I remember that day.
It had been gray outside. Gray clouds, gray sidewalks, gray buildings. The world was without color. Only Kayla, who had departed just moments before it happened, stood out, with her hot pink coat screaming, “Look at me!” If only she had known. She wouldn’t have left.
I was alone on that street. Everyone was inside, trying to get away from the cold of winter. I heard what I thought was thunder, and thought it strange that the clouds looked more like snow than rain clouds. So I looked up at the sky.
And that’s when I saw.
The clouds were parting, being torn right from the center and creating a great red hole in the sky. Then it was raining, but not water. They were…something…falling from the sky without fear and landing right in the city. Within seconds of the first alien’s landing I heard a scream, the screech of tires, and sirens. All within seconds.
And that was it. The invasion had begun. I started to run.
Running on snow and ice isn’t very wise, but I was too frightened to care. I just needed to get home. I would be safe there. Wouldn’t I?
I suddenly slid on a patch of black ice, and as I fell my ankle twisted awkwardly under me. I let out a shout as the pain stabbed into me like a knife and throbbed.
Then there was something in front of me.
Looking up from the street, I saw that it was three stories high at least, and it had gray skin – if it could be called skin – and bulging muscles. Its face wasn’t that of a human’s. It was more lizard-like, only it had three eyes, all orange.
That was all the detail I could catch before it began advancing towards me.
At first I was frozen like the snow around me, unable to think quickly enough to move. And by the time I had, it was too late. In a vain attempt I tried to get up and run again, but the pain in my ankle and the ice below me sent me tumbling downwards again. I gasped, the cold air seeping into my lungs, and watched with eyes wide in terror as the great gray monster lifted a car off the street and raised it above its head.
Suddenly it was advancing towards me. I screamed, squeezed my eyes shut, and turned my head away.
I heard it crash, but I didn’t feel it. I felt the heat from the explosion, but I wasn’t burning. I was unharmed. At first I was confused. There had been nothing in front of me. What had stopped the car from killing me instantly? When I cautiously turned my head back in the direction the monster had been, I saw.
I saw him.
At first all I saw was the back of him. He stood knelt in front of me, arms crossed in the shape of an X. His head was down. He had the blackest hair I’d ever seen, with an olive skin tone. What he wore looked like a gray gym suit. When I looked closer I could see a streak of red in his jet-black hair, and wondered for a moment if it was blood.
Slowly, he brought his arms to his sides and rose from his position on the ground. Then he was turning, his head tilting down to look at me. I gasped again.
His eyes were blood red. And they were glaring at me.
I shivered, not just from the cold. He and I regarded each other for a moment – he seemed to be taking me in. I must have looked like a disaster with my coat covered in snow, one leg twisted under the other, and my hair falling into my face.
Suddenly our gaze was broken when he jerked his head to the front, then bolted off at a speed I’d never seen before. He was faster than our champion track runner.
I don’t know what had happened in those brief minutes, but I knew three things for sure. One is that whoever that was had saved my life. Two is that he was not of this world. And third:
I was going to see him again.