How to Date an Alien (12 page)

By the time my eyes glazed over from staring
at the screen, and I had already sat in the office past the time I
knew Riley and Jen would have gone to bed, I crept back to my room.
Like I predicted, Riley and Jen were sound asleep. I tiptoed as
lightly as I could on the cold tile floor, changed into my pajamas,
and finally let sleep overcome me as I fell into bed.

It was the least restful sleep I'd ever
gotten. Jen's warning swirled into my dreams:
You have no idea
what you're getting yourself into
. Her words lashed around me,
and my body became encased in ice. The nightmare surrounded me in
darkness and I tried to scream, but the words were choked out of me
by some invisible force. I tried as hard as I could to wake myself
up, but the more I tried, the further the darkness pulled me in. A
sharp, silvery laughter surrounded me, echoing through my head and
sending shards of icy pain down my spine. It felt too real to be a
dream. A pair of coal-black eyes that looked familiar, yet looked
as deadly as a serpent’s, came toward me. It was a woman with
snow-white skin and hair as dark as night staring down at me. I
tried again to speak, but my voice still wouldn't come. I wanted to
know why she was haunting my dreams, what she wanted from me, but
she did nothing but laugh.

My eyes burst open. I opened my mouth to
scream but my throat was painfully dry. I swallowed hard and looked
over to where Jen and Riley still slept soundly. They had no idea
about the nightmare I just had. Even though I was parched, I had
practically soaked through my pajamas and was covered in a cold
sweat. I definitely wasn't about to wake Riley up for comfort and I
doubted Jen wanted to talk to me after our encounter earlier that
day.

Quickly, I changed out of my damp clothes and
slid out the door as quietly as I could. I practically ran down the
long hallways, nodding at the guards that passed me, pretending
like I wasn't about to go into full-blown panic mode. It was as if
he was expecting me. After only one knock Ace threw open the door
to his room. His eyes widened as he looked over my shaking
body.

“Are you okay?" He motioned me into the room,
shutting the door behind us.

“I had a bad dream." My teeth chattered; my
whole body still felt like it was incased in an icy chamber. Ace
put his hands to my face. I waited for the warmth to circulate his
through my body and I stopped shivering.

“Do you want to stay here tonight?"

I swallowed hard, nodding.

He didn’t ask any more questions and led me
to the bed. Beside him, he pulled me as close as two people could
be without being connected. His hands stayed at my sides, letting
the heat run through my body, leaving only the lingering feeling
that something was undeniably not right about my nightmare.

The nightmares didn't stop and only got worse
as the nights went on. I stopped sleeping in my own room, so I
wouldn't give Riley and Jen even more of a reason to hate me. The
only way that I could wake up from my nightmares was by screaming.
I started spending my nights in Ace's room where he would put my
hands in his until the heat would come back into my body and I
would stop shaking.

After Ace's alarm would go off, I would sneak
back into my room, still exhausted from my sleepless night, shower
and head to work. Jen and Riley wouldn't even look at me and the
other interns had started whispering when I would walk by in the
cafeteria. I stopped caring about what everyone else had to say
around me. The nightmares continued to cloud my vision whether I
was sleeping or not. When Ace was close the darkness would subside,
but only briefly. I was too scared to actually voice what was
happening and I didn't want to look like some sort of lunatic if I
told anybody that I was being affected by a bad dream.

At least I didn't think I cared what other
people thought, until the day we received a visitor in the security
office. Ever since I stopped talking to the interns, we rarely had
anyone stop by, so Ace and I were both shocked when we heard the
door open. Ace went to let go of my hand, but I tightened my grip,
not wanting to deal with what visions could show up if he let
go.

"Alex?"

I spun around to see my dad standing in the
doorway. The lines of his face tightened and everything about him
tensed up.

Ace pulled his hand away from my grip and
stood up. "Colonel Bianchi, it's been a long time." He put his hand
out toward my dad.

Dad just stared at Ace's hand, before Ace
pulled it away and sat back down.

"Alex." Dad swallowed. "Can I see you out in
the hallway for a moment?"

I glanced over at Ace, who nodded like it was
okay for me to go, then looked back at my dad. "Okay, but then I
have to get back to work." I followed him silently into the hall.
He just stared down at me, watching my every move.

"Alex," he finally said after we had walked a
few yards away.

"Yeah, so what's this about? You know we
think we may have a guy from Jupiter who is trying to hack into the
Missouri capitol that we need to handle." I jabbed my index finger
in the direction of the office door.

"I'm putting you on a new assignment. You
won't be doing security anymore."

"What?" Everyone in the hallway stopped to
stare at me.

Dad shot them a look that said
there's
nothing to see here
and everyone started moving along,
pretending like they weren't listening to our every word.

"Alex," he whispered, "I just think it may be
better if you spent some time in another department."

"Or is it because you heard about me and Ace
and you don't approve of me dating someone that I work with?" I
threw my hands out. "Just because you move me to another department
doesn't mean I'm going to stop seeing him."

"That's why you will also be on twenty-four
hour watch, so I don't have to worry about that."

"What the hell, Dad?" I leaned in, pushing my
face closer to him. "Since when do you care about who I date? It's
not like you've really been in my life for the past seven years and
now you want to come and play the overprotective dad? This is
bullshit!"

"Alex." He put his hands out, lowering his
voice in hopes that I would lower mine as well. "You don't
understand the consequences of your actions."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, that's awesome. You
think if you speak to me like one of your Air Force lackeys that
I'll listen?"

"Alex you don't know what you're getting
yourself into. Ace is—"

I held my hand up to stop his words. "I know
he's been classified as dangerous and potentially hazardous to
humans, but he hasn't done anything that's been dangerous to me,
Dad." I folded my arms across my chest. "In fact he's been there
for me more than you ever were. He actually does care about me and
isn't just forced to do it because he got my mom pregnant."

That was when I knew I'd crossed the line.
Dad's eyes widened and then he grabbed me, lifting me off the
ground and throwing me over his shoulder like I was some sort of a
rag doll.

"What are you doing? Let me go!" I screamed,
pounding my fists on his back and kicking as hard as I could. He
didn't let go and continued down the hallway.

"This is for your own good."

He didn't stop no matter how loud I screamed.
He just kept walking until we reached a small, windowless office
that looked like one of those interrogation rooms from cheesy cop
shows. He set me down on a cold metal chair, and reached into his
pocket to pull out a blinking black monitor cuff.

"What are you doing with that thing?"

He bent down next to me and clamped the cuff
onto my ankle. It beeped a few times before tightening onto my skin
like a blood pressure cuff, but much more painful.

"What the hell?" I reached down and scratched
at the cuff, trying to tear it off.

"This will make sure that you only stay in
the hangar, cleaning airplanes with Malcolm. You will eat all your
meals in the hangar and return to your room when you aren't there,"
dad replied in a matter-of-fact tone while he towered over me.

I looked up, tears springing freely from my
eyes. If I didn't have Ace then the nightmares would be back, the
visions. Even worse, I wouldn't be able to feel his touch. I
couldn't do that. I shook my head violently.

"No, Dad, you can't do this to me. Please!" I
opened my eyes as wide as I could behind the tears, hoping to block
out the nightmarish visions. "I'll do anything if you just let me
see him!"

Dad shook his head, trying to avoid my eyes.
"Alex, someday you'll understand all of this."

"Why can't you just tell me now? Why are you
hurting me so bad?" I gulped between sobs.

"Someday you'll understand that this is the
best thing for all of us. These aliens are more dangerous than you
might think and I don't want to see you end up in the autopsy
unit." He pulled me up so that he could look into my tear-filled
eyes, and the darkness from my nightmares clouded everything in
sight.

I let myself collapse into his arms as he
held me, running his hands through my hair. I didn't want to accept
his comfort, but the farther I buried my face into his chest the
farther away I was from the darkness.

After my crying fit was over, dad walked me
over to the hangar where Malcolm was waiting near a small green
plane that looked more like a bullet than something that would fly
into space.

"Malcolm, I've got your new recruit here, who
is more than willing to start working." Dad patted my back as I
looked up at Malcolm with bloodshot eyes.

I couldn't ignore the dark cloud surrounding
everything that I looked at, but the more I thought about Ace the
more my heart ached.

"Yeah, I think I can handle her, Colonel."
Malcolm grinned, his big gap-toothed grin.

"Alright, well I think she's in good hands."
Dad patted my back one more time before heading out of the
hangar.

"So, ever work on a plane before?" Malcolm
clasped his hands together.

I shook my head, not in the mood for small
talk.

He sighed, rubbing a hand over his small
stubble of hair. "Look I heard about what happened with Ace; the
whole center knows about it. I'm not going to sugarcoat things. It
sounds pretty bad."

I looked up, scooping my finger underneath my
glasses to wipe the tears back. "What did you hear?"

Malcolm looked around before taking another
step toward me, lowering his voice. "I know Ace is kind of your guy
and all, but when they classified him as dangerous, well they
weren't kidding"

I snorted. "Tell me something I don't know
Malcolm. Everyone keeps telling me he's so dangerous, but he's
never done anything to hurt me. In fact, as everyone seems to
forget, he saved my life the first day I was here. As well as that
day in the cafeteria."

"Yeah." He nodded, taking a few steps behind
the plane, motioning for me to follow. "But remember that alien
that he killed?"

How could I forget the Cephalopod with her
slimy hands circling my neck? I nodded.

"Well, she isn't the only alien who wasn't
too keen on your lack of alien knowledge." He took a wrench from a
toolbox near the plane and started tossing it back and forth
between his hands.

"What do you mean?" I knew that the other
interns weren't too thrilled about alien and human relationships,
but I never expected it would be that blown out of proportion.

"I mean, it's like if you and I dated." He
stopped twirling the wrench and sat it down on the plane next to
him.

I snorted. "Uh, sorry, Malcolm, you're not
exactly my type."

He rolled his eyes "No, think about it. If
you and I dated, people would be up in arms about us being an
interracial couple."

"Um, this isn't the sixties. Remember that
whole Civil Rights movement?"

"Alex." He looked down at me, the stillness
of his face let me know he was serious. "The Civil Rights movement
never happened in the alien world. My granddaddy got tossed in jail
for just looking at a white woman, so think of what would happen
when you get two powerful sides who don't agree with mixing. They
can work alongside each other, but it's with protest and a lot of
treaties."

"So this is all one big Civil Rights
movement? The aliens versus the humans? Two sides that hate each
other like the Capulets and the Montagues, but still forced to work
together?"

"Not exactly. Not all aliens feel that way,
but there are enough that do." He raised his shoulders. "This is
the first time I've ever heard of any Caltian being with a human
and before you came around Ace was always kind of pretentious, only
keeping to himself, or talking to the other Caltians. Like he was
better than everyone else."

He let out a deep breath before focusing his
eyes back on the ship. "Then you came around and all of a sudden he
was walking around like an obsessed teenage boy, following you
around and staring at you with those big black puppy dog eyes. It
was kind of cute at first until you actually started to like it."
He glanced over at me, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, what's not to like about it? He saved
my life, he is there for me more than my dad ever was, and I don't
know, he just makes me feel good. Is that really so wrong?" I said,
holding my hands out.

"No." Malcolm picked the wrench back up. "But
I just don't want there to be another war because of it."

The days dragged by. It wasn't that I didn't
enjoy Malcolm's company, but the longer I stayed away from Ace the
more frightening my nightmares became. Sometimes it would just be
the woman standing there and staring at me with those dark eyes.
Just hours and hours of her staring at me. Sometimes the dreams
would seem so life-like. I would feel her sharp laugh as it took
the air from my lungs and circled my body until I awoke in a
shivering sweat. All I wanted to do was see Ace, but I was
alone.