“Dad!” I rushed to his side, trying to figure out what the heck had happened.

One minute we were having a conversation, and the next my dad had screamed, held his head, and then bent over as if he was in extreme pain. I pulled his arms away to see if he had been hurt, but there was no blood, no sign of an obvious injury.

“I don’t understand. What happened?” I asked, but when I looked in my dad’s eyes they seemed out of focus like they weren’t really seeing me.

I shook him to try and get his attention, but he didn’t respond. There was something very wrong with him, but no time to figure it out. What mattered was he wasn’t fighting me any more, so I used that to my advantage.

I grabbed dad by the arm and pulled him toward the car. Since he wasn’t resisting me, it was easy enough to put him in the backseat. I shut the door and looked around. It dawned on me that this might not be enough. What if the ship had a way of reading life signs in the area? What if they found my dad in the backseat, then all of this would have been for nothing?

I looked down at my watch. Shit. By my calculations the ship would be here any moment. Could I risk leaving long enough to get dad to the house? And I realized I would have to. So I quickly opened the driver’s seat of dad’s car. I still had the keys in hand from dad trying to force me to leave, so I started the car.

The farm house was just a quick trip down a bumpy grassy drive. I pulled the car as close the the front door as I could get. I jumped out, leaving the keys in the ignition and my door open wide. I dashed to the back and pulled my still catatonic dad out. We stumbled through the the front door and into the living room. I gently set him on the couch.

I stood there for a moment looking at this strong man I had looked up to my whole life staring into space, and I was at a complete loss for a span of a few breaths. I knew there was nothing I could do for him, not in the time I had, so I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

There were an alarming amount of message banners on my phone. Some from Anna. Many from Emmaline. And a few from Tyler who I had forgotten to text back. Dammit. I ignored all of them, except for Emmaline’s. I selected her name and scrolled past my sister’s latest demand to know where I was. I quickly punched in a text and sent it to her.

Dads hurt, idk what happened, maybe a stroke, call 911 so they can come over to the farm, bye luv u 4ever

I paused a moment after I sent that. I wanted to say more to her, to Anna, to everyone, but what could I say? There was just too much, and I knew I was already pressing my luck on time. Maybe it was better to leave without saying nothing at all.

Maybe, but I realized I had to send Anna something. She might not understand what was going on right now, but one day she would. I had to at least tell her what mattered. That I didn’t walk away from her because I wanted to.

It then hit me––the gravity of what I was doing. This wasn’t just about me saving my dad from a terrible fate. This was also me willingly giving myself up to my people––people who lived a very long way from Earth. Who was to say if I was ever going to get to come back here.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

That thought sat there for a long moment as I tried to process it. It didn’t sit well. All of a sudden, I wondered if this really had been the right move, because if I did this, I’d be giving up my whole life on Earth. Was I really ready to do that?

The pain in my chest and the stinging in my eyes told me no, but I looked to my dad sitting there helpless on the sofa, and I realized that standing aside and letting the things happen that I knew would happen to him was even more unbearable.

I shivered as I once again steadied my resolve to my plan. I put my attention back to what to text Anna. My thumbs began to fly across the phone screen almost on their own accord.

Ily and im srry, id much rather stay with u but there wasnt time for smth else, dont wait for me

That last part was hardest to type, but it needed to be said. Once she got over me being gone, she deserved to move on, and not put her life on hold for a maybe in the future.

I dropped my phone on the sofa beside my dad. I wouldn’t need it where I was going. I gave dad one last look hoping he would come out of it, but he sat ramrod straight with that glassy far away stare.

“If you can hear me, Dad, help is on the way. Just stay here. I’m sorry to leave you like this, but I have to do this, and you know it. I hope that one day I will get to come back. Take care of Mom and Em.”

Everything in me wanted to stay by his side and wait for the ambulance to show up, but I knew I couldn’t. So I forced myself to turn around and made for the front door. I left it propped open. I knew it wouldn’t take long for emergency services to get here once Emmaline or Mom called them. I just hoped the alien ship and I were gone before they got here.

Once out on the front lawn, I picked up my pace to a run. I raced down the drive and up the over-grown lane to the clearing at the top of hill my dad and I were at a few minutes ago.

By the time I reached the apex of the hill, I was winded, but hopefully far enough from the house that they’d leave without thinking to search it.

I stood there, trying to catch my breath and amazed that I had made it before the ship. But I didn’t have long to celebrate my victory as a loud boom sounded from overhead. I looked up and the once blue sky was filled with blackness as far as the eye could see.

The ship had looked gigantic over the lake in Georgia, but as I stared up at it from my spot on the hill, I felt smaller than a tiny ant against its monstrosity.

I won’t lie. I think I peed myself a little, but before I could think much beyond that, a blinding green light lit up the world around me. The light engulfed me. It made the hair stand up on my skin and my whole body tingled like I was being zapped by a thousand tiny electrical pulses. It felt like my mind had been short circuited, and I was having trouble holding on to a thought.

All I knew for sure was that I was frozen, unable to talk, unable to move, unable to even blink. My heart hammered inside my chest. At least something still seemed to be working!

Somewhere in the world, I heard the shrill of emergency vehicles. Not yet! My mind cried. I’m not gone yet. Either they were faster than usual, or I had been frozen in time longer than I had thought. Or something else was going on. As disconnected and muddled as I was feeling, it was probably the latter. It was almost like every sense in my body had been supercharged and expanded.

I could taste grass on my tongue and feel the hidden blue of the sky like silk on my skin. The only sense blocked was my sight from the blinding green that still engulfed me. I looked down to my feet on the ground, but I could not find them. I could not find any part of my body––all of it eaten up by the green light. And as I was cocooned in that eerie greenness, I wondered if I had made the most disastrous mistake of my life.