That Thing in the Sky

Chapter Five: An Alien

The strange thing with tentacles chases after Bailey, Margaret and Sheldon. They take cover in the barn, but not before the creature takes Margaret. Scared, confused and upset, Bailey searches for Margaret.

The forest was still. The snowcovered pine trees and cottonwoods cast dark shadows around me.

Tiny icicles dropped from the frosted tips of the drooping branches.

It didn’t make any sense. They couldn’t have just vanished. “Margaret?” I whispered. The cloudy air crept out of my mouth as I tried to catch my breath.

Another icicle plopped down in front of me.

I listened, focusing through the darkness of Hidden Trail.

The silence was broken when a painfully annoying hissing sound forced its way over the snow. My body froze. My muscles tightened. My nose itched. To my left, a black object scrambled over to me. Its wiggly jellylike arms flapped about like wild seaweed. I didn’t move. I don’t know why. The hissing grew louder. Its large arms reached out and snatched me up from the ground. It tossed me over its back and groaned.

The earth bounced around, like I was watching one of Margaret’s shaky home videos on a giant screen TV. The shovel slipped from my hands and crashed against a tree. My backpack shook from side to side.

Everything was rushing past in one endless blur. “He ... he ... he ... help,” I shouted. That was it. At least I thought. I remember thinking that was how it was all going to end.

When I was eight years old, I was chewing on a big piece of ham, trying to quickly finish my dinner so I could play outside with stinky Carson Bumbler. I guess the piece was too large, and the chunk got stuck in my throat. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t talk. I thought my uneventful little life was about to expire.

Margaret was eating with us. She had only moved in next door a few weeks earlier. She reached over to me and jammed her fingers into my mouth and pulled out the ham. She saved my life. I never thanked her for that. Who was going to save my life at that moment? “He ... help!” I shouted again. The black thing leaped over a ravine and wrapped its tentacles around a giant tree. The long slithery arms reached out and pulled me up the trunk of one of the tallest pines in Hidden Trail — all the way to the top.

I couldn’t remember ever being so high off the ground before. It gently picked me up and placed me on a branch. The Hickory Farm looked like a tiny red dot from where I sat. To the east, the black smoke continued to balloon up into the sky. Giant orange flames danced around the trees.

The black thing looked out at the cow pastures. Its skin was speckled, with tiny little hairs poking out all over. A thick battered horn stuck out from the top of its head with a giant chunk missing from it.

I had never seen anything like it before in my life.

I was looking at an alien — a creature from outer space. Or maybe Madagascar. I dug my mitts into the bark and wrapped my legs underneath the flimsy tree limb. The monster folded several branches together, mak- ing a secure ledge for me to rest on. “Bailey!” I turned my head, scanning the maze of snow covered tree tops.

Sitting on a branch, stretching her head out from the nettles and pine cones was Margaret. Her hair was a tangled mess, and her face was pasty-white. “You’re alive,” I replied. “I am,” she said, pushing her lips out into a smile. “What happened to your head?”

She grabbed hold of the trunk and glanced at the monster.

I felt a lump along my left eye. Dried blood clung to my mitt.

“I bumped it. What happened to you?”

She didn’t take her eyes off the creature. “I’m scared, Bailey. What is that thing?”

The black … thing spun its head around and glared at Margaret. The eyes sat near the top, surrounded by thick dark hair and tiny warty-lumps.

It scampered over to Margaret’s tree and hung from one of the branches. Icy-snow splashed out into the air, falling down to the distant ground below.

Margaret inched away from it, securing her hands onto the thinner limbs above her head.

The creature eased itself closer. Small holes below its eyes widened as it sniffed Margaret’s giant hair.

“What does it want from us?” she whispered. Her teeth chattered.

I bit my lip and swallowed. “I ... I don’t know.” The monster rolled its eyes back to me and jumped over to my tree. Snow flew about everywhere as the giant pine shook from side to side.

The black thing’s tentacles wrapped around the branches above and below me as its head moved forward.

“It’s smelling you,” Margaret said. I didn’t move. Gentle puffs of air pushed out from the nostrils as it wiggled its nose around my face and head.

It slowly pulled away and eyed Margaret again. “Is it going to eat us?” I asked. Margaret shrugged, holding back on to the trunk.

A soft hiss squeezed out of its narrow mouth. Little teeth appeared behind a thick layer of skin. “Ea ... eat ... danno,” it said. Its voice was low and raspy. The creature slid down the tree, pulling branches and pine cones off the trunk. It disappeared through the snow and into the forest.

I pulled off my mitts and rubbed my eyes. My fingers were numb. My nose was like ice. I touched the cut on my head again and winced. “Did that thing talk?” I asked. Margaret unstrapped her backpack and looked over to me.

“Yeah, I guess. I dunno,” she replied. “What did it say?” “What?” Margaret replied. She looked over the branches at the tracks along the ground.

“What did the monster say?” I repeated.

Margaret looked at me again. Her face was blank, like she had just woken from one of her nightmares. “Margaret? Are you OK?” She shrugged, picking at the bark.

“Why did it put us up in these trees?” “I dunno.” I reached into my bag and pulled out her woolly hat. “Where did it come from?” Margaret shrugged again, trying to get comfortable on the branch. Her teeth clattered. “Should we climb down?” She adjusted the branch in front of her.

I stretched my neck out and looked out over the trees again. “No way. What if we fall?”

Margaret leaned over again and scanned the snowy blanket below us. “But what if we stay here? What if it comes back? I don’t want to be eaten.”

The sound of sirens drifted back through the breeze. Along the main road, just outside of town, red and blue flashing lights streamed up toward the farm.

Out past the tree line, past the trail of black smoke, the bell tower stood alone, stretching high up over the rooftops.

It rang out again, like some kind of warning.

“If it was going to eat us, it would have done that by now,” I said. “I think we should stay here. Sheldon will call the police, I’m sure of it. They will find us.”

Margaret wasn’t listening to me anymore. Her gaze drifted up to the sky. She raised her hand and pointed. “What’s that?” To be continued Monday. www.Nextpagestories.com