Chapter 9

By the time I realized I was moving I was out of the bathroom and in the halls. I heard something going on behind me but didn’t care to look back. I knew I just needed to get out. I rounded the corner and shot past a pair of customers, spilling their popcorn in the process. One of them tried to yell at me, but I didn’t hear what they said. Who cared? Didn’t they know there was a monster and a crazy person on the loose? If they didn’t, maybe they were clued in when I tripped over a surprise tentacle.

I sprawled out on the ground and looked back, the thing was coiling around my leg and leading back to a wall ventilation shaft. I could hear her in there, grunting as she pulled me closer and closer. Cass rounded the corner and pushed the customers aside.

“Don’t worry folks this is a promotion for a movie coming out soon!” She aimed her gun square at the tentacle, “and I’m the main character!”

When she fired, I almost didn’t register the beam of light that came from her gun. It shimmered briefly in the air before it flashed into the ground next to the tentacle which let go in shock. I scrambled onto my back and crawled away, bumping into Cass. She reached her hand out, I slapped it away.

“No! No, I don’t want any part of this! I just want to go home!”

“Matt we-”

“No!” I leapt up and made a break for the lobby. Only to be greeted by the helmet of Zwendel who rounded the corner, her own gun trained on my chest. I watched a sliver of one of her tentacles slide out from a vent on the ceiling and re-join her humanoid body. She reached up and pulled back the visor of the helmet to reveal two copper eyes that sunk into a pale blue flesh. The slits of her pupils narrowed, and I could see tentacles that were the same color bunched up behind her head. I couldn’t see her entire mouth, but when she spoke I caught glimpses of a gray tongue.

“You’re coming with me, whether you like it or not.” She said coldly.

By now the rest of the theater was in a panic. Folks were running for the doors, my co-workers were cowering beneath the nearby concession stand. I saw a security guard approaching her from behind. He drew his gun, “Stop! Get your hands-”

Before he could finish a thick black tentacle shot out from Zwendel’s back and slapped him out cold. An announcement from my manager broke out on the intercom. “Attention theater guests please evacuate the building! We have an armed shooter, I repeat an armed shooter! Stay calm and use the nearest emergency exit available to you. Know that Movie Country cares about your safety- oh my God is that Matt?!”

“Annoying.” Zwendel said and returned her attention to Cass, “This whole planet is annoying. I had to survive for two days eating nothing but the disgusting candies you sell.”

Other theater goers were running from their auditoriums, and I could hear the exit doors of the ones nearby clanking open. I heard Cass step forward behind me, “Oh come on Zwen, you love chocolate.”

Zwendel grabbed me and I was suddenly in the same position as before. She backed away and put her gun right to my head. “Any closer and your precious friend dies.”

“Is that what all this is about?” Cass said, “You’re trying to get him just to get to me? Honestly, I didn’t even know you still thought about me.”

“Oh please” She jabbed the gun into my temple, pushing my head until my neck was so tight I could hardly breathe. “We know you are the ones behind Those Who See.”

Cass looked like she had just been insulted, “those nutso’s? Come on. Be serious.”

Zwendel held firm, “Robbery. Fraud. Smuggling operations that no one can connect a source to. It’s taken a while, but we’ve finally managed to track down the name behind it all. One of the most bizarre cases we’ve ever seen. Countless crimes, and not a single name. Well, we’ve got your name pal. Matthew Coulson of Earth.”

“That- that’s crazy.” I said, “this isn’t real, I’m dreaming. None of this is true!”

“Shut up!” Three tentacles wrapped around my waist and pulled me in tighter, “You’ve been the strings behind your little religion this whole time. The only question we had was how could a human from such an isolated planet possibly do all of this? Such a thing would require so much manpower, so much coordination. You would have to have your ear out for every possible thing that could go wrong. Then we realized, all it would take…” She looked up at Cass, “is just one person on the inside.”

Cass made a sound halfway between a laugh and a gasp, “Ha! That- waitaminuite waitaminute, let me get this straight. This whole hit, this whole ridiculous trip out here, was supposed to be a setup to get him and me in the same spot? For one easy capture based on a lead you made up?!”

“It makes sense, doesn’t it?” Zwendel said, “Send one of you up to run things out there while someone else keeps the books down here. You used me, Cass! Used all of us!”

“I don’t know what’s going on here.” I finally said, “I literally met her yesterday!”

“You can stop playing dumb.” Zwendel said, “What? You think I wouldn’t recognize you? She’s shown me your pictures enough, told me all sorts of stories, was it all just to get us off the trail? Huh?” She jabbed her gun towards Cass, “Was it all a lie?!”

Cass took a deep breath. She holstered her gun and took a step forward, “Okay. I know what this looks like, but I’m telling you you’ve got it all wrong.”

Zwendel wasn’t letting up. She pulled me in closer, and sputtered a word I didn’t understand. Cass repeated the word, and responded in a coarse way of speech that I couldn’t register. It was another language. I glanced around to see if anyone else could hear this, see this, but the theater was empty by now, and the unmistakable sound of sirens was coming from outside.

Zwendel took my attention with a cackle, “You mean he doesn’t even know?!”

“That’s what I’m trying to say! You have to believe me!”

Zwendel backed up shoved her gun into my head,, “Tell him. Tell him now, and we’ll see if you’re lying.”

“Just shoot me. Shoot me please.” I said, “I just want to wake up at home, please end this. Please.”

“He doesn’t need to know.” Cass said, “we can leave now and put this all behind us.”

“Tell him or I’ll honor his little request.” Zwendel shouted. Then Cass sighed. She holstered her weapon and seemed to be mulling something over. She licked her lips and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear.

“Matt… there’s something I have to tell you.”

The way she said it made my heart stop. I craned my head to her, and Zwendel eased the gun. I was still shaking so, so, much.

“I’m not an FBI agent.” She said.

“No shit.” I responded, my voice scraped against my throat.

“I’m not even from here. Well… anymore. Seven years ago I left Earth, I made a new life and became a new me. A better me.” She was close now, Zwendel was loosening her grip and I realized that was the only thing keeping my body from shaking so hard. Cass put her hand on my shoulder and smiled, “My name is Cassandra. You once knew me as Lucas.”

Now what would you consider a natural response to receiving information like that? Crying? Shouting? Punching?

What about all three?

It was like my body pressed the release on a back up tank of adrenaline and my mind was clear. I pounced out of Zwendel’s grip and tackled Lucas to the ground. Without a second thought I brought my fist down toward his face. Before it could connect he rolled out from under me, sending me to the ground in the process. I rolled opposite him and got to my knees again, nearly breathless from all the excitement, “Lucas?! You bastard!”

I barreled for him again and he sidestepped me. “Wow,” he said, “okay nice to see you again too. Hanging with you has been a delight by the way-auugh!”

I tried again, but he was much faster. I turned back to him, nostrils flaring, and shouted, “Do you know how LONG your mom has been crying? How much of a fucking mess you left behind for ME to pick up?!”

“Mom? What have-”

Nope. No chances. I tried for a tackle and succeeded with a push into the auditorium nearest us. I slammed him into the interior wall and raised my fist, “now I know this is a dream!” I sputtered, “Because there’s no way real life would actually give me the chance to punch that stupid face of yours again!”

“Well surprise! It has! Now let go!” He pushed back with an unexpected amount of strength, causing me to stumble back. Zwendel rushed in after us and had her hands raised.

“Okay Okay I believe you! No sense in-”

“Oh shut up!” I said, “Can’t you see I’m about to kill my friend?”

“Kill me? You barely know me!” He said and punched my jaw hard. I rubbed my cheek. A good, hard punch, and yeah it was real. I lunged again, unsure of any other plan but one: get revenge.

The tussle led us into the main auditorium. Lucas ran up the steps to try and get advantage. He ran to the center of the middle row of seats, “Matt? Buddy? I’m sure we can talk about this.”

“Talk? You had a chance to talk!” I shouted, “but oh no! Lucas had to go and get his stupid sex change! Hahaha! I can’t believe this!” I glanced at Zwendel as she rounded the corner, her visor was low again, but the sight of tentacles peeling off her body hit harder now, “You were even right about the aliens…. Ahahaha…”

I hadn’t gotten high since, well, high school, but the feeling was unmistakable. I leapt over the seat railing and made my way to him, dodging a flailing tentacle in the process. Lucas climbed over the next seat, “you know Matt I gotta hand it to ya. Seven years and you’re still a jerk!” He said.

“And you’re still delirious!” I said, “what? Earth sex changes weren’t enough for you? Had to go and get space botched?”

“Space botched? I am a Goddess, sir.”

“You’re not even a girl, Lucas!”

There was another shimmering blast. It flew past me and struck the lights above us, dimming the room. I looked down to the smoking gun in Zwendel’s hand. She cried, “Both of you! Enough! This planet’s authorities are on the way! We can talk about this at a safer-”

“And I’m safe with you?!” I called back, “The hentai monster?”

“Oh she’s better than hentai.” Lucas smirked.

 I almost gagged, “You and that thing?”

“Oh many things.” 

I was about to say more when the sound of a loudspeaker crackling interrupted the fight. It was from the overheard MC system, “This is OKCPD! We’re checking the perimeter! This is your only warning: Surrender or we are authorized to use deadly force!”

I took the chance to run up the steps after Lucas until I finally had him cornered on the top row. I looked to the projector booth, where this all began, and had to laugh. “Look at us, Lucas.” I said, “We’re finally in a sci-fi movie. Tell me, is it everything you ever hoped for?”

Lucas sighed, “See that’s the thing, Matt. I’ve been in the movie for a while now. You? You’re just now joining the cast.”

I pulled my fist back for another attack but a big black tentacle stuck and wrapped around it. Zwendel was climbing up over the seats using an array of tentacles to support her. She towered over the both of us. “We need to go. Now.”

“We? We?!” I shouted, “I was never a part of any of this, he shouldn’t be a part of this, and you you’re- you’re a-”

“A Tangerian.” Lucas chimed, I ignored it.

“A freak in a helmet!”

One of Zwendel’s tentacles took Lucas by the waist and we were both hoisted up in the air. My body dangled uselessly from my fist. Lucas didn’t seem to mind, in fact he was pretty calm, considering.

“Your ship is up there, right?” He said to Zwendel.

“It is, yeah, though I can’t exactly fit both of you into the vents.”

“Help! Help!” I called out, “They’re in here!”

Lucas wasn’t having it. He aimed his gun up to the ceiling and clicked a few buttons on it. A flurry of bright beams shot from the gun, this time with enough kickback to set Zwendel off balance and nearly drop us. Brief rays of daylight cut into the theater, and Zwendel seemed to get what he was going for. As she tore the rest of the ceiling to shreds, I struggled to loosen her grip but it wasn’t working. Before long they had carved enough space for us all and I was being flipped upside down as we moved to the roof.

“Let me g-”

I was answered with a swift slam on the hard concrete of the roof. Zwendel’s tentacles had receded and she was marching forward to the edge of the building. I felt a hand on my shoulder, Lucas was trying to help me up. I shoved him away and stood by myself, “I don’t need your help.” I said.

“Sorry, I was just-”

“You don’t have the right to apologize right now.”

“I don’t even need to apologize, okay? I was only trying to-”

“To what? What are you doing here? You’re dead, Lucas, you- you- you’re fucking dead.”

In that second my brain was finally able to catch up with my body, you’re talking to a ghost, this isn’t real. Why are you here? Don’t you get it? You’ve finally snapped. I started to pace away and mumble to myself. Lucas was trying to talk but I didn’t hear. I tried to focus, tried to count backwards, but nothing was working. It was as though all of the tension in my body was vying to be the first thing out but something was blocking it, a point of logic I couldn’t follow that made my brain erratic. The world is broken. You’re stepping on glass. You need to sit down, no stay up. Nothing bad will happen if you just stand still and try to-

I leaned over the side of an AC unit and puked, but not even that was normal anymore. Some of the puke hadn’t hit the ground, it floated above it, splattered against something that I couldn’t see. I watched as a shimmer of light spread out from it and seemed to reveal a metal texture as it peeled away. The shimmering space expanded and revealed a large aircraft. It was bizarre, the hull was gray and black, and I could see the cockpit through a tinted window at the top. By and large, its shape was similar to a fighter jet but it was bigger, big enough for an entire staircase to fold out from its side and lead up to an opening.

“That…” I said, stepping back in a daze. My brain was at critical mass. “That’s a… a space… ship.”

Finally, I passed out.