Pet: Genesis *Published*

Prologue

The being stands looking out beyond the transparent glass of the ship. Earth. The small planet stands alone in its star system. It is the only planet capable of housing life. It's full of inhabitants who believe everything revolves around them, each of them selfish in their own way. They excessively fight, causing war, death, and disease for the profit of power.

The being laughs to himself—such an insolent race.

All the years humanity has been granted to make their world a better place, and they've done nothing but make it worse. They do not know the true meaning of power. They do not know what it means to conquer an entire planet. An entire star system. And that is why he is here. He wants the Earth. He wants to teach them—to show them that they are inferior in every way possible.

He smiles to himself. He knows they will try and fight. He's counting on it. He revels in the bloodshed. He loves the fact that once their hopes are extinguished, they will finally understand their true purpose. It's simple.

To serve him and his race however he deems necessary.

The being turns to his second-in-command with an amused grin. Humanity. They believe they are advanced with their satellites and telescopes. It's laughable how behind they are. Their technology is so outdated that they haven't even realized they've been observed for years. Even now, they have no idea of the armada sitting in their solar system, ready to strike.

The time has finally come to intervene.

* * * * *

July 23rd

Iris

"Andrew, you can't ignore your son forever. You two have to talk about this eventually!" I tense at the sound of my mother raising her voice. I hate it when my parents argue.

I look up from my place in the backseat. My mother glares at my father from the passenger seat, waiting for him to respond. I know how he'll respond. He will either yell or ignore her for the rest of the day. My parents rarely get along, but today, they were supposed to, no matter what.

Today we are supposed to celebrate my birthday. My birthday isn't until tomorrow, but my father will be out of town by then for another business trip. So, I get today. All I wanted for today was for my parents to take me to the park. The sun is high, the weather is warm, and there isn't a cloud in sight. It's the perfect day. Or rather, it would be if my parents could get along for five minutes.

"Lauren. I'm not discussing this with you today." I know that tone. My father really is refusing to discuss it with her. His hand reaches for the radio to turn the volume louder than my mother's fuming voice, adding to her anger. She launches into an argument about my father's lack of attention to his family and accusations of affairs. I fight the urge to put my hands over my ears. She hates it when I do that.

So, my eyes shift to the world outside of the car. I see people on the street walking with their friends and families, enjoying the weather. A car pulls up next to us with the top down and a young man sitting in the driver's seat. He is wearing a pair of sunglasses, his head tilted as he looks at his phone screen. I wonder where he's going on a day like this.

My brow furrows when I notice a large shadow passing over the area. It's strange because only seconds ago there were no clouds in the sky.

I tense as the song that was coming out of the speakers is cut off, followed by a long ringing noise and an emergency announcement.

"This is not a test. We repeat, this is not a test. There have been sightings of a foreign..."

Screams erupt outside of the car, and the people who were once happily enjoying their day begin pointing to the sky and running in the opposite direction. Chaos slowly ensues around us as everyone tries to escape the ominous shadow in the sky. I place my hand against the glass, craning my neck to see the object that has blocked out the sun. It isn't a cloud. It's a... spaceship? It looks nothing like the ships in the movies. It looms over the area even though it's hundreds of miles in the sky; the ship's circular wings radiate blue light, mimicking the texture of dragonfly wings. The body is smooth and metallic, glinting in the sunlight. It's bigger than any airplane I've ever seen. And more versions of it suddenly appear in a formation surrounding it, stretching a long distance in the sky.