The Alien Agenda (#Wattys2018)

[Chapter 23: Broken Images]

All I saw was darkness. I heard faint echoes, but I could not make out the words.

I stared at the black filling my vision, till blotches of colors slowly began emerging from the abyss. The colours merged and formed blurry images.

The distorted images flickered from one to another, the echoes became louder and louder. Soon, the echoes turned to booming voices.

Most of the voices sounded like me. I heard myself talking to people. I heard my thoughts voiced out loud.

The distorted images revealed faces, which were in sync with the voices. They were memories, I concluded.

They were a chorus of memories, overlapping each other. I recognized scenes from a few months ago, to recent events.

The blurry images began swirling around me, the voices getting louder and louder, till it was deafening. I pressed my hands to my ears, trying to block out the rapid voices.

The images were swirling so quickly, that all the colours became merged into white. I stared at the glowing white ring around me in awe.

Suddenly, the white ribbon began pulling towards its middle. The ribbon began shortening, as if getting sucked into the centre. It got pulled into a brilliant mass of white before disappearing into an oblivion.

I felt a sharp pain stabbing the back of my head, before shutting my eyes once again.
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I gasped as I my eyelids flew open. I was breathing heavily, and my body was covered in cold sweat. My vision was full of blotchy colours at first. It took a few moments for me to finally come back into focus.

I steadied my breathing. My head ached so badly, I could hear it throbbing. Pressing my head onto my pillow, I tried to suppress the pain.

Why was my head aching so badly? I wondered.

Did something happened last night?

I tried to recall the recent events, but it was all a blur. I tried thinking harder, but the headache worsened, causing me to pull back.

I felt a strange empty feeling within me. The more I tried to dig deeper into my thoughts, the more hollow I felt.

Deciding I did not want this uncomfortable feeling to persist, I did not push any further. I just held on to the most recent memory I could think of.

Today was a Saturday.

And I was going to visit Uncle Elias at the research centre as usual.

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Slowly, I got out of bed, and trudged to the bathroom. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I paused for moment and blinked twice.

Is it just me, or do I look like I lost some pounds? I thought to myself.

I stared at my reflection. I was looking much slimmer than usual, muscular even. It was puzzling.

Brushing, the thought aside, I got ready. I took a quick glance at my reflection, on my full length mirror, once again, just to make sure.

I suddenly felt a strange sense of deja vu, staring at myself in the mirror. An image crossed my mind.

It was me, slightly plump, wearing a simple linen top and a pair of black leggings. I felt like I saw this scene before, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

I went to the kitchen, and was surprised to see my dad sipping a mug of coffee while reading the daily newspaper. Wasn't he supposed to come back the day after tomorrow?

"Dad?" I questioned, but my dad took it as a greeting.

"Laila, finally you're awake. You totally zonked out after they dropped you off," he said, and chuckled.

"Dropped me off?" I mumbled to myself.

"So, how was California?" He asked, as if it was the most reasonable thing to ask me.

"California?" I asked, softly.

"Must have been nice and warm over there. Though I think I'm pretty much done with heat, after the trip to Africa," he said with a laugh.

I looked at my dad, confused. I felt like I knew what he was talking about, at the same time I did not. It was a really messed up feeling.

I decided to ignore my dad at the moment. I walked into the kitchen and made myself a cup of coffee. While doing so, I glanced at the magnetic calender, stuck onto the refrigerator.

I gasped.

The kitchen resounded with the clattering of a metal spoon.

"Laila, did you drop something," my dad called out.

But I did not bother to respond. I pressed my hands onto the fridge and stared intently at the calendar.

December... How was it already December?!

I could have sworn it was only late October. The calendar must be wrong. Maybe mom accidentally flipped it to the next month.

I walked out of the kitchen, trembling slightly.

"Dad, what's the date for today?" I asked.

"Hm.. 15th," he said, distractedly.

15th what? I took a peek at the newspaper he was holding. 15 December 2015 was printed on the heading.

I shook my head. No this was impossible. I thought to myself. Before I could dwell on the issue, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," I said to my dad, who just shrugged.

I rushed to the door, and opened it. I widened my eyes at the sight before me.

A hot guy was standing at my door. He looked familiar. But then again, I could not put my finger on it. I saw a series of broken images flash before my eyes. I blinked them away and stared back at the guy.

He looked flustered, but as he saw me, his green eyes looked relieved.

"Laila, thank goodness you're okay?" He said.

I realised I was still gaping at him. I quickly composed myself.

"Laila, who's at the door?" My dad called out from the kitchen.

"It's.." I paused, and turned back to the guy.

"Um... I'm sorry. Who are you?"