Prologue | Athena Hailway

  The observation deck is quieter than normal. Nobody’s clacking at their keyboards or scrolling quickly on their mouses to find their target. No, everyone’s just staring at their screens. I’m no different, because I, like the other girls here, have been told to.

  Today is special. Today we don’t have to observe our boring target’s every-day lives. Today we examine a real criminal. Today we interrogate him and find out why he did what he did. What did he do? I think to myself; I shake off the thought before my mind ever comes to an answer.

  “Athena,” my instructor says, “press your probe key, and see if his skin reacts. I have a hunch he’s not human.” I find the space bar on my keyboard and press it quickly.

  Clack.

  The criminal shivers in reaction to the violent shock. I see his skin flickering different shades with some grotesque lumps that started appearing, obvious signs that this criminal is not human.

  ”Well,” The girl beside me begins, “He’s a shifter alright, how could you tell, Mrs. Saspur?” The rest of the observation deck begins erupting with noise, asking the same question.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “His movements were,” She pauses, “questionable at best. These aliens have no idea what it’s like to move like a human, and that’s why we don’t leave them space in the colonies, especially not the Center”

  Suddenly, a small ringing noise came from my computer, as if it was drawing me to it. My computer showed a different image than everyone else’s. There’s a second man on my computer, in a suit and tie. Then it dawns on me, the man has a gun.

  I nudge the girl to my right, “Are you seeing this?” and she replies cluelessly. Maybe it’s a sign.

  I watch the man in the suit. His steps seem so calm and premeditated, everything about him seems precise. Somehow, he’s so sharp that the alien doesn’t recognize the danger behind it. My hand hovers over the probe key, but I hesitate, something nagging at me in the back of my mind. The criminal’s movements grow erratic, his skin flickering between shades. The atmosphere feels charged, like the calm before a storm. Then…

  Crack! The alien falls onto the ground in the enclosed area, which I’m still trying to figure out how the other man got in to. My thoughts race when, in the blink of an eye, the man vanishes in a flash of light. Suddenly, all the other girl’s computers cut to pitch darkness, then cut to the real footage, the footage I’ve been staring at since it came up. The silence in the observation deck is deafening now, as everyone else looks at the same thing I see: the corpse. I don’t know what I saw, and I can't unsee it. There’s more going on here, I can feel it.