Alien or Alian
Chapter 15: Apricity

“Why? What’s wrong?” Ozias whispered. A balloon-sized lump was forming in his throat, making each word strain as he spoke.

“It’s here, Halton.” Sid spun around and started steering Ozias towards the kitchen. “Come on, we’ll go through the back.”

“H-how did it find us?”

“It must’ve seen us leaving campus after all. Can’t believe it actually followed us all the way here.”

Just as they reached the kitchen, the sound of splitting wood and scraping metal echoed from the living room. Sid kept Ozias ahead of him and blocked his sightline from the enraged professor trudging over the fragmented wood as he invaded the house, his heavy footsteps making their way across the room.

“Damn it!” Sid cursed. “Ozias, go! Run now and keep going — don’t look back!” He shoved Ozias closer to the back door for a head start, then marched back into the living room wearing the most critical expression Ozias had ever seen from him.

He vanished from the kitchen before Ozias had time to object, and though he was unsure about leaving Sid alone with the arcane being, Sid was probably already facing off with the creature, meanwhile he stood frozen by the back door. Ozias shook his head a few times wildly then thumped both his temples with his palms, trying to settle his thoughts. Thrashing sounds of furniture and books crashing against walls and the floor reverberated in the kitchen. Ozias knew he’d spent long enough dwelling on the situation. He compelled himself not to look back, jerked open the door, and braced for the arctic wind.

It felt like hours had passed.

The snow had only reached just a bit above Ozias’ ankles, but much of the surface of it had become crusted, hampering his escape from the house. He hadn’t been able to grab his jacket before he was whisked away, so he was left to enfold himself with his arms and endure the sheer cold. The leaden clouds were occupying the entire sky, but at least it wasn’t snowing, Ozias thought. He tried picking up speed every couple of seconds, but his legs grew heavy with every step he slogged, and the frigid atmosphere seemed like it was sucking him dry of his lifeforce the longer he was outside.

Further southwards was a forested area that looked similar to where the Knillimhyr estate was located. A myriad of trees and bushes — barren and snow-drenched. Since moving to Elbel Court, Ozias had never actually gone near the area, only observing it remotely from his kitchen window from time to time. It was a public space, but there weren’t any pathways or trails made for people to safely traverse the area, leaving it continuously unattended and uncleared of natural hazards all year round.

It was also where Ezra and his team had crashed down with their space shuttle two nights ago. Ozias remembered the images he saw on the monitor back in the Knillimhyr laboratory. He wondered if they had actually managed to clear out every single piece of the demolished craft. There was one way he was going to find out for sure. He’d been walking in chaotic zig zags and circles to try and conceal his main path in case the blob made it past Sid and was on its way to him, but he knew he couldn’t stay out in the open for too long, and he was near total exhaustion anyway. Hopefully the area up ahead would provide some convenient hiding spots.

Eventually, at last, he reached a clearing. A clean but clumpy blanket of snow was plotted in the center, enclosed by unfruitful plant life.

Ozias frantically scanned the area, but there didn’t appear to be anywhere reliable enough to hide. The bushes were all too bare as were the trees, and even though a sizable height difference could still be advantageous, Ozias didn’t know how to climb trees. There weren’t even any large rocks or boulders around that he could take cover behind. At this point, the only feasible place to hide would be shrouding himself beneath some of the snow. His body shivered at both the thought of actually going through with it, and the intensifying bitter air. If he only had the ability to not be able to feel the cold too, he thought.

He realized he had run out of time to find a hiding place when he heard someone calling his name in a quiet shout.

“Ozias! Hey, Ozias! Are you there?” Sid creeped into view somewhere behind Ozias, startling him. There was a shallow cut on his cheek and another on his forehead, and he seemed to be limping on one leg.

“Oh, Sid, it’s you.” Ozias knew how ridiculous it was to think that the blob knew his name, but the last few days had been filled with all sorts of things he couldn’t believe. “Are you okay?” He rushed to Sid’s side, grabbing his arm and throwing it over his shoulders to keep him steady.

“I’m fine,” Sid gritted out. “That thing’s just got a bit of a mean throw.”

Ozias did another fraught sweep of their surroundings hoping to spot some tenable shelter, but to no avail. “Then we should keep moving. I don’t think there’s anywhere we can hide here.”

“No, you’re the one who has to run. Get away from here as far as you can. It’s looking for you.” Even with a dull pain still lingering in his leg, Sid removed Ozias’ from his side, intent on standing on his own. “It asked where the ‘human in glasses’ was.”

“W-what?” A chill that felt like some kind of spectral graze encroached on Ozias, causing him to tremble, and it wasn’t because of the cold this time. “It talked again?”

“Yes, and it thinks that you can take it to the ‘blue-eyes boy’ who’s not human. Ethen’s never laid eyes on the thing yet, so it must be talking about-”

“Ezra,” Ozias finished.

“Exactly. So you need to go without me. I’ll be slowing you down.”

“I’m not just gonna leave you behind.”

“We don’t have time to go back and forth on this. You have to-”

Crack. Snap.

In one second Ozias was standing right next to Sid, in the next he was shoved away to safety once again, this time stumbling to a fall a short distance from him. Meanwhile, Sid received a blow to the gut from the stout end of a massive tree branch, sending him crashing into the snow.

“Sid!” Ozias shouted, as another swing from the burly wood was hurling towards him.

Sid heeded the warning just in time to catch the hilt of the branch. Brutish grunts amplified as Mr. Halton tried wrestling his makeshift weapon back to his control, so Sid let him have it. He thrusted the branch upwards, driving gravity against Mr. Halton who tumbled backwards onto the snow as well.

Ozias watched on in terror as it unfolded. As he tried to stand up, a streak of light descended through the clouds, momentarily blinding him and making him lose his balance. Countless more beams continued to materialize from the sky, piercing through in an endless leisurely motion.

Mr. Halton clawed at the ground trying to stand as well, but he only made it to a knee when it happened. A stripe of light rained down on him, and almost immediately he’d collapsed back into the snow. His body started to wildly convulse while his grunting had become strained and unintelligible.

Both Ozias and Sid slowly sat up to behold the disturbing sight, and that was when they noticed it. As Mr. Halton spasmed in the snowy field, several pink patches rapidly took shape all over his body, gradually becoming crimson blots. After a minute the spasming started to lag. Black goo began to bleed from his nostrils, mouth and ear canals, and trickled onto the snow until it was all emptied from Mr. Halton and had assembled into one flat mass. The horror didn’t end there, as the blob slithered forward at breakneck speed, sparing not even a second for Sid to try and evade it.

It clung to Sid’s exposed left ankle and started inserting itself into his body right through his skin, in a smooth flowing motion. As it happened, Sid was paralyzed; his back slumped back onto the snow, his eyes wide open and immobilized — left to stare at the gradually clearing sky, petrified.

“No! Stop it!” Ozias tried to protest, but it was too late. In one accelerated moment, the unsettling scene was over, and the blob was no longer out on the surface.

Sid — or what now appeared to be Sid — twitched a few times before sitting up in a slow and eerie manner. He started to get to his feet, but Ozias could only gape at him with fear. It wasn’t until Sid’s possessed figure stood before him that Ozias registered the danger he was in. With every step he hobbled closer, almost slower than the pace he went while in Mr. Halton’s body, Ozias clumsily shuffled back on his elbows. But by Sid’s fourth step, he stopped right under a sultry ray of light, and his feral convulsions and grunts started up again.

It didn’t last long this time as he quickly stepped out of the bright column. By now the entire clearing was occupied by the sun’s streaks, and Ozias thought the blob must have noticed it too. Little by little the snow began to melt, making it easier for Sid to stagger backwards until he finally twisted around and started trotting away in full retreat.

Ozias wanted to call out to him, but immediately thought better of it. Any time someone had tried getting in the alien’s way, the confrontation had always ended poorly for the opposing party. With no better choice than to let a bewitched Sid jog off into the obscurity of the bare forestry, Ozias attempted to stand again. His legs trembled with every movement and his fingers had become so numb that he couldn’t even feel the snow mashing against them.

When he finally got to his feet, he saw a glimmer of light shining in a small mound of snow that hadn’t quite yet finished melting. He didn’t think much of it and looked away, but then there was a loud ding! Despite his insensated hands, he rushed over and reached into the snow to recover a cell phone. At the click of a button the screen lit up, and the first thing Ozias laid eyes on was a notification of a text message from Ezra:

‘Tell him not to worry about me, and that I promise this’ll all be over soon. Can you make sure he gets something to eat?’

The message had come almost 30 minutes ago. A flicker of hope sent a warm pulse through Ozias’ chest. He didn’t have Sid’s passcode for the phone, but maybe enough time had passed for Ezra to grow suspicious of why there wasn’t a reply yet-

Riing riing riing!

Perfect.

“Hey, Sid! What’s going on, why didn’t you text me back?” Ezra said as soon as Ozias answered the call. “Is Ozias alright?”

It had only been about an hour since Ozias saw Ezra last, but hearing the sound of his voice made it feel like it had been an entire day. He could barely hold the phone up with one hand so he had to use both, and when he opened his mouth to respond, what came out was coated in the sound of his quiet sobbing.

“....Ezra...something happened. Something bad.”

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