So The Story Goes...A Flash In the Dark

As Jaylene rushed the kids into the back of their dusty green sedan, Carl set some rudimentary traps along the kitchen window and kitchen door. There was only one way into the house from the back garden. Although it was just a spark of light that caught him unaware and forced him into action, he knew what it meant. They would soon be here, and while he wasn't one to back down from a fight, he had to stay focused on getting Jaylene and his two daughters, Maya and Adina, to safety.

They were more precious to him than anything on this green land—the land he had adopted as his own when he arrived two years ago.

As he rushed to join his girls in the car and set off, his mind flashed back to the day he and Jaylene got the keys to the house. She was pregnant with Maya, and everything had felt fresh and new.

He looked across at Jaylene, who was panicking in the passenger's seat. Placing one hand on hers, he asked, "You trust me, don't you?"

"Of course I do, Carl."

He was about to start the engine when a bump on the front of the car made them all jump. Hesitating for a second, he stared at the black visage in front of the car before Jaylene screamed. It was like something out of a horror movie—something Jaylene had never seen before. But as she looked across at Carl, she knew the same was not true for her husband.

The figure screeched, a sound like tires skidding on a smooth road. Its body was mesmerizing—terrifying, for sure, but mesmerizing. It had the same ethereal quality as a fox or a wolf, something that made it feel just a little bit unreal. Rather than having a sharp and defined silhouette, it was slightly blurry, out of focus, as if it wasn’t entirely in sync with the rest of the world.

The shadowy figure jumped onto the car like a possessed ape, and Carl turned the ignition, slamming his foot onto the gas. The screech of the tires harmonized with the screech of their attacker.

As they tore through the twisting and turning avenues of their heavily built-up neighborhood, the monster kept banging against the roof of the car, trying to break through the metal.

“We need to shake this thing off,” Carl muttered to Jaylene and himself.

“Look in the glove compartment. And don’t panic.”

Jaylene fumbled with the glove compartment, her hands shaking. When she saw what was inside, she screamed again—a stun gun.

“Why do you have this, Carl? What the hell is going on?” she screeched as he reached for it.

“There’s no time. In a minute, I need you to grab the wheel.”

He unclipped his seatbelt and charged the stun gun.

“I get one shot at this. That’s all.”

And with that, he let go of the steering wheel and rolled down the window…

Everything went black and stayed that way for what felt like an eternity. Flashes of the same light flickered every few seconds, and Carl could make out rough outlines of figures standing over him.

"He's unresponsive," said one of the voices, the accent hard to place.

"Are they his family?" another asked.

"This is why operatives are told not to develop close bonds," was the last thing Carl heard before a sharp pain shot from one side of his head to the other.

While Carl remained unconscious, the beings that had taken him and his family strapped the others onto gurneys. Jaylene, Maya, and Adina turned to one another, then to their captors, then to Carl, trying to scream through the black tape, sealing their mouths shut.

One of the shadowy figures started a drill and edged closer to Maya’s head.

Another flash of light.

*

Thanks for reading!

Author's notes: This is my continuation of the story JBaz set up here:

Here are some other things: