Melissa pulled Jennifer by the arm and squeezed a little too tightly “I need you to cover for me with Jerry and I shouldn’t be too long. Just tell him that I had a female issue to deal with and that should get him off my back for the time being.” She knew Jennifer well enough to know that she would bend over backwards to help her.
“What about Andrew? He’s been calling all morning and I’ve been putting him off for as long as I can. He claims that it’s all a big misunderstanding and that you should listen to him. You already know my opinion and I would rather you chase down that young man that just left here than stay with a pig like Andrew. He’s not right for you and you were right to send him packing.”
“I should’ve known that Andrew would not go away easily and there was going to come a point that I was going to have to deal with him. I thought that I made my feelings crystal clear. It wasn’t exactly like we had left things on good terms. For him to come crawling back only made him look desperate. Maybe it’s true that you don’t know what you have, until it’s taken away from you.”
“I don’t really need a lecture at this moment, Jennifer. If you can just do me this favor, I would be most appreciative.” Melissa grabbed her coat and went out to unlock her bicycle from the chain that was around it. She was fiddling with it a little bit too much and in her nervous energy, she had temporarily lost sight of Cole.
“He really did get underneath your skin. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. Just be careful, because we still don’t know anything about him. He’s very quiet and he keeps to himself and there has to be a reason for that.” Jennifer was standing there watching her best friend and Melissa grabbed her bike and began to pedal fast towards the last place that she had seen him.
“There’s no way that he could get away that quickly. I just have to think about this town. I know it almost as well as I know the back of my hand.” Melissa was getting that frantic feeling, a well up of emotion that told her that she was going to lose the one shot to get to know the man of her dreams.
She thought for a moment that she caught sight of him going into a nearby park, but without knowing for sure, she was going to have to check it out. She moved quickly through traffic, hearing the incessant honking and irate people in their cars giving her a piece of their mind. There were plenty of expletives and it almost hurt her ears to hear such profanity, so early in the morning.
For a guy that was walking, he seemed to be pretty quick and light on his feet. She had been pursuing him for the last 10 minutes and it was taking all her effort to stay in eyesight. She would lose him for second and pick him up soon after, breathing a sigh of relief that he hadn’t gotten away.
“I don’t know where you’re going, but I’m not going to lose you. If you think that you can drop into my life and make me feel these things and not do something about it, then you have another thing coming.” There’s was a moment there that she was almost willing to give up the chase, but this thing they had between them was too electric to let slip away. She could always wait, until he got back to the diner tomorrow, but there was no telling if he would even come back.
She came to a thickness of trees and she was able to weave back and forth in the shadows and away from his prying eyes. For some reason, she felt like it was necessary to hide and not attract his attention in any way.
Melissa hadn’t even realized how far she had gone, until suddenly she found herself lost and unable to find her way back. There were no tracks, no visible signs of any human life and not even the sound of the road was there to give her a sense of calm. The underbrush was heavy and now her only choice was to catch up to him and get him to bring her back to civilization.
Weaving through, she did find that she could avoid most of the downed trees and stumps, although the cracks in the trees seemed a little too recent. As far she could remember there was no storm that I’d gone through the town in at least a month. It was then that she could see that there was a pattern to the downed trees and trampled down high grass. It was going in a straight line and it became a little disconcerting when she noticed that some of the branches had burn marks.
A lot of scenarios were going on in her head, but what she saw next completely took her by the throat and squeezed, until there was no life left. A ship that was shimmering like it was there and not there was now visible to the naked eye. She stopped her forward momentum by slamming on the brakes and coming to a stop. She swallowed hard, not quite believing what she was seeing and then the man that she had come to have these feelings for put out his hand and suddenly disappeared within.
She got off the bike, stepped closer to the strange craft and that one spot where he had disappeared was a little different from the rest of the ship. “I know that Jennifer would tell me to turn around and go back, but I’m not about to do that. What the hell am I getting myself into?” She put her hand out and when she thought better of it, she felt this wave go through her and her hand was being pulled towards the ship.
The feeling of panic came back, as her hand then her body became almost immersed within whatever material made up this vessel.
“This has to be some kind of trick or maybe a movie set that I didn’t know about. It can’t be real…there’s no way that this could be real.” She didn’t have a whole lot of time to think about it, as she felt this tingling sensation up her arm and then it along with the rest of her body began to meld into the ship even deeper. It was a little unnerving, but then suddenly she emerged into a bright light that almost blinded her.
She stood there completely transfixed, unable to move or speak for several seconds. When she finally pulled herself out of whatever shock she was in, she turned and saw that there was no way to get back out. The opening was now closed and even as she pushed her hands up against it, it became a solid surface. She heard mumbling, but the voice sounded strange and the language was not anything that she had heard before.
“I should get the hell out of here, but I’m too curious for my own good. This guy is not what I thought he was.” Seeing that she didn’t have much of a choice, she continued to walk forward, feeling her feet almost floating in midair. She wasn’t, but the floor seemed like there was no substance whatsoever.
She walked into a hallway and there was no sound and the silence was making her feel like her head was going to explode. There was no noise whatsoever and the only thing that she could hear was her own heartbeat beating a million miles an hour.
Seeing the ship outside and being inside was a lot different than she expected. It felt like she had been walking for days, but it didn’t occur to her that it was just because her feet were being pulled along in the wake of the ship.
During the journey, she continually looked for a way out, but there was no semblance of a door or even a window. Everything was just, so sterile that if she didn’t know any better, she would think that she was in some kind of sanitarium.
Melissa had told Jennifer that she wouldn’t be long, but it felt like an eternity since she had seen her face.
“You really shouldn’t have come here, Melissa. I don’t think that I can let you leave here knowing what you know about me.” She whirled around and saw him. He looked exactly the same that he did in the coffee shop.
“Without stating the obvious, what exactly is this and what exactly are you? You’re definitely not of this world, because if you were, this current technology would be unheard of.” She tried to move, but her feet were unable to respond. She pulled at her legs, but it was like she was stuck in quicksand.
“I really shouldn’t have come here and nobody even knows where I went. I don’t know what compelled me to come here, but I couldn’t stop myself.”
Melissa felt strange like her head was spinning and her eyes were becoming unfocused. “I don’t… feel so good. Maybe I should lie down somewhere for a few minutes to catch… my breath.” The only thing she saw was his smiling face and it was quite apparent that he was the cause for her condition. “I… I can’t think straight and what exactly was I saying before…” Her mind was shutting down and she felt her limbs becoming too heavy to carry her weight.
“I’m sorry about this, Melissa, but apparently I found the one that I was looking for. I had to be sure and I did a complete physical on myself and it’s clear to me that you’re the one. I thought it was going to take forever and my time here is very limited.” His voice sounded like was coming through a long distant tunnel. Her eyes fell and there was nothing, but his voice to concentrate on. “By the time you wake up, things are not exactly going to be the same, as you once remember.” Melissa had no idea what he was talking about or why this sense of dread carried her on its shoulders.