WRITING CONTESTS, original works

So, You're an Alien? That's Cool. (Sci-Fi)

Contest: Sci-Fi - Aliens!

Prompt: The task for our April challenge: tell us a story featuring your alien friend.

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I'VE HAD THE SAME best friend since I was a child, and we've hardly ever fought. It's strange to say the least, but, then again, there's not exactly anything "normal" about him to say the least. He's always seemed a bit... off compared to other friends that have come and gone, but I cannot say that I really can complain. After all, he's stuck with me through thick and thin, unlike the others.

So, I'm here today to tell you about how I found out my best friend was an alien. I guess that, if you don't believe in aliens or whatever, then my story is going to be the one to convince you that they are really out there, and most of them are unbelievably friendly and kind and caring, but there are those who only want to kill and destroy...

It was your regular Thursday afternoon, and it was also ridiculously hot and the air was thick with the tell of an oncoming storm, or just rain. My best friend - I'm going to call him Tobias for anonymity's sake - was on edge, constantly shifting and twitching, his unusually coloured eyes trained to the sky as we sat beside the in-ground pool at my parents' vacation house. He hadn't gotten in the pool, but there was nothing abnormal about that; I always believed that he could not swim or had a fear of water, but that was dismissed that very afternoon.

"What's up with you, mate?" I had asked, looking over my sunglasses at him. "You are so damn out of it. It's Christmas break and you don't seem to be enjoying it as much as usual."

He'd looked over at me and I'd noticed a silver hue to his unearthly vibrant blue eyes. "It's nothing, Mara. I just don't like rain, and I can feel it coming."

"You don't like anything water-based touching your skin, do you? What the hell's up with that? Bad childhood experience or some shit?"

"I guess you could say that. You wouldn't understand if I told you what it really is."

"Wow. Such confidence and trust, Tobias. I feel so lucky."

"It's not like that and you know it!"

He'd jumped up from his sun chair and glared down at me, hands clenched into fists at his sides and eyes seeming more silver than before. I wasn't put-off but the abrupt change in his attitude; it'd happened quite a lot when the weather was like that, but I had never really questioned it until that day. The way he stood over me seemed more threatening than usual, and it drove me to test him further.

Being the ridiculously cocky person I was around Tobias, I had stood chest-to-chest with him and smirked up at his thunderous expression. As I had taunted him, I poked him in the chest, making him back up every time until he stood by the edge of the saltwater pool. He didn't notice until I had placed my hand on his bare chest and pushed him back, his feet leaving the ground and his vibrant eyes widening in horror.

The moment he'd hit the water, a wall of what seemed to be mist had shot up from it, hiding him from my sight until it had dissipated moments later. At that point I knew I was more spot on about my minuscule ideas of him being an alien; it was just a passing thought I'd had a few years back that had hung around. However, I'd never really believed it until the mist appeared and hid my best friend from view.

Glaring up at me in annoyance and fear from under the water was a pair of shimmering silver eyes, but that was the least of my concerns at that time. His normal human teeth had been replaced with ones that sort of resembled that of a snakes; his skin had changed to a dark purple colour and reflective scales seemed to have replaced the skin on his arms and torso, and dotted around the outside of his face, but not overstepping their boundaries; and where his legs should have been was what I could only describe as a twisted mermaids' tail, the fins on the end appearing torn in some parts and sharp in others, and the two fins near the middle straight and deadly.

"Huh," I'd mused, tugging off my t-shirt and sliding into the pool alongside my best friend, making him back away at an abnormally fast pace. "So, you're an alien?"

Tobias had nodded and swam slowly back over to me, allowing my curious hands to run over the scales covering most of his body. "Yes, and many of my kind live in the sea or in towns and cities by beaches. We only change like this in saltwater, but sometimes our scales can appear in other types of water as well."

"That's cool."

"You're not afraid?"

I'd laughed at him. "Should I be?"

He'd grabbed my wrists and shoved me against the edge of the pool, baring his sharp predator teeth at me. "In this form we only eat meat."

"Then go ahead. I won't stop you if you want to eat me, Tobias. I trust you."

"You really shouldn't, Mara. I'm a predator; a monster. There's nothing human about me."

I smiled gently at my best friend. "Not like this there's not, but, when you're not in water, there is."

"I suppose you're right." He released me and backed away slightly. "You're still my best friend no matter what form I take."

"Damn right."