Extra-Terrestrials
Mary knocked on the ancient green door with its fresh coat of paint and smiled as her elderly mother opened the door. “Hi mom!” She said as she stepped inside and embraced her mother. Her husband Tom followed her inside. “so who’s all here so far?” She asked taking off her jacket and hanging it over a chair.
“Tyler’s on his way and should be here in a couple hours, Trevor will be here with Jasmine and Micah tomorrow since Trevor’s trying to finish his presentation, Jenny’s out shopping and well…who knows if Linda will show up.”
“Mom...” Mary stopped deciding that she would rather avoid getting into a fight about her sister at that moment besides she had more important things on her mind then what her mom’s opinion of Linda happened to be.
Thankfully Tom changed the subject. “So where’s Jeff?”
“Oh he’s out in the barn like usual.”
“I think I’ll go find.”
As Tom left Tannia turned back to her daughter the smile completely gone from her face and Mary knew exactly what her mother was going to say and she was thankful that she had waited until Tom had left before asking. “So where’s Kyle?”
“At home.” Mary tried acting nonchalant about the matter as if her son wasn’t the cause of most of the discourse at home and the cause of an extremely stressful 2 hour ride.
“Why didn’t he come?” her mother attempted to be equally flippant about it as she headed to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. Mary wouldn’t be able to hold it back for long and her mother knew it. She knew her children well and could always tell when something was bothering them and she had a feeling she had hit the nail on the head. It was just a matter of time before Mary would come clean.
Mary sighed. “He didn’t want to come. He said if we made him come he’d take a train home in the middle of the night anyway so we might as well just leave him home.”
“And you let him get away with that?”
Mary slumped into one of the kitchen chairs and put her head in her hands. “I don’t know what to do with him mom. He just doesn’t seem to care about anything anymore. No matter how hard Tom and I try he just doesn’t listen. We’ve punished him in everyway possible but he’s impossible to punish he just doesn’t care. It’s almost like punishing him just adds to the thrill of his life. Tom’s at his wits end. Needless to say the trip up here was pretty tense.”
“I remember feeling that way about your sister.”
“Linda?”
“No, Jenny.”
“Jenny?” Mary was surprised at this bit of information as far as she’d always been able to tell Jenny had always been mama’s angel and Linda was always the one that had driven her crazy.
“Yes, a couple years ago when Jenny was 16 she got involved with this girl who was bad news. I knew from the moment I met her that Sarah was no good and I tried my best to keep Jenny from hanging with her. But the more I tried to keep the two apart the more I ended up pushing them together. One night Jenny came home late she looked she looked horribly disheveled not at all like the beautiful girl that she had left as. She refused to tell me what happened but I could tell she had been drinking. I saw less of Sarah after that night she came over once and I could hear them fighting all the way from the barn but I never saw her after that. My point is be patient with Kyle and continue to be there for him. He’s a good kid he’ll come around.”
Kyle had opened the fridge and glanced inside closing it again after discovering there was nothing of interest to eat. He walked to the pantry and grabbed a bag of chips and moved to the living room and flipped on the TV flipping through channels until he found something of interest. There was a knock on the door and Kyle groaned as he pushed himself off the couch. He stole a glance at himself in the mirror by the door taking a second to run his hands through his hair before opening the door. He’d gotten up only an hour ago and through it was nearly noon he hadn’t even taken the time to throw on a shirt.
He opened the door and was surprised to see Maria standing outside his door tears streaking her face. He was surprisingly self-conscious at this turn of events and wished he had taken a minute to grab a shirt before seeing his girlfriend.
“Maria what are you doing here?” He asked crossing his arms in front of him causing the muscles in his arms tightened.
“I needed to talk to you.” Maria said after regaining her composure at the sight of him. “Can I come in?” Kyle didn’t know what to say. His parents would kill him if they found out and they would find out, somehow they always found out. But since when had he cared what his parents thought.
“Yeah sure Maria, come on in.” He stepped aside for her to enter indicating the couch where he had been sitting. There was a shirt lying across a chair where he had thrown it the night before and he grabbed it and pulled it on then grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. “So what’s wrong?”
“I needed somewhere to go.” Tears were filling her eyes again and Kyle moved over to put his arm around her as she cried into his shoulder.
He let her cry for sometime before asking, “What happened?”
“My mom kicked me out.” She managed to sob before dropping into tears again. “She-she said…she…never…wanted…to see me…again.” She choked and then buried her head in his shoulder. Kyle wrapped his arms tighter around her and pulled her closer. Maria’s mother had always practically hated her. Constantly referring to her as “The Mistake”.
Her mother had gotten pregnant not long after high school and after telling the father she thought they would be a family. But he had ditched her not long after Maria was born leaving her mother to raise her alone. Maria’s mother drank heavily and on a good day would just ignore her daughter’s existence on a bad day her mother was abusive telling her daughter she was worthless and couldn’t do anything. The abuse got worse after she started dating Kyle as her mom was convinced that all boys were like her father and that if she continued to date him she would become just like her. Maria had rebelled believing that Kyle was the only thing that could make her happy and in the end had been kicked out.
Finally Maria stopped crying. “What do I do now?” She said looking up at him with her beautiful brown eyes and giving him a pleading look.
Kyle had to think quickly. “I’m not completely sure, Maria. My parents are out of town I’m sure they’ll be glad to help when they get back but they won’t be back until next week.”
“Can’t I just stay here until they get back?” She pleaded, “By the time they get back my mom will probably have come to her senses.”
Kyle looked at her and couldn’t bear the thought of sending her away. “Of course you can stay…but you’ve got to be out of here before they get back.”
Jasmine pulled the bottle out of the microwave and tested the temperature on her wrist. Satisfied that it wasn’t too hot she brought it to Micah her 6 month old son who stuck it in his mouth and began to suck on it as if the world depended on it. She placed him in his crib where she hoped he would fall asleep once his stomach was full.
Pleased that her son was content for the time being she grabbed the suit case off the floor and moved it onto a chair and began filling it with the clothes and other items that were spread along the couch. Trevor was still at work and wouldn’t be home for another couple of hours. In the mean time she needed to take this opportunity to pack. They would be leaving for Dubuque as soon as he got back and while it wasn’t far maybe a half hour at most they still didn’t want to waste any time in arriving.
There was a noise in the baby’s bedroom and she put down the shirt she was folding to go check it out. Micah had probably dropped his bottle through the cracks and would start crying any minute now.
She peeked her head in the room to see him still sucking on the bottle happily. She looked around the room but nothing seemed to be out of place. A paper fluttered to the floor and she moved to check the windows but they were all pulled shut.
A noise came from the kitchen and reached for the baseball bat hanging on the wall it had been Trevor’s bat when he was a boy and he was anxiously waiting for the day when Micah would be able to use it. But until then she would use it as a weapon if need be.
She walked down the hall toward the kitchen and a flash of something caught her eye as it dashed into the living room. Her heart was pumping wildly as she entered the room. The room was empty everything just the way she left it.
Micah began to cry; she took one last look around the room and convinced that it was only her overactive imagination headed toward her son’s room. But when she looked into the room her blood froze in her veins for standing in the room was a cloaked figure and he was holding her son.
Jenny walked out of the store juggling 5 bags of things that she just had to purchase. She fumbled with the keys for a couple seconds before giving up and setting a couple of the bags on the roof. After the door was open she set them inside and climbed in. She was a shopaholic that much was certain to anyone who knew her. And it was even worse when she was home in Dubuque you couldn’t get these prices in Seattle.
She pulled in the long driveway and turned off the car. She stopped before grabbing her bags. Something didn’t seem right. For one thing there wasn’t a living creature anywhere in sight usually her father stayed outside until he could hardly see his hand in front of his face and even then would sit under the stars until past 10 he had a thing about nature and couldn’t stand being cooped up in the house. Even the animals seemed to have been put to bed much earlier than usual. A bird flew across her vision and landed…in mid-air. Her heart leapt into her throat and began beating rapidly. Something was most definitely not right. Images of the stories her sister used to tell her as a child came flooding back and she imagined ghoulish monsters waiting inside for her.
She turned to run and ran right into the waiting arms of a hooded figure his ghostly hands wrapped firmly around her arms.
“Kyle there’s someone in the house.”
Kyle jumped at the sound of Maria’s voice causing him to fall off the chair he was standing on. “Maria it’s probably just your imagination you are a little overworked about your mom. Now if you don’t mind I need to fix this light before my parents get back and see that I broke it.
He moved to climb back onto the chair but Maria grabbed him. “Kyle I’m serious. There is someone in this house.” Kyle looked into her terrified eyes and saw the fear there.
“All right all right I’ll check it out.” He grabbed a knife off the counter more to reassure her more than anything else and headed toward the other room.
There was a rustling coming from the direction of his parent’s bedroom and he pushed open the door to see a hooded figure standing before them as if waiting for them. “Who are you?” Kyle shouted at the figure. It didn’t answer. “I asked you a question.” The hooded figure began to walk towards him. “Stay back I’ve got a knife.” But he continued to come. Kyle took a step forward and plunged the knife into the figures abdomen closing his eyes as he did. Maria screamed from behind him and he opened his eyes. The figure was staring at him the knife buried in its stomach after a moment it took a step forward swallowing both knife and the hand that held it. Kyle let go of the knife and took a step back. The figure advanced and he took a couple more steps back careful to keep Maria behind him. He looked to see that the knife had fallen to the floor with out the tiniest bit of blood on it. His heart was beating wildly and he was unsure of what to do.
He grabbed Maria’s hand and looked around for a way to escape that was when he noticed that the figure was not alone.
Beep, beep ,beep…beep ,beep, beep Brittney pulled her phone out of her pocket and flipped it open. “Hello.”
“Brittney?”
“Chris what is it?” She could tell by the tone of his voice that something was wrong. “What’s wrong?”
“Brittney, are you with Joe?”
“I’m following him yeah, why?”
“Don’t let him come home Britt.” She heard voices in the background. “They found me. Just do it, Britt don’t let him come home.”
There was some yelling in another language, then the sound of a struggle, she heard the sound of a gun shot and the sound pierced both ear and heart. Then there was silence.
Brittney shut the phone and did her best to compose herself. She had to keep herself together for Joseph’s sake at the very least.
“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow Brad.”
“Yeah see you then.”
Joseph continued on his way after saying good-bye to his friend. His house was only a couple blocks away which gave him some time to think about what had happened at the train tracks. As he neared the next street he looked up in order to glance both ways and his breath caught in his throat. Watching him from across the street was the woman who had saved him. As he began to cross the street she turned and moved down the street disappearing around the corner. He ran to keep up with her but when he turned the corner she was gone. He sighed frustrated by the fact that he kept losing her.
He turned back in the direction of home. As he neared the house he couldn’t help but question where he’d seen that woman before. As he opened the door an eery feeling fell over him and he immediately got the feeling that something wasn’t right. “Dad?” He called out but there was no response. He began to panic and ran through the house calling out for his father and pausing when he reached his fathers office.
In the middle of the room stood the woman. Tears soaked her face and her hand was resting on the wall. She looked his way and removed her hand revealing the writings etched into the wall words he had never seen before. “They found us.”
A million questions fill Joseph’s head but only one made it to the surface. “What does it mean?” He asked coming nearer to get a closer look at the words etched on the wall
“They were written by your father before they killed him.”
Joseph looked at her the blood completely drained from his face.
“Yes, Joseph he’s gone.” She said answering the unasked question.
Joseph gulped swallowing the tears realizing that the tears would have to wait until later. “But what do they me mean? Who’s ‘they’ and who’s ‘us’?”
The woman sighed “It means that if we don’t do something quickly something horrible is going to happen.”
“Like what?”
“You ever heard of an extra-terrestrial?”
“You mean like aliens?”
“Well let’s just say that Chris knew a thing or two about aliens.”
“And now he’s dead because of them?”
The woman nodded.
Joseph stared at his feet for a moment thinking over what she had said and when he looked up again it was with a skeptical look. “Who are you anyway? And how did you know you father.”
The woman looked down and it was then that Joseph realized she was holding a small statue of an angel in her hand, something that his father had greatly treasured. When she looked up her eyes were filled with tears. “I had hoped that even after all these years you wouldn’t have completely forgotten me. But then you were only five.” She swallowed and put the statue back on the shelf where she found it the words “I’ll be there” etched into the base. Joseph picked it up examining it and running his hand along one of the wings and then the words.
“This was my mothers before she died. Her and my father died when I was young.”
“I know.”
Joseph looked up at her the tears running down her face as well.
“Our mother was a beautiful woman.”
Joseph swallowed understanding of this woman’s words flooding him to speechlessness. “So what do we do now?”
“Now we get help from the good guys.”
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