“Shit, that was awesome!”, said Julie - as the credits to Poltergeist rolled up the screen.

Grace just stared at the screen. Although there was a lot of crazy laughter and interjection from both girls early in the movie, as the suspense mounted, Grace became increasingly uncomfortable. Julie hadn’t particularly noticed, she just figured both of them were trying to keep pace with the plot, and enjoying the story as it unfolded.

Grace, however, wasn’t just watching. She was experiencing. Her emotions were elevated, and she was on the verge of panic by the end. Julie looked over at Grace, finally - and said, “Oh fuck. Are you ok?”.

Grace just looked at her, with glassy eyes, and blinked.

——

After Julie left, Grace got in to bed. She couldn’t stop thinking about the movie. What had happened to Carol Anne? Grace felt immediate affinity with Carol Anne. She wondered if her own visitors had been aliens or some kind of ghost now. With her nerves on edge, she snuck into her mom’s room to grab a sleeping pill. She grabbed two, just in case.

Back in her own room, she swallowed one of the pills, and chased it with several sips of water from a glass on her side table. She closed her eyes, but all should could see in her mind’s eye was a slimy grey alien stepping out of a television.

——

Maybe you are expecting something about a dream that Grace has now. Maybe something about an alien visitation, or possibly an abduction. Maybe the aliens are grey and slimy. Maybe they read her mind and memories, maybe they probe her physically or scan her structure. Maybe you think there will be an entire alien-themed episode here that follows something like “dream logic”, rather than everyday rationalism. But that’s not what happens. Grace doesn’t have a quirky alien dream.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

——

Instead, Grace’s body has a reaction to the sleeping pill. Sometime around 2 hours after taking the pill, Grace did wake up abruptly. She was sweating, and her hands felt numb. She could see her ceiling in the dark, just barely. Suddenly the ceiling became bright white light, and the surrounding room faded to a black-outline vignette. The white light became smaller while the black increased around it. At the point where it was all black, she felt a shock through her body, and all her muscles jolted at once. She tried to blink, or open her eyes. But she couldn’t tell the difference. It was all blackness either way. Her body went completely numb, or something like numb where she couldn’t feel it, but maybe she could. And then, it felt like an ocean wave that started at the tip of her head, and ended at the tips of her toes. All was black still. But her body was moving in a wave, rapidly. All at once she felt scared, weightless, peaceful, panicking, relaxation. She tried to gain some level of control, but nothing worked. It was like the machinery was no longer available. She tried to make a sound... she thought she opened her mouth, she thought she was giving the muscles the command to make a loud noise. But no sound came; that machinery was down also. She didn’t know how long this all went on. Eventually, her body felt warm from the outside in, and continued until she felt completely warm and still. At that moment, she fell unconscious.

——

I can only hear the sounds of "Sedon Wind/Zombie Skin" as I sit and ponder the fate of Grace Riddle. Alone, and unconscious, her mind left wandering a bleak wasteland of images and emotions with no coherent story. The sounds are almost angelic as I float like Grace must be floating. As I only experience images and emotions - and let the structure of the story fall around me. I wonder about the differences between human consciousness and computer consciousness. Are they the same?