I slowly came back to my senses, but I felt weirdly disconnected from my body. I wondered if I was dead, but the dull ache in my left leg made me think I still must’ve been alive. I opened my eyes slowly, trying to regain my bearings. The area around me was overly bright, and another shiver of fear ran through me again as I thought I might be dead after all.

  But if this was the afterlife, it sure was boring.

  I was in some kind of sterile interview room—like you’d see in a police station. There were bright overhead lights, the walls were all stark white, and there was a large mirror on the side wall I assumed allowed people to watch behind. Ahead, there was a plain white door that strangely had no handle or anything—maybe secured with some kind of electric locking mechanism. Heavy security for the guy who was harboring the killer alien. I looked down and around me to see I was sitting in a plain silver chair that was bolted to the floor, and my wrists were handcuffed to a silver table in front of me.

  I let out a deep sigh and placed my head down on the table. Yep, still alive.

  I tried to take stock of my body and how I was doing, but my brain felt so fuzzy it was hard to keep my thoughts straight. I could see my leg was no longer bleeding; whoever brought me here gave me a change of pants, that was nice of them. I looked at the rest of my body and saw they cleaned me up completely—no blood anywhere I could see, though I appeared to be wearing my same outfit from earlier. That seemed odd, but I couldn’t figure out why.

  I looked back up at the door, then the mirror, hoping to see someone—hoping to figure out what’d happened. I pulled at my chains, there was a good amount of room for me to move, but not enough to get up from my seat. I tried to call out to my captors, but my throat was dry and scratchy so I couldn’t get the words out. I was probably dehydrated—hypovolemic from the blood loss.

  Actually, what happened with that? Was I given a blood transfusion? How much time had—

  The door to my room opened, and a couple classic government agents in black suits strolled in. They both wore sunglasses and ear pieces, and one sat down in the chair opposite me while the other took up a position by the door, watching me.

  The agent who sat down placed a pitcher of water and a glass before me and filled it. I grabbed it quickly and drank it down in three quick gulps. The agent filled the glass again, and I drained that too. He filled it a third time, but I left it on the table for now. Assuming I was finished drinking, the agent placed a large file on the table in front of me. He opened it silently, and sure enough, there were quite a few satellite images of me around the farm; finding the space rock, taking the alien back home, the alien in my embrace at my truck. They had me dead to rights.

  I looked up at the agent with a grim expression, but he didn’t say anything. The agent looked strangely familiar, but I had too much brain fog to consider why—maybe he’d been spying on me from afar and I’d gotten a glimpse out of the corner of my eye.

  “Where’s Evie?” I heard myself say. Despite my fear, despite the carnage she unleashed, my first instinct was concern over that cute little alien—I couldn’t help it, couldn’t separate myself from her just yet.

  I was an idiot.

  The agent closed the file and placed his hands on the table, clasping them together in a gentlemanly fashion, “Evie?”

  I sighed, “The alien—whatever she is.”

  The agent nodded along, but took a few moments to reply, “Tell me about her.”

  My mouth formed a hard line. I was completely at their mercy, but a fire of defiance rose up in my chest, “Fuck you, where is she?”

  “We have her contained, she is…safe.”

  Silence reigned between us again, and I looked over at the other agent in the corner. He looked familiar too, but I couldn’t place him either—my head was starting to feel really heavy; it was hard to concentrate my thoughts. I fidgeted with the little ring on my thumb—a nervous gesture, but I tried to show a calm exterior.

  “Tell me about your time with her, starting with your discovery in the woods, and how you became her…custodian.”

  I let out a deep sigh; I was probably already at whatever black-site I was going to end up rotting away in, had no bargaining power, but I still couldn’t shake away my defiance. “My grandparents?”

  “Back on the farm—alive, unharmed, uninvolved with this whole mess.” His answer was almost automatic.

  Well, everything seemed to be coming up aces for me—grandparents and Evie still alive. My defiance slowly burned away in my belly. “I was just walking through the woods one night a couple months ago. There was this weird…explosion, I guess, and I went to investigate and found the meteorite—the, uh, space rock.”

  “Describe the scene, please.”

  I shook my head slowly, “Nothing natural, that’s for sure. The area had been frozen over somehow—never heard of a cold explosion like that. Trees and shit all frozen midfall, crater surprisingly small. In the center was that little space rock, looked like nothing I’ve ever seen before—definitely not from earth.” I gestured towards the agent, “You probably know all that since you recovered it like a day later.”

  He nodded, but didn’t say anything, so I assumed I was just supposed to continue, “Found the little alien oozing out of a hole in the space rock—no idea if it was like a small craft or just some den she burrowed in or something. The alien looked small and weak, the size of a softball. I wrapped her up in my jacket and took her home—took care of her.”

  “How did you initially contain her?”

  I shrugged, “Put her in an old terrarium, gave her water and blankets and food. She was real shy at first, but as I fed her she grew to…trust me, I guess.” I smiled, despite all, “She really opened up when I gave her chocolate.”

  The agent’s eyebrows shot up, “Chocolate?”

  I chuckled, “Yeah, little Evie loves her chocolate.”

  The agent nodded once, “And how did she develop from that point?”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  I exhaled a quick breath, thinking over our time together, “She grew in size as I fed her, eventually she outgrew the terrarium, so I just let her around in my room—she slept in my bed all bundled up in blankets.”

  It was subtle, but the agent flinched as though surprised, “You let her move freely about your home?”

  I held my hands up, causing the chains to rattle together, “Not completely—not at first. I kept her hidden from my grandparents, so she just had free reign of my room. But then she snuck out and when my grandparents saw her, they started taking care of her too—then she could move all about the house.” My stomach dropped as I realize what I’d admitted, “But it was all my idea, my grandparents are innocent in all this—they don’t know anything.”

  The agent moved on like it hadn’t concerned him in the least, “But the organism did escape from your care once, yes?”

  I shrugged, “I don’t know if I’d call it an escape, but yeah she ran out the house to greet me once when I came home from work.” I looked up at the ceiling, “I assume that’s when you caught on we had her and sent your goons after us. That was exactly what I’d been afraid of and why we’d kept her inside all that time.”

  “And she hadn’t tried to escape again after that?”

  I shook my head, “No, Evie was a good girl; we took some time to make sure she knew how dangerous it could be outside, and she finally came to understand and obeyed.”

  The agent shook his head as though he didn’t believe it, but didn’t offer any commentary, “Did she obey all your other orders?”

  I chuckled at that, “I didn’t order her around, don’t know where you’re getting that. I took care of her, fed her, played with her—I loved her, like a pet or daughter or whatever the fuck she was to me.” I said, my voice growing quiet as I remembered how the little alien I loved turned out to be a killing machine that consumed dozens of humans without hesitation.

  Th agent continued shaking his head, “Unbelievable…” He barely breathed.

  For some reason, that pissed me off, “You better believe it; Evie was sweet and kind and gentle until you lot came and threatened us. There’s no doubt in my mind if you would’ve left us alone, she never would’ve…transformed into that monstrosity and killed all those people.” I said, and I really believed it. I didn’t know if my little Evie was still in there—in that abominable form, but I honestly thought she never would’ve unleashed that fury if we hadn’t been attacked first. There was a weird part of me that was understanding—almost forgiving her for killing all those people, but a shiver of terror still remained locked in my heart at how quickly she changed, how easy that carnage was for her to unleash.

  The agent held up a placating hand, “You misunderstand, we do believe she was gentle and safe with you. But such an outcome seems so improbable to the point of being impossible. We have no idea what strict events led to your peaceful relationship with the organism, but we are very interested.”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “Why? Just because she’s an alien lifeform? Have other aliens crash landed on earth before—violent ones?”

  The agent looked back at his colleague, said nothing, then turned back to me, “We have been tracking the organism for a long time; your Evie is one of the most dangerous lifeforms in the entire universe. She has the ability to decimate entire species—destroy planets even, yet you fed her chocolate and slept in the same bed with her.” He shook his head, “There is no data in all our simulations that suggests such an outcome was possible.”

  Something in the agent’s words clicked something in my brain—simulation. I suddenly realized why the agent looked so familiar—but my brain fog had prevented me from making the connection, as impossible as it should be.

  “Are you Agent Smith from the Matrix? The fucking movie?” I demanded, and looking back at the other agent, he looked like an actor from the movie too.

  Agent Smith before me grimaced, “Ah, damn, his rationale-synapses have reconnected and disrupted the illusion.”

  I tried to pull away from the table, yanking at the chains, “What the hell is going on here?”

  “Are we going to need to terminate?” The other agent asked.

  Agent Smith nodded, “Yes, prepare for breakdown.”

  “What are you guys—” But before I could finish my thought, the entire room seemed to shimmer like in a massive mirage; the walls rolled into themselves, the mirror on the wall faded away, and the door in front shifted into a large, heavy security door that looked like it belonged in a military compound. The room changed into an almost spherical, chrome holding cell that seemed strangely futuristic. I looked up to my captors to demand what was going on, but I couldn’t form a single word at the sight before me.

  Standing in front of me was an alien—nothing like what Evie had been. This one was clearly some insectoid, with a body that reminded me of the grasshoppers from A Bug’s Life, with green and brown chitin plating, with slender legs and four arms, with only two fingers and a thumb, and some small spikes along several ridges. Its face was more moth-like, with large green compound eyes that had 12 hexagonal plates instead of the thousand mini-eyes a fly might have, and long fluffy moth-like antenna. Its mouth was almost dorky looking with dark green mandibles that reminded me of buck teeth, with little red pinchers to the side. The insect alien was about my height including the antenna, staring at me with those strange eyes, watching and waiting for my reaction—but my brain refused to work right at this point, I had no reaction to give.

  I looked off to the side, hoping for help or clarification or something, but in response I was answered with another alien staring at me from the doorway—this one different from the one that played Agent Smith. This alien was much larger, maybe a foot taller than me and quite bulky. Its skin was a dull gray and seemed a mix between ashen rhino skin and straight-up rocks. Its arms were crossed over its chest, and I could see on its forearms were plating of blue stones almost like shingles where a man might have arm hair. Its face was rather plain, no lips on its mouth that had a pronounced underbite, no nostrils I could see, and very tiny beady blue eyes. It also had another row of those blue stones on top of its head almost like a mohawk.

  Both aliens wore a similar uniform, some form-fitting black and gold tactical vests that looked to be made of some knitted carbon fiber (though was surely some alien material), and black tactical pants with cyber-samurai armor plating at the sides.

  I started hyperventilating, tugging at my chains uselessly to get free—no other thought in my mind now except I needed to get the hell out of there.

  “Mr. Samson.” The insect alien said gently, its voice sounded weirdly mechanical—like those stoma voice boxes people used. It was probably some digital translator at work.

  “What the fuck is all this? What the fuck is going on!?” I demanded, suddenly getting very dizzy.

  The insect alien stood up and held its hands out peacefully, “Mr. Samson, please remain calm, we shall explain everything.” It insisted.

  “Maybe we should give him space, try again later?” The rock alien said, its deep rumbling voice also with that mechanical affectation.

  The insect alien shook its head, “No no, this is much too important to delay.” It gestured with two arms on its left side, “Please, Mr. Samson, I promise you are in no danger; we just need information on the organism you call Eve.”

  My eyes were wide and panicked as my gaze darted around the room, but it was obvious I was completely at their mercy—chained to the table bolted to the ground, what choice did I have? Actually, that gave me an idea; I lifted my hands up, “If that’s true, you’ll release my restraints.”

  The insect alien tapped at its nearly nonexistent chin below its mandibles, considering my words.

  “Kotlokk, you can’t seriously be considering—” The rock alien started, but the insect alien ignored its partner and pulled out a small remote and pressed a button. Instantly, my shackles released and wound back into the table. I quickly stood up and away as I rubbed at my wrists, then posted up in the far corner to put as much distance as possible between myself and the aliens.

  “There’s a good lad, all right now, yes?” The insect alien—Kotlokk said.

  I shook my head slowly, not taking my eyes off the aliens, “Tell me exactly what’s going on here.”

  Kotlokk gestured to himself with all four arms, “My name is Clandestine Agent Kotlokk,” He waved out to his partner, “He’s Clandestine Agent Roote. We are aboard the Specialty Resource and Research Vessel The Radiance. You are no longer on planet earth.”

  For the second time that day, I passed out.