Page 2 of Beauty and the Alien Beast
I closed my eyes, leaning against the bars, trying to remember more about last night. We had retired early, maybe nine o’clock. I sat up a while in my room, working on my curriculum for my next public health seminar—a presentation on the real effects of health care legislation in the Tri-State area over the last ten years. I’d drifted off with one of my reference books on my chest, still sorting facts and figures in my head.
My breath hitched when I recalled how I’d gotten here…
I was lying in bed,sleepy as hell, when a faint light shined through my bedroom windows. Yawning, I rolled away from the illumination, determined to grab some rest while I could.
The light got brighter.
I mashed my face into my pillow, desperately trying to get some sleep.
Then shit got so weird and scary when I was plucked right off the bed by some invisible force. I screamed, but there was no sound.
I tried to move my limbs, but I was paralyzed while my body floated through the air and right out the open second-story window.
My vision blurred from the bright glare before I felt a bruising pressure against my body, as though the energy were trying to skin me alive.
My heart raced as I screamed again, and again, there was no sound. The light flashed several times before I felt myself floating lower and lower until the force against my body released.
I was free… sort of.
I stared at my surroundings in disbelief.
This was my worst nightmare come true.
I was inside a tiny metal room with no doors.
On my hands and knees, I scuttled around like a cornered animal because there was no doubt in my mind what had just happened…
I’d been abducted by aliens.
2
Ella
Think.
I dug the heel of my hand into my temple.
What happened next?
I vaguely recollected waking up, groggy and bound to a floating gurney with two figures—aliens—flanking each side. The creatures were half my size and wore dark-gray matte jumpsuits. Each had different-colored skin—one gray, the other green—but they both had enormous heads with almond-shaped black eyes and a tiny mouth that emitted low, unrecognizable sounds every time it moved.
Am I remembering this right? Or is my mind playing tricks on me?
Frankly, I didn’t know what was real anymore. Memories floated through my head in bits and pieces.
Did I really see the aliens puffing away on sticks that had glowed various colors while billowing drifts of pungently sweet mist? And did the green creature remove my earrings, replacing them with a pair of pale-gold disks?
Yes.That had to be real because as soon as the green alien clicked the small disks into place, the faint warbling sounds they made suddenly sounded like perfect English. And even though their voices were squeaky, like cartoon characters, I distinctly remembered their conversation…
“Isthat one of the new model translators?” the gray alien asked the green one as I lay there listening, staring up at the mirrored surface of the ceiling that reflected the entire area of the room. I tried to move, but I was frozen in place and not in control of my body—they were.
The chain-smoking aliens continued chattering in bored tones like a couple of lab technicians.
The green alien replied, “Just the receivers. I’ll have to put the Earthling back under for the throat unit. Let’s give that a minute. She’s still recovering from the last jolt we gave her.”
My eyes tracked him in the shiny ceiling as he toddled across the cavernous lab to a worktable jutting from the wall and started poking around at the tools laid out on it.
“Uh, well… Oh, fish crap. Bellbucz? Where’s the tranquilizer wand?”
