Alice and the aliens: Part Three

*This is part three of my series “Alice and the aliens”. There are two characters from my series “Love in decaying hearts” that make an appearance here. Their names are Jasmine and Azrail. You may check out the other stories in my “Alice and the aliens” series underneath the folder of the same name. As for “Love in decaying hearts” you may also check it underneath my folder of the same name. Gacha Club character designs are on my wall.*

Alice and A2614 lay in bed for a few minutes, the aircraft on autopilot, not sharing a word. That was fine with the both of them. A2614 was stroking her hair and they had not a single care.

“A2614?! Alice? Where are you?” A girl’s voice asked.

A2614 shot up from bed. Alice thought that she heard Rebecca and Muerte talking to each other, but she couldn’t be sure. She also thought that she heard Melissa giggling, but that was impossible.

“It’s my sister and the girls. Come on.” A2614 said.

So Alice wasn’t imagining things? The girls really did come?

She had to see for herself.

……………………………………………………..

When A2614 and Alice arrived to the main room in the spaceship, they saw Rebecca, Muerte, Melissa, and a blue-skinned girl with long, purple hair, orange snake eyes that matched the eyes of A2614 and wore a gray sweater, black leather pants, and brown leather boots.

“Alice, meet my sister, B392. B392, meet my girlfriend, Alice.” A2614 said.

“It’s nice to meet you, Alice! A2614 has been telling me all about you while we were both on Earth. When he told me that he chose you, I thought that it was only fair to bring your friends along for the journey!” B392 said with a smile.

Muerte and Rebecca were looking around in confusion, but Melissa was jumping up and down with excitement.

“We’re in a real life UFO! Aliens are real! I told you, Alice! I so told you, and you didn’t believe me! I told you! I told you! Na na na! I was right and you were wrong!” Melissa sing-sang.

Alice ignored her and instead said to B392 with narrowed eyes:

“It’s nice that you brought my friends along, but why did you bring my sister?! She’s eight years old! Eight years old and you brought her to outer space!”

“Relax, she’s not alone. She has us.” B392 said with a smile.

Before Alice could object, B392 turned to A2614 and asked:

“Did you set a location for this ship to land?”

A2614 rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He wouldn’t look at B392, only at his shoes.

Why is he acting like this? Alice thought worriedly.

“I forgot.” A2614 said.

“You forgot?! You know what happens when you forget, right? You know that this aircraft is going to crash, right?” B392 asked.

“I’m aware.” A2614 said sheepishly.

“What?!” Alice and the girls asked in unison.

The spacecraft began spiraling down to another planet…

……………………………………………………..

After what seemed like a million centuries, the spacecraft finally landed. The six of them walked out of the ship in a daze, trying to get rid of their dizziness.

At first, Alice thought the impact of crashing into a planet at an unnaturally high speed was making her think that the ground was made of jelly, but when she felt fully like herself, she still felt like the ground was made out of jelly.

“Is it just me or is everything made of jelly?” Alice asked.

“It’s not just you. This is planet Gelata. It’s devoid of life, but never runs short of jelly.” A2614 said.

“That’s amazing!” Melissa said happily. She plunged her hand into the gelatinous ground, but Alice pulled her away.

“What are you doing?! I want the free jelly!” Melissa complained, kicking underneath Alice’s hold.

“You are not eating space jelly! Who knows what that stuff is made of?” Alice asked.

She already had enough things to worry about. The last thing she needed was her sister getting sick from a disease no one knew how to cure.

“Guys, look.” Muerte said, pointing to something in the distance.

Far off was something that was running frantically, as fast as it could.

Without a moment’s thought, the group decided to get a closer look at the thing running in the distance.

……………………………………………………..

When they got close enough, Alice could see that the thing running wasn’t a thing, but a young, pale girl with light blue eyes and blond hair separated into two braids. She wore a black dress with many bows, socks and Mary Janes on her feet, and a black bow and matching black crown that looked like a necklace on her head.

“Who are you?” Alice asked.

“I…could…ask…you…the…same…thing.” The girl said, panting with every breath.

“Fair enough. I’m Alice. This is Muerte, Rebecca, Melissa, B392, and A2614. We crash landed here on mistake. Now, who are you?” Alice asked.

“Sage…my name is Sage…Sage Alíce Beckett…I…I’m a space vampire…the…the Life Seekers…they took me from my home…made me do…terrible things…sent me here…because…I…didn’t…want…to…do it…anymore…” Sage said, panting.

She looked at the group with wild, frightened eyes, then took a brief glance behind her.

When Sage seemed satisfied, she turned to face them and said:

“Gelata…doesn’t…like…it if…anyone living stays…in an area…for too long. It…gets…mad. It…makes…monsters…to…chase and…kill.”

Sage took a few deep breaths before continuing.

“There’s a little girl here. She looks like a doll, but she’s a little girl. She needs help. She’s trapped. We can’t leave without saving her.” Sage said.

The kids turned to look at each other. They couldn’t leave anyone behind. No one deserved it.

“Agreed. Show us the way.” B392 said.

As the six followed Sage, Alice couldn’t help but wonder:

Should we trust her?

……………………………………………………..

After much walking, they stopped in front of molding doll with a yellowed dress.

A doll Alice recognized from childhood.

“That’s Daeva. I had her when I was a little girl. I used to play with her and hold her during thunderstorms. I loved that doll, but I always thought that her eyes looked a little too alive.” Alice said.

She took a step closer to the doll. Sage had said that the doll was a little girl, so perhaps it was possessed.

There was only one way to find out.

Alice held Daeva and closed her eyes. She focused on being connected with the doll, on finding the truth about its past.

It was 1923. A little girl named Jasmine Watson was celebrating her seventh birthday. She clutched a doll that looked just like her. It had blond hair, green eyes, wore a pink dress, and had a bright smile. The only differences were that its hair was shorter and Jasmine was the alive one. Also, the doll had blue eyes and Jasmine had green ones.

Jasmine was ignored by the guests, who were all talking to each other in the parlor room, but she didn’t seem to mind. She had her doll, Chrisalyn, by her side.

So, Jasmine walked around the house, looking at all of the different rooms, her Mary Janes click-clacking on the hardwood floors, until she stopped in front of what looked to be her bedroom from how pink and innocent it looked. Standing in her bedroom was a boy who looked to be around Alice’s age with a long, strange, feathery black cape.

Jasmine didn’t seem bothered by him, though, and walked up to him until they were as face-to-face as any little girl and teenage boy could ever be.

“Who are you?” Jasmine asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.

The boy smiled at her with closed lips and said in a voice far too soft to be kind:

“My name is Azrail and I’m an angel.”

The black, feathery cape split up into massive, ragged wings that looked like it could swallow Jasmine up, but she didn’t run, only gasped in awe.

“I know that I don’t look like the type of angel you’d hear about, but I’m not evil. I promise. I only came to wish you a happy birthday.” Azrail said, making such an effort of not smiling with his teeth.

Was Alice making too much of a big deal out of it? Maybe it was nothing. Maybe he just didn’t like to smile with his teeth. But then again, teenage boys with wings weren’t supposed to show up in little girls’ bedrooms, so perhaps Alice was onto something.

He kneeled down to Jasmine’s level and sat down on one knee. From the inside of his suit jacket, he pulled out a can of orange juice. It was a little jarring for Alice to see a can of orange juice, but remembered that it was the 1920s and juice typically came in cans back then.

“This is your birthday gift, Jasmine. It’s not a very fancy gift, but I thought that you would like it. I promise to give you greater gifts as life goes on, greater gifts that you didn’t even know that you needed!” Azrail said, handing Jasmine the juice can.

Jasmine stared at the juice can, still not running. Why wasn’t she running? Alice would have run if she saw someone like that in her room! Why did she trust him? Something wasn’t right…

Jasmine took the juice can from Azrail and began to sip at it, drinking it without looking at Azrail’s face, her eyes downcast, Azrail’s eyes glimmering with malice.

She threw the juice across the room and began to sway, her green eyes staring off into the distance, moving as though she were walking through sludge. Alice’s hands clenched and unclenched, for she was certain that the juice Azrail gave Jasmine had something to do with it.

Jasmine fell into Azrail’s arms, who was smiling at her with his teeth…two of his front teeth looked so sharp…like vampire teeth…he was a vampire?!

“I’m afraid that juice was poisoned. But don’t worry, you won’t feel much pain when I drink your blood!” Azrail said in a loud, happy voice that Alice remembered her old Kindergarten teacher using.

Jasmine tried squirming away from him, but with each second that went on, it looked like she was slipping further into his arms, growing weaker by the second, the darkness of his wings concealing her from her loved ones that were far off in the parlor room, trying to destroy her completely.

Azrail brought Jasmine close enough to him so that he could whisper in her ear something that Alice could still hear:

“I may have lied about being an angel. I’m a vampire, so I need to eat. Please don’t take this personally. Or do, I don’t care. You’ll scream anyway.”

He sunk his teeth into Jasmine’s neck, drinking her blood, sucking it blissfully. Jasmine screamed, but it was a muted, gargled scream, all too muffled by the poison for it to be a real scream.

Her glowing skin lost color, her eyes lost their shine. No longer was the child beaming.

He didn’t stop when he was finished. No, he bit into her flesh, ate her skin, licked the blood off her bones, panting so fast, as though he hadn’t eaten in many, many days…he even licked the blood off of her hair strands. Alice turned her head away, her throat turning into bile from how eager he was to tear a little girl apart.

When she stopped hearing the chewing and smacking of his lips, she finally looked up and found that he was taking Jasmine’s clothes, bones, and hair with him, but leaving her doll behind.

He then walked up to her window and jumped out, leaving only her doll behind.

Everyone at the party had noticed that Jasmine was “missing” when it was far too late.

Alice’s eyes burned with tears, but she brushed them off. She couldn’t cry. She had to do what nobody else could.

She had to save Jasmine.

Alice tried to imagine Jasmine in a better place, free of woe and pain, but Jasmine struggled under her grip. In Alice’s head, she heard Jasmine cry out:

You hurt me! Just like that boy did!

“I didn’t mean to! I thought that you were a doll! I didn’t know that you were trapped inside!” Alice said.

She tried her best to think of Jasmine being happy, of Jasmine at peace, just like Giselle, but Jasmine kept resisting. All Alice heard in her mind was the anguished, terrified screams of a small child. A child who couldn’t escape no matter what.

“Alice, we have to go! We’ll take her back to Earth. Maybe she’ll be free there.” A2614 said.

But she was so close…all she had to do was keep trying…

The ground was bubbling, threatening to swallow her whole.

“Alice! Come on!” A2614 said.

Alice let go of her mental grip on Jasmine, but still held onto her. As she ran away with the others, the ground fizzing angrily underneath them, she thought one thing:

I won’t leave Jasmine behind.