Mission: 1052

The old barn off of Whistler Street has been abandoned since my Grandfather's youth. No one knows exactly why it was abandoned, they just remembered one day people and animals stopped going in there.

As a young boy I was always curious about that old barn and I would stop and stare at it for a moment going to and from school, but I was always too scared to go in. The kids at school would spread stories about it, one of the stories being that a woman had hung herself before it became abandoned and you can still see her spirit hanging from the loft.

The years went by and I grew older, but my curiosity about the barn had not waned. Many of my classmates, including some of my friends, would sneak into the barn on stupid dares and had reported back about the massive spiderwebs that coated the dilapidated structure and rotting farm equipment. My friends even tried to get me to go in one day but still, I held back..... Until the summer of my senior year.

I was taking a walk one evening to clear my head after an argument with my Father on where I was going to college after I graduated and I heard something come from that old barn off of Whistler Street. It sounded like something banging against the rotting walls and my feet carried me closer, my curiosity finally getting the best of me.

I peered through the open and broken doors to see a young girl, about my age, standing with her back to me and her fists clenched tightly at her side. She had long, shining black hair that waved all the way down to the small of her back, wearing only a tight red shirt and a pair of jeans. Seeing her standing there in the middle of the barn perplexed me and I opened my mouth to ask what she was doing, when a deep voice echoed throughout the barn.

"It is time, Elara."

Elara?

I frowned as I recognized that name. She had moved to this little town last year and people still knew nothing about her. What was she doing here in this abandoned barn?

"I am not finished here." Elara responded in a slightly irritated voice. "I just need a little more time."

"There is no more time that we can give." The voice informed Elara. "The rest have reported that they are ready. Why aren't you?"

"Because this town has nothing to offer." Elara grounded out. "I have been here for a year and I have not been able to find anything. This place has no resources that we'll need."

"Every place that we have someone stationed at has something to offer."

Confused on what they were discussing, I inched myself through the opening and into the shadows on the left side of the barn. My steps are silent as I stepped over fallen farm equipment until I was in a better spot to where I could see the side profile of Elara's pretty face.

"I still need more time." Elara repeated in an exasperated tone.

"Time is not something we have." The voice said. "Mission 1052 is now in motion. Everything will begin when the sun rises tomorrow morning."

My confusion deepened and I moved to my left to get a better look Elara's face when something snapped underneath my heel. The sound was like a gunshot reverberating around the inside and my heart stopped beating and my breath froze in my throat from fear.

Suddenly, I was wrenched from my hiding place by a vice like grip and I was thrown onto the dirt covered ground in the middle of the barn. A wheezing breath burst from my lungs as pain radiated from my shoulder before I looked up with wide eyes at Elara's towering figure.

Her blue eyes glowed unnaturally as they glared down at me as her hands clenched tightly into fists. I hadn't even seen her approach where I had been standing and I stared up at her in fear.

"How much did you hear?" Elara demanded in a booming voice.

"N-nothing!" I stammered as I dared not move.

"He's lying." Hissed the voice from the shadows and my blood froze.

Elara's unnatural eyes narrowed at me before she crouched down to my eye level. "What is your name?"

"T-Tyler."

"Do not lie again, Tyler." Elara said in a tone that brook no arguments. "What did you hear?"

I hesitated before I answered in a whispered, "Everything."

The look on Elara's face had my heart beating even heavier as she rose back up.

"You know what to do, Elara." The voice said. "And you best be ready for tomorrow."

Elara slowly nodded her head with her jaw clenched. "Understood."

The barn is silent for a moment as I sat there on the hard ground before I found my voice again.

"What are you going to do?"

Elara looked down at me as a stony resolve transformed her features and she rotated her shoulders.

"Congratulations, Tyler." She said. "You are now the first casualty of Mission 1052."

Before I could ask her what she meant, or even make any sound, I was suddenly being lifted up by unseen hands until I was leveled with her gaze. I stared into their depths, unable to look away, and I saw something that had me trembling. Elara was not only from this town, she wasn't even from this planet. I saw in her mind before a darkness started to encroach upon mine the true purpose of her being here and I passed out to the image of my town being destroyed by a beam of red light.

I should've never entered that old barn on Whistler Street.