Leaping from the doorway, the lab’s golden legs raced across the lawn and into the middle of the street. He looked up at the ship, barking. “Darcy!” Amber called. He ignored her, his barking growing more and more frenzied. “Darcy!” In a few quick strides she was by his side and managed to catch him by the collar. He leapt back, jerking his collar from her hand, then barked at her. “What’s wrong with you?” she demanded to know. Surely he couldn’t understand what was going on. When she went to reach for him again, he whirled around and raced for a car parked across the street from Julie’s. There he stopped, barking again, this time alternating between the sky and the car door.
It was then that she realized the car wasn’t parked. Its nose was wrapped around a street light, the pole bent from the impact. Her heart lurched in her chest. Someone was probably hurt! Immediately she raced to its side and wrenched open the door. It was someone she recognized from the neighborhood. He nearly tumbled out, his seat belt the only thing saving him. “Are you alright?” she asked, but then his head rolled back and his blue, lifeless eyes stared up into hers. Acid bit her throat and she bent over, heaving. The wind was so strong that had there been anything in her stomach she’d surely be wearing it.
Shoes pounded the pavement. “What is-,” Julie began, then the words died on her lips. Finally, she managed to croak out, “It’s Jack, isn’t it?”
Nodding, she couldn’t look away from the closest thing to her- his hand, pale and limp, swinging like a pendulum.
“He… he’d just gotten up the nerve… to ask me out.”
Even that didn’t draw her eyes away from his hand. “I’m sorry, Julie.”
She hadn’t even noticed that Darcy’s barking had ceased until he started up again. This time there was a different timbre to his voice. It was the same tone he used when strangers came to the door. Scared and uncertain, she looked up. Hundreds of holes appeared on the sides of the ship and out of them poured thousands of little black specks.
“Are they bombing us?” screeched Julie.
Shaking her head, Amber watched as several of them drew closer. And the closer they drew, the more familiar they looked.
They were people.
YOU ARE READING
Beauty and the Beaast
Science FictionHe's an alien whose people invaded her planet to save his. She's just a girl, trapped in a new reality she hates and held hostage by strange yet beautiful beings from a world she's never even heard of. Even though both of them want life to return t...
