Death From Above

Weeks had passed since the first meeting with the dreamcatchers group. Amelia Kellian wouldn’t ever admit it out loud, but she enjoyed having people that understood what she was going through. She found herself connecting to them, even though she remained quiet for most meetings, only saying enough to keep them appeased. She didn’t want to draw the attention of Lieutenant Aaron Schwartz, if she didn’t have to.

She spent the weeks, doing whatever she could to avoid a direct confrontation with Aaron. He always acted like he wanted to talk to her, and started being less positive acting. However, each week, when the meeting ended, she would rush out the door. She felt bad for being this way to him. Though, out of all her problems, this was the only thing she could run from. It didn’t help that she felt like she was holding back information from the rest of the group.

Many times, she debated whether or not she should tell them what she saw the night she woke up from her dream. The lights, the strange humanoid creatures, the other people in the room. It made her wonder if the other person on a table was someone at this meeting. She didn’t manage to get a good look at them. She only saw that they looked like a man. However, each week she showed up to the meeting and never said anything.

They were trying to find meaning behind the miracles they received. Amelia was even physically improving from the so called miracles. She no longer needed her glasses, and she was an ideal body weight. She even noticed that she was gaining a bit of muscle. Everyone else at the meetings were only improving as well. She would almost feel bad to have to tell them that it was all just some meddling from an otherworldly race. At the same time, however, she didn’t even know what the reason the creatures had for doing this was. She also couldn’t help but wonder if the military already knew what was happening.

Her job at HSMA, was now under constant supervision. Most projects they were studying had to be abandoned, in favor of a wider space monitoring focus. They were never told what to look for, only to report anything they found floating near earth.

Amelia’s friend Teagan didn’t mind the military personnel hanging around, but it made everyone else uneasy. Dr. Hubowski was even more on edge than usual. Some eavesdropping on Amelia’s part, told her that watching space monitoring stations was a country wide thing. However, such a big thing failed to make the news. Yet, with many projects dropped, Amelia and Teagan found things fairly boring now.

Amelia didn’t like how she could no longer keep an eye on the asteroid that she watched. In the weeks before it’s abandonment, it had changed course a couple more times. It never was on a collision course with Earth, but it would have been interesting to see how the path continued to change. She just wished she knew what they were looking for. Though, she might know after all. In which case, she wished she didn’t know. In this very moment, at least, she wanted to put it out of her mind as she drove home.

Later that night, when she was home, she sat up in her bed surrounded by ancient language books, trying to find a link to the symbols. There was no luck being had, as always, but she hoped for something. They just didn’t match anything from earth. This was a fact that would only help confirm what she feared. However, while she feared the inevitable outcome of her searching, she also grew tired.

She still tried to avoid sleep, she remained very uneasy about the things that happen to her at night. She always managed to fall asleep anyway. It was as if she had no say so in the matter. The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she got. Eventually she flopped back on her pillow with a grumpy huff. She laid there for a moment looking up at her ceiling, when an uneasy feeling came over her. She quickly sat back up, to try and shake the feeling.

Upon sitting up, however, she saw the dark figure in a trench coat standing in the corner of her room. Without even knowing that she closed her eyes, she had somehow fell asleep. In this moment, the uneasy feeling did shake from her. She no longer felt fear, instead she felt her frustration and anger grow. She hated this. She hated being played with like some toy. She didn’t give these beings permission to experiment on her. It doesn’t matter if what they do is physically improving her. She still didn’t ask for it, and she most certainly had no idea what else they were doing.

With all these feelings in mind, she stood up from her bed. It was a strange feeling, since technically she was still asleep and laying down. However, she could only move in her dream for now, so she was going to move. She then walks to her bedroom door and pulls it open. To her surprise, there was nothing on the other side. There was only a black void, that looked deep and endless. Yet, when she touched it, it felt like a solid wall. There was no way out.

This of course made her even angrier. She usually wasn’t this angry of a person, but everyone has their limits. She turned to face the figure in the corner. The figure’s gaze had followed her to the door. The gaze of the figure began to feel heavier, as if it was trying desperately to subdue her. She had already come this far, she won’t be stopped now

She grits her teeth, clenches her fist, and then walks over towards the figure. She stands face to face with it for a minute. It’s glowing eyes piercing through her soul like a knife. It was mentally pushing her to submit. The air around her grew heavy as the figure was silently trying to get her to back down. She had come too far, and she wasn’t afraid of a world or being that wasn’t real. She reached out to touch the figure. What she felt, was nothing.

Her eyes would then jolt open. She saw bright lights again. She recognized what she was seeing from the last time. She was back naked on the table. All she heard was silence this time, so she sat up. It took her a second, but she thought about what she just did. She sat up. Last time she couldn’t move. Whatever was different this time, it allowed her to function.

She quickly looks around the room seeing other tables and other people laying on them. There was, however, no sign of the chatting creatures from before. She had to investigate what was happening here. She knew she would never have another chance. She turns and dangles her feet off the table, then slides off.

With desperation being the only thing fueling her new found bravery, she began sneaking to what looked like a large computer. The strange symbols were all over it, which of course lead her to a conclusion she already begun to guess. The symbols were the language of these creatures. She stared at the buttons completely clueless before seeing one that caught her attention. It was as if she began to understand the symbols but an exact translation wasn’t there. Knowing she had to do something she pressed the attention grabbing button.

Suddenly what sounded like the clicking chatter she heard before, began playing from the computer. Though the strangest thing was happening, she could understand a few words here and there. She heard it mention experiments and harsh conditions. She tried to follow along, but only managing to understand very little. At the end of the message, it mentioned something about an evacuation and some enemy, whose name had no apparent English translation for her to go on.

None of it made very much sense, and she wasn’t even sure if she could really understand it. For all she knew, she was insane. She looked back around the room, and looked at the other people laying there. She decided to walk up to the man who was on the table next to the one she was on. She was fairly certain it was the same man from last time. Though much to her surprise, when she got closer, she noticed it was Aaron Schwartz.

She gasped in surprise at seeing him. She wondered if the others from the dreamcatchers were also here. The other bodies that she could make out in this strange lighting, looked like strangers. She didn’t want to see anyone else she knew like this, but also she didn’t care to sort through strangers. She thought about waking Aaron up, hoping he’d have a better idea of what to do. It was a decent idea, except neither of them had clothes on, and she really didn’t want him to see her like this.

She quickly began looking over the large room, and saw a table with what looked to be blankets on it. She walked over to look at them, and she picked one up. It was very soft and light, but thick. It was definitely not a material she had felt before. She didn’t bother questioning what they were used for. There was a good chance she didn’t want to know anyway. She wrapped the blanket around herself, then grabs another one. She walks back over to Aaron and throws a blanket over him, before trying to nudge him awake.

She wasn’t sure if it would work, but she nudged and shook him several times. She then tried softly patting the side of his face, just to see if he’d respond. Suddenly his eyes shot open, and he jumped awake. She let out a loud, frightened gasp, because it startled her. He sits up and looks around, almost as if he was panicked. He frantically looks at Amelia, and acted like it took a moment to recognize her.

“What’s going on? Where am I? Why are you here?” He would ask her all these questions rapidly.

“I don’t know the answer to any of those questions, but I’m pretty sure it has to do with our dreams and aliens.” Amelia tried to say reassuringly, but also realized this could make him worse.

“What? Aliens?” He quickly looks around again, only this time less frantic. “Aliens are doing this?”

“Based on what I have to go on, I’d say so.” She looks at him with a look of concern. Even though she never told him about the last time she woke up, she thought the military knew something. It didn’t take her long to figure out that if they did know something, Aaron remained out of the loop.

Aaron looks at her wrapped in a blanket, then looks down at himself with the blanket over him. Slightly embarrassed by the situation, he tries to play it cool. He slides off the table, trying to stay covered, and wraps the blanket around himself. He quickly begins walking towards what looked like the door.

“We need to find out what’s going on and why.” Aaron would say, as if he was giving orders. However, before Amelia could say anything else to the man on a mission, the door opens up. Aaron stops, feeling startled, because he didn’t open it. In the doorway stood a tall, slender, very pale shape. The thing began chattering as if panicking. Aaron and Amelia were frozen in shock. Fear really began to set in, when the lights started flashing and the blaring sound of an alarm began to go off.

To be continued…