Red Winter

It’s an age-old question she asked herself as she sat on the rooftop of the stone build house pandering at the night sky. “The stars seem pretty bright tonight, aye?” her eyes slowly gaze downward, chin on her knees, arms folded around holding them together. “Jessie, what are you doing here? It’s 3 am.” He stands there with a yellow hoodie overhead with black jeans and old school baseball sneakers. He floats to eye level to meet her, gently placing his foot on the roof before walking further up to sit beside her-gently punching her in the shoulder “Hey, cheer up Kip”, “I already told you, I’m fine” even as she said the words out loud she knew it wasn’t true. The wind picked up blowing her bushy, entangled hair away from her eyes, I always thought of it as funny, ya know. How words can pass through lips with such confidence but at the end weightless and mean nothing, she thought to herself.

Her mind begins to drift thinking of the summer nights with her father and fall days with her grandparents. The winter two or was it four at this point? Christmas’ ago that her mother died before the edginess in Jessie’s voice pulled her back, back to the physical form of her breath on the wind. Jessie wraps his arms around her “Hey, it’s alright. You know not everyone develops their powers at a young age”, “yeah but for it to be so late and in just a dire time no less, honestly Jessie. I feel useless to you guys and…”, “Stop it, stop it, everyone has their spot on the team but you’re only putting yourself in danger being on the roof” he shakes his head at the thought, Jessie gets up and stares down over the crumbling ruined neighborhood to view the once inflamed downtown city “Nothing, they…took everything, yo. Parents, building, friends the whole lot just upended and gone; Kip this isn’t just a normal invasion…how much do you know about history?” he asked looking down at her “in what aspect are we speaking of?”, “colonization.”, “Colonization? I don’t get it, where are you going with this?” her question lingered into the air like smoke in the room “The reason Africa fell wasn’t that they were weak but because they became docile to the fact the world was bigger around them, while Europe begins trading with China and other countries for resources and creating better technological advancements the other countries around them progressed” folding his arms, “you got your eye on something” he continued, “no, just-just thought I heard something. Anyway, what are you saying? That in this instance we are Africa and our invaders is Europe?” he nods “I mean think about it? All of our meaningless infight and government lies and secrets but not once had we prepared for this. I mean we’ve always had conspiracy theories out there who knew either through first-hand experience or from rigorous research that they existed but not one time had our world leaders came together for the betterment of humanity; only together for furthering corruption and greed.”, “Jessie”, “Somethings not right Kip, do you remember…”, “ Jessie! We need to get off the roof”, “girl, what?” his passive demeanor causes Kip to tackle him both free-falling to the ground as a simulation object comes plowing through the roof of the ruined house completely decimating the structure.

The hit to the ground was rough, bruised skin and scrapped knees “What the hell-“ Jessie shouts covering his head he quickly recovers and looks up seeing that whatever it was has nearly destroyed the set of houses in front of them “damn, that was close. Right kip.” He chuckles cracking a smile before realizing that he didn’t feel her, hell he couldn’t even feel her presence anymore either he called for her once, twice even a third time but nothing. All he could hear was the distant of machinery and the roaring flaming beginning to engulf the neighborhood, this was impossible but he knew better than to assume like his parents did that they couldn’t conceive a child especially one with abilities no less or like they did when they assumed aliens never existed and even if they did they would never invade but he trusted his eyes more than anything. Kip was nowhere to before even as he took to the sky like a bird he was still was not prepared if something had happened to her when that thing flew overhead. His heart pounding so hard against his chest his breath begin to shorten, “Jessie” he hears it, it was faint but he knew what he heard “the backyard” he thought to himself, how could he have not thought of that, to begin with. Coming to the ground he was over to a small crumbling shed, illuminated by the burning embers on its edges “K…ip?” he questioned himself, he had to have been going crazy no other way to explain it but there in the building’s shadow he saw glowing silver eyes shining back at him blinking followed by a gasp of air before a foot-steps out of it. “Kip, what happened?”, his body glowing an aura of greyish-indigo “Jes….Jessie, we need to get the hell out of here” her warning too late as a looming UFO slowly flies overhead, heading towards the city both looking on in despair and horror as they try to plot there next move.