Page 6 of The Alien I Fell in Love with on Walpurgis Night

“No. I am an alien. This is not a game.”

“Okay, I see you’re going for the whole method acting thing. How long do you think this game is going to last? Did the people running this tell you?”

“It’s not a game. I reckon it should only take us a day to get through border control with Alliance Force if we are successful. Once we are on our way to the Empire, I will make an excuse and send you back to Earth directly. This should only take a week at most, but two or three weeks if we are delayed.”

“You don’t know for sure? You must have met the people running it?” Then that sinister thought occurs to me again. “Are we going to die if we don’t participate? Is that why you’re so eager to jump into your role and not break character?”

He doesn’t answer me, so I take that as a ‘yes’ and that he’s probably not allowed to talk about it. He must have been threatened. He did paint himself grey. And there’s a lot of money here and a nice cabin we are using for this farce.

I swallow hard. This might be a lot more serious than I first realized. I begin repeating our story back to him, “So you saved me from being sold to Octopus aliens. Then we married in secret. But why in secret? Were you embarrassed to be married to me because I was going to be a sex slave?”

“Alliance and humans couldn’t legally marry at that time.”

“’Alliance’ who are the Alliance? I don’t know much about sci-fi. You might have picked the wrong girl.”

“You’re not a girl. You said you were 26 years old.”

“I am. Never mind. You really aren’t American are you?”

“I told you I’m not. I am not from Earth.”

“Right. Now who are the Alliance?”

“The name of my people. It’s what we call ourselves, the Alliance Empire. We are located in what humans call the ‘Cygnus constellation of the Milky Way.’”

“It’s all Greek to me. I don’t even know where Earth is located in the galaxy.”

He raises an eyebrow. “The Orion Arm? Ring any bells?”

“Nope.” I shake my head. “Don’t look at me like that. You have to take astronomy classes if you want to learn about the galaxy.”

“This information is accessible to every human. You never once thought it was important enough to find out where your planet was located in the galaxy?”

“Why? I never plan on leaving the planet and I’ve never seen an alien.”

He holds up his hands in the air. “I am an alien. And you are agreeing to leave the planet with me for money. You should know your galactic address…” he stops short of saying whatever he was going to say and pauses. “Now back to our story. We married in secret…”

I interject, “We’re so naughty breaking galactic laws for love. Then what? How did I end up back on Earth?”

“I was blackmailed. I was going to be exposed and I didn’t want to risk either of us being executed, so I sent you home to Earth to keep you safe for the time being. But I promised you that I’d return when I could be sure you’d be safe in the Empire.”

“What’s changed now that it’s safe for me to return?”

“The laws regarding humans and Alliance citizens marrying has changed and I killed the person blackmailing me.”

“I don’t think we should say that to the alien border patrol. No law enforcement officer looks kindly on killing.”

“It was a legal death.”

“Was it really legal, though? Unless you’re an executioner at a prison, I don’t think murder is ever legal.” I wonder if he’s a serial killer and this is a game he’s set up because he’s the billionaire.

“Duels to the death with swords are legal in the Alliance Empire.”

“Oh okay, we really are going full on world-building here. A technologically superior race that still settles arguments by duels with swords.” I curb the rest of my sarcastic comment. I don’t know who put us here, but by the somber way this man is treating this game, I should do the same. I don’t want to die for a few billionaires’ entertainment or for this particular billionaire’s entertainment. I’d rather win and have the money and he might even be crazy enough to let that happen. He did paint himself grey and go through the trouble of abducting me to play out this fantasy.

“Back to our story. I killed the man extorting me in a legal duel, then I returned to Earth to retrieve you, my wife.”

“Fine. I’ll remember. What’s your name by the way? I should probably know if we’re going to be married.”

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