The Deadliest Lifeform in the Universe Loves Me-Volume 1: Alpha-03, Chapter 1.7
I decided to stay with Eve as much as possible during the next week before I started the new job. I was worried she was getting bored at home after hearing my grandparents’ concerns, but Eve never seemed bored with me. Sometimes she just liked being held by me while I was doing other stuff, and that was something she didn’t do with my grandparents. She would sometimes wrap a tentacle around their wrist or arms while she was spending time with them, but that was about it; for me, she was quite clingy. However, while she was fine staying inside for now with me, that made me all the more concerned how things would go once I was away for the day at work.
In the meantime, I decided to introduce Eve to some of my favorite media; anime and horror movies. I don’t think it was mean—regardless what Gram said—but I started her with the Alien franchise, then moved onto Predator, then all the other old classics about evil aliens killing humans. Eve seemed to find them mostly entertaining, but she seemed to always be rooting for the humans and grew scared and concerned about the character’s wellbeing—more proof she was just a gentle, sweet thing. On the anime side of things, I started her on Dragon Ball Z—the greatest anime of all time—and found it
hilarious
how hyped she got over it. She would imitate the characters and even did the Kamehameha gesture towards me—though she couldn’t say the word at all but trilled in a way that mirrored the cadence of how the technique is pronounced.
Eve’s form hadn’t changed anymore; we all thought this was either her complete form (or the form she chose to be her complete form), or she wouldn’t grow more until her environment changed and grew again—another good reason to stay inside. Honestly, she was so adorable in this kindergartner form, I really hoped she stayed like this forever. She was surprisingly lightweight, and even though she ate as much food as I did, her mass didn’t seem to change at all—weight or size or anything, it was always the same.
Certainly a mystery where all the food went—I wondered if she was even actually digesting it, maybe she just liked to taste the food. But then, shouldn’t we have found food scraps somewhere—and a lot of them? No, she was definitely eating, but I had no idea why she didn’t produce waste or gain weight. Truly, she was quite alien.
I had my final session with my therapist Sarah, and she was concerned I was ending our relationship prematurely, but I was losing my insurance since I quit the fire department and couldn’t afford to pay out of pocket. Plus, I felt I was really finally fully recovered—all thanks to my Evie alien.
The rest of the week passed by quickly in a blur of lazing around the house, and it came time for me to finally start my new job, the first time I’d be leaving Eve at home with just my grandparents for over eight hours.
The job itself was pretty chill—one of those mid-sized hardware stores with some specialty sections. They had me watch training videos and shadow one of my fellow coworkers—a cute punk girl just a few years younger than me, and I couldn’t help but remember how Gramps asked when the last time I’d been on a date had been. With the way she was smiling at me, I hoped I could change that answer soon.
The day went by pretty quickly, and I finished up my shift and headed straight home. I pulled into the driveway and got out of my truck, and the second I was in view of the house, I saw the front door fling open and Eve came racing towards me.
“Shit! Shit shit shit, no no no, dude!” My stomach knotted up as though someone squeezed it—instinctively I looked up to the sky to see if I could spot any satellites, like that would do anything.
Eve almost tackled me to the ground she hit me with such force, and a dozen tentacles all instantly wrapped around me as she clung to me—angrily trilling at me and scolding me in gibberish for being gone so long.
“Oh, Eve no! Bad girl!” I ran towards the house as fast as I could—hoping beyond hope she hadn’t been seen.
Gramps was waiting for me at the porch with his arms waving forward, as though helping me get in faster, “We locked the door and everything, but she undid the latches in a second with all those tentacles.” He ushered us inside quickly and slammed and locked the door, peaking out as though expecting government agents to jump out any second. Seeing the coast clear, he turned to me, “She was fine with us most of the day, but the past few hours she’s just been at the window, waiting and watching for any sign of you.”
I sighed and sat down in the recliner in the den. Eve snuggled so tightly against me, it was like she was trying to get into my skin. I pulled her away so she could look in my eyes, “Evie, what were you thinking? Don’t you know how dangerous that was?” I demanded.
In response, Eve started shivering in the strange rhythmic way she had when I first found her, and I saw a sad kind of desperation in her eyes.
“Oh look at the poor dear, she’s terrified!” Gram said, her words filled with more compassion than I think I’d ever heard before.
I sighed again and pulled Eve back against me and stroked her head, shushing her gently, “Oh Evie…”
Gramps walked over to stand between us all, “What do we do now?”
Finally, Eve stopped shivering, and then she started making quiet trilling noises that sounded strangely apologetic. “What
can
we do? There’s no way the government doesn’t have satellites zoned in on the farm now; even if they didn’t expect that space rock to hold alien life, they probably just kept the satellites trained on the area on the off chance something would happen back at the crash site.”
“But it’s been a few weeks now, right? I’ve heard moving satellites costs millions of dollars; maybe they only had the budget to repurpose the local satellites for a short period of time?” Gramps offered—clearly grasping at straws.
I shook my head, “Are we willing to bet on that? I know whatever agency is involved, it’s that clandestine, black-site shit—the kind that can move satellites and make people disappear without question. I doubt that was even Homeland Security we talked to way back, they were more likely some crazy secret Men in Black agency regular citizens know nothing about.” I continued petting Eve, trailing my hand down along her hair tentacles.
“So we’re back to what do we do now?” Gramps repeated.
“It’s not like we can take her and run away—better for her to stay inside and hope beyond hope no one captured an image of her. Moving her around would probably be the worst thing we can do; we’re not the kind of people with the connections or resources who could go on the run and stay off the grid.” I reasoned out.
Gram snorted a quick laugh, “What’s this
we
stuff; you thought to make your
grandmother
run around in the woods with you two?”
I laughed at that, “Obviously I mean Evie and me; I would hope if the two of us left you here, the government would question you guys, then ultimately leave you alone once they got all their information—can’t imagine them needing to ghost away a couple of geezers to some black-site.” Gram snorted again at my playful barb.
“You ain’t going anywhere boy; we’re a family, and we’re gonna handle this as a family. Next move the government makes is to probably send in another crew to question us, so all we have to do is hide Eve so they leave us alone—play the ignorant old country folk.” Gramps reasoned.
I sighed, “You think if the government legit thinks we’re harboring a space alien, they’re gonna play nice and come with a warrant to question us and search the property? I’m worried they’re gonna come in guns blazing—helicopters and tanks and everything.” I admitted.
“You think they’d risk being that loud? Make all that mess?” Gram asked.
I shrugged, “The one downside of living in the country; living on 60 acres of land is great , until you need your neighbors for some emergency.”
Altogether, we let out heavy sighs in unison. Apparently unconcerned, Eve snuggled into my chest and was surely content to stay there for the rest of the night. The only person in the house more at ease than Eve now was old Charlie who hadn’t even so much as woken up to look at me since I got home.
“We really do need to teach her more about…
everything
, I guess. The dangers outside, our situation—hell, it’d be great if we could teach her to speak English.” I mumbled, not really sure where to start.
“I think she
understands
English, but I don’t know if her kind—whatever she is—would even have the ability to speak English. Don’t matter how smart a hound is, it doesn’t have the vocal cords to mimic human speech.” Gram reasoned.
Gramps chuckled, “What about those huskies that howl out ‘I love you’? Seen plenty of videos like that.”
Gram fixed him with a flat glare, “
Johnathon
, this is serious.”
I pulled Eve off my lap and set her down—earning a grumpy expression and a scattering of angrily trills. “Whatever we can do, we need to at least start trying
something
—we can’t risk letting her out ever again.”
Over the next couple hours, we all tried to instill in Eve’s alien mind how dangerous the outside world was, and how important it was she stayed inside. Gramps and I mimed back and forth at the door coming inside or stopping at the door, being blocked at the door or something dangerous being at the door. Evie watched us with those big, bright eyes and looked like she was having
fun
more than actually learning. Frustrated, Gram even got up to get involved and scolded Eve rather harshly about staying inside, and finally Eve seemed to understand—looking down like a kid who’d gotten in trouble. At that, I knelt down with Evie and pulled her into a tight hug, and I told her it was all just to keep her safe, how important she was to us all, how we were all a family and needed to take care of each other.
“I love you Evie, and I don’t know if you can really understand me or not, but I promise we’re not doing this to be mean or cruel. We’re doing this to keep you safe.” I said earnestly.
Eve pulled back from my hug, keeping her tiny hands on my shoulders as she looked up in my eyes with serious determination, and nodded like she finally understood everything.
Gramps and Gram moved in then, and they told Evie how important she was to the family, and she smiled so brilliantly, we all redoubled the resolve in our minds we would do anything to protect our adorable little alien.
“I love you too, little Evie, never you forget that.” Gramps said gently, petting her head and earning a cute, musical trill.
Gram leaned down to take Eve’s hand, “Now why don’t you and I get started on supper?” She said, then led the happy little alien away into the kitchen.
Gramps and I watched them go, content smiles on our faces—but the fear of what would befall Eve if the government got their hands on her was in the air around us like a thick tension.
“They come after her, I’m barricading that door and pulling out my shotgun and unleashing it on anything that tries to do her harm, want you to know that boy.” Gramps said seriously.
I didn’t answer right away, I wasn’t exactly surprised by my grandfather’s words, but what was surprising was how much I agreed with him, “And why is that? Why are we so protective of this little alien?”
Gramps shrugged, “She’s innocent—unlike all the nasty humans in this word, unlike all the shit and grime people deal with and suffer through every day, she doesn’t have that taint.” He nodded down at old Charlie, “To be honest, I’d shoot anyone who was cruel to any of my animals, you know that too. And Eve, she’s like the perfect mix between an adorable animal and an innocent child—earns double the protection, I guess.”
I smirked at that, “Ever see the movie John Wick?” I asked, and Gramps shook his head, then I laughed, “It’s about this guy, he was an assassin who wanted out, and his dog gets murdered. So he gets sucked back into the criminal underworld and basically dismantles it, kills hundreds of people, all for the sake of his dog.” I shook my head and sighed, “For Evie, I’m pretty sure I’d go John Wick, Rambo, Taken, Die Hard and Equalizer on anyone that tries to hurt her.”
.
!
Volume 1: Alpha-03, Chapter 1.7
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