THE WORLD OF MR. EDWARDS

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say , Edwards still remembered the day he’d died..

The sky had been exceptionally beautiful, streaked with hues of pink, purple and orange peppered with cirrus clouds. The soft evening breeze had caressed his cold flesh, whispering secrets into his ears like a secret lover. The glow from the setting sun had fallen on half of his body, leaving the tainted red part in the shadow of the banyan tree he’d collapsed under. The birds nesting in its branches had settled back in their cozy homes, looking down at him as if trying to make sense why a perfectly healthy man like him was lying there, bleeding profusely on the wild grass.

He remembered it all too clearly.

As if it had happened yesterday.

The icy water splashing against Edward’ face pulled him out of the memories of the past. Breathing out a heavy sigh, he leaned over the washbowl to look at his reflection in the mirror, tracking the water drops that slid down his honey-colored skin, making their way through his stubble before dropping off his chin. He gazed into his eyes, the hazel irises perfectly shadowed by thick, dark eyelashes and looked for something different.

Something that didn’t feel like a part of himself yet it was.

As always, he found nothing.

Nothing had changed. He appeared still the same as he’d been three years ago, when he’d died.

Edwards could tell you with the certainty of someone who knows their time on Earth has run out that he had died. The events after his ‘apparent’ death were still etched on the back of his eyelids. Whenever he closed his eyes, he was there.

On the rough terrain that stretched plain for miles, with the ghastly looking creatures hovering over him.

Touching him.

Tearing him apart.

Remaking him whole.

Saving him.

Edwards closed his eyes as the memories appeared like a film reel before his eyes, gripping the edges of the sink so hard his knuckles ached.

Crack!

Eyes snapping open in surprise, Edwards stared at the tiny crack that had formed by the right edge of the washbowl. His soft curse was cut short by the sounds of soft footsteps making their way towards the bathroom. Moving fast, Edwards splashed some more water on his face, and reached for the dry towel just as the double bathroom doors opened and Evie entered.

“You’ve been in here for ages,” she said. Her tone was friendly, which was welcome, but the way her eyes raked up and down his bare torso was not.

“What are you doing here?”

“Your brother asked me to check up on you.” Leaving the door ajar, Evie turned and walked out.

As always, Evie looked immaculate: dressed in a button down black shirt tucked in her fitting white work pants, her dark blonde hair coiled into a neat bun at the nape of her neck showing off the white mother of pearls dangling in her earlobes.

“Why? Is something wrong?”

Three years ago, if Evie had come to him telling him his brother was worried, he’d have felt worry mixed in with concern. His brows would have furrowed, his mouth might’ve frowned. Now it was as if he were... numb. Detached. There was only a faded echo.

Edwards was desperate to feel something, anything.

Even Evie, who used to bring forth a plethora of emotions, did nothing for him now. Three years ago, they could barely keep their hands off each other and now, it was as if they couldn't put enough distance between each other. The same Evie, who’d been ecstatic at finding out that the love of her life was back from the dead, was now walking on eggshells around him because of the coldness in his eyes and the hardness of his heart.

“You’re joking right now, aren’t you?” Evie asked, her shoulders tense and the lines around her mouth tight. The same Evie who was always quick to avoid confrontation and make merry, was now constantly at odds with him. “You haven’t been yourself since we found you. It’s only right to wonder if you’re still here, with us.”

“Evie, I’m the same Edwards as before —”

“Stop it!” snapped Evie, her voice ringing out like a whip crack. A couple of strands escaped her tight bun and hung limply at the sides of her beautiful angular face. “Three years. You were missing for three years and suddenly, Devon finds you and you start pretending to be the same person you were when we lost you.”

“I told you, I didn’t die.” Edwards replied. The tone of his voice was far more cool sounding than he wanted it to be. “I went undercover, you know that.”

“I don’t buy your lies,” Evie snapped, “Neither does Devon. Something happened to you, something big and you’re not telling us…” She stopped talking, and looked away as she tried to keep her pooling tears from falling.

“I swear, nothing happened,” Edward said. The lie felt bitter in his mouth but there was no other way to tell them. For starters, they wouldn’t believe it if he told them where he’d been the past three years. Secondly, he couldn’t introduce them to the things that had saved his life. “Evie you know how sensitive these undercover operations are-”

“Bullshit!” Evie growled and turned towards the door. Her frame was visibly shaking with the effort of holding in the emotions that threatened to burst forth and engulf Edward like a wave. If it had been old Edwards, he would’ve walked over and had taken her into his arms, murmuring soft words and giving soft touches. But the new Edwards didn’t move. Couldn’t feel love or empathy for the woman who’d once been his lifeline. He kept standing there, in the middle of the living room as Evie banged the door shut behind her, rattling the frames affixed to the walls beside it.

Edwards sighed, sitting down heavily on the sofa. He shouldn’t have come back.

He shouldn’t have returned to Earth but it’s not like he had a choice. The Solkers had insisted.

Kind of hard to say no to your saviors when they’re aliens.

Especially when they’re aliens.

***

Three years ago, Edwards was shot while on duty. He’d been working on a lead for some trafficking case and had ended up in the bad part of town. Alone. The thugs had followed him from the underground tunnel he’d visited while working. He had gone there just to ask a few questions but the thugs had taken his presence as a threat. They’d followed him all the way home, making him change course to a nearby hiking track at the last minute. He’d regretted not taking his gun from his office. He always took his gun. He’d tried calling his squad, but somehow his call hadn’t gone through. He’d been on his own, running up the hill in hopes of losing the guys in the clump of wild trees. He should’ve known better. They’d been persistent and had followed him all the way up the hill. When he’d dared to stop and fill his lungs with oxygen, they’d shot him.

When Edwards had closed his eyes and had died, he’d opened them in a different place altogether.

A place that was neither heaven nor hell.

It was another planet entirely, located in a different solar system. Apparently, there was more than one. How he’d made it there, he had no idea but there, he’d been very much alive.

Edwards had found himself strapped to the surgery table of sorts when he’d come around. Disoriented and terrified, he’d screamed over and over for Evie, for Devon, for help, but nothing had happened. Due to massive blood loss combined with other events that had made his body shut down. He’d slipped in and out of consciousness.

Sometimes, he’d heard strange voices around him and other times, he’d felt blades cutting his skin. Once, he’d woken up screaming his lungs off when he’d felt his bones being sawed. But, it had all been a dream for when he’d woken up the next time, he had been perfectly fine though he could still feel his body still held echoes of that excruciating pain.

Something had been done to him. Something bad, but he had no idea what.

At first, Edwards had thought that it was nature’s cruel joke or some kind of test before he could make it to the afterlife but it had been very real. It had been all too real for the place to be a celestial world.

Once Edwards had regained his consciousness, the strange creatures had appeared. For days, maybe for years they appeared under a haze through which he couldn’t read their features but they interrogated him. When he didn’t answer, they tortured him. They held him in a chamber with walls made of a strange material that resembled concrete yet was sharp like diamonds. It did nothing to help. While he’d been down there, he’d strongly believed that he was on Earth and the thugs had slipped him some bad drugs and shipped his body away to some place. After days, the creatures had made an appearance without the cover of haze and he’d been downright terrified when he’d taken in their real appearance.

Hairless skins that resembled dried barks and eyes as wide as goose eggs, the Solkers were five foot tall creatures. Their limbs resembled leafless tree branches but their abdomen skeleton resembled that of a human covered with dried bark. Their heads were huge with the numerous sulci running through them, making parts of their blue brain visible. For the first few days, communication wasn’t possible. Gradually, Solkers learned to speak his language and he, theirs.

Soon, Edwards was taken out of the room he’d been imprisoned in. He was presented to the Solkers’ queen who chose to keep him beside her. It wasn’t hard then, just surreal as he worked and roamed around on a planet inhabited by the Solkers. Slowly, with each passing day, he’d begun to realize that something was wrong with the planet and its inhabitants. Upon further inquiry, the Solkers had told him the truth.

“Our scouting team found you,” The queen had told her when he’d been dining with her. The queen took a special pleasure in making Edward sit beside her on a low cushion: like a dog.

Their food was uneatable but it was better than dying of starvation. He wanted to stay just a little longer, before he’d planned to take his own life and end it all.

“Your body was left hanging in front of a giant drainage pipe. Battered and bruised beyond recognition.”

“How is that possible? I died on the…mountain.”

“Oh child, you didn’t die.” Initially Edward had bristled at that form of address, being a grown man. But the realization that he was a newborn in front of this alien who had a lifespan beyond comprehension had quickly changed that. “Your heart was still beating when your fellow men dragged your body away. They paraded you like a trophy, showing off how they’d put a hole right through your backbone. They’d beat you, spit on you and do things to your corpse.” Things the queen had explained in excruciatingly vivid detail in a tone one might employ when rattling off the daily special at the coffee shop. “Then when they were done, they strung you up for all to see. You were just a means to ensure a group’s dominance. Peculiar creatures, you lot.”

“What about my family?” Edwards had asked, thinking of his beloved brother, his nephews and his girlfriend.

“Oh, they could do nothing. Pictures were taken and spread on that medieval means of communication you call ‘social media’. Your family tried filing a lawsuit but it was rejected. You were already dead, and the guys who did that to you probably paid off whatever higher authority-”

“The Feds.”

“-was in charge. In the end, you were left there hanging over a drainage pipe for days till we found you. And here we are.”

For days, Edwards had refused to believe what the Solkers had told him. But disbelief slowly gave way to acceptance. How else would Edward be here, alive and whole, if not for them? Their intervention, though not divine, had granted him a second chance.

He’d thanked the Solkers then and had asked them if they’d let him go. Without any objection, they’d dropped him on the earth with the promise that they’d want him to pay back their debt soon. A year later, Edwards still had no idea what that debt was going to be.