A Closer Encounter

Hi everyone! Welcome back. I thought this story was finished because I had intended it to make you feel like I was leaving you hanging. Now that I can see how popular it is, I just can’t deny you more. I thought of doing a ‘spin off’ story but opted for a series instead. I hope you’ll enjoy this one as much as the first. If you haven't seen it yet, it's here A Close Encounter.

A Closer Encounter

I tried to rub the soreness out of my shoulder and immediately decided that was a bad idea. It felt bruised. I rolled up the sleeve of my oversized nightshirt. There was a nasty bruise with a puncture mark in the center. It reminded me of a venomous spider bite only it wasn’t swollen. I wondered if I should show it to my dad then immediately dismissed the idea. He’ll make me go to a doctor for it. No. I’d wait a day or so and see if it would heal itself.

I was sure at this point that the night before was not a dream. The memory felt like a dream, as vague as it was, and the way it seemed to be fading from me by the minute. The creatures stayed in my thoughts, however. I never believed in aliens before that. If I hadn’t had such a clear picture of them in my mind, I might have thought up some excuse for the bruise on my shoulder and the marks across my arms and legs. Those marks were exactly where the straps had been tightly fastening me to their surgical table. I wondered what they’d done to me.

I heard the cuckoo clock ticking in the hallway, and the rustling of my dad’s newspaper. Everything seemed normal, so I’d try and have a normal day. I looked at the clock in my room. It was already seven. I rushed to get ready for school and ran down the stairs and into the sunlit kitchen for a quick breakfast.

“It lives!” my dad shouted over his paper in a horrible Dr Frankenstein impression. He always teased me like that, and I think his bad impressions made it funnier. “I thought you were meeting Lizzie before school today?”

“Yeah she’ll wait for me.” I assured him as I grabbed a slice of toast. Lizzie was my best friend and she was used to me running behind. “We walk together every day you know.” I was tired and feeling a little irritated.

I finished my toast and ran back to my room and was picking up my backpack when I heard the doorbell. There she is. I smiled to myself as I headed back toward the stairs.

“Janie!” my dad was the only person who called me that. I rolled my eyes at him as I went out the door with Lizzie.

We walked together to school like always. I needed to tell somebody about what had happened the night before, but I was scared. I was scared nobody would take me seriously, and that they’d make fun of me, or try to make me get psychiatric help. I told her about the whole ordeal as though I was recounting a dream. It was easy to tell it that way since most of it was pretty fuzzy by then. Lizzie listened to me intently. She was fascinated with dreams. She tried to decipher the possible meanings of a dream like that and decided that I was just worried about some test coming up or something. I didn’t show her any of the marks left on my body.

Lizzie and I didn’t have very many of the same classes so when we got to the school, we went our separate ways. By the end of my second class, the marks from the straps had faded, but my shoulder was still aching. I couldn’t concentrate all day. I kept thinking about the night before and trying to convince myself it was just a dream.

That night, I didn’t want to sleep in my room. After my dad went to bed, I settled myself on the old green tartan couch in our cluttered yet cozy living room, to watch a movie. I picked out a long boring movie and fell asleep watching it. It was dazzlingly bright in the room when I started to wake up. It must be morning, I thought. I didn’t hear the movie playing anymore. I stretched and opened my eyes. I stared in horror as I recognized the light and the creature it illuminated. It was alone. Why was it alone? I thought about yelling for my dad, or just screaming.

“Please don’t scream.” It was that strange singing language, but somehow, I understood it that time.

It reached to its belt, I cringed with fear and let out a small squeak. It pushed one of the many buttons that adorned the belt and the light slowly dimmed so that it wasn’t blinding me anymore but still illuminated the living room. I let out a sigh of relief but remained frozen. What did it want with me?

It was a little different from the others I’d seen the night before. Its head was bald and smooth with no sign of any type of hair or crest. In the middle of its forehead was what looked like a scar but as I looked, I could see that there had once been a horn there. There was a tiny bit of it still visible as though it had been sawed off. It looked at me with its pale green eyes. It seemed concerned, as though it didn’t want to be there.

picture provided by Mesa Saunders

“I’m here on official business. Can you understand me?” I could, but I didn’t know how or why. I stared and nodded in reply. I was afraid that if I spoke, it would come out sounding like this weird musical language. “Good.” It went on. For what felt like hours it asked me questions about my family, childhood, education, health and other things that I would never discuss with strangers. The creature was steadily tapping on some type of wrist tablet as it questioned me. It told me a little about itself to make me more comfortable. It only slightly worked.

 This one was a male, from a dying species of Neptune. His name was Ga’reg. He told me that all males had horns, but there was another species whose name I couldn't pronounce or spell, that believed the horns contained some sort of magic. The male Neptunians had been hunted to near extinction. He cut his own horn off to avoid being hunted and because of that, the rest of his species held little to no respect for him. The removal of one’s horn was an abomination in their eyes. He saw it as a means of survival. He knew my name, and my dad’s. He even knew about my mom dying when I was a baby.

“You are a part of our experiment. You always have been. Your mother, she did not die.” He went on.

I was understanding the words, but what was he talking about? I wanted to tell him to leave, but I was afraid. Still, I couldn’t stand it.

“What would you know about my mother?” I asked in a raised voice that, to my horror, sounded like Ga’reg’s language.

His mouth slit raised at the ends into what looked like a smile. “I know more than you. Our time is over. We’ll be monitoring you for a while. Please don’t be worried.” He stood up, moved a tentacled hand to his waist and the light started to brighten so I could only see a silhouette.

He reached the other hand toward me as I made to protest. I couldn’t let him leave like that. I demanded that he stay and answer my questions. His tentacle moved closer, and I cringed again. One long tentacle protruded straight from his hand to my shoulder. He gently pressed the original injection site with an almost loving look in his eyes, like a parent tucking in his child. That injection must have been more than just a drug, because I don’t remember anything after that point.

I woke up feeling well rested this time. That was odd for sleeping on that shabby old couch. The movie I was watching was skipping over the same scene for what could have been all night. It didn’t sound like my dad was up yet. I sat up wondering what time it was and scanning the room for signs of strange visitors. I decided that if it happened again, I wouldn’t be scared anymore. The morning and the house seemed normal. I felt like everything was going to be just fine.

The End…

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this story. I'm not going to try to predict when, but there will be more of this one. Tune back in to get more stories! Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest so you won't miss a post! Until next time.

disclaimer

A Close Encounter

disclaimer
Hi Everyone! The story I have today is completely fictional. I'm really proud of it and hope you'll enjoy it!

A Close Encounter

It was dark and quiet in my cozy little bedroom. The only light came in first through the branches and leaves of the stout maple in the yard, then through the window, and finally seeping through the lace curtain to spatter on the opposite wall. The only sound was the ticking of the cuckoo clock that had hung in the hallway as long as I could remember.

Tick. Tick. Tick. On it went. I wasn’t quite sleepy yet. Lying in my soft warm daybed, I stared at the ceiling counting the cracks in the aged paint. Eventually, sometime after seventy-three, I discerned shapes in some of them. I was examining one particular group that looked exactly like a silhouette of a dog, when I heard a distant barking. I found the timing of little Fluffy from down the street rather comical, and smirked.

Suddenly, I realized it didn’t seem so dark in my room as it had moments before. I scanned the chamber for the source of this new illumination. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when my eyes landed on the door. It was closed tight, but a bright blue light shone around it so forcibly that it threatened to push the door right off its hinges. I lay there petrified with fear, unable to move. I wondered if I might have fallen asleep without noticing and seamlessly drifted into a strange nightmare. I hoped.

Paralyzed, I kept my eyes locked on the door. I watched as the handle slowly began to turn. I shut fast my eyes and held my breath. I didn’t know what was coming. I wanted to wake up from the dream. At least, I thought I was dreaming. I wanted to scream, but that never works properly in dreams. I couldn’t hold my breath any longer. Through my sealed eyes I could see the light filling the room but heard no sound. The cuckoo clock wasn’t ticking.

I decided to peek. I reluctantly pried my eyes open. There was a bright shiny surgical lamp, or something like it, right over me. I was still lying unable to move, but not from fear this time. I wasn’t in my room, nor my bed, and couldn’t remember being moved.

I was surrounded by strange looking creatures, and all my limbs were securely fastened to the cold metal table with straps of a material I didn’t recognize. I was so cold. I shivered as I struggled against my bonds, and I did scream. It was a loud earsplitting shriek that shook the room and turned even my own blood to ice. It was the most vivid scream I’d ever dreamed.

The creatures moved around me. They were bipeds, walking upright, and judging from the scientific feel of my new cell, they were highly intelligent. Two oversized lidless eyes sat on each of their bulbous heads. Some of the eyes were pale blue, and some acid green but otherwise almost human. Their smooth looking grayish skin reminded me of dolphins. So did the slits for nostrils they had in place of noses that opened and closed the same way a blowhole would with every breath. Their mouths were the same type of slits, but more controlled. They had something that resembled hair but was more like an elegant fin protruding from the top of the head and laying in different hair like patterns. Seven tentacle looking fingers dangled from the ends of their hands. These were prehensile and powerful yet gentle depending on the need. They didn’t wear clothes and I cannot explain the genitals with words, not that I would want to describe them. I saw nothing on their bodies that could have passed for any kind of ears, yet they undoubtedly heard my scream.

A couple of the creatures murmured something almost inaudible however in a language unlike anything I’d ever heard. It almost sounded like singing, bad singing in sort of melancholy yet creepy tones. One nodded to the other and immediately raised an odd looking huge metal syringe, that was more like a toy in appearance than an actual medical instrument. It happened so fast. Before I could scream again I felt it pierce my shoulder nearly to the bone. The pain was unreal, even for a dream, but I went out so quickly that I didn’t have time to register it then.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! I reached over and hit the switch to turn off my alarm. I was comfortably in my bed. What an insane dream that had been. I stretched and moved to get out of my bed feeling as though I hadn’t moved my arms or legs for some time. The pain in my shoulder shot through me, the same shoulder that was punctured in the dream. “It was a dream,” I firmly told myself. But was it?

The End

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