"Goodbye," I bid my co-workers. They waved to me as I made my way down some steep concrete steps to my sedan. I retrieved my keys from my bag and unlocked it. The chilly breeze penetrated my jacket and made me shiver. I opened the door and sat down on the freezing chair.
I pressed the brake and turned the key. The engine struggled with the Alaskan cold, but started. Blue air shot from the vents and I turned them from my face. I pressed a button which indicated warm air would float from the seats.
I put the car in reverse and pivoted the car left. I switched it to drive and accelerated out of the lot.
The road was long and dark, but straight and flat. I was able to get up to nearly ninety at some points, which really made it warm. I took a bend on two wheels when the road was illuminated. Not from my car's lights, but from above. I thought not of it, because I was tired and wanted to be at home.
The light intensified and moved just in front of my car. I saw the source. Four rotating white lights, accompanied by a multitude of green, blue and strangely colored lights hovered in the air. I hit the brake - just a bit - and the lights kept my exact speed. Ninety-two miles per hour.
My cars engine stalled, but the radio stayed on. However, instead of the pop-electronica songs it was playing, strange sound came over it. Variously pitched beeps and crescendos of trills and twirling bass drops. I pulled the car to the side of the road and got out. I stroked my light dusting of a beard. The lights hovered just above me. I yelled at them. I don't remember what, but I was very irate.
The lights brightened until I had to close my eyes. My mind fell blank and all I could think of was my identity. Finn Connolly, age twenty-three, I'm six feet two inches tall, I weigh two hundred ten pounds, and I was arrested once in high school for running in a closed park.
Without a crackle or pop, I was in a different place. Curved bits of metal kept me in place on a flat, cold table. A bright light descended onto my head and my mind erupted. Everything I knew, everything I had learned and forgotten whizzed through my mind. My high school girlfriend's phone number, my college history class, everything I knew about anything. I screamed as my lungs struggled to get enough oxygen to my brain to comprehend what was happening.
It stopped with no ceremony and a cold, greasy hand flipped me over. A few tiny metal tips touched my back and my mind was devoid of pain. Then they pushed in.
The dull metal tips stretched my skin inward until it broke and a tingling fluid was introduced to my bloodstream. My vision defocused and I felt my skin peeling away from my body. The pain which I expected was not present, it was replaced by a feeling of disgust. I felt their pencil-like probes dance along my spinal cord and my various appendages came in and out of feeling.
I felt the pain medication fade out of my bloodstream and my skin being folded back to its original place. A tiny needle threaded back and forth, setting my skin back to its former self.
In the last few stitches, the pain medication was totally out of my system. The pain I felt was immense for a few moments.
Without a crackle or pop, I was sitting back in my car with minor back pain. My name is Finn Connolly and no one believes me.
