Snatched

The first time he saw her she was sitting in a Barista outlet sipping coffee. Her hair had green streaks and with her head bent, she was reading a book. Michael Crichton’s Timline, he had noticed.

“Are you a Sci-fi fan”, he asked walking up to her table.

She shook her head looking up at his face. “Ok”, he said and turned around to leave.

“But I am liking this book”, she said, as if trying to stop him from leaving. There was something about that smile of his and the way his brown eyes had looked at her that made her stop him and start a conversation.

“I am Kinichi” she said, extending her hand.

“Kinichi, that’s an interesting name. I am Anwar”, he said. They ended up sitting at the café for almost three hours talking about books over several cups of coffee.

The next day he found her sitting on the same table munching on some green vegetable with her coffee.

“What is that”, he asked.

“Carrot”, Kinichi replied casually.

“Green carrots”, he asked incredulously. She shrugged in reply.

Anwar worked in a publishing house and was an aspiring writer. His office building was near the café. Each evening after office hours he would come to the café to find Kinichi sitting with a cup of coffee and a book. Some days she would be munching green carrots.

****

That night around eight Anwar and Kinichi went for a walk on the pavement just outside the café. They walked slowly side by side.

“How wonderful would it be if, one day I woke up and realized that I was actually someone from another planet and had superpowers”, Kinichi said turning to Anwar.

“Yeah, superpowers like walking through a wall or flying or something”, Anwar said with a laugh.

“No, like a Queen with superpowers to disappear at will and bullets would bounce off my body.”

Thy both laughed heartily.

Anwar looked into her laughing eyes, took her hand and told her that he had fallen in love with her. She looked at him and smiled her eyes glowing faint green.

“But you don’t know much about me”, she said.

“I have nothing to do with your past, all I want is your present and your future”, Anwar replied.

“It’s not my past, it’s a life that I can’t escape.”

“What does it mean?”

Suddenly there was a flash of light on the other side of the street and almost instantly a man in black suit, white shirt and black tie appeared. He was a tall man with a strong build and wore dark glasses at night. Anwar stared at the man in disbelief. Before he could react Kinichi grabbed Anwar by his arms spun around and began to run towards the café. From the corner of his eyes Anwar saw several flashes of light all around them as men in black suits appeared.

They were still a good fifty yards away from the café when Kinichi saw the man who had first appeared running towards them pulling out a weird looking gun and pointing at them. Before Kinichi could react a car came speeding and crashed into the man throwing him in the air. The man fell on the street with a thud and immediately disappeared leaving behind some smoke.

There were others who were now running quickly towards Anwar and Kinichi. There was a brilliant flash in front of them and a black suit appeared right in front of them. They were now running straight in to the man who seemed as if he was being projected on a screen which was flickering due to fluctuating voltage.

A shower of pellets which looked green glow worms flew towards them from across the street. Kinichi covered Anwar. The glow worms bounced off her back. The man in front of them pulled out the weird gun from his back as Kinichi and Anwar tried to steer away from him.

The man’s finger pressed on the trigger and a green glow worm flew towards Kinichi. Anwar in a flash pushed Kinichi aside, the glow worm hit Anwar on the chest just above his lungs. Anwar felt as if melted iron has been inserted into his chest. He collapsed writhing in pain, unable to breath or move. Kinichi dropped over him shielding his body. As a fresh spray of green glow worms bounced off her, she pulled out a small white ceramic cylinder and pressed a pinhead sized button on it. There was flash of light and she disappeared along with Anwar leaving a plume of green smoke behind.

****

Anwar slowly opened his eyes to realize that he was lying on the floor. His head was propped on Kinichi’s lap. He looked around to see that it was the interior of a metro train. His chest felt as if a huge block of iron was kept on it, making it very difficult for him to breathe. There was a couple sitting at the end of carriage looking at them wide eyed in disbelief. A thin film of green smoke hung over his eyes as Kinichi’s sobbing face came into his vision. Tears were rolling down her chin and falling on Anwar’s face.

“Why did you have to do that”, Kinichi screamed at Anwar as he tried to adjust his vision.

“What happened? What are you? Who were those people” Anwar’s volley of questions ended in a bout of cough. Blood trickled from the side of his mouth. The metal floor below already had a small pool of red liquid forming.

Kinichi wiped the tears off her face preparing to answer.

“I am from distant planet as you Earthlings call it VSRB13 revolving around a pulsar PSR 1257+12, 700 Earth light years away. The planet’s inhabitants are actually Earthlings from what you call the ancient Mesoamerican civilization or Maya civilization. Five powerful Mayan Queens flew to VSRB13 some 2000 years ago. Mayan’s started living there and there was continuous traffic from Earth to VSRB13 as people flew to and back. Families settled there as a whole civilization began to flourish. The five Queens divided the planet into five kingdoms and began to rule them. They had special powers and so did their descendants. Soon the descendants of the Queens became power hungry and corrupt and started to fight amongst themselves. The commoners took advantage of this and took over the reins of the planet. The five kingdoms of the planet are now ruled by Kings who don’t have any special powers and are normal human beings. I am the only surviving descendant of the five queens left.” Kinichi sobbed as she finished.

“You mean to say you are an alien, with superpowers?”

“Well you can say that.”

Anwar lay on the floor looking at Kinichi trying to comprehend the situation.

“Who were those people in black suits?” Anwar asked trying to grasp the whole story.

“They are Proboids -C, half robot, half living cells, who are built to have almost similar capabilities like the queens had. But only a few Proboids –A have the full powers others are just subordinates.”

“And why were they trying to kill us?”

“They weren’t trying to kill us. They were there to capture me. The King of Zapotec in the eastern hemisphere of VSRB13 is trying to capture me so that he can fornicate with me as a result our kids will have the same superpowers as I do. The greenlets were fired at me to slow me down, they were harmless for me but for a human being like you they are worse than a bullet. Only a Proboid -A can capture me.”

Anwar smiled at her, his eyes glowed with the recollection of the past.

With every passing moment he was finding it hard to breathe. At the other end of the carriage behind Kinichi there was a flash of light and a black suit appeared, his image flickering in the air. Then there was another flash and then another. A shower of greenlets fell on Kinichi. She felt week, but tried to shield Anwar as much as she could.

A few greenlets hit Anwar. He couldn’t keep his eyes opened. Tears streamed from Anwar’s eyes as Kinichi held him close to herself, her sobbing became more violent. She pulled herself up as she saw a bright flash of light in front of her. A tall, heavily built man wearing a white suit and pointed white shoes appeared. Kinichi looked at the man as he pulled out his gun which looked like a bow attached to his right arm. The arrow was a thin long greenlet. The black suits fell back.

Kinichi looked up at the ceiling of the train gave out a howl and began to cry. The man in the white suit pulled the trigger. The greenlet flew like a rope coming out of the man’s wrist, towards Kinichi who was holding Anwar by his head against her chest and crying. The greenlet wrapped around Kinichi’s body. The black suits began to disappear one by one leaving behind a trail of green smoke all around.

When the greenlet had wrapped around Kinichi’s body a few times, the cord remained attached to the man’s wrist, the man disappeared in a puff, pulling the cord along.

“So I fell in love with the Queen with superpowers”, Anwar said smiling weekly and touched her face with his bloodied hand. A wailing Kinichi started to get sucked into the green puff of smoke atom by atom. Anwar’s lifeless body fell on the ground with a thud as Kinichi disappeared leaving behind a green smoke behind.