***
PATRICK woke up naked and tied to a chair in a dirty old warehouse. Sunlight entered through the wide-set boards of the walls, but not enough for him to know where he was. He tried moving his hands and feet, but they were bound too tightly.
“Hello?” He called out to no prevail.
“There’s no use in struggling.” A voice said in defeat from somewhere in the darkness.
“Who said that?” He searched his surroundings and then saw another naked man tied to a chair.
“The name’s John”
“Where are we?” Patrick asked.
“We’re in trouble.” John said, “That’s where we are.”
“What do they want from us?” Patrick asked.
“Can’t say for certain. I’ve only been here for three days. There was a woman before you, but they dragged her out screaming about a day ago.”
“Where exactly is here?” Patrick asked.
“Somewhere out in the desert.” John paused and then asked, “What did you see?”
“What do you mean?”
“When Sarah was still here it came in.” John said, “It was only one person, but we both saw something different; I saw a woman with long, silky hair while Sarah saw a man big enough to be a professional wrestler.”
Patrick lowered his head as he tried to make sense of what was happening to him. Everything felt surreal – if only he could get himself to wake up from this nightmare.
“They are what we want them to be.” John said, “But one thing’s for certain; they’re not human.”
“This isn’t happening.” Patrick silently wept.
“Trust me,” John assured him, “It’s happening.”
The room flooded with light as a door opened. Patrick watched as a shirtless Dale entered the room and walked towards John who tried in vain to free himself.
“Here she comes.” John said with fear in his voice.
When Dale reached John, he turned to Patrick and asked, “He told you what I am, didn’t he?”
“You’re the devil.” John said with a shaky voice.
“Oh, sweetie…” Dale said to John with a devious smile, “The devil isn’t real.”
“What are you?” Patrick asked fretfully.
“I’m whatever you want me to be.” Dale said and winked at him, “Besides, you’ll probably die screaming if you saw my true appearance and I need you alive.”
Dale grabbed John by the arm and picked him up like a rag-doll.
“I’m coming for you next.” Dale said to Patrick and dragged John to the door despite his futile protests and struggling. A moment later and the room was dark again.
“This can’t be happening.” Patrick whimpered and struggled to free his hands again.
A terror filled scream echoed from somewhere outside and then all was quiet again. The silence not only brought fear of the unknown, but also fear of his own certain demise if he stayed put. The more he struggled, the deeper the restrains burrowed into his wrists until finally they snapped. As he rubbed his sore wrists, he noticed shadows moving from the corner of his eye.
“Don’t scream.” A voice said.
Patrick could make out the facial features of a man in his fifties who was putting away a switchblade knife.
“Who are you?” Patrick asked.
“The name’s Alex and I’m your only hope of getting out of here alive.”
“Who are they? What do they want?”
“They seemed harmless when they first got here.” Alex said, “But like most things in life looks can be deceiving. They said they came in peace and just needed a place to call home.”
“Come in peace?”
“Yeah.” Alex said, “They came from some darkened corner of the universe and being a gullible man I believed every word they said until it became clear what they were doing. They’re stranded here and need our blood for fuel to get back home. They’ve been harvesting our blood for over a decade now.”
“Why haven’t they harmed you?”
“I have an iron deficiency.” Alex said, “Blood without iron is useless to them.”
“How do we get out of here?”
“That’s the only way out.” Alex gestured towards the door.
Patrick couldn’t help but wonder where Alex came from if the door was the only way in and out of the room. He turned to face Alex and even in the low light he could see Dale grimacing at him when he realized that he was still tied to the chair.
“You’re not going anywhere.” Dale said licking his lips, “I’m gonna drain you of every last drop of blood you got.”
***
Dale sat on the front steps of the gas station shop and watched as the sun set behind the rocky desert horizon. It’s been an eventful week; they were able to harvest the blood of 3 humans – not that it was nearly enough to get back home, but it was a start.
His mother sat down next to him and lit a cigarette.
“Do you think we’ll ever have enough to get home?” Dale asked.
His mother blew out smoke and coughed twice – she never really got the hang of the smoking thing, but was addicted to the nicotine.
“Who can tell?” She said, “At this rate it might take us forever to harvest enough blood… You really need to stop mind-fucking the humans in believing they’re being rescued.”
“What’s wrong with a bit of fun?”
“You’re giving away our plan.” She said, “One of these days one of them will out-smart us and get away… if it ever got out that we were here and what we were doing…”
“That’ll never happen.” Dale assured her.
She sighed and then scrutinized her offspring’s new look. He’s had so many different looks over the years and never stuck to one particular look after a harvest, but this one really stood out to her – almost like it was meant to be what he looks like.
“I like this look on you.” She said.
“Me too.” Dale agreed.
She took another puff from her cigarette and coughed out smoke, which made Dale chuckle a bit. He found it amusing how she couldn’t manage smoking, but was reluctant to give up the habit.
“You might just as well give up smoking.” Dale teased, “If you haven’t gotten the hang of it after ten years, you’ll never get use to it.”
“You just concentrate on getting us enough fuel.”
“Is it my fault we crashed in this deserted place?”
“Let’s not play the blame-game.” She said under a waft of smoke, “But if remember correctly, you were the one operating the ship.”
“You’re never gonna let that go?” Dale laughed.
She chuckled and then flicked the cigarette bud away as the wind bounced a medium sized tumbleweed through the gas station and then down the road.
“You remembered to get rid of his car, right?” She asked.
“Yes. I dumped it in the ravine like all the others.”
The sound of a car pulling into the gas station made them both look up; it was a lovely young couple dragging a line of tin-cans behind their car with just married painted in the rear window.
“Time to do what I do best.” Dale said with that devilish smile of his.
Dale got up and walked over to the unsuspecting customers – bringing with him not only a great, big smile, but imminent doom. As he got closer to the car, he waved at the newly wed couple and they both looked up – though only one person was walking towards the car, the newly-wed husband saw a blonde supermodel approaching while the newly-wed wife saw a muscular underwear model approaching their car.
THE END
ABOUT THIS SHORT STORY
There is a saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover” and I really think it’s applicable to this story. How often do we meet people who turn out to be someone completely different from what we thought they were?
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