I'll Tell You a Story

The Visitors

Agnes is desperate to remain asleep. It's almost midnight but her tiredness is not paralyzing her pubertal body in her bed. Worse, her genius mind is igniting her imagination into running wildfires. Her head is a whole enigmatic galaxy, and discoveries never stop.

As her eyes suddenly reflect the nightlight's glow, she quietly creeps to the edge of her bed. Her babysitter is just downstairs, watching some biopunk movies and eating fresh home-made popcorn. Under her bed, she pulls out some books about the universe and aliens. She cracks a grin upon reading the words embossed on the covers. She runs her fingers on the surface.

Afraid to be caught, she grabs her tiny black flashlight and hides herself under the thick nature-printed bed sheet. It complements her pale lemon pajama. The mellow light travels on every word in every page, slow enough for her to follow. Her lips are pursed in astonishment while her eyes feast on the pictures.

Out of the blue, her head hammers. She fixes, her gaze on the edge of the book. At first thought, the night at last is lulling her to sleep. But then, she's wrong—the book is moving, and it's because of a tremor. She wants to scream, yet it seems her throat is dry—no words escaping from her mouth.

Suddenly, she hears a high-pitched noise that she presses her hands over her ears. The mechanical sound grows louder as she tries to muffle it. Agnes feels a certain surge, and her eyes are now prickling with tears. As silence reigns again, the harshness of the light from outside passes through the windows. It is so bright that she squints her eyes as soon as she tries to look at it.

"I will offer you to save yourself..." she suprisingly hears a metallic voice.

Nervousness bubbles in her stomach. The voice hit her like a physical blow. Her knees sag as if she is thunderstriken.

"...if you help us wipe out humanity in this planet," the metallic voice continues.

After a few seconds, the harsh light vanishes like it is just her imagination. There's tension in the dead air. As Agnes tries to overcome her fear about what she heard, she unexpectedly pee in her pajamas. This time, she really needs to call her babysitter. She runs downstairs as she calls out her name. However, it looks like her babysitter is gone. When she becomes convinced that her babysitter's not around anymore, her fear deepens its roots inside her.

The rain starts to drizzle off the porch roof, and splatters on the wooden steps. Agnes almost screams at the top of her lungs when the lights go off. Luckily, the flashlight is in her pocket. She opens it, and its light directly hits the glass door. She sees two silhouttes which look like humans, except for the one whose hair is like quills of porcupines.

"Let us in, or it will be your doom human," Agnes hears the metallic voice once again.