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guards that tried to shoot him and
Autumn.
    But three months after that night, he
began having the dreams. Only, they weren’t dreams. Not really. At
first, he thought they were, but a month after they started, he
realized they were glimpses of that night. His memory was slowly
returning.
    Though they never moved their mouths,
he heard their thoughts.
    “ A fine specimen,” one of
the gray aliens thought to the other three around it.
    The one on his right inserted a needle
into his arm.
    He tried to move but he was frozen in
place, as if an invisible hand pressed down on him and kept him
still. He struggled to breathe, but the invisible hand clenched his
lungs. Acute pain traveled in his vein and up his arm.
    Then he woke up.
    Gasping, Alex threw his sheets off and
stumbled to the bathroom in his apartment. He flipped on the switch
and squinted in the bright light. With trembling hands, he grabbed
the bottle of pills from his medicine cabinet and quickly opened
the lid. The cabinet closed as he turned on the faucet to fill up
the paper cup with water. He turned it off and plopped the pill
into his mouth.
    As soon as he glanced in the mirror on
the cabinet door, he wished he hadn’t. It was back...watching him.
The gray alien stood behind him, silent and not moving. It just
watched him like it did every night ever since his fiancé and
millions of others disappeared. And ever since the aliens announced
to the world that they existed. Peace and prosperity they promised
the world. But this one promised him terrors—and fulfilled that
promise every night. At least, it did until he saw a psychiatrist
and got the pills.
    Taking his eyes off his unwelcome
companion, he gulped the water down and closed his eyes. He put his
face in his hands and willed the frantic pounding in his heart to
slow. Is this how it would always be? Would the monstrosity in
alien form continue to haunt him? It fed off his fear. It craved
it. It thrived off of it. It was a parasite.
    But that’s where the pills came in.
Once the pill began to work its magic, the fear ebbed from him
until his mind cleared. His body relaxed and he exhaled. Opening
his eyes, he looked at the mirror. The alien was gone. Relieved, he
left the bathroom, decided to leave the light on, and went back to
bed.
    On the nightstand was
Marianne’s picture. Five months had passed since she vanished, and
though he’d searched for her, she was nowhere to be found. Neither
were any of the other millions of people who also vanished. She was
gone. And she wasn’t coming back. He caressed the frame with his
thumb. They were supposed to marry four and a half months ago. If
they had, she’d be with him in bed at night. Then he’d have her
right by him instead of that alien who stood by his bed watching
him. Watching. Always watching. And occasionally giving him
thoughts to increase his fears. But that ability to plant those
thoughts departed when he started taking those pills. So now, it
just watched. And waited. What is it
waiting for? He hoped he’d never find out
because whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.
    With a long sigh, he decided it was
time to let Marianne go. He couldn’t spend the rest of his life
holding onto the hope those people would return. Whatever world
those aliens sent them to, they were long gone. While the
medicine’s numbing effect still worked on his body, he threw the
picture in the trashcan beside his nightstand and settled back into
bed.

Chapter Two

    Autumn Daniels stared at the cross
necklace in her hand. Whenever she had it with her, she felt close
to Marianne, which was why she carried it everywhere she went. In
the light, it almost seemed to glow.
    “ Nice necklace,” Alicia
said as she went behind the counter.
    Autumn looked over at her co-worker
and smiled. “It was my sister’s. She never took it off.” She
slipped the necklace into her pocket and cleared her throat. “So,
what’s on sale today?”
    “ Summer clothes. Anything
with short