“I woke up one day and was revealed with a revelation; an insight so powerful that my life that I thought I had lived, would be perceived and deemed in a completely different outlook. It was painful as it was devastating, but I was told that the purpose was great. I would head to a place, I know not where nor do I know what I would find. So I did because I was told to. It was not that I crave for blind subjugation, rather I crave for blind faith.”

There it was again, that weird beating hum.

It sounded like something was pulsating from within those closed walls. It wasn’t the sound any machineries familiar to her. No, it was something strange; something abnormal. Question was what. It began every night at eight, dragging on the hours till midnight. It was not only present; it was also as though mocking her. It would only elucidate its presence when she was alone, vanishing when she was not.

So what on earth could that be?

She ran through multiple outcomes in her head, concluding with only one plausible outcome:

An alien spaceship.

She was pretty confident about it for a moment before scrapping it out of her mind upon the realisation of its ludicrousness. All those science fiction novels that she had read had twisted her mind into a more creative realm than reality allowed. Despite so, she kept telling herself how could it would be if her new neighbour really had an alien spaceship. However, that would also mean she was residing next to a family of aliens. They could be eating and harvesting humans. She could imagine in her head, watching slimy creatures carrying around dead human bodies with horrid death expressions tattooed on their rigor-mortised faces, before throwing them into the grinder and coming out a slab of minced meat, fresh from the slaughterhouse.

That scared her off the idea. 

Jessica closed her homework and slapped her cheeks softly, trying to stay awake. She felt so sleepy, or was it laziness, or both? She stared at the arithmetic book in front of her and already felt a dark force pushing her motivations down beneath the ground. It was so boring to look at numbers all day long. Yet, she had only finished half of her assigned homework, and it was due tomorrow. Procrastination was a .

She pushed open the window, peeking outside to the house next door. There was no doubt that the hums came from that very foundation. It wasn’t coming from the television; she could tell. It was real, whatever it was. The lights of the house next door were all turned off and the windows shut tight, but there was something beyond the closed structures. There was something else to the tall redbrick house with sloping black roofs and a row of shuttered windows, besides it looking like an abandoned old haunted bungalow. She just had that feeling in her gut.

The night was indeed chilly; the cool breeze of this small town was blowing against her cheek briskly, but enough to numb her lips with chill. She blamed the stupid season; yesterday was hot as hell, reigning over forty Celcius but today, the temperature halved.

Winter was coming soon and she definitely hated the cold.

The seasons in this particular town were unique, as some people call it; but for Jessica? She called it weird.

Why?

Summer and winter usually came back-to-back in this place. Summer could be Monday, giving people heat , and on Tuesday, it could jolly-well snow. It did not even make any sense scientifically how this was possible, but no one else seemed to pay much thought to it, which was eerily strange when she thought about it. Did no one else care or at least bit curious why? She asked her Geography teacher but the answers given made even less sense than the question itself.

Welcome to the little town of Yume.

It was a place which transformed daily from a busy hell to a ghost town once the night falls, leaving it desolately quiet and lonely. Few resided here, probably due to the weird seasons. Most came to work by day and left by dusk. The rest of the residents were either a handful of families or students from the college nearby, staying away from home; that included her. Not many stores were open past six in the evening. As far as she knew, there were only a supermarket, a bar, and a few more grocery shops which were available for business till midnight. There was also a huge warehouse at the north end of Yume, which was converted into a police station. Other than that, the town was pretty much dead once the sun had set.

It was an isolated town indeed, but flourishes from the industry and business panels which drew many people to work here.

A noise caught her attention. Something that sounded creepily similar to a scraping sound, like someone shovelling the soil. It came from the garden of the strange house. She peeked out further from her window, trying to see but it was pitch black. She couldn’t even make out the fences between the two houses, yet she was certain that the shovelling sound came from there.

This was getting weird and eerie.

Who the hell would shovel soil in the dark when it was so cold outside?

Aliens?

“JESSICA!”

“!” she jumped from her seat, shocked, and tumbled backwards, landing on her back. She crashed loudly against the cold parquet floor, hard. Her body jolted in an electrifying pain that conducted her head to toe. She groaned, tilting her head backwards and saw her housemate upside down, with a gigantic grin.

“What the hell, Yuri!?” Jessica grabbed her notepad on the floor and threw it at taller girl in anger, “I told you to knock before coming in!”

Her roommate laughed like a hyena.

Jessica grunted and got back up on her feet. She grabbed the toppled chair and shoved it in between the table, staring at Yuri in fuelling rage.

“Sorry,” Yuri replied between giggles and threw the notepad back, “Your door was open, and you were showing me your y , posing out of the window. Be careful, Jessica, you might accidentally turn someone on.”

“I hate you.”

“I know, I know,” she collapsed herself on Jessica’s bed and stretched, messing up her sheets and dropping her pillows on the floor. She maintained her poker face and stared at Jessica in the midst of the utter mess she had just caused on the bed, hugging the bolster with the sweetest smile she could muster.

“What were you so intrigued about anyway?”

“Get. Out.”

“Aw, come on, Jessica baby. Look at you pouting. You’re so adorable!” Yuri reached out and squeezed the other’s cheeks.

Jessica gritted her teeth and slapped her hands off.

“Nice set of calcium carbonate teeth, young girl. I approve!” Yuri nodded.

“Out, woman.”

“You aren’t the boss of me!” she stood up to Jessica cheekily, “But anyway, seriously, what were you looking at? You have a strange look on your face.”

Jessica glanced out her window, “Our new neighbour is kinda creepy, aren’t they?”

“I know. That new girl stays there.

“The one from our class, right?”

“Yeah, Jess. What was her name again?”

“No idea, Yuri. She doesn’t talk to anyone.”

“Well, she always kept to herself, so nobody dared to approach her. A little initiative from her would be nice,” Yuri shrugged.

“Oh, hang on, do you hear that shovelling sound, Yuri?”

“Huh?”

“It sounds like someone’s doing hard-core gardening in the middle of cold night?”

“I hear nothing.”

Jessica twisted her face at the other girl, retorting her response. “How can you not hear that?”

“My ears are not that good, Jess.”

“Your brains aren’t too.”

Yuri slammed Jessica a punch on her arm.

“OW! HEY!”

Yuri smirked and turned back facing out the window. Her hair too fluttered against the coming winter breeze. It was getting stronger and definitely colder too.

“Yuri. Where’s Tiffany?”

“I’m not sure. She didn’t tell me.”

“It’s an hour to midnight. What’s she doing out so late by herself?”

Yuri shrugged.

“Hey, the two of you weren’t at home last night till late. Where did you guys go?” Jessica questioned.

“We uh, we went to the bar.”

“You both got yourselves drunk?”

“What, no. I just had a couple of beers, but Tiffany was, well… pumping up the booze.”

“You should be watching out for her, Yuri, not getting yourself knocked out.”

“I did! Or… well I tried… Those beers were strong.”

The shorter girl sighed.

“Can you ever make yourself useful, Yuri?”

“Hey! You wanna get punched again?”

“Once is enough, thank you very much,” Jessica flailed her hands, “Well, she is probably at the bar again tonight. I’m worried for her, at the rate she is going-”

“Jessica, relax. She is going through a tough time. Cut her some slack.”

“If the college finds out, she will be in deep trouble.”

“Nah, don’t worry so much. Why won’t you go out with her? I can’t be there for Tiffany all the time.”

“I told you, Yuri. I’m having these random blackouts these days, and they happen mostly after the sun sets. I don’t want to collapse outside at night. Who knows what will happen?”

“Have you seen a doctor about these blackouts?”

“Nah, it’s not that serious.”

“Hmm, maybe both of you should see a psychiatrist to get your minds sorted out,” Yuri stretched and began to yawn with wide open, “Okay, I’m gonna crash. Stupid assignment drained me. Nights.”

“Nights. And Yuri, don’t forget your share of the rent.”

“Rent?”

Jessica glared at her. “Don’t act dumb. Rent’s a thousand dollars a month, three of us, come on. The deadline’s tomorrow.”

“Fine, I’ll pass to you in the morning. I hope I can find my purse though.”

###

Jessica jolted up from her bed like a bat out of hell. Her head was spinning like she was fatigued from running. Her eyes were sparkling in vision, trying to get acquainted with the dim lighting of the room. First thing she noticed was her skin; she was sweating like crazy. Her bed sheet was drenched and her pyjamas were soaked.

What the hell?

It was cold outside, but she felt like she was sleeping in the oven.

Why was it so stuffy inside?

She got off her bed and walked over to the windows to open them, allowing some fresh air to flow and exchange with the stale ones in the room. The blast of chilling air was very welcoming, albeit shivering.

Jessica’s heart was pounding; her chest was rising and dropping fast from her still accelerated breathing. She couldn’t recall her dream though, nor did she want to. She was still terrified, even though she could not fully recall what she was afraid of.

All the girl knew was she needed a glass of milk if she was going to fall asleep again tonight. What was left of her obnoxious trance were random peculiar images, blotted with strange chromatic aberrations and made even less sense come to think of it.

She was in a dark alley with someone.

It was a girl, but her face was blurred. Jessica couldn’t make out whom, only that she had long, brunette hair. Then something happened, something that Jessica couldn’t quite remember or understand. Somehow, for some reason, both of them turned back and ran exasperatedly towards the way they came. Jessica called the girl’s name out loud, but she couldn’t remember what or why. She called for her but the other girl suddenly disappeared out of sight. She was right in front of Jessica; a blink and she was gone. How was that even possible?

Then, in just a flash of a moment, she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. She looked down. It was a knife, stabbed right into her belly. Her shirt slowly grew red with blood.

That was it.

That was always when she woke up, all flustered and flushed.

She lifted her shirt and looked at her belly. It was fine; no knives protruding out or blood spurting like a fountain.

She stripped herself off the sweaty pyjamas and took off her soaked undergarments, replacing them with fresh new ones, which felt much better against her soft skin. She stuffed the dirty clothing into the laundry basket, already full to the brim. She sighed. The laundry basket was already filling up, and she had no time to do the laundry these few days. She carried the basket and set it down beside the door as a reminder of her long-procrastinated chore.

Jessica opened her bedroom door. The house was quiet other than the singing of the crickets outside. Everyone was probably sound asleep at this ti