《Oddity》Chapter 2...A Soul on Fire

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Jayda yawned into the midsummer heat, the sun shining warmly on her as she rested beside the pool. Soft music played serenity through her headphones, lulling her softly into slumber.

And then a barrage of notifications viciously roused her from her serenity.

Grasping madly for her phone, she took notice of the flood of urgent messages as she unlocked the device, and almost instantly, a sickening panic twisted itself deep in her gut.

'We got something!'

'Give me a second. Jeez'

'Stop baking and get in here!'

"Someone's cranky". Jayda muttered halfheartedly as she slung a towel around her shoulders, hoping over the hot tile and into the shade of the duplex she resided in.

Sure it was odd, going from a massive family home and six other siblings, into a skinny little uni duplex, but when your housemates were just as interested in aliens as you were, the changes were easier to adapt to.

The only downside, cramming five people in a four-bedroom house? Hell, in its purest form. But they had worked it out. And thankfully, they had done it without any fights. Though there had been a scuffle or two...And maybe a drunken brawl once. But that had been resolved as quickly as it had begun. Hot tip: Lasers work on drunk uni students.

Jayda walked into the study, a cramped room in the front of the house fitted with blackout curtains, where her four roommates were crowded around a cluster of screens and wires, all making various remarks about whatever it was that was blinking across the computer.

"That's the sixth sighting this month!", Lara, the local Programmer and unofficial Hacker, had taken possession of the creaking chair, back hunched and fiery hair spilling over the keyboard as she click-clacked away. "Somethings going down and it's all located in this area"

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"A map would be helpful. Not everyone can read binary", Lauren remarked, tilting a screen to face her. "Isn't that Las Vegas? What do Aliens want with Las Vegas?"

"You're close. It's not Vegas, it's a little town about an hours drive from there. James, Johns or something"

"Jasper", Jayda found herself saying, the coil in her gut growing tighter. "Jasper Nevada"

"No...Wait yeah, how did you know?"

"Lucky guess. Maybe". She didn't disclose the fact that two days ago, Mangoo, one of her online friends, had gone to visit that same small town. And she hadn't heard anything from the online entity since her departure.

"I'm here, I'm queer, and I'm full of existential fear!", Before Jayda's thoughts could spiral to all the terrible outcomes for Magoo, Nova burst the door open, Rey hot on her heels. "What have we got today bitches!"

Now with five girls crammed into the tiny room, the unfortunate placement of their 'Observation lab' had become a problem, and seeing through the wave of colourful hair was almost as difficult in the dark as in the day.

"Weren't you colouring your hair? What happened?", at Lauren's question, Nova pulled the towel off her head, showcasing an aurora of messy hair dye, bleach and chopped ends. "What happened!"

"Well!... I tried to dye my hair rainbow, then Rey came in looking for...something"

"Paw Paw cream"

"Paw Paw cream, right. So then she saw me struggling with the colour, so she decided to help, but she grabbed the bleach instead of the dye-"

"How-?"

"I'm not finished. As soon as she realised what she had done though, she grabbed the kitchen scissors to try to fix it, which, considering she's never cut hair before, turned out as well as you would expect-"

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"It was my first time!"

"And I'm not blaming you! I'm just saying, you're the reason I need to wear a baseball cap for all eternity now"

"Your so dramatic!"

"Oh I can be more dramatic!", Nova took a deep breath, and sensing what was about to happen, Laura leapt to action, slamming a hand over the woman's mouth.

"EAUGH!", And then the hand was off, and being shaken vigorously. "Did you just lick me!"

"You put your hand over my mouth! What did you expect!"

"For you to act like an Adult?"

"Well that was your first mistake"

"I know"

"Guys!", Lara had spun around, facing down the two bickering woman with a cold stare. "As amusing as it is to poke fun at Rey and her terrible hairdressing skills-"

"Who's side are you on!"

"-Can we please focus?"

"Right"

"Sorry"

"Thank you", Lara turned back around with a flourish, returning to clickety-clacking away at the keyboard as video files began popping up on the screens. "This is the only footage I've been able to snatch. The US does not want anyone seeing these"

"Well yeah. They're the United States of America! We're five Australian teens with crippling depression and anxiety"

"Ok Jayda, that was unnecessary, but thanks"

"Any time"

"This one is the most recent, from two days ago. About halfway between Vegas and Jasper". The Video crackled, following a white SUV towing a motorbike as it travelled down a desolate strip of desert. And as the car braved the smouldering heat, Jayda felt sick to her stomach. There was no hoping or preying or denying it any longer. That was Mangoo's motorbike.

"Is there any Audio?"

"I'm working on it, but I doubt there would be much to hear right now". Another crackle, and a pop, and then they were hearing the car's engine, and the bang as it hit a pothole.

"How do you hit the only pothole in the entire desert!", Nova threw down her towel visibly fuming.

The women continued to watch with bated breaths as the car swerved, snaking over the road erratically, before a great big BOOM followed in the wave of a giant behemoth slamming into the comparatively tiny car, snaking tentacles constricting around the metal. Jayda felt her heart stop as the faceless monster tore into the car like it was nothing but paper, and fished out a shape so tiny in its clutches, that if it weren't for the difference in the woman's bright clothes and blond hair against the purple, almost black metal, no one would have seen the unconscious Mangoo, not after it closed its fist and turned to look at the camera, right into Jayda's soul. And then the feed cut, and the room was left silent.

"Holy shit"

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