The Observation

By John Page

I open the door to my house. I call for Christine, my fiancée, to help me put away the groceries. We have been dating for about four years and decided to move in together before the wedding. 

She is a very funny and quirky person. She likes to ask people a lot of seemingly random questions and is also ready to be someone’s friend. We met after she moved into my old apartment complex. I found her looking lost outside of her apartment. I had asked her if she needed help and soon I was over every day helping her out.

Soon we starting going out and I fell madly in love with her.

Of course there are a few things that I am worried about. I have never met her family in person as they live far away and can only talk via video chat. Christine also is very loving and I am worried that I am worthy to be with someone so sweet and silly. Also it seems that we are moving at a pace faster than I meant for.

I push aside these thoughts and go call her her again. She doesn’t respond so I head to go look for her. After looking for a few frantic minutes I determine that she isn’t home. Weird as I had texted her only a few minutes before she said she was watching tv.

I try calling her but the call doesn’t go through. I am feeling a little panicked and am sitting wondering what I can do when I stop something odd. There is a part of the wall that looks slightly out of place. I walk toward it.

I touch the unusual part of the door. As I do I fall forward.

I am shocked as I land on a stone floor. The air feels unusual and it’s very dark. I am super confused.

I hear a familiar voice call out, “Jason, what are you doing here?” 

I call out, “Christine where are you? Where are we?”

I am confused as her voice sounded off somehow; like if a machine was trying to copy what her voice sounds like.

I stumble forward and I hear Christine say, “Jason, I need to be calm and go back home.”

I ask her why but she doesn’t say anything. 

I try to pull out my phone by something slimy grabs my hand. I want panic but another voice says, “Mr. Green, there is something that you need to understand. I will turn on the lights and I need you to listen to us.”  It sounds like someone I know and I decide to nod.

All of a sudden the lights are on. I am in what can best be described as a lab built for giants. It is covered in various arcane machines whose purpose I can only guess at. I am startled as I am faced with two things. 

Both are about fifteen feet tall and have a body that’s roughly cone shaped. Sprouting from the cones are dozens of  tentacles that end in a variety of orbs, clusters of smaller limbs, swirling gas and long tubes. Surrounding them are glowing lines.  One of the things is mostly brown and red while the other is white with blue.

The white and blue was the thing that has grabbed my arm. I recoil from it but I feel it try to  hold on to me. I want to fight it more but the brown and red one raises a tube limb and I hear the voice say, “Please stop Jason, you are hurting Christine.”

With that I stop as I have noticed that white and blue seemed familiar. I look at the thing and seem it kind of shrink back the way my girlfriend does when she thinks I am mad at her. I stare at it/her for a few moments and white and blue raises one of it’s tubes and says, “Jason, I am sorry. I didn’t want you to see me like this”

My mouth is open as beyond a doubt the thing holding on to me is Christine. The way it talked, the slight squeeze on my wrist, the sense it’s blushing, that is her.

I don’t say anything as I don’t know what to say. Brown and red looks at me and mumbles, “Christine, this might be easier if you change back.”

White and blue nods and seems to start shaking. I move forward to help her but within seconds I’m holding Christine the way I know her. I reach a woman who is about a head shorter than me with long red hair and is built like a model. She is wearing a white sun dress and is crying. 

I start rubbing her head and giving her kisses. I still don’t know what the hell is going on but I do know that she needs me. It probably seems weird that I was sure that I was holding yet but as sure as I know the sky is blue I knew that this was my girlfriend.

Brown and red looked pleased with me and starting talking, “Mr. Green, I will not overwhelm you with information but I will give you a quick summary. Christine and myself are members of a species of scholars known as the Yongoyj. We live in a different dimension and seek knowledge the way your kind seek wealth and power. Christine wanted to study humans and felt the best way was to become one. We created a body for her and for the last few years she has lived as a human.”

I take all of that in but I have a question, “Was a relationship with me part of the study?”

Christine looks up at me with very sad brown eyes, “No! Jason I love you. Please don’t think our love is somehow fake. You are my true love.”  She is holding me so tight it’s almost hurting.

Brown and red sighs sadly, “Our kind don’t have romantic connections as our species doesn’t reproduce sexually. Christine seems to have been influenced by her human body as her emotional state grew worse as she kept worrying about you finding out and leaving her. I had called her today to get some sense in her.”

I feel sick as I had noticed that she was acting odd but I assumed it was due to work stress. I am overwhelmed by the information but my heart is telling me that Christine needs me. I look her in the eyes and give her a deep kiss. She seems to tremble but starts kissing me back with a furious passion. I seem to forget where I was until I hear brown and red say, “Human sex drives are certainly something. You two seem to really like each other. Certainly you have given Christine many physical samples for us to study”

Christine and I take a step back from each other, slightly embarrassed. Christine looks at me with a smile, “I really do love you and I am glad that you aren’t mad at me.”

“I am certainly confused but I am not mad at you, darling,”I reply.

Christine looks happy and resumes, “I am unusual for my kind as I have always wanted a life partner. My old name is LeftYu Jo but please keep calling me Christine. Also ignore RegyuNu’s comments as it tends to be a little crude. Yes my experiences are transmitted to a data center but I’m not sharing everything with them.”

I feel strange but after a few minutes more of talking I remember that our groceries are still sitting on the counter. I say that and suddenly Christine and I are back in the kitchen. I look at my phone and it’s apparently only a minute after I first got home. My head hurts and after we put the stuff away I go off to take a nap. Christine offers to take one with me.

As we sleep I have horrible dreams of monsters coming to get me. Even if I am accepting of this insanity my brain still feels blasted.

As I wake up from them I feel Christine holding tight to me. She is still asleep and looks worried. My resolve hardens and I stroke her hair, she relaxes and nuzzles me. I go back to sleep with a clearer head. We will make it work somehow.