The Things

     I stared at my sister in astonishment. “You...what?” I demanded.

     “I made it into Area 51,” Crystal repeated. “Lucinda. There are aliens.” I shook my head in disbelief and collapsed against the wall. She watched me worriedly, sitting on her couch in her small house. She had been sent on a trip for work three months ago and had only just gotten back. Crystal had invited me immediately to her house to tell me what had happened.

     “This had better not be another one of your freakin jokes Crysy,” I warned. 

     “It’s not,” She promised. “For my journalism I was supposed to go close to Area 51 but a truck drove by me. It had little green lights coming out of the tires and as soon as it touched my car, the truck stopped.

     “A man with a mask over his face came out and tried to open my door. It was locked so he just yanked it off the hinges. I tried to escape but he grabbed me and gave me this strange shot. I could see, hear, feel...everything. But I couldn’t move. It’s like my sense of movement had gone to all my other senses. Then it was dark and I heard the truck back close. 

     “The sedative must’ve worn off then because I could move, but my senses were still sharp. It was really weird, Luce. Really, really weird. I saw the door open and saw hundreds if not thousands of...things in cages. They were-” She broke off suddenly. Her green eyes glowed with sudden...intelligence. An unexplainable look crossed her face then it was blank. “Luce what happened?” She asked. “Why am I here? I have a report to write.”

     “No! Keep going. Crystal what were you just saying?” 

     She hesitated and cocked her head. “Um...Oh! I was talking about my assignment.”

     “Which was?” I pressed.

     “A trip to the amazon. I wa-” 

     “No it wasn’t!” I nearly shouted. “It was a trip to Area 51, Crysy!”

     She tilted her head in the other direction. “Luce. Are you okay?” She put a hand to my forehead but I quickly slapped it away.

      “It’s not funny. This is not funny, Crystal Stone,” I ground out. “So knock it off. Right now!”

      She flinched back. “Luce. Should I get a doctor? You don’t seem well.” 

      “I think you’re the one who needs a doctor, Crystal.” I stood. “I’m going home. When you feel better and want to tell me about your trip to Area 51 you can call me.”

     “Lucinda!” She protested. She leapt up and grabbed my arm. “Don’t leave.”

     I tried to wrench my arm away but her grip on it was too tight. I had always been stronger than her, yet I couldn’t get my arm away. “Let me go, Crystal,” I said, trying but failing to keep my voice steady.

      She seemed to realize this and let my arm go. “Don’t leave,” She repeated.

      My voice shaking awfully now, I whispered, “No,” And ran out of the house.

~

     Panicked, I grabbed Lucinda's arm, holding it tighter then I had ever before. “Don’t leave,” I whispered worriedly, letting her arm go slowly.

      I heard her voice shaking as she replied, “No.” She turned and darted out of the door. I watched her and my eyes pooled with tears. But I didn’t know why. Maybe I really was sick. I walked into my room and took a quick nap but when I woke up I realized why I had tried so hard to keep Lucinda here. Memories of the last three months flowed through my head. Memories of cages of fear and...blood. I leapt up and ran out to my car. I quickly got it started and drove like a crazy person through the streets of North Carolina. Luckily no one pulled me over. Area 51, aliens, men in trucks...They’d probably put me in an asylum. 

     I screeched to a halt in front of a huge brown house that stood like a mansion. I almost hit the bright red Tesla parked in the driveway as I leapt out of my own car practically before it stopped moving. I stopped at the door and knocked over and over but to no response. My heart sped up in my chest. Where did Lucinda usually hide her extra keys? I shoved the flower pot out of the way and it crashed on the pavement. I ignored it and grabbed the hidden key. I scrambled to unlock the door and ran into the house. 

     “Lucinda!” I shouted, but it simply echoed back to me. I ran frantically around the house but to no avail. “Maybe she went on a bike ride,”I  whispered into the empty house. I ran outside to the garage but the bike stood there. And she only owned one car. I called her phone again but the ring came from inside. I walked in and picked up her phone slowly. Lucinda would never leave her phone. Her life was on that device.

     So she had heard too much. They had taken her. The man in the truck had taken her. But they weren’t going to return her like they had me. No. She knew too much. She would be taken to Area 51, not to be experimented on, but as food. Food for the hundreds if not thousands who sat in cages inside Area 51. Things with white skin.Things that radiated knowledge. Things that starved in cages and, if they were lucky, were only taken out to be experimented on. Otherwise they’d be only taken out to be freed.    

     Freed to tell the ones they loved about this place behind iron bars. Freed to tell them...tell them too much. Too much, until they were taken by the man in the truck to feed these things. And that’s where Crystal was going. And no one would find out. Her death would be written as a suicide or a car crash. Or something else that happens every day. All that would be left would be her bones. And those would be shipped back so the person who had told them what she didn’t need to know could bury the bones. And in this case it meant I would have to bury the bones of my sister.