Something's Wrong With the Different Realms

Nineteen: Is it True?

Isla Venus

"Things we said in book... it's true!" said Harry, or should I call him Horizon, before his face shifted.

The childish, innocent face with wide doe blue eyes and a sweet smile morphed into something sinister. His smooth skin turned into a ghoulish shade of gray speckled with deadly spikes. His pupils, irises, and his entire eyeball shifted into glass-like black orbs. His smooth, delicate, semi-transparent golden, dragonfly-like wings changed into ripped brown and black leather shreds marred with scars, bones and other sinister things.

The figure of Horizon laughed sinisterly as another figure emerged by his side. This figure's usual amber eyes were replaced with a blinding shade of yellow, her pupils were elongated like a cat's, her usual caramel brown updo had devil horns on it and a poisonous green snake was slinked around her shoulder.

The two figures exchanged a look before they started to stalk towards me. I stood up from my perch on the grass and ran.

I woke up with sweat dripping down my face and glanced over at my window. It was still pitch-black outside with not even a sliver of light shining through. It was probably still early in the morning. My suspicion was confirmed as soon as I glanced at my phone which read 4:17 AM.

I rolled to my side, clutching my teddy bear and tried to sleep. But my thoughts kept ransacking my brain, keeping it awake with worry when my body wanted to doze off and sleep. It was the worst feeling, your body being asleep while your brain is wide awake and you couldn't sleep because your brain and body were fighting some sort of an internal conflict.

I decided to get up instead. If I couldn't sleep no matter how much I forced myself to, the least I could do was to use this time productively. I grabbed the half-empty water bottle from my nightstand, my laptop, and headed to my desk, clicking on the small lamp.

Before I could process what was happening, my treacherous fingers had clicked open the document to my book. I blinked, then proceeded to close the tab when I saw an icon of the troll face staring back at me.

I grabbed my phone.

Isla: Jasper, why are you on the document?

Jasper: bro, i cant sleep

Isla: Why are you texting me?

Jasper: rude

Isla: Okay

Jasper: so...

Isla: So what?

Jasper: im guessing ur thinking about what happened

Isla: Duh, that's exactly why I can't sleep

Jasper: i cant believe that its tru

Isla: Me either, and I don't know if I can trust them now

Jasper: im getting tired so why dont we talk about this tomorrow or sum

Isla: At school?

Jasper: idk, we can meet at the cafe after school

Isla: Okay

After Jasper left, I still couldn't sleep. I didn't feel like working on the novel with all that was happening, so I just pulled up a fresh document and started on a short story based on a prompt that I generated.

Except, I couldn't even write a sentence without my brain circling back to the other day when Harry/Horizon revealed his wings and told us this bizarre story that he claimed was true while Alexa/Allaira stood aside with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

Was what they said true? Could it be? I mean, scientifically speaking, it was likely that other intelligent beings existed elsewhere. But these beings likely didn't look like humans! Much less know our language and a bit of our culture as well!

I mean, I guess the part where they were aliens was true. It made sense as Harry had wings sprouting out of his back. It made sense as they didn't know what a laptop was when they first went to school. It made sense since they acted weird and had strange mannerisms.

But the other stuff about them being forced onto Earth and them just trying to find their way home... I didn't know if I could believe that. Although they looked relatively harmless, for all I knew, Harry and Alexa were alien spies who were sent to spy on humans so the aliens could figure out the best way to ensure world domination. Though that theory was a bit of a stretch, there was still a high chance that they could hurt us. I mean, if they weren't going to directly kill us, for all I knew, they had brought over alien diseases and they could start some sort of a pandemic that could wipe out half of the world population.

And if they were telling the truth... and all they wanted to do was to go home and be reunited with their village and family again. And all they wanted was to go home again. And they truly believed that telling me and Jasper would magically solve their problems and it would instantaneously lead them home... we were quite sorry to disappoint them.

Jasper and I were not magical beings that held the keys to the universe. We were just two regular teenagers who led quite boring lives that tried to be decent human beings because we understood pain, grief, and stress.

Honestly, what were they thinking? Why did Harry and Alexa feel the need to tell us? Why did Harry feel the need to unravel his wings and show them to us? Why did they tell the truth and endanger themselves instead of keeping their secret and trying to find their way home individually? That is, if what they said about wanting to go home was true.

If it hadn't been us something bad could've happened. At best, someone who was walking by could've taken some pictures or some kids could've assaulted Harry to prove that his wings were "real." At worst, the US government would capture them and experiment on them or even kill them because they were "a danger to society." At least we were in a secluded area where there were no security cameras.

It could be true. What they said. I mean, I guess I did sort of know them. They were kind people and they helped me and Jasper with our novel. And it made sense that they would withhold this information because they didn't want to end up as objects of horrific experiments. And they did look like scared kids who only wanted to get home.

I knew what it was like to feel trapped and feel like an outsider. After all, I'd moved to another country last year. I'd lost my best friend. And I was Black, Chinese, a girl, as well as aro-ace so the deck was kind of stacked. Even though Majesty was pretty accepting and Ontario was as well, that didn't mean that I didn't face my fair share of microaggressions and assumptions. That didn't mean that I didn't feel like an outsider so I knew what Horizon and Allaira were facing. Even though it was risky, I really wanted to help them.

With me thinking in circles and my progress on the story leading nowhere, I decided to trash my document, shut off my computer, flick off the light, crawl back into bed and attempt to fall asleep again.

This time, it worked.