Alien Freak - Calista Skye Page 0,4

anywhere again,” I counter. “This was too close for comfort. Gabby, what do we do now?”

- - -

What we end up doing is skip the rest of our classes for the day.

Because classes continue as scheduled, even after four girls have been abducted by aliens and probably sent to their eventual gruesome deaths. Under Bululg rule, nobody is allowed to take any notice of the abductions. Everything is to continue as normal right away. The professors are not permitted to even mention what’s just happened. No press is allowed to report on it, there can be no ceremony or gathering to mark the sad event, not even an obituary-like notice in the student paper so people will know who was taken.

Nothing.

Gabby and I go to a dive bar, determined to get drunk on the cheapest beer they have.

Despite the terrible ordeal of seeing other girls abducted, we talk more about the red alien the more we drink.

“He was coming after me,” Gabrielle tells me. “Those eyes, I swear he could see right through me like some kind of X-ray. That’s why I ran. I’m so sorry, Averie!” She reaches over to grab my wrist.

I drain my third bottle, starting to feel nice and hammered. But I was always a lightweight. “It’s only the six hundredth time you’ve apologized. So stop it. You came back for me, and that makesh you crazy brave.”

She gives my arm a squeeze. “Okay, I’ll let it go. I’ll try, anyway. And you know, a small, tiny part of me was thinking, hey, maybe that would be a good thing. Being abducted. Getting away from the constant anxiety here on Earth. Where we aren’t really anything other than slaves and liveshtock. Stock.”

I pull my fourth beer out of the bucket and look around for the opener. “Yeah. Maybe. I guess with a poacher things could theoretically work out for the best. I mean, he might just sell you to some kind of galactic staffing company in search of a receptionisht. Or something like that.” I locate the bottle opener hanging from the bucket by a rope as always.

“He was freaking scary. But also actually kind of dreamy,” Gabrielle confides. “Did you see the way he moved? Like a lion. Like a lion and a tiger.”

I manage to open my bottle on the fourth attempt. “Looked more like a snake to me. But I know what you mean. He was ridiculoushly male. You know? Manly. But I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

It’s almost midnight when we finally stagger back to our dorm rooms to try to get some sleep.

I lie awake for hours, weeping a little for Donna and for myself and for what this world has come to.

And then I can’t stop thinking about him again. The poacher.

Lord, he was terrible.

Except he didn’t abduct anyone, as far as we know. He didn’t even try. He just stared at me. Then he let Gabrielle and me go, not following us.

He looked dangerous, sure. The way he moved, his red color that just screamed DANGER!, the scales and that freaking forked tongue… but he didn’t actually hurt us. He might be a good guy.

A good guy pitching a tent in his pants. Because unless his anatomy is very different from human, he definitely was.

I hope I’ll never know. I’m done with aliens for a good while now. I’d actually love to be done with them forever, but that’s too much to hope for.

After a visit to the bathroom I’m finally able to drift off, but I don’t know that until I’m suddenly awake again. So bright in here...

I try to open my crusty, stinging eyes. The streetlight outside the window is always a nuisance, framing the curtains in a square of bright yellowish light, but this is ridiculous—

My eyes fly open.

And my heart stops.

Two huge, blue eyes are staring at me from up close.

I draw breath to scream, but a large hand shoots out and clamps my mouth.

Struggling frantically to get my hands out from under the covers, I try to kick out with the one leg that’s free.

A forked, green tongue shoots towards my face.

I panic, trying to crawl away from the alien, into the corner. But he still has his hand on my face, and I can’t move.

I go limp, only now feeling new acid tears burn at the corners of my eyes.

The huge, sky-blue eyes stare unblinkingly into my soul.

Then the alien lets go, stands up, quickly wraps me in the bed covers,