Danny Flash and the Alien Crash

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:

I tried to maintain eye contact with my alien friend as he grew larger and grew more aggressive.

"Calm down," I said. My alien friend did not listen. Instead it lunged at me, leaping off of the pedestal he was on, flying towards me in the air. I could see its lips pulled back and its sharp teeth glistening in the light. Its mouth opened, ready to bite.

"Freeze!" I said, outstretching my right arm as I blocked myself with my left. To my surprise it stopped in mid-air, hanging like a day old helium balloon, its teeth millimeters from my arm. It was about to bite my arm clean off. I carefully moved my arm out from between its sharp teeth. The sharp point of one of its teeth still managed to catch my arm, drawing blood. I quickly checked the rest of my arm and for the most part it was okay, except for the one reminder of what had nearly been a much worse, and permanent mark.

The sight of the blood coming from my arm made me a bit dizzy. Why was my alien friend suddenly my enemy? I stumbled back, losing my balance and tumbling to the ground. As I slid a few feet backwards a light clicked on behind me, the motion sensors activating to cast the second half of the room in a warm light. I got up quickly and turned around, checking to make sure that it was actually just the sensors and not somebody else in the room with me. To my surprise there were more pedestals, and more aliens on each one. I blinked my eyes. Was the scratch on my arm putting some kind of poison into my bloodstream making me hallucinate? Or were there really more than one alien staring back at me inside the same glass cases I had just removed this alien from.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and counted to three. This is something I had learned as a calming technique, which up until now I had only relied on when Annabelle was getting on my nerves. I opened my eyes and the aliens still in their cages, still staring back at me blinked, seemingly in unison, equally confused by this boy standing in front of them. Probably for the most part because I had just done magic. I could read their faces. They weren't sure if I was a friend or foe. In hindsight, if I were in their position I probably would have gone with foe.

Thealien in the cage closest to me started to puff himself up and ram against the glass. The one next to him did the same, and soon they were all huffing and puffing and hitting their cages, trying to get out to destroy me.

"Wait!" I said, but they weren't listening. They were in a frenzy, angered, as their friend floated in the air, teeth shining, its eyes still fixated on me. I stepped to the side, just to move out of its gaze. Then suddenly I heard a word that almost seemed foreign to me in this moment.

"Friend?" A voice from somewhere in the back of the room broke through. The aliens started to collect themselves.

"Friend!" The voice came again, this time with excitement. I looked towards the back of the cages and that's where I caught sight of my little alien friend, pressed up against the glass with his two suction cup hands. His face broke into a smile as he stared out at me.

"Chloe Nexzep," he said and all the aliens stopped hitting the glass, and they all calmed down and returned to their normal size, as if he had just cast a spell.

They looked up at me and repeated the words together. "Chloe Nexzep."

"Hi," I said. "My name's not Chloe though, it's Danny."

"Chloe," My alien friend repeated again. "Friend."

"Oh," I said, realizing that what he was trying to tell me was that Chloe was their word for friend. "Yes," I said placing an arm on my chest for all the aliens to see. "Chloe." I took my arm off my chest and looked down seeing that I'd left a small trail of blood on my shirt from where the cut had been. I walked past the other aliens, they all stared at me from behind their plexi-glass cages as I moved over to my little alien friend.

"Break," I said and tapped the glass. It shattered to the ground. My alien friend jumped out, giving me a big hug.

"Friend," he said again.

"Hi there, Little Buddy." I replied, burying my head into him. We stood there for a moment, appreciating that we had each returned into the others life. Then, my alien friend, pulled back, and looked me in the eyes.

"Schteeve," my alien friend said.

"Okay," I nodded, knowing what he meant. It was time for him to take his magic back. I felt sad, but also somewhat relieved. Having magic was a big responsibility. I always knew it would be fun, exciting even, but I hadn't really thought about the maturity that it required. It should probably be one of those things, like driving, that they make you get a license for.

"Wha-sicky," my alien friend said, and started moving his hands around, just like before, in little concentric circles. A blue light started to form inside his hands, and I could feel the energy leaving me, it's hard to explain exactly, but if you were to take a deep breath in, and then exhale, it's very similar to that feeling of exhaling, except if a vacuum cleaner were doing it for you, against your will. I started to feel dizzy, but caught myself against the pedestal that had previously been a prison for my alien. The ball started to move now, floating into the air, and circling my little alien friend.

"Wha-sicky," I said, allowing myself to let go of the magic. The ball broke from its orbit around my little alien friend, and disappeared inside his chest. He shot back from my arms, and landed a few feet from me on the dirt.

As I looked down at my little alien friend, his breathing was shallow, but his face looked calm. There was suddenly a loud crunch as the door to the room was kicked down and Mr. Not-so-Nice stepped in, dragging Andrew and Penny behind him.

"Is your friend taking a nap?" he said. He outstretched his arms, cupped his hands and started to build a blue ball of magic, right in front of himself. I couldn't believe my eyes. Before I could decide if what I was seeing was real, he hurled it towards me, like he was throwing a fastball.