Fiction: A Silent Thought (Subtext: UFO)



This is a short piece of prose I wrote while in the middle of a Leaving Certificate exam. Don’t ask me why I was thinking about UFOs and alien abductions at the time.

“It’s night-time, it’s always night-time when they come, always. The first time is the worst and the second is no better. I had been watching Gladiators on the TV and then it fuzzed out, just went grey, all fuzz and static sound like crumpled crisp bags. And the lights went out. I was scared, I didn’t move, I hate the darkness, I hate the blindness but the telly was still on, it’s white and grey speckled fuzz drawing my attention away from? away from? why can’t I remember?

“The bright light yes, o the pain in my chest, I can feel it now as if it was then, the searing tendrils creeping though it muscle, cutting out my breathing, gasping, gasping, and all the time at the window but I can’t, I ignored? I? I

“And then the voice from the television, no picture just the voice and I could breath again, the pain subsided a little. The voice said relax, no harm will come to you, no harm and then the voice said don’t move. I couldn’t move then. But the light was so intense, so bright and I saw dark figures moving in the corners of my eyes, undefined figures, tall and spidery, long fingers, long tall heads, just glimpses and all the time there was the pain in my chest starting to get worse, to creep up on me like a silent black widow spider about to prance on a trapped fly. And there was more voices, it felt like a thousands in my head. And I told them to go away but they came. I saw images as they studied my memory, dissecting each though each feeling. And then I felt I was strapped down in darkness. Locked tight against a flat surface. I couldn’t move my head, metal objects pushed at my temples and I panicked and I couldn’t move, and I screamed trying to move, trying? and I knew they watched, their passive faces total inhuman not even sadist pleasure crossed their faces. I remembered their eyes the most, little black beads, like shark’s eyes, yea like shark’s eyes, black and small and their chattering as if they were talking to each other. Then they stopped. I felt like a lost animal, confused, tired, scared and so terrified. Whey weren’t they talking? Why? And then I knew. I felt the sharp pain in my groin, I felt it in my penis as if something was being stuck into it slowly and I started to scream and they touched my face, their long spidery fingers, skin tough and course and the voice telling me not to scream but I screamed. It was the only human thing I had left, the pain getting worse, getting infinitely worse. Bastards took everything, your memories, your dreams even my body was at their scrutiny and then they left me naked in a nearby forest until the police found me. They said I had been gone a week, a fucking week. And then the came again. I hate them, I hate them and I fucking will kill each one with my bare hands if I could. You know I sleep with a gun in my hand ready to catch those fuckers when they come again.”

The mad was frantic, wanting me to believe him, wanting me to understand him. I could feel the tips of his broken mind collapsing in on itself. He is dying inside. I do believe him and he relaxes and falls down on the chair and I let my mind touch his, I can feel his anguish, he can feel my entry but I make him fall asleep, I make the darkness come to him. I know they will come again and we are powerless to stop them. So I take the gun from his bedroom and place it in his hand and I leave. I look up at the starry heavens, sparkling stars covering the vast expanse of darkness. And then I simply walk away.

“There coming now, do you see them, I can hear their voices telling me their coming. Do you believe me? Help me, their coming, help me.”