Abduction

My name is Stephen and I am in a mental ward because I disappeared off of the face of the earth a few weeks ago, or at least I think a few weeks ago, only to be found naked and cold as I wandered around an old field. Sure, I'm sorry for the shock that it must have caused Mrs. Davis, our postal lady. But it really wasn't my fault.

I was walking late two weeks ago. It was the Thursday after the softball game. We were the winners and took the city championship that night. I was really hyped and after the post-game celebration decided to head home on my own instead of getting a ride from the coach. It was only ten o'clock and it was a warm summer night. I honestly figured I would enjoy the walk and had a lot to think about anyway. I did have college coming up in the fall and there was still much to do before I packed up everything I knew and my folks dropped me off at the university.

From what little I remember before it happened, I spent a fair amount of the walk from Clusters' Field near the hay bails watching the skies. There was a meteor shower that night. I looked at my watch and right on cue, I noticed the first of what would be dozens of them as they rocketed through the skies above me. It was so clear you could see every one of them like they were close enough to reach out and grab. I honestly wish I could find my phone because I took some pictures. A few of them were rather good and I really wanted to download them to my computer when I got home.

It was nearly eleven when I noticed it, a bright light in the skies. At first, I thought it was a meteor and it was heading toward the ground. I stood at the edge of the old Thompson place, near the backside of their field, as I watched the strange light floating towards the ground. After several minutes, I remember thinking, that's no meteorite. Meteors don't tend to slow their descent as they approach a planet or moon. It was exciting, as it came lower and lower, thinking I was about to see something land. I imagined it was a drone, like something from the military or something the police used. Sure, it could have been something a drone enthusiast was flying but it seemed large enough that the idea of it being a civilian drone was a little far-fetched.

I must have stood there at the end of the field for nearly ten minutes, watching the strange blue light as it hovered about, slowly making its' descent. Really, it's hard to say at what point I began to get scared because I don't remember taking off and running. I know I tried to but honestly, I was in a daze by the time I saw that what was landing was definitely not manmade. I remember my feet flailing against the field as I looked to the treeline. It would have given me a place to hide if only I could have made it there in time, but they were too fast.

Before I knew it, the ship had landed and there were these things chasing me, chasing me fast. I looked over my shoulder, trying to stay ahead of them but with those long legs, they were capable of covering more ground than I could and at a faster pace. The last time I looked back, it was just in time to see one of their outstretched arms as it grabbed my shoulder, dragging me back and to the ground. When I landed I lost consciousness pretty quick. All I remember is looking up at them from the ground as they surrounded me, seeing their pale blue, almost oily skin, and their dark, almost black eyes.

When I woke up I was strapped to some kind of examination table and freezing. I was completely paralyzed, either by fear or from something they gave me. I don't know why. What I do know, is that there were four of them in this oddly shaped chamber. I really didn't think I was on a ship, at least not from what I could see. It looked almost subterranean. Like we were in some underground cave system. The sounds they made were annoying and I think muffled. I felt like my ears were filled with fluid, like when you're listening to someone after spending too much time underwater. I tried to find an exit that wasn't being guarded but there were only three doors into the chamber and one of the strange blue things was visibly standing outside each door. It was scary to realize that even if I could free myself the odds were seven to one.

When they approached me I screamed. I would have kept screaming but when I opened my mouth one of the grays grabbed my chin and held my mouth open. A tube was shoved down my throat by another of them. God, it hurt so much. It's not like being intubated at a hospital. The tube was much larger and whatever it was made of didn't bend as well as the rubber tubing used here. I wanted to scream out, to fight, but I couldn't move my arms or legs no matter how hard I tried. Little did I know, the worst was yet to come.

As I tried to look around, part of me honestly wanting to close my eyes until I woke up from the nightmare, a taller gray entered the room and came over to the table. It bent over the exam table and put its' hand on my forehead. Its cold, black, eyes, stared at me, looking almost through me entirely. The pain came as the tall creature began to slice open my abdomen. I could feel it, like something extremely hot, cutting my flesh. Instinctively I looked down, wanting to get away from what was being done to me, but I couldn't. The dammed thing made an incision from my waist all the way up to my sternum and then put its' hand inside me. I could feel the elongated fingers feeling around my organs and I passed out.

When I awoke, I was surprised to find myself in some sort of a holding tank. I really had no idea how long I had been unconscious. It was cold and metallic, all around me, but smooth like finished metal. The only light I could see was a dim bluish light that crept beneath the doorway to my cell. I rolled over, trying to find my way to the wall, hoping I could find the strength to sit up. That was when I realized I was still naked. They hadn't put anything on me, just throwing me into their holding tank.

I scooted my way over to the only light I could see, trying to position myself so that I could look at my stomach. I was afraid, I guess, that they'd turned me into something. To my surprise, there wasn't much of a scar and the wound from cutting me open had healed almost entirely. Just this slight ridge scar and some redness. It was unlike anything I imagined, having seen my dad's cancer scar after his surgery. I wondered how it was possible, I had seen the blood and the length of the incision was the full length of my abdomen.

I must have been in the holding area for at least two days, based on the number of times they brought food and water. Screaming for help didn't do anything for me and just left my throat sore and me exhausted. I would wait, trying to rest, and mustering up the strength to eat the odd bread-like substance they kept bringing. It had almost a putrid smell but the taste was, well, there wasn't really any taste to what they gave me. It was on what I called the third day of my captivity that two of the grays came back into the cell and picked me up. They were going to drag me, I'd decided. I wasn't going to give them one ounce of the energy I had and ruin any chances of making a run for it if the opportunity presented itself.

I was thrust into the exam room and strapped back to the table. This time, however, I could still move my arms and feet, as the feeling in them had returned. After what came next, I almost wish they'd cut out my eyes. Two of the grays came up to the foot of the exam table, grabbing my legs and spreading them uncomfortably far. I was already cringing at the thoughts of what was to come. A third gray brought along a tube with something in its' center. It was about the size of a household plumbing pipe. With little warning, I felt the tip of the odd tube being pressed against my butthole. I screamed and started trying to resist but the tallest of them, the strongest of them, just pinned me to the steel table. I felt it entering me. They didn't push it in as far as I thought they would but before I could be relieved something began to snake its' way through me, checking out my digestive tract. I swear, at one point I felt the uncomfortable feeling of this thing pressing at my sternum, they'd put something so far in me that it was touching my lower esophagus.

Another tube was then thrust down my throat and they were less gentle this time than the first, causing the back of my throat to burn and bleed. As the two tools of my torture probed the inners of my body, I felt one of the grays grab me by the head and pin my skull down. I looked up into the bright light that was over the top of me and a strange buzzing was getting closer to my face. They inserted a steel-like device inside my right nostril. I don't know if I passed out or if they finished with me. I know I couldn't scream, I couldn't move or resist and I wanted more than anything to get away from these things. Truthfully, I remember, at one point, praying that they killed me.

"Well, Doc," I asked Dr. Brenda Ackman. "Can I go home?"

"Not yet. We still need to figure out what really happened to you," she said. "What could make your mind formulate such a tale as to hide the truth. Like, I really want to know what you think the grays represent."

It happened this way last week. I would tell my story and then the dam psychiatrist wants to analyze my story. Who the hell makes up this kind of thing. All I wanted to do was get back to my life. Well, that's not entirely honest.

"What aren't you telling me?" asked Brenda.

This time next week they'd be having me seen by a different doctor. It was the game they were playing, keeping me locked up so that I didn't tell the news, or worse, the tabloids. I really started to think that nobody cared what I had to say and all of this, well, was for my parents' sake so they could act like they were treating me. Oh well, what can I do. I am sitting in a doctor's office, wearing handcuffs and secured to a steel chair that's bolted to the floor. So, I go for broke, and I tell Brenda the truth. There was one thing other than die that I would have done on that dammed ship if I could have.

"There was something else, something that haunts me," I said, gauging her interest in the truth.

Brenda leans forward in her chair, putting her pen aside as she tries to engage with me on a more personal level. Maybe she is the one that will listen, maybe she's the one that will do something to help me get out of this dammed place, I thought.

"The last time they drug me off before I was completely unconscious..." I hesitated. This is usually where they call the session done and I'm stuck in limbo in this locked mental ward.

Brenda leans in closer to me, so close I can smell the shampoo in her hair and the perfume she wore. It was Vanilla Fields. I knew it well, it was my mom's favorite.

"I wasn't the only one they were holding there," I tell her. "I saw another...another victim."

And just like that a pair of oafish security staff come into the room and drag me off before I can get another word out. Sure, I put up a bit of a struggle but they're both a couple of two-hundred-fifty-pound meatheads with enough gym muscle to fold me up like a pretzel. Why it bothered me that they kept throwing me back in solitary I didn't know. At least they weren't probing me like some sort of laboratory animal. It'd been four weeks straight as we went through the same motions. What the hell were they looking for, me to forget what happened to me? There was little chance of that.

As the meatheads laid me down on my bed, finally freeing my hands from their shackles, I kept my mouth shut this time. Last week I smarted off and one of their sausage-fingered hands smacked me so hard I couldn't hear anything but ringing in my right ear for days. First chance I get, when I get out of here, I am going to find out what he drives and I'm going to key douche bag down the side of it...bad idea. Maybe, I'll wait for him to let his guard down and kick him right in the nuts. Nope, steroids shrink those so much I'm sure the squirrels at home have bigger ones than him. Shit, I'm royally out of good options to get even with the oversized bully.

It hit me like a ton of bricks falling on my head. I'd been stuck thinking about the wrong things for four weeks. It wasn't me...it was the girl I saw. That's what they think I'm not telling them, about the girl that was down the corridor from my holding tank. Jumping up and pounding on the door I realized this was the piece I needed to focus on.

"I saw her! I know what she looked like! Somebody needs to..."

I realize as I hit mid-sentence, there might be more to what's going on than anyone knew. As I watch meathead number one looking in my door, their uniforms didn't have patches or badges. They were all black military uniforms. I walk back to my bunk and contemplate what is wrong with my situation. Sure, I think, I want my freedom back and I could take the magic little pills they keep offering. What about the girl? Do I try to find a way to get back on that ship, to save her? Do I follow up on this god-awful site I'm locked away in, my second time being locked up in just weeks? Or do I leave it all alone?