When you live in Raw, exciting news is rare to come by. Sure, something almost always happens somewhere, but there’s only so often hearing about Siobhan’s stories from Mrs Davis’ gardening club before it gets boring.
Yes, mom, you grew the largest carrot in all of Raw. I’m proud of you but it just isn’t anything new anymore.
So tonight I was left housesitting on my own because Siobhan and Donovan took all of the younger ones for a trip to Pure and Vasily took his chance to go down to Hoots in hopes of getting some action. He was apparently successful because he still hadn’t returned come midnight. I took this chance to enjoy my free reign over our small television and sat down with some chips and icy lemonade to watch some stupid soap opera which I’d never dare to tune into in front of Donovan.
At some point I had to go to the bathroom and stayed there to freshen up for a few minutes. It was a really hot night so I really felt like washing off just to cool down again. On my way back into the living room though, I stopped in my tracks. I could hear voices speaking over the sound of the tv. Voices that sounded very familiar. I almost fell down the stairs in my hurry to get downstairs. There he was, Leslie Torres, sitting on the armrest of our couch. Mars and Rocco were standing around as well, the latter helping Sandy climb in through the window.
Upon seeing me, Leslie instantly got up and pulled me into a hug, lifting me off my feet before I could protest.
“Jesus!” I gasped once he’d sat me back down. “You almost gave me a heart attack just now.”
“We had to come in somehow, didn’t we?” he argued.
“You knew I was home alone, you could have just rang the doorbell,” I began, but soon stopped and shook my head. I was happy enough to see them and I knew it was hopeless anyways. I greeted Mars and the guys, then reluctantly allowed them to raid our kitchen. I just knew Donovan and Siobhan would think I had suffered some kind of hunger attack in their absence. I was not looking forward to explaining myself to them.
“So,” Leslie said, chewing on a piece of bread with his mouth open, “the four of us are gonna drive out into the hills later. Us dropping by here is basically just an invitation. Haven’t seen you in a bit so I figured you might wanna come.”
I knew what hills he was referring to. If you drive down the road that goes in and out of Raw and you’ve passed the mountain range, you’ll find yourself on a plain again. When you drive offroads however, you only have to go around a mile in until the hills start popping up. The hills aren’t dangerous or hard to traverse but there’s also not much of a wildlife around them. Actually, there’s nothing there at all.
“What’s your business in the hills?” I asked. “They’re just like piled up boredom.”
Leslie snorted. “I’m very glad you asked.” He walked over to Rocco and patted his shoulder with a wide smirk, causing the other man to groan and hang his head. “See, Rocco here says he saw strange green lights in the hills yesterday night. I on the other hand say he was high as balls and was just seeing weird shit. He insists though, so we’re gonna drive out there and see if there’s an abandoned UFO.”
“I didn’t say it was aliens,” Rocco sighed.
“You did, champ. You literally came banging on my door screaming ‘They’re among us now!’ Ain’t no shame in admitting it.” He grinned and looked back up at me. “So, you coming or what?”
I shrugged. I didn’t really have any other plans for the night anyways. “Count me in.”
“Nice. Grab your stuff then, we’re taking Sandy’s truck.”
So we did. I was riding along in the pickup bed together with Mars and Rocco while Leslie and Sandy were sitting in the front. The breeze the speed at which we drove at brought with it was incredibly pleasant. We weren’t going fast or anything, so I had no trouble holding onto my seat. I was really enjoying myself.
“So how have you been?” I asked Mars, forced to raise my voice a little.
She shrugged. “Same old, same old. Pure is nice this time of year but there’s no place like home. Glad we all got together again. I was really getting sick of the folks there too, they’re so… uppity.”
I nodded. “I’m glad you guys are back as well.”
“Of course you are. Can’t imagine hanging around an orchard all day being much fun,” Rocco chimed in.
“Don’t shit on the orchard, man. It’s insanely pretty,” Mars argued. “Wish I lived in a place like that. Sure, might be lame, but at least you got trees and a nice house.”
“It really is great,” I replied. “It’s home.”
Rocco rolled his eyes and Mars gave him a slap on the knee. “Ignore him. He’s just bitter ‘cause Leslie won’t believe the alien story.”
“Right, the aliens,” I remembered. “So you actually think you saw some extraterrestrial kinda thing?”
Rocco merely grumbled in response, but it sounded affirmative. Mars let out a mocking laugh. “Can you believe Down to Earth McGee here has the audacity to complain about us liking the orchard?” she asked and I grinned. “For real though, no offense, man, but you were wasted. Moonshine isn’t good at helping you keep your credibility. And Lord knows what else you were on that night.”
“Just you wait until it happens again,” the tan man warned us with a stern expression.
Not long after, the pickup slowed down and eventually came to a halt. Gazing ahead, I found that Sandy had parked at the foot of the hills. Without the sound of the motor running, it was absolutely quiet out there. It was almost a bit eerie. The night sky was clear and starry and the air had finally started to cool off. I took a deep breath and looked up with heavy eyes, only then noticing my fatigue. I could hear the car door to my side slam as Leslie got out of the truck.
I leaned over the side and turned to him. He smiled, holding out a folded blanket for me to see. “Tired?”
I nodded sleepily. He unfolded the blanket and spread it out on the ground. The three of us readily joined him when he sank down on it. Looking up at Rocco, he told him to stay up and wait for the aliens.
“Yeah, wake us up when they’re here,” Sandy added.
We had a good chuckle and then laid down to get some rest. We must have been asleep for at least a little while actually, because when I opened my eyes again, Leslie’s head was resting on my chest, my legs were draped over Mars’ stomach and when I sat up, I accidentally slapped Sandy square across the face. It had been Rocco’s voice that had startled us awake. Leslie drowsily pulled away from me, a little red in the face, and Mars groaned as she removed herself from underneath me.
“What the hell…” Sandy muttered, but upon rubbing his eyes and looking up at the sky, his voice trailed off.
My jaw dropped.
“Holy shit,” Mars breathed.
“I’ll be damned,” said Leslie.
“See? I told you!” Rocco shouted, pointing up.
The sky was still dark and starry as the sun had not yet risen, but it was illuminated by bright, flickering orbs of green light moving around in the distance. It almost looked like they were dancing. And then something odd happened.
As I was staring at the green lights, the voices of my friends faded into the distance. I must have been keeping my eyes open since I was beginning to feel them getting dry, yet I couldn’t see anything. The lights were still there though, stinging my eyes. There was nothing but the lights.
What I saw and heard next I knew was in my head. It was like I was thinking of it without having lived through it before, as if I was unearthing a memory that wasn’t my own.
I saw two men in odd dark blue uniforms push another one ahead of them. He was dressed in a dirty yellow jumpsuit and was staring right through me, even though I recognized him; I knew him from somewhere. He looked familiar, even though most of his face was obscured by white bandages. There was blood seeping through them from underneath. Some of it was already dried and had crusted and hardened the fabric. I could see yellow stains in places as well, as though whatever wound the bandages were meant to cover up was oozing pus or some other secretion.
I stifled a mix of a gasp and a gag. What did they do to him? I called his name, I don’t know what it was, but I called his name. He turned to me, but although only one of his eyes was uncovered, I could see the confusion in his gaze. He almost looked a bit annoyed. The uniformed men kept ushering him forward, not giving me so much as a short glance as they passed.
And then, as suddenly as it had started, the vision was over again. I wasn’t sitting on the blanket anymore. I was standing beside the pickup, my back turned to it and facing away from the lights. I felt a firm tug on my wrist and when I spun around, Leslie pulled me into his arms. His chest was calmly rising and falling and I could feel his skin and hair through his halfway unbuttoned shirt. His body was pleasantly cool. Once my breathing slowed, his arms dropped and I stumbled a step back.
“What happened?” I asked breathlessly.
Mars cleared her throat and exchanged confused glances with Sandy. “The lights are gone but you were staring at them and when we tried to talk to you, you didn’t react. Then you suddenly jumped up, ran over to the car and screamed ‘David! David!’, like over and over again.”
I reached up to feel my forehead. There was a throbbing pain in my skull. “This will sound crazy but I think I just looked into somebody else’s mind or something,” I muttered.
“See? I told you guys there was something off about these lights. If you ask me, it’s probably extraterrestrial hypnotisation or something! They want you to go crazy!” Rocco explained frantically.
Leslie sighed. “Calm down, okay? I’m not saying this isn’t completely crazy, but… just to be safe… we should probably try not to look at them anymore.”
“Anyone got any idea where they might have been coming from?” Sandy asked.
“They looked to be pretty far away actually,” Mars mumbled, staring up at the sky dreamily. “I’m not sure if it was anywhere nearby at all.”
“Well, I’m not gonna drive around all of the country to look for aliens,” Leslie said. “This could have literally been anything. Maybe we should just leave it be.”
“That doesn’t sound like you,” I remarked, noticing I was still a bit weak on my legs.
Leslie shrugged. “Hey, we don’t need to chase after everything. I know I like to go looking for trouble but to be honest, right now I think I just wanna get you home.”
“You don’t have to worry about me. We should go after the lights. Or you guys should go while whatever made them could still be around. I’ll just wait here,” I suggested.
Leslie firmly shook his head. “No way. We’re getting you back to the orchard.”
“Since when am I fucking helpless?” I protested. “If you don’t go now, y’all are gonna miss out on God knows what but it could literally be mind-blowing!”
Mars cleared her throat. “Uh… don’t get this wrong, Peps, but it might actually be for the best. You didn’t see yourself just now. I hate to say this, but it was far from anything you could just shrug off.” She sighed. “To be honest… you scared me.”
I looked at her in bewilderment. Coming from anyone in Leslie’s friend group, that meant a lot. Mars is the rowdy queen. Mars demolishes store fronts of people she doesn’t like. Mars beat up a guy who called her a homophobic slur. When Leslie arrived at Foul, Mars was brave enough to simply pick him up. Mars doesn’t get scared.
I swallowed and turned to Leslie. “I want to go back home, please,” I muttered, looking down at his shoes.
He sighed softly and patted my shoulder, then turned to face our friends. “If you wanna go look for the lights, I could just drive Pepper home and come back for you guys later,” he offered.
The three of them nodded affirmatively and we said our goodbyes before they excitedly set out for the hills while Leslie and I climbed into the truck. Neither of us said a word until we were back on the street. From time to time, he would take his eyes off the road and glance over at me.
“Sorry for ruining your trip,” I eventually told him.
“You didn’t ruin nothing, dear. I’m just glad you snapped out of it. What the hell was that even? I mean, I know you don’t know but I’ve never seen anyone act up like that. Got me really worried.”
“It’s never happened before,” I replied.
“I bet.” Leslie sighed. “You know what else is weird? I got this… really odd feeling when I saw you like that back there. Like, I don’t know why, but I kinda… nevermind. I can’t even describe it.” Looking back over to me, he gave me a wry smile. “Remember when we first met?”
“Dante’s. Of course.”
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but shut it again without a sound leaving his lips. Instead, he turned back to face the road. When we reached my family’s house, I could see that the lights were still off. Vasily wasn’t home. I remember thinking that was a good thing. It would spare me a bunch of questions.
“You gonna be fine by yourself?” Leslie asked.
“Yeah. You wanna come inside maybe?”
He shook his head no. “I told the others I’d be back for them, remember? Not that I… wouldn’t like to. Are you gonna have the house to yourself again anytime soon?”
I told him no and he frowned. “Shame. Guess we can still meet up outside.”
I nodded and just as I turned to leave, I could hear him mumble something, more to himself than to me.
“Lord knows why your face looked so familiar.”