Chapter Three
“What happened? What was that?” Sarah asked as Kyle got off of her. Kyle looked around himself. The patio furniture and Kyle’s tent were both gone, and all of the windows had been busted in by the blast of air. Kyle’s hearing was all but gone. Then, he looked to the direction the thing landed.
A blue light illuminated the impact zone like giant spotlights calling him to go see.
“Sarah, stay here,” he said, his eyes glued to the light. He began to hear a commotion from inside the house, so he figured the adults were awakened by the meteor, or whatever it was. As he walked into the forest, he heard Sarah follow him, trying and saying anything she could to try to get him to stop.
“Kyle, come back. This is stupid, even for you. What are you thinking? This is dangerous!”
“Go back, Sarah,” he said louder. He turned the flashlight on to see where he was stepping, but the light from the impact could probably be seen from miles around.
After about fifteen minutes of walking, Sarah behind him the whole time, signs of the things landing were starting to show. Kyle could see the trees shaved from when the thing skimmed over them.
As they got closer to the thing, the ring of damage became more severe. It went from Kyle stepping over thousands of broken limbs to hundreds of dead tree trunks. Also, as they got closer, the light grew brighter and brighter. Kyle hardly needed the flashlight anymore. Sarah was still behind him, but he hardly noticed her pleads and yells to go back to the house. She, however, seemed to be immune to the fascination the light gave Kyle. It was drawing him to it, and he just wanted to see what it was.
Finally, Kyle came across a large clearing, created by the landing of the large object. From the shape of the clearing, the thing had a short slide to where it now lay, at the far edge of a clearing of flattened trees.
He had figured it must have been some sort of glowing meteor, but what he came across instead was something even more mysterious. It was as long as a football field, and it wasn’t just a shapeless rock. This thing appeared deliberately but naturally formed. It also looked alive; it was moving around weakly, but it appeared to not have noticed its visitors. Its body shape resembled something like a fish. It had two pairs of structures jutting out from the side that resembled either wings or fins, but not exactly either of the two, specifically. They were straight and pointed sharply, bending at a joint in the middle of each, and maybe a foot in diameter at their widest. The front pair of these structures was bigger, probably thirty feet long to the back pair probably more like twenty feet, and positioned about two feet higher on the body than the back pair. The round body tapered down the tail where it ended in another structure that reminded Kyle of the tail fluke of a whale or dolphin, but also resembled the front limbs of the creature. The main color of the creature was a bright energetic blue, adorned with white vein-like markings running the whole length of the body, and Kyle could see a black mark, almost like a burn, on the thing’s belly. What Kyle guessed to be the front end of the creature had no facial features of any kind, other than ending in a small point. Covering the point of the thing’s “head” was a blotch of white from which all of the things white veins sprouted.
Sarah pulled at Kyle’s jacket. “Kyle, leave it alone,” she whispered, “I’m hearing sirens. Please, other people are coming to deal with it, so can we go back?”
Kyle ignored her pleading and walked slowly closer. She was probably right about it being dangerous, but it was acting like it was hurt, and had not hinted that it had detected their presence. Sarah stayed at their edge of the clearing as Kyle moved toward it.
“Kyle,” she said quietly yet sounding angry, “get away from that thing! You don’t know what it is!”
For the first time, Kyle looked back to her. “I’m just taking a look. Go on back to the house and I’ll be right behind you.”
She, of course, didn’t move, but it didn’t matter what she did to Kyle at this point. He turned back to the space thing, almost expecting it to have moved since he took his eyes off of it, but it was where it had always been. It still did not notice Kyle, who was now within ten feet of the thing. Kyle was now hearing the sirens that Sarah had mentioned, but he had been the first to see it, and for some reason had a sudden sense of claiming, that whatever it was, it belonged to him. Kyle was now steps away from being able to touch it, and noticed that although it gave off tons of light, Kyle felt no heat. Very peculiar, Kyle thought, but did not press the matter.
Kyle stopped. He was now close enough to reach out and touch the thing, but it still did not react to his presence. The creature obviously had no eyes, but Kyle was now wondering if it had any senses at all. Anticipation of what would happen next caused Kyle to start to sweat, so he took his jacket off, despite it being about fifty degrees that night. Finally, as if his life were drawing down to it, he reached out a hand and felt the blue skin.
It was smooth and hard like a rock, yet it didn’t feel like anything Kyle had ever encountered before. Kyle could feel nothing underneath the hard surface, and the skin didn’t move when he tried pushing on it. It was warm, and vibrated. It was sort of soothing, and Kyle felt his body begin to react to its vibrations, yet he would never be able to describe how exactly. It felt like something completely natural, like something he always knew but forgot, and still completely alien to anything he had ever experienced before. However, the creature still didn’t seem to notice his presence; it was like Kyle didn’t even matter to it.
Kyle was about to leave when he noticed a segment of a white vein was just below where his hand was. Curious, Kyle let his right hand slide down over it. The white part felt different, although it was completely flush with the blue. Kyle felt what he guessed to be a sort of pulse. It was strong yet slow, but when he laid his hand on the mark, the pulses began to speed up. It was the first sense that Kyle received that the creature even had noticed Kyle. Faster and faster it pulsed, but Kyle held his ground, for some reason completely unafraid of the alien, when Sarah seemed completely terrified by it. Kyle had closed his eyes, feeling some sort of energy flowing into him from the alien.
Then Kyle did feel something. A jolt of energy violently shot up Kyle’s arm. Kyle’s eyes were blasted open from the inside as he felt something flowing into his hand, up his arm, and seemed to collect in his chest. Kyle looked down at his hand. The area outlining where his hand was seemed to ripple toward the hand. As he felt energy pour into him, he saw blue veins similar to the creature’s white ones, crawl slowly up his arm. He tried to pull away, but his hand was stuck to the creature like a powerful magnet. He slapped at the strange markings with his other hand like he would if a bug was on him, but they ignored the blows and continued up his arm and eventually down his shirt. Then, Kyle tried to push himself off of the creature with his left hand. The only thing this accomplished was getting the same treatment for his other arm. With the second jolt up his left arm, Kyle was effectively paralyzed.
Sarah was at his side now, screaming for help and pulling at Kyle’s arms. Then suddenly, the segment of white between his hands glowed brighter and appeared to leak something. The substance at first appeared to be liquid, but didn’t fall to the ground. Instead, it hung in the air between Kyle’s hands collecting into an orb. The orb grew to the size of a baseball until it just exploded. Kyle and Sarah were sent flying all the way back to the other side of the clearing. It was when Kyle hit the ground that he felt the searing pain in his arms. It hurt so badly, he couldn’t scream out. It took so much to raise his arms to see what was happening to them. The veins shrunk until they coalesced in the middle of his hands and glowed like the creature. He closed his eyes for the pain, wondering if it would drive him insane. Still in extreme pain, eventually, he fell into unconsciousness.
Nothing. It was all Kyle could see, or couldn’t see, or couldn’t sense in any way for that matter. But there had to be something, because he was there, and he knew that he was real. He was floating (or was he?) for what seemed
to be an endless amount of time, if time even existed wherever this was.
Suddenly, though, a small light, like a star, appeared. Kyle couldn’t tell if it was close or very far off. Either way, it grew and grew. Kyle began to think that he must’ve died, but suddenly he realized it was an explosion of some kind, and there was nothing he could do to escape it. It got closer and closer, until Kyle realized it wasn’t expanding, he was getting closer to it. It was more like some kind of portal to a different dimension, one from nothingness to light.
Finally, he passed through it. The difference was more opposite than night from day, for all Kyle knew. Only a few seconds ago he was in nothing, and now he looked around to the best definition of pure chaos. Light and darkness mixed with power and anything conceivable and inconceivable was happening. Solids, liquids and plasmas were formed and destroyed by this awesome energy. It was completely unpredictable what would happen next.
But what happened next was extraordinary. From all of the chaos, before Kyle’s very eyes, two clouds separated themselves from the mess around themselves. One was red like old wine; the other matched the color of the sky. Unlike the mess of energy around them, these two seemed different. They moved of what seemed to be their own accord, possibly free thinking to a degree. They moved with a purpose and dignity, elegant and radiating with some sort of conscious power.
They were about the same size, but neither had a specific shape. They seemed to contour to the mess around them. They also seemed to change the space around them, as if they were leaving some kind of residue on the environment they touch. They moved about, churning and mixing the energy around them. They sucked it all into the circle that they had made. Their environment began to change; their actions were slowing down the storm of chaos.
Kyle watched all of this from a distance. This went on for what felt like hours, until Kyle noticed something about the energy the two energies were mixing. It was forming into balls of various sizes and colors. Kyle was watching the birth of stars and planets. The laps were going faster and faster; anything not molded into stars was being added to the two energies, changing them. The red one became laced with black throughout, while the blue one laced with white. Faster and faster they spun; the two energies becoming nothing more than a blurred ring of red and blue. For a second, it seemed as if they were one, until the ring broke, releasing everything inside. All of the stars and loose matter was shot out into space. Most of the stars clustered into groups of millions of galaxies. The small clumps of what was left over seemed to dry up and turn hard, and were scattered farther apart.
Kyle still watched from what felt like miles off. As for the two energies responsible, they continued their circling around what is now just an expanse of open space. Then, they began a synchronized flashing. Then, something began to churn within both energies. Tendrils of energy branched out in sinister forms. Each grew to nearly double their original size within seconds. Then they struck out at each other with bolts of their respective colors. The bolts met in the middle of their circle, creating a flash of light that blinded Kyle.
Kyle’s eyes were forced open; he jolted and almost screamed. Something was holding him down, and he almost panicked, but he noticed how soft it was. It was a familiar softness. Finally, his brain began working normally and started processing what he was looking at.
He was in his room back in his room in Odessa; back in his own bed. He laid there for a second, feeling the soft blanket and sheets. He looked outside. It was bright outside his window, probably around noon, and he heard a light breeze ruffle up the leaves on the tree he could see.
His surroundings comforted him, but also confused him. How did he get back to Odessa? It didn’t feel as if he could have been asleep for more than a day. He felt fresh, albeit a little stiff. He pushed himself to a sitting position on the bed, but when he pushed off, he got a little light-headed. It cleared almost instantly, and he stepped outside his room.
Once he opened his door, he heard voices from downstairs. From his door, there was a view of the front door, and from that vantage point, he could see that his parents were gone. He silently walked down the stairs to the living room, where the voices were coming from. Once he was downstairs, he could tell what they were saying.
“We aren’t here to play videogames,” one voice, a female’s, said sternly.
“Oh, come on. Kyle wouldn’t mind,” the other, a male’s, said.
“Would you just help me with the chores first? Those things are always the first thing you jump on.”
“We have all day to do the chores. Relax, Jules.”
Jules? Once again, Kyle’s brain was kicked back into working. He recognized the voices of the twins, his best friends, Julianne and Justin Slade, from next door. They must be watching over the house while Kyle’s parents were out doing their respective responsibilities (his mother usually got a job over the summer to keep from being bored).
Julianne was standing facing the couch; her hair looking like it had been cut since Kyle had last seen. She was also wearing it differently; it was sort of done up instead of her usual straight hair style. He could see the top of Justin’s head as he sat on the couch, playing Kyle’s Playstation 3. He couldn’t see Justin’s face, but he could tell from hers that he was being impossible about this. Neither of them seemed to have noticed Kyle just at the foot of the stairs.
“Besides, Kyle would never mind me playing his video games,” he reasoned. “What are you worried about?”
She sighed and shook her head. “Whatever; do what you want. I’m going to check on him.” That was when she saw him for the first time.
Her eyes grew wider than Kyle thought he had ever seen them. She looked like she was about to faint if she wasn’t glued frozen to the spot. Justin noticed that she hadn’t moved yet and said “What?” and looked over his shoulder. Justin’s eyes succumbed to the same look as Jules’.
It was awkward for five seconds before Kyle said “Hey, guys.”
Jules ran and hugged Kyle so fast that Kyle flinched. Her arms were a vice, restricting Kyle’s breathing. “Hi, Jules,” he gasped. Reaching back to fight with her hands around the middle of his back, he said “May I breathe, please?”
“Oh, sorry,” she said and let him go quickly. By this time, Justin had paused his game and stood up to get a better look. “I told you opening his window blinds would be a good idea,” he said as he walked over to stand next to his sister, who smacked him in the gut for the comment.
“Are you alright?” she asked, stepping back.
Kyle watched them both as they looked him over. They were acting like he had a disease no one knew about. “Yeah,” he said confused. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just going to get a snack.” And he left the room. He could tell that they were following him.
He pretended not to notice them hovering three feet away from him at all times. Right before opening the refrigerator door, he turned, raised his hand, and said “Ok, why are you guys acting so…” he began, until he looked at the back of his hand.
There was a large discolored spot, about the size of a half-dollar coin, on the back of his hand, a sort of mottled blue. It appeared to be below the skin, like there was something inside his hand. Slowly, shaking, his breathing getting faster, he turned the hand over so that his palm was facing him. Taking up most of his palm was a large blotchy blue mark and glowing softly. Kyle’s knees buckled and he slid to the floor, staring at his hand. Justin and Julianne were on him instantly, picking him up gently and leading him over to the couch. Kyle’s eyes were locked on the hand, until as Justin grabbed his other arm; he caught a glimpse of the same condition on his left hand as well.
They set him down on the couch and sat in the two chairs on either side of it. Their eyes never left him, while his never left his hands.
Kyle didn’t know what to think. Even as he was staring at them, they didn’t feel different. He flexed them into fists, and they did so normally. He didn’t think they were scars, and they didn’t f
eel like burns. With his left index finger, he prodded his right hand. The skin felt harder, like a callous, but no pain resulted. Whatever these markings were, one thing Kyle knew to be obvious was that this wasn’t human.