This Alien Soul

Chapter 1

Prologue

I thought I knew pain.

From the stabbing, radiating pain, to the kind that produced a dull throb that refused to go away. I had faced it all and lived through it. Excelled even - forced to grow stronger from it.

I thought I knew suffering.
I was wrong...

What I was experiencing now took it to a whole new level. A pain that was eating me up from the inside, setting every cell on fire.

I had already accepted that I wouldn't be living through this. Had already accepted the reality of my impending death. My biggest regret being that my parents would blame themselves. Followed closely by the fact that I would never see him again. Never get to say goodbye.

"Please hurry! She's fading." The panicked voice spoke somewhere above me, as a cool hand smoothed down my over heated face.

"We're almost there." The driver stepped on the gas, taking a curve at reckless speeds and sending my body slamming into the passenger side door. At this point, I was too far gone to feel the impact. Though the voice from earlier gasped, as my broken femur bone broke through my skin, protruding angrily and causing a fresh spurting of blood. "Hold on Amber. Just hold on."

But I was no longer listening.

I was no longer in the car.

I opened my eyes to a pristine beach. A beach where the fireflies glowed bright in the sky and birds played on the smooth water. Looking over the waves where he waited for me.

I smiled as he opened his hand, beckoning me to join him in the lakes depths.

To never resurface.

Amber

"Good morning America!" The iconic opening blared through my television speakers. America's beloved morning show host, Steven Armentrout, served as my daily wake up call.

Having the Morning Show as my alarm served two purposes. One, it guaranteed my occasionally lazy ass, got up to get a piece of eye candy first thing in the morning. Two, it kept me well informed of the goings on in the world, for my role on my own school's version of the morning news.

Today being the last day of summer, I didn't have any set plans, so I allowed myself a few minutes to laze in bed and soak up Steven's perfect face and well-formed backside. Unfortunately, the show switched too soon to a topic I was way over-informed of, as it was playing out in my backyard.

"Sarah is coming to us live from Mountain Lake, Georgia, to give us more on this historic event." Steven provided the opening for the news reporter, who was clutching a microphone as she teetered on her spiked high-heeled shoes, struggling to navigate one of the local docks.

"Thank you, Steven." She said a little too breathily. Couldn't they just cut back to Steven and leave the amateurs out of the news, I thought pettily. Rolling out of bed since I wouldn't be getting much more Steven this morning.

That's right, my small Georgia lake town was making history and gaining national attention. I already knew that they would focus the rest of the show on us, like they had been for months now. Ever since the government made their announcement at the beginning of summer.

"Anyone old enough remembers that night just over eight-teen years ago when the Zionian space ship crashed down in the small town of Mountain Lake, confirming once and for all the existence of life outside of our planet and shaking our very foundation." She started in an overly dramatic tone. Not that she was old enough to remember. She would have had to have still been in diapers. Couldn't they have picked a more seasoned reporter for this gig?