Cold.

I had just realized that the room is so cold. I guess that the adrenaline from the mixture of happiness and anger had tapped me out from my physical senses. This cold wasn’t the cold that affected the temperature of the body, it was the type of cold that affected the soul. The coldness made me feel empty, lonely, worthless. The cold complemented the situation I was in.

As well as the skinwalker I was facing.

The skinwalker, with its inhumane tusks jutting from its mouth, reached into the pocket of the dirty jacket it was wearing. He took his hand out of his pocket and opened up his hand, revealing his palm and.... seemingly nothing else.

At first, I was confused. Taking a closer look I could see he was holding a small pill. It was purely metallic and couldn’t have been bigger than a grain of rice.

“Eat?” the skinwalker croaked.

I was wary. My mind was running a mile a minute:

“What is that?”

“What would happen if I eat it?”

“What would they do to me if I don’t eat it”

“I mean, they seem to contain some sort of–”

My thoughts were cut off from the feeling of a hand in my mouth. The hand reached further down my mouth and was practically down my throat. The skinwalker didn’t intend to give me time to think, let alone time for a choice. The pill was down inside my body whether I wanted it or not.

As fast as the skinwalkers hand was out of my mouth, my hand was in my mouth. I tried to incite my gag reflex. I hadn’t completely decided whether I wanted to eat the pill or not. I sure as hell didn’t want somebody else making that decision for me. I hated that. My life should be controllable by me and me only. I’m not letting a complete stranger decide my fate for me. The only person who could do that was my mom.

And my mom was...

Trying to forget, I desperately tried to make myself vomit. With my hand halfway down my throat, I felt nothing. That’s not entirely true, I did feel my hand reaching down my throat, but my body accepted it. No gag reflex.

The skinwalker looked at me.

“Well, that should allow you to talk.” It said.

Instantly in response, I said “Who the heck are you!, What’s happening? Why–”

The skinwalker cut me off and continued. “Human that device should also allow you to understand me in my native tongue”

“Shut up! Leave me alone and get me out of here!” I screamed back. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.

“Human, I do not wish to hurt you”

I ignored him, “The government’s going to find out! Once that happens you’ll be blown to bits!”

The skinwalkers eyes narrowed “Even when I’m conversing with you at my max capacity you still put up a fight”

I’d been too panicked to notice it before, but ever since I had eaten the pill the skinwalker hadn’t been speaking its weirdly spoken English. All the weird fluctuations of his voice seemed to be gone. In fact, it seemed like his English was near perfect. He was speaking like a Native.

Did he expect me to believe a small pill could work magic like this?

The skinwalker gave an awkward smile. “Human. You should know there is no way out of this situation. You saw how we can teleport you back into your seat.”

The skinwalker was right. The only way out of this situation was to play along. If I waited long enough, a way out could present itself. Oh, I really hope there was a way out.

I tried to compose myself.

“I’ll do what you want me to do. First, tell me what the pill you put inside of me does”

“Human, it is uncivilized, even criminal to simplify what I just gave you as a pill.” The skinwalker proceeded to snort, and as it did, green liquid dribbled from its tusk-filled mouth.

Ew, Skinwalker drool.

“Tell. Me.” I say quite condescending, being the person with no advantage in this situation.

“Fine Human. The pill strengthened your throat. It’s allowing your weak human vocal cords to move the highly advanced air your breathing. It also allows your ears to hear a direct translation of my native tongue. ” It flashes its awkward smile.

“Different Air? We are on Earth. Aren’t we?” I ask as my voice and confidence begin to waver.

“Quite the contrary, Human.” It reaches for its jacket pocket again and this time pulls out a thing I’d guess to be a controller. It pushes a button on it.

As he does, reality as I know it starts to disappear. The dining room of what I’d believe to be my house started to disintegrate away. The photos of me and my mom, the flower wallpaper I’d picked out for this room, all vanished into specs of dust.

There we were left sitting in a blank white room. The only things left being chairs the skinwalker and I were sitting on.

“We were in a simulated version of your home” Again another flash of its awkward smile.

I was shocked. My home. Gone. That type of technology couldn’t exist. Everything felt so real. I mean, we are in a room no bigger than your average classroom. I went down the stairs.

Ok so maybe simulated realities could exist. But no way we were off Earth! Scientists haven’t found intelligent life on any planets in our solar system. For us to be on a different planet with intelligent life would mean we’d have to be outside our solar system! Scientists can’t even get a human to Mars.

This skinwalker was probably some mutated human experiment done by the government, on Earth.

I knew the skinwalk–. No, the mutant had to be lying. It’s just a normal human who got turned into this–creature– through secret experiments. It bore a close resemblance to a man. It was a he, not an it.

A human not an alien.

“If we’re off Earth, and there’s different air, how can I breathe?.” I asked. My voice rising as I posed the question.

I’d trapped the mutant within his web of lies. How was he going to explain this?

“Oh, that? That’s what the operation yesterday was for. Gave you a pair of lungs that can turn anything you breathe into oxygen.” He gave me an awkward thumbs up. With his thumb being as long or even longer than his normal fingers. “You woke up in the middle of the operation. Gave us a real scare.” He gave me that awkward smile again.

My heart dropped. It was true. Everything was true. I tried to deny it. If you’d think about it logically it all made sense.

“If Earth had technology as advanced as what I’d witness just now, why would they so nonchalantly hand it to a kid?”

“Why wouldn’t big businesses try to sell it to other corporations for money.”

I tried for so long to ignore the voice in my head giving me the obvious facts. The only option I had was to continue on.

I reminded myself, I needed to play along, I need to wait.

This would be the only possible way to find my chance.

To find my way out.

“Fine then Skinwalker. What do you want me to do?” I asked coarsely.

“I’m no skinwalker Human. I’d guess I am most similar to what you humans would call an alien. For your convenience, you may call me Muhammad. I know it’s the most common name on your planet”

I respond, “Ok, Muhammad. My name isn’t my species either. My name is José.”

“I’m going to love working with you, Muhammad” I then say sarcastically.

Muhammad flashes his on-brand awkward smile.

“Well Isn’t this just great José! The other proctors thought I would be crazy for choosing a human as my understudy! I’ve always appreciated your culture, I hope you know.”

He quickly gets up from his seat. Rising as if he has not a second to waste.

“Welp, see ya later José. Tomorrow we’ll talk about the nitty-gritty.”

I instantly sprout up from my seat.

“Wait! Muhammad. What’s going–”

It’s too late. Muhammad presses the button on his remote, and rectangular light opens up at the end of the room. He walks through it and he’s gone.

I instantly find myself transported into my bedroom.

I look around. I look down to see I’m still wearing my pajamas. They’re covered with images of Mickey Mouse.

I think I was still wearing them when the illusion of this reality was down. In that case, this means these pajamas are real.

I think of the conversation from Muhammad’s point of view. A 17-year-old teen having a breakdown and then acting smug all whilst in Mickey Mouse PJs.

Man, José. You must’ve looked stupid.