Taken

I woke to a face so beautiful that no landscape could compare. The perfect pallet of browns. Her chestnut hair, each strand a woven piece of silk that cascades like a waterfall in the night over her shoulders, soft and silent. Her eyes, a deep brown, shaped like almonds, mysterious but comforting, dark but radiated a light and joy that was captivating. Her skin was a light tan, smooth as satin, as cool as the spring air. Her nose had a slight slope, and her ears stuck out just a little, giving her a playful elvish look that rejuvenated the soul. Her smile was a bright white, pure and clean as the snow that falls from the heavens. The morning sun engulfed her through the sheets that she had pulled over our heads, making her look like an angel sent from above.

I blinked a few times to clear the sleep from my eyes. She was not smiling. She was terrified. “Shh, we are not alone,” she warned me with a whisper.

It dawned on me that I was not seeing sunlight behind her. It was artificial light, blinding headlights pointed into our bedroom window, except we were on the second floor.

The sheet was ripped off of us. A little human-like creature, grey with bug-like black eyes and long fingers, thin but with a pultruding belly, hairless, crawled towards us from the end of the bed.

Paralyzed, we couldn’t move. I tried. I felt my muscles contracting to no avail. We could not fight. We could not run.

It hovered over Julie, inches from her face. I felt her trembling. It touched her and she cringed.

I tried to yell out at the creature, but nothing came out. I was furious. I wanted to fight. I couldn’t move.

The creature’s face snapped towards me as if reading my mind and disappeared towards the end of the bed. Then Julie was yanked towards it, disappearing from my field of vision.

The room was filled with pulsating green light. When the green light faded, the white lights from outside disappeared, and I could move again.

Julie was gone.

The girls.

I rushed down the hallway, slamming into the walls, knocking off pictures that Julie had taken. Random moments she wanted to capture forever; our happiness frozen in time. I called their names, my voice dripping with panic, “Samantha! Caitlyn!”

I slid on the hardwood floors as I tried to stop at their room. Pulling myself up, I saw that their beds were empty. I called for them again, louder, more desperate than before. I checked under their beds, I checked their closet, hoping they were hiding.

I ran to the bathroom and threw the shower curtain back. They were not there.

I hit the stairs running and tripped on a toy that sent me tumbling. At the bottom of the stairs, I came face-to-face with our beloved golden retriever. Its neck broken, head twisted backwards, tongue hanging out its mouth, eyes bulging. I scrambled back away from the furry corpse and yelled for the girls again, “Girls, answer me. Where are you?” I was choked up and ready to cry but held it all back.

I checked all the closets, the pantry, the laundry room, and the garage. I even checked the cars thinking they might have slipped in there, thinking that was the safest place. Nothing.

I collapsed between the two cars and wept. I knew I would never see Samantha again, who looked like a little version of her mother, but took after me. She was a little tomboy who excelled at soccer and softball. She climbed trees and fell out of them just as often. She was the child that worried us, and the ER knew her by name. She would chase her little sister with the snakes and toads she would find in the back yard, and to Julie’s chagrin would tear up her clothes with her rambunctious play.

I knew I would never see Caitlyn again. The child that favored my mother but took after hers. Light and graceful, she danced the day away and sang like a canary, cooed like a dove when showing affection. She was a mother to her dolls and the little pets she kept, a gerbil named Henry and a parakeet named Wings. She idolized her mom, and they would dress up and put on fashion shows for me and Samantha.

Most of all, I would never see Julie again. I would never again hear the voice of an angel singing in the shower. I would never again be made to laugh when I was feeling my lowest. I would never again be enchanted by the way she walked across the room. I would never again have my breath taken away by a smile and the playful wink of an eye. I would never again feel every muscle relax at the simplest touch or the warmth of her kiss. I would never again smell her essence which was more like home than the house we lived in.

I wiped my tears and pulled myself up. I called the cops to report them missing. When they arrived, I was foolish enough to tell them the truth. They had me blow into a breath analyzer and submit to a drug test. They filed a missing person’s report, but they treated me like suspect number one. They eventually gave up looking for them. I became the subject of ridicule amongst my neighbors, around town, at work, even my friends abandoned me.

**********

The memory of that night haunts me. I sit naked at the end of the bed in a motel in New Mexico, bottle of whisky in one hand and a cigarette in the other; nine o’clock in the morning with a nameless woman ass up sleeping next to me, thinking about the life I used to have. I’ll never understand why they took them and not me. I’ve been trying to find some way to get abducted, some way to find the family I lost, some way to rescue them from the horrors they must be facing. The thought of my sweet, innocent girls and peaceful, loving wife being tormented has driven me to drinking and sex, anything to momentarily distract me from those thoughts so I can sleep.

I take a drag off my cigarette, the cherry burning a bright orange as I listen to the paper sizzle away. I exhale a cloud of smoke as I flick my ashes on the floor. I take a big, long swig of the whisky, finishing what’s there. There's a knock at the door. I take another drag off the cigarette and put it out on the floor, breathing smoke out through my nose. Sleeping beauty behind me rouses, grabs her clothes, and heads to the bathroom.

"Hold on," I holler through the door as I throw my jeans on.

I open the door, the light blinding me. The desert heat already hot enough to feel like a punch in the jaw. "Dad, how did you find me," I ask, perplexed at the sight of him.

"Cell phone. I used some of my connections over at the precinct to help track you down. You know your mother and I are worried about you," he replies, concern etched on his face.

The woman comes out of the bathroom. "I should go," she says, squeezing between me and my father, looking very uncomfortable as she makes her way to the door.

"There's nothing to worry about, dad. I know you guys don't believe me, but I'm close. New Mexico is the mecca of alien activity," I tell him with certainty in my voice, although I'm not sure I believe myself.

"Son, Julie left you for another man. She took the girls and they moved to Japan, where he works," he tells me sympathetically.

"No. No, Julie wouldn't do that. She wouldn't leave me. She wouldn't take the girls away. I saw Julie abducted with my own two eyes, dad. She was abducted. They were abducted," my voice pleading with him to believe me.

"Ryan, I talked to Cathy Holder, the station's psychologist. She says it sounds like you have had a mental breakdown and you are suffering from PTSD. Please come home with me. Let your mother and I help you," he says, genuinely concerned.

"You don't get it, dad! I can't give up on them! If you want to help me, then you need to believe me!"

My father pulls out his cell phone and dials a number. "Hey, it's me. I need you to talk to him, please."

He hands me the phone. "Hello?"

"Ryan? This is Julie. The girls and I are fine," she says with an irritated tone. "Look, I'm sorry things went down the way they did, but you need to move on. Whatever is going on with you, you need to get help."

I'm sobbing. "Can I talk to the girls?"

"I don't know, Ryan. Right now, they're not with me. It's been three years and they have moved on. Nobody knew how to reach you. Get some help and we'll talk about it then."

"I love you so much Julie. Why?" And with that the line went dead.

I sniffle and dry my eyes. "Alright, dad. Why don't you meet me at the diner across the street. We'll talk. I'm going to get my stuff together and check-out."

"That sounds good son. I'll see you over there. I'm sorry, Ryan. I know this is hard."

I nod in acknowledgement, and he heads to his car.

I gather up my things and check-out. I get in my old beat-up Chevy pick-up and before I can start it up, there's a knock on the window.

"I rode with you last night. Can you give me a ride back to my car?"

I wipe the few remaining tears from my eyes. "Sure. if you don't mind getting breakfast first."

"That sounds wonderful."

"I'm Ryan," I say making an introduction.

She giggles. "I know. I'm Emma."

I don't know which is brighter, her dimply smile or her big blue eyes, but it doesn't matter. For the first time I'm smiling, and I suddenly feel alive.