She sat in her room, shivering under a blanket. It was an unnaturally cold day, even for Michigan. The Visitors seemed to have put the world into a state of fear and gloom.
"Alanis!" Her father called from the other room. She opened her eyes at the voice. It sounded like her father's, but colder. Emptier. "Tate?" The voice called again. Tate was Alanis' brother. In their father's absences, which seemed to be growing more frequent as of late, he was the patriarch of the household.
"What, dad?" Tate's voice called back. She heard footsteps into the kitchen, where her father must have been. Alanis heard her father yelling at Tate for leaving the oven on. There had been gas problems in the house for a while. Tate started explaining something, but silenced himself for a second before there was a flash of heat and light, and a concussive explosion. She had her head back under her blanket as the heat engulfed her.
The next thing she knew, she was outside of the cold ground. She tilted her head to see her small house glowing like a jack-o-lantern in the gloomy, cloudy day. Tall men emerged from the lambent house carrying a long stretcher. On it, a sickenly familiar figure. She ripped off the ash covered fire blanket and rushed towards the men. A tall, thin woman grabbed Alanis' shoulder, and pointed up. The fire fighters carrying the body stopped, and looked up as well.
A powerful, body rattling drone radiated from a hole punched in the thick clouds. A completely round, stunningly reflective sphere gracefully descended from the sky. The drone continued, and increased in volume the closer to the ground it got. A pulse of white light emitted from the sphere, rattling windows. Wailing sirens were heard in the distance, and her eyes slowly closed.
YOU ARE READING
Alanis
Science FictionRight before Alanis' father died, the visitors came. They weren't any different from us, and disappeared as soon as they came. But they didn't leave without causing ripples in earth. Where ever they came from, they brought something. Something hor...
