO?”
“I don’t. I’m trying to… it’s the weirdest feeling. It’s like trying to remember the name of a song, and it’s on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t quite think of it… I’m pretty sure the memories are there, ya know? But I can’t seem to get them to surface.”
“I’ve been thinkin’ about my abduction a lot since that whole thing out at Monument Valley. The whole thing seems so dreamlike; I honestly can’t say for sure what parts definitely happened or not. I don’t know. There’s some weird shit going on, that’s for sure.”
“I feel terrible, too,” she said. “Kinda hungover, except I didn’t have anything to drink.”
“You think maybe that teenager you met mighta captured anything on camera with that drone of his?”
“That’s a great question,” she said. “Hang on; I’ll shoot him a text.”
Sydney sent Owen a message, asking if he’d seen anything that night or managed to get anything on video. There was no immediate reply, and their food arrived a minute later.
Miguel phoned Ted Johnson and the sheriff’s office to let them know Sydney had returned.
“Wow, you filed a missing person’s report for me?” asked Sydney.
“Had to do something,” he said. “I didn’t know what the hell happened to ya.”
They still hadn’t heard back from Owen by the time they finished eating, so they dropped Sydney’s car off at the motel, and Miguel drove them over to the farmhouse where Owen lived.
Sydney ran up to the front porch and knocked on the door. It took a minute, but a woman came to the door.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Hi, my name is Sydney Hastings. I was out on the road here the other night, and I met Owen…”
“Yes, I’m his mother, Sharon Driscoll,” she said. “Is Owen in any kind of trouble?”
“No, not at all. I met him because he was flying his drone around here—I have to confess, it scared the daylights out of me…”
“I’m sorry about that—I’ve warned him not to fly that thing near other people.”
“Oh, well, I had, ah, an experience right after that, over on that dirt road over there, and I wanted to see if he might have caught
any of it on camera…”
“You weren’t taken by one of those UFOs, were you?”
“I’m afraid I was…”
“Oh, my dear, I’m so sorry to hear that. Seems to be a problem around here—I’ve tried to sell my place because of it. Hoping to get out of here before anything happens to my boy or me!”
“Is he home?”
“No, he’s at his job today. But he should be home this afternoon if you want to try again then.”
“Thank you, I will!”
Sydney joined Miguel back at the truck.
“No luck?”
“Kid’s not home—she said to check back this afternoon. I wanna go take a look down that dirt road.”
They moved the truck down the road a bit and parked on the shoulder by the dirt road. The two of them walked out to where the tire tracks ended.
“So, this is it,” said Sydney, looking around across the fields. “This is where they took me.”
“Being here jogging any memories for ya?”
Sydney took a deep breath.
“No. I remember the car dying, running a short distance… and floating up to the ship, but that’s it. The next thing I can recall is waking up back in the motel room.”
Miguel dropped her off at the motel, and they agreed to meet up again later that day.
Sydney took a long, hot shower and then got dressed and went for a walk. The hot water and fresh air did her some good, and she found her head getting clearer. She stopped at the café and ordered a coffee.
A couple of hours later, she finally got a reply from Owen.
“Hey, did you see that UFO that came after me the other night? Did you get it on video?”
“You bet I did!”
“Are you home? Can I come over and see it?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
Sydney called Miguel. He picked her up at the café, and they drove back out to the farmhouse. Owen was waiting for them in the front yard.
“Wait till you see this!” he said, his phone in hand. “I pulled the footage from the drone.”
He held out his phone, and they watched the video he’s captured.
It was tough to see much—the night had been dark and foggy. But Sydney could make out the ring of lights in the sky and her car turning onto the dirt road. From the drone’s vantage point, the car was no longer visible after that, but she could see its headlights moving through the cornfield.
The vehicle’s lights went out, and then a spotlight shone down from the middle of the ring of lights. Sydney could just make out an object rising in the spotlight's beam and moving inside the UFO.
“Oh, my God—that’s me!”
After that, the spotlight turned off. The ring of lights in the sky shot off into the distance and disappeared. That was the end of the video.
“Do you think you could send me this?”
“Yeah, you’re just gonna have to give me your number again. I texted you the next morning, but I must’ve taken your number down wrong because the message didn’t go through.”
Sydney gave him her number again—he’d transposed two numbers the last time. He sent her the file.
“Thank you so much for this,” she said.
“Any time!”
Sydney and Miguel got into his truck and headed back into town.
“Not much to see on that video,” he observed.
“I know,” she said. “I want to get it back to Brian and see if he can enhance it—maybe get us a better look at the UFO, at least.”
“And what’s next, do you reckon?”
“I don’t know… I do need to check in with Brian anyway, not just for the video—he doesn’t even know I was abducted yet. I’m gonna call him now.”
Sydney tapped on his contact. He answered on the first ring.
“Hey, it’s me!”
“Sydney! What’s going on?”
She told him about her meeting with the Johnsons, her experience with the UFO, and the video she’d obtained.
“This is a serious development,” he said. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Better now. I was pretty groggy this morning, had a big headache. But yeah, I’m alright.”
“I think we should bring you home,” he said. “I’d like to have you see a physician, and we can get that video enhanced and decide what we do next.”
“Alright, boss,” she said. “I can head out first thing in the morning.”
“Great,” said Brian. “I’ll let Dave know. Send me that video when you get a chance!”
“Yes, I’ll do that right now.”
She hung up with him, and sent him the video, then closed her phone as they arrived at the motel.
“So, you’re heading back east?” Miguel asked.
“Yeah, in the morning.”
“Hmm. You think I could go with you?”
“You wanna fly out to North Carolina with me?”
“Yeah, why not?” he said with a grin. “Someone’s gotta keep an eye on you!”
“Alright,” said Sydney, feeling a few butterflies in her stomach. “Let me call Brian back real quick and make sure he’s cool with it—I’m staying at his house till they finish up the work on my place.”
She called him right back and asked about bringing a guest.
“Sure,” he said. “The more, the merrier!”
Sydney and Miguel went out to eat that evening, and then he dropped her off at the motel. She wanted to get to bed early—she still wasn’t feeling right. And her headache had returned.
It took her a long time to fall asleep. Once she had drifted off, she had a nightmare about being abducted again and awoke with a scream. She sat up in bed and found she’d broken out in a cold sweat. She slept only fitfully after that.
Sydney dropped off the rental car in the morning, and Miguel drove them to the airport. They met Dave there and flew back to North Carolina. Brian picked them up at the airport.
Back at the ranch, they sat down in the living room to catch up.
“I’ve taken the liberty of scheduling a physical for you,” Brian told Sydney. “It’s later this afternoon, with the doctor I see here in town. I hope that’s okay?”
“Yeah, absolutely,” she said. “I recommended that the Johnsons get full-body MRIs done, too—I’ll look for somewhere around here that I can do the same thing.”
“Good thinking,” Brian agreed. “I had another thought, too. Regarding your missing time. It would be helpful to retrieve any memories you may have that are being blocked for whatever reason.”
“Yes!” said Sydney. “I’ve had this feeling that they’re just under the surface, somehow, but I can’t quite get them back.”
“There’s a hypnotist over in Roxboro. I think he might be able to help you access those memories.”
“Oh, yeah, I’ll try anything at this point,” said Sydney.
“Great. I spoke to him briefly this morning and explained the general gist of the situation. He thinks he can help. I’ll call him back and book you an appointment.
“Also, I’ve sent that video to my team, and they’re working on enhancing it for us. I should have it back this evening.”
“Perfect,” said Sydney. “I’m very interested to see what else may be visible in that footage.”
Her phone rang; it was Ted Johnson.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Sydney?”
“Yes! How are you?”
“We’re good. Wanted to let you know we had our physicals. The doctor says we’re in good health, didn’t find anything strange in the blood work or anything…”
“But?”
“Well, he did find something. We each had a small scar on the back of our necks. He sent us for X-rays, and there was something inside there. For both of us.”
“Any idea what it is?”
“They were only just below the skin and very small, so he was able to remove them right there in the office.”
“Remove what, exactly?”
“Can’
t rightly say what they are,” Ted told her. “The doctor had no idea, either. Little squares of some sort of metal, it looks like. Only a little bigger than a pinhead.”
“That’s very strange,” said Sydney. “Could you send me a picture of them?”
“Sure, hang on.” Moments later, she received a text message with the photo.
“Great, I’ve got it, thank you.”
“We haven’t had the MRIs yet, but we got ’em scheduled for next week. After this, I’m very curious to see what else they might’ve done to us!”
“Yes, me too,” said Sydney. “Let’s stay in touch, okay?”
“Will do,” he said.
Sydney hung up with him and took a closer look at the photo. It showed two tiny black squares.
“What is it?” asked Brian.
“I don’t know,” said Sydney. She showed him the photo and told him everything Ted had said. “You wanna check the back of my neck for me?”
“Yes, turn around.”
Sydney pulled her hair out of the way so he could get a look.
“There’s a small red line,” he told her. “Looks like an incision.”
“Damn, I must have one, too!” she said. “What do you think it could be?”
“I’m not sure,” said Brian. “Let’s see if the doctor can remove it, and then we can run an analysis on it.”
Sydney suddenly felt very anxious. What the hell had they implanted inside of her? She was eager to get to the bottom of this.
Chapter Sixteen: Total Recall
Sydney drove into town for her physical later that afternoon. The nurse took her vitals and then left her in the exam room to change into a medical gown. The doctor walked in a few minutes later and introduced himself.
“Hello, Ms. Hastings?” Sydney nodded. “I’m Dr. Lee.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said, shaking his hand.
He proceeded with the physical. After a few minutes, he had her lie on her back, and he examined her abdomen.
“This is strange,” he said suddenly, looking closely at an area on her lower abdomen.
“What is it?”
“This looks like an incision,” he said. “It’s quite small.”
“What could that be for?”
