Not Human

Chapter 2 The Aliens

The aliens were back in this time it wasn’t one, it was ten. They corned Lily to a tree, her feet crunched onto autumn leaves. The aliens all looked remarkably the same, identical even. One had pearly white eyes, the next three had green, the others had red and black. Strangely, different eye colors, but everything else looked the same. All of them were eight feet, ugly grayish skin, sharp thick claws, and long skinny fingers that stretched out. One alien with white eyes stepped closer, its cold breath fanning on Lily’s face.

“Lily Valerie.” The alien called. “Lily Valerie!” It kept calling Lily Valerie. She could hear her name being called louder and more desperate as the aliens drew closer. The white-eyed one extended its arms towards her, about to touch her when she woke in a cold sweat.

“...Blade...?” she uttered.

“No, Mary Smith,” The maid said. Lily tried hiding her blush. She had called Blade’s name. “It’s nice you’re finally awake.” She set a tray of food by her bed. “Here, is your breakfast. Oh, and sorry, I tried waking you early, but you seemed to be in a deep sleep.” Mary frowned. She looked worried.

“Oh, what do you mean?”

“I was calling your name quite a few times, sorry.” She apologized again. “Oh, and Mr.Villain would like to see you.”

“Mr.Villain,” Lily repeated.

“Yes, Mr.Villain. He has been waiting for you. He says it’s very important that you come to see him after you’ve finished your food.” Mary shuts the door softly, leaving Lily with her thoughts.

She peers down at the tray of food: Scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, buttered toast with a side of pleasant fruit. She digs in right away. Excited, she wonders what Blade has to show her or Mr. Villain. He must be rich living in a mansion like this. He even has his own maid. Lucky!

It would be weird to call him Mr.Villain; she hoped he didn’t make her. Well, she wasn’t being paid by him like the maid Mary.

…

“W-where...are you taking me?” Blade pulls her along the long halls by the wrist. He leads her down halls, after more halls, left turns to right turns, down a set of stairs. The lights were flickering the further they walked. It started becoming darker, harder to see all of the paintings clearly on the walls.

“Just wait, you’ll see,” He smiled. 

They finally stopped at two big red doors. That’s when the scent was back, the sweet irony smell. It sent shivers down Lily’s spine. She knew what it was right away this time. The pool of blood flashed back into her mind. Suddenly it was cold, and she was trembling from nerves.

“Here, we are, Lily.” He announced. “So, I want you to be prepared. What’s behind these doors, it’s nothing like you’ve seen before. It is disturbing, are you sure that you still want to see it? Last chance.”

“Y-yes, positive!”

“...Hmm...okay.”

Blade pulled a silver key out of his pocket, and before she knew it the doors were open. Shocked didn’t even come close to describing how Lily was feeling. 

Horrified, utterly speechless was more like it.

There was a large lab, it looked fancy, expensive items shattered into tiny bits. Files scattered, shredded to nothing. Everywhere bodies were hanging from the ceiling to laying on the floors like human rugs! She saw sticky blood oozing out of a woman’s head, the other body by the woman was a man and his back covered in red marks. They looked strangely familiar. 

Just like the claw marks on Lily’s arm. There were piles among piles of bodies. The odor emanating from the room was intolerable. It was smothering. She could feel the barf sneaking up her throat and had to force herself to swallow it down. 

The outfits these dead people wore were mostly lab coats, work attire, kept professional and in the field of science. She’d guess they’d work in the lab, discussing science-related things and testing, experimenting a lot. But what were they testing and experimenting on? And how did it go this wrong to kill all of them so violently? 

Also, why are the bodies still here? Blade should have reported it right away. These people’s families will be missing them. Unless she thought something else was going on here. It must’ve been secretive, and if the bodies were found there’d be questions that followed.

So, that means Blade is hiding something. But what?

“Uhm..let’s go, Lily.” Blade said in a somewhat of a desperate voice. He was reminded of something dreadful and wanted out of the room. It had too many memories in it. He pulled on her sleeve bobbing his head to the left, pointing at the door. He let go of her sleeve to attach his hand to hers. It was big and warm. “You must have a lot of questions now.” 

“Yeah, a lot I suppose.” 

“Go ahead, ask away!’

“Okay, well what happened to those people? And why do those markings look...familiar?” she asks, walking side by side to him, still hand in hand. It made her feel safe holding his hand. After seeing that nightmare behind those red doors she didn’t want to be alone.

“Aliens are what happened, they escaped their cages and went mad. I guess they were trying to get rid of the information collected and the data on them. My people tried stopping them..and you know they were killed for it.” He spoke with anger, and sadness in his dark eyes. 

“Hold on your people? You mean, you’re the one who is under the project?” She raised an eyebrow at him wondering now. How is someone her age already capable of leading a group of well-trained scientists to conduct thorough research on aliens?

“Yes, it was my idea. I had my father’s help, and you know he’s a rich businessman, so it wasn’t hard.”

“Oh, I see. That makes sense.” She trailed off, she had so many questions but didn’t know which ones to ask. “How did you come to meet these aliens, and what gave it away that they’re aliens?” Blade swallowed the lump in his throat. He thought his father, well, only if he were here.

“Hmm...funny question, really?” He smirked. “Well, I came back from my woods, and saw a spark in the sky, it was getting closer and closer. I didn’t think much of it. I just got some firewood and brought it back to the house…Now it was winter and-”

“Oh, right, you live on top of that hill, in my town. Ordinarily strange! A very fancy mansion, indeed, you’re father’s business is huge too! Isn’t he David Villain?” Lily smiled excitedly.

“Yes, he is and yes that’s my father’s mansion, though I prefer staying at the older one, the one we’re in right now.”

“Wow, two mansions, crazy rich people, sorry, please continue.”

“Well, as I was saying, it was winter at the time and I went back to the house, started a fire in the fireplace. I was getting cozy by the fire when I heard a loud crash. I followed the sound...to see odd footprints in the snow...of very weird animal footprints, big deformed-looking feet-”

“ALIENS!” Lily interrupted.

“Okay, okay, I’ll get to the point now. Since someone keeps interrupting, ahem.” Blade was looking in Lily’s direction. They had stopped in the halls and sat down by the walls. “So, what I saw first was some sort of spaceship, it was a triangle-shaped, made of this weird technology, it had purple windows, and it was white all over the ship.”

So, Blade told Lily the story. She had her mouth dropping to the floor. She wondered if it was true. But...she had a feeling Blade wouldn’t lie about something like this. She kept thinking about the story and how bizarre it was. Then her mind lingered on the lab and the dead people. How terrible it was.

“So, where’s your father, business trip?” Lily asks, taking a bite from her lunch Blade had the nice maid Mary prepare. It got silent for a moment; she thought he didn’t hear her. 

“...He’s gone…” Blade took a long sip of his red wine. He felt a pang in his heart and took a big gulp of his wine, jugging it down. 

“I-I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” He wasn’t convincing, it must have been recent. “Anyway, I wanted to talk about the aliens again. I'll just be straight with you, Lily. I think you’re connected to them somehow. You’re the only one, you’re the key to saving everyone. Right now they’re out there in the world. Probably killing people like the scientist. We need to put an end to it.”

“Me, the key to the aliens, connected to them?!” 

“Yes, I know how it sounds. I’ve been researching them for the past year and never have they tried communicating with us. Nor have they spared anyone. All my people are dead. No one made it out.”

…

It was at noon. Lily realized that her friends must be worried about her. She had forgotten about everything going on. She instinctively reached in her back pocket for her phone. But it wasn’t there. She was wearing her same pajamas from that night she was kidnapped. She blushed, noticing it now. All that time and Blade hadn’t said a  word.

“I-I need to see my friends...and I was wondering if it’d be okay to tell them.” She says, standing by Blade’s door. He waves a hand for her to follow him, and holds the car keys in his hands.

“I figured as much as I couldn't keep you here forever.” He smiles. “Also, I don’t know about telling your friends, sure they won’t freak out?”

“Oh, they will but I want them to help us with the aliens if that’s okay?”

“Sure, the more the merrier, in fact, I will have some people for you to meet soon.”

They walked down the halls just about to pass the living room when it happened. The shattering of glass, shards shooting in all directions, the long grayish torsos and tall figures emerging from the broken windows. Aliens were here.

“...RUN FOR IT!” Blade pushed Lily so hard she almost fell over, and without warning snagged her hand to begin running to the front door. It was a hall down, and two sets of stairs. By the time she reached the door, they were both panting. 

“Ah!” Lily heard Blade yelled in trouble. “Go without me, hurry now!” He pleaded to her. The alien had latched its claws onto Blade’s back on the last step of stairs. It was hard to watch. His expression was painful, and he was crying out, but why’d he expect her to leave without him.

“HURRY, PLEASE, LILY!” The other aliens were advancing and quickly downstairs. 

Lily had little time to think before she ran for it. Right to Blade’s side. She rammed full force into the alien knocking it half off balance. However, it recovered fast, but not fast enough for her to tear Blade away, the latched claws detached, skinning the clothing on Blade’s back and over the fresh wound. He moaned out, as she held onto him pulling him up.

“Thank you. I don’t know whether to think you’re brave or very stupid,” He chuckled. They bolted for the doors and outside. It was noon, the sun was still barely up. She spotted a nice black mustang near the gates.

“Yep, that’s my beauty.” He said. “What do you think?”

“I think we should get out of here before we die!” She half smiled and frowned. He nodded and they proceeded to the mustang. He hopped in on the driver’s side and Lily sat on the passenger. 

“Aargh..” he sat up avoiding the leather seat, it hurt when his injury made contact with it. It was still burning in pain. He could feel Lily’s concerned eyes on him. “I’m fine, don’t worry.”

“No. No, you’re not. That’s serious, Blade. It could get infected.”

“Well, I can’t exactly go to the hospital. They’ll ask too many questions,” He frowned.

“Okay, fine, but let me help at least.” she gently patted his shoulder, smiling.

“...Fine…” 

So, he started the engine and it roared. They were no longer at the old mansion that held so many dear memories for Blade. He couldn’t see why his parents would buy another one. 

“Okay,” Lily said plopping back into her seat, holding a sack in her hand. “Take off your shirt.”

“...Oh, okay...” so straightforward he thought. He slid his suit jacket off, then his white shirt underneath it. It grazed roughly, over his wound as he tossed his suit with many tears into the backseats.

“Ouch, what is this?” He turned to Lily who’s expression was very focused working away on his back. She had sat on the floor, while he turned his back to her. Her hands were soft, very gentle until she rubbed in something cold, and wet more on his back. It burned like hell!

“Antibiotic Ointment to help clean the wound, and I have some pills to kill the pain, “ she replied, handing him two red pills, he guessed ibuprofen, with bottled water she pulled out of the sack. He took it gratefully and swallowed the two pills gulping down some water.

It did look nasty, it was three thick claw marks. The skin was red around the area, it looked very painful. 

Lily finished cleaning the wound and then dressing it with some bandages. She first wrapped it around his torso front all the way around to his back, tightly, but not too tight. 

“Ah, that feels much better, thank you, Lily.” Blade smiled, his eyes watching her closely as she places the first aid kit back into the sack. 

The pain had subsided some, it didn’t hurt as much. Blade was pleased with Lily’s work. Who knew she was good at this stuff. It could come in handy.

She blushed, “No..problem.” After she was done with her work she felt like she was just now realizing, for the first time that Blade was shirtless. 

He had a pretty nice build, chiseled abs, broad shoulders, and warm skin. Oh, crap. Okay, enough is enough! She needs to stop thinking like this. She removed her lingering hand from his shoulder.

“Oh, right, your clothes.” She said, trying to sound as nonchalantly as possible. “Here, this is for you.” She handed the sack to him. He took out a gray t-shirt and dark jeans. “I hope it fits. I guessed your size...forgot to ask, thought that you’d need it since your suit is ruined.”

“Thanks, it’ll do for now,” He nodded, going right to his slacks, unzipping them and his hands tugging his slacks down. Lily instantly turns her head, shutting her eyes tightly, blushing madly. He could’ve given her a heads up. Damn. He was quick to strip. She slapped herself mentally, telling her lewd thoughts to shut the f**k up!

“I’m done, you can stop hiding now,” He smirked. “So, to your apartment, right? Still want to see your friends?”

She jumped up in her seat at this. “Yes, of course,  I do!”

“O-okay.”

…

Well, here goes nothing. Blade parked outside the red brick apartments with faded black paint on the doors with white numbers labeling them. These were the apartments of Ordinarily strange, a medium-sized town, not too big and not too small. He wondered if the town was named this because of the certain amount of aliens lingering around. Had they’d known why. 

Lily was why. But...why had she just now seen an alien and not before? Maybe they were waiting for her at the right time. Who knows how aliens work and think.

“Oh, you’re coming too?” Lily turned on her heel to stare at him trailing behind her.

“Yeah, I thought I’d explain the situation.” 

She pounded her fist on the door, within a second it swung open whacking her in the face sending her back tumbling into someone’s arms. They were big and warm arms that held her up.

“T-thanks…” She nodded at Blade. She was glad he did come. She would’ve hit the ground, if not for him. And...CHERRY!

“What the hell, Cherry!” 

“LILY!” She leaped into her arms. “Oh, god, you don’t know how worried we were about you. You were gone the next morning, forgot your phone, keys, purse,

 and everything important. I-I thought you had been kid-’

She stops and glares in Blade’s direction, “...napped..” she finished. Then points a finger at him threateningly. “You took Lily away from me. You gorgeous wretched man!”

How could she compliment and insult him at the same time? 

Angelica and Andy peeked out through the doorway at the scene.

“He isn’t horrible, Cherry. Nor is he a bad guy. So, calm down, okay?” She pulled away from Cherry’s bone-crunching embrace. She nodded slowly, taking a step back.

“Alright, then who’s he, your boyfriend?” Andy stepped out of the doorway now standing by Cherry and Lily.

“N-No, he’s…” What is he she wondered?

“I am Blade Villain, a friend of Lily’s.” He held out a hand going around shaking each one of their hands.

“Oh, nice, wait, did you say Villain?” Angelica arched an eyebrow.

“Yes, I am from the Villains family, the richest people in Ordinarily strange,” He sighed, as though he got this a lot from people. It’s all he was known for having rich parents. He was to inherit the family business while destroying his dreams of becoming a scientist.

“Oh, it must be annoying hearing that all the time. Guys, please, be nice to Blade here. He has some very important things to tell you.” Lily smiled, clapping a hand on his back, and she forgot about his injury. Oh, s**t.

“Ah, ouch, “ He groaned in displeasure again. It didn’t hurt much but when someone slapped it, it sure as hell did.

“Yeah, real smooth Lily, be nice to him you say, “ Andy nearly laughed her head off. “You’re so abusive to your man.”

“I told you already he isn’t my…-” she mumbled quietly, “...man…” 

…

Angelica had made everyone warm coffee, well, but Cherry had green tea. It was late, around 7 pm. Everyone settled down on either the sofa, stools, chair from the kitchen, or on the rug where Andy was laying down on half asleep.

Blade was about to discuss the aliens and how to stop them. They needed a plan and she wondered what would the looks on her friends' faces be when they hear aliens are real?