Marvin sat up in bed, sweating and shaking. He scanned the ceiling, the walls…they were gone.
Only they weren’t.
It was almost six, so Marvin got up and brewed coffee. He sat at the table, sipping it, wondering what he was going to do. He’d tried staying awake at night, but then he dozed off during the day, and they still came at him. His nerves were stretched to the breaking point, but he didn’t dare take tranquilizers. The little yellow eyes knew when he was vulnerable and swooped down on him, more each time, and closer. Trying to get inside him.
The sun was coming up. Marvin went outside to greet it. He loved the early morning smells, the early morning sounds. He loved Earth and was of Earth, though part of him would always be Cloirbou. His parents, the Old Ones, had sent him, with trepidation, to Earth when the final war broke out on their planet. They had tried to safeguard him, but it had gone horribly wrong.
The next day he drove three hundred miles to Myrtle’s house. “They’re back,” he told his sister as soon as she opened the door. “I thought I’d managed to shake them, but they’re worse than ever now.”
“Oh dear. Well come in and have some tea.”
“I’d rather have—“
“I know you’d rather have something stronger. But right now tea is what you need.”
They sipped the fragrant brew and Marvin felt himself beginning to relax—which was probably not a good thing. “When the Old Ones put the eyes to watch over us, they didn’t know what would happen. They didn’t know about the multiplicity or the possessiveness…or that they’d try to take us over.”
Myrtle sighed. “It’s the only way they have of protecting us completely from the world. But don’t you know the blocking techniques?”
A hypnotic program had helped Marvin in the past. He’d almost freed himself. But the little yellow eyes broke through the barrier of suggestion. “I’ve used them,” he said. “But they don’t work any more.” He drained his cup and set it down. “I came here because I know you’ve dealt with the same problem all your life. I was wondering how you handled it.”
Myrtle gave him a peculiar smile. Her body was suddenly yellow and glowing. Tiny pieces of it were breaking away and coming at Marvin. “I didn’t,” she replied in a hollow voice
Then Marvin realized he couldn’t move. “What did you do to me?” he gasped. “What was in that tea?”
The little yellow eyes surrounded him, filling his body, filling his mind, making him theirs at last.
—
Lela Marie De La Garza has had work published in “Behind Closed Doors”, “Pound of Flash”, “ChickLit”, “Daily Romance”, “Creepy Gnome,” and “Mad March Hare”. She was born in Denver, CO. in 1943 while her father was serving in WWII. She currently resides in San Antonio, TX. with three and a half cats, some stray kittens, and a visiting raccoon.
