What if you knew that horrific events were coming and you figured out a way to protect your home and the ones you love, would you do it?
Yes? Then come along and read When Worlds Collide.
Like her cousin outside of the city, Heather sat in bed in her small home on York Street, scrolling on her smartphone as the snow piled up outside. She had always been interested in all things strange and unusual, but now she was diving deeper into the UFO phenomena.
"They call them UAPs now. Unidentified Arial Phenomena," she corrected, and then looked up with a wrinkled brow. "Wait, who am I replying to?" Pausing to listen intently, she couldn't quite figure it out. "Ha! Weird," she shrugged. Then shaking her head, she dove back into her research.
Heather hadn't been able to get her mind off of what Aimee had told them about her strange dreams and all of the sightings in the area. Out of all of the weird happenings, the UAP reports fascinated her the most, growing into a new obsession. So she had spent the winter researching everything she could about it and was excited to discover that the Pentagon had released three video recordings by its Navy pilots. They were taking this quite seriously now.
It wasn't fringe or woo anymore. UAPs were now accepted reality.
Taking advantage of the extended darkness of winter time, Heather would often go for long drives out in the countryside on calm nights hoping to witness a UAP herself. She would even travel back and forth along the Saint Lawrence River between Summerstown and Morrisburg where most sightings had happened.
No luck yet.
On this stormy night though, she remained cozy in bed with her usual ice-filled glass of pop on the bedside table, a bag of dill pickle-flavoured Happy Popcorn open beside her, and the light from her smartphone glaring in her face.
Stuffing a handful of the tasty treat into her mouth, she mumbled as she read an article detailing the purported most common types of alien beings. "Nah," she munched, "I don't trust those grey types." Next, she recoiled at the image of reptilians, "upright walking lizards? Ew, yuck! No thanks. Nasty buggers."
"Sheesh, there's all kinds here," she murmured, scrolling on, and then stopped abruptly as her eye caught something much more pleasing. "Ooh wait, they're cute," she paused, biting her bottom lip. "I wonder if the one Aimee saw looks something like this? Weird outfit though," she snickered at the sci fi metallic suit before reaching for a sip of her pop, oblivious to the shadows that began creeping into her reality, into her home.
As she swallowed a couple of cold, fizzy gulps, her bed suddenly began to shake.
"Oh no!" she sputtered, dropping her phone and gripping the covers with one hand. Waiting for the return of the "bucking bronco" from the past Fall, Heather sat still, holding her breath. But then she noticed that the whole house was shaking as well. "What?"
As blue lights flashed across the wall, she sighed in relief. "It's just the snow plough." Stretching to peer out the window, she watched it rumble down her street. "Yeah, glad I don't have to drive to work in the morning. It'll be brutal just trying to get out of the driveway." In that moment, Heather felt grateful that she was able to work from home at her own business.
Then thinking of her cousin, she worried if Stacey would be able to make it in alright, as she knew that Doug was out of town. Heather wondered what she was doing right now. "Probably sleeping."
All they had done was exchange some short text messages since getting together with family over Christmas. So they hadn't had a good deep conversation since Halloween. Mostly my fault, Heather thought, as she had been busy will a full roster of clients for her web design and copywriting business. But she also knew that Stacey was busy getting the intimacy back with her husband. "Surely Stacey would have contacted me if anything... happened," she said, thinking back to her cousin's encounters with the dogman.
And then there was Aimee. Heather had heard from her even less since October. "I wonder if she's still having those strange dreams," her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she glanced over at her own bedroom closet. Then picking her phone back up, she continued, "and if there is anything new going on. Any new sightings to report..."
Anyways, we're due for another meet-up at Mexi's, she smiled anticipating the taste of more fajitas and sangria. Tapping her forehead, she made a mental note to make those arrangements, "remind me to call them tomorrow and check up on them."
Swiping the screen aside back to her research, Heather's gaze landed again on an artist's depiction of a male Nordic alien. The image was drawn from the chest up and showed what looked like a handsome man with pale skin and long, bright blond hair. "Hm, they look human. How do you tell them apart from us?" she wondered.
With discernment. The thought filled her mind so strongly she could almost hear it.
Heather stopped and looked up from her phone. "Weird... actually, I'm getting pretty used to weird."
Just then, blue lights flashed across her walls again, but this time they seemed to light the whole room. Heather brushed it aside as just the snow plough doing the other side of the street now. "...or is it a UAP?" she mused, a little hopeful, with a small laugh.
As she gulped down a few more mouthfuls of her sugary drink, she caught the familiar sound of ghostly footsteps coming down the hall. They stopped at her bedroom door, but were quickly followed by a bump to her bed. It was enough to cause her pop to slosh in the glass and nearly go up her nose. "Mm? hey!" she coughed.
Heather.
She then heard her name called.
Unafraid, she yelled out, "did YOU do that!?"
She listened quietly, but there was no answer. So wiping her nose, she carefully placed the glass back on the side table and repeated her question. "Was that you? Are you one of those shadow things I keep seeing?"
Heather.
Her name was again the only reply. This time, she noticed a slight accent to the voice, though she couldn't place it.
A weather notification caused her phone to buzz in her hand. As Heather glanced down to read it, the image of the Nordic caught her eyes and it occurred to her, "oooh are you the alien? The one Aimee saw?"
Then letting loose a barrage of questions, she continued in rapid fire: "Are these shadow things with you? What exactly are they anyway? Hey, are you really a Nordic? What do you want? How do you know ussszzzzz?"
With a sudden hit of intense brain fog, Heather's heavy consciousness couldn't fight to stay awake and she fell asleep asking her questions.
Shield Warrior, join us.
© 2022 by Linda Casselman
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