Chapter 1
“You fools!” a young man with green hair exclaims with hysteric laughter. “I have outwitted you!”
“Zesty, please! You can’t do this!” it is a young woman standing in a crowd of other people, all with faces as pale as white eggshells.
The dim moon light is cast eerily over everyone. Zesty stands there, a twisted grin on his face. With a single snap of his fingers, a spaceship appears, blowing everyone else away in its gust. The young woman in particular tries to fight against the wind to stop the young man from escaping.
“¡Adios! ¡Hago lo que quiero!” Zesty exclaims, hopping aboard his ship.
“NOOOOOOO!” the woman wails, dropping to her knees.
In a flash, the spaceship vanishes. Darkness falls…
Far, far away…errr wait, Earth! Yes…the story picks up on Planet Earth… A human woman named Vanessa is lying flopped over on her bed. Not much has been happening in her life lately.
Her cellphone rings so she lazily reaches and grabs it. “Hello?”
“Vanessa, are you busy?” a voice on the other end asks.
“N-no… I’m not doing anything at all,” Vanessa says, sitting up suddenly.
“Cool, want to hang out?”
“Not really,” Vanessa says.
“Oh. Sorry to bother you…”
“Wait, no, I DO want to hang out…I just…I have a stomachache…” Vanessa lies.
“Dang, that sucks!”
“Yeah, well, maybe I’ll feel better later…”
“Before I let you go, I need to ask… Did you catch the meteor shower last night?”
“Meteor shower?! I didn’t see anything about that in the news!”
“Yeah, a bunch of meteors erupted in the sky last night! It was fantastic!”
“Dang… I wish I had seen it…”
“It was beautiful… It was kind of like fireworks…”
Suddenly, there is a scrabbling sound outside. Vanessa looks up, frightened. Suddenly, another young woman is climbing up into her window from a nearby tree, clutching a cellphone. She successfully infiltrates the bedroom.
“Heya!” the woman says.
“Wait a minute, why do we have cellphones?” Vanessa asks.
“What are cellphones?” the other woman asks.
The cellphones are gone and there is no trace of them. The two women stare at each other. Technically, Vanessa SHOULD be doing her farm work, but here she is, not working, and now her friend has broken into her bedroom. An awkward silence falls.
“So…you still too sick to hang out?” the friend asks, grinning.
“I’m supposed to be working,” Vanessa says.
“Okay, I’ll leave… Also, did you know your corn field is smoking?” the friend asks.
“It WHAT?!” Vanessa exclaims, rolling out of bed.
Vanessa and her friend rush down the stairs. Sure enough, there is still smoke billowing from the corn field, though it appears to be from an old fire. A ring of corn has been burnt down and, in the center, there is a body. A few pieces of scrap metal are littered in the field as well.
Somehow, none of Vanessa’s family has noticed this yet. Vanessa rushes into the corn, seeking the cause of the destruction. She trips on a sheet of metal and almost falls onto the body. She screams when she sees the body.
He’s wearing just a pair of underwear as the rest of his clothes have burnt off. His skin is also charred and looks disgusting. Atop his head he has very green hair, but some of it has burnt off as well. His ears are pointy like elf ears and, well, he’s got quite the perfect body (not too muscular, but just muscular enough to be attractive).
“An alien!” Vanessa’s friend exclaims, joining her at the scene of the accident.
“A DEAD alien!” Vanessa exclaims.
The sun is only just now starting to rise. As the beams of sunlight hit the body, it begins smoking again. Thinking quickly, Vanessa grabs the guy’s hand and drags him to the shade. The smoking stops. At this day and age, a woman touching a man is highly inappropriate unless she is a nurse. What Vanessa just did violates several community rules.
“He burns in the sunlight…” Vanessa’s friend notes, trembling. “You don’t think he’s…a Vampire…do you…?”
“He’s some guy who died in my cornfield…his origin is unknown as is his identity,” Vanessa replies.
“Not gonna lie, he’s kinda handsome for a dead guy,” Vanessa’s friend says, whistling.
Vanessa lays her ear on the dead man’s chest. He’s not actually dead, as it turns out. Faintly, she can hear a heartbeat in his chest. She gasps in surprise, pulling away.
“He’s alive!” Vanessa exclaims. “He’s freezing cold, but alive!”
“Freezing cold? But he literally just was on fire,” Vanessa’s friend says. “I’m telling you, this might be a Vampire.”
“My parents are going to kill me if they find out I just touched a man. …the government might come looking for this…errr Vampire Alien…” Vanessa says.
“We just gotta keep it a secret…” Vanessa’s friend says.
“Keep what a secret?” it’s Vanessa’s father.
“Ah!“ Vanessa exclaims in surprise.
“Why do I come out here to find you touching a naked green haired man with severe burn injuries?” Vanessa’s father asks, sounding severely disappointed.
“He’s not naked. He’s in his pants,” Vanessa objects.
“Naked is naked,” Vanessa’s father says. “Step back, I’m going to shoot it!”
“FATHER NO!” Vanessa wails.
BANG! The older farmer man fires a gun at the already injured body. A hole has formed in the flesh, but no blood emerges. The indecently dressed alien man lets out a soft groan of agony. Quickly, the farmer grabs a shovel and begins to dig a hole.
“We’ll cover it up and pretend we saw nothing. We can’t have the government out here all up in our business,” the farmer says, trying to make a deep enough hole to hide the body.
“Why must you always be like this, father?!” Vanessa exclaims with a pout.
“This here fellow is bad news…nothing good could come from a naked green haired man,” the farmer says.
“He’s still alive!” Vanessa exclaims.
“He’s got no blood!” the farmer yells, throwing the body into the hole.
Vanessa watches helplessly as her father buries the living dead man. This is DEFINITELY not how she expected her day to be going. Next, Vanessa’s friend is sent home, but ordered to tell NO ONE about the alien. Vanessa is put to work cleaning the metal fragments out of the corn field.
Working diligently, she moves as many scraps of metal to the dump as she can. However, some screws and stuff are still stuck in the ground. As it turns out, there are bits and pieces of spaceship littered all over the place, not just on this one farm. The rest of Vanessa’s family have gotten to work doing typical every day tasks by now, so…Vanessa sneaks back to the shovel.
Quickly, she digs up the soft soil to see if the alien is still alive. He’s still lying there. However, the moment he is uncovered, he begins smoking again from the sunlight. Vanessa stands in front of the sun, casting a shadow over the body, as she pulls him out of the pit.
“Still alive? I don’t know how it is so, but I intend to save you…” Vanessa whispers.
Nobody notices as Vanessa drags the body back into the house. He’s kind of heavy, so she struggles to get him up the stairs (she is also wearing a long dress, which makes it even harder). Vanessa succeeds after awhile of struggling and places the guy on her bed. She drops next to the bed, exhausted.
“Okay, okay…I saved the alien…put him in my bed…now what? I can’t keep this guy hidden forever…” Vanessa mutters.
Vanessa doesn’t know what to do. What is one to do with a burnt alien man in their bed? Well, he is a burnt alien man with a hole blasted through him and he’s in his underwear so this is really, really, bad. Vanessa grabs an old cloth and uses it to cover the bullet hole.
“Maybe I should have just left him in that hole…how am I supposed to take care of this thing?” Vanessa wonders out loud.
Grabbing a bit of ointment, the young lady tends to the worst burns. It would take WAY more ointment than she owns to cover THAT many burns. Vanessa cringes as the guy lets out another pained groan. Having had enough of that nonsense, she throws her thin blanket over top of him to hide him and heads back out to work.
It’s Vanessa’s turn to grab the eggs from the chicken house. She also must help with crop harvesting, and washing everyone’s laundry. Her older brothers and sisters are busy at their own tasks. Vanessa begins to feel ill, however.
“Am I REALLY sick to my stomach or is this just anxiety?” Vanessa wonders.
“Greetings, Vanessa,” one of her brothers calls out, walking past the chicken house. “How are the eggs looking? Don’t see any more empty nests, do you?”
“No, looks like all the hens have an egg today,” Vanessa replies.
“That was some tasty chicken last night,” the brother says. “In any case, I have to get these wood planks to the house for firewood.”
“How much longer do we have until cold season?“ Vanessa inquires.
“Not much longer. Cold season usually starts after the corn is harvested,” the brother replies. “I sure hope it doesn’t snow too hard this year.”
“Me too,” Vanessa says.
“Are you feeling fine? You’re looking a bit pale in the face,” the brother points out.
“Ah! I’m doing alright,” Vanessa states, blushing a bit.
“There we go, now you look more normal,” the brother says with a laugh. “On an unrelated note, I plan to go out courting this gorgeous lady I know from school. Wish me luck!”
“Oh! Is father going with you? Or mother?” Vanessa inquires.
“I mean, yeah? Someone will be coming with me. That’s how courting works you dingus,” the brother says with a laugh. “Maybe when you’re older, you can go out courting some man.”
“Maybe,” Vanessa replies, holding her stomach as nausea sinks in again.
“You’re not sick, are you?” the brother asks suddenly.
“I think that I need to go to my bedroom soon,” Vanessa says.
“Bring the eggs inside, first. Also, father will surely be mad if he catches you not working,” the brother says.
“I really don’t need him any more mad at me than he already is,” Vanessa mumbles.
Vanessa quickly grabs all the eggs, making the hens mad in the process. Each step she takes, the world seems to spin. The pain in her stomach grows worse. The brother watches warily for a moment before continuing on with his own task.
“MomIgottheeggs,” Vanessa slurs, placing the basket dangerously close to the edge of the counter.
“Vanessa! What has come over you?!” the mother exclaims. “You didn’t get into my beverages, did you?!”
“No… I think that I- I-“ Vanessa vomits suddenly.
“My goodness, Vanessa!” the mother screeches. “You are incredibly ill! Do NOT step foot out that door again, you hear?!”
“Mom… I’m sorry…” Vanessa groans.
“I’ll make you some elderberry medicine, you go upstairs and get some rest. I’ll bring you a nice spoonful of it!” the mother says. “And some raw garlic! We HAVE to get you healthy again! The final harvest of the year is coming up soon and we’ll need all hands on deck!”
“No! Do not go in my room!” Vanessa exclaims suddenly.
“And why not?“ the mother asks. “Are you hiding something from me?!”
“No, mother…” Vanessa lies.
“Then there’s nothing to be worried about. Go to your room, get some rest. If one kid gets sick, they ALL get sick!” the mother exclaims, furiously starting up a pot of elderberry medicine.
“Okay…” Vanessa says.
Vanessa hurries up the stairs. The burnt alien Vampire man is still under the blanket. He hasn’t moved at all. By now, it’s almost evening.
“I need to hide you…” Vanessa says, dragging the body out of her bed.
“Urghh,” Zesty groans.
“Shhh,” Vanessa says and shoves him under her bed. “Don’t make a sound…”
Vanessa makes sure the body is completely hidden and climbs into bed. The bed now STINKS like burnt flesh. She gags, already nauseous enough. About an hour and forty minutes pass before the mother ascends the stairs with her homemade medicine.
“My apologies, the pot took forever to boil,” the mother says. “My goodness, Vanessa! It smells like you lit a pig on fire in here!”
“My apologies,” Vanessa replies.
The mother gently scoops some still sort of warm medicine from the pot and gently helps her daughter drink it. Vanessa gags, disgusted by the taste. The mother smiles and sets the pot down on the bedside table. She opens the window to get some fresh air in the room.
“The fresh air will be good for you, and help air out that horrid stench! I’ll be back with some raw garlic,” the mother says and picks the pot back up, leaving.
