My nose throbbed. My lungs were sore and my mind was clouded by these sensations. I hadn't left my bed in days.
My wife had left to buy me some soup against better judgment. She had tried every medicine in the book. Nothing seemed to work.
They called it the coronavirus. It was an international pandemic. It had affected Asia, Italy, Africa, and America.
Businesses had shut down and the economy had slowed. The entire world was at a standstill. Idle, isolated in their homes. For fear that going outside would cause you to be infected.
According to the scientists my wife had the virus as surely as I had it. But she showed no symptoms, no coughs or painful throbbing headaches. But she was always the healthy one amongst the two of us.
I was grateful for that. I didn't have the strength to soothe her. It was all I could do to not whine and moan in my bed.
I heard the door open to my room and slam quickly. My wife, Madison, was back. "Terry. Terry....stand up."
My eyes opened and allowed the full brunt of sun light to beam into them. I groaned. I protested, she saw what state I was in. I couldn't imagine what reason she had for pushing me to move.
"Stand up Terrance!" She said....or did she. I gazed at her. I realized her mouth hadn't moved. I was hallucinating.
"Am I going crazy." I thought.
"You aren't." Thought Madison, "I've connected my mind to the speech and listening centers of your mind. I have something I need for you to understand, rapidly. I'll access your visual centers as well so that I can show you."
"Wait....what?" I screamed but my mouth did not open. A blinding white light consumed the world around me. Before I knew it I was in space and Madison was floating there besides me.
"This is Earth." She thought pointing at the planet. I could see it's lustrous blue surface and atmosphere with a real ness I'd never experienced before. "Our home."
"Yea. That's earth." I thought. Looking at the planet. "Our home."
"Wrong." Said Madison.
I gazed back at her and her appearance had changed. Her skin was dark black and her eyes steely grey. Her hair was the same curly Afro. But her teeth had merged together to form a singular plate of enamel almost like a beak.
"This is OUR home. We've, Ive, lived amongst humans for the past millennia. We hid ourselves amongst you. We've found great pleasure in your virtues as well as your vices. We've protected you as was our assignment."
"From what?" I asked studying her features. I was more curious than anything. She seemed to acknowledge that gently.
"The others. There's a Kingdom of Beings that exist in a constant state of fear. Fear is their nature. They can't help themselves. This fear is infinite. It is without basis, a biological imperative. Due to this fear they've endlessly built upon their kingdom, their wisdom, and their military might. Due to this fear they've become lost, unable to see past anything but their fear and thus we call them the Lost Ones." A massive floating darkness covered the mysterious forlorn objects of space Terry had witnessed up to this moment. He understood it was the kingdom of beings she'd spoken of. But it seemed apparent that his mind couldn't visually comprehend the magnanimity of what it was witnessing. "They've compiled layers upon layers of defense for their soft timid cores. Because of this eternal burden of fear they made a decision to erase their fear by becoming fear itself. Through their wisdom and technology they've consumed and assimilated most of the stars and planets upon the outer rim of the universe, they've been pushed here to the Milky Way galaxy. My people have masked these nine planets and their denizens from the Lost Ones."
"I don't understand. What's the problem?" I thought as I believed her.
"The problem is that we've been discovered by the beings we were sent to protect. We have vast telepathic abilities. And the majority of these powers have been linked together amongst us to form the cloak. Because of this sacrifice we are mostly normal humans, save for a bit of power to mask our appearances. You're government has devised a sinister single minded method to find us. They simply infected every anthropomorphic organism on this planet with a synthetic virus. Covid-19. It spread rapidly. Too rapidly for us to anticipate our next move. It infected our bodies and weakened us. Weakened our powers revealing who we are. With everyone quarantined they've drug us from our homes and hid us away from public sight in government facilities. They've killed a few of us." I felt her fear. "I don't know if I'll be next."
"Madison. Where are you?" A desire to save her burned within my chest.
"No! Stay where you are. I don't mean for you to come save me. I mean for you to be safe! Listen to me. I will send my ship to your location. It's been programmed to take you off this planet, out of this galaxy. The Lost Ones are coming!!!! They'll devour everything! This planet....us! When we die the cloak will fail. And all will be lost!"
"Madison!" I thought.
"Go." She pushed me and my body descended from space back into my bed. Or rather that's just how it appeared, in actuality I had never left. I rolled over out of the bed onto the floor. It was night time.
All of the lights in my home were off. There was nothing but silence and the sound of crickets.
"It must have been a dream....it....it couldn't have just been a dream. Could it...." I stood and stared outside my bedroom window. Where there should have been a pasture of country farmland there was instead an oval shaped floating object with pink and purple glowing lights.
"I guess...it wasn't a dream."
To be continued......
