The Sandmen

I became a murder witness

Not long after dark, Kehn said he had things to take care of and disappeared until the next morning. Finally being alone gave me the time to check my bullet wound. The tiny metal object had been extracted and the opening had been expertly stitched close. A clean bandage was tied around my arm. Satisfied, I went to sleep, processing everything Kehn had said and vainly trying to piece it together.

Kehn woke me up the next day, just after the sun had ascended to the horizon. He looked refreshed and in a good mood which kind of inflected on mine. As I was told the day before, we stopped at his sister's place to get some "human food". I couldn't help but wonder if there was such thing as "alien food". Not that I was sure Kehn was an alien. I still had no verdict on that, to my annoyance.

The girl was named Mya and I couldn't see any resemblances between her and Kehn, though she seemed to be of similar age. She had long dark hair and hazel eyes. She was so slim and elegant that it made me feel a bit uneasy about my nerdy look. However, she shared Kehn's symmetrical and flawless physiognomy.

I knew I was pretty, if you liked preppy looking blond girls with glasses anyway. My hair was straight, always in place. My smile was even and white. My makeup was light and my clothes fitted for business. Even though I was small and thin, I had decent curves were there should have been some. The whole package was screaming I'm a good girl.

Mya was nice and didn't protest one bit after hearing Kehn's request. While we entered to get what we needed, I noticed how Mya was eying me with a strange expression I couldn't identify at the moment. It was when we left with our newly acquired provisions that it hit me. Mya had been ogling me like a hungry human would have been drooling over a piece of cake. I knew I had made a weird face after having the thought when Kehn's looked intently at me. Nonetheless, he didn't comment. No need to say I was creeped out for some time after that.

It was still early in the morning when we begin our traverse of the desert. The heat of the sun was still plenty bearable and my body's ache was tolerable too. I had to ask about the events from earlier. "How do people like you feed exactly?" He studied my expression. "You saw how Mya was looking at you, huh?" So he knew what my concern was. "I did." He chuckled. "Do I look at you the same way?", he wanted to know. "No, you don't look at me like if I was an unlimited free buffet." He laughed some more. "Good, I wouldn't want to scare you off."

He was lost in thoughts for a bit. "Well people like me nourish ourselves from energy. Solar energy is big part of it. However, it's not enough, especially for the youngest of us." I knew where he was going with that, but I wanted a confirmation anyway. It was fascinating, but also kind of scary. "So how do you manage to have enough?" He chose his words carefully, probably to prevent me from freaking out.

"Energy from human beings is way more invigorating that solar energy, but also more delicate to get." A light bulb suddenly lightened up in my head. "The missing people, the bodies found in the desert... It's all because of your people, isn't it?" Kehn sighted. "Yes, some of these cases are probably on our tab, unfortunately. But before you settle on the idea that we are all murderers, I would like to tell you that we are pacific people. However, sometimes accidents occur."

At least, he was honest, not denying the charges. "How is it done, taking energy I mean?" I wanted to understand before condemning. "By touching. Our body attracts the energy by itself when we are not totally recharged. We can stop it, but it takes time to gain the ability to. So sometimes, the youngest just can't interrupt the transfer before the person or animal is totally drained. Because we don't kill voluntarily. We only take enough to survive."

He seemed sincere enough to me and I got his point that it was only about survival. "Did you take some from me?" I didn't know how I would have reacted if he had said he did. "No, you were too limp already." I remember his reaction when I had told him he had saved me. "But you wanted badly to, right?" He said simply, "Yes, your energy is very appealing to me". Mine in particular or...?