I fumbled through my mountain of comic books, trying to find my favourite issue of ‘Bloodslaughter’, without much luck.
‘C’mon, Yaz, you’re taking forever.’ My best friend Quinny moaned from the beanbag chair in the corner. I stuck my middle finger up at her without looking up. Erin laughed, while nosing through my collection of video games.
Quinny had been my best friend for about four years. We were both the “outcasts” of our school, due to us being interested in nerdy comics, horror films, video games and heavy music instead of following what the popular girls liked.
Quinny was quite tall, with long brown hair, glasses and silver braces. She wore red trainers, ripped dark blue skinny jeans and a baggy red and black jumper with a character from our favourite horror film “Wake the dead” in large print on the front.
Erin had been our friend for about a year. She used to live in London but moved to our town after her mum got tired of city life and finally saved up enough to move. She also shared our passion of nerdy things. Erin was short, with long snowy blonde hair. She wore purple trainers with scuffs and holes, black leggings, and a white hoodie with a demon print on the back.
I was about the same height as Quinny, with long, thick light red hair. I was wearing black trainers with ripped black skinny jeans and a hoodie of my favourite band “Heaven’s Gone.”
We live in Handleshire, a small town in a rural part of England. You get the occasional market or fair that comes up, but it’s mostly a very uneventful place to live.
Quinny sighed, and pushed her glasses back up her nose. She wriggled around in the beanbag, until her legs were in the air and her head on the floor. I rolled my eyes.
‘Are you sure you have it?’ Quinny piped up again.
‘Yes.’
‘Because it’s taking ages to find.’
‘Shut up, Quinny.’ I finally locked eyes with the familiar cover art. ‘TAH-DAH!’ I exclaimed, plucking it from the pile. Quinny spun herself back upright, her long brown hair getting swept into her face as she fumbled about on the beanbag. ‘Brilliant,’ she smiled, taking the comic from me and sliding it into her bag. ‘I’ll give it back next weekend.’ Erin stretched across my bed to reach her bag, before pulling out a board game. ‘Shall we play “witches cauldron”?’
We must have been playing for hours, because suddenly there was a knock at my bedroom door.
‘Yaz, we’re going out,’ my dad poked his head round the door. ‘Are you guys staying the night?’ He asked Erin and Quinny.
‘If that’s ok, Mr Blanks.’ Erin replied.
‘Of course, call me Dan.’ My dad smiled. ‘I’ll leave you some money so you guys can order a pizza.’
We thanked him and said goodbye, my mum yelling her farewells from downstairs.
‘What time is it?’ Quinny asked, fumbling around in her pockets for her phone. ‘Fucking hell, it’s six already!’ Erin replied.
‘Shall we order some food then?’ Quinny asked. ‘I’m starving.’
‘Greedy bitch.’ I laughed.
‘Greedy witch.’ Erin chuckled, holding up the witch figure from the game . We all laughed.
I picked up my phone and began ordering us a pizza from our local chain.
The rest of the evening was spent eating pizza and playing our board game until 11 o’clock came around.
‘Let’s watch a horror film.’ Erin suggested.
‘Which one?’ I asked her. ‘We can watch it on the big TV in the living room.’
We migrated to the living room and Quinny began flicking through the giant list of horror films the streaming site had to offer. I went into the kitchen to grab some drinks and snacks.
‘Found one!’ Quinny yelled. ‘It’s about a sea monster invasion.’
‘That sounds so terrible,’ Erin laughed. ‘It’s only got a rating of two!’
‘Alright, fine,’ Quinny sighed, continuing her quest to find us a decent movie. ‘Then what about this?’
‘Oh, “Invasion of the other kind”, I’ve heard about this one, it’s meant to be awesome!’ Erin cheered.
We all sat on the couch as Quinny hit play. It was an older movie, with a slow and menacing intro tune. The scene cut to a small American house on a corn field. In the background, loomed a dark ominous figure.
‘It’s the alien!’ Whispered Erin. The scene then cut to inside the house. A man wearing a flannel shirt, blue jeans and a farmer hat was sat in a chair in front of a TV, with only static showing. The camera angle changed to reveal that the man had been hollowed out.
Erin grimaced. ‘Eeww, yuck!’ She stuck her tongue out. ‘Brilliant special effects though.’
We continued watching. About 45 minutes went by and I suddenly needed the toilet. I told Quinny to pause it. ‘No,’ Quinny rolled her eyes. ‘Just piss yourself, this is a good bit.’
I jumped on her and threatened to relieve myself on her if she didn’t hit pause. Quinny obeyed.
I hop off the couch and began walking down the dimly lit hallway to the downstairs toilet. I complete my mission, and as I’m washing my hands I heard a loud bang. ‘What the fuck.’ I muttered out loud. I unlock the bathroom door and quickly go back to the living room to see what the evil presences I call friends were up to.
‘What the fuck were you doing in there?’ Quinny asked me.
‘Yeah,’ laughed Erin. ‘We thought you’d broke the toilet.’
I looked at them puzzled. ‘That noise wasn’t me…’ We all looked towards the stairs. ‘Maybe something fell over in your room?’ Erin suggested.
‘Go look.’ Quinny told her. ‘No,’ Erin hissed. ‘Yaz can look, it’s her house.’
‘We can all look.’ I piped up. ‘I ain’t going up there, are you mad?’ Erin laughed.
‘Then stay down here,’ I tell her. ‘It’s usually the ones who stay behind that get killed anyways.’
Erin followed me up the stairs, along with Quinny.
We slowly pushed my bedroom door open and turned on the light. Nothing was out of place.
‘Maybe it was your parents’ room?’ Quinny asked.
‘Shh.’ I whispered.
We all stood still as we heard a faint scuffling sound from outside.
‘What the fu-‘ Quinny was cut off by a sudden loud knock at the front door. We all jumped. I quickly turned the bedroom light off. ‘Why did you do that?’ Erin hissed.
‘I don’t want them to know we’re home.’ I whispered back. ‘Yaz are you thick, the living room’s lit up like Christmas.’ Erin panicked.
Quinny took a breath. ‘Guys, calm down,’ she told us. ‘It might just be Yaz’s parents.’ A slight relief washed over me before I realised they would use their key. ‘Let’s go downstairs and look.’ I whispered. The three of us tiptoed to the stairs and slowly made our way down, being careful not to disturb the creaky steps. We got on our hands and knees and crawled into the living room. Thankfully, my parents had drawn the curtains before they left so nobody could see in. I reached up and turned off the lamp. Quinny had snuck off to the window without my knowledge. She peeked through the gap in the curtain.
‘There’s a man outside,’ She reported. ‘Tall, short hair, wearing a t-shirt.’
‘Quinny get down!’ I hissed. The man knocked on the door again.
‘Go away,’ Erin whispered quietly, ‘We don’t want anything.’ The knocking continued. I didn’t know what to do, so I pulled out my phone and sent a text to my parents in our group chat, explaining the situation. My mum replied almost instantly. ‘We’re on our way back, be 10 minutes. Find somewhere to hide and stay calm.’ I told Quinny and Erin what my mum said, and we all took refuge behind the couch.
We all jumped at the sound of a key in the lock. The front door opened and in walked my parents, their friend Sasha following behind. Sasha and my dad both belong to the same boxing club, and they all regularly go out for meals and drinks together.
My mum fumbled around for the light switch. ‘Yaz?’
‘Down here.’ I called back. The room lit up and the three of us sheepishly climbed up from our hiding space.
‘What’s happened then?’ My dad asked.
I told him again, and explained how the knocking stopped about two minutes ago.
My mum sat on the couch with us, trying to calm us down as Quinny began a vague description of the man. As she was talking, we heard the knocking begin again.
‘Stay in the living room.’ My dad told us as he and Sasha crept towards the door. I craned my neck over the arm of the sofa so I could see.
‘Who’s there?’ My dad yelled firmly.
We heard a voice outside, but couldn’t make out what he was saying.
My dad walked up to the door, moving the potted plant aside to look through the thin window to the side of the door. His expression went from anger to shock.
My dad didn’t say a word, he simply stepped in front of the door and opened it.
‘Lucas-‘ He began.
The man smiled a wide smile.
‘Hi, dad…’
We were all sat in the living room. Sasha was in the kitchen, putting the kettle on.
The man sat in our dark grey armchair, staring intently at my parents.
‘Lucas… how, where have you been?’ My mum choked.
The man shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter. I’m here now.’
My mum was tearing up at this point.
Me, Quinny and Erin sat on the corner sofa, exchanging glances.
My dad broke the silence. ‘Yazmin, this is your older brother, Lucas. You were only a baby when he…’ my dad trailed off. ‘It’s been 14 years.’
Lucas looked at me. ‘I remember you.’ His expression was vacant.
Sasha reappeared, carrying a tray of hot beverages. She placed it on the coffee table before taking a seat on the footrest.
‘This is Sasha,’ my mum said, ‘She’s a family friend who does boxing classes with your dad.’
Sasha gave him a warm smile. ‘Nice to meet you.’
Lucas simply nodded.
‘And this is Erin and Quinny, Yaz’s friends.’ My mum continued. Erin and Quinny waved politely, Lucas simply nodded again.
He then looked around. ‘Where’s Baxter?’
My parents looked confused. Baxter was the Labrador we had when I was a baby.
‘Lucas, Baxter passed away. He was 10 when you…’ My dad trailed off again.
Lucas seemed confused at this, but he exhaled heavily and forced a smile.
‘Very well.’ He looked around the room perplexed.
‘What’s that?’ He asked, pointing to the corner of the room.
‘Oh, that’s a “HouseMate”.’ My mum told him. ‘You can ask it to play music and things like that.’
Lucas stared at it for a long time.
‘Have you never seen one before?’ My mum asked.
‘No.’ Lucas replied, confused. He looked around the room again. ‘I’d like to go to my room now, if that’s ok.’ My parents looked at each other. ‘We’ll make some sleeping arrangements.’
‘I don’t have a room?’
My dad raised an eyebrow. ‘Lucas, you’ve been gone for nearly 15 years. Yaz took your room when she was 8. We waited so long for you to return but nothing ever came up despite everything. We’ve kept most of your belongings. They’re in the attic. We just couldn’t deal with the pain and had to move on in a healthy way.’
Lucas looked at him with a hurt expression. ‘So you forgot about me?’
My mum started crying again. ‘We never forgot you, Lukie. We never did.’
‘Of course we didn’t,’ my dad added. ‘We held onto hope for so many years. We never gave up looking. But, there was just no sign, not a trace. You were practically declared dead for Christ sake. And we still don’t know where you’ve been. We need… we need to call the police.’
Lucas leaned forward. ‘No, no I don’t want to talk to police. It’s ok, I will sleep in the spare room.’
‘I really think we should call them. You’re still a missing person, they need to know-‘
My dad was cut off by Lucas, who put his hand up and firmly stated no.
‘Well, doctors at least. We need to get you checked over. We need to make sure that-‘
‘Dad, I’m fine.’ Lucas smiled, his expression softening. ‘I just want to rest and get to know everyone. I do not want to involve the police or doctors or anyone.’
‘Let’s just let him settle,’ Sasha spoke up, sipping her tea. ‘We can deal with the logistics another day, for now just let him be comfortable.’
My dad nodded. My mum shook her head, drying her eyes again.
‘I just can’t believe… it’s been 14 years. I never thought I’d see you again. I’ve always dreamed this day would come, but in my heart I never thought it would. You were our 9 year old little boy when you disappeared. Now a 23 year old man is sat in front of me and we’ve lost so much time.’ My mum dabbed her eyes with her tissue, my dad squeezed her hand.
‘We will make up for lost time, mum.’ Lucas smiled. He took a drink from the tray on the table and sipped it. He then perched his lips, raising an eyebrow at the mug. ‘Very bitter.’
‘I can grab you some milk and sugar if you’d like,’ Sasha got up from the footrest. ‘I wasn’t sure who wanted black tea and who wanted milky, your parents are very different in their tea drinking tastes.’
‘It’s fine,’ Lucas told her, taking another sip. ‘I like it.’
Sasha looked at the clock on the wall. ‘Blimey, look at the time!’ She exclaimed. ‘I’d best get back home, my husband will think I’ve ran off. Is there anything I can do before I go?’
‘Thank you Sasha, you’ve done more than enough for us,’ My mum smiled. ‘Text us when you’re home safe.’ Mum looked at us. ‘Best you lot be getting to bed too.’ We nodded, bid everyone goodnight and headed up to my room and going to bed.
‘Quinny, Quinny, are you awake?’ I whispered into the darkness.
‘Yeah.’ Quinny whispered from her sleeping bag on the floor.
‘Erin, are you-‘ ‘Yes.’
I rolled to the side of my bed to face them. The light from the full moon lit up my room enough to see them both. ‘Tonight was wild.’ Quinny sat up and rested her back against the wall. ‘You can say that again,’ Erin said, her sleeping bag rustling as she turned. ‘You never told us much about your brother.’ ‘I never knew much,’ I told her. ‘All I know is I was a baby when it happened. Mum and dad were in the house and Lucas was playing outside in the garden. Then next minute, he was gone.’ ‘What do you think happened?’ Quinny asked. ‘My parents always thought he was kidnapped,’ I replied. ‘They never let me play outside unsupervised when I was younger.’
‘That’s horrible.’ Erin whispered. ‘Anyways, I need a wee.’ I announced, throwing the covers off and stepping over the sleeping bags strewn across my bedroom floor. I entered the bathroom and unzipped my onesie. Once finished, I headed over to the sink and washed my hands, chucking some water over my face. ‘What a night.’ I whisper to myself. I unlock the door and turn left into the darkness, then jumped. Lucas stood in front of me. He wore only his blue jeans, no shirt or shoes. His short black hair was slicked backwards.
‘Hello, sister.’ He smiled.
‘Hi, Lucas.’ I replied awkwardly. He chuckled. ‘They never used to call me Lucas,’ He nodded towards my parents room. ‘I was always “Lukie”.’
‘Oh yeah?’
‘Yeah. I can’t sleep, and judging by all the whispering I assumed you couldn’t either.’
I looked at him sheepishly. He just chuckled.
‘I remember the paper thin walls, you used to keep me up all night crying.’ He smiled at me.
Lucas stepped aside and I began to walk past him, but he gently put his hand on my shoulder.
‘Do you ever play in the woods outside, just over our garden fence?’ He asked.
I was confused. ‘Not really no, why?’
‘Just curious.’
He released my shoulder and disappeared into the bathroom.
I stood there for a second, taken back by his unusual question, but ultimately decided to just go back to bed.
I woke up at around 9 to Quinny letting out an ungodly fart.
‘You’re absolutely fucking disgusting, get out of my house.’ I yelled. Erin burst into laughter.
We chatted for a while before getting dressed and heading downstairs. My dad was already up, making pancakes.
‘Morning Mr Blanks, oh I mean Dan.’ Erin caught herself.
‘Morning girls, I’ve made you some pancakes. I assumed you were all up from all the commotion from your room.’ He joked.
‘How did you sleep?’ I asked him.
My dad sighed. ‘Not very well, to be honest.’ My dad replied. He placed a large stack of pancakes on the dining room table and told us to help ourselves.
We grabbed our plates and began drowning our breakfast in syrup.
My dad sat at the table with us, placing his mug of black coffee in front of him.
‘I called the police this morning, just between us,’ he said in a hushed tone. ‘I just had to let them know he’s come home. I don’t know if they’re going to investigate but it would just make us look bizarre if people saw him out and about while still being a missing person.’
‘Probably for the best.’ I replied through mouthfuls of pancakes.
He sipped his coffee. ‘So, how’d you lot sleep?’
Sunday afternoon went by uneventfully. Quinny and Erin went home at 3 and I spent the rest of the day reading comics. 6 o’clock came around and my mum called me for dinner.
I sat in my usual spot at the dining room table across from Lucas. He didn’t say anything, just stared intently out the large kitchen window.
‘Been up to much today?’ I asked him.
‘I went out,’ Lucas replied with a smile. ‘Went for a walk around the town.’
‘Has much changed?’
‘A bit.’
My mum placed a large dish in the middle of the table. ‘Pasta bake! Does anyone want a drink?’
We all finished our plates. I took my empty plate to the dishwasher, thanked my mum for dinner and went back to my room. Lucas hadn’t moved when I left.
A couple of hours passed and I decided to have a shower. I grabbed my towel from my drawer, picked out some berry scented shower gel and headed to the bathroom. I pushed the door open with my foot to find Lucas staring at himself in the mirror.
‘Woah, sorry!’ I exclaimed, startled.
‘Don’t be.’ Lucas replied, not breaking eye contact from his stone faced reflection.
‘Uhh, you all good?’ I ask him.
‘Is anyone all good?’
‘I guess not.’
I backed out of the bathroom and went back to my room, deciding to just pass on the shower to avoid another awkward conversation.
I put on my onesie and lay on my bed, texting the group chat of me, Quinny and Erin.
‘Monday tomorrow, ugh’ Erin texted.
‘I know, how shit!’ Quinny replied. ‘How’s your brother, Yaz?’
‘He’s unusual. I guess whatever happened to him was fucked up so I can’t blame him.’ I told her.
‘I bet.’ Erin replied.
I decided to get some water before calling it a night. I walked down the creaky staircase into the kitchen and grabbed a cold bottle of water from the fridge. As I walked past the living room, I heard strange sounds, like fast whispers. I stopped to listen, but couldn’t make out what was being said. The living room was dark, which made things even weirder. I slowly opened the door and turned on the light to find Lucas stood there by himself. ‘Oh, uhh.’ I muttered. ‘Hello sister.’ Lucas smiled.
‘Sorry, I just heard weird noises in here.’
‘Paper thin walls.’ Lucas grinned. I nodded. ‘Goodnight.’
I turned off the light and shut the door, clutching my bottle of water to my chest. I tried to tell myself not to judge, my brother had clearly been through hell and he’d get better as time went on. I pushed everything to the back of my mind and went to bed.
It was a sunny Monday lunchtime, and me, Quinny and Erin tucked ourselves away behind some trees on the school field to eat our lunch and play a card game. ‘DragonHell, I cast the spell of Fires of hell.’ Erin exclaimed, laying her card on the grass. ‘Void,’ I chuckle. ‘I counter that with DemonSin, Fires of hell don’t affect those who come from hell.’ I pick up her card. ‘For fuck sake.’ Erin cursed.
‘Huh, what’s that guy doing?’ Quinny pointed out, through a mouthful of sandwich. We followed her gaze to the school gates at the other end of the field.
‘Is that… is that Lucas?’ I squinted my eyes to get a better look. My heart dropped. ‘It is, what the fucking fuck?’ ‘Umm, why’s your brother staring at a school?’ Quinny asked me. ‘I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out!’ I snapped. I began packing up my things.
‘Hey, take it easy,’ Quinny told me, putting her hands up. ‘He can’t see us here. If you want to remain inconspicuous then let’s stay here.’ I looked around. She was right. It would be hard to see us from the playground, let alone from the other side of the field. I looked back to the school gates to see if Lucas had seen me, but he was gone.
‘It is a bit weird though, isn’t it, I’m not just being a bitch?’ I asked them. ‘Yeah, it’s creepy.’ Quinny replied. ‘Oh, c’mon guys,’ Erin piped up. ‘Have sympathy, he’s probably just looking at what his old school looks like now.’ Erin’s words calmed me down. ‘Yeah actually, you’re probably right.’
The bell rang signalling the end of break, so we packed up our things and walked back across the field. The rest of the day went by, and the three of us began walking the short journey home. ‘Well, I’ve got a load of homework that I’ve put off for ages so I’m gonna get on that but we can play online later. See you both tomorrow!’ Quinny waved goodbye as she crossed the road into her street. ‘Yeah, and I’ve gotta do chores. My mum said she’ll buy me the “Soul Harvest 2” game if I clean the house.’ Erin skipped off in excitement up the hill to her house.
I carried on walking down the road, fumbling my keys out of my pocket. I let myself in the front door and dump my schoolbag in the hallway.
‘Hi Yaz, how was school?’ My mum called. ‘Fine.’ I shout back. I flopped myself on the living room couch and switch on cartoons. About an hour went by when there was a knock at the door. ‘Can you get that, Yaz?’ My mum called. I sighed dramatically, pulling myself off the couch and to the door.
I turn the handle to open it and was shocked to see two police officers stood on our doorstep. ‘Hello, are your parents in?’ The male officer asked me. I stammered. ‘Uhh, yes, umm they’re… let me go get them.’ I turn around and run up the stairs. My mum was in her room folding laundry, and my dad was in the bathroom. ‘The police are here.’ I tell my mum.
‘What?’ She asked me, confused. I heard the sound of the toilet flush and some rustling in the bathroom, then my dad appeared. ‘You told them then?’ My mum looked at him.
‘I had to, Tess, what else can we do?’ My mother nodded in acceptance. ‘No, you’re right. Let’s go and see them. They’ll probably want to interview Lucas once he’s back from his walk.’
My parents went downstairs and led the officers to the living room. I stayed upstairs on the landing, craning my neck to see downstairs. The female officer spoke first.’Mr and Mrs Blanks, I’m so sorry to tell you this, but remains have been found in the woods outside your house. We believe it to be Lucas.’
‘Wh-what, that can’t be right. He was only here a few hours ago!’ My dad choked. ‘I think you’ve got the wrong person,’ My mum added. ‘We’ll come and identify the body, then we’ll show you it’s a mistake. ‘The officers sounded confused.
‘Mrs Blanks, you must understand there’s no body to identify. Your son went missing 14 years ago.’
‘Well that can’t be him then. Our son came home on Saturday. He’s an adult.’ I crept to the top of the stairs and peered down. The police officers looked at my parents with confusion and sympathy.
‘This doesn’t make sense,’ The male officer raised his eyebrow. ‘We’ve matched dental records and DNA evidence provided from the toys and clothes given when the case opened. It’s a direct match.’ My dad put his hand up. ‘Tell me exactly what’s going on. Why did nobody find anything for all these years? That woods was searched inside out.’ The female officer sighed. ‘Some young kids snuck through a hole in the fence down the road by the river to explore the woods behind the gardens. They saw a bag hanging from a tree so were curious and looked inside. The clothes and toy inside there were somehow perfectly preserved. They match the description you gave of your son the day he went missing; a red shirt, dungarees and a dinosaur teddy.’
‘This isn’t right,’ my dad exclaimed. ‘I know my son, the boy-the man that showed up on my doorstep is my son! Same eyes, same hair colour, same scar on his cheek from a bike accident, same sticky out ears!’ The officers looked at each other, concerned. ‘Where is this person now?’ ‘He’s out,’ my mum told them, barely holding herself together. ‘He went out for a walk.’
I crept back upstairs, my head spinning. Who was this man, and why did he perfectly resemble my brother? I quietly entered my room and pulled my phone out of my pocket. I texted the group chat everything I’d overheard. I heard the front door shut, so I walked downstairs to see my parents. They were still sat on the couch, looking pale.
‘What happened?’ I asked them. My mum didn’t answer. My dad told me as best as he could. I sat with them on the sofa, a haze of confusion clouded over us as we tried to figure out what was going on. I then heard the stairs creak…
‘Mum, dad, who was that?’ Lucas slowly came down the stairs and stood in the doorway.
‘Wh-what? Who are you?’ My dad spat. ‘I’m your son, Lucas, remember? Or did you forget me?’ ‘When did you get back?’ My mum asked firmly. ‘We saw you leave.’ Lucas didn’t answer. ‘I made it very clear I didn’t want the police involved.’
‘We didn’t,’ my mum lied. ‘And they just showed up to tell us-‘ ‘That they found “me”?’ Lucas laughed.
‘Who are you?’ My dad asked firmly. ‘What happened to my son?’ Lucas sighed, as if defeated.
‘I really hoped it wouldn’t go like this. We had it all planned out. The body was meant to have been collected tonight. That’s why I left it on the tree. I guess those fucking kids can be blamed for all this.’ ‘Wh-what the fuck!’ My dad screamed. Lucas continued.
‘We’ve been studying you all for a little while now. The plan was for me to live alongside you, grow with you, learn from you. But that really didn’t work out.’ He laughed, as if he’d just been caught out in a prank. We sat speechless as Lucas continued.
‘You see, we took an interest in this town. It’s small, quiet, if anything goes wrong we can just make it all go away, not like in cities. We watched Lucas from the woods. Sweet kid, always energetic. Always left outside to play alone….’
‘Fuck you!’ my dad growled.
‘We lured him into the woods one day, he was a good climber. Then we took him in deeper. Then we took him up.’
‘Up, what do you mean up?’ My dad snapped, fists clenched.
‘To the ship. We took good care of him. In fact, I’m the perfect model of what he’d look like right now.’ My dad stood up and swung at Lucas, put Lucas grabbed his wrist and threw him backwards, throwing him into the metal fireplace. ‘Dan!’ My mum screamed. My dad sat up, blood dripping from a cut on his head.
‘We spent years creating the perfect clone. Such wasted efforts now really.’ He laughed, looking at us. ‘I’m sure you heard me sneaking through the bathroom window Saturday night? Paper thin walls, after all.’ My mouth fell open. ‘The banging… why did you break in?’
Lucas grinned. ‘I had to stash my bag, it’s important to keep the subject on me for the first day so I can absorb their scent, a familiar smell to you. But I decided not to walk in the front door with it, I figured that might raise some suspicion. So I hid it behind the shower curtain.’
My mum cried. ‘Please… please tell me this isn’t real…’ Lucas shrugged.
‘So, yo-you’re an alien?’ I stuttered.
‘You could say that,’ Lucas cackled. ‘There’s a lot of different species of these “aliens” as you call us. But my species isn’t as advanced as others. The higher up’s don’t care much for Earth, or this galaxy. But my species has always enjoyed Earth. Humans are fairly easy to duplicate, and they fight over such mundane issues. We set ourselves a little project to clone and live with you all. We planned to gain more information, then overrun. But that did not play out.’
‘G-get out,’ My dad choked. ‘Leave my family along and get out!’
‘I’ll leave. But I’ll have to take my sister.’ Lucas beamed at me.
‘What, she’s not your sister. You’re not going near my daughter!’
‘Are you sure? Because I think you’ll find she’s of my species. You never wondered why she has red hair, while all of ours is dark?’ My dads mouth fell open and my mum turned pale.
‘This family wasn’t our original plan. We took the baby of another couple, planned to duplicate it and put her back to grow and expand our knowledge of your kind from a very young age. But our duplication process takes time, even though duplicating one of our own into something as young as a baby is fast it still took a few weeks. By the time we got back the couple had, shall we say, given up on themselves after their offspring was missing.’ He looked out the window to the garden.
‘We’d put too much effort and resources into this. One of our own was in duplication and we couldn’t waste it. So we switched with a family we’d already recently duplicated. It helped that both offspring looked similar, blue eyes and no hair yet. With everything going on in your lives looking for your son in grief I’m not surprised nobody noticed.’ Lucas stared at me intently.
‘I took a long time coming back. It took longer than expected to perfectly duplicate myself into the host. By then, you wouldn’t be looking for a 9 year old. So we waited, let the duplicate age into adulthood so I would have more freedom. We had preserved the memories of the offspring up until the age of duplication so I had some basic knowledge of this family and this species’ functions. But now that this has been discovered and years of planning is wasted, I think it’s best if myself and my sister leave Earth. You’re more advanced than we’d first thought, and I’m kicking myself for being careless with the bag in the woods, but we can come back in some years after you’ve passed to try again… Now, sister, let’s show them our true form.’
Lucas said some things which sounded similar to the hushed noises I heard from the living room that night, and I suddenly felt as if I had burning hot needles under my skin.
I cried out in pain and fell to the floor, my parents screaming my name.
The skin on my hands fell away to reveal long grey fingers, blood poured from my body like a Hollywood horror movie, my brain throbbed as my skull began to change shape and my hair pushed out in clumps before everything went black. I choked on my hands and knees before forcing myself to look up. My parents stood at the other side of the room, staring at me with a look of sheer terror.
‘Mum…dad…’ I tried to speak, but it felt as if I no longer knew how to talk and a crackly noise escaped my mouth instead. ‘You see now, this is our true form.’ I turned to look at Lucas, who had also transformed. His skin was a greenish grey, his head was oval and his eyes were a dark red colour with no pupils. He was tall and slim, with long grey fingers and short, sharp claws at the end. His teeth were small, but razor sharp. To anyone else, he would look humanoid and terrifying, but to me he looked familiar. ‘Let’s go now, sister.’ Lucas extended his long, slender arm towards me.
‘But, my parents, my friends…’ I stammered. I looked over to my parents. They were screaming and crying, huddled in the corner like horrified children. ‘Get out!’ My mum howled. ‘Fucking get out!’ I tried to speak, finding myself unable to cry in my new body.
‘They won’t understand you,’ Lucas told me. ‘You don’t have the vocal range to communicate with them outside of your duplicate. We will be collected out in the woods, come along now. You aren’t welcome here anymore.’ I look one last look at my parents, who had crumpled to the floor sobbing, before taking Lucas’ hand and leaving.
I took a breath, knowing this would be my last time setting foot in the home I grew up in, with the parents who raised me and everything that made me me was about to be gone forever, and everything that was me was now soaked into the living room carpet. As the back door closed, my phone lit up from the puddle of blood, hair and clothing on the living room floor.
‘They found a skeleton? What the fuck, then who the fuck’s staying with you?’ Erin messaged. ‘Yeah no, this is way too weird now. Yaz?’ Quinny replied. ‘Yaz?’ ‘Yaz, worried, reply!’ ‘Yaz, that’s it. We’re coming over…