Dylan sat in front of a curved computer monitor, holding an imaginary cigarette in his right hand. It was a remnant of a time not long ago when he was addicted to nicotine, alcohol, and sleepless nights. Things had improved a lot since then, mostly because of the constant support of his girlfriend and soon-to-be fiancée Maria but, sometimes, he found himself longing for one more drag or a sip of a glass of whisky on the rocks. He had to stay strong, though. It was the only way to repay everything she had done for him until then.

He was looking at a series of complex equations and abstract diagrams that had come to him in a dream, trying to make sense of what they meant and their implications for the world. While he lacked any real proof of his claims, he was convinced he was on the verge of a breakthrough. He just needed to find the key to unlock it all.

Dylan continued to go through his research, hands resting on the keyboard, eyes beginning to water. He had been at it for a couple of hours and tiredness was starting to take hold. Still, he pressed on for at any moment he could have his “Eureka!” moment and uncover the truth.

The early-forties bearded man was so lost in his thoughts that he barely registered Maria’s words when she asked,

“What are you doing?”

He glanced back to see her half-sitting in bed with an unamused expression on her pearly face and replied,

“Just checking my notes.”

“Again?” Maria crossed her arms, “Babe, it’s three in the morning. Come to bed, you need to sleep.”

“In a minute, okay? I feel like I’m almost cracking this.”

“That’s what you always say. Your sketches aren’t going anywhere. Get some rest and then look at them again with a clear head.”

“But I...”

“I’m not asking,” Maria tapped the mattress with her impatient nails. “Come. To. Bed.”

The echo of her powerful voice reverberated in his weary ears. Maria was usually friendly and patient but when she wanted something done, she didn’t hesitate to pull the dominant card and while Dylan wasn’t a submissive man in the truest sense of the word, he still enjoyed being given some direction by a loving, assertive woman, and if that’s how she wanted to play, then he would do his best to comply.

“Okay, you’re right. I’m going to the bathroom real quick and then I’ll join you,” he said.

“Good. Don’t take too long. I need to sleep, too.”

Dylan turned off his PC and exited the bedroom. The bathroom was at the end of the hallway. Dylan stumbled inside to take a piss, washed his hands with lemon-scented liquid soap, and started walking back into the bedroom, struggling to keep his eyes open. He was already holding the door handle when the impossible happened.

A beam of light shot under the door frame, alternating between a soothing shade of blue and a sickening, pulsating green. Dylan opened the door to find it bathed in the same chromatic tones. The window next to his workstation was open, an unnatural wind running through it and throwing the stack of papers atop the desk into complete disarray. Hovering outside the window was the source of the mysterious light, a triangular-shaped spaceship with no visible engines or any other form of propulsion he couldn’t identify. It stood there, defying gravity and reason as he stared at it, completely dumbfounded.

“Honey?” he muttered, his voice trembling. “Maria, are you seeing this?”

Maria didn’t reply. He looked at her and saw her in an awkward position, one foot on the bed and the other touching the carpeted floor. She wasn’t moving, a lifelike statue caught in an abrupt motion, her startled irises filled with the entrancing light. 

“Maria?” he choked, his muscles tense. “What’s wrong with you?”

Her skin was cold to the touch, almost as if she was frozen. He could still hear her heartbeat though, and a slow hum in the room in the place where the light shone the brightest.

“What are you? What do you want?” Dylan shouted to the otherworldly vessel as it remained motionless, a few meters away from the house. 

There was no commotion outside, no people screaming, or cars getting wrecked on the streets. It was as if no one else was witnessing this strange phenomenon except him, which made an already impossible situation even worse. Struggling as hard as he could to maintain his composure, Dylan opened the first drawer of the nightstand on his side of the bed and reached for a wooden box where he kept a Sig Sauer P320 for self-defense only. He had never even fired the gun except on a shooting range. His aching fingers loaded the clip but just as he was about ready to aim the handgun at the unidentified flying object, he felt his grip loosen and a magnetic force impossible to resist yank it from his fingers. The pistol rotated haphazardly before his bewildered eyes and flew out the window disappearing into thin air before it touched the ship.

“Fuck!” Dylan vociferated, his legs trembling like jelly. He tried to grab Maria to get her outside the bedroom but she remained transfixed and glued to the bed. He couldn’t get her to move no matter how hard he tried and so he dashed to the door on his own, looking for a way out of this living nightmare.

He stopped right at the threshold when the light focused on his legs, rendering them heavier than lead. Behind him, the ship appeared to be getting closer to the point that one of its ends was almost scrapping the outside wall. Dylan continued to stare, noticing how parts of it appeared translucent and others had a liquid metal-like consistency. He couldn’t grasp what sort of crazy engineering was behind such a creation nor why whoever or whatever was flying it had targeted him and his family. Unable to move from the waist down, he felt his arms getting rigid as well.

The blue-green light washed over his face, now stuck halfway between a grin and a scream. He could no longer see anything that was happening behind him other than a series of crude shadows creeping up between the walls. A three-fingered hand with elongated fingers and sharp black nails wrapped around his waist and his consciousness faded into pitch black.

* * *

When Dylan opened his eyes again, he was no longer in his house in the suburbs near Atlanta, but floating in a dark void where nothing could be seen all around him. He had been stripped naked and both his arms and legs were wrapped in bioluminescent gelatinous tendrils whose intense pressure made his veins pop. An additional set of coils bound his neck and forehead. Atop his exposed chest whose hairs had been completely removed, rested another triangular contraption with pronged feet and two rows of blinking lights irradiating from its center. The device was unlike anything he had ever seen and its purpose remained unknown.

Dylan couldn’t see anything beyond the blackness, yet he knew he wasn’t alone. Indistinguishable shapes breathed heavily above and below him like visitors at a zoo gawking at their favorite animal. The tendrils pressed his vocal cords down to prevent him from speaking or uttering any comprehensible sound. In his mind, all he could think of was, “Where’s Maria? What have you done to her? What the fuck do you want?”

The alien creatures conferred in silence, their hulking bodies and flexible appendages clouded by the technological barrier they had erected around him. The one that appeared to be in charge made a downward motion that momentarily cut through the void and the machine on Dylan’s torso began to whirr. The lights on it blinked in a perfectly synchronized rhythm from the outer shell to the core and coiled restraints vibrated with it. A glowing haze spread from within, branding his tender flesh with its throbbing heat. Dylan endured the creeping pain for as long as he could but his body wasn’t prepared for the grueling side effects of the experimentation. He collapsed again into the depths of his own mind long before a stream of blood shot like a burning geyser from a hole slightly above his navel.

In the hours that followed, he woke up several other times for no more than a couple of seconds. On one occasion, he saw the inside of the ship in its shining, bio-mechanical glory with glowing control panels swaying from side to side and winding corridors changing positions in the blink of an eye. On another, he glimpsed the true form of one of his captors, a massive creature with thick, green scales, four upper limbs with three digits each, and two legs with protruding, coriaceous hooks. It was a terrifying vision, particularly around the area where one expected to see a face. Rows of small eyes, like blood beads, gathered around a spongiform mouth that looked like something straight out of an underwater horror movie. Their motivations remained a mystery and the longer he remained trapped in their company the less he wanted to find out.

The last time he was awake, he saw Maria floating in a void just like his own, her pussy shaved and her bouncy breasts oozing red. He bit his tongue trying to call her name but was completely powerless to save her from whatever fate they had chosen for her. Salty tears ran down his cheeks as the world collapsed into excruciating oblivion once more.

* * *

“Maria! NO!” Dylan shrieked, bloodshot eyes staring at the ceiling fan in his bedroom. The digital clock on his nightstand read, 7:30 am.

“Hey, easy now,” his girlfriend gently rubbed his shoulders and kissed his forehead. “It’s fine, dear. Everything is fine.”

“W-what?” he stammered, jerking his neck to look her way. “You’re... o-okay? How are you okay?”

Maria continued to caress his sore muscles and whispered tenderly, “You were having a bad dream, Dylan. I don’t know what terrified you so much but you’ve got nothing to worry about. It wasn’t real. Eyes on me and try to relax.”

“I...” he sobbed. “I don’t understand. It was all so...”

“Shhh, calm down. What were you dreaming about? What made you scream like that?”

Dylan rolled on the bed, the warm sunlight kissing the hair on his face. He looked at his chest and shook his head, confused. There were no signs of any traumatic event or experiment ever taking place. 

“There was a spaceship,” he said with death-defying conviction. “And some ugly motherfuckers messing with our bodies. We were taken against our will, probed, and God knows what else... it was horrifying!”

“Seriously?” Maria chuckled. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude or insensitive, but you were fantasizing about alien abductions?”

“It was one of the most gruesome things I experienced,” he replied, teeth chattering. “I hated every second.”

“It’s a good thing you were only dreaming then,” Maria cooed. “Let it all fade away from your mind. We’re both okay. Nothing happened.”

“I... yeah, I guess, but if you’d seen what I saw... I thought I’d lost you forever.”

“Dylan, it would take a lot more than a flying saucer to keep me away from you,” she avidly kissed his lips. “Get some more sleep because you need it and when you’re up, you can buy me breakfast, okay?”

“I’m not sure I should stay in bed any longer. I ought to go look at those equations again.”

“No,” she pulled the dominant card again. “You’ve already had your share of unhealthy obsessions. Let it go for now and cuddle with me.”

“Cuddling is nice...” he said, resting his head on her ample bosom.

“Then let’s do that and forget everything else. Fuck those aliens, okay?”

“I like the sound of that..” Dylan sighed, enveloped in her warm embrace. His sleep was peaceful and devoid of terror.

* * *

A couple of hours later, Dylan and Maria got up, took a shower together, and headed downtown for a heartwarming first meal. It was the weekend, and they could finally unwind and enjoy each other’s company. He welcomed the morning and the company with a smile and slowly allowed himself to forget the darkness that had tormented his mind. When they returned home, it was as if nothing had ever happened.

“Better now?” Maria pinched his butt cheeks.

“Definitely. This was a great idea,” he replied.

“All of mine are,” she smirked. “And I have another one you should hear.”

“What is it?”

“Make your mother’s famous pasta for lunch today.”

“You want me to cook?”

“I want you to do something you love, and don’t you love pampering me?” she teased, rubbing her ass against his groin.

“Always.”

“Then get to work and open a bottle of Merlot to go with it.”

“We’re all out since your mother’s birthday, dear,” Dylan nodded.

“Oh? Go buy some then and get back as quickly as you can,” she handed him the car keys and batted her long eyelashes in the most seductive way imaginable. There was no arguing against such enticing body language and so he happily agreed.

“Whatever you say, dear. Pasta and Merlot coming right up.”

Dylan left the house, whistling, and drove to the nearest supermarket, leaving Maria smiling by the door. The moment his vehicle disappeared from view, she stepped inside, closed the curtains, and stood to attention, a blue-green light swirling in her eyes.

“Calling High Command,” she said, somberly. “High Command, do you copy?”

“Affirmative, soldier,” a sinister voice danced in her ears. “How’s the subject doing? Does he suspect anything?”

“No, Commander. I convinced him his imagination was running wild. He won’t remember a thing in a couple of days.”

“Good work. The implant in his chest is fully operational. We are receiving his vitals on the ship and monitoring his every action. Continue distracting his mind in any way you can, but don’t jeopardize your cover. He must never find out about the replacement.”

“Understood, Commander, but for long am I expected to hide inside this wobbling sack of flesh?”

“For as long as we deem it necessary, of course. Do you have any doubts about your assignment, soldier?”

“No doubts, but some questions. Are you sure this is the man we’ve been looking for?”

“Positive. We’ve scoured every timeline and this was the one that triggered all the red flags. Dylan’s ideas will bring about the end of our species if we let him continue his work. You will play the role of his loved one to make sure that doesn’t happen, is that clear?”

“Of course, Commander, but I maintain my opinion that we should simply blow his brains off instead of playing these silly games.”

“Despite the danger, his knowledge may still prove useful to us. He may not look like it, but he’s a genius, and it’s better to have him on our side than working against us. Scramble his thoughts, keep him in line, soldier, and you’ll be properly rewarded after the invasion takes place. Do not let us down, soldier.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, Commander,” the extraterrestrial in disguise smirked. “I live to serve.”

“Report back to us again in fourteen Earth days. Until then, all communications are strictly prohibited.”

“Yes, Commander.”

The thing posing as Maria closed her eyes and the sub-spatial communication with the ship dissolved into pure silence. Her body relaxing, she clicked her heels on the floor and sat on the living room sofa waiting for her target to return home. Controlling such a creative mind wouldn’t be easy but, hopefully, fun. Hands behind her back, she dreamed of making him kneel at her feet while she ransacked his thoughts. More than a dream or an overwhelming nightmare, Dylan’s reprogramming would soon become an undeniable reality.

The End