Extraordinary

The alarm went off at the usual five A.M. in the morning. I switched it off as quickly as I could even though I was barely awake. My wife was lying naked in the bed next to me barely covered by the bed sheet.

Leesa always slept on the right side of the bed. She was still completely out. I guessed she was so used to the alarm clock that she didn't even stir. Good for her. She deserved her rest. She looked so beautiful and peaceful lying there. I would've loved nothing more than to get close to her warm body and go back to sleep myself.

It was Friday though. Thank God for that. I suddenly realized I felt sick to my stomach. My head was pounding and I had what seemed like strobe lights flashing in my mind. Fuck. It happened again. This was the third time in as many months. They abducted me in the middle of the night.

What the hell did they want from me anyway? All my memories of the different experiences were jumbled together. I only got flashes of things happening. Weird sounds. They didn't talk out loud but I could still hear them communicating to me in my mind.

First there were these awful cracking sounds. Like someone was slowly breaking bones. Horrible. Those terrible sounds were followed by this almost robotic but pleasant sounding translation.

"We know this is frightening for you. We will do our best to remove the painful memories."

The voice was silky and smooth. Feminine? Relaxing. Even though it was obviously not a real human voice it was still beautiful.

"I am G'Cgchoh. I am much like a research scientist in your world. I have studied many species from your planet. Some are species that humans aren't fully aware of or if they are they are not accepted by your science. But humans are the most advanced and interesting to us."

The being that stood over me seemed to be the one speaking into my mind. But I couldn't be sure. There were others in this place, whatever and wherever it was. Full of bright light. They all looked so similar with only slight differences so I couldn't tell what gender any of them were by looking at them. Did they even have genders? They wore no outer garments so I had no visual clues.

They were all gray. Very tall and smooth. Muscular. Their heads were large. They had no mouths or ears that I could see. Their eyes were very large and were like pools of black. I was laying on some table or something. I was naked but kept warm by all the lights. I didn't seem to be restrained but couldn't move. My mind wanted to be scared. But I wasn't.

They had all these strange devices and instruments they used on me. Some were just waved over me while other things were pushed inside of me. There wasn't any pain that I remember. No discomfort either.

Then it all went blank. Like whatever the rest of the memory was it had simply been erased. Time had passed and I was aware of it. But there was no memory beyond that. That's the only way I could explain it. That is, if I ever told anyone. But who would believe me?

I thought I'd tell Leesa eventually. But I really don't know what good it would do. If she didn't believe me she'd probably think I was going crazy. If she did she would probably feel powerless to do anything. That might scare her. I can relate to both of those reactions, honestly. I just wanted this to stop.

I decided to grab my usual morning shower and try to forget what's been happening to me lately. I flicked on the bathroom light. I stood there for a few minutes looking in the mirror. I had bags under my eyes. I turned and shifted around to see if there were any visible marks on my body. Nothing.

Weird. Even the scar on my left shoulder from the surgery I had back in highschool from a football injury was now completely gone. How was that possible? Well that's something, isn't it? Proof? Nah.

After my shower I got dressed for work and grabbed some coffee. I went back into the bedroom to kiss Leesa on her lovely little forehead before heading off to work. I guess some husbands would figure she'd never know so why even bother? But I loved this woman and I couldn't help myself.

The morning commute was fairly routine. Not much traffic for once. With a little extra time on my hands I decided to swing by the bank ATM and get some cash for breakfast. The drive through ATM was out of service so that meant I was going to have to park and go inside. As I was getting out of my car I was confronted with the most frightening scenario of my life up to that point.

Two armed masked men dressed in all black were quickly exiting the front door of the bank. One of them was proceeded by lady with auburn hair wearing a light blue summer dress. The man directly behind her had her in a choke hold, with her neck locked into the bend of his elbow. He had a Glock pressed up against her head. She looked terrified.

The other man had an assualt rifle of some sort pointed right at me. He motioned with the barrel of his gun for me to move away from my car. My driver's side door was still open. He walked right up to me and held out his gloved hand. I assumed he wanted my car keys. Was this their plan? No get away car and driver lying in wait?

I was shaking with nervousness. I took the keys out of my pocket to hand them over when a shot rang out. I felt a bullet zip past my head, barely missing me. A security guard had just exited the bank and presumably fired the shot as his firearm was drawn and pointed in my general direction.

There wasn't even a thought. It just happened. Before I even realized it, I pulled the assault rifle away from the man who just took my keys from me. I used the butt of the rifle to hit him in the head and knock him unconscious.

Then I spun the rifle around and fired at the other man in black who was now standing near my car's passenger door. The round hit him in the right side of his chest. He let go of the woman and she dropped to the ground on the other side of my car. He stumbled momentarily and raised his handgun to fire back. My second round hit him right between the eyes.

I dropped the rifle and raised my hands. The security guard holstered his revolver and went to assist the girl. A moment or two later he came over to the man I had knocked out, checked his pulse and then rolled him over and cuffed him. By this time other people had started to exit the bank. The whole incident took maybe 15 seconds to resolve. But it felt like a lot longer.

How did I do that? I had no military or law enforcement training. I was in finance. I was a bean counter. Yet I just took out two very dangerous, armed men with zero thought about it. It just happened.

My reflexes were lightning fast as though I did this kind of thing routinely every day. It was a scene right out of the movies. Adrenaline? That would account for my heart rate which was still elevated. I was exhilarated, like I'd just done a five mile run or had a really good workout. But the skill and accuracy of firing that weapon?

That was when I suddenly remembered something. Something about last night. That feminine translator voice just floated up in my mind.

"You will start notice some changes. It's okay. This is to be expected. It's part of our plan for you. You will still be the man you are. You will just be a little more extraordinary going forward."

Indeed.