Normal II

by 100-YardStare

Life as the assistant to Dr. Brine is harder than it looks when you're lying to millions of humans that he's actually a person. Now that his plans for revenge are kaput, there's still North Wind to worry about, and a reputation to uphold. Lo and behold! More crazy adventures await with Dave and I as we take on the world, and I continue to try and keep my sanity.(Sequel to "Normal")

9. A Nightmare's Reflection

Chapter 9: A Nightmare's Reflection

"You almost got stabbed!?"

My own words seemed to echo in my mind. The feeling I had when I said them was still felt hours after I had uttered them. The feeling of being stunned—stupefied. I felt at a loss as to what I was supposed to do next, and that feeling of shock would soon merge into another feeling I continued to carry even that night when I fell asleep.

My eyes were closed, and I knew I was lying in my bed, but you could say I wasn't really there. I was adrift, held stationary above an endless blackness, listening, waiting… paralyzed.

"Almost, dearest! Everything took care of itself. We will never, ever hear from Hiroto again…"

Dave's words came next, like a passing thing, and then drifted away, being smothered by the dark around me. I felt my heart start to race once his voice left, as if his coming and going had somehow reminded me of my current presence in the weird, dreamless void.

For a while, things remained this way. That was, until I heard a whooshing sound, like waves, or collective crackles of electricity getting louder and louder as the seconds passed, intensifying.

I still couldn't open my eyes, but I felt something. Dread filled my body, and for a moment an uncontrollable need to sob attempted to push itself out, but with all my might I held it back as to not draw attention to myself, just in case whatever was in the dark with me would notice.

I listened. First it was nothing at all, but soon I could hear more utterances of things I had heard before. Some were words that Rayonna had said. Some were things my family had mentioned during Thanksgiving dinner. More so were things that strangers would say about Dave and I.

While they were not necessarily whispers of something bad, I still felt stiff, no longer in a way that indicated that I was paralyzed from sleep, but because I wanted to be. I could not move. I wouldn't move or they'd see me.

Soon the voices shifted and grew a bit louder. They sounded frustrated, but soon it was as if all the voices began to converse with one another instead. Once that happened, that presence in the dark with me grew angry.

My heart beat faster more so then, and though my paralyzed limbs I felt a sense of cold running through me.

"Liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar…."

The chant was all around me, but as time passed the collective voices would focus at a single point in front of me. At this moment it was almost impossible for me to lay there any longer, and with all my might I winced, opening my eyes then as I gazed into my dark room.

But looking in front of me, right there peering from the dark, were spears, pitchforks, and the barrel of a riffle, pointing at me, as real as it would be in the daylight. Behind them were shadows and figures, no eyes, no faces… just things.

"Monster..." they muttered.

I tensed the muscles in my right arm, and with a quick force of will, swiped my hand across the things in front of me in a desperate attempt to push them away.

As my hand crossed the air in front of me, and like the blink of an eye, everything that had been standing in my room and hovered over me, had vanished.

Desperately my eyes scanned the bed around me, seeing my cat Kiki lying to my side. She hadn't noticed or maybe even cared that I had moved my arm in my sleep.

I lowered my raised hand gently onto her back, the feeling of her soft fur a reassurance to me that I was in reality.

Despite anchoring myself in this way, the dread that I had felt in my bad dream still remained. I realized that going straight back to sleep in this current mindset was a horrible idea, to put it frankly, and I got out of bed, walked across the room to the bathroom, and turned on the lights.

The large mirror there became a focal point against my will, and it took a mental fight of the sorts to decide whether I was to look into it or not. I had this weird idea that you shouldn't look into mirrors at night, and more so now that I was still disturbed by what my sub-consciousness had just put me through.

Despite my strange internal struggle, I looked up anyway. Luckily, I just saw me in there, although logically I knew that was all I'd see, but dread was getting the better of me.

Briefly my eyes scanned my surroundings through the mirror. The walls were painted a light forest green, but behind me, and right next to the doorway I had come from, was a red picture frame hung on the wall.

Upon closer inspection, I realized it was my graduation picture.

I looked so happy there. Everything was new, and my future looked so bright. Hard work and perseverance seemed to have paid off. All the struggling, the building of character, and whatnot. Sometimes I realized that who I was today was not so much as who I had been when I started that degree, let alone who stood in that picture.

My eyes darted from the photo of myself behind me in my graduation gown, and to me, the real me then and there, looking back at myself in the mirror. My hair was a mess from having just woken up, and there were slight dark circles under my eyes, probably because of the night of bad dreaming.

I looked back at my portrait in the red picture frame, then back at my reflection again. I pursed my lips. Maybe right now wasn't the time to compare, I thought.

I proceeded to do my business, and then wash my hands and face afterward, but even after that I still couldn't find it in me to get back into bed. So instead, I clicked the lights in the bathroom off, walked back into the room, grabbed my phone, and left my room completely to venture downstairs. Soon finding my way to the living room, there I took comfort on the couch, wrapping myself in a blanket next to a basket under the coffee table.

I clicked my phone on, and began to scroll. Ironically, the first news that hit my dash was photographs of Dave as Octavius Brine at the Texas Renaissance Festival, each photo and each selfie captioned with giddy words of fans meeting their famous geneticist.

While I did not run into a single photo or article talking about anything else that happened, I was reminded regardless about the incident with Hiroto…

He had tried to kill Dave. Not just kill even, murder him. Outright stab him in front of all those people.

The following conversation that had already happened seemed to flood my already disturbed state of mind.

"Dave…" I had whispered out of concern, but after I said his name, his real name, my voice had heightened again, growing loud like it had been before. "Why, is Hiroto here and why is he trying to stab you!?"

"Well…" Dave began, drawing a bit closer to me as to make his voice into a whisper this time. "You see… he kinda sorta knows I'm an octopus."

"HOW!?" I gasped, again loudly.

"It's funny you ask, because thinking about it I'm fairly certain that I saw this coming. You warned me about it, a few days ago." He chuckled awkwardly. "So he uses the internet a lot, and—"

"Are you telling me you think he's the one that made that post online? The one I showed you where you're—"

"Yes, exactly that one!" Dave said, his smile remaining on his face, although for the life of me I couldn't understand how he could smile in a situation like this. "He knows I'm an O, C, T—"

"Don't speak," I had hissed sternly, flailing my hands in the air beside us. I was aghast. Absolutely horrified. "Don't say anything else right now!" I turned away from him quickly to try and walk away, but instead seeing the mass crowd staring at us, cheering, clapping, pictures flashing and all. I couldn't stand it.

I turned back to Dave instead. "We need to get out of here, now," I said. I felt my face turn red then, my face hot from not only the Texas warmth in the freaking fall, but then because of the realization that I wasn't even allowed to freak out. I couldn't freak out in front of all those people.

My mind skipped around some, leaving that moment at the Renaissance Festival, and the conversation I had had with Dave. My next train of thought spat images at me of the events that occurred when we all had come home next. My parents had asked me questions why we had come home so early, but also how our day was…

And you know what I had to tell them?

"Everything was great!" I had said, forcing giddiness in my tone like it was an easy thing, but behind the façade it was all a lie. It was fake.

I was fake.

In the dark living room, with only the light of my phone bringing a faint glow to the room, I suddenly heard footsteps coming down the stairs. For a moment my heart skipped, my mental state a literal mess if you couldn't already tell, and waited in anticipation for whoever it was to show themselves as they made their way down the staircase.

A dark figure finally revealed itself, then uttered quietly, "Kailey, what are you doing down here in the middle of the night?"

Relief momentarily steadied my heart. It was Mom.

"I couldn't sleep," I replied, putting my phone down.

There was a long pause as she made her way beside the couch. "You're having bad dreams again, aren't you?" she asked. "Hmmm… you've always had these."

"Why do you think Leah always made fun of me to go to a sleep clinic?" I said cynically. "I hate this."

"I know," Mom said, finally sitting down next to me. "Do you want to talk about it?"

My teeth grit together as I grimaced in silence. I was actually glad it was dark; she couldn't see me. "Not really," I lied. It was a big lie. A huge lie that went against who I was. Of course I wanted to tell her. I always told her my dreams, good or bad, but how was I supposed to explain to her that I saw pitchforks and gun barrels pointed at me and people chanting, "liar, monster," going to settle?

"That bad, huh?" She sighed.

I felt my lips quiver. It was like I was a cup overflowing; I needed to tell her something.

"I saw things in my room," I finally said aloud. "They were right there, at the end of the bed, pointing objects in my face, like spears, and guns…"

"Kailey, I'm so sorry," she said worriedly, and put a hand on my shoulder, easing her way closer to me to finally take me into a warm embrace. "I hate it when this happens to you, too. Are you going to sleep on the couch?"

"I think I will," I replied.

"It's okay if you need to." She squeezed me tighter in her hug before letting me go. "Do you want to talk about anything?"

"No," I said hesitantly. I felt like she may have heard the hesitation this time, but she gave me distance anyway.

"Well, okay then," she said. "I'm going to go lay back down. I'll pray for you when I get there, Kailey. I love you."

"I love you, too," I said.

I clutched my blanket as I listened to her walk back up the wooden staircase.

. . . . . . .

I had fallen asleep at some point, but at what point, I had no idea. I only woke up when I heard Mom and Dad come down the stairs, and the smell of freshly brewed coffee hitting my nose soon after. Dad began to speak when he noticed I was on the couch; this caused me to stiffen, though, which did the trick of stripping away what sleepiness I had left.

"What is she doing down here?" he asked.

"Don't bother her, Darren, she had a bad night," Mom replied in my defense.

Dad grumbled.

At that point I felt compelled to sit up, wiping some crust off of my eyes before I finally got a look at them standing there. I noticed they were dressed to go out somewhere.

"Where are you going?" I asked. "Don't you want to have coffee with me?"

"We do!" Mom said. "We set it to brew, and the kettle will keep it warm for a bit. We were just going to stop by the store and pick up a few things. Since you and Octavius are staying we wanted to make sure the house was stocked with enough food."

"Don't you think we have enough leftovers from Thanksgiving for that?" I asked.

"No, your father had the bright idea to give most of it away to the family," Mom said, and tapped her foot once on the floor.

Dad looked at her, raising a brow. "Oh, so I did something wrong then, huh?" His bitchiness was coming out a little now, but that was to be expected now that everyone was gone, and Dave was out of sight for now.

"I'm not saying anything, Darren, I'm just implying that maybe we should start keeping some leftovers for ourselves, considering Kailey is staying with us." Mom turned to head down the hallway, both literally and metaphorically walking away from the conversation. "Anyway, Darren, let's go." She shifted her attention to me after that, and said, "We'll be back shortly, Kailey!"

"Okay…" I muttered. I listened again as they walked down the hall, opened the door, and then shut it with a clank. The wreath that hung on the other side tapped the door a few times after it shut.

Then silence returned.

I sat up and stretched my arms and legs before I started roaming the downstairs of the house. It was still taking some getting used to, realizing this place was my parents' new house and all. I started trying to think of all the different things about it in comparison to my folk's old place, and even more so how it differed from the little house that I had lived in with Leah for a time before I met Dave.

So much to explore, I thought. I felt like a little kid as I traced my hand across the wooden walls as I walked, and looked up at the high arch ceilings of the dining room, and the brightness of the kitchen as I made my way to that next. I finally made it to the backdoor, opening it slowly to take a look at what the yard looked like.

The sound of morning birds welcomed me as I stepped outside. It wasn't quite as warm as it was yesterday; it was actually quite pleasant, which surprised me a tad, but I had to remind myself that Texas, particularly Houston weather, could be rainy and cool one day and sunny and hot the next, so this shouldn't have been much of a surprise to me as I had been thinking, to be honest. Being away from home as long as I had been though, you forget to remember, I guess.

A soft breeze passed through the tall oak trees above me, causing a few leaves to fall, bringing my eyes down to a pool where water softly patted against the edges. I felt my eyes widen as I beheld this, a soft smile creeping across my lips as my brain registered that my family finally had a freaking pool.

"Oh, wow," I muttered. I could have only dreamed of having a backyard like this. Spending almost my whole life living in a little house, and briefly into another smaller house, my world had been pretty small.

That was… until I met Dave.

I stood there in contemplation a bit longer, turning my head up to look at the tall oak trees towering above me. The canvas was mostly green, for the exception of a few spots of yellows, and oranges… fall colors and all. Another soft breeze swept through, plucking a few of the leaves from their spots, and caused them to tumble to the ground. I watched in particular as another red leaf fell in front of me, and landed in the blue water, causing a tiny ripple to grow and spread, and end at the edge of the pool where my feet stood.

I bent down to watch the ripple, closely inspecting the little details of the red leaf floating against the water too, and the reflection of both of the tall green trees behind me, and myself looking down at it.

As the ripples cleared and I could fully see my face staring back at me, I also took notice of someone else standing there behind my own reflection. I had to keep myself from being startled as I turned my head around quickly.

It was Dave, out of his disguise.

"What do you think you're doing!?" I gasped, bringing myself to a stand as I turned to face him. It took me a moment, but I noticed he had two large squirt guns in his tentacles, a sort of casual expression being maintained as he responded to me nonchalantly.

"Oh, I heard your folks were going out, so I thought I'd just relax and not worry about being Brine right now," he said, his eyes drifting away momentarily. His eyes shot back my direction almost an instant later. "I also happened to find these in the garage."

"It's fall," I said in a-matter-of-fact tone.

"So? It's still like 70 degrees out here anyway," Dave replied. He extended one of the water guns out to me, although I was completely hesitant to take it.

"I literally just woke up," I said.

"Okay, what's your point? You don't want to get wet? People take morning showers all the time."

"You know I take night showers, you dumby," I said.

He still seemed pretty stern about this though, the water gun still hovering in between us despite my protesting.

"Ugh, fine!" I gave in, taking the toy from him in a snap decision. "You can't do this for long; my parents will be back shortly."

Honestly, I don't even remember the details of what happened next. Point A to point B seemed like a blur, but the next thing I knew, duh, I got drenched. Why on earth did I let this happen? I can't even explain it to myself. On one hand, Dave had a way of getting me to do what he wanted, but on the other, he had a way of distracting me from my problems. Prior thoughts of Dave being out of his disguise, my contemplation of my presence in this new house, even lingering worries from the night before, seemed to melt into the background. All I could think of then and there was how to wreck his ass in this squirt gun war.

"You've got to do better than that, dearest!" Dave chimed, having since made his way to the other side of the pool. "Water is my element you know! In this case, I have the metaphorical high ground!"

"You underestimate my power!" I hollered back at him. I chuckled under my breath, humoring myself at my response, not knowing if he really understood I was making a Star Wars reference or not.

I stepped forward in a quick decision to start running around the pool to catch him, when I heard the sound of the backdoor creak open. Because of this, I slipped. The next thing I knew, I was in the pool, night shirt and all.

"Kailey!" I heard my mom gasp as I came up from out of the water. Once I broke the surface and rubbed my eyes so I could see clearly, I took notice of the little red leaf from before on top of the little rippling waves in front of me. I awkwardly then turned to look at my mother, who was looking at me with confusion from the door. "Kailey, why are you in the pool?"

"Ummm…" I murmured, my heart skipping a beat as my eyes diverted around to the other side of the pool, looking for Dave. To my relief, he had vanished. Mom hadn't seen him. "I was looking around, and I tripped," I explained aloud.

"Oh no!" Mom responded. "I'll go get you a towel. Just hold on a sec."

The door creaked again when she shut it behind her. At that moment my expression twisted, my eyebrows furrowing as hard as I could as I looked around the pool for Dave, both out of frustration, and a way to focus my gaze through little droplets that continued to trickle from my hair, and over my lashes.

"You—where are you!?" I spoke loudly, at least loudly enough to where I considered my voice was quelled to not draw attention from my parents in the house. I waited in silence for a moment as I listened carefully.

"Here," Dave whispered from directly behind me, submerged in the water along with me and the little leaf that failed to leave my side.

I flailed my arms in the air uncontrollably, stirring the water again. "AHHH!" I screamed. "Do not ever do that!"

"Sorry," Dave replied. "That was a pretty smooth evasion, if I do say so myself. You didn't even see where I was, did you? Not even your mother caught a glimpse of me even being out here."

I huffed, whipping my face down again. "I suggest you continue to evade my parents and get the hell back upstairs. This was a terrible idea, what if they saw you?"

"They didn't though."

"But what if," I repeated, emphasizing my fffff sound at the end. I knew better than to get into it with him right now, especially in the middle of the pool, with my mother bound to return at any second.

And like clockwork, the door creaked again. My eyes widened as I continued to stare at Dave, realizing that in a mere few seconds, my mom would see an actual large purple octopus swimming in the pool with me.

I felt like I was in a literal dream though when Dave actually just… freaking VANISHED before my eyes. Like, my brain literally could not comprehend with all the shit happening in that instant, that Dave just removed himself from the situation.

"Kailey, I have your towel. Why are you still in the pool, come out of there!" Mom said, having stepped into the yard by then.

I briefly did a double take towards the direction Dave had vanished, but quickly focused my attention on my mother, and getting out of the water for that matter.

. . . . . . .

The entire day had been one of the most normal days I had experienced in a long time. I mean, minus the fact that we had an octopus in disguise among us, my parents, Dave and I, just chilled around the house, watching TV, chatting about the family's latest shenanigans, and whatnot.

We were all sitting together in the living room, the television already playing Christmas movies, when my Dad had started talking about work. He was pretty into it with Dave, I guess because Octavius was a 'man' and all. Ha!

"My recent boss was one of the biggest pieces of shit assholes I've ever had to work with," Dad said bitterly. "I can imagine having your own business, not having to work for someone else, is the dream. Not to mention you are working for a cause, so your livelihood itself hits all the marks."

"Well… yes," Dave responded casually. "With the kind of work I do, with my credentials and knowledge and all, I've never had to work for anyone." He paused a moment, thinking over his response I suppose, then said, "Well, after I finished my PhD of course. As a student I was very much at the mercy of those helping me with my degree, but it got to a point where even they respected me."

"Never could finish college," Dad said. "That's why I pushed Kailey so hard to get her schooling done."

"Darren works for himself now though," my mom added to the conversation. "After he got fired from that last job with that bad boss, I kept encouraging him to start his own business. We're doing fine."

"Not as fine as you think," Dad said, dismissing Mom's positivity. "We had been barely getting by. Competition in my line of work is hard. To tell you the truth, if it wasn't for your charity, Octavius, I don't think we would have ever gotten out of debt, let alone been able to afford such a nice house like this."

"It was my pleasure, as always to help my family," Dave answered, nodding to himself as he gave himself a silent pat on the back. "I had been making so much money I had to invest a bit for someone I cared for…"

"Can't believe you're able to save that much money for yourself to use freely," Dad said.

As I listened to all this talking about work, and education, and money, I felt myself cringe inside. Sure Dave had had a fair amount of money a few months ago. But now? Poof. Gone. After North Wind invaded all of Dave's establishments, Octo Corp, his island, and submarine and all, they took everything, as I've emphasized hundreds of times by now.

Truth be told, I had no idea how we were going to come out of this. Relying on 'charity' got unfortunately easier recently because of that. It had been easy before, but I was even justifying it… But even through my justifications I always felt that pang of wrongness. Listening to my father talk to Dave like this just made it even worse.

The TV cut its showing of Christmas movies to a commercial, again showing another one of Rayonna's beauty products ads. Again, the images of fresh skinned women putting on makeup, anti-wrinkle creams and such, made me roll my eyes. I eventually found that I had placed the tips of my fingers on my cheek as I watched, feeling around for pimples or dents in my completion. I had to immediately retract this from occurring any longer once I realized what I was doing, turning my head to look elsewhere again to distract myself.

"Oh, you interviewed with this lady?" my mom inquired then. Not having a clue where she could have gotten that fact from, I turned my attention back towards our circle among the living room, my eyes settling back on the TV, unfortunately. I just realized that the commercial had ended, and another advertising skit of our local news station was showing a teaser of Rayonna talking about us, as in me and Dave.

"Tune in for live coverage of Rayonna Desiree from New York City, with her recent must-read article being published this December highlighting Dr. Octavius Brine, his work to help the world's penguins, and stories of his love life with his fiancée. Possible hints of a wedding finally coming soon?"

Are you kidding me, I thought. It was one thing talking about Brine's fake ass research and stupidity with 'saving the penguins', but she had to add our personal lives to the mix, didn't she?

"What did you tell this reporter?" my mom asked then.

"We agreed to interview her about Octavius's work and ongoing research," I answered, not able to help myself from sneering. "She had started asking us about personal things, but looks like she's going to run with the miniscule details we talked about."

Mom sighed. "I guess that's popularity for you."

"Wish it wasn't," I grumbled. I watched as the brief news skit shifted topics.

"Also, have there really been UFO sightings? Are these pranks, or serious photographs? An expert gives their opinion on recent events in the American northwest, where locals claim aliens are among us."

"Hmmm," I heard my mom mumble that time. "So many weird things going on, aren't there?"

"More bullshit probably," Dad responded. "Just what we need is more crap. What do you think of all that nonsense, Octavius?"

"To be honest I just heard about this only recently as well. I'm not sure what to make of it either," Dave admitted. "I'm sure it's nothing to be concerned about. If there was anything going on, the government would tell us." He chuckled to himself. "And with my renown in genetics, I'd be the first to find out!"

That time, I really rolled my eyes. Luckily my parents and Dave were too preoccupied discussing this, among various topics that evening that my display of continued cringe wasn't noticed.

. . . . . . .

Thanksgiving Thursday, Renaissance on Friday, and our casual Saturday were finally mere memories come Sunday morning. Normally I'd hate the idea of leaving my parents again, but this trip made me anxious to get out of there and head back to New York. With all the stuff going on, again, Dave almost being stabbed, and me having to keep it to myself, wasn't helping at all.

My world felt like constant blur, and like a ghost I continued moving wherever the flow took me. Finding myself back in the jet with Dave, Penny and Kenny, like waking up from another dream, just made it all feel worse. I almost wanted to feel a tinge of guilt for losing my presence with everyone, but what else could I do?

We had taken off and began our flight back to the Big Apple when things got quiet again. Hearing the subtle hum of the jets engines—white noise—made me want to dissociate again. It was the only alternative I had other than overthinking things, which even my fast moving mind was getting fatigued of.

"I had so much fun this weekend!" Dave exclaimed suddenly, causing me to jump in my seat.

"I'm glad…" I replied softly, looking out the window. There was a brief passing moment of discomfort when I did this, seeing nothing but blue above me, and grey clouds below me though that small window, but for some reason it wasn't enough to retract me again. It was like I couldn't stop looking out the window into the deep, big blue, soon the endless blue sky upward and beyond mirroring an image in my mind like the water in the pool.

"Kailey, is everything all right?" Dave asked then, his chipper tone having shifted to something of concern. He turned to look at me, placing a gloved 'hand' over mine, which sat on the armrest between us.

His touch caused me to finally blink.

"I just… have a lot on my mind right now," I answered quietly.

"Like what? Like Hiroto or something?" Dave chuckled; I wasn't sure if it was a chuckle that was making fun of his own prior predicament, a way to downgrade its seriousness or just a general attempt to help me again, but I still prepared myself for another one of his bullshit 'don't worry statements'.

With that anticipation, I answered before he could continue. "Yes, Dave… Hiroto definitely trying to stab you is very much on my mind right now." I slowly turned my head his way, looking at him seriously, attempting desperately to send him every signal I could that I was NOT OKAY with that.

"Kailey, I told you, you don't—"

"—Have to worry, I know!" I raised my voice, but after my exhale of irritation, I caught myself again. It was taking every ounce of me to keep the monster in the cage, if that was a way to put it.

Dave raised a brow. His eyes scanned my face as he read me. Surprised or what, it must've really, truly been dawning on him how serious I was taking this. I just hoped he'd actually talk with me about it instead of pretending everything was okay. Yes, of course it was possible we'd never hear or see from Hiroto again (he had been arrested by those security guards working at the festival), but in the end, that didn't matter.

We were teetering on the edge, and a human being finding out about Dave's identity was our warning.

Warnings… flashing lights… I must've had another one of my dissociative time skips, because the lights in the jet were going off, and a siren was blaring on the speakers. There was a break in this wail when Penny started gargling on the intercom.

Dave gasped. He hadn't gasped in a long time like that. "We've got company!" was all he said before he sat up from his seat next to me, and rushed up the short lane of seats to arrive at the cockpit where Penny and Kenny were.

About to shit myself at that point, I looked back out the window. I stared as hard as I could, into the blue sky, and into the grey clouds beneath, but I couldn't see a thing. I opted to go after Dave by then; confusion adding to the mix, along with my anxiety.

"What the hell is going on now!?" I yelled.

Penny started garbling something else, Kenny at her side working the controls. Looking out the windshield in front of us, I didn't see anything out there either.

"The jet is picking up another aircraft signal," Dave said. "Right on top of us!"

"What!?" I leaned up as closely to the cockpit as I could, trying to look again out of the windshield, but still saw nothing. "Are you sure it's not just a hiccup?"

Penny gurgled and garbled back at me, arguing at me. I certainly couldn't speak octopus, but I knew she was serious.

There was something above us.

"Do we have turrets or something!?" I fussed.

"This is a transport jet, dearest," Dave said worriedly. "We don't even have those anymore or else I would have chosen one for our flight."

"Shit!" I yelled, panic resuming when my only attempt at being tactical failed. I rushed out of the cockpit, looking through all the windows. One by one, left from right, I peered through each one as I went, not seeing a thing outside.

That was until I got to the center window on the left.

An ordinary sight of the jet's wing was the first thing I saw before that normal view of mine was decimated by the addition of a gigantic metal claw-thing phasing into existence, which then clamped down on the side of the jet. It must've been a clamp that happened on the other side of the jet too, cause once that thing came down the jet shuttered, side to side, and the engines started roaring when it had once been a hum.

"Dave!" I hollered, tripping as I pulled myself from the window, and prepared myself to try run back toward the cockpit. "DAVE, OH MY GOD!"

Before I could even begin my sprint, however, gravity shifted just when the jet engines shut off. The engines of our freaking airplane actually turned off, and like the feeling you get in an elevator mixed with putting the brakes on a car moving forward, we stopped.

My heart skipped then once I realized, or thought I realized, what was about to happen. But when we didn't start falling, my fears got even worse. It was one thing falling to my death of course—even though that was a pretty terrifying thing—but things were starting to click now, as scattered as I was.

An invisible intruder? A weird, science fiction claw-thing phasing into existence? It could only mean one thing!

"THEY'RE E THE CRYPTID ASS, SHIP FLYING BITCH ALIENS!" I screamed. I felt like my eyes were going to fall out of my face they must've been bulging out so far.

The claw things at both sides of the jet made their next move. I started to hear metal creaking and breaking, the screaming of the sides of the jet popping inward as the force of whatever this was broke through. Appearing through the torn purple metal was an entryway.

I could only listen as multiple sets of footsteps grew louder and louder, making their way from the dark ports on either side of me.