The World of Myth Magazine

He saw it come down—a streak of light shooting out of the sky that sputtered and disappeared. Jonas Mark rose from his bed, dressing quickly, he walked out into the night, continually chastising himself for being up so late as he had to go to work in the morning. It had called to him, roused him from his sleep making him understand its urgent need.

"Come," and he followed the call. His flashlight played along the path in front of him. He wasn't sure how far he needed to go, certain that he was being directed telepathically to the spot. Following instinct, he put one foot in front of the other. Had anyone else seen it, or did they ignore the falling star if that was what it was?

For some reason, he had identified it as female. Coming up over the rise of the hill, Jonas saw the wreck—gasping in awe at the realization that extra-terrestrial life was real. He had the evidence in front of him. Making his way down the hill, he came closer to the flickering orb. It seemed to be a one-person pod as opposed to a spaceship. Jonas stopped as he watched it pulse intermittently, deciding that something was very wrong.

He could feel the warmth from where he stood, the thing had fallen through space and the friction heat came off in waves keeping him standing away from it in the cold night air. When the pulsing stopped, a whoosh of air escaped, exposing an opening that wasn't there before. A being crawled out and lay on the ground, panting. Jonas called out to it.

"Is there anything I can do?" Then he snorted, how would it understand him?

"I am dying. I need your help," the words filled Jonas's head.

"What the hell?" He thought and then recovered, thinking, "What can I do?" He followed her instructions. She warned him not to touch the pod but to come closer.

"I am Dagar, my ship exploded. We were sent off in rescue pods. My positioning unit is malfunctioning, and by accident I have landed here. I believe I am on Earth?"

Jonas thought, "yes" and sent that thought to her. She asked that he come a bit closer; she would not hurt him. Jonas felt safe. It was a female in distress, and he wanted to help her.

"What can I do?" he sent the thought.

"Please let me see your face. I have never seen a human close-up before. I want to see one before I die." Jonas came closer. Appendages came up from her body. He jumped as she put them alongside his face and drew him near.

Dagmar was encased in a gelatinous blob so he couldn't see beyond the thick membrane that protected her body from exposure.

And then he was aware that she was climbing on board his body. He tried to step away, but the tentacles held him fast. Jonas physically wrestled with her in his mind. How dare she infiltrate his body? She assured him this was only temporary and that she needed to be sheltered while she was here on Earth. She would use his body as she used the pod and would not harm her host. Jonas felt sick. It was as if he was being squeezed out of his skin. Pressure pushed on all aspects of his body. The appendages fell to the ground. The pod glowed and disappeared as it shriveled having fulfilled its purpose.

Jonas tried to walk, but the weight he carried inside was incredible. The being within him assured him he would acclimate to carrying her, and when her kind sent a rescue ship, she would return to her world and leave him free of any illness or lasting effects of her parasitic hijacking.

"Why do you smoke?" Jonas shook his head feeling invaded he needed to get back home, in four hours, he would have to get up for work. His feet seemed glued to the ground, having to learn how to walk again, carrying this heavy being inside of him. The first few steps he faltered, then his body rebalanced itself, and he started to walk easier. By the time he returned to his house, he was breathless and tired from the extra weight.

"Your lungs have been affected by your smoking," she put that thought out there.

"Mind your own business," he said back to her. Exhausted, Jonas crawled in bed. His brain on fire with fear and apprehension. How could he get to sleep when there was something inside of him? She stroked his head, or at least it felt like she stroked his head, while a strange tune played in his mind. The combination of these things lulled him to sleep.

When the alarm sounded the next morning, Jonas felt full. He couldn't explain the feeling, but he was energized. He pretended to ignore her presence. He took a shower, taking care not to look at himself. He was embarrassed to have her see everything he did. She had the decency to understand his shyness and didn't make comments. He parked in his normal parking spot at work.

"Marks," he checked in with the foreman, who nodded his head toward the yard.

"Warehouse duty. All the deliveries need to be brought in before the rain." Jonas nodded, punched in, and walked back to the forklift, putting on his hard hat.

"Please, stop talking," he told Dagar. She kept up a non-stop conversation in his head, and it stressed him out.

He lifted each load and wheeled them into the warehouse, stacking them four high. It would take him all day to get this delivery inside before the rain. Dagar questioned him again, "Why not just mind move them?"

"It isn't our way." Jonas told her admonishing her to be quiet. Suddenly he felt an immense amount of energy leave his body. He looked out in the yard. All the pallets were gone. He left the fork truck and walked into the warehouse, there the pallets from the yard were neatly stacked four high filling the floor.

"How did you do that?" Jonas thought, amazed. "They are never going to believe I did all this in such a short time. It's not humanly possible."

"I have done your work. We must hurry."

"Hurry, where? What for?"

"The others are here. They have found me. They will find you if you are at your normal station. We need to go quickly." The urgency in her voice frightened Jonas a bit, he punched out, leaving the job.

"Who are the others?" Jonas said out loud. He put his hand to his forehead. Dagar was unglued with fear and Jonas didn't understand what she was so afraid of facing.

"You said they would come to rescue you."

"They are not the ones who come to rescue me, but to destroy."

"Destroy! Look, I didn't sign up for this."

"Quiet, I need to listen to find out where they are," Dagar hissed. Jonas kept quiet and drove.

"They are acclimating in other humans. I will be able to identify them, but they will also be able to identify me." Dagar whispered. Jonas decided to take her fears seriously.

"What can I do?"

"What you are doing, harboring me until my people get here. Keep driving, they are gone now. I will need to stay hidden until I find my people."

"How long will that be?" Jonas could feel her hunger.

"I am not sure. I do not hear the signals yet. I must eat to survive."

"How about a burger?"

"I don't know what burger is. I need to forage." Jonas sighed and told her then to take over what she needed to do to keep herself alive.

"Stop your transportation." Jonas pulled over to the side of the road. He smelled what she smelled, getting out of the car. She walked down the sidewalk, through the alley. A mangy cat was sitting on a garbage can. His mouth opened, he tried to protest, but an appendage flipped out liquifying the cat and brought it into his mouth.

"Oh my God!" he shouted. "What did you just do?"

"I need meat to survive." Dagar responded.

"I could have given you a burger, that's meat."

"I am sated now, but I will allow you time to receive your nourishment too." Dagar recessed quietly in the background of Jonas's body. Walking into the bar, he ordered a beer and a burger. He then put some change in the jukebox punching his favorites.

"What is that?" Dagar asked.

"My kind of music." Jonas sipped his beer. He was still unnerved at how Dagar had gotten her food. At least the cat had no collar, so probably wasn't a pet, a stray, and full of fleas and disease, and now it was in his body. He sent a thought to Dagar.

"Will I get sick from that diseased cat you killed?"

"No, when it became liquid, it was sterilized. You will not be ill." The burger came. He loaded catsup and mustard on it, and then took a big bite.

"This is delicious."

"How do you know what those words mean?" Jonas jumped when the thought came.

"I am learning from your mind."

"Stay out of my mind!" Jonas reprimanded her. He was paying for his burger when Dagar told him to leave out the back door. He knew better than to question her. They got out to his pickup, turning the wipers on as it had started to rain. He thought about all of his loads, safe in the warehouse.

"They are here, my enemies. They were the ones who exploded my ship."

"Why would they follow you all the way here?"

"I am wanted on my planet." Dagar said sadly.

"For what?"

"For trying to leave. I am a slave, my people lost the revolution many years ago, and we have been captive ever since." Jonas did not know how to take this.

"Then, who is coming to get you?"

"Other subversives like me. They also escaped. We have some Vecari sympathizers, that feel it is not right to imprison their fellow beings."

"How many are here to hurt you now?" Jonas watched behind him as it seemed the maroon car had been on his tail for longer than usual or was he just paranoid?

"They have sent three to bring me back. They would like to use me as an example. The Vecari would like to see to it that my people never try to free themselves again."

"How will they do that?" Jonas rechecked the mirror, the maroon car holding back just enough to make him more suspicious. If he sped up, they did too. If Jonas slowed down, the car hung back.

"Public execution by slow torture."

"I thought you were from an advanced civilization."

"Technically, yes, we are advanced, emotionally, we are still barbaric."

"Well, I'm going to ditch the car behind us, they have been following us since the bar."

"They are not the ones. Don't bother."

"How do you know?" Jonas said it out loud though he didn't have to.

"We can sense one another. You lost them when you went out the back door, and we have now driven enough of a distance. They cannot find me. It is only when in close proximity, can we recognize each other in these foreign bodies."

"Then let's go." Jonas made a left turn and headed for his house.

"You cannot go home," Dagar told him. Jonas sighed, regretting he got up last night when he saw the shooting star. "I know you are disappointed you will be rewarded when I am rescued. I can assure you." Jonas grabbed the pack of cigarettes from the dash.

"You have an early form of what you call cancer, you must stop smoking. Before I leave your body, I will restore you to health."

"What?" He threw the pack out the window in disgust. He'd meant to quit anyway.

"That is littering." Jonas stepped on the brakes; the truck came to a screeching halt.

"Shut up! Just shut up! I can't take you anymore. I don't want to hear from you unless the enemies or your rescuers are close. Do you understand?" She didn't say anything.

"Do you understand?" Jonas asked more forcefully.

"You told me not to say anything." Jonas sighed.

He drove to Pittsville and paid for a motel room deciding he would call in sick tomorrow. He hoped that Dagar's rescuers were coming soon. He was at the end of his patience, and it had only been twenty-four hours.

In the middle of the night, Dagar alerted Jonas to the fact the enemy had found them. It was too late to run, they needed to defend themselves.

"If I kill someone, I go to jail!" Dagar assured him, he could either be dead or in jail, it was his choice. Jonas looked around the room for a weapon he could defend himself with. Grabbing a framed picture off the wall, he broke the heavy frame. He had a baton in his hand, lighter than what he would have liked, but it was sturdy.

Opening the door, he ran out of the motel with the piece of wood in his hand. There stood an elderly woman.

"Come on! I can't hit her!"

"Do it, Jonas, she will kill you!" Jonas swung with the stick making contact with the woman's temple knocking her to the ground. The appendage flew from his mouth liquifying the woman, and brought her essence back to him, swallowing her whole.

"Argh!" He ran for the truck, gagging in disgust. Two more enemies rounded the corner, Jonas started the pickup, putting it into gear, he reversed the truck, then put it in drive flooring the vehicle hitting one of the pursuers in the parking lot, rolling over its body. Jonas shrieked in horror. He was for sure going to jail now. He zoomed out of the parking lot and headed down the highway, slowing when Dagar assured him they were out of contact. "I killed an old woman and ran over a man!" he shouted.

"There is no need to shout. I can hear you when you think."

"I'm sorry, I've never killed someone. Ever!" he added sarcastically.

"I am sorry for what you have done to help me. We need to go somewhere else, where it is safe. I will have you rig up a homing device so my kind can find me. There is an all-night hardware store over there. I will tell you what I need."

Jonas walked through the store, selecting the items Dagar suggested. He went to the checkout.

"What are you building, a bomb?" the cashier joked. Jonas tried to laugh.

"No, a homing device." The guy looked up at him. There was no doubt in his mind that the cashier was memorizing his face so when the cops came in looking for the next uni-bomber, he could accurately describe Jonas to him. He paid cash, not that it mattered anymore. The close circuit cameras around the store recorded him already. The rain had stopped, Jonas drove until they reached the National Forest.

"Pull over," Dagar urged. Daylight was fast approaching as Jonas walked to a clearing seeing his breath come out in clouds in the cold morning light. His hands were shaking. Dagar surged warmth through him. "Do everything I tell you to do." Jonas used the wires, the copper coil, a battery, the garage door remote controller to build what she wanted.

"Push the button," Jonas did as he was told.

"It doesn't work," he said crestfallen.

"It works, you can't hear it. Now let's move, the enemy will be here soon." They walked through the woods to the road and got into to the truck, driving further. Jonas did as he was instructed, occasionally sticking the remote out the window and pressing the button. Dagar was extremely pleased saying the signal was being received.

"They have responded!" She sounded both relieved and excited.

"Where do we go?" Jonas looked around him, not knowing what he expected to find.

"Head north." Jonas did not question her as he drove north. Dagmar called out before the roads were even in front of them as to which direction to take.

"Left, right." Jonas drove until he heard her say, "Stop." He pulled the truck over to the side of the road, switching off the ignition. He walked where she told him to walk and stopped when she told him to stop.

"This is the place." Jonas looked everywhere. He saw nothing but heard the pulsing sound. He could feel Dagar being separated from him. She stood before him in a full mucus membrane that protected her body.

"I have taken your cancer with me, you are disease-free. Thank you!" Jonas felt lighter. He breathed in deeply, feeling wonderful. "I must go, they are coming." Dagar reached for the light.

"Wait! What about me?" Jonas shouted.

"I am sorry, I did not anticipate the enemy would get here so fast. Run!" In a flash, Dagar was gone leaving Jonas standing there.

He heard the last hunter coming up behind him. As he turned to run Jonas realized he was too late when the appendage came out of the man's mouth fluttering in the air above him. He couldn’t watch closing his eyes, feeling like the trapped alley cat.

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