There are certain moments in life, often cited by those who’ve lived through it themselves, that can be prepared for. Whether it be a math test, having back up files in case the first one fails, or getting ready for a date with that girl you’ve been eyeing for the past few months. Once they’re broken down, you find that the situation that seemed so dire was in reality far less complicated and manageable. The universal power of hindsight on full display, bringing lessons of future follow. He employed this ability more times than he’d like to admit, with a few that will be silenced forever from any conversation.
Unfortunately for him, Chris couldn’t recall the last time anyone had mentioned how they handled getting confronted by an otherworldly insect monster drenched with rage, who seconds prior looked like the girl of your dreams, but was now claiming that you’d stole their life. Not once. Not even his weird uncle at thanksgiving.
The school certainly didn’t mention anything about it, inbetween the opening seminars of out-of-touch faculty dancing around during orientation. Maybe it was buried somewhere within those packets they handed out. He only skimmed them.
Now, about two inches too close for comfort, this new problem-this pissed pickle-snarled and twitched with a deep set hatred never experienced before. The snake-like slits sharpened as he stared between them. Seriously, they were so big he could only focus on one at a time. An unnerving click bubbling from its gnarly, elongated neck as it bared its fangs, a greenish spit falling around them. But somehow, deep down in the depths of his digestive system, something told him she was playing up the feral appearance.
He snagged his own twitching facial muscles, choking down a cannonball size gulp as he quickly squeaked out his response.
“What?”
“Don’t what me, you son of a bitch! Did you really think you could get away with this?” The one previously called Chrissy spat, figuratively and literally, as tiny flecks flew with each enunciation onto his face. It smelled of days old eggs. Tasted it, too.
He glanced to the faded periphery at the corners of the black mass before him. From what he could make out, the room was still the way it’d been when he first arrived a few months ago. His mom was the one who pressured him the most on his decision, expressing her own experiences when she was going to school. Often spouting how it was the only enjoyable part of the 90’s. That, and meeting dad of course. That always came second. It’ll be a whole new world, she always said, new things to learn, new people to meet. It’s gonna be so exciting! Though he could tell most of it was her own projection, she’d been correct. This was most definitely new.
And very expensive.
And terrifying.
…Mostly expensive.
“Um, well…uh, I really don’t understand what you’re talking about, so why don’t we just take a deep cleansing breath and sort this out civilly?” Her eyes widen in disbelief at his response, but they still carried the same amount of malice. In fact, they seemed to gather even more. They were strikingly expressive when compared to other equines. “Uh…I-I have some apples in the fridge, would you like one of those?” He tried to barter, hiding the underlying panic within his tone.
There was, surprisingly, a moment of silence between them, with the only sound being his gasps for breath as the hooves bunched up into his shirt was starting to crush his chest. Her face never moved, but he could tell her brain was working overtime to process his proposition of treats. He was almost tempted to scratch behind her ear.
But it was lost, as her brow darkened to an onyx black and let off a furious snort. The grip around him tightened to a suffocating degree before his world became a blur, momentum flung to the left in an instant. Landing hard on the wooden panels, crushing his shoulder and flipping over onto his back.
Before he could regain his balance, as well as his bearings, the creature had pounced on him with a holding maneuver. Though, due to her size, and the weird angles she had her limbs placed, the best she could really do was stand above him. It still got the job done, as he nearly jumped out of his skin when he looked up at her. Appearing as tall as a skyscraper…or a spider, now trapped within her web.
“Like hell you have no clue what’s going on here…” She spoke with a commanding boom, echoing from all around him. The strange clicks now became clearer, more audible into actual speech patterns. Many voices, each one its own different shade of pissed. It was like he was being scolded by every ex he ever had! This is bad! Really bad!
They continued to poke and prod in their impromptu interrogation. “Unless…yes, you must have a master of sorts. No way you could’ve accomplished this all by your loathsome.” She gave a self-serving chuckle, as if she put the pieces together to a nonexistent puzzle set. “You must be some kind of pawn, only given a sliver of information to a far greater plan. Made so one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing…merely a drone, you are.”
“A drone? Are you being serious?” He probably shouldn’t have said that, especially not with that tone, but her conclusion was downright ridiculous! If anyone here was a drone, it was her! Some creature sent to scout the Earth prior to an invasion, seeing which areas of the land were more susceptible to a blitz-like attack. So why was he was responsible for her fuck up? So what if he enjoyed spilling grub guts in his video games, that didn’t hurt anyone! It’s not a crime! Besides, he never killed anything that looked like her before, what’d she have against him?
She lowered her head, letting him hear the slight rasp in her voice. She was enjoying this, toying with her prey. “Now, tell me…what is your mission, why are you here?”
Weighing all of his options at that point, and contemplating the entirety of the last 18 years up to that point, he decided to answer as honestly as he could. “Undecided.” He attempted to shrug his shoulders with a nervous smile.
A weird grunt came from her, with an even weirder twitch of her lips that left as soon as it came. Did…did she just stile a laugh?
“Very…funny…” She leaned in even closer, almost getting nose to nose. “But it won’t get you far. You’re going to talk, even if I must tear it out of you…limb from limb.” She ran her tongue over her fangs, leaving behind a greenish coat of saliva. “Your race was rather idiotic for bestowing me a form capable of such a wide range of…capabilities.” She gave the shredded wings a buzz, trying to impress him. He bet she couldn’t even get 10 seconds worth of airtime out of those things.
He sighed, which pulled her from his face slightly. “Listen, bug brain, whatever your world conquering plan is, I’m not the guy you wanna talk to. Go see the President or something. He’s not too hard to find, being held in the White House and all. While you’re at it, can you put somebody competent in charge for once? Be nice for a change…”
Anger warped around her again, one of sheer annoyance since she wasn’t getting the answers she wanted out of some random dude. He was quickly hoisted to his feet and thrown against the back wall, knocking the wind out of him with another sharp pain running down his spine. Really the only reminders that all of this nonsense was actually happening. Though who knows at this point? Maybe he was flailing his body around in a crazed episode of an overactive imagination from an overworked brain. He half expected to look over and find Brad Pitt laughing on the dorm’s worn upholstery watching from afar with a pleased smile on his face. Would be nice if he could tag in and get involved here, he looked like he was built for it. Definitely at the time of ’99, maybe even now.
She stopped just short of piercing him with her long mangled horn, but pressured the jagged tip directly onto his throat. With every quick gasp of breath digging it deeper, rolling around on his Adam’s apple. “I could say the same thing! What’s so important that you needed to use my face for your operation, huh? Out of all the lives in this world, why’d you ruin MINE?”
“I haven’t ruined anyone’s life, apart from my own! Besides, didn’t you just say I was a mindless drone who didn’t know anything?”
“Don’t change the subject here!”
“I’m not!”
“Yes you are! I know you have a plan!”
“But I don’t.”
“…I know you’re lying.”
“Well, I guess we’re right back where we started then.”
“You fucker…” She croaked, her voice going low. “…Stop doing that, stop it…now. Stop acting like me.” That last word she spoke using his voice, which was off-putting, to say the least. Another way would be he wanted to scream out in terror if he weren’t at risk of getting choked…or stabbed…or choke-stabbed, or would it be stab-choked? Nah, that sounded wrong. But unlike the voice, the sudden change helped him decipher the emotions better, as his voice was still incredibly enraged, only now there was something on the hitch, a seed that’d been planted. Desperation to cover up doubt.
His eyes swiveled around the dorm once more, making another scan of the drab interior. A few stray sports posters lining the walls to the room next to him. His unkempt upkeep being shown by crumbs in the carpets and floor boards, with scuff marks and muddied stains of those before him. But nothing had changed dramatically, say for some objects on the floor and water of the beginning of this…battle? No, that’s too strong a word, if you could really put in that category. This was just awkward.
Over to his right, he found himself blinded by the stinging white of sunlight. It was the window, the one with the sweet view as he’d so elegantly put it. The one that showed he was still connected to the greater world whenever he locked himself away in his cave, seeing to himself through various means. Across from him, he could see the fuzzy focus of Thatcher Hall’s 3rd floor, the room across from him had uneven blind, pulled up and bent in some areas. Woah, what happened over there?
“What’re you muttering about?” Chrissy gave a rather loud snort, sending an annoyed tone ringing out against the walls. She was tired of him dodging her questions, but how do you answer something when the truth is not accepted?
He squinted and tried to look closer at what he was seeing. He thought it was the streaks of sun reflecting off the window’s surface, but upon a longer inspection, he could see those lines had a defined shape with proper curves. It was shattered. As if cut by a knife before being bludgeoned by something heavy, or someone very unstable. There were even a few shards flickering around on the sidewalk below, sparkling around the place where he’d been walking earlier that morning. Come to think of it, he thought he heard a strained squeak of glass as he passed by it, but thought nothing of it and went along with his day, putting in headphones to block out the world. Maybe that’s where she waited to pounce. When he was distracted and alone, so no one else could see the slaughter. Clever girl. Horse.
“H-Hey…” She lifted an intrigued eyebrow, never moving her horn. “You said you were over in Thatcher Hall, r-right? Is that at least true?”
The brow dropped, but softened a little. “I don’t know what this has to do with you, but yes, I was.”
He gave a jittery nod. “Right…yeah…uh, there’s a w-window broken…over there.” He tried to point with his finger, but her glare made him drop it immediately. Was there a connection? Dear god, the fire in those slits, had she done anything to the other students? Had she…
“You happen to know anything about that, Chrissy?” Her name rolling off his tongue with a rising contempt. She seemed like the kind that’d go to any length to achieve the desired outcome, no matter who got in the way.
Her anger was still present, but now he was starting to shift it elsewhere, breaking the sole concentration. “…Yes, it’s where I’m staying for the semester. In fact, it’s where all this began this morning, when I became this…this…hideous abomination!” The horn at his throat started to shake, and her voice caught itself at the end. She was wavering. “I was perfectly fine, maybe a little dull here and there, but at least I was fucking normal! I had my life, and now it’s all gone! So you better start coughing up some answers, or I’ll skewer you like a goddamn shish kabob!”
Nope. That sounded way too rehearsed, way too cheesy for a proper threat. She didn’t have enough conviction in her delivery to match the words. She’d never killed anything. She never could kill anything.
His body loosened with an actual smirk appearing on his lips. “Do you even know how to use this thing?” He lifted a finger and gave it a tap. She immediately recoiled on impact, ears flattening and scrunching her muzzle.
“Ouch!” She squeaked in a high pitched yelp, swatting at her horn like a dog would its ears. He moved himself away from the wall, grabbing at his neck and gasping for air. “Owowowow…” She continued to mumble with whimpers mixed within. Acting like she’d never ben struck there before…maybe…no, there was no way she was telling the truth. There’s no way she was him, but she definitely wasn’t familiar with that body of hers, her actions didn’t match the menacing exterior.
But she tried, collecting herself on skittish hooves on the floor, putting on a mask of rage once more. “Why you’d do that?”
“Just making sure, it looks like you superglued a twig to your forehead.”
“Geez, this thing is really sensitive…” She groaned, as her eyes flashed a brief glint of poorly hidden fear. Quickly buried again, as she growled at him once more. Though it sounded weak from the scrunched muzzle, more like wounded whinnies. The equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.
“Sorry, please don’t make that noise.” He said with a cringe.
“It feels like you just punched me in the face, you fuck! It hurts!”
“It was self-defense, you were about to attack me!”
“Me? You did it first!”
“Nuh uh.”
“Yeah huh! You took my fucking body!”
“Again with this, I haven’t taken anything, I’ve always had this!”
“Stop lying to me, I know you’re an alien!”
“Have you looked in a mirror lately?”
She hissed loudly and lunged at him. he managed to side step as she fell on the ground. He scurried towards the door. Wrapping his hand around the handle and tried to rip it off the hinges. Instead, he slammed against the barricade with a painful grunt. He looked down. Dammit, she locked it! He desperately reached for the bolt, missing it a few times in his panic.
He got a hold of it, just in time to hear a yell and the sound of whooshing air. He turned in time to avoid a flying chair splintering on the door, causing it to buckle and snap. Stuck. “What is wrong with you?” He shouted.
“You’re not getting away that easy!”
“Well neither are you, now that you’ve broken the door. Nice going, psycho.” She only glared at him in response. “Look, this is getting more ridiculous by the second. Can you just admit you’ve got the wrong guy and we’ll both be on our way?”
“I’ll never concede!” She grabbed a cheap, plastic lamp on a stand between her front hooves and threw it at him. He ducked behind the couch, hearing the long hours of frustrating assembly shatter on the wall.
If this really was going to be self-defense, he decided it was high time to return fire, it was best to try and tire her out so he could make a proper move to escape. It was obvious that she didn’t know how to use the horn, otherwise she would’ve done something to him with it. Maybe put him to sleep, turn his guts inside out, or maybe…turn him into one of them. Ugh, creepy. With all those holes and weird translucent innards, seeing her heart beat deep within her chest. Though, it looked kinda cool from certain angles.
The only ammunition he had at his disposal were a bunch of throw pillows. Well, he thought, balling one in his hands, time to fulfill your purpose!
For the next few minutes, the two would launch varied trebuchets at each in an attempt to make a great impact to their opponent, running around each other while throwing objects.
Plates whizzed by his head.
Forks were flung at the face.
As this childish cannon fire commenced, Chris started to notice something about his target. Chrissy was a weird gnarly horse looking insect, he could see that clearly. Or rather, he could see what was left.
A pile of notebooks blasted open, papers flying out like a flock of pigeons and scattered across the floor.
Pencil pistol fire with calibers of mechanical and wooden thumped out amidst the crossfire.
All of her limbs, including the jagged appendage on her skull, were shot full of holes, and not of the natural kind. If such a thing as natural holes could exist. Even her hair had perfectly shaped circles within it. No wonder she was having so much trouble staying on her hooves, the amount of her legs missing looked like they were about to snap under the weight. It became clear to him what they were, the remnants of see through scars.
The pair of shoes that streaked past gave him a kick in the head of clarification.
Something had tried, and nearly succeed, to be rid of her. But instead of finishing her off, they just dumped her here on the planet. Confused and alone, wandering an unknown world full of species unfamiliar and presumably hostile. She was scared.
She poked her head out from a cover of dirty clothes and rushed science projects. That long black pole jutting out into the air. Kinda hard to hide with that humongous attention grabber. And those eyes, those big glassy spheres, he could see that same fear rising. Looking to run. Looking to hide.
His stomach started to stab itself, guts churning to a full seppuku at the sight of it all. He needed to do something quick. With a projectile in hand, he leaned back and chucked it over the cover of a coffee table, all his weight going with the throw. The straightest one he’d made yet, finding her frozen as it came towards her face. Specifically, her horn.
It collided with a loud thump, followed by letting off a pathetic pffffffft… She made a surprised whinny, trying to swat at the basketball bleeding air on her organic pike. The opening was clear. He lept over the table and scrambled towards her, arms up and ready.
She caught his attention and stuck out her hooves to punch. He grabbed her arms…legs, and pulled her towards him, wrapping his arms around her barrel and lifting her into the air. He was half tempted to say something like you’re light for your size, but he’d learned his lesson a while back when it came to girls and their weight.
She yelled and started to squirm within his grasp, making him tighten even more. Feeling her exoskeleton ribs expand and compress rapidly. “What’re you doing? Put me down!”
“…No.”
“Put me down this instant!”
“I won’t.” He moved his head onto her shoulder, right beside her ear. “Not until you stop.”
Her fidgeting started to die down, but her breath was still quick. “Never, not after what you’ve done to me!”
“Chrissy, please…”
“Stop calling me that!”
“…Please, you need to stop doing this, it won’t get you anywhere.” He sighed. “Please, listen to me.”
No bark this time, but he could still hear her angered huffs.
“I still don’t know what’s going on here, or why I’m a part of it for some reason, but you need to stop trying to attack me. I’m not here to hurt you…I swear, the horn poke was just curiosity.”
“Then what is this then?” She snapped. “If you’re not a part of this, then what the fuck is it?”
“Again, I don’t know, but I can’t stand seeing you like this anymore.” He glanced over to look at her eye. Whispering, making it as soft as he could. “I want to help you.”
This made a shiver run down her spine. “W-What?”
“I want to help you, Chrissy. Seeing you this afraid and alone…it’s killing me.” He inhaled a shaky breath. “Whatever, or whoever, has done this to you…I’m sorry. I want to set this right, however I can. But I can’t do that with you constantly trying to kill me over and over. It’s really inconvenient. He eyed one of the larger holes in her leg, feeling a righteous spark begin to burn.
“I…I…”
“But just so we’re clear, I’m Chris Greene. Always have been, never been nothing else. I’ve never taken anyone’s identity, nor have I ever screwed with anyone’s…body.” He chuckled faintly. “Heh, I bet that’s the first time you’ve heard anybody say that, huh?” It disappeared quickly, and he went back to being direct. “I don’t know if you’ll believe me, I really don’t expect you to…just trying to be as honest as I can, someone’s gotta be.”
He heard her take a sharp breath, as if she was shocked. Then, nothing. No response. No movement. The only difference being the dampness of his shirt. He felt her head drop.
“…No…” Squeaked out from a sniff.
He moved his head to see her full face, now red and wet with a trembling lip.
“No…it’s not…this can’t be…”
“I’m sorry, Chrissy.”
“No…no…no.” She continued to repeat, as he noticed a greenish hue begin to surround her. He pulled his head back slightly.
She began to repeat it louder and louder, until eventually she was screaming in his ear. Tears of a waterfall clogged her runny muzzle as the green was now more vivid than ever, swirling around the base of her horn.
“Uh…what’re you doing-“
“NO!” In the blink of an eye, he felt like he’d been clobbered by a mac truck, and an explosion of green sent him flying backwards through the air. Blowing out his eardrums and nearly blinding him as his vison blurred at high speeds.
Then there was a collision, and his back pressed upon a hard surface. Hitting it. Pushing it. Breaking it. Now an even quicker sensation of descent with his hair getting blown forward into his face. He managed to get this sight back just in time to see the abstract, reddish patterns of bricks whiz past him. Almost like a slideshow effect, as if someone had put it through a machine and began to speed the footage up by twice than normal. Strange how something could look like that, just a mass of shapes and colors and things you’d never see normally.
What else is strange? Weightlessness. Having been beings that’ve relied on that pesky phenomenon known as gravity, even these few fleeting moments of flying freedom were always scuttled soon after. Blame Icarus, that cocky little shit. These are really the only thoughts that go through you head in times like this. Other thoughts being something like did I contact my professor about that one assignment? I need to take that food out of the fridge, it’s starting to spoil. Hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow, I could with some more of this nice weather. You’re mind fills up with nonsense of daily life, you really don’t think about the fact you were just blasted through the window of your dorm in Allison Hall, watching as the shards sparkled and flickered in the sunlight. Because that was obvious, anyone could see it. It’s the things you couldn’t see that start to worry you in times like this.
You just go blank, and let the sound of speedy air fill you ears as you await impact. It all seems to fade away, to slip from your subconscious.
Slipping.
Slipping.
Falling.
Falling.
Suddenly, there’s this new feeling. The feeling of an intense rush and shifting weight as you’re disrupted from your routine. Plucked by some unknown force as your trajectory is changed. From the hard pavement of the parking lot, filled with safety nets of decade old sedans and cheap clunkers, now the dead green of grass and trees, becoming larger and larger as you're smothered by this entity that’s clamped onto you. It’s crazy, but you get this overwhelming emotion of being cheated. That the destined outcome of your life was suddenly snatched away in seconds, now at the whim of someone else’s plan. That must’ve been how she felt, guess they were even.
Then there’s the impact, softer than you expected by harder than you imagined, taken over by rolls of bodies as some leaves and twigs smack you across the face, the pained grunts and yelps of this creature that’s grabbed you being the only soundtrack to the event.
Within moments, the experience sputters out into nothing, lodged deep in your memory, and you’re allowed control of your body again.
Chris opened his eyes, his body now spread eagle amongst the weeds and broken branches. Peppered with the annuals of garbage sprouted by neglectful students. His hands rose him into a sitting position, slowly looking around at the shrubbery surrounding him. It was soft and quiet, except for the muffled cries of those back at the building, having been witness to what’d presumably occurred moments prior. Then he heard her. Huffing. Puffing. The sporadic buzzing of wings mixed in as she collapsed to the ground. Her eyes wide and unfocused, still streaming with uncontrollable tears. Shredded bits of basketball smoldered around her smoking horn, as the green was fading back to black.
There was about another half minute of silence, as the two stared at each other and back towards the campus. Then, she spoke probably the most intelligent sentence any being had ever spoke within this known universe, possibly to others wherever they may be.
“We gotta get out of here.”