Kyle returned to his room after dinner. The villa was quiet, the only sounds coming from the faint hum of air conditioning and the occasional clink of dishes being cleaned in the kitchen. His parents, who were almost always away, were completely absorbed in their work. His father, a wealthy businessman, had calls lined up back-to-back, while his mother, a dedicated NASA engineer, was buried in reports and schematics. Both were too engrossed in their responsibilities to notice what Kyle was up to, and that suited him perfectly.
He turned toward his bed and glanced at the alien girl still lying unconscious among his sheets. Her pale blue-tinted skin almost glowed in the dim light of his room, and the strange suit she wore caught the soft glow of the desk lamp. Kyle knew that if his mother ever found out about her, she would want to know immediately where the girl was and every detail about how she ended up in his care.
A grin spread across Kyle's face. He pulled out his phone and dialed his mother's number. He repeated to himself that he wasn't doing this for attention, but when her voice finally answered, he felt a small, unrecognized joy.
"Hello, Mom," he said, his voice carrying a faint excitement that he barely noticed.
"Kyle, I'm busy. Is this important?" His mother's voice sounded brisk, tinged with the usual impatience she reserved for interruptions.
"Yeah, it is," Kyle replied, his tone a little more confident. "It's about your alien." He said the last word with a mix of pride and mischief.
There was a long pause on the line. Then his mother sighed audibly, a sound that expressed both exasperation and disbelief. "Kyle, there are no aliens. Don't pay attention to those conspiracy theories you read online. Just focus on your books and your studies."
Kyle understood immediately that whatever secrets she kept regarding extraterrestrials, she wouldn't confirm them to him. But that didn't frustrate him; in fact, it barely registered as a disappointment. He wasn't trying to prove anything to her, at least, that's what he told himself.
"Mom, I'm serious," he said, leaning forward slightly on his bed. "I have something you'd want to see."
"Kyle, I'm busy. Maybe have your dad look at whatever it is. I have to go now. Bye." The call ended abruptly, leaving Kyle holding his phone in midair.
He froze for a moment, blinking at the blank screen before laughter escaped him. He laughed at his own foolishness, at how he had really convinced himself that his mother would listen long enough for him to explain that he had caught an alien. The sound echoed faintly in the empty room, making him feel slightly ridiculous but also more alive.
Kyle looked back at the unconscious girl on his bed, and suddenly, annoyance crept in. She was still lying there, motionless. He hadn't even hit her that hard when he captured her. How was it possible that she was out cold? He frowned; he had forgotten how he managed to capture her in the first place. She had fallen from a spaceship hundreds of feet in the air, somehow barely managing to rise to her feet before he had knocked her unconscious with a bat.
---
Elsewhere, Mrs. Harrison hung up the phone with a tired sigh. Her son Kyle was sixteen, that tricky age when every teenager seemed determined to be rebellious and constantly demand attention. She wanted to focus on him, she really did, but there was no time. Her work was too demanding, especially with the recent alien sighting.
A massive alien ship had somehow slipped past Earth's satellites and entered the atmosphere without a single warning. The implications of that alone kept her on edge. The threat level of this incident was far too high for her to play house with Kyle and his teenage antics. The world could be on the brink of chaos, and she couldn't afford to let something this dangerous loom over their heads while she indulged in parenting duties.
With a heavy heart, she set the phone down and straightened her chair. She rubbed her eyes briefly, feeling the tension in her shoulders. The glow from her screens reflected in her glasses as she turned her attention back to her work. Reports scrolled across one monitor while a live feed from a nearby airspace tracking station ran on another. Every blip, every small anomaly made her pulse quicken.
Kyle would have to wait. For now, the world had to come first. She inhaled slowly, steadying herself, and focused on the task at hand.
---
Night fell and Kyle faced another problem. He had placed the unconscious alien girl on his bed and now had to figure out how they were going to sleep. He did not want to sleep on the sofa or the floor, but the thought of sharing his bed with a blue-skinned alien freak made him shiver. At the same time, he could not just leave her on the floor. She was still unconscious and probably injured from her fall and from his bat. That made him pause for a moment.
Calling the police was out of the question. Doing that would make his mother's job easier, and Kyle had no intention of helping her today. He decided to wait until she came home exhausted, stressed, and probably completely drained from work before offering any assistance. That way he could handle things on his own without anyone knowing.
Kyle sighed and looked at the girl again. Her pale blonde hair spilled over the pillow, her faintly blue skin catching the light. She looked fragile and small, which made him feel a little protective, though he hated to admit it.
After pacing the room for a moment, he finally lifted her from the bed. She was lighter than he expected, though her suit made her feel stiff and awkward in his arms. He carried her to the small sofa in his room and laid her down carefully. He propped her head on a cushion and pulled a spare blanket over her. She did not move at all.
Kyle stepped back and studied his work as if checking that everything was in order. He rubbed his eyes, yawned, and slipped under his own blanket. Sleep came quickly and deeply. Soon the room was quiet except for the sound of his chest rising and falling and the noisy snores that filled the space.
---
Leah woke up to loud snoring and a pounding headache. Pain pulsed behind her eyes, sharp and relentless, and she let out a weak groan as she tried to move. Nothing happened. Her body refused to respond. She tried to speak, to call out, but no sound came from her mouth.
That was when reality settled in.
She had been captured by an Earthling.
The thought made her chest tighten. And somehow, that was not even the worst part. Worse than her capture was the truth she could not escape. She had been betrayed and abandoned by her own crew. Left behind like cargo that no longer mattered.
Despair crept in slowly, heavy and suffocating. Not because she had been taken prisoner, but because she had failed. She had failed to control her subordinates. She had failed her mission. Every decision that led her here replayed itself in her mind, each one twisting like a blade.
She did not even want to imagine the expressions on her family's faces when they heard what had happened. Especially her mother. The disappointment would be unbearable. All the training she had endured since childhood, the discipline, the pain, the expectations, all of it felt useless now. For a brief moment, she wished the fall had killed her.
That thought did not last long.
The snoring beside her grew louder, rough and obnoxious, dragging her back to the present. Irritation replaced despair almost instantly. It was impossible to entertain thoughts of death with that noise filling the room. As if that were not enough, the air felt wrong. Too warm. Too thick. There were toxins present, faint but noticeable, and the temperature was far higher than what her body was used to. The ropes binding her wrists dug uncomfortably into her skin, and the tape over her mouth made her jaw ache.
Enough.
She forced herself to sit up despite the pain. Concentrating, she reached inward and activated her telekinesis. The ability came naturally to her, as it did to all of her people, thanks to the chip implanted in their brains shortly after birth. With careful precision, she drew a concealed blade from her boot and guided it into her bound hands. Slowly and quietly, she cut through the ropes.
Once her arms were free, she tore the tape from her mouth and inhaled sharply, grateful for the simple ability to breathe freely again. She rose to her feet and reached behind her head, her fingers brushing against dried blood tangled in her hair. So she had bled after being knocked out. That explained the pain.
She let out a frustrated sigh. A small, bitter part of her wished the blow had been strong enough to end things then and there.
Another loud snore echoed through the room. She twitched, her irritation flaring. For a brief second, she considered hitting the sleeping boy back, returning the favor. The thought was tempting. Very tempting. But the heat bothered her more than her anger.
Right now, nothing mattered more than cooling down. Comfort came first. After that, she could think. About her situation. About escape. Or about death.
Her gaze swept the room as she searched for anything that could help lower the temperature. Until then, she would endure. She always had.