Dream Writings 2

Weird Dreams again, but this one took a special cake.

Homo sapiens familiaris

The aliens have taken a whole group of us, me and several people I don't know or only vaguely recognize, to an earth setting, although it becomes apparent when we look for a way out that there is none, that we're closed in. Like a movie set, or zoo enclosure. They're hideous aliens, inhuman, more like sea anemone or types of plants and coral and nudibrances. We try to reason with them to no avail, they don't come near us, and we don't go near them.

They leave food for us, at routine times and places, and sometimes just stand on top of the house they've given us to watch us. We couldn't reach them if we tried. One day, they approach us with food, and offer it to us. We avoid them and hide or go around them, but there's no other food. Somebody says that they won't stoop so low as to accept food from them, and finally some of us venture forth to take the food. They don't seem to react much, but let us take the food and eat. Occasionally, something in our enclosure is replaced. A tree is replaced with a massive, passively swaying feathered thing, we surmise that it's an alien plant. One day, when we wake, the grass is red and purple.

This continues. They come to feed us. Some of the group is growing resentful, though. One of them who refuses to take food nearly starves to death, and one night they take him away. Another one decides to try and attack the alien, force it to let us free. They disappear as soon as they touch. We don't see either of them again. Same for a girl who has a breakdown and refuses to move, and another man who tries to break down the walls of the enclosure. Two women get into a fierce fight out of desperation, and both of them are removed by aliens who appear abruptly and drag them off.

Finally, one day, the alien who feed what remains of our group pats me on the head when I take the food. It's hand is soft and feels like velvet, with little anemone-like palps on the fingers. I'm too stunned to react, and just take my food and go. Most of us do the same, although some duck away or grab their food and run.

In our spare time, we play games to occupy ourselves. We throw around a frisbee, play hide and seek, exercise together, it keeps us sane. There's supplies in the house to do other things, such as draw and write, and there's books to read. The television plays video games, but none of us play the strange games. We also talk a lot, and try to figure out what's happening. Some of us think that we're prisoners, or hostages, that the aliens invaded or attacked and are holding us for some reason or another. One woman claims that we're a science experiment. Like putting caterpillars in a jar. I think that we're in a zoo, with the aliens observing us somehow, getting us acclimated to their planet.

Still more of us disappear for unspoken reasons. One day the aliens come and interact with us. We can't understand their fluttering language and the way their tentacle-covered heads flicker with iridescent colors, but we try to listen anyways. The last few of our group to leave are the people who are fed up, and try to aggress our captors, fighting them or throwing things from a distance. Only me and a few others are left. Some of us are passive in nature, while others are just too stunned or scared to react to the aliens.

There's only five of us. We started with nearly twenty, and now we're at a quarter of our original numbers. The aliens come and interact with us regularly, sometimes playing games with us, or just observing us. One of them brings a large pan filled wtih blue stones. Some of them are simple stones, others are in geometric shapes or tiles, or in abstract curls and swirls, and many of them are shaped like familiar things. Like people, trees, flowers, birds, and cars. We pick out our favorites, before handing them back. It does something we cannot see, and then hands us our stones on a string, like beads.

We wear them.

One day, and alien comes and interacts with two of the remaining people, a couple. The boy and girl hold on tightly to each other, as the alien tries to speak with them. It gestures one of it's massive hands towards the girl's belly repeatedly, and we suddenly come to the conclusion that she's pregnant, after all, they've been sneaking off alone a lot. The alien takes them away, and the remaining three of us sit together and ponder why.

Suddenly, I realize why.

We are not in a zoo, or some kid's experimental jar. Our environment is entirely alien now, we have adjusted, and we have accepted the aliens as benevolent and friendly. We do what they direct us to, take food from them, and return their affection in kind.

And we wear the beads around our neck, like tags.

We are pets. Being selectively taken and bred for docility and obediance.

This realization is horrifying at first, but there's nothing to do about it.

Finally, an alien, smaller than any other I've seen, no bigger than me, comes. We play a game of Go Fish together, where we match cards with large, colorful symbols, and it pats me on the head with it's soft hand, and everything fades out. I am being taken to a new home, with a new owner.

It could be worse.

Then I wake up.