The being was unlike anything either of them had ever seen before, and it certainly looked nothing like the aliens that Hollywood had, once upon a time, created. Those were either comical or frightening creatures, and this was neither of those things. It was essentially just a grayish white blur roughly the width of both Jeanette and Evan put together. What they assumed was its mouth was located halfway down its body, and the eyes––if those black orbs could be so called––were situated directly above that.
“Who or what are you?” asked Evan, positioning himself between the being and Jeanette, who dug her nails into his shirt in her fear.
The thing began to speak and its voice sounded like electronic whirring, but then there was an audible click and they could hear words in English above the odd noise.
“I am from another place and another time. Both far, far from this place and your planet. You will not understand my name nor my kind. It would take many, many of your human years for you to grasp even an iota of what I am.”
Jeanette clenched her fists against Evan’s back as he replied, “Okay, but what the hell are you doing here?”
“We are responsible for the disappearance of your people. It was our project…our experiment.”
“Why would you do such a thing?” asked Jeanette, peering from around the side of Evan.
The being’s eyes shifted a little, moving diagonally and then back into place. The mouth opened again and it said, “We thought your kind was suffering. We tried to take you to our planet. But there were mistakes made. Some, but very few of you, were left behind. And those taken were unhappy in our world. We thought we knew more than we did about your kind. Somehow, you are not as simple as we assumed. You are far less advanced, but no less complicated.”
Still positioned behind the protective stance of Evan, Jeanette asked, “What does that mean?”
“It means we will be reverting your world back to the way it was on April 2nd. No one will remember what has happened and life will continue as it would have, without our interruption. We shall bother your people no more. We admit our faults.”
“Does that mean we will not remember what happened?” Evan asked.
“If you want to remember, that can be arranged. I have to go now. We just wanted to converse with the two of you because you’ve been very interesting. Resourceful. And we still don’t know why those who remained behind weren’t taken, too. Fascinating, really. I suppose there are some things, though, that not even my kind can know.”
With that, the thing began to shimmer and slowly faded backwards towards the craft. Once it had fully disappeared, the craft lifted and shot back into the sky in the direction it had come from. The two stood totally still for several minutes after this occurred.
Finally, Jeanette came around to face Evan from the front and asked, “Did that just happen?”
He lifted his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not inclined to question much anymore. Part of me is a little panicked that I don’t find what happened all that weird, after everything else.”
“What should we do?” she asked, as she put her arms around his neck, pressing herself against the calming, steady beat of his heart.
Evan, for once, was at a loss for words. “I really don’t know, Jen.”
“I say we just go to bed. If things are different in the morning, then that’s what they are. If not, we continue as we have since everyone disappeared.”
That’s what they did. They didn’t bother to change into pajamas, taking off just enough clothing to be comfortable and climbing into bed together. Gentle kisses were exchanged, Evan trailing his lips from Jeanette’s forehead to her ear to her neck, but it wasn’t sexual. Their touches were about comfort, and familiarity in a world that was no longer familiar.
Finally, enveloped in each other’s arms, the two drifted off to sleep. Evan, as usual, went first. For several minutes, Jeanette laid in the dark and listened to his deep breathing. Then, slowly, lured by his light snores, she closed her eyes and gave in to slumber.
The sun filled the small back bedroom as it rose in the morning sky, lightening the room enough to gently prod Evan from his sleep. He rolled over into Jeanette and slipped an arm around her. Clearly, things weren't as they should have been on April 2nd, but it was okay. Perhaps it was a mutual hallucination, he thought, as he ran his nose from the back of her neck to her ear, inhaling the sweet scent that was this woman he had grown to love.
His stubble must have tickled her cheek, for she wiggled, yawned, and then blinked open her eyes. First, she smiled. Then, a tenuous wave of disappointment flickered over her features.
"Still Gone?" she asked, nearly under her breath.
He nodded, "I haven't been up, but I'm assuming if we're still where we are, everyone is still Gone."
Not speaking, she turned back her face back toward the wall and he could sense the question without her verbally asking it. It was the same question he had asked himself, had they just imagined it all?
After he held her for a while longer, Evan got up and padded barefoot into the kitchen to scrape together some breakfast. Jeanette came in as he was mixing the powdered milk for their cereal. Face sheepish, she said,
"I'm sorry I seemed so disappointed. It's not you, at all. There's just so much, so many people, gone. You know?"
He set the spoon down on the counter, stepped over to her and hugged her.
"Of course I know. I lost the same things, too."
That was the last the two talked of it, of the time before the Gone. They couldn't explain any of it. The way the world was, the visit from the strange creature. But that morning, as they walked out into the farm yard to pump fresh water for the day, Evan noticed the slightest change in the air. Summer was turning to fall. Soon, the trees would lose their leaves and the temperature would become bitterly cold. He made note to begin to prepare them for that time, cutting firewood and checking the home's insulation. The world was just he and Jeanette.
Chapter Eight
One morning, the day after the first frost of the season, a loud truck backfire down the street caused Jeanette to stir awake. It didn’t hit her for a moment, until she was stretching her arms over her head and wishing that she’d gotten more sleep. Then her formerly sleep-heavy eyes snapped wide awake. She had heard a truck backfire. A truck backfire meant that someone was driving. Someone driving meant that there were other people. As she kicked off her covers and got to her feet, she realized something else. She was no longer in the farmhouse on the edge of town; she was back in her own little house on Maple Street
. And there was no sign of Evan. Since the night of the alien's visit, when she had s drifted off to sleep t, wrapped in Evan’s arms, she hadn't held any hope that the world would be restored as the being said it would. Not that an alien life form appearing to them was any more strange than nearly everyone in the world being gone, but it had been too much to hope for. Life disappearing and then reappearing just couldn’t happen like that, could it? As she wandered through the house, she discovered that Evan was nowhere to be found. Of course he isn’t here. If it’s April 2nd, he’d be waking up in his own bed. But where would that be?
Jeanette began to panic a little, heart starting to beat rapidly and hard against her chest. How would she find him? She didn’t know where he lived in Millstown, and they had been living at the farmhouse off Highway 59, not here. Then, it became clear to her. She just had to go there and wait for him. Her car keys were where they always were, in a candy dish on the coffee table, and she snatched them on her way out the door. Mr. Hickenbaum, her neighbor across the street, was just walking out to his car and raised a hand to wave at Jeanette. Before she could wave back, he did a double take, made a confused face, and hurriedly got into his car and pulled away. Puzzled, she glanced down at herself. And realized she was only wearing a t-shirt and panties. Screw it, she decided, got into her car, and sped towards the farm.
When she reached it, she went to park in front of the hou
se on the side of the dirt road, but as she was doing so, noticed a small blue SUV parked up just ahead. Jeanette slammed her car to a stop, threw it in park, and jumped out of the car. The door of the SUV opened and Evan came running from the side.
“Jenny,” he called, arms opened.
She went to him and fell into his embrace. “How were you here already?” she asked.
“I woke up a couple hours ago when my phone rang with some wrong number. And then it occurred to me where I was and what had happened. I drove down here as soon as I got dressed.” Pausing to look at her outfit, he continued, “And it looks like you didn’t concern yourself with such trivial things.”
Giving him a light smack on his chest, she cried, “Don’t tease me. I thought I might lose you.”
He cradled her in his arms, and whispered, “Jen, we survived what could have been the end of the world. We found each other when we thought we were the last living things on Earth. You’re not going to lose me just because some strange life form undid whatever it did in the first place. We’re meant to be together.”
So Jeanette shut up, let her fears take the backseat, and hugged him tightly. Evan was right; they had found each other under circumstances that shouldn’t have even been possible. They would make it through anything else that the world, or universe, might have to offer them.
The End
www.isabellaoliviaellis.blogspot.com
Other Books by Isabella Olivia Ellis:
The Vampire’s Bride
The Vampire’s Second
Evernight Publishing
www.evernightpublishing.com
Love After the Gone Page 3
