Sunrise

I walked outside and looked out the window on the eastern side of my house. The view of the sunrise was always best from that window. But there was not any light coming from the window. Instead, light came from the western window. That can’t be right…  

“Dean, what’s going on? Is it night and this is a sunset? Why is this happening?” 

“I… I don’t know. My clock says it is 5:30 a.m. so this should be a sunrise. I have no idea what’s going on,” I can’t believe this is happening. 

“Are we on a different planet?” 

“How would that even happen? You think we were abducted by aliens?” I couldn’t help but laugh. At that moment a loud knock came from our front door. Lilith walked over and opened the door. She gasped quite loudly as I rounded the corner to see what was the matter.

“Greetings. My name is Arantxa. I am here to take you to the dining hall for breakfast,” we could not see Arantxa’s mouth, and her face was occupied by three large eyes. She had pale purple skin but looked otherwise normal.

“Who are you? Where are we? Did you kidnap us?” Lilith slowly changed as she spoke. A third eye emerged from her forehead, and her original eyes grew larger. Her mouth slowly disappeared, fusing into her chin. Her skin grew lighter and turned violet.

“You are one of us, I see. Your husband… he is not. He is merely a human,” Arantxa glared patronizingly at me. “Both of you come. I was told to take you to the dining hall, as I have already mentioned,” Lilith had already run up to our room to look at her face in the mirror. I heard a loud scream from upstairs.

“Don’t worry, she’ll get used to it quickly. We all do,” Arantxa motioned for me to go get her.

“I’ll… be right back. I closed the door and ran upstairs to make sure Lilith was alright. I turned the knob on the bathroom door but it was locked. I gently knocked on the door.

“Lilith? Are you okay? Can you please unlock the door?” I can hear her crying, and I desperately wish I could be there to comfort her. I turned the knob again.

“Dean, don’t you dare come in here! Don’t look at me! I’m absolutely hideous!” She broke into sobs once more. I couldn’t contain my curiosity any longer.

“Did you… did you know about… this?” I inquired.

“No, I most certainly did not!” It must have been her mother who was an alien-thing. She’d left Lilith and her dad soon after Lilith was born. This explained Lilith’s odd name at least… I walked downstairs and grabbed the key to the bathroom.

“Lilith, I have the key right here. Please let me in or I will use the key,” I spoke calmly. I still love my wife. Her new look won’t change that. The door was still locked, so I slipped the key in the lock. I heard a click as I turned it.

“Please, don’t look at me!” Lilith turned her face away from me. I could still see her pale violet skin on the back of her neck. I walked over to her and put my hand on her shoulder. She flinched as I hugged her and tensed up.

“Lilith, it’s completely fine. I still love you no matter how you look. Please, calm down. I don’t care about your eyes or your skin color, you’re still beautiful,” Her sobbing started to slow, and she carefully turned to face me.

“I… I don’t like it… I don’t want to be like this!” Her sobbing started anew and I comforted her as best as I could. I remembered Arantxa wanted us downstairs.

“I’m going to give you a few minutes to get ready. Arantxa wanted to take us to breakfast, okay? We don’t want to offend her. I’ll meet you downstairs, in a bit,” I kissed her nose and walked to the front door.

“Lilith will be down in a minute. Sorry about the wait,” I smiled at Arantxa, but I’m still a bit leery about why there is suddenly another species on Earth. “So, uh, what is this “dining hall” anyway?”

“I believe you call them “restaurants.” Correct me if I’m wrong,” Arantxa looked extremely annoyed, and I decided to go along. As I was about to speak, Lilith came down the stairs.

“Where are we going?” She looks better than earlier, and I’m  starting to get used to her mouth being gone. 

“It is a local dining hall down the road,” Arantxa seemed much more patient with Lilith, and I think she felt bad for her.

“You mean a restaurant?”

“Yes, that’s what humans call them. I don’t believe I got your names?”

I spoke, “My name is Dean. This is Lilith,” Arantxa looked surprised.

“That is a name from our people. I know it for sure now, your mother was Nyx,” She spoke with a calm voice, but her eyes were widening by the minute.

“What is Nyx?” Lilith asked.

“I’m Nyx. You’re part Nyx. It’s our race. We’re still human, we’re just different,” Arantxa seemed to be looking back and forth, comparing human and Nyx. I looked impatiently at Arantxa.

“Okay, are we going or what? And, Arantxa, I think you owe us an explanation. First of all, the sun rose in the wrong direction. Second of all, how are you even here? And how did nobody see you?” Arantxa rolled her eyes at me. This was starting to get annoying, because she clearly thought she was better than me.

“We can morph into humans if we want after the first 24 hours of being Nyx,” She gave me her look again.

“Okay. Why didn’t you tell Lilith that? And you still didn’t answer my first question,” I glared back at her this time, a little braver than before. 

“Your sunrise is fine… your house on the other hand… Well, let’s just say our invisible ship accidentally, erm, dislodged it,” Arantxa looked a bit guilty, and Lilith giggled. Just a little. And then she was full-on laughing. Arantxa seemed uncomfortable at first, then she started to laugh too. Arantxa explained to Lilith and I what was going on. She said they had temporarily reversed time so that the Nyx driving the ship could avoid our house. Arantxa said they had come to tell Lilith about her transformation. 

“So, because we are reversing time for everyone except you, we can go to a dining hall and talk,” Arantxa smiled at Lilith, who she had been talking to while I listened.

“I have a question,” Arantxa looked at me and raised her eyebrows. “If Nyx live on a different planet but some are born humans, why do they not live here? And why do you use different words for things?”

“That, human, was two questions. I was born and raised on our home planet, which is why I use a few words… differently,” She looked at, and I could see how I would seem pathetic to her. “Well, let’s carry on and go to the dining hall, shall we? We have much to discuss Lilith. But first, I must tell you something… Humans would say we’re half-sisters. We have the same mother…”