Touched by an Alien

“You’ll get the princess settled?” he shot over his shoulder to Martini.
    “Yep. As soon as I wash my hands and face,” Martini added to me, as Christopher strode off. “You need us for anything else?” he asked Gower as I stifled a yawn.
    “Nope, just get her settled in, get some rest, and we’ll regroup tomorrow. We have every Base on high alert; we should be okay. Good night, Kitty,” Gower said. “If I get to call you that now.”
    “Sure, sure, you’re all my friends,” I said through a yawn I couldn’t stop. “Even Mister Pissy.”
    Martini put his arm around me. “Let’s get moving and get you tucked in.”
    We went to the elevator bank where we’d left Claudia and Lorraine. I could tell my parents had gone this way too—there was fur and slobber in abundance.
    “What floor are we going to?” My head started to bob of its own accord. I leaned against Martini as much to stop giving myself whiplash as to snuggle. Our kiss seemed like a very long time ago.
    We got into the elevator, and the moment the doors closed, he shifted and scooped me up in his arms. “We’re going to the transient floor, which is the eighth.”
    “From the top or the bottom?” I asked as I snuggled my face into his neck. Nice neck, comfy to sleep against.
    “Uh, it’s the middle, either way you look at it. You’re wiped, that’s proof.”
    “Mmm huh,” I managed. I wasn’t asleep, but I was close.
    I felt the elevator stop but had no interest in looking around. Martini carried me down what I assumed was a hall, but it could have been through a disco, I wasn’t paying any attention. He stopped after a bit, I heard a soft whooshing sound, we moved again, and he put me down.
    “Here’s your room. I’ll show you where things are tomorrow.” He took my hand and led me through what looked like a sitting room into the bedroom. There was a chest of drawers, and he opened the one on the top right. “Standard issue white T-shirt and blue pajama bottoms in here. They’ll fit you; room’s been furnished for your needs. In there,” he pointed to a door opposite the chest, “is the bathroom. I figure you don’t care about anything else right now.”
    Martini leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Can you get undressed by yourself?”
    He wasn’t asking in a romantic way at all. I got the feeling that if I said no, he’d take my clothes off, put the nightclothes on, tuck me in, and trot off. It was comforting, but I also had a feeling him doing that would cause me to wake right up. “Yeah, I think so.”
    “Okay, I’m down the hall a few doors if you need me.” He kissed my forehead again. “Get to bed, my Miss Kitty.”
    “O-kay,” I said, yawning through each syllable.
    Martini left the room and I managed to crawl out of my clothes and into the nightclothes provided. I pulled the covers back, fell into bed, snuggled into the pillows, and managed to pull the covers over me.
    Just before I was out, my mind flashed back to the pictures on my vanity at my apartment. There was something about Christopher pawing them my subconscious wanted me to pay attention to, but exhaustion took over before I could consider, let alone grasp, what that might be.

CHAPTER 20
    I WAS HAVING A NIGHTMARE . It was one of those dreams where you know you’re asleep, but you can’t wake up, no matter how much you want to. And I really wanted to.
    Mephistopheles was the center of it, huge and ugly, stomping around trying to destroy everything and everyone who mattered to me. He had me in his hand, and I couldn’t get away this time. I had to watch while he stomped my parents and our pets, all my extended family, all my friends, everyone I worked with, anyone I knew, and then all the A-C people I’d met. Everyone was smashed, destroyed, crumpled and broken. They looked like bloody paper dolls.
    Martini and Christopher were the only ones left alive. Then Mephistopheles put me into his mouth, and the parasite moved to me. I felt it join with me, and it turned me into something horrible, much worse than Mephistopheles could ever be. But my body didn’t change, I still looked the same.
    Mephistopheles dropped me on the ground, but he didn’t die or disappear, he stood there, urging me on. Both Martini and Christopher had guns out, and they were aimed at me. But they didn’t shoot. I reached out and took their guns, crumbled them like dust in my hands. Mephistopheles laughed.
    I grabbed Martini and Christopher both by their