Alton One: Chapter 7

Her hold on him was a life grip, so hard he tremmored with her.  Her head was snug on his shoulder, and he could smell her hair spray.  On a normal day he would have made a commical remark about it, but there were no words for a moment like this.  She was scared to death, and he could smell that too.  He let her hold on as long as she needed.  What in the world brought THIS on? he wondered.

She let go and an immediate flow of warm blood rushed down his arms to his fingertips.  She stood in front of him with blank stare, shivering. 

"Sarah!" he held her hands. They were cold as ice.  "Sarah!  What happened?  Who did this to you?"

"Hold me, Mike!  Just hold me!" He did.  And he guided her to the livingroom, and sat with her on the couch. All the way, he never stopped hugging her.  "Who did this, Sarah?  Who hurt you?"

"The coffin!"

"What?" A shiver rushed up his spine. His mind immediately recollecting Lance's story. "A coffin? Like the one Lance wrote about?"

"The coffin.  It was a coffin.  And an alien, like the one you drew.  It was an alien.  It came out of the coffin.  It came and tried to take me.  It tried to take me." 

She squeezed him again, hard, very hard. 

"Sarah, you have to tell me what happened.  You have to tell me everything."

"I can't.  I can't!" She started crying.  "I don't mean to be a baby."

"It's okay.  It's okay."  It wasn't okay.  Tsatso took Lance, and he was supposed to be a good alien.  Now this.  "Did Tsatso do this to you?  Was it Tsatso?  The one I drew was Tsatso."

"Yes," she said.  It was Tsatso.  Only..."

"Only what?"

"Only he wore black.  He looked mean.  He grabbed me and I ran."

He let her squeeze him again.  She cried hard, and he made no effort to stop her.