Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY
IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I
generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family
rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to
write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration
(quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind.
These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat,
irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if
anything comes of them.
H Trope: One
Million To One (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OneToMillionToOne)
Carlos Bander
looked up at Djeneba Abuladze and said, “There’s something here.”
“Duh,” she said,
squatting next to him. The joint of the wall and floor along the hallway of the
home looked sealed tight. “But how? He was pretty specific about what he saw.”
“Sí. He saw an intruder.”
“Who suddenly
disappeared with a ‘clattering swish’.”
“His exact words,
correct?”
She pointed to the
base of the wall. “We’ve scanned the house. There’s no way the intruder could
have escaped. The door,” she nodded to the entryway. The door to the outside
was reinforced concrete. “He say to you why he has a door designed to protect
him from a nuclear blast mounted in a frame that’s closing in on a century old?”
“He didn’t say
anything to me. He just stared at me like I was crazy whenever I asked him
where he thought the intruder escaped to.”
“Me, too.” She
stood up. “There’s only one thing we can do.”
He stood next to
her, “We tried surveillance, but there was nothing – even though the intruder
appeared to him during that time.”
“What is he?”
Carlos stood up,
pursed his lips, kicked the wall gently then said, “What if the intruder isn’t
a ‘who’ but a ‘what’?”
Djeneba stood up
beside him, crossing her arms over her chest. “We’ve tried setting traps for
ghosts, spirits, trolls, and any other apparition we’ve dealt with.” She took
out her cellphone and after tapping it a few times, turned in a slow circle,
scanning the hallway. “There’s no residual ectoplasm readings that I can pick
up.”
Carlos hadn’t
moved. He took a deep breath and said, “Try scanning for non-human DNA.”
“What?”
He shook his head
slowly. “If it’s not paraterrestrial, maybe it’s extranomal.”
She hummed as she
made adjustments on her phone, then swept the hallway again. She paused, facing
the bathroom door. “I’ve got an anomalous reading from the door.”
“Behind it?”
“No. On the door.”
“Anomalous in what
way?”
“Strong
terrestrial insect DNA – about what you’d expect in a house this old. But there’s
some sort of…” she paused again. She stepped up to the door, adjusting her
phone. For an instant, the door lit up from top to bottom then went dark. Faint
marks glowed. She stepped closer then back, frowning. She swept the screen
three times then said, “The DNA has been altered. The only thing my T-comp can
match with it comes from biological material that’s been…”
“Looking for
someone?”
Carlos and Djeneba
spun around. A Human figure stood at the end of the hallway, unmoving as its
arm slowly slid up its leg from the floor. A faint, rattling hiss filled the
close space. The creature said again, “Looking for someone Mr. Bander? Mrs.
Abuladze?” The voice was raspy and seemed to come from the entire body of the
creature rather than just its head. The light above them was dim and it was
hard to see it.
“Your arm’s
attached now. What are you going to do?” said Carlos carefully.
“If you’re afraid
that I’m going to attack you both, you have nothing to worry about. I’m
typically a scavenger.” It said the word with the emphasis on the first syllable,
as if it were saying the name of the comic book and movie group of “Earth’s
mightiest heroes”. It continued, “But I have a different mission this time.”
With a loud rattle, the figure swelled until its head touched the ceiling. “I’ve
come to prepare this world for occupation.”
Carlos and Djeneba
frowned. Carlos cleared his throat, “This world has already been approved for
contact – not…” The figure shimmered for a moment then seemed to melt as the
rattling became deafening…
Names: ♀ Mali, Armenia; ♂ Mexico, Iraq
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2-arXKTiwzTybeiZ-IjR8P9j_aP2vqKXJulRCqqk_e42EoyXriDrQffp-dV_b96wQqLf5Y-M9XYpYkS4Lpz0PJvQcjGfHXS3M8QSPWCq9l9UURqlah0AR2TAlNeS4yX_NR2arOLIZVuY/s1600/2212_1025142570.jpg
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