It was a comfortable night in Shastas Cascade, California. The birds chirped quietly but noisily throughout the tree. Nights were always warm in that region, but mainly in the fall. The tiny cities there were nice and friendly, and they settled nicely in many different sections: the town of Beckworth and Blairsden, Fort Jones and Cedarville, and many others.

Here was the small town of Alturas, home to the Modoc National Forest and Modoc County Historical Museum.

There rested a cozy white three story- attic included- house, home to the Schmidts: a divorced wife named Lisa Garcia and her 17 year-old daughter Elija. It laid in front of miles of tall grass. There was a vast, confusing cornfield maze that stretched out about fifteen yards, ending with a short square of short grass, and miles of trees beyond.

There were other houses around it, separated by white picket or brown wooden fences. The paved road went on forever into the rest of the world.

Across the street from the white house was Mrs. Grady, the superstitious woman of Shastas. Any sign of "alien" life or the slightest off-looking glint in the sky and NASA was already on the phone.

There was activity going on that night, especially from two young girls: Elija and her friend from Susanville, Aic- short for Alicia- Crowe. The tiny flat in Elija's cornfield happened to be their favorite spot. They were there that night, waiting for a pitch black dream.







Elija laid in the flat of the corn field with her friend by her side. Hearing the sniffling and coughing told her that the cozy, warm air outside wasn't helping her influenza. She sighed, brushing the almost-black-brown bangs from her eyes to stare into the stars. "You feeling better?"


Aic turned to face Elija. "Does it sound like I'm feeling better?" She muttered sarcastically, coughing after she said so. Aic was thankful that it wasn't raining, cold, or humid outside, and all things considered, it was a pretty nice nice outside. "Why are we even here though?" Aic asked after a few minutes of near silence, only broken by fits of coughing.

Elija turned her head back to the sky, when suddenly, she couldn't see any stars. An eyebrow raised. "Uh, maybe I'm just crazy, but.. where did the shiny little ball of gases million miles away go?"


Aic stared wide eyed at the sky. It was pitch black, no stars, no galaxies, no anything. "Well, if you can see that, either we're both crazy or some serious shiz just happened." Aic muttered, somewhat paranoidly. She coughed and searched the rest of the skies for any traces of a possible star, but stopped searching; only seeing the inky blackness that swallowed the entire sky. Much akin to a shark swallowing a guppy.


Elija sat up on her elbows, scanning the sky. Slowly, though, one by one, at at least 5 miles an hour, the stars began to re-appear. There was a sharp outline that uncloaked the hidden stars, and Elija narrowed her eyes in confusion. For whatever that flying thing was, it must have either been huge or just really close. Elija strained her ears to hear the faint hissing noises of working engines. "What the heck...?"


Aic stared up at the pitch-black thing that only seconds earlier had blotted out the skies. "Elija.... Please... Please tell me that my fever's finally giving me braindamage." She murmured in awe. The whirring of mechanical machines slowly grew louder.

Elija shook her head slowly and solemnly. Her head craned to watch the pitch black figure suddenly sputter and crack. The sound was louder than standing next to an airplane as it took off. Elija covered her ears and watched as the figure plummeted into the middle of the corn field. "That is.. really... weird."

Before Aic replied, Elija was already up on her feet, reaching for her friend's have with curious adrenaline pulsing through her. "Let's check it out!"

Aic let Elija pull her to her feet. She could see the excitement dancing in her friend's eyes. Aic on the other hand wanted to stay as far away from that thing as possible. If it could blot out the sky what else could it do?

"Elija, if you want me to go with you, you'll have to my over to it," Aic hissed stubbornly. "It could be dangerous, or... Or whatever's inside could eat us or something!" Aic continued fretfully.

She coughed into her elbow just as she felt herself being pulled.

Elija half-dragged Aic through the corn field. It took about fifteen minutes to reach the middle of the cornfield (granted they both knew the way by heart), and they saw the protruding end of the spaceship, and Elija touched it, feeling it's ragged, scarred incisions. "It's..."

She yanked Aic through the remaining upright corn and danced around in the flat vegetation that the ship had pressed. "It's a UFO! We found a UFO!"

She let go of Aic's arm and happily giggled and skipped to the ship's side for another examination. It was greyish-black, and there were strange symbols embedded in it. From the corner of her eye, Elija spotted smooth, round cracks in the ship. There was a door.

Aic stared at the huge, battle scarred UFO. It was nothing like she'd imagined a UFO to look like- she'd seen her fair share of UFO and Alien Documentaries that seemed to be on endless loop on National Geographic. Heck, she'd even seen the Alien movies, even though there were no UFOs, she had to guess that the creepy-crawly had to have at one point, live in one. Just the thought of that sent shivers down her sickly, aching spine.

Aic followed Elija's gaze to where a door was. She widened her eyes and her mouth hung open in shock for a few moments.

"Elli, let's think this through before we just step into the unknown!" Aic whispered tensley, the thoughts of little aliens bursting through stomachs now all too vivid in her mind.

The moment was so perfect. Elija could just picture the tall, lanky, shiny-black bulgy-eyed creatures that were housed inside. She saw that the smooth cracks were jagged and melted here and there, and thought that a nice tug would pry it open.

Without a second thought, Elija ignored Aic's words, lunging for the door and using both hands to yank the door free. She tried for the good of three minutes, when her arms gave way. With a plop, she fell to the floor. "Ugh! It won't open!" she hissed, eyes narrowing.

"Elija! Aic! Where are you two?"

Elija winced. Mom. She turned to look up at Aic from her sitting position on the flat of the cornfield. "We should head back." Elija stood, brushing herself off angrily, and walked next to Aic as they started back to the house. Suddenly, she hummed a quiet tune to herself. I wonder if anyone's gonna spot that giant spaceship in my cornfield..

Aic didn't say a word to Elija as they walked back to her house. Her friend looked pretty peeved as it was, but Aic knew that it had more to not being able to open the door to the spaceship than anything.

After reaching Elija's house, she said a small hello to Elija's mom then slunk upstairs to take some ibuprofen, to combat her probable fever. She heard Elija's somewhat irritated footsteps slink in a few minutes after her.

Elija knew Aic was huddled in her upstairs bathroom, downing tablets of ibuprofen, and she was swarmed by her mother. "Where have you been, Elija Schmidt? You were outside in the cold for-"

"Nowhere. We were doing nothing, nowhere."

"Nothing nowhere for two hours?"

"Yeah. We just laid in the small flat of the cornfield about ten minutes out."

Elija's mother sighed. "It's too cold outside to not be warming up your muscles. Go into the kitchen and make something hot. I'll be going back to bed." Before Elija could retort, "It's August, mom. Shastas doesn't get cold in August", her mother marched up the stairs and rounded the corner.

Ms. Schmidt opened the bathroom door to find Aic giving a loud, relieving sneeze. "I'm sorry that Elija kept you out in the freezing cold like that. Be safe when you go home, alright?"