I don't remember when I stopped believing in the bogeyman, but when the alien came to earth for the first time, I was already a grown man.
I was in my bedroom, naked, watching television. The dog next door was barking at something outside, but I ignored it. I had every screen I owned flipped to whatever was on that particular night.
On the screen in front of me, the President of the United States was giving an address to the country. Terrorists were attacking an American carrier in the Persian Gulf while he was speaking. I cursed the fact that he had started such a speech on a Friday night, when all the news outlets had cut to commercial for the evening. I wanted to know what he had to say about this attack. I let out a single loud sigh.
I heard a noise from the kitchen. I thought maybe it was the dog next door. It was a very soft noise at first, then it became louder and louder. I looked at the screen of my television and saw the look of extreme concern on the president's face. He was shouting something about regret and sadness and something about war, but he was drowned out by the noise coming from the kitchen. I turned around and looked in the kitchen.
There was an outline in the door. It was a human figure, made of a faint, pulsating light. Slowly, the light got brighter and brighter, until my eyes had to squint to look at it.
I stumbled backwards into the living room, my eyes streaming tears from the brightness of the light. As I did this, the door was thrown off its hinges and clattered on the floor.
I heard a loud bang and the lights in my house exploded. I fumbled around in the darkness, using my back and hands to guide me. I could still see the door faintly illuminated by the light of the figure. It was much larger now. It was the light from his eyes.
I heard a sharp, piercing scream and the sound of the wall next to me disappearing. I turned and I saw the alien, his body so bright now that I coulnd't bear to look at him. He stood there, radiant and menacing and magnificent. I had never seen anything so beautiful as he was in that moment.
I cried aloud and with all my might. "Who are you? What do you want with us? What do you want?" I yelled through my tears.
He raised one of his arms, his light shooting straight to the bedroom ceiling. He seemed to be towering over me, his tall figure ten feet over my own. He raised his hand towards me.
His light-filled hand now had a definite shape and form, and now it shone as brightly as the sun. It was blue, and it glimmered with life and electricity and molten steel. He inched it closer to me, slowly, and I shrunk away. I started screaming and shaking, my arms and legs flailing out. I was like a cat, completely out of control.
He kept walking towards me, his long fingers extended like the tip of a sword. The fingers hit the wall next to my bed and the whole bed burst into flames and exploded. He started moving even faster towards me now, his light pulsating more vigorously.
I screamed as loud as I could, whaling away with my fists and feet as I did. I felt his light brushing against my back, and I felt life drain from me. It was so bright now it hurt my eyes. I could barely see him, but I could still hear him.
I felt the life start leaving me and my body weakened. I dropped to the floor and curled up into a fetal position. I felt light-headed, like I was going to pass out. I felt arms coming towards me, and then hands touched my head, feeling for bumps and tendrils. I could feel my hair being brushed away. And then, I felt his presence leave; I could still hear my heart beating, though.
I had been taken, and now I was alone. I finally slowly opened my eyes and saw the most amazing thing I would ever see in my lifetime.
The bedroom was in chaos. The walls were blown apart and the bed was a pile of ashes. The ceiling was caving in, the beams falling around me. I slowly got up and moved through the fire, out into the hall. This, too, was destroyed. The stairs were gone and the walls were cracked and falling down.
I started feeling intense pain below my heart. I turned to see just what I knew was coming and to my surprise I saw that my skin was melting before my very eyes.
I touched my chest and felt myself sizzling. I saw my body bubble, the skin melting off of it, the bones shrinking and bending. I fell to the hallway floor, confused, and watched as my body was riddled with holes.
My flesh was entirely gone now, sucked away by the vacuum and the jet of corrosive acid, and I was nothing but a skeleton. I felt my clothes stretch and then rip off my body, revealing my wrinkled and grey skin underneath.
I tried to stand up and I could not. I screamed and shrieked and cried and pled in my mind. But now I cut through my body, through my ribs and into my heart, which I pulled out of my chest.
I got up. I touched my face and touched the hole in my heart. Yanking it out of my chest, I had already stopped bleeding from the hole in my chest and I was bleeding from the hole in my stomach. I ran out through the hallway, screaming and screaming and screaming. And I knew no one but me would hear me.
All of my family and friends. All of my loved ones. All of the other people, who lived in and around my town. But no one would hear me cry out for help , for help, for help, for help, for help.
No one would understand. No one would come. I had started to cry again and I fell to my knees. I felt a strong hand pick me up. My skin was all wrinkled and gray now, with no blood flowing through it.
The blood started drizzling out of my mouth and I stood up in defiance. The hand dragged me along and I looked straight forward, bouncing off the walls and into the corner.
The corner led to the living room and the living room was destroyed. There was a gaping hole in the floor, leading to the basement.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!!" I screamed, struggling against the hand. I was falling and falling and falling and falling and falling and falling. I fell down into the hole, down and down and down into the cold darkness, down into the darkness of the hole.
The hole was full of holes and it was full of weasels and it was full of lizards and spiders, and as I fell down, I looked down into the darkness and I cried.