The Abduction of Her Dreams

A violent jolt rocks my bed.

I shoot up, heart hammering, lungs too tight to pull a full breath. My room is flooded with gold light pouring through both windows.

I squint against the glow, blinking hard. Everything looks soft and surreal, like it’s been smudged at the edges. Dreamlike.

“This again?” I whisper.

The dreams have been getting stronger lately. More vivid. It’s as if someone turned up the volume on my subconscious. I’ve had lucid dreams for as long as I can remember, but this? This is new. This is...almost cinematic.

“Mindy Hulton,” a voice calls out, muffled by some kind of static. It echoes unnaturally, like it’s coming from every direction at once. “Please step to the window.”

My eyebrows lift. They know my name. Usually, dreams don’t get that specific unless I’m deep in REM. Maybe I fell asleep earlier than I thought.

I flinch, staring at the windows. The air feels like it’s humming under my skin.

Ginnie has to hear or see all this from downstairs. My roommate isn’t exactly known for subtlety. She once chased a raccoon off our porch with a spatula and curses I’d never even heard before. Any second now, she should be bursting in, wielding a broom, a frying pan… maybe that fake katana she keeps by the laundry.

But nothing. No yelling. No footsteps. No chaotic Ginnie energy.

Just more proof this has to be a dream.

I glance at the phone on my bedside. It’s dead. That tracks.

“We would not want to scare you by coming in with our advanced technology. If you could open the window so we may speak with you, Mindy Hulton.”

I stare at the window, the light beyond it pulsing softly, almost like it’s breathing.

“I’m dreaming,” I say aloud. Saying it out loud always helps me anchor myself. “This is just another dream.”

Still, I don’t move. I listen.

The rumble from earlier has faded into a low, constant hum that I feel more than hear. It vibrates under my skin, like the walls are alive. The air tastes warm. Metallic.

“We will come to you, Mindy. Please do not be afraid. We come in peace.”

A strange sound fills the room, like air being sucked inward, and suddenly the space in front of me ripples; an oval blooms from floor to ceiling, stretching open like a doorway made of liquid, golden light.

And someone steps through.

Taking in the large person in front of me, I immediately realize he’s not like any man I’ve ever seen. A strange part of me starts to think, maybe it’s real?

His skin is so bronze it practically glows in the light of my room, and his eyes… they’re a deep, piercing purple that seems to reach into my soul as he studies me with the same intense fascination.

Two small, curved horns rise from either side of his head, white with slightly beige tips. His eyebrows are thick and black, and his hair matches, long and dark, falling just below his broad, bare shoulders. The armor he wears resembles a white tank top of sorts, though thicker in certain parts, and does a phenomenal job of showcasing his rippling muscles. His face is so painfully handsome that I don’t even catch what he says the first time—too distracted by the sharp lines and symmetry of his features to register a single word.

How I conjured up such a hottie is beyond me.

“I’m dreaming,” I repeat softly, not looking away.

“Hello? Mindy? Can you hear my voice?”

I blink before speaking in a much squeakier voice than intended.

“Oh! Yes! Um… what the hell are you doing in my room? In the middle of the night at that?”

“I have been sent here, among other places, to collect all the Yuai Mates we can find using our newly approved technology,” he says, voice deep and oddly soothing. “You are the very first we have scanned whose DNA matches perfectly. I am instructed to bring you back to the planet Nulamore, where you will be matched with your Yuai Mate. I am Jukar, and it is an honor.”

He crosses one arm over his chest like he’s saluting me, then falls silent, just… watching. Waiting.

“I am glad you are happy at the prospect,” he says. “Shall we head out?”

I shrug as I take the outstretched hand of the alien in front of me.

“Yeah, sure. Why the hell not? Let’s see where this one goes.”

I’ve had vivid, lucid dreams for as long as I can remember, which my mother when I was yong had ignored and blamed on my overactive imagination, too busy with her own shit to deal with any of mine.

I decided to roll with it tonight. Might as well. It’s better than dreaming I’m late for a shift or not wearing clothes to work again.

“Wonderful!” he says, voice practically vibrating with excitement. “You will feel a slight tingling sensation over your entire body as you step into the light. Do not worry, it is just the transporter doing its job. Very safe.”

The tingling starts immediately, like when your foot wakes up from being completely numb. It’s not pleasant, but not awful either. Just weird. I grip the alien’s hand tighter as we move through whatever this is, his strong, rough palm the only thing grounding me. Somehow, it feels solid. Real.

We step out of the portal, and I’m hit with a rush of sensory overload. Everything around me is entirely foreign. Alien. The walls, the lighting, the air, none of it feels like Earth.

Before I can process any of it, five massive beings begin to gather around me and my bronze dream guide. They look a lot like him, same golden-bronze skin, towering height, and strange, regal presence. The only differences I catch are in their horns, some are small, others longer, and one guy doesn’t seem to have any at all. Their eyes vary too, different shades of violet watching me with an intensity that makes my skin prickle.

“She has agreed to come back with us,” my guide, Jukar, announces proudly.

A cheer erupts from the group, loud and a little unsettling, like they’ve just won a prize they weren’t sure they’d get. I stand there, gripping his hand a little tighter.

Just a dream.

Right?

I wander around, brazenly touching everything, lights, gadgets, strange panels, taking in all the weird tech surrounding me on the ship. I seriously need to start writing these things down. Maybe I’ll turn this one into a book.

“Mindy Hulton.”

I snap my mouth shut and tear my eyes off the wandering tongue. “Just Mindy is fine.”

“Mindy,” the alien says, totally unfazed, “we must all be placed inside the Kip machines before beginning our journey back home. Based on the Earth technology I have studied, your species has not yet reached this level of advancement. You may therefore find the sight of it… stressful.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“If you would follow me,” the alien says.

This one has lighter purple eyes and no horns, and when he offers his hand, I take it. His grip is much softer than the other guy’s. He leads me toward a section of the wall, which slides open sideways the moment we step within a few feet of it.

The room beyond is emptier, but lined with lights and wires that snake down from the walls and ceiling into eight strange, bathtub-looking pods arranged in two rows of four. Each one is filled with a thick, light-blue gel. I watch as some of the aliens step inside, sinking down, even their faces disappear beneath the surface, as they hook their arms up to the cords submerged in the gel.

“These machines shield us from the radiation effects of traveling such long distances in a short time,” he explains calmly.

“Like warp speed?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

“I do not know this ‘warp speed,’” he replies, tilting his head slightly, “but it is a speed much faster than any recorded, or even possible, by man.”

I giggle and step up to the nearest goo-filled tub, dipping my right hand into it. It’s warm. Not hot, not cold, just… unsettlingly warm. I’m not sure which would be worse, to be honest. The idea of submerging myself in either temperature sounds awful.

Still, dream logic wins. I climb in.

The gel squishes up between my toes, thick and oddly smooth, like sinking into a warm mud puddle. It clings to me as I settle in, wrapping around my legs, my waist, my arms. It’s heavier than I expect, and comforting, if I don’t think too hard about how weird this all is.

I keep my head above the surface, watching as the alien moves closer with thick, black wires ending in oversized suction cups. He starts attaching them to my skin beneath the surface, my upper arms, calves, and sides, without hesitation. I flinch once but say nothing.

“All set, Mindy. You should start feeling sleepy very—”

I don’t catch the rest. His voice fades as my mind clouds over, soft static replacing thought. A ripple of pleasure sparks through my body, unexpected and consuming, as the gel cradles me like warm arms pulling me under.

The last thing I feel is the gel curling around my face, then nothing at all.