Musings From A Demented Mind (3 page)

                
          
Alien Town

Alice held a gun pointed at the john her and her girlfriend, Tara, had just brought back to the cheap hotel.  Tara sat on the bed holding a towel wrapped in ice after their client had punched her in the face. 

“What are you going to do, pretty thing?  You don’t have the balls to pull the trigger,” he threatened. 

He towered over her and had tattoos all over his arms of famous actresses’ faces.  He wasn’t the type of client they normally entertained, but they were in an unfamiliar town and were desperate for money.  He stared at her with a smirk, begging her to pull the trigger.

“Just get out of here.  We won’t call the cops.”

“Now why would I leave?  I’m a paying customer.  Until I’m completely satisfied, I’m not leaving.”

“This is your last chance!”  Alice threatened.  Perspiration was streaming down her face from the extreme heat from the August sun. 

He smiled sinisterly causing her to be more freaked out.  She looked over at Tara who was crying.  As she relived the encounter ─ him getting too rough and hitting Tara because she wouldn’t let him choke her during sex ─ the more severe her anger became.

“Maybe you and I should have a go-around,” he said, moving closer to her.

She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. 

“You bitch!” he shouted as he fell to the floor.

“You shot him,” Tara said in shock as she watched him bleed to death. 

Alice dropped the gun and got on her knees.  Her hands were trembling and she wanted to say something to Tara, but the words wouldn’t come.

“Somebody probably heard the shot.  We are not safe here.”

Alice looked at her and after a few minutes, calmed herself down.  “Tara, we better get out of here before the cops come.”

“He’s dead.”  Tara grabbed the gun and handed it to her.

“What’s done is done.”  She stared at the john’s body and back at Tara.  “It was self-defense.”

“It doesn’t matter.  We’re Russian. We’re just visiting America.  They will probably accuse us of being Russian spies.  We don’t want them to contact the Russian authorities.”

“Tara, that is ridiculous.  Just because we’re Russian doesn’t mean we’re spies.”

“Alice, tell that to the police when they arrive.  Now let’s get out of here before they come.” 

Tara grabbed Alice’s hand and helped her to her feet and then grabbed all the money out of the john’s wallet.  They quickly grabbed their purses and ran for the minivan they rented at the airport.

“Tara, I’ll drive.  Your face is swelling up.  You need to keep ice on it.”

“I’ll be fine.  I’ve suffered worse injuries from a john before.”

“Unfortunately, so have I,” she said as she drove the minivan out of the hotel’s parking lot.  She kept checking the rearview mirror for any flashing lights from a squad car, but so far nothing.

“Alice, slow down.  The last thing we need is to be pulled over for speeding.”

“You’re right,” she said and relaxed her foot on the accelerator. 

She thought about their move from Russia.  They had been entertaining some clients when they heard machine gunfire in one of the mob apartment complexes.  One of their clients had hid them out on the balcony of the apartment before two guys slammed the door open and opened fire killing the clients.  They had stayed on the balcony until they thought it was safe and climbed down the fire escape.  From there, they returned to their apartment in Moscow and grabbed all their money and their passports.  They headed for the airport and now they were running because of another dead body.  After spending all of their money they made from prostitution and selling several lesbian videos to numerous sex sites, they had resorted to prostitution in the States to get by.  The fear that someone from Russia would come after them for witnessing the murder of two of the key men in the Russian mob haunted them, keeping them off the grid. The last thing they needed was to get involved in the homicide of a US citizen.

“Alice, there’s an exit coming up. Renovo, Pennsylvania.”

“Renovo it is,” Alice said as she followed the exit off of the highway.  “The first chance we get, we better get some gas and some food.  Make sure you are wearing your sunglasses.  We don’t need to attract any attention.”

They drove for a couple hours before seeing a bright neon sign for a gas station and a small diner called Jorel’s Diner and Gas Fill-Up Station.  After filling up the vehicle, they parked in front of the diner. 

“Remember, we’re on the run.  We’re not looking for any clients,” Alice cautioned.

“I’ll be as innocent as a young school girl,” Tara said, managing a slight smile while still feeling a lot of pain from the punch to the face.

“Not a smart way for a prostitute to describe herself, but it will have to do,” she said, following her into the diner.

They sat down on two stools by the counter.  Alice quickly glanced around the diner making sure there were no cops. 

“What would you girls like?” the waitress asked as she was wiping the counter off with a dirty towel.

“Two diet sodas and a couple of burgers and fries,” Alice answered.

“Coming right up,” the waitress said.

“I think we’ll be safe here for now,” Alice assured Tara as the waitress walked away.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“Which is a good thing, I believe.”

In the middle of their conversation, the lights went out in the diner.  The whole diner became silent except for a kid who was frightened by the darkness.  A huge fireball flew past the diner.  A minute later the lights came back on.  Some of the diners were looking out the window trying to figure out what they just witnessed.

“Was that a missile?”  Tara asked.

“It looked more like a large meteor,” Alice answered.

Tara spotted a police car parked in front of the diner.

“Alice, the cops.”

Alice glanced around the diner looking for someone who was sitting alone.  In the back of the diner sat a tall man with a thick beard wearing a blue flannel shirt.  He had thick glasses and looked like someone who they could easily manipulate.  She motioned to Tara to follow her and they walked over to his table.

“Excuse me, mister.  Can we join you?”  Alice asked seductively.

The man turned his attention away from the window and acknowledged her.

“My name is Alice and this is my friend, Tara.” 

They sat down on the other side of the table.

“My name’s Dean.  Did you get a good look at the thing that passed by?”

“Barely.  I think it was a meteor,” Alice said.

“Meteors fall from the sky.  That thing flew by in a straight path,” Dean explained.  “I had this strange feeling something was off about this town when I arrived here.”

“Are you a clairvoyant?”  Tara asked.

“No, I just can sense when things seem out of the ordinary.”

“Sounds like a clairvoyant.”

“What brings you to this town?”  Alice asked.

“One of my ancestors is buried here.  I was looking for his tombstone earlier.”

“That’s morbid.  Why would you be interested in that?”  Alice questioned.

“I’m into genealogy.  I’m writing a book on my family’s lineage.  I’ve been photographing all of their tombstones for the book.”

“That’s fascinating,” Tara said, trying to sound interested.  She found it was helpful to tune out people when they were talking about their personal lives. The less she knew about a john, the easier it was for her to sleep with him without getting emotionally attached.

“It is.  I’ve gotten to do a lot of traveling as of late.  I’ve been to places I never knew existed.  I’ve met a lot of interesting people.  I can tell from your accents that you are from Russia.”

“We are,” Tara said.

“We were.  We’re here on a visa.  We were traveling east when we got lost and ended up here in nowhere land,” Alice added.

Their attention was drawn to the commotion happening behind them.  Somebody was asking everybody if they were getting a signal on their phones.  Everybody in the diner was having the same problem.

“Our cable is out, as well,” the waitress said checking every station.

The power went out again.

“I think the fireball passing by and the loss of power and cell service is related,” Dean suggested.   He could see two police officers, holding their flashlights, walking away from the diner.  “I think they’ve spotted something.”

Officer Hal Grayson parked the squad car in front of the diner.  He looked over at his partner, Damian Drake, who was trying to figure out why the computer in the squad car stopped working.

“What do you expect?  The town can barely afford our salaries let alone provide us with reliable equipment,” Hal said.

“Dixie, this is Drake.  Is your computer working at the station?”

He waited a couple of minutes and looked over at Hal.

“Let me guess, the radio is not working either.”

All the hairs on his and Damian’s head stood straight up, reminding him of the time he was at the town’s science fair and put his hand on a static electric ball.  A few seconds later the squad car was filled with a bright yellow light as a large fireball flew past heading toward the forest to the north and crashed.

“What the hell was that?”  Damian asked.

“I don’t know, but it crashed by old man Kallor’s cabin.”

“The power in the diner just went out.”

“Grab the flashlights out of the glove box.  Hopefully, those are still working.”

Damian grabbed the flashlights and handed one to Hal who smiled when it actually lit up.  They got out of the car and headed for the dirt trail leading into the forest.

“Be on guard.  We have no idea what that was,” Hal warned.

“I would be more concerned about being shot by a drunken Kallor.  He doesn’t respond too well to trespassers.”

They cautiously continued forward.  The forest was extremely quiet.  They didn’t hear any crickets chirping, making Damian nervous.  Up ahead, they could see the cabin. 

“Hal, we better stop by and let him know we’re out here.”

“Probably not a bad idea.”

As they drew closer to the cabin, they could see a body lying face first on the porch.  They quickly ran for the porch.  Hal kneeled down by Kallor’s body.  He rolled the body over and dropped his flashlight in horror.  Kallor’s face was completely ripped off exposing his skull.  The top of it was ripped open and the brain was missing.

“Hal, excuse me,” Damian said and bent over the porch railing and puked.

“Damian, whatever did this may still be out here?  Regain your composure.”

Damian grabbed his handkerchief and wiped his chin.  “How long has he been dead?”

“I’m no coroner.  He’s still bleeding.  This just happened.”

“Where’s his shotgun?”

Hal shined his flashlight all over the porch and then on the ground in front of the cabin.  The shotgun lay on the ground a few feet away from the porch broken into several pieces.

Damian walked over and collected all of the pieces.  He laid them on the porch away from the body and inspected each piece, shaking his head in disbelief.

“What?”

“I can’t make any sense of this.  It looks like something just ripped it apart.”

“An animal?”

“Do you think this and the fireball we saw earlier are related?”

Hal walked over the body and grabbed one of the pieces from the ground and inspected it.  “If that is the case, then we are in serious trouble.  We better get back to the squad car.  We are going to need backup.”

Damian pulled out his gun as he heard a branch snap nearby.  Hal stood up.  He could see something dark hunched down in the bushes.  He grabbed Damian’s arm and pulled him backward toward the cabin’s front door. As the dark figure walked out from behind the bushes, he slammed the front door and locked the deadbolt.

“What did you see?”  Damian asked.

“I don’t think you would believe me.”

“What was it?”

“An alien.”

“A little green man?”

“It wasn’t little and it wasn’t green.  Its head was shaped like one, but it was grotesque.”

They jumped backward as something hit the door so hard the door shook.

“I don’t think the door is going to hold.  Don’t hesitate.  Shoot when it breaks through,” Hal ordered.

The door forcibly burst inward.  A large, grey creature with an overgrown round head and glowing blue eyes rushed into the room so fast it was on top of Hal within seconds, ripping his face off with its razor-sharp claws.  Before Damian could fire his gun, the creature ripped his hand completely off.  As he screamed, it ripped his face off, as well.  It returned its focus on Hal and grabbed the top of his skull and ripped out his brain followed by Damian’s.  It walked out of the cabin carrying both of their brains.  It stopped by the bushes outside the cabin and grabbed Kallor’s brain it had dropped on the ground.