Shortsighted

“She needs to see a doctor.”

“Kathy, she’s fine! It’s just a phase. She’s a kid—that’s what they do. They like to imagine and play games and make-believe and—”

“You know what, fine. Then you go talk to her. Ask her to play her game with her and see how she responds.” Her lips were dripping with sarcasm. Mary Leib knew her daughter better than anyone, and her recent behavior was no phase. Her husband refused to accept that their daughter needed help.

It all started when they received a letter in the mail. Lily had been the first to find it. She opened the peculiar parchment and peered at the insect-like symbols on its page. She had been the only one to see it. She clutched the paper and examined it in her room, thinking intensely about its possible meanings.

Mark Leib stood up from the chair. He bolted toward the door, intentionally ignoring his wife’s meticulous stare. Outside their bedroom, he could hear the sharp thuds of her fists against the wall. He wouldn’t lie to himself: her behavior was scary. But he couldn’t let himself defy common sense. He had done weird things as a kid too. Hell, he might’ve been exactly like her at some point!

“Lily, what’s going on in there?” He stood a few feet from the door to her room, the air silent except for the sounds of her fists.

“Daddy, it won’t go away.” Her fists continued their eerie cacophony as he became increasingly annoyed. He always loved when she called him “daddy”; the innocence was precious. Now, however, her whole charade was revolting.

“Sweetie, can you open the door? Maybe I can help you.”

“It’s impossible, daddy. They just won’t go away!” She was beginning to cry hysterically. Part of it was frustration, but there was also a sense of sheer helplessness. It used to be that she could ask her mom or dad for help and the problem would be solved immediately. This time, it was different.

“Just open the door, okay?” After a few seconds, he heard the click of the lock. He pressed himself toward the door and softly grasped the doorknob in his hand. He slowly pushed it open.

The lights were off. “Lily, where are you?” He looked around and then saw her. She was kneeling in the corner with her palms against the wall. “Lily, please, you’re scaring me.” He began to approach her.

“Stop! They’re going to run away!” She resumed banging her fists against the empty wall.

“What do you mean by they?”

“There’s no point! You can’t see them. They keep running away from me!”

He swiftly stepped toward her and gripped her cheeks in his palms.

“Lily, it’s okay. There’s nothing there.” She was struggling to escape.

“Daddy, no! They’re going to escape!” He went back toward the front of the room and flicked on the light. In the incandescence he could see the shimmer of blood caked across her hands. Still, she wouldn’t capitulate.

“Lily, if you don’t stop, mommy and daddy will have to take you to see a doctor, okay?” She was no longer listening. He felt helpless, but he had to protect her. This was not some innocuous fairy tale—she was suffering. He returned to her position and gripped her hands. She was struggling ferociously but couldn’t match his strength. Amidst her wailing, he failed to hear his wife approach the room.

“I just called the doctor,” she announced. “He wants to see you immediately.”

He had never heard of a doctor seeing a patient so quickly. After the wife’s call, it was only two hours before Lily sat on the bed awaiting his visit. Both parents were seated beside her, the mom sweetly caressing her legs, reminding her of better days.

Even in the office, her visions tormented her. She tried covering her eyes, hoping they would disappear. But the thought that they were still out there terrified her, forcing her to resume her search for their location. Finally, the doctor entered the room. Outside the doorway, they could vaguely see the shadows of accompanying figures, but they thought nothing of it.

“Lily, my dear, I don’t want you to worry.” He placed his clipboard near the sink, washed his hands, and put on a pair of gloves. Mary moved away from her daughter to provide the doctor with space to examine her.

“Oh, there’s no need, Mary. I already have a diagnosis.” Mary slowly raised her head as she glared at him perplexingly.

“Excuse me?”

“You see, Lily is not the first to experience these bizarre symptoms. In fact, I have received several patients with nearly identical behavioral patterns within the last week.”

“Well, doctor, is she all right?” Mark still appeared concerned.

“Yes, she is healthy, if that is what you mean. Unfortunately, I had to report her symptoms to a federal database tracking these hallucinations. The government needs to speak with her.”

A bead of sweat dripped down Mark’s face as he and his wife peered at each other. What would the government want with their child? Before they could further contemplate the matter, two agents entered the room and approached Lily.

“What are you doing?” Mark tried to intervene, but Mary stopped him. She was right to de-escalate the situation; fighting was futile.

“Nothing is going to happen to her.” The agent pulled a badge out of his pocket and held it toward the parents. They were from the FBI.

“Then why are you here?”

“We think these occurrences are connected. The symptoms, I mean. The government has a strong interest in figuring out that connection. It will only be a day. She will be right back with you and her behavior will cease.”

“Let me guess… something about national security?” He grinned pathetically, already knowing the answer.

“Correct.”

Lily looked toward her parents for their direction. Should she follow the agents? They nodded. There was no choice. One of the agents reached out his hand and she grasped it. They walked with her out of the room.

Her memories of the rest of that day faded. When her parents later asked her what had happened, she couldn’t remember a single second. It wasn’t as though the details disappeared or the pictures were blurry; on the contrary, the memories did not exist at all.

The next day, she woke up in a small room. The lights were off, but she could vaguely glimpse the figure of another child. The child was sleeping, though he seemed to be around her age. After a few minutes, he awakened.

Lily talked to the boy, but his bewilderment was boundless like hers. All they could do was wait. Eventually, their conversation drifted to the topic of a strange letter each had received in the mail. Like Lily, the boy had found the envelope with the insect-like symbols scattered in his family’s mailbox. Neither could understand its meaning.

Finally, the door opened.

An agent entered. His outfit was similar to the agents from the day before, though his demeanor was harsher.

“Come with me,” he ordered. The children followed the man outside the room and into the hallway. The journey lasted about a minute before they entered another, larger room. The agent escorted them inside, where several people in lab coats were busy dabbling with some obscure machinery.

Once the workers spotted the children, they greeted them mechanically. One of them motioned for the children to take a seat. As they obeyed the command, two of the workers each picked up a syringe.

“This will only take a second, I promise.” Before the children could react, they injected the liquid into their bodies. The children saw darkness, and the government solved its problems.

When they once again saw light, each child’s life would return to normal. The doctor called Lily’s parents and told them to pick her up at his office. All she remembered was the strange workers in their lab coats, but even the shine of the syringe escaped her memory.

Meanwhile, a report swept across the FBI director’s desk. The word “CLASSIFIED” was sprawled across the cover in red. The director opened the report. “New species detected: genealogical makeup unknown.” The report troubled the director. It was not the first of its kind. For the past month, a group of parasites had infected roughly a dozen people and provided them with a shocking array of symptoms. The common theme was hallucination.

The troubling aspect of these parasites, however, was not the hallucinations. Rather, it was their strange genealogical makeup. Their genes did not match any known species on the planet, and some agents suspected they were alien. So far, the FBI had done its best to ensure no knowledge of these parasites leaked to the public. They were not ready for the implications of such a discovery. But such subterfuge could not continue unabated forever.

Suddenly, there was a knock.

“Come in,” the director shouted in an annoyed tone. He hated interruptions. The visitor opened the door. Upon seeing one of his finest deputies, his calm composure returned.

“Sir, we keep getting more reports—”

“Of the parasites?”

“Yes. We don’t think we’ll be able to hide it much longer. Eventually, someone’s gonna squeal.”

“Well, we’ll have to hide it for as long as we can. Once people find out about this, we’ll have far bigger problems.”

“Okay, sir.” She left the room. He closed his eyes, hoping it would all go away. He reached under his desk for the artifact that had been truly bothering him. He pulled the envelope toward him, opening the soft parchment and trying to uncover the cryptic symbols on its page.

Before long, his mind started to throb in pain. He saw insects on the walls, crawling across his room and back again. He placed his hands on his face and started yelling.

Across America, millions of citizens were finding these envelopes with insect-like symbols. There were too many of them for the government to intervene. What started as isolated cases became a pandemic. While the government could kill the parasites, the envelopes would return, and the parasites would reinfect their victims. It was only a matter of time…

When the aliens finally revealed themselves, there was nobody left to fight them. Their species had sent a small contingent of individuals to investigate the humans and discover a way to incapacitate them. The job was simpler than expected. There was no need to fight the humans directly. Instead, they transmitted a strain of parasites to the humans to eliminate them indirectly. By the time the group communicated the news to the rest of their species, there were no humans left. Their tactic of elimination had worked—all without ever revealing themselves to the humans.