THE KINGDOM OF MORTEMIS | A mission of an alien invasion

Chapter 1

I slowly put the newspaper down. I don't even know what's happening anymore. I don't want to. All I'm ever going to do is pretend as nothing happened and get ready for college.

Maybe it's my sleep-deprived self; my brain's doing tricks on me. Argh. Blame this blackhole called assignments.

So... what am I supposed to do now? Why can't I think of anything? I feel kinda numb too. Should I get ready for college as if nothing's happening?

Nah Nah Nah this must be a dream too. And when I wake up, I'm gonna laugh about it on my friend's group chat. Ah right!! My friends! My family! Why didn't I think of them before? Well, my parents had gone to my grandparents' place. And my sister must be chilling in her new job 5826 kilometers away from us.

Dialing my parents' number only to hear "The number you have dialed is either switched off or out of network coverage area. Please try again later." Well, yeah understandable 'cause it's my grandparents' place after all.

Next going on to Dana's contact and I'm hearing the same thing. "The number you have dialed is either switched off or out of network coverage area. Please try again later." Okay okay, understandable; she must've forgotten to switch it on while plugging her charger again. Let's call Sam, the mom of our group. He wouldn't disappoint. Or so I thought. 'Cause I'm hearing the same thing for the 3rd time, "The number you have dialed is either switched off or out of network coverage area. Please try again later."

Calm down, Lil. Don't freak out. This could be a dream. This should be a dream. And do go to college like the stupid female lead in a Hollywood horror film. You've seen enough unusually weird things. So maybe go sleep and hope everything will be alright when you wake up again?

I don't remember closing my eyes. But now I'm opening them to see the same professor from my dream. He's sitting across me engrossed in his laptop while I'm lying in an armchair with wires on my head.

This is only getting weirder.

The professor as if sensing me awake turns towards me and lets out a frustrated sigh. He looks more human now than he was in my dream; like an albino with a green undertone. He must be in his forties, with determined eyes and a wrinkled forehead. I always wondered how people can say these in one glance but seeing him, I could say he must be a know-it-all person.

"This ain't working," he starts.

I'm in an enclosed room fully layered with some kind of greyish metal; the ceiling, the wall, the floor, everything. There are four guards in each corner fully covered with black leather.

"Who are you? Where am I? What's all this? What's happening? What's not working?" my questions rush down like water from an opened reservoir.

"I don't think you're the kind of person I'm supposed to answer to when I can just", he suddenly takes a pistol from his coat and shoots a nearby guard, "do this."