Believer

The next thing she knew there were birds chirping outside her window and a wash of morning sunlight streaming throughout her bedroom. Just like every other morning, Victoria could hear her father in the living room, chuckling loudly having no doubt come across on of his favorite sitcoms. Brushing the hair away from her eyes, the young woman gave a low sigh.

Yes, this was a typical morning for her. Another day of waking up on her own to the vile sound of her fathers wheezing laughter. The very realization of all of it would have made her roll over and go back to bed had it not been for the vague memory of what had happened the night before. Sitting up, she savored her fresh knowledge the way one might desperately attempt to savor a cough drop.

Out of the corner of her she noticed a flicker of color near her bedroom window and instinctively turned her head to see what it was. Propped up against the windowsill was a bundle of wildflowers. Ones that were eerily similar to the ones that grew in the field just down the road but seemed much more charming in the arrangement someone had left them in.

At first Victoria believed she was seeing things. The only thing that convinced her otherwise was climbing out of bed and going over to touch those flowers. As her fingers slide across the petals of a deeply colored poppy she found herself completely dumbstruck and unable decide whether she should fear this so-called 'offering'.

Receiving a gift from anyone was a rare occurrence in her life. Even when her mother was still around they only came two times a year; her birthday and Christmas. But ones that came without any occasion behind them were completely unthinkable. Standing up she made her way towards them, entranced by the sickly sweet aroma they gave off. Only one name came to her mind; Revaz.

A part of her didn't want to accept any possibility of him being anything real. Had it not been for the flowers; violating the sanctuary of her critical mind, she would have dismissed the violet eyed being as a dream. Looking out her window at her fathers barn, she could not help but feel suddenly overwhelmed, rather like her entire life had just come crashing to the ground.

It took a lot of will to back away from the flowers. A part of her wanted to bask in their comforting scent, which reminded her so much of the care-free days of her childhood. To make herself feel better she inwardly told herself he'd only given them to her out of some obscure form of pity. Perhaps in some ways it was like giving a dog a treat.

When she emerged from her room a few moments later, having tossed on an old pair of shorts and the cleanest looking t-shirt in her laundry basket, Victoria received no greeting. Instead she was forced to listen to the television while rummaging through the kitchen cupboard for a package of instant oatmeal. For the moment she was actually pleased with this silence between herself and her father. Normally he pestered her with dull and unimportant questions during breakfast.

Pattering around in the so called 'silence', she ate quickly, almost inhaling her food when on most days she would have taken her time. Ever since school ended Victoria had done most tasks much more slowly. Without the fear of homework and going to bed early looming over her shoulder her pace had eased. All she had to worry about now was avoiding the dreaded phone calls from so called 'friends'.

The whole time Victoria was enjoying her oatmeal she stood in front of the kitchen window with her eyes glued on the barn. Even such a short amount of time spent on eating gave her a chance to come to grip with the secret lurking just across her fathers property. If she was lucky he would already be gone by now, off to do the mission he mentioned to her the night before.

Even under this impression however, Victoria was inclined to check. 'Just in case.' was what she told herself as she pulled on her sandals once more and headed out the front porch, calling over her should that she was going for a walk to satisfy any suspicions her absence might have aroused in her father.

Fresh mildew covered the grass that morning and off in the distance she saw the paperboy puttering along the edge of the road on his bike. The door was propped open though she distinctly recalled closing it the night before. There were no other footprints in the grass outside other than her own and still she was convinced Revaz was long gone. Or perhaps she just wanted him gone so desperately she believed wishing would make him go away.

She was disappointed however, for he was not gone. In fact when she stepped inside he was standing there, directly in the center of the barn. His arms were clasped neatly behind his back and though his expression was bland Victoria felt as though he'd been waiting for her.

“You slept well.” He spoke in that concluding tone that suggested he was not asking her whether or not she had a pleasant sleep but repeating a fact already known to both of them. A chill ran down her spine as she closed the barn door behind her.

“I thought you would be gone by now.” She mumbled out of the corner of her mouth, still very much afraid of Revaz and unaware of what he was capable of. “You said you had some sort of mission to do.”

He had not moved since her arrival. In fact from what she could tell Revaz wasn't even blinking. In the daylight the color of his eyes seemed more intense, and the markings across his skin, which she had believed to resemble tribal markings the night before, were now visibly closer to the spotted patterns of a lizard. He turned his head for a brief moment, watching a rat go scurrying across the floor. Victoria shrieked when she noticed it, instinctively stepping back although the creature was nowhere near her.

“You fear those vermin?” Revaz asked her, turning just slightly so that his body was facing her.

She said nothing at first, pinning her arms against her chest uncomfortably. “Rats are crawling with disease.” She eventually replied, though it was mingled with reluctance.

He smiled. Or at least Victoria thought he was smiling. With a slight nod of his head he acknowledged some aspect of understanding for her fear, though the rat didn't seem to trouble him as much. “I am already on my mission by the way.”

“Really?” She tensed, noticing that he had taken a few steps closer to her. “What is it? Scouting out to prepare for some sort of invasion?” In her mind she imagined all the old UFO films her father allowed her to watch when she was a child. The little green men with bulbous heads used to give her nightmares.

Revaz shook his head, unamused, probably more so by what she was thinking. “You seem to think my species has nothing better to do with itself than concur other planets. I believe I already mentioned that my kind does not have the population to do so. What is this?”

Without even a pause for breath he switched the subject, holding out a dust covered photograph of her parents at their wedding. For a moment, she just stared at it. The happy couple smiling back at her was nothing like her parents now. They seemed like two very completely different couples. One that was young and happy, the other divorced and bitter.

“That's a photograph of my parents at their wedding.”

“What is a wedding?”

Her stomach clenched with a hint of frustration. It took her a moment to remind herself that Revaz was not human. “A wedding is a special...ceremony where two people make a promise to stay with one another for the rest of their lives. Its a really important event usually.”

“You only have one parent with you though. Is your mother away?”

She shook her head. No. “She left years ago and never came back. Sometimes...when two people are married for a long time but they don't want to be together they get something called a 'divorce'. It's a different event where the promises made at the wedding are taken back.” Toying needlessly with a loose thread hanging off her shirt, Victoria sighed. “My parents divorced a long time ago...”

“It is a sad thing when a divorce happens?” He had lowered the picture when she looked up again.

“Sometimes...It depends on why it happened.” Victoria shrugged, finding herself unable to fully explain everything that she wanted to. But how could she? Marriage and divorce were such broad spectrum's. “You never answered my question from before; why are you still here?”

“What makes you think I'm not supposed to be here.”

“Oh come on.” Victoria growled as she buried both of her hands into her hair. “You can't seriously believe I'm going to think your planet sent you all this way just to hide out in someones dirty old barn!”

“Perhaps the barn is a part of the mission. Did that never occur to you?” He'd stepped closer. She could tell by the crunch of hay beneath his feet. He seemed quit intrigued by her all of a sudden. God knows why. The only time Victoria had anyone listen to her so intently was when she was 12 and still trying to become some famous public speaker.

“If that's part of your mission, it's a stupid mission.” She sighed. Outside she heard the sound of a car door slamming shut. Turning around she poked her head outside the barn door. Her fathers truck was driving slowly off the property. He'd probably gone to run errands. Or perhaps to meet with a friend.

With her back to him, Victoria was unable to watch every move Revaz made. It was not until it was too late that she felt his body press up against hers, indicating that he was standing right behind her. Instinctively she wanted to back away. Or in the very least slap him for violating her personal space. But then she imagined him frying her into a pile of dust with some horrible 'death ray' device and the idea seemed to shrivel up into a dry husk.

“Your father is leaving?” He questioned and she felt a gust of warm air seep across the back of her head. Squirming uncomfortably she shoved the door open and lunged a few steps forward. Luckily her father had just turned onto the road by then and did not see her or the strange creature lurking in the doorway of the barn.

“He's probably heading into town. He goes there whenever he's not working.” She replied, unable to get rid of the uncomfortable 'crawly' feeling on her skin. There was an awkward pause, and for a moment all he seemed to do was stare off into the distance. Then suddenly he looked at her, frowning as though having forgotten she was there.

“Did you like my gift?”

She was puzzled by the question for a second or two, and then Victoria remembered the flowers she had found in her bedroom this morning. “Yes. They were very...nice.” She squeaked, feeling her cheek flush with a twinge of embarrassment. “Why did you do that for?”

“I saw a picture of a boy giving a girl those.” He shrugged, clearly unaffected by whatever social blunders that plagued Victoria. “A picture in a book...in there.” He added, motioning towards the barn. No doubt he was talking about the collection of dusty old magazines her father kept somewhere in there. They had belonged to Victoria's mother, after she left they seemed to linger about the house for ages until at last he moved them out to the barn. Why he didn't simply throw them away baffled her.

Her eyes caught a glimpse of her house. For some reason she felt like that was the safest place for her to be right now. In the comfort and warmth of her home instead of outside with a potentially dangerous alien. She shuddered. Thinking of the word alien still gave her the creeps.

“I should go now.” She said, fumbling with her words as she started to back away from him. Revaz said nothing, but instead watched her, as though her behavior was completely new to him. The color of his eyes still frightened Victoria. And when he took a step to follow her she could not help it anymore. Screaming softly the young girl spun around and went running towards the house.

She had never run so quickly in her whole life, jumping over a prickly bush and dodging an old rotted log in the middle of the field. She did not heard Revaz follow her, but in her mind she imagined him being just a step behind her, perhaps angry at her for running away like that.

Racing up the front porch she swung the front door open, almost tripping over her own feet in her struggle to get the door closed as well. Though very much convinced she had been followed, she did not see Revaz anywhere near the front of the house. Still, Victoria refused to be tricked. She locked the door, and set about making sure the kitchen and living room windows were both tightly shut and had the blinds drawn.

When at last her fit of compulsion had passed she zombie walked her way into the bathroom and collapsed on the blue tiled floor. As the first signs of a sob broke through she found herself unable to come up with any excuse for her bizarre actions. She was frightened!

For the first time in her life Victoria knew of someone who genuinely scared the living daylights out of her. Worse yet she didn't know his intentions and could not tell anyone about him.

In the back of her mind she wondered if perhaps she'd overacted to Revaz and his actions. He really hadn't shown any signs of hostility towards her yet. But then as she thought about it the horror films came flooding back and a chill swept through her entire body.

She must have sat there on the bathroom floor for an hour, just crying away. Crying because she was convinced Revaz was out to kill her. No matter what he said. Crying because the thought of a man getting so close to her unnerved her. Crying because he had the nerve to bring up her mother.


It all came over like a river. But once it did she felt better. A strange thing, considering hoe firmly she believed that bottling things was much better for her. Even stranger still that in only took striking at the nerve very softly, in Revaz's case questioning her about her parents, to set her off. She had always fancied herself too strong and smart of a person to give in to wild emotions. In the past Victoria would have strongly denied it if anyone had made her cry like this. But not 'everyone' was an alien like Revaz was, and perhaps this aspect of fear made her more emotional?

Sitting there, with mud and grass covering her legs and a stunned state of mind, she could not bring herself to leave. The bathroom, which was covered to the ceiling in blue tiles, had absolutely no window, and the door was the most solid one in the house. She was safe in there she thought. Safe as a baby in it's mothers womb.

Besides of which she was dirty, and having skipped a shower the night before, now reeked like something loathsome. But was it okay to have a shower? In her petrified state the worst scenario seemed to come into her mind and with images of the shower scene from psycho, she opted for a bath instead.

After checking the door lock at least a dozen times, Victoria turned on the water and started to undress. The old shorts and shirt she had thrown on that morning peeled off her sweaty skin like a band-aid. She cringed as she noticed herself in the mirror; skinny and gawky looking.

She had never liked the way she looked. Being a very thin girl didn't promise her the attention and natural beauty most magazines claimed it would. But then again cosmo wasn't exactly well known for spouting praise of how attractive mousy redheads were. Especially not ones with a slight case of knock knees and a habit of chewing their fingernails in public.

Peeling her panties off, she turned away from the mirror, unable to face this intimate part of her body. Lastly was the bra, with the tangled up strap she'd forgotten to fix before putting it on this morning.

By the time she had completely undressed and had checked the door lock another four or five times the bathtub was nearly half full. With steam rising from the water and fog filling the room, the bath seemed to welcome Victoria. Sliding into the tub she gave a low sigh, relieved by the way the water seemed to relax her tense body.

Lounging in the pleasant heat, she felt completely at ease, and for a moment she forgot about why she was even in the bathroom. Reaching for the bar of soap on the ledge of the bathtub, she scrubbed away the dirt and grass stains that had collected on her feet, no doubt from the mad dash she'd made towards the house.

As time slipped by she worried less and less about her surroundings and allowed her mind to wander. Coincidentally her mind eventually drifted back to Revaz. Not a shock to Victoria as she dipped her head beneath the water for a moment. Besides her father, he was the only male to ever show any genuine interest in her. Alien or not this was a drastic change in her life, though she dismissed her brief fantasy as something she should have outgrown years ago.
“Maybe I overacted.” She told herself as she pulled her head up out of the water once more. “He only took a step towards me. I completely overacted. Maybe I should apologize. If he's still out there. Or maybe just leave him alone until he goes away...”

Something cool touched her hand. At first she believed the ceiling was leaking again, until it occurred to her that her father had fixed the roof a few months ago. Glancing down, she was alarmed to discover that the cool thing that had been touching her was a long leech-like creature. It stretched across the bathroom floor, having pulled itself up onto the bathtub as though it were made out of pure muscle.

Her eyes felt like they were going to pop right out of their sockets as she gaped at the creature, noticing that it was so long she couldn't even see where it ended, the rest of it's body was somewhere beyond the bathroom though as it had wriggled underneath the door.

To her horror, another leech quickly appeared. This once nearly twice as long. And it reached out to her like a snake, immediately wrapping itself around one of her wrists.

Victoria screamed as loudly as she could, terrified by the creatures that had suddenly invaded her bathroom. The one that had hold of her wrist tugged at her gently, and she cried, attempting to pry it off of her. These leeches were much stronger than they looked. They held on tight, refusing to let go no matter how hard she struggled orb how loudly she shrieked.

Soon enough the other one had bound itself around her leg and both creatures began to tug at her, as though trying to coax her towards the bathroom door.

“Noooo!” Victoria wailed as she lost her footing in the slippery tub. Falling over onto her side she was met by a sharp stinging sensation as her head slammed against the tub. Her vision blurred and she tasted blood in her mouth but had no time to react to her injury. For no sooner that she had landed, everything went black for her. The last thing Victoria thought of before she passed out, was whether or not she would wake up again.