PINK?!?

PINK?

         

      It was supposed to be just a little game of poker for Adam and his pals. A Friday night, no wives or girlfriends, and two cases of Coronas. Simple as that.

      But what actually happened left a lot of people scratching their heads.

      By the time Gary, Rick, and Mike showed up at Adam’s house, the sun was just going down. It was a warm summer evening, no clouds in the sky, no wind, and the temperature stuck at a muggy eighty degrees; a typical August night in the small town of Salvo, east Texas. After the usual bullshit of greetings and handshakes, pretending like they all really cared for each other, they sat down at the kitchen table and started playing. Adam was down almost twenty bucks in twenty minutes, while Gary and Rick sat there with stupid grins on their faces. But the night was young and there was plenty of money still on the table, so he wasn’t too worried about it. He knew the more beer they drank, the more their poker faces would relax, so he got up to get them a second round.

      He had just closed the refrigerator door and turned around when a loud ‘boom’ shook the entire house, stopping Adam in his tracks.

      “What the hell was that?” Mike asked, looking around at the others.

      “Sounded like thunder,” Rick said.

      Gary, who was the last one to get there, said, “Couldn’t be. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when I got here.”

      Adam put the beers down on the table and went to the kitchen window. He craned his head back and looked up at the sky. “He’s right,” he said. “There’s no clouds. All I can see are stars.” He turned around to face his buddies. “But guys, you won’t believe this.”

      “What?”

      Adam shook his head. “It’s snowing.”

      “You’re full of shit,” Mike said.

      “Look for yourself.”

      Adam stepped aside as the three men stood up and walked over to the window.

      “What the hell?” Rick asked.

      Just then a huge flash lit up the sky as another loud boom shook the house. All four of them looked at each other, then back at the window.

      The snow was starting to fall faster.

      “That’s impossible,” Gary said.

      Another bright flash. Another loud boom. Brighter. Louder.

      Mike jumped back, his eyes wider than quarters.

      “Jesus Christ,” he said. “Did you see that?”

      “What?”

      Mike stepped back up to the window and peered out. “There’s something out there!”

      Now all four of them crowded around the small window fighting for a view.

      “What do you mean, ‘something’?” Adam asked.

      “I don’t know. Someone…something just ran across your back yard. It was all hunched over. I saw it when-”

      He was interrupted by another loud boom. Another bright flash.

      “I saw it!” Rick said, tapping the window. “Over there by that tree.”

      “What’s going on?” Gary asked.

      “I don’t know what’s going on with this weather,” Adam said. “But I saw him too. I’m going out there.”

      “Adam…”

      “It’s that damn Spencer kid again,” Adam said as he marched into the living room toward the front door. “He knows he's not supposed to be on my property.”

      “Adam, that wasn’t a kid,” Mike said, but Adam didn’t hear him. He was already walking out. The three of them went back to the window and waited for Adam to come around the back of the house.

      Another loud boom. Another bright flash.

      The snow falling faster. Harder.

      “This is too weird,” Gary said.

      Ten seconds went by. Twenty. Something hit the back of the house while at the same time something splashed on the window, obscuring most of their view.

      “What the…what is…oh my God…” Rick said as he watched the thick red drops slowly slide down the glass. He backed away from the window and almost fell over one of the empty chairs.

      Gary and Mike didn’t notice him. “This is a joke,” Gary said. “This has got to be a joke.”

        “You think so?” Rick said, regaining his balance. “Then how does that explain this weather?”

      Somewhere in the back yard something screamed. A high-pitched, inhuman scream.

      Mike pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and started punching numbers.

      “What are you doing?”

      “I’m calling the cops! What do you think I’m doing?” He put the phone to his ear, waited, then brought it down and stared at it. “Shit! I don’t have any bars.”

      As soon as that last word was out of his mouth another bright flash lit up the back yard, accompanied by another boom of thunder. Except this time it wasn’t a ‘boom’. It was more of a ‘crack’, as if the sky had just been split wide open.

      Something smashed against the front door.

      “Fuck!” Rick yelled.

      All three of them went to the doorway and looked in the living room. There, in the large picture window just to the right of the front door, were five sets of dark orange eyes staring back at them.

      With that same ear-piercing scream, the window suddenly imploded, and five hairless creatures burst through and landed in the middle of Adam’s living room. They squatted there for a few seconds on their haunches, their sharp claws resting on the green shag carpet while oversized nostrils flared and hungry mouths opened and closed to reveal several rows of small, pointed teeth. Then the one in front twitched its tail, and all five of them lunged for their prey.

      The first bite paralyzed their victims.

      Pink? Gary thought. ‘Pink’ little aliens?

      The last thing he heard before everything went silent and dark was a slurping noise.

      It sounded like it was coming from his stomach.