The Doomsday Strand

Chapter Three

"My parents got divorced when I was 10 years old. Actually, they skipped the entire divorce process, because I woke up one day and my mother was gone. She left a note explaining how she couldn't stand my father's drinking anymore, and that she had left me with him because she couldn't afford to raise me on my own. I think she just didn't what to have me around anymore."

Hunter paused for dramatic affect, letting the others have sympathy towards him.

"Anyway, my dad couldn't take care of the house on his own. He was too busy working during the day and drinking in the evenings so he invited his sister, my aunt, to live with us. My dad was in his early 40s at the time and my aunt was pushing 50. They were both going through a mid life crisis.

"My dad dealt with his crisis by drinking like he always did. My aunt, on the other hand, tried all kinds of things. Painting, learning to play new instruments, taking dance classes, practicing martial arts, getting tattoos, drinking wine and watching lifetime movies, all that good stuff. But there was a hobby that took up her time more than anything else, and that was joining a ufologist club.

"Every week, my aunt would invite her little club to our house. My dad was okay with it because he always passed out from the booze, so I was practically left alone with those weirdos in our house. Man, did they say some crazy shit. They talked about abductions, interstellar travel, cross species DNA and great cosmic beings of power that would one day destroy the universe as we know it."

"The judgment day theory!" The man with the colorful shirt geeked out.

"Yeah." Hunter nodded. "My aunt became obsessed with these beings, gods if you will. She wanted to know everything that there was about them: who they were, where they were, and when would their day of destruction would come.

"She must have ended up asking the wrong people about that shit, because all of a sudden she started acting paranoid. She said someone was coming for her to take her somewhere, or kill her.

"One night, I woke up with the sound of smashing glass from the kitchen. My dad was drunk, as always, so I had to go see what it was. I went there quietly, and when I got there I saw..."

The conspiracy's theorists eyes were glued to Hunter. Even Jack, who had seemed distant through out the story, now showed interest. Hunter didn't waste another second and kept going.

"I saw a being over two meters tall standing in the kitchen. It was thin, very thin, and his skin was pale and smooth. It didn't have any hair. It had a flat face. No nose, but it had two huge eyes that looked like they were piercing right through my soul."

"What was the color of his skin?" Asked the one with the ear ring.

"Gray."

The theorists gasped in delight.

"You saw a Gray!" Exclaimed the one with the colorful shirt

"No, it couldn't have been a Gray, they're short." Protested the one with the goatee.

"Yeah, but they know how to do genetic modification."

"Yeah, but not on themselves."
"Shut up, you don't know what I know!"

"I know a lot, okay?"

"Guys." Hunter said, raising his hands. "Are you going to let me finish?"

The theorists nodded in unison, feeling embarrassed for having interrupted him.

"Whatever that thing was," Hunter continued. "It was looking straight at me. It asked if my aunt was at home. I said yes. It asked if I could take it to her. I said yes.