A Different Kind

by Lauryn April

Jo, Logan, and I followed Nikki inside.

  Frank sat at his desk. He wore a Led Zeppelin tee, and some sort of alien related website was open on his laptop.

  “Close the door, Nik,” Frank said.

  Nervously I watched the redhead shut the sticker-covered white door.

  Nikki and Jo sat down on the edge of Frank’s bed. Logan kicked a beanbag chair, then decided to stand. I hovered for a moment before finding a place beside Jo. Classes that day had flown by, and we’d skipped cheer practice to come here, but suddenly I felt maybe that wasn’t the best idea. I wanted Frank to be able to help me, but his knowledge of aliens teetered on crazy.

  “I’m glad you came to talk to me before it’s too late.”

  “Frank, don’t freak her out,” Nikki said.

  I turned to her. “He’s not.”

  Jo had filled Nikki in on why we were there. She’d told her I was abducted, but left out a lot of the details. She didn’t know about Logan or that we could bend metal with our minds. I figured it was probably safer that way – for everyone.

  “Look, Payton, I’m a believer too, but…I mean, do you really think you were abducted?”

  “Jeez, Nik,” Frank interrupted. “She’s been through a traumatic experience; don’t give her grief.”

  “Alright, sorry,” Nikki said, holding her hands up in mock defense. “If you guys all believe it, then I do too.”

  I could tell she was trying to be supportive, and I couldn’t blame her for having her doubts. I smiled and Frank nodded.

  “When were you taken?” he asked, leaning forward in his rolling chair.

  “The first time was over a month ago.”

  “And the second?”

  “Saturday night.”

  Frank nodded again.

  “Why do they abduct people?” Jo asked.

  I remembered what Logan’s mom had said about the Greys’ sucking the life force out of people. The thought made me shiver. I’d never told Jo that part.

  “They enslave them,” Frank said. He leaned back in his chair. “There are theories that billions of years ago their world was much like ours, but the stronger aliens enslaved the weaker ones. War broke out and they destroyed most of their own natural resources.

  “My friend Mark thinks they unleashed chemical warfare on each other, which made them all sterile. It’s suspected that more than half their planet is a barren wasteland. Now they live together in a capital city where they use humans to make up for the resources they destroyed and slowly re-build their planet. They protect their fragile population and live forever by sucking out the souls of human beings. All the while they experiment on people to try to undo the damage that made them all unable to reproduce.”

  Jo, Nikki, and I looked at Frank with wide eyes, but beside me Logan sighed and rolled his.

  “Okay, look,” Logan said. “You know what’s going on, and you must know why we’re here.”

  “Of course. You don’t want them to take your friend again because if they take her again she won’t come back.”

  “Right, so we know they keep finding her because of the chip in her head; is there any way we can just disable it?”

  “You could try one of these magnets.” Frank used both hands to pry one of the gold magnets off his filing cabinet. He tossed it to me. “I’ve heard they used to work for smaller implants, like the ones they put in your ears. Not sure if it’ll work on the ones they stick in your brain.”

  I flipped the chunk of metal around in my hand. “What do I do with it?”

  “Put it in a headband; tape it to your head. Just wear it over the spot for a few days.”

  “And what if I don’t just have a chip in my ear, but in my brain?”

  “You probably do if they’ve taken you twice. Only way I know to disable those for sure is to stick them in the microwave or hit them with a hammer. I don’t think either of those options is going to work for you though. If you don’t want to be transmitting signals back to the Greys, you have to have it removed…and then I’d nuke it and hit it with a hammer.”

  “You wouldn’t happen to know how to remove one?” I asked with a nervous giggle. “Would you?”

  Frank was silent for a moment. “I may know of a way. There’s a guy, but he doesn’t do anything for free.”

  “What guy?” Logan asked.

  “He works at New Liberty Medical Center. He could remove it.”

  This hopeful, fluttering feeling rushed through me. “What does he charge?”

  “A lot. But he’s also been known to make deals from time to time. You wouldn’t have anything from your encounter you could trade him, would you?”

  “Like what?”

  “He’s been gathering information on the Greys for a long time. Anything that would tell him more about them. Did you scratch one, get a tissue sample beneath your nails maybe, or if you got a picture of one of ‘em, or their ship?”

  “How would I have gotten any of that while I was being sucked up in their freaky light beam…wait….”

  I pulled out my cell phone and opened the short video I’d taken from inside the crashed ship. I glanced at Logan. He gave a short nod, then I handed it to Frank.

  “Something like this?”

  His eyes went wide as he took my phone. “This is real?”

  “It’s from inside their ship.” Not the exact one that abducted me, but Frank didn’t need to know about the crashed ship in Moody’s Woods.

  Frank smiled. He twirled around in his chair and began typing. A message screen popped up on his laptop screen. He started rooting around in one of the drawers of the filing cabinet. Then pulled out a black USB cord and plugged it into my phone.

  “Hey, that’s kind of my personal information.”

  Frank glanced at me. “Not going to go through your text messages or anything. But I need to save this vid so I can show it to my guy. I’ve got my comp set up with a secure line. It encrypts files as it sends them, and then you have to unencrypt them when you get them. Way safer than making phone calls. Too many people listen in on that shit.”

  A moment later a black box popped up on his screen.

  Frank smiled when he turned back to us. “He said he’d do it for free.”

  “When?”

  Frank spun around and typed. “Be at the hospital next Friday at two.”

  “Next Friday!” I nearly leapt off the bed. “That’s a week away; these things could come back for me before then.”

  “Hey now, this guy’s a real doctor. That’s a good thing, right, you don’t want some wack job prodding around in your brain, but that also means he has a real job. You gotta work around his hours. Especially if he’s doing this for free.”

  “How can he do this if he’s a real doctor?” Logan asked. His eyes narrowed on Frank.

  “All he wants is this video and to keep the chip. Research.”

  “Right.” Logan didn’t look convinced.

  “Is all that stuff Frank said about the aliens true?” Jo asked on the ride home.

  In the rearview mirror I saw Logan roll his eyes. “Frank doesn’t really know anything; he just has a bunch of wild theories.”

  “So they don’t…eat people’s souls.”

  The reflection of Logan’s eyes flashed to me. He was silent for a long moment. “No,” he said, but his mother had already told me otherwise.

  “So what do we do now?” I asked.

  “Wait until next Friday,” Logan said. “I’ll try looking some stuff up online, but people put up all kinds of bullshit on the internet, especially when it comes to this stuff. Just…don’t worry; you’ll be safe until then.”

  Jo twisted in her seat to face Logan. “What about that magnet thing he gave Payton?”

  Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Logan shrug. “Strong enough magnets can mess with some radio signals. There might be something to it. Seriously though, between now and Friday just relax.”

  I nodded, but I also wondered if the reason Logan was telling me to chill
was because there wasn’t anything to worry about, or because he didn’t want me to waste the last few days I had left on earth being freaked out. Regardless of his reason, I felt this sudden need to make the next week of my life memorable.

  We pulled into my driveway. The garage door was open and Mom’s BMW was parked with her trunk open. A large pumpkin sat inside and black fabric draped over her bumper.

  “Right, Halloween party,” I said.

  “You’re throwing a party?” Logan asked.

  “No, her mom is,” Jo said. “We’re both invited.” She turned to me. “And I’m supposed to help you carve pumpkins tonight. Your mom mentioned it this morning. You were in the shower; I forgot to tell you.”

  My eyebrows rose. “She’s actually carving pumpkins?”

  Jo shrugged. “I can’t stay though. My dad doesn’t get off work for another hour, and my mom’s home. I think I’m going to talk to her. Maybe it’ll be easier if it’s just her and me, you know.”

  My heart ached for Jo. I silently prayed that things with her parents would smooth over.

  I nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure it’ll go fine. Call me later, kay?”

  “I will.”

  The three of us exited my car and Jo walked across the street, casting me a smile over her shoulder. Once she disappeared from sight I turned to Logan and realized I didn’t want my time with him to end.

  “So, I kind of hate pumpkin guts. Wanna help?”

  Logan smiled. “Sure.”

  That made me feel warm inside. My heart raced as we walked toward the door. However, we only made it a few steps. I heard the car pull up and looked over my shoulder. Logan’s mom must have just gotten off work. She pulled her silver sedan behind my Toyota, put it in park, and left the motor running as she got out.

  “Logan,” was all she said as she stood in my driveway. She crossed her arms, creating creases in her purple scrubs.

  Logan sighed, then cast me an apologetic look. “Sorry, I’ll see you tomorrow.” With hunched shoulders he walked away and got in his mom’s car.

  I guessed she was serious about not wanting Logan to hang out with me. I knew I shouldn’t take it personally. Mrs. Reed always seemed to like me; she just worried about the Greys’ getting Logan when they eventually came for me. But I couldn’t help feeling like she didn’t like me.

  Inside newspapers covered the kitchen counter, and Mom held a scary sharp knife in her hand. She wore the apron Grandma bought her for Christmas a few years ago. There wasn’t a single stain on it. I didn’t think she’d ever worn it before. Her blond hair was pulled into a ponytail, and she seemed to be analyzing the two orange vegetables before her. Are pumpkins vegetables?

  “Oh honey, I’m so glad you’re home. You can help me with the decorations.” She set the knife down and walked to me. Grabbing me by the shoulders, she pulled me to stand before the pumpkin. “Now, should I make it a happy face or a scary one?”

  I smiled. For the first time in a long time my mom and I sat down and worked on a project together. My lack of artistic ability sadly came out in the uneven features of our creations, but it was a good time nonetheless.

  Jo didn’t come back that night. I’d hoped she’d call and let me know how things went with her parents. She didn’t. I thought about calling her, but I didn’t want to disturb them. I could only assume things went okay. Logan, however, texted me before I went to bed.

  “How’d pumpkin carving go?” his message read. I went to my bedroom window and drew the blinds.

  Logan, as usual, sat on his roof. He waved. Pushing my window open, I threw a leg over the sill. I sat on the ledge. My back rested against the window frame, and I dialed Logan’s number. Listening to the ring across the line, I watched him answer his phone.

  “I still hate pumpkin guts,” I said when he picked up. “But it was alright. I don’t think any of my pumpkins had symmetrical faces though.”

  Logan laughed. “No, they don’t. Your mom put them out on the front porch. But I think they look scarier that way.”

  “Scary, no, I was going for funny.”

  “Well, they definitely look funnier that way.”

  We both laughed and a beat of silence followed.

  “So…was your mom upset with you?”

  “Don’t worry about my mom. She just…she had this dream where I was getting abducted and now she’s all paranoid.”

  Images from the nightmare I’d had of the same situation flashed through my mind.

  “Are you sure it doesn’t mean anything – her dream, that is?”

  Across the street Logan shook his head. “No, it was just a dream.”

  I smiled, but still I didn’t feel completely reassured.

  “So, about this Halloween party?” he continued.

  I smiled.

  “Am I really invited?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What do you think your other friends are going to say about that?”

  “You and Jo seem to get along just fine.”

  “What about your other friends?”

  I looked down at my blue jeans and picked at the stitching in the seam. “I don’t think I’ll be inviting any of them. They’ve kind of all turned against me.” I remembered how lunch had been that day. I’d avoided Hailey and my squad, once again sitting with Logan and Jo at the back of the room. Some of the girls had looked in our direction. It was obvious they were talking about me and maybe Jo too.

  “Hailey still mad at you?”

  “Her and Melissa, and it’s all because Jared’s an asshole – big surprise.”

  “Well, don’t worry about it. They can’t stay mad at you forever.”

  I smiled. “Thanks.” My eyes met Logan’s from across the street.

  “So…is this like a costume party?”

  I nodded. “Yep, and I have no idea what I’m going to wear yet. You don’t have to dress up if you don’t want to.”

  Logan laughed. “No, I’ve got something in mind actually.”

  CHAPTER

  22

  I wanted to focus on my life that week. To, if nothing else, enjoy whatever time I had left. But my nerves still gained the upper hand, making my lab equipment in Bio shake until I calmed down. Luckily it only lasted a minute, and I had it under control before anyone noticed.

  There was a teachers’ conference that day. We were let out by noon. After class Jo and I were walking to the parking lot when we spotted Hailey in the crowd. She stood outside the main doors, handing out cards. They were black with white writing and a spider web design. As we neared she handed a card to Jo.

  “Joanna, I’m having a party next Friday. I hope you can come. Costumes are mandatory.” Hailey glared at me. “Sorry, Payton, Melissa and Jared are coming and I don’t want to make them uncomfortable.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t care, Hailey; I’m having people over tomorrow.” I wasn’t planning to make much out of my mother’s Halloween event, but suddenly I was reminded that this was going to be my week. And, after the fight I’d had with Hailey during cheer practice, the look on her face made me happy.

  “What?”

  “Yeah, and see you make…well, a lot of people uncomfortable, so you’re not invited.” Somewhere deep down I remembered Hailey and I used to be great friends, but with how she’d been treating me lately, I didn’t feel at all guilty about what I’d said.

  Hailey made this offended huff of a noise. Jo handed her the invitation back. “Sorry, Hailey, I think one costume party is enough for me.”

  A few feet away Bridget and Erica listened in. Freshman year most of the squad had been invited to Hailey’s birthday party, where among other games we cast a secret vote rating every girl on the squad. Points were calculated based on attractiveness, personality, athletic ability, and other random things we judged subjectively.

  Bridget and Erica had placed at the bottom of the list, which meant we left them out of a lot of our activities. When they were included we brought them with us so we looked bette
r by comparison, or to shell out some undesirable job. Once we went to Austin for a concert and only invited Bridget so we’d have a sober driver on the way home. It was unfair how we’d treated them. No, more than unfair, we’d been mean, but I had a chance to make it up to them.

  “Bridget, Erica,” I called. Hailey’s head whipped around. “Costume party, tomorrow, my house, you’re both invited.”

  Their faces lit up.

  “Yeah, we’ll be there, for sure,” Erica said.

  “Good.” I turned back to my former friend and said, “Bye, Hailey.”

  I smiled as I walked away.

  On the drive home Jo told me things had gone…okay with her mom the night before, and that her dad was more or less dealing with her being gay by avoiding the topic entirely. She said her mother reminded her that homosexuality was a forgivable sin (according to their church), and that she would be understanding of her daughter’s choices while she learned her life lessons. But she had also reminded Jo that she and Jo’s father loved her very much and that they wanted her to come home. It didn’t sound like the most perfect situation ever, but Jo seemed glad to have her parents back in her life.

  I asked Jo if she wanted to go costume shopping with my mom and me, but she had plans with Nikki and said she already had a costume in mind. I asked her what it was, but all she said was that I’d like it.

  Since Jo was busy that left me alone with Mom for our shopping adventure. Not that shopping with Mom was all that terrible; actually it was one of the more fun things to do with my mom. But I felt anxious knowing that the only thing I could do to keep from getting abducted again was to sit and wait for my appointment with Frank’s “guy” next Friday. That’s what I was thinking about when I walked in the front door and made Mom’s car keys, which she’d left on the entryway table, jingle as they floated into the air.

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The keys dropped, hitting the table as Mom came around the corner. I opened my eyes just in time to see her looking at the entryway table, her eyebrows squished together.

  “Hey, Mom.”

  Her eyes snapped to me. “Oh good, you’re home. Are you ready to go shopping?” There was an excited squeal to Mom’s voice.