Star Bright

Cathleen stared in silence at the flimsy barn as the moonlight shined down upon its metal roof. She could feel the invisible pull tugging at her, with such ferocity that Cathleen had to force herself to press her feet into the angled roof to keep herself from falling off. Fear of falling, though, had diminished greatly in her mind. She almost didn’t care about any of the danger she could put herself in. The need to get in that building and discover the truth was ripping into her mind like a tornado. But she just needed a moment to collect herself. Whatever it she was about to face, it was going to change her life forever, and there was no way that Cathleen could deny that.

She glanced out the corner of her eye at Davis. The only thing about his shiny crystal like skin that disturbed her was how unnaturally comforted Cathleen was by being next to him. The thought…of her being able to do that someday, it felt surreal. As if she had been an ugly caterpillar her whole life, and that she was on the very of transforming into a dazzling beautiful butterfly. Watching him, Cathleen wondered what it would take for her to do that. To have her entire body become covered by a living crystal. She attentively brushed her fingertips against her gem. While thinking of her potential, Cathleen wasn’t even aware that Davis’s eyes were focused on her. When she did, Cathleen turned her head away slightly.

Davis’ strong hand fell on her shoulder, and Cathleen shuddered. “Come on, Cathleen. Let’s go.”

She looked back at him. There were no words that she could find to explain what she was feeling in that moment, so she did the only thing that she could do. She nodded. Davis smiled slightly, and without a word scooped her up in his arms. Cathleen gasped slightly, clamping her arms around his neck. Davis flexed his legs, and launched them off the roof. There was a momentary feeling of fear that surged through Cathleen, which resided an instant later when she realized that they were falling to the ground much slower than should have been possible. They floated to the damp earth, with Davis’s feet touching it with the grace of a feather. Once they were on solid ground, Davis put her down. Cathleen backed away slightly and shot him a puzzled look.

“Best not to ask right now.” Davis said, pulling his shirt back on. Cathleen looked around for Lance and Maude, but couldn’t see them anywhere. When she looked back at Davis, he had returned to his fleshy pale skinned body. He pulled his shirt back on and motioned for her to go. Nibbling slightly on her lip, Cathleen began to walk towards the barn. The ground felt like it was made of some kind of super magnet, because she had to struggle with each step that she took. Davis was by her side after just a few short strides, but he didn’t make any effort to help her along. And just for that, Cathleen was incredibly thankful. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate both Davis and Lance’s concern for her, she just didn’t want them babying her. There were some things that she would rather do on her own. Enduring the difficult short journey from her house to the barn, Cathleen’s pulse fired off with such intensity that she could feel the blood surging all through her body. After so many long years of feeling completely adrift in the world around her, she was about to discover her place in this great mystery. As she approached the front doors to the barn, she spotted two hazy outlines. Their mutual voices gave them away long before her eyes came close enough to make them out clearly.

“This is not something that concerns you. You don’t have any right to even be here.” Lance grumbled with his broad arms folded across his chest.

“Like hell I don’t!” Maude snapped, poking a finger into Lance’s chest. “First off, Cathleen is my best friend, I know her better than you’ll ever know. Second, we don’t keep secrets from each other, ever. Third, and this is probably the most important one, my little ass almost got eaten by a MONSTER tonight. And adding the fact that my mom’s car is completely totaled, I think that gives me plenty of right to know what the heck this is all about.”

“You don’t have the first damn clue…”

“Lance,” Davis said in his soothing voice. “stop it. Maude and Cathleen are as close as we are. She has a right to know what this is all about.”

Lance shot him a sour look. “You think I’m acting like this just because I like being an ass?” He turned back to Maude. “I’m trying to give you the chance that none of us have. You can walk away from this right now, but if you go into that barn with us, there’s no going back. You’ll be stuck, for life. You think you can handle that, stripy?”

Maude put her hands on her hips and stepped right up to Lance. “Listen, jerk. I’m sure you think that you’re hot shit and all that. I’m sure a lot of people are scared of you, but I’m not.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, it’s so, blood eyes. So don’t think that you’re going to intimidate me from helping out my best friend.”

“Maude, Lance, please stop.” Cathleen pleaded between the two. “I…I can’t have the two of you fighting. Not now.”
Maude nodded, and looked up at Lance. The big red eyed boy glanced at all of them, then shrugged his shoulders. “Fine, have it your way. But don’t say that I didn’t try to warn you.”

With the fight temporarily subsided between them, Maude and Lance backed away from each other. Maude immediately went to Cathleen’s side, while Lance stalked over to the doors of the barn. When he lifted his arms, Cathleen gasped.

“Oh my god, Lance, your arm.”

Lance glanced down at his arm. From the look on his face, he hadn’t been aware of the nasty gash that was on his right forearm until she mentioned it. Lance raised it and inspected the wound. “Damn, must have been from that critter earlier.”

“Holy shit.” Maude said, gawking at the large injury.

Lance rotated his arm to get a good view of his wound. The wound looked deep and jagged, how it wasn’t bleeding profusely was a mystery to Cathleen. After a once over of it, he lowered his arm. “Ah, don’t worry about me. It looks worse than it is.”

Davis eyed his friend suspiciously. “Are you sure, Lance? That looks pretty bad.”

“Hey, it’s not bleeding anymore. So don’t worry about it.”

“That…thing, did that to you?” Cathleen asked.

Lance smiled at her. “Hate to say it, but yeah, it did.”

“What the hell is it?” Maude demanded.

Lance grumbled and gave her a stupid look. “I wish I knew. Only thing I can say is that bastard’s meaner than a junkyard dog.” He twisted his large frame to an angle where they couldn’t see his injury. “Hey, stop worrying about me. Let’s just get in this joint.”

He turned his back to them, and Cathleen squeezed Maude’s hand. Looking at Lance, she couldn’t help but feel immense guilt in her chest. While he had been risking his life to protect her, and getting hurt in the process, she had kissed Davis. Cathleen felt so dirty for having done that. Before she had time to dwell on her own feelings, Lance broke her train of thought when he ripped the heavy pad lock and chain that had deterred her for so many long years like it was made out of paper. He looked over at her and winked, which caused Cathleen to shudder.

The joking, almost cocky manner that Lance seemed to never be without vanished in the next instant. His face hardened, becoming very serious as he wretched the barn doors aside. There was nothing within except an endless darkness. A stale, musky smell assaulted Cathleen’s nostrils and she had to cover her mouth. Maude’s grip on her arm tightened. Davis walked ahead of them to stand beside Lance. Together, the two pale boys peered inside. Neither of them said anything, and Cathleen had a strong suspicion why. Although she couldn’t see anything, she could feel it. Wave after wave of it rippled through the air, washing over her and causing her crystal to throb. It was calling out to her. Louder now than ever before. Unable to hold herself back, Cathleen took a deep breath and marched straight into the darkness. As she was surrounded by the seemingly endless blackness, she waited for something, anything to happen. Would some unseen thing lurking in the darkness grab her? Would she fall through an invisible hole and disappear forever? Neither seemed very likely, especially with Lance and Davis right behind her. She knew that neither of them would let her get hurt, and certainly wouldn’t willingly send her into a dangerous situation. Fear and excitement wrestled through her mind in an epic struggle as she stumbled around blindly.

Intense light suddenly consumed her. Cathleen yelped, shielding her eyes as she stumbled back. Small hands caught her. “Hey, Cat. Easy, they just turned on the lights.”

Cathleen cautiously raised her eye lids, and she saw hazy outlines of everything. Her heart was hammering without let up and she had to fight for each breath that she drew in. Blinking several times, everything became very clear to Cathleen. She rotated her head from side to side, taking in every little detail of the barn’s interior. By the thick layers of dust that had settled upon everything and the multitude of cob webs that stretched across everything, no one had set foot in this place for years. She saw a bunch of old farm tools, parts of a truck engine, and an empty work station. That was it.

To say that Cathleen was disappointed was a sever understatement. She hadn’t known what to expect, but certainly not something this mundane. A sinking feeling formed in her, and her head fell slightly. All those years of wondering, all those countless nights of dreaming about what lay within, and that endless feeling of being drawn to something within it…and this was all that she had been rewarded with? Just as the sinking feeling began to overwhelmed her, Cathleen felt a jolt spark through her crystal and into her. The spark invigorated her with new life and determination. Without consciously thinking about it, her eyes homed in on a small bare spot on the straw covered floor. Only really looking at it would give the spot away, because there was nowhere else on the barn floor that didn’t have at least something lying about randomly.

The hairs on her arms raised as both Lance and Davis stepped on either side of her. “You can feel it.” Davis whispered to her. “It’s calling for you.”

“Where…where is it?” Cathleen asked weakly. “What is it?”

Lance walked ahead of her without a word. He stopped at the edge of the bare spot of ground and knelt. His thick hands felt around on the straw ground, and almost instantly grasped something. “Your old man did a really bad job of hiding it.” Lance said as he rose to his feet. “But then again, I guess he must have known that eventually this day would come.”

Cathleen leaned forward slightly, and saw two thick lengths of chains grasped in each of Lance’s hands. She traced their length down into the floor, and gulped. She already knew what they were for even as Lance pulled on them. A heavy scraping sound filled the dank interior of the barn, and the bare spot of floor, which in fact was a very large square piece of wood, was pulled aside. A small cloud of dust gusted up from the square hole, creating a hazy layer throughout the air around them. Maude backed away slightly, coughing lightly. Cathleen, her pulse throbbing, took a hesitant step towards the hole.

Lance, unhindered by the dust, leapt inside the hole. With a faint straining in his voice, he leapt back into view. Hoisted over his head…was a fairly large object that was covered over with a thick cloth. Showing only the slightest sign of effort, he placed the object down very gently. Folding his arms, Lance stepped back and looked Cathleen right in her eyes. “Go ahead, Cat, you have to do it.”

Cathleen swallowed hard. This was it. She knew it. A lifetime of feeling empty, of being lost, of never truly feeling like she belonged anywhere, even in her own home. It all had boiled down to this place, this moment. She was about to discover the truth that had eluded her throughout her entire life. She took one cautious step towards the shrouded object, then another. Beads of sweat were rolling freely down her face and her hands were as slick as if she had dunked them in water. Her hand reached out for the object with caution equal to that of touching a wild animal. The deep fear of the unknown crept up from its black pit in her stomach and tightened its choking coils tightly around every portion of her body. Cathleen stood frozen as she hovered over the object. It was as if she were perched on the edge of a great chasm that had been formed throughout her whole life. And now she needed to know the truth. Clenching her teeth tightly, Cathleen grasped the cloth and ripped it away.

What lay underneath…was something that Cathleen had never before seen in her entire life. It was without question metallic, although the metal looked smooth beyond belief and its surface reflected the faint glow of the overhanging lights with just as much effect as a mirror. The entire thing’s body was of a cylinder shape, narrowing down to a smooth end on one side, with the other side being much larger. Four large oblong pods, which Cathleen immediately associated as metallic eggs, dotted the large end. The whole design of the machine was overly simplistic, yet it was stunningly elegant in its design as well. But what was such an odd machine doing being hidden under the floor to her parent’s barn? Cathleen tried to come up with a million answers, all of them a vain effort to divert her from the real answer that she knew was lurking in her heart yet she didn’t want to accept.

Shaking all over, Cathleen took another step towards the device. Her crystal was pulsating now harder than it had ever done before. It was as if Cathleen now had two hearts, each beating in perfect harmony with each other, and both yearning her on to do what she knew she had to. Reaching out, unable to even breathe, Cathleen cautiously touched the smooth surface with the tip of her index finger. The machine suddenly hummed to life, and Cathleen jumped back. The tiny spot where she had touched it glowed in the exact same light as her crystal. From that small pinpoint, thousands of tiny lines of light snaked out across the shinny surface. In the blink of Cathleen’s eyes, the entire device was completely covered from one end to the other by the glowing lines. From within it, a series of metallic sounds resonated out. And then, a portion of the object’s top slide away, revealing an interior. Her throat tightening, Cathleen nervously peeked her head over the opening and gazed within. What she saw made her knees buckle.

The interior was hollow. Made as if to fit something inside. Judging by the extensive padding that lined it, the device was made to carry something very soft and vulnerable. When she worked her eyes over all that was within, she made the connection almost instantly. This machine…it was some kind of transport. But it was impossible for someone as big as her to fit inside it, that was painfully obvious. In fact, it only appeared to have been big enough for…

Her lips trembling, Cathleen looked over to Lance and Davis. “What…”she gulped. “what is this thing?”

Davis and Lance looked at each other, an unknown look passed between them and they nodded their heads slightly. Lance folded his arms and looked down at his feet. Davis gulped and took a deep breath.

“Cathleen…” he whispered, his voice on the verge of breaking. “that thing behind you…is what brought you here.”

“Brought me here?” Cathleen repeated in a shallow voice. “From…where?”

Davis’s dark blue eyes fixated on her, staring her straight down. “I think you already know the answer to that.”

“I want to hear it from you.” Cathleen growled, taking a step towards them. “No more tricks, no more hiding anything from me, I want the truth. Now tell me, what the hell am I!”

Davis ‘s eyes didn’t waver from her for even a moment. She saw the concern that lurked within them, and the acceptance of inevitability. “Cathleen…we’re…”

“Tell me!!!” she screamed so loud that her voice echoed throughout the barn’s interior.

“We’re…humanoid extraterrestrials.” Davis said in a low voice.

Cathleen lost all the strength in her legs and she dropped to the floor. It felt as if she had been punched in the side of her head. Maude was kneeling beside her in an instant, saying something to her, but those words fell on deaf ears. Cathleen couldn’t hear anything as her mind tried to process what she had just been told. Somehow, she knew the truth before Davis had told her, before she had ever set eyes on either him or Lance. She knew, but never understood why she hadn’t belonged in the world. And now it was abundantly clear. Davis had been right, her whole life had been a lie, and now she knew why.

“Cat, Cat, snap out of it.” Maude seemingly distant voice called out to her as she shook her slightly. Growling under her breath, Maude rose to face both Lance and Davis.

“What the hell did you tell her?”

“We told her the truth.” Davis answered calmly. “We told Cathleen what we are…what she is.”

“You said she was a huma…hu…what?”

“Get this through your thick head, stripy.” Lance snapped back with an agitated tone in his voice. “Cathleen’s one of us. She didn’t come from here, none of us did.”

Lance stepped up to Maude and bent down so his face was only inches away from hers. “We’re…freaking…aliens!”