It's Not What You Think

Chapter 3

"What?!" Zoe, Svetlana, Mike, and Ben exclaimed in unison.

"Oh dear," Catherine said. "We can't be letting that get out."

Erica looked to Catherine. "They seem so surprised."

"Are you a space alien too?" Ben asked Erica.

"No, of course not," Erica said. "I only had a 50-50 chance, you know. But Trixie is."

"I've been dating a space alien?" Mike exclaimed.

"I suppose you could look at it that way," Catherine said.

Ben looked at the other humans there, wondering how to get out of this situation.

"We're not going to hurt you or anything," Catherine said. "But, you know, it's not every day you meet a space alien, and so I wasn't sure how you would react. It's just easier to hide it."

"Do you see where the parachutes are?" Mike whispered to Ben.

"Michael!" Catherine said. "You know I can hear you. And there aren't any parachutes in here. I had to take them out to make room for all the chocolate frosting I had to pick up."

"Can you just hear everything?" Mike asked.

"Not everything," Catherine said. "Now is, I suppose, the time to swear you all to secrecy."

They all looked at each other, worried expressions on their faces.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Catherine said. "Just promise that you won't tell, or else I may be forced to maim you, since I wouldn't kill you, of course."

"Maim us how?" Zoe asked nervously.

"I assume you won't tell and I won't have to figure that part out," Catherine said. "But if you really would like an example, I do suppose I could stab you. That would probably teach you enough of a lesson. So, do you promise not to tell?"

"Yes," they all said.

"Good," Catherine said. "Now, Erica, why don't you see if your sister would like to join our little adventure?"

"I'll text her," Erica said, and Catherine turned her attention back to the bug.

"Wait, what?" Alexander finally realized.

"You didn't know that?" Cyrus asked. "It was so obvious!"

"Have you gone insane?" Alexander asked Cyrus. "Aliens don't exist."

"Of course they do," Cyrus said. "Something you would know if you paid more attention in all those security briefings they give you."

"That's ridiculous. She's my wife. I would know if she wasn't human."

"You didn't know for seventeen years that she was a spy," Cyrus pointed out.

"That's different," Alexander said.

"Yeah," Cyrus said. "The fact that she's an alien is way more obvious."

"To you, maybe," Alexander said. "But I trusted her."

"I thought the whole 'she was sent to spy on you' thing would have destroyed that trust," Cyrus said.

"But I want to trust her."

"That doesn't change the fact that you can't," Cyrus said. "And if you had had the sense to check up on these things you could have known a long time ago."

"How could I have possibly checked up on these things?" Alexander asked.

"All sorts of ways!" Cyrus said.