Everywhere

Three

I slowly manage to flutter my eyes open, but a bright, white light makes me want to shut them again. My head is pounding like crazy and my whole face feels like it is on fire. I want to tilt my head up, but it hurts too much. I close my eyes and drift off again.

The next time I wake up, I feel a lot more awake. My head still hurts a bit and my throat is as dry as sawdust, but I feel a bit more alive. It is only until now that I noticed that I am on my back, lying between white soft sheets. My head lies on a soft warm pillow. It feels nice. Am I dead? Where am I? With great difficulty and pain, I manage to turn onto my left side. All I can see is a big, wide window with a blue sky behind it. So, I am in heaven? It is the stabbing headache that brings me back to reality. I immediately shoot up like a rocket and sit up straight. I am not dead. I start to panic and look wildly around me. The air smells something sharp and antiseptic. Am I in a hospital? Suddenly I can feel a big wave of nausea coming up. I manage to throw up on the left side, next to the bed. It is painful, but I feel a lot more relieved. I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and smear the remains of vomit on the sheets. I try to get up, but my legs feel like they are made out of spaghetti. I roll myself in the sheets and on the count of three I roll off the bed. With a thud, I end up in the puddle of puke. But I am so confused about the whole situation that I don't mind. I wiggle myself out of the sheets and try to get up, but it seems that something is attached to me. With a jerk, I am pulled back to the bed by the IV line that is sitting in my right hand. I grasp and pull the thing aggressively out of my hand. On hands and knees, I crawl across the room to the big window. It feels like my whole body is torn apart and sewn back together. Everything hurts. The sweat is on my forehead when I finally manage to reach the left side of the room. I pull myself up on the window and support myself with my hands. When I look through the glass, I almost fall again out of shock. This can't be real. Behind the glass is a city with towering skyscrapers and all sorts of buildings in strange shapes and colors. At first, I think there is no life to be seen, but when I look down, I see tiny colored dots moving on something that looks like a road. I blink my eyes for a moment. Is this real? Or am I having a weird fever dream? Then all of a sudden, I remember everything that happened before this. I was taking a late-night run, all by myself. Poppy didn't want to join. There was an enormous object, flying above me and blocking the moonlight. The last thing I remember is that I fell to the ground. My fingertips gently touch my face. I can feel a hard, rough scab, sitting on the right side of my face. It hurts when I press on it. Now I know it. That thing was trying to take me! But where am I now? I feel so messed up, that I can't keep my thoughts together. I start to breathe very heavily and my body starts to shake. 'Help!', I shout quietly. I get back on my feet to try if I can walk. It works, but it doesn't go very smoothly. Everything in this room is white. The sheets, the walls, and even the clothing that is not mine are completely white. It is driving me almost insane. On the right side of the room are two sliding doors with something resembling a hallway behind it. I feel a spark of hope and as fast as I can I try to walk up to the door. But when I proceed to stand before them, they won't open. I try to open them with my fingernails, but that also doesn't work. 'Is there somebody there?', I shout. 'Hello? Can somebody open these doors for me?' I start to knock on the glass, but it only returns a dull sound. 'Hello!?' The knocking has changed to banging, but that still hasn't changed a thing. Then finally somebody is coming into the hallway. But when I see who that somebody is, I almost lose my balance out of fright. At first glance, you can see the normal figure of a woman. But unless like a normal woman, this one has dark blue skin and four fingers instead of five. Her eyes are also looking different. They are slightly bigger than mine, and they have a gold-looking color. The woman also noticed me and takes an interesting look at me. But before I can cry for help, she grabs something out of her pocket and leaves the hallway. I am still shocked and haven't moved from my position yet. So, it is true? Extraterrestrial life is real. Aliens do exist. But why do they look like that? I think I am about to faint. More aliens are entering the hallway now. That went pretty fast. I am staring at them and they are staring back at me. This must be the weirdest experience in my whole life. I stand there in a moment of silence until my head starts screaming at me. 'What are you doing Netta? You need to get out of this place!' Suddenly I feel energized again and know exactly what to do. I think they just want to talk to me. Then they will bring me back home. I walk up to the doors and knock on the glass again. 'Can you guys get me out of here? I want to go home please.' It doesn't seem that they have heard me, so I repeat myself but in a louder tone. Still no answer. I think they are ignoring me. 'Can I get out of here?', I now start screaming. 'I have had enough of this shit. Get me out!' But all that the weird creatures are doing is writing things on some weird-looking notebooks that give light, stare at me, or talk with each other. I start banging on the glass again. 'Let me go!', I scream in anger. It is like they don't want to hear me. I take a step back and run up to the door. My shoulder bangs hard against the glass, but it doesn't have an effect. I now start banging hysterically with both fists. 'Get me out of here you blue-skinned freaks! This isn't fun anymore!' The madder I get, how bigger the urge gets to cry. How could they just stand there and look at me? I feel like a caged animal. Have a lost all my freedom or something? Something snaps in me. Fine, if they don't want to talk, then I don't want to either. With furious steps, I walk toward the IV pole. In one jerk, I grab it from its place and walk back to the door. Some of them are looking quite concerned about the situation. I look at them, with steam blowing out of my ears. 'How about this?' With great force, I slam the pole against the glass door. Of course, they will start to panic now. Like the stupid aliens, they are. Some have started running, others are taking those weird square things out of their pockets and a few are still writing on their magic notebooks like crazy. But I am not done yet. I give the glass door another hard slam. And another, followed by another one. I don't stop until the fifth stroke when I see that a small star has emerged in the glass. Amazed by my own strength, I take a step back. In about two minutes, the door flies open and a big army of blue men is entering the room. They all look furious. I scream, and out of shock, I drop the pole to the ground. 'This wasn't my intention.', I squeal. One of the blue men tries to grab my arm, but I am faster and I grab the pole back off the ground. 'Stay back!' I sweep the pole forward. 'If you come near me, I will hit you.' The man looks startled, but not amused and snatches the pole out of my hands. Now it is time for me to run. I try to go past the men, but they block the entire right side of the room. One of them grabs my waist with one arm, to throw me back on the bed. They hold my arms and legs so that I cannot move. I scream and cry, and try to wiggle myself free, but nothing seems to work. When the man on the right loses grip of my leg, I proceed to kick him in the stomach. Only to make him grab it back and hold it tighter than before. Then the woman from earlier appears before my face. In her hand, she holds a syringe with a clear liquid in it. 'No!', I scream in agony. 'Don't do this to me!' But I can already feel the sharp needle, stabbing in my arm. It doesn't take long before my vision starts to get blurry again.