Alex’s eyes opened, and she shrieked. Quickly pressing her hands to her mouth, she stood still. Had Devon and Ms. Hayden heard her?
“Where am I?” Alex asked, lifting the sheet. “And what am I doing in a hospital gown?”
“Shhh...” She quickly searched the room for his clothes and found them neatly folded in the small closet. She stopped as she picked them up from the shelf. Pulling out one of the folders stacked on a higher shelf, she opened it and nearly gasped. Copies of his medical records? What was going on here?
“You don’t have time for this,” the angel warned.
She glanced at Alex. He stood up and walked over to her.
“Do you see him?” she whispered as she handed him his clothes.
“See who?” he asked.
She glanced at the angel who motioned for them to hurry. No. Alex couldn’t see or hear the angel either. For some reason, she was the only one. But why? “Forget it. Put these on. I’ll turn my back.”
She approached the window and looked out of it. The hallway was empty. That was good. She looked at the angel. He didn’t seem concerned at the moment, so that had to be good too. She hoped. How she hoped. Right now she just wanted them to get out of there alive.
“I’m ready,” Alex said, coming up behind her.
The angel pointed out the door and down the hall back to where she’d come from.
“Let’s go this way,” she softly said as she bolted from the room.
Alex obeyed without question, his footsteps light behind hers.
She took a moment to look over her shoulder when she heard Ms. Hayden laugh. The angel stood in the center of the hallway, his wings extended so she couldn’t see Ms. Hayden...and Ms. Hayden couldn’t see her or Alex. Autumn didn’t know how the angel managed it, but she figured that angels had abilities of protection that humans didn’t. Angels! She couldn’t believe it. A month ago, she didn’t even believe in such things. But so much had changed in the course of a month. Her entire world had been thrown upside down, and she couldn’t tell what was real or imaginary any more. For all she knew, this was all a strange dream. One she couldn’t wake up from no matter how hard she tried.
By the time she and Alex reached the door at the end of the corridor, she reached for it but something cold reached up and grabbed her hand. Startled, she looked up and saw something fading in and out of the light.
Alex’s face paled. He screamed and backed up against the wall. “Get it away from me! Get it away!”
The...thing...blew past her and approached him.
“No! Get away from me!” He held his hands out as if to stop something.
Autumn stood there, watching in a mixture of horror and shock as Alex sunk to the floor, trembling and whimpering. She reached out to grab the dissipating shadow but her arms went through the air. All she felt was a trace of cold air swirling in front of him. What is going on? She blinked several times, trying to find the thing, to figure out what it was.
The angel appeared next to her and touched her shoulder.
In that instant, she could clearly see it. It was an alien and it hovered over Alex. “He belongs to ussss,” it hissed. But it didn’t talk to her. It talked to the angel.
“No,” the angel said.
“Yessss.”
“The time for decision has not yet come. You cannot claim him as long as he hasn’t made his choice.”
The alien scowled, and as it did, its face changed. Its eyes grew smaller and turned red while horns protruded from his forehead.
As soon as she saw the transformation, it vanished.
The angel released his hold on her and touched Alex’s shoulder, and Alex quickly calmed. “His fate hangs in the balance. It is prudent that you never bring him here again.” The angel looked at her. “Do you understand now why I told you not to come?”
She gulped. “Y-” She cleared her throat. “Yes.” She didn’t just see what she thought she did, did she?
“You need not fear for Marianne or the others. They are safe, as I told you. It’s the ones who are left that are going to face the great delusion.”
“What do you mean?” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “What delusion?”
“Are the aliens here to help as they claim? You just saw it for yourself.” He motioned to Alex who was blankly staring ahead—who wasn’t even aware of what was going on around him. “Those who vanished are safe with God. Worry not for them. Worry for yourself. Your fate also hangs in the balance.”
Before she could ask him what he meant, he turned his attention down the hallway.
“Go quickly.” Then he disappeared.
Alex groaned.
She knelt by him. “Come on. We need to go.” She grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet.
“What happened?” He rubbed his forehead. “I have a headache.”
Questions could wait. Already, she could hear a group of people running from another hallway. She turned the doorknob, and the door opened. “Come on.”
Alex stumbled forward and crossed the threshold.
She joined him, reached for his hand, and led him down the dark corridor. It seemed to her that a light guided their way from a long distance. The closer they got to the light, the more it eluded them.
The door behind them echoed as it opened. “Down there!” Ms. Hayden called out. “Don’t let them get away!”
Those words must have broken Alex out of his trance, for his pace grew stronger.
“Hold it! You are not authorized to be here!” a man yelled.
Then we’ll be happy to leave, Autumn thought. She was out of breath by the time they reached the door.
Alex pulled it open and motioned for her to go first.
A gunshot fired, nearly missing them.
Who was she to argue? Ladies first seemed good to her! She darted through the door before another shot rang through the corridor.
Alex followed her and slammed the door shut.
Satisfied that he wasn’t hurt, she climbed the rungs that led to the exit. Her chest hurt from the exertion of breathing, but she pressed on. Faster. She had to go faster!
Alex was at her heels, which helped motivate her along.
Someone pounded on the door. “It’s locked! I can’t get out!”
Did she dare look? Was the angel there, working another miracle on their behalf? No. She couldn’t break her attention. She had to keep going.
By the time she reached the exit, she was gasping for air. She dug her fingers into the ground and used her remaining strength to pull herself out. Alex emerged right after her. Collapsing, she watched as he hobbled to the steel door and closed it. Then he gathered the surrounding sand to cover it back up.
Relieved, she looked up at the stars that seemed to be spinning. Realizing she was dizzy, she closed her eyes and waited for the whirling sensation to pass. When she opened her eyes, she studied the stars and noticed that some were still moving. She brought her hands up to her head and groaned. No. Those weren’t stars. They were alien spaceships. No. That wasn’t right either. Yes, they were UFOs. Many of them, and they were coming to Earth. Only, they weren’t aliens. They were of a darker, more sinister nature. They were demons.
Demons. Angels. Really, did she believe in such fairytales? Could she afford not to? How else could she explain what just happened?
“Autumn,” Alex said, crawling over to her, also worn out. “Autumn, we lost a day.”
“What?” She finally turned to face him.
“My watch. It says that it’s May 12th.”
“May 12th? But it’s May 11th.”
“It was May 11th.”
A day? They had been in there for a full day? But it didn’t feel like that much time elapsed.
Looking contrite, he got up and helped her to her feet. “I’m sorry. You were right. We shouldn’t have come here.”
She scanned their surroundings. Nothing seemed different. It all looked like they hadn’t even gone down there. Even his car was on
the side of the road, untouched and waiting for them.
“Let’s go back to Bismarck.” He reached for her arm.
She leaned against him. Her strength had departed her, and she didn’t even want to contemplate the loss of time or what it might mean. She just wanted to go home and wake up to find that this had all been a dream. One terrible, frightening, nightmarish dream. She wanted to feel normal. But she feared that she’d never know the meaning of normal ever again. The nightmare, it seemed, had just begun.
Chapter Seven
Five months later
Screams echoed through the corridor as the elevator door opened. Vanessa Hayden glanced at Devon Patrick. “What’s going on down here?” she whispered.
He didn’t bother looking at her. Instead, he simply said, “The less you know, the better.” and walked forward. He expected his co-worker to follow him and she did. Stopping in front of the security guard in front of a set of double doors, he held up his badge.
Despite the trepidation on Vanessa’s face, she followed suit.
The guard nodded and opened one of the doors, keeping his gun in his other hand. Devon refused to make eye contact with him. The guards were well trained, and if one wasn’t careful, secrets could come to light. And that’s the last thing Devon wanted.
The hallway was dimly lit, making him all too aware that he was a good mile underground—in the bowels of the Earth. Closed doors ran the length of the corridor, except for one, and that’s the one he was instructed to take her to. He steeled himself against what he was about to do. There was no room for weakness. They were watching. His gaze darted to the camera in the corner of the hall to his left. The thing was small, but since he’d been there before, he knew where to find it. He stopped in front of the open door and motioned to it.
She peered into the room lit by a blue light and stepped back.
That was when he looked at her.
There was no denying the fear in her eyes or the slight trembling of her body.
“If you don’t do it, they’ll kill you,” he whispered, knowing full well they could hear everything they said.
“But I didn’t sign up for this,” she softly replied, her voice wavering.
“There are many things you didn’t sign up for, but it’s your job.”
A man screamed from behind one of the closed doors and she jerked.
Closing the gap between them, he spoke at a volume he knew they wouldn’t hear. “You won’t remember a thing.”
Her eyes grew wide and she shook her head.
“We’re ready, Ms. Hayden.”
He gently took her by the arm and led her to the alien who looked just like a human woman. The only reason he knew her true identity was because she revealed it to him...except he wasn’t supposed to remember that. As long as Vanessa complied, she would live through it.
“You’ll be out before you know it,” the beautiful blonde said with a smile. “This is an ordinary procedure.”
As soon as Vanessa made eye contact with the alien, Devon saw her relax. There. Her resistance had been willed aside. Now she would do whatever she was told.
“You may come back for her in two hours, after your procedure,” the alien instructed him.
“Yes.”
He said it because he was expected to. He always said...and did...whatever he was expected to. It was part of the game. He waited until Vanessa went into the room and the alien closed the door before he turned around to walk back to the double doors. By the time the guard on the other side opened the door for him, he heard Vanessa scream. Bracing himself, he forced his face to remain neutral as he passed the guard and returned to the elevator.
He pressed the button that would take him further down. No matter how many times he’d been here, the screams shook him to the core. He could never get used to this. But he knew the consequences if he didn’t play along, and he wasn’t willing to die for anything or anyone.
The doors to the elevator opened and he stepped out, ready for what awaited him.
***
Alex twisted in his sheets. He could feel them hovering over him, inspecting him. Flashes of the incident when he went to Area 51 came in his nightmares—night after night. His mind was slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together. He didn’t remember what happened when he woke up in that cold room in a hospital bed. Everything had been blank. All he remembered was running up a deep hole in the ground and being chased by security guards that tried to shoot him and Autumn.
But three months after that night, he began having the dreams. Only, they weren’t dreams. Not really. At first, he thought they were, but a month after they started, he realized that they were glimpses of that night. His memory was slowly returning.
Though they never moved their mouths, he heard their thoughts.
“A fine specimen,” one of the gray aliens thought to the other three around it.
The one on his right inserted a needle into his arm.
He tried to move but he was frozen in place, as if an invisible hand pressed down on him and kept him still. He struggled to breathe but the invisible hand clenched his lungs. Acute pain traveled in his vein and up his arm.
Then he woke up.
Gasping, he threw the sheets off of him and stumbled to the bathroom in his apartment. He flipped on the switch and squinted in the bright light. With trembling hands, he grabbed the bottle of pills from his medicine cabinet and quickly opened the lid. The cabinet closed as he turned on the faucet to fill up the paper cup with water. He turned it off and plopped the pill into his mouth.
As soon as he glanced in the mirror on the cabinet door, he wished he hadn’t. It was back...watching him. The gray alien stood behind him, silent and not moving. It just watched him like it did every night ever since his fiancé and millions of others disappeared. And ever since the aliens announced to the world that they existed. They promised the world peace and prosperity. But this one promised him terrors—and fulfilled that promise every night. At least, it did until he saw a psychiatrist and got the pills.
Taking his eyes off his unwelcome companion, he gulped the water down and closed his eyes. He put his face in his hands and willed the frantic pounding in his heart to slow. Is this how it would always be? Would the monstrosity in alien form haunt him? It fed off his fear. It craved it. It thrived off of it. It was a parasite.
But that’s where the pills came in. Once the pill began to work its magic, the fear ebbed from him until his mind cleared. His body relaxed and he exhaled. Opening his eyes, he looked at the mirror. The alien was gone. Relieved, he left the bathroom, deciding to leave the light on and went back to bed.
On the nightstand was Marianne’s picture. Five months had passed since she vanished, and though he’d searched for her, she was nowhere to be found. Neither were any of the other millions of people who also vanished. She was gone. And she wasn’t coming back. He caressed the frame with his thumb. They were supposed to marry four and a half months ago. If they had, she’d be with him in bed at night. Then he’d have her right by him instead of that alien who stood by his bed watching him. Watching. Always watching. And occasionally giving him thoughts to increase his fears. But that ability to plant those thoughts departed when he started taking the pills. So now, it just watched. And waited. What is it waiting for? He hoped he’d never find out because whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.
With a long sigh, he decided it was time to let Marianne go. He couldn’t spend the rest of his life holding onto the hope those people would return. Whatever world those aliens sent them to, they were long gone. While the medicine’s numbing effect still worked on his body, he threw the picture in the trashcan beside his nightstand and laid back down in bed.
Chapter Eight
Autumn stared at the cross necklace in her hand. Whenever she had it with her, she felt close to Marianne, which was why she carried it everywhere she went. In the light, it almost seemed to glow.
“Nice necklace,” Alicia said as she went beh
ind the counter.
Autumn looked over at her co-worker and smiled. “It was my sister’s. She never took it off.” She slipped the necklace into her pocket and cleared her throat. “So, what’s on sale today?”
“Summer clothes. Anything with short sleeves is 30% off.”
“Welcome to September,” she murmured. “I suppose shorts are on that list?”
“Right, but those are 25%.”
“What’s our employee discount this time?”
Alicia rolled her eyes. “2%.”
“Are you kidding?” Autumn asked, studying her friend’s face.
“You know that Hampton hates the fact that there’s a sale at all.”
“Aren’t we lucky to be stuck with him for a boss?”
“Oh yeah. We’re the envy of the retail industry.”
Autumn laughed, her mood growing lighter. “Yay for us.”
Hampton left the employee lounge and headed their way.
“Time to look busy,” Alicia whispered before she darted off for the corner of the store so she could refold the jeans lining the shelves.
Autumn hid her amusement and worked on typing the sales’ prices into the computer.
Unfortunately, he veered in Autumn’s direction.
She inwardly groaned. Work would be much better if she didn’t have to interact with him. She avoided eye contact as long as she could, but as soon as he stood right in front of her and cleared his throat, she knew she had to look at him.
“Tell Alicia that the mall will stay open regardless of what’s happening in the Middle East,” he said in his usual grim manner.
“Aren’t the aliens here to stop us from World War III?”
“This isn’t funny, Miss Daniels.”
“It’s not supposed to be,” she replied. Seriously, Hammond wouldn’t know a joke if his life depended on it. “I’m just saying that was what one of them said on the news last night.”
Return of the Aliens Page 5
