Creative Melting Pot

It’s around ten o’clock in the evening when Valerie Navarro comes across a very particular post on her favorite niche message board; Exposing Exterrestrial Existence.

She’s actually about to scroll past when she happens to get a closer look at the given address. It’s a place on the other side of town, just a half hour drive from the apartment. Valerie immediately sits up in her bed as she scrutinizes the legitimacy of the provided information. Claims of a strange, otherworldly creature seen lurking just behind the closed doors of an abandoned home. There are several pictures attached as “proof” of this encounter, but only one catches the twenty-two year old’s attention. It’s the clearest image of the bunch, though still significantly blurred. A slender, multicolored arm with pointed neon-pink nails pokes out from behind a tattered curtain. Valerie can’t explain why, but she knew the image wasn’t fabricated.

It was an actual, living alien. 

She can’t explain how she knew it was, or why something like this would happen in this nowhere town, but the unbridled excitement beginning to pump through her veins was undeniable. 

Valerie quickly threw off her fuzzy blue blanket before rushing to her bedroom door. After quickly scanning the living room, she found her best friend/roommate, Dehl Salvato, sitting in his usual chair near the coffee table. His eyes are trained on his nearby computer while his right hand idly clicks the pen in his hand. No doubt trying to figure out how to convince some gullible senior to buy a nonexistent wonder-drug. He glances up at her manic expression and his neutral expression crinkles with frustration.

“Whatever it is, no.”

“There’s one here in town,” Valerie explains. “There’s one here in town and we can see it.”

Dehl stops the constant clicking of his pen and lets out a sigh before turning his tired eyes towards his best friend. “Val, I told you to stop looking at that dumb blog. It’s rotting your brain.”

“But this time it’s real,” Valerie reassures. “I don’t know how I know, but I just do. And besides, you know I wouldn’t be telling you about this if I even suspected it was fake.” 

Dehl stares at her for several beats, probably searching for any hints that this whole scenario is just a prank. Eventually, he groans in defeat and reaches over to shut his laptop before slumping back into his chair. “Lemmie see it.”

The curly-haired woman rushes across the room as she excitedly shoves her phone into her best friend’s face. The twenty-three year old begrudgingly takes the device from her hand and, after looking through the same post she had, the pen slips through his fingers. Somehow, he seems even more exhausted than he was a second ago.

“You’re joking, right?” Dehl asks. Valerie’s silence gave him his answer. “Jesus Christ- Val, this is clearly just some asshole who painted their arm! You’re smarter than this.”

“It’s not fake!” Valerie snaps as she snatches her phone. A few seconds pass in tense silence, both surprised by the twenty-three year old’s reaction. The curly haired woman takes in a deep breath to calm herself before continuing, “Like I said, I just…I just know this is real. Please, if we can just go down to South Hill Road, we can-”

“That’s on the other side of town,” 

“It is.”

“I’m not going all the way across town,” Dehl bluntly states as he stands up. “I have to wake up for the early shift. And last time I checked, you have an article due at noon.”

“I already sent that to my editor,” Valerie lies as she follows closely behind Dehl on his trek to the kitchen. “Look, I’d go by myself, but there’s no buses running this late, and I don’t have a car. Unless you’d let me drive Delilah.”

“Absolutely not,” Dehl says firmly as he grabs a water bottle from the refrigerator.

“Then please drive me there! I promise it won’t be a waste of time!”

“I already said no,” Dehl reinterates as he unscrews the cap. He quickly fishes out a pill from the open container on the ledge of the sink before popping it in his mouth. He chases it down with a swig of water before saying, “Just go tomorrow.”

“But it might not even be there tomorrow!” Valerie protests. “It could get scared off, or that person who made the post might try going back to capture it! Then it’d spend the rest of its life in some lab getting experimented on!”

“You’re whining like a child.”

“Because you don’t care how important this is!” Despite her persistence, Dehl isn’t swayed. He goes through his usual nightly routine – double checking that the front door is locked, shutting the living room curtains, turning off the lights. Valerie knows if he makes it into his room, he’s not coming out until his alarm blares in the morning. The twenty-three nearly makes it inside when she thinks of the perfect bait to catch his attention. “Fine, we don’t have to go. It’s just a shame about all the stuff we could’ve pawned, though.”

Dehl pauses right in his doorway before turning back to his best friend. “What stuff?”

Hook, line, and sinker. “I mean, the house people saw the alien in has been abandoned for years. Meaning anything valuable inside would be yours for the taking. Practically free money if you think about it.” 

Dehl stares in silent contemplation for several seconds. Valerie momentarily wonders if she overplayed her hand before she’s validated by a sigh of defeat.

“Get your shoes and meet me at the door. We’re leaving in five.”