Not Unlike Myself (S)

Not Unlike Myself

Prologue

It was all in the name of research.

The government met with these aliens about a year ago.

They said they were peaceful and that they wanted to research us.

They weren't lying.

It went well for a while and then eventually we just stopped hearing about them.

It became, “Remember the aliens?”

“Are they even real?”

It got to the point where people stopped talking about it.

Then the government came back.

“We need two people of each age group, one male, and one female. We will take volunteers, if none come forward, we will choose by lottery. We need your feedback America!”

I  won the lottery.

They told me it was an honour.

They told me I should be happy.

I told them I’d miss my family.

I told them to shut the hell up.

They did.

I sat alone in my quarters, preparing for liftoff to the Intergalactic Jelly-fish’s spaceship.

It was quiet now that they were gone.

I missed the talking.

Not Unlike Myself

Chapter I

Abduction

The boy being taken down the hall with me is yelling obscenities and throwing himself around in an attempt to escape. I’m not struggling in the least. I don’t care. I’m depressed; my hair hangs in my face.

They came to get us during school, just came in and told us it was time to go. Now here I am, walking down a hallway to get onto the levitation thing that these stupid squids invented. It’s purple and glows like a neon light. I didn't trust this contraption, but they were going make me get on with or against my will, so I sucked it up and walked in.

It felt…Tingly. Like a whole bunch of bugs were crawling all over me. I panic at first, but after a few seconds I just try to block it out. After little longer than what I would have liked, I’m at the top of the beam. The blue glob reaches its hands out towards me and I reach back for it, grasping it carefully.

I’m almost afraid to touch him at first, I don’t know what to expect. I say him because none of the aliens look particularly female or male, but they do have a human form. You know, blob for head, arm like things, torso’s, legs; but they don’t have faces or any other features. They glow a deep yet bright shade of blue, and the blue has, what looks like, bubbles in it, always swirling around and moving. As scary as they are, being something no ones ever seen before, they’re also quite beautiful.

When my arm connects with his I squeeze it for balance as he pulls me out of the beam and onto the, what I think is, midnight blue fiberglass floor. As soon as I touch the floor I jerk my hand from his, retracting it into my body. A shiver runs down my spine as I think back to the feeling of him. Like a thin latex bag filled with gel. I think to myself.

I shiver again, giving a “bleh” face.

The aliens all turn to each other and suddenly the whole room suddenly feels different. The hairs on my arms raise and it feels like the air is electrically charged. I straighten, pulling my arms close to me and my eyes widen. I’m not sure what exactly is going on. At my reaction the feeling in the room grows, and now I can feel vibrations tickling my skin, like when you stand too close to a speaker at a club. It seems to be coming from the alien.

I stare at him, her, it? and shiver again.

Oh yea, this is gonna be fun.

The alien motions for me to stand against the back wall where the others are standing. The room cools again as I stand next to the two young adults who were picked. Next to them stand the adults and the two elderly. I turn to see the boy who’s in my group, the teen group, flailing as he rises up the beam. I scoff at his defiance, there doesn’t seem to be a reason why it would really matter this far into the game.

The squid-men take him and hold him tightly, gathering in a circle around him. For the first time since I was taken, I’m curious. The aliens start to emit vibrations at him, they were humming. The vibrations are almost too quiet to be heard. The others probably can’t even tell there are any, but I can. I stare, taking a step towards the huddled things. Then another. Then another. The sounds of the people whispering behind me slowly quieting as I grow closer to them.

I’m feet away from them, completely enthralled with what’s happening. Curious. Wondering what it is that their doing to him. The closer I get, the louder the hum becomes. Its monotone and quiet, almost warm and calming. It never changes, and the closer I get, the better I can see the boy.

His eyelids are drooping and he’s just staring at the alien opposite of him. Even his thrashing has become a lethargic pull.

He’s falling asleep! It was the hum!

I remember learning about this in school. Monotone hums make people sleepy; that’s why if a professor is lecturing in a monotone voice, even if its about something you’re interested in, you’re more likely to fall asleep.

I stare at him intently as the aliens hold him. He collapses into their arms and they carry him off in a big circle. The humming doesn’t stop though. They continue to hum as they carry him away. I feel it start to affect me and I fall backwards, stumbling, before I fall asleep. All I feel is my body hit the floor.

.                              .                              .

When I wake up I am laying partially on the floor, with my head resting on the lap of one of them. I scream and flail my way off of him, pulling myself to the wall. I take deep breaths as I press myself against it. They had taken me to a room. It only had one door, and nothing else in it. Just a blank white room.

The squid stands and stares at me, or as far as I can tell he does. For the longest time that’s all we do. I just sit there, he just stands there, and that’s how the whole day went. When I was tired, I slept, when I was hungry, he brought me food, when I had to go to the bathroom, he would take me. I eventually lost track of time. I had no idea how long I was there; days, weeks, months. All I knew was sleep and wake. All I did was sit with my knees up to my chest and watch him. At  first he stood perfectly still, just staring.

I learn a lot while we sit here in this staring contest. Whenever I react in a way he finds interesting a static charge fills the room. If I make him upset or disappointed, which usually happens when I try to avoid him or act scared, the room grows cold. It seems as though he has no other emotions besides intrigue and displeasure. I notice these things, and take note of them, but they don’t really interest me at all. They make me a little less scared, now that I know  what emotions he has, and when he has them.

I fall asleep sitting up and wake up to him sitting in the same position as me. My eyes grow wide and I shiver, but didn’t dare take my eyes off him. The room grows cool suddenly, cool and slightly damp. I stare as I watch his head dip a bit before he stands up.

I press myself against the wall. I’m startled. I don’t really understand why I’m so scared of these things, but for some reason they terrify me. I hate them, I don’t want them to touch me, to come near me, to be here, to be alive!

I know he can feel the hostility in me. I know and I don’t care, and I’m sure of it when he gets closer and I can hear the hum. Within seconds, I’m out.

When I wake up again my vision slowly comes into focus. I’m confused and disoriented. It reminds me of the effects of anesthesia without the headache. I sit up, rub my eyes and look around and realize….

I’m in my room.

“What?” I stand up and spin around, ultimately confused.

Everything is here, everything is right, to the last detail. My loft bed is over my computer, my dresser, my lingerie cabinet, my vanity, my glass chest with the porcelain dolls, even my really big window with the colourful curtains. The door has even moved.

It cant be. I’m dreaming. I think and run over to the window and pull the curtains. I expect the morning sun to blind me, but instead all I see is darkness and stars. My hands drop to my sides and I feel like crying. I fall to my knees and let myself go. I’d been holding it in so well, been holding myself together, but I cant do it anymore. I start to bawl.

“Please don’t cry.” a voice behind me says. I spin and turn to him.

There’s a boy my age, about eighteen, with long blonde hair that falls softly around his shoulders. His eyes were ice blue and his skin was pale. He was wearing black comfortably baggy pants and a black Pink Floyd shirt. I was taken aback. He was gorgeous. And in my room. Well, not my room, but the room I was in for as long as they keep me here.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d cry. I’m so sorry, ” he cries, falling next to me and placing his hands on my head in a comforting manner.

“Oh, no, its fine really,” I rub my eyes and sniff, now having stopped crying.

“You sure?” asked, dropping his hands from my head to my shoulders, “I can change the window, go back to sleep, I’ll find the memory,” his face grows solemn.

“Wait,” I stop and pull myself back and out of his grasp, “What do you mean you can change the window?”

His face grows concerned and he sits up straight. “I can make the window look like what the outside of your window looks like, at any angle. If it will make you feel better, I’ll do it.”

“Wait,” I pause, “That means you’re the squid!” I shove myself back against the wall.

“The what?” he asks.

“You’re him, the jelly-fish who’s  been watching me this whole time, just staring at me like some kind of creepy stalker, freak!”

“Stalker? I’ve not been stalking you per se`,” he comments.

I stand up quickly. “How did you get all of this!?” I scream, picking my things up and throwing them, “How did you make it so perfect! Tell me right now!” I turn to him as he stands up, his hands out in front of him in an attempt to calm me.

“I saw it while you were dreaming, you think about home a lot while you dream, its all quite beauti-”

“You were watching my dreams!” I scream as I cut him off, throwing a discarded pillow on the ground. It connects with his head nicely.

“Ah! Its not like I can help it! It just happens! We take in any kind of stimulus! Brain waves emit from you while you’re sleeping just like thoughts and emotions do while you’re awake.”

“ You've been reading my thoughts!?” I scream.

“No, its not like that,” he explains, “they’re just like ideas, concepts; not real thoughts.” he seems relatively calm as he explains, just a little startled by my anger. This bothers me.

“Why aren't you getting angry!?” I yell as I throw a shirt at him and grab another just in case, “I’m hurting you! Get mad! How am I supposed to argue with you if you don’t get angry!?”

“Angry?” he puts his arms down and tilts his head at me, “What’s that?”

“This!” I scream at him, pointing at my face, “This is angry, you stupid emotionless fucking squid!”

His face grows concerned and then looks as if I've actually hurt his feelings. I immediately regret saying what I said. “Oh, hey. Jesus.” I rub my head and look at the ground. “That was mean, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean that.”

Why am I apologizing? I ask myself.

“It’s ok, I understand. I've seen how you think of us. We all have. You hate us, although this emotion has no equivalent in our language we understand the hostility.” He sighs and sits down with his legs crossed. His face seems sad.

I grip the shirt tightly, I’m very confused. “Why are you imitating our emotions!? Are you that screwed up as a species that not only would you take us, kidnap us from our families, separate us from everyone and everything we love, and then torture us by keeping us in, basically, cages, and then to top it all off you make the cage look like our room, giving us hope for a moment that the horrors might be over, only to realize that it’s a trick and that you've been lying to us. Now you’re imitating our emotions too? What , do you want me to trust you now!?” I take a few deep breaths, my eyes tearing up with frustration.

“Imitate? We don’t imitate your emotions. We learn them.” his face grows concerned.

“Learn, what do you mean?” I ask, my grip loosening on the shirt.

“We are intellectual and logical creatures. Our purpose is to learn and contain knowledge. Our whole species revolves around information. When we procreate, our offspring are born with all the knowledge of their parent. We are efficient beings. We never lose information. From watching you I learned of emotion, which is incredibly interesting. I learned of what some emotions are, what the mean, and when to use them, and from learning that, it has become a part of me. I now feel those emotions just as you do, I do not imitate them. I feel them.” he stared at me, his face solemn.

“Oh,” I say. I drop into my beanbag chair. “I guess I understand.”

He looked away from me and at his hands, an odd expression on his face. “I don’t know if I like this experiment anymore,” he said, rubbing his hands together.

“Why?” I ask, curious.

“Because I feel terrible. Like nothing will ever get better.” he sits down on the floor and pulls his knees to his chest.

“Oh.” I fumble with my shirt. “That’s probably my fault, sorry.”

He looks up at me confused, “Your fault?”

“Yes. I haven’t been happy since I got here, so you've never seen happy. Therefore you don’t know how to be happy.”

“Don’t know how to be happy?” he asked.