Dream Sequence #5

My husband and I ventured out to our local star-gazing field, along with dozens of others who chose to sacrifice sleep on this magical night. We all heard that tonight was the best night to view falling stars, and that we'd wait a long time for another perfect viewing night like this. We stood anxiously, my husband wrapping his arm around my waist. I smiled up at him, soaking in the pleasure of the moment.

Suddenly, I was distracted, as I saw movement in the sky. But instead of the beautiful falling stars I was hoping for, I saw strange orange lines forming.

"Do you see that? Look, there are more!" I kept looking over at my husband to see if he was seeing what I was. A woman a few feet away was saying the same things to her husband. Apparently, they were not seeing this.

We all had been looking up at the night sky, admiring the abundance of stars in the black velvet night. Suddenly, the little orange lines started connecting some of the stars, and then connecting groups of stars. Was this a trick? How could this be happening? I didn't understand if the lines were showing us some message, or if they were making constellations.

The lines formed faster and faster, and my husband finally began to see them as well. Just as he noticed what was happening, flashes of the same orange light started dropping toward the ground rapidly. I knew in my gut that whatever was happening, horror and destruction would surely accompany it. I grabbed my husband's hand and ran back into my parents' house, turning off lights instantly as I entered.

"Mom, get down on the ground. Where's the baby? She needs to be on the ground." We were all hiding on the floor of the kitchen, beneath the window. We hoped they couldn't see us, whoever was making all the noise outside.

I looked up at my husband, realizing that all his sci-fi dreams had come true; aliens had finally visited us. But the shrieks of terror outside our window were not those of welcoming hosts. The aliens had begun killing everyone on that field, perhaps everyone that saw the orange lines connecting the stars. They were witnesses. Would I be able to remember all the intricate lines I saw? Would I even live to try? Perhaps if we live through this, I can describe what I saw to some scientist. But who would believe me?

b.b.