Chapter 20
Finally, David and Sabrina arrived at David’s mansion. Sabrina couldn’t believe her eyes when she went in. The mansion was gigantic, valued at $2.5 million dollars. It had a gigantic living room, twelve bedrooms, six bathrooms, a colossal kitchen, three dining rooms, and long, wide hallways. The first story of the house had a living room, four big bedrooms with bathrooms on the inside, the kitchen and the dining rooms. The second story of the house had four bedrooms, a gigantic living room, and two more bathrooms. The third story of the house had a spacious living room and the remaining four bedrooms. The house also had a colossal swimming pool. David and Sabrina explored the entire house. He wanted to show his crib to his girlfriend. Sabrina was impressed. How could all the aliens that lived on earth be so rich? It didn’t matter to her. She was in love with him and she wanted to start a family with him.
“It seems like we got here hours ago,” she said. “This house is huge!”
“I haven’t shown you the whole house yet,” he replied.
“Are you serious?”
“It would take me the entire day to show you the whole house.”
“Oh, boy…” she said, surprised. “I want to go to your room.”
He gasped. “You want to go to my room?”
She wrapped her arms around him and French-kissed him. “I want you, David.”
David was surprised. He couldn’t believe that he’d finally score tonight. Fortunately, he now knew the way to keep her from getting pregnant, and he’d practice it. Still, he didn’t want it to be like this. He was a strange man. All aliens were strange. Their behavior was completely unexpected, and just when we thought that we’d seen it all, they would shock us one more time. “Sabrina, I think we should…”
She became saddened suddenly. She hadn’t let him go yet. “Don’t you want me?”
“No, it’s just that…”
She wouldn’t let him talk. “Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong?”
“No, no… just listen to me, ok? I have chosen you to be my mate for life, and I want us to wait, you know, till we get married.”
Sabrina wiped her tears away and opened up a bright smile. “Oh, my God, you’re…”
David interrupted her once again. “Do you want to marry me, Sabrina?” he said, smiling.
She gasped and her eyes widened. She didn’t know what to say. Ten minutes after standing there, smiling, she yelled, “Yes!” and they hugged.
That night, Scott was in the living room drinking a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows inside of it and watching a comedy movie on satellite TV. Since he started taking that medicine, his behavior and quality of life improved greatly. He was always in the same mood, but he was calm all the time. The few times that he got angry, he would just go to his room play some soft music and lie down in his bed to relax. That really helped him calm down. He would never become angry with Lily, though. Every time that he and Lily had a difference of opinions, they would just sit down and talk about it. They would never yell or call each other names. If an agreement couldn’t be made, they would just leave it alone and forget about it, but that would happen once in a blue moon. They still had $10,000 of the $20,000 that Mark had given them, thus they paid their overdue bills and their late mortgage with the money and then they were able to save half of the money, so they kept it in the bank account for an emergency. They would get everything that they wanted with the money they made at their jobs. Scott, however, he wanted something more. He wanted to make more money. He suddenly figured that if Mark helped him once, he would help him again. Lily was in her bedroom, talking to her mother on the home phone extension. A new baby was coming in less than six months, and he desperately needed more money. He would make fifteen dollars an hour at his current full-time job.
Scott’s cell phone was on the couch, right beside him. He picked it up, flipped it open, and dialed Mark’s number. He placed the phone earpiece in his ear.
Mark and Amelia were sleeping that night. Suddenly, the phone started ringing. Mark woke up and answered it. “Hello, this is Mark Manning.”
“Mark, I hate to bother you once again.”
“Scott, how are you doing?” said Mark, smiling, and sat up on the bed. Amelia was still sleeping soundly and Mark’s voice and the noise didn’t awake her. “Of course you’re not bothering me, buddy. What do you need?”
“I… I don’t mean to sound greedy, but I have a new baby coming soon, and I don’t think Lily and I, I don't think we are making enough money for him to live a good life, you know what I mean?”
“Don’t worry. You will soon become the manager of the store you work at, before your baby’s born.”
“How do you know that, Mark?” said Scott, amazed.
“I’ve had dreams about the futures of all the people that I’m close to. Some of these premonitions are great and some are horrible, but I don’t want to ruin anyone’s life by telling them the bad things.”
“Oh, no,” said Scott, “oh, well, is this the first time you’ve had premonitions?”
“Yes, and I don’t know what’s happening. No one that I know has been going through this.”
“It’s going to be ok, Mark.”
“I see a dark future for the human race. I don’t think this planet is going to survive what’s coming. I don’t dare to tell you or anyone what it is, but I’m going to have to do something to stop it, and if we can’t stop it, then we’ll take humans to that other earthlike planet that’s very far out.”
“All right, Mark,” said Scott, realizing that Mark wasn’t fully awake and he was living an alternate reality. “I will talk to you later.”
“Bye, Scott.” Mark hung up and went right back to sleep.
Something was wrong with Mark. There was an entity that was disturbing his mind. Mark continued to have nightmares, and from this point on, he wouldn’t be able to live a normal life. The next morning, Mark woke up tired and saddened for the first time in his life. Amelia noticed this and became worried about him. Instead of getting up, Mark lied down on the bed once again and covered himself with his sheets.
He’s not going to work today. Amelia got up, turning her face to look at him one last time, and walked into the bathroom. She took a quick shower and changed her clothes. She styled her hair very nicely, put on a little bit of makeup and then walked out of the room. She closed the door behind her.
While Amelia was taking over for him at work, Mark was convulsing on the bed. He was sweating heavily and his heart was pounding. He was out of breath. His room was too far away for any of his maids to hear him. Helpless, he gave his last breath, and he died.
It turned out that Mark had been poisoned for a long time. Ever since he was released from TOTS, he was receiving very low doses of arsenic and other poisons in his food, that had no smell, no taste, and the food looked completely normal. Unknowingly, Amelia would give him poisoned food. No one knew how this had happened. He started taking the poison before his supernatural defenses kicked in. Mark was the weakest alien specimen on earth. It also turned out that he was almost humanlike, and these evil people found the way to eliminate him, finally. The angels’ enemies were very insidious. Since they couldn’t kill other aliens because their organisms were too powerful, they decided to kill Mark and his dreams. When Amelia came home several hours later, at dawn, and hoping that Mark was better, the first thing she did was to go back to her room to see him. When she touched him, he was as cold as ice, and his entire body was blue. She screamed in utter horror. God, these bastards are everywhere! She suddenly realized. Amelia picked up the phone and called 911.
Suddenly, Amelia got a phone call on the other line. “I’m sorry,” she said to the operator, before even explaining the situation to him. “This call is important because the caller won’t hang up.”
The operator waited patiently on the line. This was an emergency and he just felt that he couldn’t hang up. Someone was in trouble, although Amelia got the other phone call while she was telling him her name and confirming her home address.
Matt was the caller on the other line. Before Amelia could say hello, he screamed, “Amelia, hang up with the 911 operator, please! End the call, end the call right now! My brother can’t be taken to the morgue!”
“Are you crazy, Matthew?!”
“Just do what I ask, please! I know what to do with my brother, please!”
“Ok,” said Amelia, “ok, Matt, do what you want with your brother, all right. Hang on a second.” She got back with the operator. “You know what, I’m sorry, don’t send anyone, ok? I’m very sorry I called for nothing.”
“Are you sure everything’s all right?”
“Yes, yes, once again, I apologize.”
“Ok. Don’t hesitate to call if you need help.”
“Thank you for everything.” Amelia ended that call and got on the other line with Matt. “I did what you begged me to do.” She was annoyed and irritated. Her loving husband could rot on her bed every minute now, and despite the deep sorrow and misery that she felt, she wasn’t crying. Mark’s death was so sudden and inexplicable that she couldn’t even cry. However, she could break down any minute now and pass out on the floor. “What am I supposed to do now?"
“I am not doing this for Mark or for me. I’m doing this for you. They will accuse you of murdering my brother and put you in jail for life.”
“Why would they accuse me of murder?”
“Mark didn’t just die, Amelia, although it seems that way. You’ve unknowingly been poisoning him ever since you guys got married.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I had an abrupt vision of all of it. It was like a one minute movie. It was horrible,” said Matt, crying. “No one can find out that my brother died, is that understood?”
“Then what do you suggest we do?”
“I suggest we take him to Daniel Sherman’s lab and have him revive my brother.”
Amelia gasped and her eyes widened. “What!”
One hour later, Amelia, Maya and Matt were on their way to Daniel’s mansion. Amelia didn’t understand what Matt had just told her. Mark’s body was inside a body bag with a zipper on the front, in the third backseat of Matt’s van. “I don’t get this, Matt,” said Amelia. “Why would they accuse me of poisoning Mark?”
“Those motherfuckers are very insidious, you know, the dickheads that are after us? They did it, but there’s no proof of that. You gave my brother the poisoned food, so the finger would be pointed directly at you and you’ll go to jail for the rest of your natural life.”
“How did they do it?”
“Just don’t worry about it, Amelia,” said Maya, sweetly, from the second backseat. “The problem will be resolved soon. We are going to keep all of that from happening. We’re the only ones that know that Mark is dead. Your maids believe that he’s in his room watching TV, and before leaving, you told them not to disturb him, so they won’t find out what happened.”
“Maya’s right. Just relax. Everything’s going to be ok. Our enemies are not going to win. They never do. When they go, we’re already coming back.”
A few minutes later, the gang arrived at Daniel’s mansion. They parked their car at the entrance and Matt made sure that no one was looking at them at the moment. He opened the back door and carried his brother’s dead body like he was a baby. Seth was coming out the main door, and he gasped when he saw the dead body. “Who is that?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t tell you,” said Matt, rushing the body into the house. Daniel was walking down the stairs with a glass of iced tea in his hand, and when he saw the dead body, he dropped the glass and it shattered into a thousand pieces.
“I’m sorry we came without calling, Dr. Sherman,” said Amelia, running after Mark. “We need you to bring this creature back to life.”
To avoid stressing Matt, Maya and Amelia even more, Seth refrained from asking them again who this creature was.
“Ok, I’m going to do that, I promise. Just give me time to get ready,” said Daniel as he guided Matt to his lab.
“He’s one of our own,” said Seth as he sat down in the living room beside Amelia and Maya, “so it won’t be difficult to resuscitate him.”
It was Monday morning. Everyone woke up and followed their morning routines religiously. While most people were getting ready to go to school or to go to work, Mark was coming back to life. He got up and looked around him. He was completely naked. What he didn’t know was that now he was just as powerful and strong as all the other aliens were. No matter what anyone did to him, they couldn’t kill him. He had a 2,000-year lifespan just like everyone else, starting now. Mark was now like a formatted hard drive. All he had from his first life were his few memories that he’d had over the years because, although Mark was forty-six years old, he had only lived for twenty-two earth years. Mark’s skin was soft, smooth, and his hair was silky and resilient. His eyes shone intensely, like little stars. He was feeling better than ever. He was full of vigor and power. Daniel and Seth had left him some clothes to wear right by the bed that he was lying down at. Mark went to the bathroom nearest to the lab, downstairs, to take a shower. When he finished his shower twenty minutes later, he put his clothes on. He was alone in the house. Daniel and Seth were working. Therefore, Mark explored the entire mansion and then, he picked up the phone in the kitchen and called Amelia at the Manning Foods premises, hoping that she was there.
Amelia answered the phone in Mark’s office. She had the same abilities and skills as all the aliens, even though she was still human, and she was doing Mark’s work for him perfectly. “Hello, Manning Foods, this is Amelia Manning. How may I help you?”
“Sweetie, this is Mark.”
Amelia gasped and dropped the pen she had in her hand at the moment. “Mark? How are you?”
“I’m feeling great, better than ever before. It’s like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.”
“I am glad. That means tomorrow you’ll come back to work, right?” she said, smiling. Her heart was jumping with utter and immense joy. The love of her life had returned to her, and she would never lose him again. The night before, when she arrived at Daniel’s house with Matt and Maya, Daniel and Seth had explained to her what Mark’s life would be like from now on. She had nothing to worry about… or so she thought. Today, her life would change forever.
Clay was all alone in his house that morning. Anna Christina had died of a heart attack three months before, and he was alone. He was so depressed that he didn’t want to work, and he was solely eating and sleeping just to live. He wasn’t looking for any other women out there. Adrianna had no one else in this world, so she was staying with Clay and his parents. Clay swore to Anna Christina that he would take care of Adrianna until Adrianna would become independent. Adrianna was sad. She missed her sister, but Dr. Kress and his wife were now her new guardians. Adrianna couldn’t be happy, no matter how hard she tried. Anna Christina had left her, forever.
Clay made the biggest mistake of his life by cremating Anna Christina. He didn’t know that Anna Christina could be resuscitated. Still, he was willing to move on with his life with another woman but he would not go out there seeking her. He would wait for her to come along. Suddenly, Clay decided to go on a shopping spree today. He got up from the couch, went to the bathroom inside of his bedroom, took his pajamas off, took a quick shower, and put on fresh new clothes. Clay didn’t need anything, really. He just wanted to get distracted. His parents had never run out of money and they never would, so he could spend as much money as he wanted on everything he wanted. He didn’t do this every day. In fact, this would be the first shopping spree he’d ever gone on without his parents. In minutes, Clay got on his car and took off.
Thirty minutes later, Clay arrived at the mall. He called his mother to let her know where he was just so that she wouldn’t worry. Adrianna was still in school, and he wouldn’t even spend that much money anyway. He never had. Why would he start now? He just wanted to get his mind off things for a little while. Hopefully, he would meet new people, or perhaps, a new love.
Ursula answered the phone at work. She’d finally started her career as a veterinarian, ten years after graduating. “Hello, this is Dr. Ursula Kress. How may I help you?”
“Mom, this is Clay,” said Clay as he entered the mall through the main door. “I just called to let you know that I’m at the mall.”
“Ok, sweetie, I don’t have much time. I have a patient coming in, in five minutes.”
“I promise not to buy many things. I just want to take my mind off things, you know? Get distracted.”
“It’s ok, Clayton, you can buy anything you want. I’ll see you when I get home.”
“See you later, Mom,” Clay ended the call.
Clay went into an electronics store a few minutes later to buy an iPod. Surprisingly, Amelia was there also, shopping for a new digital video camera. She had gotten off work because Mark had called her and told her that he would go back to work today. She’d never bought a digital video camera. She had a DVD camera, but a digital video camera for her was better because she was able to record videos, transfer them to her computer, and then delete them when her camera ran out of space for recording, and record new videos. A digital video camera was much smaller and could be carried in her purse. She would save so much money on DVD’s, and she wouldn’t store little DVDs anywhere. Clay walked closer to this amazingly beautiful woman just when she’d picked the camera. “That’s a good choice,” he said.
The camera was so small that it could fit in the palm of her hand. “Thank you,” said Amelia. This man was incredibly handsome. Amelia could tell that he was human. Amelia took a camera from under the camera on display and just when she was about to pay it, she realized that Clay was following her. “May I help you?”
He couldn’t help it. She was so lovely. “No.” He was blushing.
“Do you need something?” She was afraid now, and the store associate was watching all the action.
“No, it is ok,” he said and walked away.
Amelia was so freaked out that she just turned around, avoided him the best she could, and paid for her camera. Then, she rushed out of the store.
Without buying his iPod, Clay ran after her and then started walking like nothing was going on.
She turned around. “What’s your problem?”
Surprised with Amelia’s reaction, he said, “Madam, I don’t have a problem.”
“Why are you following me?” she said, horrified. “What do you want from me?”
“I’m sorry,” he said, saddened. “It’s just that you are so beautiful…”
Stunned and openmouthed, Amelia said, “What?”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ll never bother you again.” He walked away from her.
Amelia was so horrified that she ran and ran until she found the front door. Her hands shook violently as she pulled her cell phone out of her purse. She dialed Mark’s number.
Mark was in his office at that moment, revising the report that Brooke had just given him. The phone rang. He picked it up immediately. “This is Mark Manning. How may I help you?”
“Honey, it’s me.” Amelia breathed heavily as she got into her car and closed the door.
Mark got up from his chair, openmouthed. “What’s wrong, Amelia?”
Amelia was now using her hands-free headset for her phone. She was pulling out of the parking lot. Crying bitterly, she said, “This man’s following me. He’s twenty-one to twenty-three years old, and I’m scared.”
Unbeknown to Amelia, Clay was following her!
“Have you ever seen this man before?” said Mark, worried.
“No.”
“What does he look like?”
Amelia was on the road now, and Clay was right behind her. “He has black hair, light skin, brown eyes… Oh, I don’t remember anything else.”
Clay was still behind Amelia. He suddenly realized that he didn’t know what he was doing. He was terrorizing this poor woman! He didn’t know if this woman was married or anything. He had no idea that this woman was Mark Manning’s wife. He felt badly for her, but she was so beautiful… unlike any other woman he’d ever seen. Nevertheless, this was insane. He didn’t have the heart to hurt this poor woman. He decided to keep this love for her platonic, but… would he be able to? He turned around and went his own way, back home, having purchased absolutely nothing. Clay hoped that one day however, this woman would be his. He didn’t have a good start with her, but in the back of his mind, he still wanted her. He wouldn’t go around looking for her though. Clay hoped that Amelia would appear out of nowhere the next time he saw her, just like she did today. He had fallen deeply in love with her, but he wasn’t a stalker. He knew that poor Amelia was terrified.
Because of Clay, from now on, Amelia wouldn’t be able to live like a normal person. Mark was talking to a personal-protection agency for them to provide his wife with bodyguards. Mark didn’t really need bodyguards because he had a gigantic and very-muscular body, a lot bigger than a bodybuilder or a wrestler, and he was strong and he’d learned tae-kwon-do and karate. Still, Mark had bodyguards just so that people knew that they couldn’t mess with him. He was living his life like any other celebrity. Amelia was a celebrity just for being his wife, but she never needed protection. Now, it was different. Amelia’s entire life had changed in one day, and she couldn’t handle it. She hoped not to see Clay ever again because he frightened her.
Mark was not a jealous man. Amelia had male friends and female friends all over town. Amelia’s friends all loved her like a sister and Amelia never saw these men look at her with lust. Clay was different. He couldn’t hide the fact that he wanted her. From the way that he approached her, the way he smiled at her… Amelia didn’t want to be this person’s friend. She didn’t want to have a relationship with anyone that would jeopardize her marriage or interfere in her family life. Mark loved Amelia’s family immensely. Amelia’s parents, Amanda and Gerald, they always wanted a wonderful man for their daughter. Amelia fell in love before meeting Mark, but that was only platonic love. Amelia didn’t have any siblings, so her parents were a little too protective of her. Her dad wouldn’t let any man touch his daughter. Every time that Amelia met a new guy and started going out with him, her parents wouldn’t let her be with that man because before going out with them, Amelia would introduce them to her parents. It seemed that they had a sixth sense because they would always find something in these guys that made them unfit to be with their daughter. Some of them were liars. Some of them were woman-beaters. Some of them were cheaters… there was always something wrong. At the time, Amelia didn’t understand why her mother and father would ruin her relationships, but at age twenty-eight, when she met Mark, it all made sense.
Amelia also thought that her mom and dad were way too demanding when it came to guys. She thought that all guys would lie and cheat at some point, and that they wanted the literally-perfect guy for her. It was impossible to her. That was all until Mr. and Mrs. Galloway met Mark Manning. He was not human, but they didn’t care. This was the man they wanted for her daughter. They knew that he would never lie, cheat, or lay a hand on their daughter. Amelia’s perfect life with Mark had changed drastically. The moment she met Clay and looked in his eyes, she became horrified. There was something seriously wrong with this man. He was wired wrong. His eyes were dark and his smile was malicious. She could tell this man’s intentions weren’t good at all. Amelia knew that she would see Clay again, and that despite her bodyguards and all the barriers Mark would build around her, he would get to her. She was scared. From that point on, she couldn’t eat or sleep. That night, she had a horrible nightmare. She dreamed that Clay was at the Manning Foods Inc. parking lot and that he’d kidnapped her, taken her to an isolated place, scream horrors at her, and then beaten her, just for telling him that she was married and she wanted nothing to do with him. Her mind was playing tricks on her. Her fear of Clay was making things seem a million times worse than they really were. Yes, Clay was in love with her, but he was incapable of hurting her. He was incredibly handsome, too, just like Mark. He was charming, and that’s what Amelia was afraid of… giving in to him and cheating on her husband. She knew for sure that if that happened, their marriage would end forever, and that Mark would abhor her just as intensely as he loved her today. Tired and preoccupied, Amelia woke up that morning and went to the bathroom to follow her morning routine. This time, Mark went after her because he knew that something was wrong. He knew that she couldn’t get that man out of her mind, but not precisely because she liked him or wanted him. She felt exactly the opposite of that. She hated him. She was afraid of him. She didn’t want to think about him.
Mark went into the bathroom and wrapped his arms around his wife’s waist. He was still in his pajamas. She let her head rest on his shoulder. “What’s wrong? You used to be so happy and ever since you called me at the office, you’ve been miserable.”
“It’s that man!” she said.
“Don’t you know who this man is?”
“No, I don’t. If I did, I would’ve called the police.” Since she couldn’t stop thinking about Clay, she gave Mark an exact physical description of Clay.
“I wish you had taken a photo so we could hire an investigator and find out exactly who this man is.”
“I don’t ever want to see him again, Mark, I really don’t.”
“I have an idea. I’m going to take a few minutes of my time to draw this man because the image of him is clear and concise in my head. I’ll be right back.” Mark walked out of the bathroom, walked out of his bedroom, and walked the hallway to his office a few doors down. There, he grabbed a few pieces of white paper from the inside of his printer, took a few colored pencils from one of the drawers of his desk, sat down, and started drawing Clay. He drew and then colored every little detail th