I was having the most horrible dream. The kind filled with evil aliens invading Earth, and being sucked up into the sky, and watching the entire city go up in flames.

I’m glad to find myself back in bed, a cozy blanket covering me. Darkness surrounds me, and I breathe a sigh of relief. Time to get up and prepare for my lecture this afternoon. The students will be disappointed they won’t get ‘the’ Sarah Granger as their teacher, but it can’t get any worse than my fucked up dream.

I try to open my eyes… but I can’t.

Strange.

Am I still asleep?

I try to lift my hands, to stretch my arms above my head, but I can’t move them either. Something that feels like leather straps seem to be keeping them in place. I try to wiggle my big toe, but I can’t move my feet either.

Oh god.

What’s happening?

Did I hit my head in the shower or something? Am I in some kind of coma?

“Er slkave est woch.”

The alien voice sends a shiver down my spine — or it would, if I could move enough to shiver! It feels close, like it’s almost being whispered into my ear. It can’t be…

“Nem die nadel.”

“Stimmt.”

A whirring sound, like a dentist drill but a thousand times worse, makes every fiber of my being flood with panic.

It wasn’t a nightmare.

I’ve been abducted by aliens.

My eyes fly open, and what I see is even worse than what I could have imagined. Two Nezdek are hunched over me, their giant, white, ghostly eyes peering down at me. The aliens are tall and thin, their skin so pale it’s almost translucent. Their white hair is tied up in a ponytail that reaches down their lower backs, and they are dressed in armor the color of the sun.

The one on the left holds in his bony hand a massive drill which buzzes angrily, like a swarm of bees. My paralysis fades away, and I feel the control of my muscles returning to me. They must have used some kind of drug on me to keep me so sedated.

I only now realize that I’m totally and completely naked. Leather wraps are bound tightly across my body, keeping me pressed down against the cold metal slab.

I scream. I scream so hard and so loud that the two Nezdek wince and back away, scrunching their scary faces up.

I’m not letting them dissect me like some bug.

I struggle as hard as I can, but it’s no use. I’m bound too tightly. The aliens approach me with a strange device they try to place into my ear. I turn my head, but then a sharp, surgical knife is placed on my throat.

“Net bewgen.”

My stomach drops as I feel the strange thing slide into my ear… and the next moment, I suddenly understand their strange, guttural language.

“Can you hear me, slave?”

I turn my head towards the Nezdek. He’s frowning at me with his big bushy eyebrows. I’m not going to dignify that question with an answer.

Irritated, he snaps his fingers.

“Are you listening?”

He turns towards the other alien.

“This one is broken, Matif,” he says. “Look at her eyes. Braindead. These humans are weak.”

“No, impossible, Lord Erran,” the alien responds. “According to my readings she can hear us perfectly. Can you not, human?”

I glare as hard as I can at the two Nezdek, praying that it’s enough to turn them into vapor. Sadly, it’s not.

“Answer my question then, slave!” Lord Erran barks. “Where is the one you call ‘Sarah Granger’?”

Oh god.

As if having a bunch of students yell at me because they wanted to see Sarah wasn’t bad enough… now I’m getting kidnapped by these creeps because I filled in?! This is the last time I’m ever substituting, that’s for damn sure!

“You can start by using my name.” I scowl.

Lord Erran laughs haughtily. He grabs the drill, and the sound it produces makes my stomach drop.

“Talk, slave, or I’ll cut out your brainstem and I’ll get the answer from your grey matter directly.”

I swallow the lump in my throat.

Can he really do that?

“I don’t know,” I say.

The alien glares furiously at me. “She was supposed to be there!”

“Well, you got me instead. Sucks, right? You’re not the only one disappointed, if you can believe that.”

The pale alien raises his bushy eyebrows questioningly.

“Forget it,” I say. “Anyway, now that we both know we’ve got a mix-up going here, there’s no shame in dropping me back off, right? You don’t need to take me all the way home, just anywhere on Earth will do fine.”

“Bah!” the alien spits. “The Czar will have my head for this. I promised him the fiery blonde.”

His creepy eyes scan my naked body.

“Perhaps she will do,” he mutters to himself. “Matif, sedate her. Her babbling annoys me.”

Oh hell no. I’m not going back under.

Using every ounce of strength I have I manage to slip my hand out of its bonds. My hand freed, I loosen the wraps around my naked body as quickly as I can. The Nezdek are taken by surprise, and before they can stop me I jump up, snatch a surgical knife from the counter and point it right at the two aliens.

The Nezdek hiss at me, pointing that giant buzzing, whirring drill my way.

“Don’t move,” I snap. “Turn this ship around!”

The two aliens laugh, and the anger makes my cheeks flush bright red.

“Stop it!”

“You’re as fiery as Sarah,” Lord Erran says. “The Czar will enjoy breaking you.”

The two Nezdek circle me, and my eyes dart from one to the other. Taking on one alien would be difficult, but two? While naked? That’s a whole different story.

Erran lunges for me with his long, bony arms. Panicked, I slash at him, and he lets out a piercing scream. Blood gushes down his pale face — a deep cut across the left side of his face, across his eye.

“You bitch!” he cries, his hands covering his face.

I look at him, stunned, my hands still gripping the surgical knife. Did I just do that?

Then I feel a prick in my left shoulder, and a dull pain instantly courses through my veins.

I already know it before I see it — a needle is sticking out of me.

The damn Nezdek drugged me again.

I stumble and fall to the ground, pulling over a table of surgical supplies, fighting the drug as hard as I can… and failing miserably.

The last thing I see before I pass out is the pale face of the Nezdek doctor smiling down at me, baring his sharp teeth. I feel the last bit of hope I had left flow away along with my consciousness.