The Symbiont

Where are we? I felt disoriented. My last memory was Jessica walking into the parking garage when her night class at the college had ended. She was just a few paces from her car when someone grabbed her from behind, put a cloth over her mouth and nose that had been laced with chloroform, and then the lights went out. It happened so suddenly that she wasn’t able to let out a scream.

I don't know how long we were out and it seemed that Jessica had regained consciousness sooner than I did. My fuzzy senses became clearer when I heard Jessica pleading for her life.

"Please!" Jessica cried. Tears streamed down her face. "Don't do this! Let me go!"

I felt Jessica trembling and her heart seemed as if it would beat right out of her chest. But I didn't blame her. We were in predicament! It seemed that we were in some sort of abandoned warehouse. Jessica’s arms, legs, and torso were held down by straps to a table. Leaning over us was a man staring down at Jessica with a hungry look in his eyes. He had a knife in his hand and caught one of Jessica's tear drops on the tip of the blade and then tasted them with the tip of his tongue.

"Your tears are both salty and sweet. When I'm done with you, you will look lovely and deserving of my attentions," the man said.

Jessica closed her eyes and turned her head away from him. But he grabbed her chin, turned her face toward his and pressed his lips to hers. His breath was foul with the stench of some sort of alcohol in combination with tobacco and garlic.

When his lips left hers, he licked the tip of her nose and smiled. “That’s just a sample, sweetheart,” he said, and then turned away from her. “I’ll make love to you like no other.”

I now realized who Jessica had been abducted by. She was about to become victim number seven of the most recent serial killer. The police and newspapers deemed him the Painted Lady Killer. His female victims' bodies were spray-painted a multitude of colors before he violated and then killed them.

You may be wondering why I say "we" in referring to Jessica. That's because Jessica wasn't alone in her body. To make a long story short, my name is Thryl from the planet Vigo which was destroyed when our sun went supernova. Very few Vigolites were able to escape our planet's fate. Approximately 10,000 out of about 80 billion survived. There was just not enough resource material on our planet or time to construct the necessary vessels to contain any more of us. I was one of the lucky ones to be selected for the journey. We spent a millennium searching for a planet that could sustain our life force and had just about given up hope until we finally discovered the planet known to its inhabitants as Earth.

There had been much discussion between our leaders on whether or not to make contact with Earth’s inhabitants about co-existing within them. But after studying several broadcasts from their news mediums and entertainment outlets, we decided that it would have been an effort in futility. For it wasn't Earth itself that could sustain us, but the bodies of Earth inhabitants that contained every element in the exact quantities that Vigo had for us to survive. So, we decided to covertly invade Earth and live in symbiosis with them without their knowledge. The decision to invade went against everything we believed in, but after a millennium of travel, our vessels had started to deteriorate. If we didn't invade, it would have been the annihilation of our species. Some of my people chose life with creatures from the sea, and others with creatures from the land. Only a few of us chose to live in symbiosis with humans. I was one of them. 

Jessica was my current host. You might say I’ve been passed down through eight generations of Jessica’s family members. Just before Jessica’s great grandfather died, I left his body, and entered hers. She’d been eight months old at the time. It had been easy to transition from him to her since he'd been holding her at the time. And, just as all the others I’d inhabited, she sustained my life force without the knowledge that I was even there. You could say we Vigolites were ride-alongs. We didn't, and, for the most part, couldn't interfere with our hosts activities or their decision making. Since our life force completely mimicked those we inhabited, medical scans, blood tests and DNA tests couldn’t detect us from our hosts.

But now, not only was Jessica on the verge of dying, so was I. If Jessica died with me inside her that would be the end of me as well. Jessica was powerless to do anything to save herself. But I wasn't. I had a small window of opportunity to escape death. I would have to leave Jessica's body and enter that horrid serial killer to continue my existence, but Jessica would eventually be killed. However, I also had another option. I could leave Jessica's body and help her escape death, although, my life, in turn, would be forfeited by doing so. To quote an old saying, "I was stuck between a rock and a hard place." I could only exist for a brief amount of time outside of a hosts’ body. By the time I assisted in Jessica's rescue, I would no longer be able to enter any host and would soon after dissipate.

The man approached Jessica again and started to slowly cut away her clothing with a pair of scissors until she lay naked on the table. Afterward, he turned and walked to a table with several cans of spray paint upon it. He turned his head and smiled at her. "What's your favorite color, sweetheart?" he asked. When Jessica didn't answer, he added, "No matter. I think blues to match your lovely eyes." He picked up a paint can and started shaking it as he once again walked toward her. He started spraying her feet a light shade of blue.

That was it for me. I remember hearing another old Earth saying, "Death before dishonor." My life had been long. Jessica's was just beginning. I made my decision. When I oozed out of Jessica's body, I definitely scared the crap out of the man, for I took on my natural form. He dropped the spray can, quickly backed away from me knocking over the table with the cans a spray paint on it and screamed.

 "What are you! Get away from me!" he cried. “Don’t hurt me!”

I laughed. "Funny,” I said. “That's about the same thing Jessica asked of you. You didn't listen, so I'm not either."

With that said, I wrapped my grayish, gelatinous form around his head. He tried tearing me away, but his fingers passed through me like it would Jello. After a few minutes of gasping for air, the man slumped to the floor and died.

I oozed off his body, shape-shifted into Jessica's form and stood upright. She looked at me as if not sure whether to be relieved or remain frightened. "Please don't hurt me!" she cried.

I smiled. "You're safe now. Nothing more to be afraid of." I then started unfastening the straps that held her down.

“But what are you? I saw you come out of me!” she exclaimed. "Like a creature from those alien movies."

“Well,” I said, “Not all slimy aliens that pop out of humans are bad like you see in the movies. Some slimy aliens, like me, mean your kind no harm. I’m one of the good ones.” I then looked at the serial killer on the floor. "However, in his case, I made and exception."

“But how….”

 I put a finger to my lips to silence her. "Shhh. No questions, for I have no time to give you answers." I picked up the remnants of Jessica's clothing and handed them to her. "I think there is enough material here to preserve your modesty."

"But how am I going to explain this and you?" Jessica asked, as she tied the material around her breasts and nether regions.

"As far as anyone is concerned, you were able to slip out of your straps and knock him out when his back was turned. And, since he died of suffocation"--I threw the pillow that was on the table onto the floor beside him--"you used the pillow to dispatch him, fearing he would come after you again when he regained consciousness. As far as I'm concerned, my time is over. Now go!"

 Jessica ran to the door but then turned. "Thank you!"

 But as she was saying it, I could already feel my being dissolving into the atmosphere from the bottom up. "No, thank you, Jessica, for letting me share your life. I am no more."