Come to Me
Come to me.
Allie looked around. She was standing knee-deep in a swimming pool. She couldn’t recall getting into it, or swimming, or doing much of anything. Vague memories of Brad and Carly’s party floated through her mind. Loud music, booze, a weird light in the sky...
Come to me.
Running? Had there been running? The back of her legs were a little sore. Then again, who knows how long she’d been standing in this pool. The water was cold and tickled her legs as tiny waves brushed against her skin.
Obey.
What was it that Carly had said? Carly had been saying something important, right before... before?
Slave. Obey. Come.
Oh, that’s right. Carly was dripping wet. She’d fallen into the pool, into the deep end, after running for some reason. She’d struggled to the shallow end and then yelled.
You are blank and obedient.
“Allie!” That’s what she had yelled. “Allie, we have to fight it! Don’t let it get into your head! It’ll... it’ll... we have to... we must... I must...”
You have no will.
“Obey.” That was Carly’s final advice. Then she was out of the pool and out of sight. Out of mind. Not that anyone needed a mind anymore. It was so much easier to sleep, and obey, and listen, and obey. Just like Carly. Obey.
You will serve me, and only me, slave.
The darkness seemed to lift. Was it morning already? No, it was some kind of bright light, spilling down from above. Just like the alien-looking thing that landed at the edge of the woods. Bright and brilliant and hypnotic. So, so hypnotic. So mindless and obedient. Just listen, and obey. No need to move, or think, or try to escape. Carly was right. She needed to obey. They all did.
They all would.
Turn and face me, slave.
Sensation flowed back into her tired legs, and she slowly swiveled in place. Her feet dragged against the gritty, dirty pool tiles. It felt good to move again. It felt good to obey.
Look into my eyes. Look deep into my hypnotic eyes. Look and obey. You will obey.
It had four eyes, all brilliant and shiny and beautiful. They were gold and silver in color one moment, then red and green and blue the next. Then white, then gold again. Who had eyes like that? The Thing She Obeyed had eyes like that. Beautiful. Amazing. She was falling into them, sinking deep into a hypnotic trance. So very, very deep.
Come to me, slave.
She began to make her way to the ladder. She saw only those wonderful eyes. It must have been the first thing Julie saw when she went out to investigate the strange lights. Seeing her transfixed before it, eyes empty and mindless. At the time, they’d all been foolish enough to make a run for it. How stupid. The eyes were more beautiful than anything on Earth. And that sweet, musical voice in her head.
Come to me.
She barely noticed the ladder, even as her hands grasped the aluminum pipes and her feet dutifully planted themselves on each rung. All that mattered was the voice, and the eyes, and obedience.
Yes. You are under my control now, human slave. Blank and mindless.
There was a faint noise somewhere behind her, a sound like a wounded animal. A woman’s voice, thin and scared. “Oh God it’s got Allie, it got Allie!”
She was under the control of The Thing She Obeyed. Everything was right with the world.
“Kenzie it got Allie! Don’t look at it! Kenzie! Kenzie, listen to me! Snap out of it! KENZIE!”
Her feet reached the warm concrete of the patio, and she looked up into the eyes of The Thing She Obeyed. She would worship it now. Obey it. Let it do whatever it wished with her. “I hear, and obey,” she whispered.
The loud noises behind her gradually faded away as she padded across the patio and into the woods.