SQUIDS

Tia was taken.

She came back different.

She just doesn’t know it.

The rumble of the engine filled the cabin as the desert flew by outside the window. Tia gripped the leather steering wheel in one hand, her raven-dark tresses fluttering around the headrest. She glimpsed her own brown irises in the rear-view mirror, her long eye-lashes tapering up to a smooth forehead. Sandalwood perfume wafted in the air. A whining guitar riff exploded from the radio as she head-banged to the rhythm.

By then, the sky had dimmed, and the firmament twinkled like a myriad of diamonds. Among them, the moon hung as a silver crescent wreathed about with clouds. Cacti dotted the landscape as silent sentinels on either side of the highway. The distant silhouettes of buttes, monoliths, and arches were frosted in white.

Ribbons of light streaked across the sky.

Tia’s jaw dropped. “What the hell?”

What was that? She looked to her left and immediately squinted. The noiseless balls of light grew larger and larger in her perspective, their radiance burning her retinas. Tia threw up a hand to shield her face. Static and screeching assaulted her ears. The engine sputtered, heaved, and died. The radio cut out. Slowly, the car rolled to a stop.

Goosebumps crawled along her skin. Her insides twisted into a cold knot. What was wrong with her car? She twisted the key in the ignition several times. Nothing. She jabbed at random buttons on the dashboard. Nothing. White light flooded through the windows. Tia sank in the driver’s seat as the ground fell away.

“Oh my God,” she cried.

With trembling hands, she unbuckled her seatbelt and shoved the door open. Tia had one foot dangling out of the car, when a deep, baritone sound bled through the roof. The undulating tone filled her ears, drowning out the sigh of the wind. Her eyelids drooped. Her thoughts evaporated. She nodded off.

Everything went black.

#

Air brushed her skin from head to toe. Warm energy crackled along her arms, waist, and legs. Slowly, she opened her eyes as the room spun in her vision. She hovered in a column of light at the center of an immense chamber. Below, four squid-like beings stood, their many tentacles wavering in slow motion. Their heads were covered in bony plates that overlapped with one another, and their eyes glowed like rubies. A chain of indecipherable chirps and clicks filled the room. Their flesh was purple with yellow stripes, and fractal patterns were emblazoned on the bony plates on their heads. Consoles were arranged in two staggered rings projecting holograms of her tissues. All around the chamber, quivering phantoms of her organs, nervous system, and skeletal system glowed. Another pair of squids drifted from one console to another zooming in on various cells as they conversed with one another in their strange language.

Tia gasped and whimpered. Where was she? What were those creatures down there, and what had they done with her clothes? She wriggled midair, but the column of light kept her bound—as if she was encased in concrete. Sweat chilled her skin; rolling down her neck, the small of her back. Tia shuddered. “W—where am I? What do you want with me?” she cried.

The squid beings chirped and clicked amongst themselves. The one to her far left pressed a button on the console. Light and warmth showered her from above, and two silvery globules tumbled through the column of light. Slowly, they fell and orbited Tia’s head like planets around their parent star. What were those things? They glimmered with a metallic sheen, her distorted reflection gliding along their surfaces.

Tia’s heart hammered, her palms growing moist. “What are you doing to me?”

Like arrows, the globules shot into her neck. The ice-cold liquid expanded, touching her earlobes, then seeped into her flesh. Tia grimaced as the cold wrapped around her skull, then plummeted down her spine. Her blood froze. She shivered.

A baritone sound bombarded her ears.

#

With a gasp, Tia’s eyes snapped open. She reclined in her car which was stopped on the side of the road. A myriad of stars shone down from the sky. Distant monoliths towered over the earth. Her brow crinkled. For some reason, her neck was frigid. She rubbed at it with both palms until the sensation dissolved. What had just happened? Then, it came to her. She was driving home from work when she felt drowsy, so she had pulled over and taken a nap.

Tia sat up, started the car, and the desert glided out of her peripheral vision. The familiar cacophony of guitars and drums blasted through the cabin. Hazy images of squids wearing top hats flickered through her mind. They twirled and glided through the water while somewhere in the background someone played a tuba. She chuckled to herself. How odd. Had she dreamed of visiting an aquarium?

Tia chirped and clicked her tongue.