I was sitting in front of a computer and typing on a Google Doc of ideas, staying up past midnight as I sipped my coffee.

The Google Doc was titled 'Alien Sightings, Myths, and More! Why Are They So Mysterious?'

I was on chapter nine… but stopped after a sentence and entered, pausing to consider whether I should continue writing.

Good, another writer's block… just what I need for the night.

I sighed as I placed my elbow on my desk with my hand on my cheek, thinking of a sentence in my head to continue with the idea, or as I would call it, headcanon.

But I am now stuck on the next paragraph and rambling through my skull on how to continue.

I sat up from where I was and picked up my coffee cup, drinking my coffee before stopping and looking at the bottom of my cup.

Some more coffee could help me figure out the next paragraph, along with some research.

I pushed myself backward in my chair and stood up, taking my coffee cup with me as I unlocked the door of my room, hobbling a little because of my sore legs.

Those scarred legs always slow me down whenever I stand up from my chair… but I did need some blood back in my legs from sitting down too long.

I soon arrived in the kitchen and turned the lights on, walking over to the coffee pot as I poured myself a cup before putting sugar into it with half-and-half.

I was about to turn around and walk away when the phone suddenly rang, causing me to perk up after hearing the phone ring and glance over.

Who could it be calling me at this time of night?

I walked over to the phone and picked it up, answering the call as I held my coffee cup in the other, responding, "Hello?"

"Stephanie," my old friend's voice responded through the phone. "You have to come over to my house! I saw something!"

"You did?" I perked up, placing my coffee cup on the counter. "What is it?"

"I can't tell. It's too far from where I am," my friend responded. "But you've got to come over here! It's urgent! And make sure you don't wake the neighbors by coming to my house. They're already cranky enough that I kept trespassing on their property."

"Okay," Stephanie responded with a nod. "I'll use my bike to come over to your place."

"Stay safe," my friend said, nodding before hanging up.

I put the phone back onto the receiver and got my shoes on, putting on my white socks and shoes before putting on my sweater and stepping outside, locking my door behind me.

"Okay," I mumbled to myself. "Since there are reports of people stealing things, I locked my garage. I just need to remember what the password was again."

I walked over to the garage and looked at the panel on the left, pausing a little as I stared at the numbers, chewing on my lip thoughtfully.

So I started with 9-2-3-1, and the panel beeped red, which meant I inserted the wrong number.

I tried again with 2-4-6-8, and the panel beeped red—another incorrect password.

7-1-5-0, the panel beeped green, and the garage door unlocked, moving upwards slowly as I sighed, putting the panel's cover back on.

After the door had opened, I entered the garage and walked over to my locked bike, taking my key out before unlocking the chain.

I rolled my bike outside while carrying my helmet with me and pressed a button on the panel, closing the door as I boarded my bike, put my helmet on, and started pedaling towards my friend's house down the sidewalk.

I turned around the corner while pedaling down the sidewalk before stopping when I saw cars blocking the way to my friend's house.

My heart picked up speed a little as my hands started to become clammy and shaky, and I realized I had to go across the road between the parked cars.

There were no sidewalks to go around them or even another path to avoid the cars, so I had to go through them.

Clenching my bike's handles, I slowly went through the parked cars in the middle of the road, my heart beating hard against my chest as I slowly went down the two paths of the vehicles.

Any minute, one of them would turn around towards me if I was not careful enough-

The sound of screeching from behind me caused my heart to skip a beat as I turned around, looking around in a panic as I glanced around.

Is a car heading towards me?

My whole body started shaking like a leaf as I instantly returned to my bike and pedaled down the two parked lines of cars, feeling my heart beating faster.

I could hear the sounds of a car heading towards me from a distance, feeling my legs start to hurt with both the fast pedaling and the burns of pain from the scars.

The car was getting too close to my bike, and I pedaled faster than before, ignoring the pain in my legs.

I could feel its heat near my back and wanted to escape it!

I panicked as I sped down the road and turned around the corner, tumbling over before crashing against the ground and skidding to a stop.

I instantly stood up and grabbed my bike, scrambling away from the road as I went towards my friend's house, seeing that the garage was open and he was waiting for me.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, Stephanie!" My friend exclaimed, wrapping his arms around me as I panted, dropping my bike and wrapping mine around him. "It's okay! It's okay! I'm here."

I continued panting as I hugged my friend's middle in a death grip, afraid of looking over my shoulder and seeing a car.

"It's okay," my friend gently coaxed me as I looked at him. "Look, there's nothing following you."

I shakily looked over my shoulder and looked out from the garage, seeing nothing there but the silence of the night and the semi-lit road.

I sighed after looking over my shoulder and released my friend, responding shakily, "I hate cars."

"I know," my friend said, nodding apologetically. "You could've asked me to pick you up instead." He paused after seeing me flinch after he mentioned it, knowing he had a car and was the only one driving. "But that's not something I should use."

I softly groaned as an embarrassed blush appeared on my cheeks, and my friend picked my bike up, putting it next to his as I took off my helmet.

Why did I pull that stunt back there?

There was no car following me!

I felt dumb for being terrified for no reason… but I did feel like something was chasing after me from behind!

My friend walked over to me and touched my shoulder as he knelt slightly to my height, saying, "Hey, it's okay. You can try again another time. Fears are nothing more than a state of mind."

I softly smiled before nodding slowly, but I was secretly embarrassed and angry at myself for pulling that stunt.

My friend then took my hands and said, "Now, let me show you something I have discovered! Let's hurry before it disappears!"

"What about your garage?" I asked, mentioning the garage.

"Damn," my friend cursed after seeing the open garage. "I kept forgetting about it."

He released my hands and walked over to the garage, reaching up to a machine's cord and yanking it, turning the garage door on.

But as he walked away, I suddenly heard someone whispering.

I glanced around in confusion after hearing the faint whispering sounds, wondering where they came from.

Is there someone in the garage?

I turned to my friend and asked him, "Hey, Briar? Do you hear whispering?"

"Whispering?" Briar asked, blinking with confusion.

"Yes," I nodded. "Is there someone else in this garage?"

"No," Briar responded. "No one else is in this garage except you and me."

I felt worried as I glanced around, but the whispering died down as Briar growled, "I hope my little brother isn't in this garage playing a prank on us."

"Ah, don't worry about that!" I perked up with worry, not wanting my friend to get angry at his brother. "Isn't he asleep in his room at this time?"

"Yes, he is," Briar nodded as he calmed down. "But we should be weary if anyone is in this house, okay?"

I nodded after Briar asked, and he took my hand, walking up the stairs and into the house, sneaking quietly so we would not wake his parents up.

Briar even looked at his little brother's room, seeing that his door was still closed and had not been opened as I stayed near Briar.

After checking his little brother's door, Briar continued walking and soon entered his room, stepping inside as he closed the door.

His excitement suddenly grew as he grabbed a pair of binoculars and quickly handed them to me, saying, "Here, take these and look out of the window, right," He paused as he gently took my shoulders and guided me to his window, putting me to stand at a spot before removing his hands. "Here! Now, look through the binoculars and tell me what you see."

I put the binoculars up and looked through them, looking through the distance in the darkness as the lenses were green, meaning they were infrared.

"There's nothing," I responded, still staring through them.

"Wait, maybe," Briar gently pushed me down to kneeling as I stared through the binoculars. "Try this angle."

I continued staring through the binoculars as I stared through the window, wondering what Briar was trying to show me.

Half of me thought he was doing this to me, so I would come out of my room as he kept nicknaming me 'Mushroom' because-

Something appeared between the trees, and I perked, muttering to Briar, "Something is hiding in the trees."

"You see it now?" Briar asked as his voice went down to my ear, kneeling at my height. "What does it look like?"

I squinted my eyes to get a closer look as I started to use the binoculars' zooming-in feature, getting a closer look at the creature.

My heart beat excitedly as my stomach twisted with anticipation, wanting to look more into this creature.

The creature was a tall humanoid, almost robotic-like, walking on all fours, and the five fingers ended with a claw with long tendrils that moved on its own and a long body with long legs and arms, including a tail.

It was like a blend between lions and technology; weirdly, it had a human's body temperature, even though it was all metal.

"What is that?" I asked, whispering as I stared at the machine as it poked around from where it was hiding.

"I don't know," Briar responded, whispering as I stared through the binoculars, watching the creature sniff around as it wandered through the tall grass. "It suddenly appeared in my infrared binoculars and kept disappearing. I wonder if it was trying to search for something."

"What do you think it could be searching for?" I asked.

"Metal, perhaps," Briar responded. "Judging by its appearance, it is made of metal, almost like a Cybertronian from Transformers."

"Don't they drink Energon?" Stephanie whispered.

"Yeah, but that is not Cybertronian," Briar nodded. "I need to take a picture of it."

I moved the infrared binoculars away from my eyes and glanced at Briar, quietly hissing, "Don't step outside. It might be dangerous if you wander close to it, okay?"

"Of course not," Briar responded. "Who's stupid enough to follow after that Maikvell?"

"Maik-what?" I blinked in confusion.

"Maikvell," Briar responded. "I decided to call it a Maikvell because the first word 'Maik' is Scottish for 'make' and 'vell' for extra words."

"Oh," I gently responded. "Good name."

Briar rummaged around the room as I returned to looking through the infrared binoculars but paused as I looked at the binoculars to see if there was another feature.

I turned off the infiray and looked back into the binoculars, staring at the Maikvell as it continued wandering through the tall grass.

Without the infiray, it does look like a Cybertronian, mostly the Beastformers from the previous Transformers movies I had seen.

But it doesn't have the plating or symbols on its forearms, which is how to determine between an Autobot and a Decepticon.

The Maikvell continued pacing through the tall grass and looked around, sniffing the ground and acting almost like a real lion.

The cool part was that its eyes were glowing a light blue, lighting the path where it was walking.

Half of me wondered if it could see in the dark like a lion, and to be honest, it looked cute from a safe distance.

"BOO!" I shrieked as I levitated from the ground and into the air, dropping the binoculars as I whirled around to see who scared me.

It was Daniel, Briar's younger brother, and he laughed after I shrieked and jumped, causing Briar to instantly come into his room, seeing me sitting on the ground with a hand on my chest while Daniel gave a gremlin-like laugh.

"Daniel!" Briar angrily hissed as he stormed over to his brother. "What are you doing out of bed?"

"I was seeing what your girlfriend was doing," Daniel teased, causing me to blush with embarrassment.

"Daniel," Briar growled. "She is not my girlfriend! You know that."

Daniel stuck his tongue out at Briar before looking out the window, asking, "So whatcha lookin' out in the window?"

"Nothing!" I panicked, standing up to my feet as Daniel looked back at me. "We were staring up at the stars!"

"Yeah, stars," Briar nodded in agreement.

I was concerned that Daniel would see the Maikvell, but when it was no longer present, I realized that it had fled into the woods to hide after I shrieked, startled by the sudden scream.

"Stars, huh?" Daniel asked with a mischievous smirk. "Must've been nice looking at-"

Loud barking suddenly perked everyone's attention, and Daniel looked out the window, shouting, "Luna! Shush, girl!"

But Luna did not shush as Daniel had commanded and continued barking before the barking sounded louder, and Daniel suddenly shouted, "Luna!"

Daniel turned around and ran down the hallway with loud thumps as Briar exclaimed, "Daniel, wait!"

I perked up and turned to the window, looking through as I watched Daniel run out and chase after Luna, the German Shepherd, while she ran towards the woods, along with Briar, as he was shouting for Daniel to come back.

"Briar!" I called, trying to warn him that was where the Maikvell was, but he disappeared into the woods before I could start another sentence. "Crap!"

I instantly turned around and started to run through the house, stepping outside in the fenceless backyard as there was distant barking and shouting.

"Briar!" I shouted, cupping my hands over my mouth. "Daniel! Luna!"

No response came after I called their names as the barking and the shouting became distant, and I became worried, mumbling, "Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no."

I quickly entered the house and rummaged through Briar's things, soon taking a glow stick and putting it into my sweater's pocket.

Once I had something to light my way, I ran out of the house and towards the forest before stopping to take the glow stick from my sweater's pocket and crack it to make it glow.

After the glowstick started glowing, I entered the thick forest with the glow stick in my hand, emitting a red color as I wandered through the woods.

"Briar!" I called, cupping one hand over my mouth. "Daniel! Where are you two?"

There was no response, and I listened to the noises in hopes of hearing the barking and shouting, only hearing the forest noises.

"Briar!" I called, cupping my hand over my mouth as I continued walking. "Daniel!"

The sounds of birds chirping and the animal noises from everywhere made it harder for me to listen to my friend and Daniel's shouts and Luna's barking, which made me more worried.

What about that Maikvell wandering through the forest?

What if it doesn't eat metal?

As I frantically looked for Briar, Daniel, and Luna because I didn't want the Maikvell to eat them, panic started to take over in my mind.

"Briar!" I called, cupping my hand over my mouth. "Daniel! Luna! Where-?"

As I stepped into another part of the woods, I stopped after hearing what sounded like barking, causing me to turn to where the barking was.

"Luna?" I called, trying to tune my ears to the barking, and it did sound familiar.

It does sound like Luna!

I started running towards the barking, stepping over branches and down small hills before coming across Luna!

She was facing something in a cave and was barking, even with little growls in her voice, as she stared at something.

"Luna!" I called as I went toward her. "There you are! Don't scare me like that again!"

Luna briefly looked up at me and looked back at the cave as I grabbed her collar, saying, "Come on, let's-"

I paused when I tried yanking Luna away from the cave's entrance, but Luna did not move an inch and kept still, whining and barking.

"Luna!" I called, trying to command her, holding her collar with one hand. "Come on, let's go and find-!"

My hand slipped and released Luna's collar, causing her to run towards the cave entrance and enter inside, and her barking bounced off the walls as she traveled further.

"Luna!" I called. "Luna, come back!"

But Luna did not return when I called her and continued barking, her voice sounding fainter and fainter.

"Oh," I whined with worry as I chewed the bottom of my lip. "Why does this happen to me?"

So I followed Luna into the cave, using my glowstick to light my path as I called, "Luna! Luna, where did you go?"

Luna's barking was distant as I traveled farther into the cave, walking away from the entrance as I cautiously stepped inside.

I soon approached the exit of the cave's entrance and stepped through, entering a large room with everything somewhat dark.

Luna's barking was clear, and I looked over, seeing Luna barking at something at the back of the room and sniffing something.

"Luna!" I exclaimed, walking over to Luna and grabbing her collar with my hand. "You come when-aah!"

Something suddenly grabbed my wrist with the glow stick, and I dropped my glowstick out of fear, the darkness returning.

Judging by something that wrapped around my wrist, it must have been a giant hand that could be attached to someone, and I struggled to get myself free from what was holding onto me as I released Luna's collar.

"Let go of me!" I shouted, trying to use my other hand to smack at what was holding onto me.

But my other hand was grabbed, and I gasped, afraid, as I tried kicking and was effortlessly pushed back before landing on something, feeling like a table.

"⏁⊑⟟⌇ ⊑⏃⌇ ⏁⍜ ⍙⍜⍀ ," a voice suddenly spoke, causing me to freeze after hearing the voice. "⟟⏁ ⋔⏃⊬ ⊑⎍⍀⏁ ⏁⊑⟟⌇ ⊑⎍⋔⏃⋏, ⏚⎍⏁ ⟟ ⊑⏃⎐⟒ ⋏⍜ ⊑⍜⟟ ⟒. ⌇⊑⟒ ⋔⎍⌇⏁ ⌇⏃⎐⟒ ⏁⊑⟒ ⟒⏃⍀⏁⊑ ⏚⟒⎎⍜⍀⟒ ⊑⟒ ⎅⟒⌇⏁⍀⍜⊬⌇ ⏁⊑⟟⌇ ⏚⟒⏃⎍⏁⟟⎎⎍⌰ ⌿⌰⏃⋏⟒⏁. ⟟'⋔ ⌇⍜⍀⍀⊬."

"Wh-What?" I stammered, confused about what I heard. "What are you saying? And what are you-!"

I shrieked in pain after something was inserted into both sides of my neck, causing me to writhe as it went through my entire body, trying to get out of whoever was pinning me down to the table.

I felt every ounce of blood in my body tingling with change and my bones becoming harder, and it hurt so much that I started crying and screaming at the top of my lungs while squirming on the table.

I wanted it to end!

Flashbacks of my past started to flash in my vision, from my happiest moments with Briar to when I had my incident.

A car suddenly swerving towards where I was crashed into me… and everything went black.

The body suddenly stopped squirming as a familiar hand landed back on the table, and the person who grabbed her moved slightly, sighing.

It showed Stephanie lying on a strange table with something inserted in her neck from both ends, but they both moved away and went underneath the table, connected to a cord, and had a needle at the end.

"⟟⏁'⌇ ⎅⍜⋏⟒." The voice responded. "⟟ ⋏⍜⍙ ⊑⏃⎐⟒ ⏁⍜-"

A sudden rumble shook the ground as the person grunted, grabbing onto the table where Stephanie was before looking up, revealing blue eyes with pale green skin.

"⊑⟒'⌇ ⊑⟒⍀⟒?!" the person exclaimed before looking back at the unconscious Stephanie. "⏁⊑⟒⍀⟒'⌇ ⋏⍜⏁ ⋔⎍ ⊑ ⏁⟟⋔⟒!"

The person walked around the table and gently scooped his arms underneath Stephanie's body, picking her up from the table effortfully as they towered almost half her height.

They turned around and walked up to a part of the wall, placing a five-fingered hand on a panel as it glowed before a door opened.

They stepped through the door as Luna followed, giving little whines of worry while looking up at the person.

"⟟ ⋏⍜⍙, ⟟ ⋏⍜⍙," the person said, nodded. "⏁⊑⟒⍀⟒'⌇ ⟊⎍⌇⏁ ⍜⋏⟒ ⋔⍜⍀⟒ ⏁⊑⟟⋏ ⏁⍜ ⎅⍜."

The person walked up to a door and placed their hand on another panel, but it did not light up as they grunted impatiently.

They placed Stephanie gently on the ground before turning to the door, grabbing it with both hands and ripping it in half before turning to Stephanie and picking her back up.

They entered another room, and the person placed Stephanie on a table, walking off as Luna sniffed Stephanie's hand before snorting and sitting down.

The person inserted something into the back of Stephanie's neck with a cord with a needle at the end before pausing as they stared at the other end.

"⎎⍜⍀ ⟒⏃⍀⏁⊑." They then moved their long blue hair from the back of their neck and inserted it into the back of their neck.

They give an exclamation of pain and collapse on the ground, writhing in pain as the cord lights up and starts traveling from the person's neck to Stephanie's, causing her to groan as she shifts a little.

The rumbling happened again, and the vibration was more furious, making everything shake ferociously and start getting closer.

The blue glow in the cord stopped and traveled away from the person and towards Stephanie, entering through the back of her neck before disappearing.

The person on the ground did not stand up as Luna sniffed his arm, gently nudging it before giving a little whine.

Then a shadow appeared that caused Luna to perk up before her tail wagged from side to side.