No, I'm Not a Human

Everyone and their momma knows who Krista Lancaster is.

A reclusive woman, who is never caught outside her home. A lazy woman, who relies on the kindness of her neighbor for supplies to continue her lonely days. An unfriendly woman, who only responds in a civilized manner to the couple next door and their creepy daughter.

They can’t help but wonder; if a disaster were to strike the world, would she drop her behavior and mannerisms to save a couple of lives?

Night 0

She stares through the blinds of each window in her cabin’s hallway, peaking at what lies outside her sanctuary.

Her neighbor’s house stands in the hay field. The lights are off. His family must be asleep by now.

A skinny dog is standing on the footpath that goes through the field. It looks around mournfully, trying to find some food.

A few drunkards lay sprawled out on the street. Although they’re lying on the cold ground, they appear to be fast asleep. Things are good for them right now.

Everything is peaceful, as it should be in the summertime. Yet, something ominous lies in the air.

Someone knocks on her door. Purposely, she takes her sweet time getting to it, in hopes the person will leave. Instead, the knocks continue. So, she’s forced to look through the peephole.

She groans loud enough for her neighbor to hear.

“Hey, neighbor,” he begins in a friendly manner. “Long time no see. How’s life?”

“Go away,” she flatly demands.

“I came over for a reason,” he quickly brings up, hoping to catch her attention. “I’m a little worried about you.” She rolls her eyes but stays silent, letting him continue. “Something bad’s coming. My cousin called me. The news over there is saying there’s something weird going on with the sun. And that they’re people coming up from underground. They’re calling them Visitors for some reason. Creepy. I hope it’s not true.”

She rolls her eyes again. “How’s the sun affecting them but not us? Sounds like your cousin’s pulling your leg.”

“No, no, nothing has happened with the sun to affect anyone just yet,” he explains. “She just said that there’s been news that something’s happening to it that might affect us. Either it’s gonna explode or there’s gonna be an explosion on it.”

“If the sun explodes, Earth will cease to exist. We’d be gone in a second, incinerated,” she says. “I feel like that’d be the case for an explosion on it, too. Tell your cousin to stop listening to the idiots on the news; they don’t have all the facts most of the time.”

“I suppose you may be right but I believe my cousin when she says that something’s not quite right,” he tells her. “This summer’s been the hottest yet. I think we need to prepare for the worst.”

“Uh huh. Anything else your cousin had to say?” she asks. “If not, leave already.”

“My cousin said that staying home alone is dangerous,” he states. “So, I came over so you don’t get killed.”

“This is ridiculous,” she states. “I can look after myself just fine, thank you very much.”

“I know,” he says. “But I believe it’s more dangerous than you think to be alone right now.” She rolls her eyes. “Why don’t I stay with you for one night? Just in case. It’d make me feel better.”

She groans. “What-fucking-ever.” She throws open the door. “Come in, then, you bastard.”

He steps inside. “Don’t worry about my wife and kid.” I wasn’t; I don’t care, she thinks as she closes the door and locks it. “A good friend just arrived the other day. He’ll look after my family.”

“Don’t care,” she states aloud, speaking her thoughts.

He continues on, unphased. “Alright, let’s continue this conversation in the morning, then. I’ll wait for you in the kitchen. See you then.” He strolls through the cabin’s hallway and enters the living room; she figures he’s gonna sleep in there.

“Fuck you,” she mumbles as she walks by the living room door, heading to her bedroom for the night.

NIGHT 1

That morning, everything changed.

"Breaking news! At 6:28am today, there was a powerful emission of energy from the sun. The burst was larger than scientists had predicted. The temperature outside has reached critical levels. The government has declared a state of emergency. We’re asking all people to refrain from going outside during the day."

She couldn’t even look out her blinds throughout the day, the sun was so bright; she might’ve gone blind. She was stuck doing nothing; her laundry was already dealt with, all channels were taken over by the news so she couldn’t watch her usual programs, and she was too stressed by the situation to read or play Solitaire.

She was forced to interact with her neighbor, who was in the kitchen the entire day. Their conversation consisted of him trying to convince her to help strangers while remaining vigilant and testing them for signs of a Visitor, even though he still wasn’t sure what that meant.

The only piece of advice she found useful at all was the following:

”My cousin doesn’t know for sure why we can’t be alone… But she mentioned that when anyone asks if you’re alone, say no and tell them someone’s in the house with you.”

Now, it’s the first night since the catastrophe. Immediately, she looks through all the blinds, now that the sun isn’t in the way.

In the distance is still her neighbor’s house. The lights are on. His family is probably waiting for him to return from her cabin.

For some odd reason, there are three teenagers lingering in the yard. They’re just sitting around without a care, chatting away and ignoring that they’re on someone else’s property.

There’s a deathly silence outside. There’s no one there. Even the drunks have decided not to go out. Are they afraid of something, too?

Yes, the atmosphere of this night is different from the previous.

There are knocks on the door. Was her neighbor right? Were strangers going to start bothering her for sanctuary? She’ll let them say their piece; that much she’ll allow. However, she will not let a stranger step foot inside her home. She hadn’t wanted her neighbor to step foot inside her home, but he was insistent.

She looks through the peephole and is immediately startled. “Gah!”

It’s the neighbor’s creepy daughter. “Hi! Is my dad here? Can you get him for me? I was okay earlier today, but now, I’m scared. There are lots of people out walking tonight…”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” she says. “Tell me his name first.” She rolls her eyes. This is so stupid. Why do I need to question people if I’m not going to let them in?

“Did you forget his name?” the little girl wonders. Then, she smiles big and wide, very creepily. “Oh, you’re checking to see if I’m a visitor. You’re smart! I’ll start checking people now, too!”

“Yeah, that’s great, kid,” she sarcastically remarks. “Did you get here safely?”

“I came here very quietly. No one saw me,” the little girl insists.

“Uh huh,” she responds, not really believing her. She looks towards the kitchen door, assuming her neighbor’s still in there. “YOUR CHILD IS HERE FOR YOU!”

Her neighbor walks out and heads for the door, smiling politely. “Take care, now.” He steps outside. She locks the door up tightly behind him; no one is getting into this house again.

“Goodbye!” the little girl exclaims as she leaves with her father.

Shortly thereafter, before Krista can even step away from the door, there’s a knock. With a sigh, she looks through the peephole.

Standing there is a very tall man. He asks to come inside, saying he was kicked out of the last place because of his temper. She wasn’t going to let him in anyway, but with that knowledge, she’s definitely not letting him in. She still asks if he’s a visitor; he basically calls her stupid for asking outright. She turns him away afterwards; he calls her a coward and flips her off.

Next, it’s a lady. She kind of rambles about being a cashier previously, how hot it is now, and how she got kicked out of her home by visitors. Again, Krista wasn’t going to let her in, but that particular line about the house invasion seems suspicious.

Her neighbor’s cousin said you’d be killed if you were alone. Was the cousin wrong or is he right and this woman is a visitor? She looks completely human. How can you tell between a human and a visitor without the lucky chance of them slipping up?

She sends the lady away; the lady thanks her for listening and leaves peacefully.

No one else shows up. She heads for her bedroom.

NIGHT 2

“Good afternoon. Here’s the news. The sun’s activity is not decreasing and the crime level has increased slightly. According to the latest data, the number of murders over the last few nights has surpassed average figures. Experts suspect this is related to the Visitors and the growing anxiety we’re seeing in society. And now, over to… Just a moment…”

“An urgent message has just come into our studio regarding contact with Visitors. Eyewitnesses describe them as creatures that can imitate the external appearance and behavior of humans. Please avoid contact with Visitors. In one case, it was possible to identify a telltale sign of these creatures…”

“Perfect white teeth.”

She grumbles to herself as she approaches each of her windows to absorb what’s happening outside. “Perfect white teeth is an indication of a Visitor, huh? As if.”

Her neighbor is outside of his house with his daughter. The little girl is running around, playing happily with him. She supposes they’re trying to forget about the ongoing horrors.

“What if they got a dental job? You’d be killing or turning away an innocent person,” she continues. “Not that I care. It just doesn’t seem logical, this supposed ‘telltale sign’.” She looks out the second window and becomes slightly green in the face. “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”

The bodies of the three teenagers from the previous night are lying on the ground. Someone killed them. It appears to be recent. The blood still hasn’t dried.

“What a bunch of horseshit, the news,” she continues, disregarding the corpses in her yard. She looks out the last window and screams, jumping back and landing on her ass. Then, she crambles back to the window, peeking out from the bottom.

A man as pale as death itself is standing on the footpath. There are strange folds in his skin. It’s like his skin is the wrong size for his body. She can’t see his eyes but she can feel his gaze. He knows she’s there. She can only hope the terrifying Visitor passes by the cabin and moves on.

“Oh, my neighbor sure as hell didn’t warn me that they’d look fucking creepy,” she whispers, even though the Visitor is aware of her presence.

Three people knock on her door tonight.

A man who goes on a tangent, saying the Earth is being cleansed, that this is a blessing in disguise, and that they’re being cleansed of their sins. She sends the religious man away.

A disfigured man who can’t stop coughing. He’d been out while the sun was up, putting out a forest fire; he’s a firefighter that’s now severely burned and likely slowly dying from the injuries. She casts him aside, too.

The third guy made absolutely no sense, talking about going out in the sun and making money. He never would’ve made it inside. She yells at him to go away.

Then, she ends another night.

NIGHT 3

“Good afternoon. Here’s the news. The anomalous heat is continuing to rise and the invasion of the Visitors has not stopped. The government has organized a special service to address the emerging situation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, abbreviated as FEMA. FEMA employees can be identified by their yellow HAZMAT suits and gas masks. Although they only began their work recently, the agency has already discovered a new sign of Visitors…”

“Dirt under the fingernails.”

Once again, she’s grumbling to herself. “Dirt under the fingernails? Are you fucking kidding me right now? Literally everyone on the planet can have that issue. What, we don’t wash our hands and suddenly, we’re a Visitor?” She looks out the first window and gasps loudly.

Her neighbor’s house is on fire. What happened? Is anyone still alive?

“Godspeed, pilgrim,” she mutters, closing the blinds. “May the next life have mercy on you.”

Seeing that has made her hesitant to look through the second window. But she does so anyway. And immediately regrets it.

The pale, creepy Visitor from the previous night is back. He’s standing in the yard, smiling. He’s holding someone’s decapitated head in a helmet. The corpse’s head is of a soldier; his expression is permanently frozen in fear.

She closes the blinds and stands there silently for a moment before letting out a shaking breath. “...I’m next, aren’t I…?”

Slowly, she moves to the final window and looks out. She starts crying, losing all hope.

An entire squad of soldiers are scattered across the street, slaughtered like animals. One is missing a head. The creepy Visitor did this. She thinks it’s a message to her. Yeah, she’s definitely next.

Suddenly, there’s very slow, deliberate knocks on her door.

Scared shitless, she moves extremely slowly towards the door, trying to delay the inevitable for as long as possible, hoping someone will chase away the Visitor.

No such miracle occurs and she sees the Visitor through the peephole, smiling big and creepy. His face looks different, more human; he’s trying to blend in but it doesn’t make sense because the rest of him is the same. Perhaps he doesn’t care. Perhaps he’s trying to give her some sort of false sense of security.

He doesn’t say anything, just keeps standing there, grinning with his hands placed in front of him.

“W-Who are you?” she asks, trembling.

He ignores the question; he just wanted her to speak first. “How’s it goin’ here?” His grin gets even larger. “Is everything okay?”

She gulps, shaking like a leaf. “W-What do y-you want?!”

“Are you alone in the house?” he asks.

“No,” she answers immediately. “I have guests.”

He laughs maliciously. “I know you’re alone. I just wanted to see if you’d lie or not.”

“You’re not human, are you?” she asks, even though she knows the answer. She just wants to buy time for a miracle; any miracle.

“No, I’m not.”

And with that, he easily barges through the door, breaking the locks. Her screams of terror fill the air, but only for a few moments before the screams are silenced forever.

~~~~~~~~~

Krista was created by me.

Krista’s dialogue is mostly original and somewhat from Trioskaz. Krista’s mannerisms are original and based on what Trioskaz alludes to the playable character being like (also, I think the player is supposed to be an older man).

Dialogue outside of Krista is mainly from Trioskaz but I had a hand at some of it. The plot/storyline is entirely from Trioskaz.

Descriptions are original and from Trioskaz.

Here's a video of the latest demo for the game by Trioskaz! I hope you enjoyed!