Terrestrial Alien ✔

Chapter 22: Something Strange

Joshua

    I'm frozen in my bed. Around me, my room is dark, and above my head looms two glowing green orbs. The creature is sitting on top of me, skeletal claws pressing into my chest as a bony tail curls around behind it. A slow, clicking growl seeps from its maw as it leans its skull-like muzzle closer to my face. I can't breathe. I can't move. My heart is pounding in my chest and my palms are sweating against the bed sheets I have clutched in my hands. I squeeze my eyes shut as the monster swoops its head down, ready for it to swallow me whole.

And... Soft lips meet mine. My eyes snap open, and it isn't the monster anymore. It's Seth. He kisses me like it's all he's ever wanted to do, and I close my eyes again. I kiss him back. Suddenly I'm pushing up against him, sitting up so I can feel the weight of him in my lap, and it feels real. I want this, I want him. He's pushing back against me, leaning into our kiss. I feel his hands smoothing down my neck and my chest. When he pulls his mouth away from mine, I chase him, I cup his face in my hands and I pull him back into another kiss.

I can feel his warm breath shuddering against my mouth, his teeth on my lip, and I love it. We push and pull against each other, our hands roaming and and touching and grabbing at anything, everything, and I feel him leaning into me, his hands under my shirt, sliding up my abdomen. My breath hitches, then catches. I don't feel his hands against my skin. I feel the press of claws.

Immediately I know, when I open my eyes, it's the monster. It grins at me with that coyote mask, and all the dismay comes crashing down on me. It wasn't Seth. It wasn't Seth. It was Seth. It is Seth.

A rumbling coo leaves the throat of the beast, and I feel the claws dragging delicately down my skin. It's only a moment: then it's shoving its claws into me with a sickening sound. The pain in my gut is almost an afterthought; first I feel the betrayal, the sadness, and the hurt. I feel the wetness as the hole in my abdomen starts to leak around his bony hand. Then the pain rips through me, and I'm waking up with a scream.

The pain still courses through me, even when I know it was just a dream, another dream, and through my pounding heart and my cold sweat, it takes me too long to realise that it isn't the same pain. It takes me even longer to realise that I'm looking at my room upside down.

I'm mangled up in my bedsheets, and my elbow throbs under me—I must've fallen out of bed when I woke up. Of course. With this realisation, I groan, and I knock my head against the floor with frustration. Another dream.

This one was... different, though. My skin prickles with goosebumps as I recall, and my face grows instantly warm. Though... that might be because I'm still upside down. Goddamnit.

Kicking at my sheets, I tumble the rest of the way out of bed with a grunt, and then proceed to lay sprawled out on the floor. I can't believe I... I... Ugh. Groaning, I scrub my hands over my face and try to erase the feel of dream-Seth's hands against my skin, his lips against mine. I actually just had a wet dream about him, and I... actually enjoyed it.

Or, at least until he murdered me. Again. You'd think after having dreams like these for years, you'd get used to dying in them, but you really don't. Especially not when the death comes after...

"Ugh!" I kick my legs again and try to make myself forget, but I can't. Do I really want to kiss Seth that badly? It was actually kind of... nice. My heart is still racing a bit in my chest, and I press my arm over my eyes as though I can calm myself down by not thinking about it. I try gathering my thoughts.

With memories of Seth, also comes memories of the monster. I hate it, I still do. It always has to ruin everything, doesn't it. That's just what it does. It's like a giant bad-luck black cat that—because it's also Seth—just won't leave me alone, even in my sleep. Unbelievable.