Close Encounters of the Amphibian Kind, pt. 5

Artwork and visual design elements by Alucard’s Spirit

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I watched the entire video again all the way through, trying NOT to imagine myself in the girl’s place, but unable to stop thinking about what would compel her to welcome such a final fate.

Then I remembered something Glob had said. “Wait a minute…” I looked up, to see him watching me intently. “What did you mean when you said she’s not really gone? That she’d be a special part of you?”

“Well…” Glob said, a wry grin again crossing his face as if amused by my confusion. “When someone as special as her comes along, someone who enjoys the experience as much as I do, I can’t simply enjoy her only once.”

“Meaning…?” I was trying, but couldn’t comprehend how enjoying her ‘more than once’ worked.

“Let me see your phone again,” he said. I handed it to him and he rapidly tapped at it again. “Tell me what you see now.”

It took me a moment of staring at the image to try and decipher what I was seeing. A very hi-tech looking clear cylinder was mounted on a platform, with wires and monitors and hoses around. Something was floating in a liquid inside. My eyes widened. “She’s…alive? In a tube?”

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*Agent Katie envisions herself as Glob’s next object of interest.*

“A stasis chamber, yes. Space travel is hard on human bodies, but it’s also boring and lonely for me. I keep her safe in stasis…along with a few other special friends.”

“But I saw you eat her…” I still wasn’t understanding how she was alive–albeit in suspended animation.

“You saw me eat her clone,” he said. “Her clone has the same personality and awareness and desires. The clone enjoys the experience just as much as her original would…and I enjoy eating the clone as much as I would enjoy the original.”

He shrugged, then continued: “Plus, when I get lonely or when we get to my home planet, or an exciting new location, I can wake her up and enjoy her…companionship.”

I stared at him, stunned, finally beginning to see Glob in a different light. “So ALL of the women who disappeared are still alive, in stasis tubes?”

“Ummm…not all of them,” he admitted. “Actually, only a few. Only the ‘special’ ones.” He grinned and leaned closer. “You, of course, would be one of the special ones, Agent Katie.”

Once again, I had that odd feeling of being intrigued and horrified at the same time. “Oh…no…I…I don’t think so…” But I was already imagining myself aboard his ship, staring at myself inside a stasis tube, in limbo until he decided to take me out and amuse himself with me.

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