The light turned a strange shade of red, and my dad let out a not-so-under-his-breath, “Shit!”

“What?” I asked.

“Oh, the car is low on gas,” he answered, trying to cover for the fact that I knew he was lying about not being able to see the light.

“It had nothing to do with the light changing colors?”

“James, look. It…well, you see, God. Just like your mother. You can tell when I’m full of shit instantly. The facts. OK, you’re not going to believe me.”

”Will you please just tell me what is happening? I’ve thought you were dead for the past 13 years, my best friend Rob, or someone that looks just like him pulled a fucking Houdini act in front of my own eyes, and there is some crazy glow in the sky that you know something about. Please do tell!” I argued.

“James, first of all, it is so good to see you again. I will make up for all of it. But you have to listen to everything I say, and I need you to keep it to yourself. Fifteen years ago, the Air Force started a highly-guarded surveillance of China, Korea, Russia, and Vietnam. I was in charge of developing top-of-the-line spy satellites, I mean, they’d still be advanced today, so you can only imagine back then. This was ‘need-to-know basis’ kind of shit.”

The light became a darker crimson, and dad dug the gas pedal into the floor of the sedan. Why he chose an old Subaru to jack, I’ll never know. The speedometer only went to 85mph for Christ’s sake.

“So, when the satellites were launched, we were seeing all kinds of interesting items. Secret bunkers, nuclear facilities, all sorts of stuff that would give any military commander a raging hard-on. But after a few days of singing each others’ praises, we started picking up stranger signals, not from China. Not from Russia. Not from this blue dot, if you get my drift. Orders from the Pentagon came down to immediately classify all information. We did, but not before I sent a message back. That’s when I, well, ‘died’. I’ve been locked up underground ever since. Forgotten about. Brainwashed.”

Rob was back now. I almost didn’t notice. I don’t even think he noticed. My dad and I hadn’t looked away from the light for a second.

“It took me a long time, but I finally broke out,” he continued.

“So, how does the light…” I started.

“I had kept an extra transmitter hidden from my superiors, and buried it under our old house. Well, as soon as I broke free, I dug it up, snuck into the old abandoned place, and resent the same message I’d sent so many years before.”

“Jesus,” I somehow muttered. “What on Earth did it say?”

…
I sat on the floor in the middle of my living room blinking at the wall as if any one of the times I opened my eyes I would again be in the back seat of the car. In the rearview mirror James would be staring me in the face perplexed as I about what was going on. When almost 10 minutes when by and the wall had not become the inside of a car I began to throw up.
…
Dad drove the Subaru like a maniac as if being chased. I looked over my shoulder out the rear window expecting to see head lights roaring up on us but the streets were empty. I thought I was speechless but my mouth proved to me otherwise.
“What the fuck is going on?” I asked, more to myself than to anyone else.
“Listen..” Dad replied but I cut him off.
“Where the fuck have you been? Who was the in my car? Where is Rob? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?”
“James, listen. Do you see the light in the sky?”
I leaned forward to check, “Yeah. Do you?”
“No. How big is it?”
“A little bit bigger than the sun or moon. What do you..” He returned the favor and cut me off.
“I can’t see it. And if it’s that big we don’t have much time. We need to get you to the basement.”
“Basement? Basement of what?”
“The old house, James.”
…
I got up from the floor and ran for bedroom, under the mattress I kept a hand gun. A round from the gun was going to kill someone today, it might end up even being me.
I nearly kicked the front door off the hinges as I left, no need to lock up, not when you might blink and end up somewhere else at any given moment.
I reached my car to find it on fire. I was less than surprised.

“Rob! When…How…?” I started. No, Rob had said it perfectly. “WHAT THE FUCK?!”

He was acting strange, although I suppose I wouldn’t be 100% considering he may have just somehow traveled through space and time. He sat there listlessly, unresponsive now.

“Holy shit, man! I better get you to a hospital!” I was panicking. What was happening? Rob finally broke his silence.

“No, you can’t. They’ll find me there.” He was grey against the cold palid beam. “We’ve got to get to the shipyard. There was a note by the photo…”

“Let me see the photo! Let me see my dad!” I snapped, having forgotten all about it after seeing my best friend somehow Houdini his way into the back of my hijacked ride.

“I didn’t have it with me when I, well, when whatever happened,” Rob replied, still looking puzzled.

“You look terrible, Rob. I’m taking you home. I have to see that picture!”

As Rob began to protest, an old Subaru roared down the dark highway, screeching to a halt just feet from the Dodge, dust cutting through the blinding headlamps. Rob was gone. He had vanished just as quickly as he’d appeared. A tall, bearded man stepped out of the Subaru, heavily armed, his face silhouetted by the backlight.

“James, we’ve got to get the fuck out of here. You’re no longer safe here. I’ll explain everything in the car, but if you don’t start moving faster than a virgin’s orgasm, we’re both dead.”

The voice sounded familiar, but didn’t click until I heard that stupid old virgin line. He was still using it after all these years. It was my dad – alive somehow.

“What about Rob? Where did he go?” I asked.

“That wasn’t Rob. Get in. I’ll explain everything.”

Rob was a funny guy sure, but bringing my old man into a practical joke was certainly not his style. Considering how close he was to my father before his death, how clearly unsettled I was by this light thing and how completely obscure the connection of two would be, I knew, even on his most off the wall day, Rob wouldn’t be running with a joke of this nature. He must have been telling the truth, he certainly sounded the part and all signs point to truth, maybe I should invest in a Magic 8 Ball, imagine all the thinking I could be bypassing.

The hotwiring of the Charger was a snap, one of the easier cars to jack, but not the wisest of choices considering their ability to catch the eye. Daddy dearest setting me up for an easy life of crime and free rides, here’s to him. The engine roared to life and I stomped the pedal, instantly kicking me out onto the main road that moments ago seemed much further, can’t say she isn’t fast. Driving the ‘69 hard top at 70 down a road marked for 30 was dangerous, sure, but in General Lee’s black brother who cared. You gotta live a little when you get the chance, especially considering I might be losing it. Plus I’d be at Rob’s in no time, the logical justification.

When I leaned forward I was shocked to see my overweight Tinkerbell friend still occupying her place in the sky. What I wasn’t surprised to see in my rearview when I sat back in my seat was Rob’s face wildly panting and gasping for air. Wait, no, switch that, I wasn’t surprised to see the light in the sky, but not only did I nearly shit myself, I almost wrapped me and the Duke boys around a large oak tree upon seeing Rob.

The tires screeched and howled as they dug into the pavement stopping the Charger, Rob and myself sideways half in the road half out. Rob coughed, swallowed gasped for air and still looking into my paralyzed and pale face via the rearview said “What.. the fuck?” he looked around and repeated much louder this time slamming his eyes shut, craning his head skyward and clawing into the back seat with his fingers “WHAT THE FUCK!??!”

-WarlordSean

Self aware? Last time I thought I was self aware, that’s when the shit really hit the fan. Turned out I was anything but. At least that time, the solution to the problem was obvious and I was able to pull through. A giant white aura in the sky, growing by the minute, invisible to others, was a bit more complicated. My guess at what was about to come may as well come from a Magic 8 Ball.

Staring at the light for an extended amount of time had dried and strained my eyes a bit, only I was so deep in seemingly hopeless thought that my brain did little to remind me to blink. Perhaps on the verge of permanent visual damage, I instinctively blinked for just a fraction of a second. Upon opening my revived pupils, the glow was still there only now it was casting my shadow, only it seemed darker and more, I don’t know, alive, I suppose, than I’ve ever encountered.

Jesus, it’s hot out here, and it’s like 2am. Al Gore must have been on to something. What time is it anyway? 3:45? That’s impossible. As I looked at the time in disbelief, my phone rang and scared the living shit out of me. It was Rob. Hallelujah.

“Rob, give me some good news. I’m freaking out over here,” I answered.

“Hello? James? Can you hear me?” managed to somehow break through, despite the deafening static.

“Rob, I’m here man. Please tell me you saw something. Can you… God, that static. Can you hear me?”

“Listen James, if you’re there, if you can hear me, you gotta help me,” Rob strained. “It’s hard to breath, and it’s even harder to talk, so I will keep this short. I kept worrying about you, and I was looking out at the sky, trying to see your Scooby Doo mystery shit. After gazing out for a good five minutes, I saw a lightning white flash, like some sort of fucking supernova. Everything else went blank. Next thing I know, I wake up and find a picture of you and your dad, dated five days from today. You gotta come over.”

The phone call ended and my shadow was gone.

“Hello?! Rob? Rob? ROB?!” I yelled, as if repeating it would somehow reconnect the call. I tried calling back, but his phone was dead. As I broke in to the Dodge conveniently parked next to my building, I got worried. Hard to breath? Hard to talk? I hope he’s OK. What the fuck was he talking about anyway? Dad’s been dead for 13 years. He knows that – he was standing right next to me when it all happened.

Two days ago is the first time I noticed. It seems pretty obvious now so I don’t think it could have been there too much longer. The part the bothers me most is how it feels like it’s getting closer every time I look away.
The light I noticed in the sky has more than doubled in size since yesterday. A light being slightly larger than the sun that oddly produces no light made me curious. My eyes are not effect when looking at it, my shadow does not appear when the sun goes down, it has none of the attributes of a light and yet it seems so bright. An hour ago I gave up my internet search for an answer. Thirty minutes ago I phoned a friend to see what they thought about it, their answer was unsettling.
“What the fuck are you talking about James?”
Rob was my best friend, he had always been there for me. He even stepped outside to double check, even though he was sure it wasn’t there. Sure enough, nothing. I may be a schizophrenic. If I am, the upside is I’m self aware. Hurray?

-WarlordSean