Abduction

3 scenes

Scene 1:

                  Annie woke up in a panic, but she couldn’t remember what woke her. She was dreaming about something " something strange.  She checked her phone. It was 2:34 am. Annie felt wide awake. Recently, she found herself waking up around the same time every night. It must have been going on for over a week now. Her husband was snoring softly beside her. Annie lay in bed staring at the ceiling for what seemed like hours. Every position she tried to sleep in was uncomfortable. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. She checked her phone again. It was only 3:33 am.

                  Something brought Annie’s attention to the window. Without thinking she got up and checked to see what it was. A strange bird sat on her windowsill, facing away from her. It twisted its head all the way around to face her. She thought she heard herself scream.

The owl stared back at Annie. It had white feathers and large black eyes.  Annie banged on the window in an attempt to shoo the owl. But It wouldn’t fly away. The owl cocked its head to the side as it watched her.

                  “James, wake up. There’s an owl outside.” she said.

James rubbed his eyes. “What’s going on?” he asked.

                  “There’s a white owl outside. It won’t go away.”

                  “That’s impossible. Snowy owls don’t live here.”

                  “James, please come look.”

                  James got out of bed and followed Annie to the window. But he owl was gone.

                  “I swear there was an owl there.”

                  “It was just a bad dream baby. Go back to bed.”

                  It wasn’t long before James was snoring again. Annie tried to fall sleep but when she closed her eyes all she saw was that white owl staring back at her. She wondered if it was really all just a dream. It felt so surreal. But the owl seemed familiar to Annie, like she had encountered it once before. At least she thought it was an owl . . .

Annie sat up in bed suddenly. She noticed the bedroom door was wide open. She thought she remembered closing it. Annie checked her phone but the battery was dead. She got out of bed to close the door. She noticed a strange light coming from the end of the hallway. Annie follow the light out the door and down the hall.

 

Scene 2:

                  Annie opened the front door. A fresh layer of snow cloaked the entire neighborhood in white. Three white owls were waiting for her on the porch.  One by one, they spread their wings and flew slowly away from the house. Annie followed them into the night.

                  The owls flew down the street, and abruptly turned to the right. Annie hurried her pace, afraid of losing sight of them. As she turned the corner, she instantly met the gaze of two owls. Both sitting on the same mailbox, the owls cocked their heads to the side. Annie felt her heart thump.

“Go away!” She screamed.

She waved her arms and started moving towards them. They took flight once more, and landed farther down the street.

As soon as Annie caught up to the owls, they took flight again. They were playing some sort of game with her. They wanted Annie to follow them.

                  Once again Annie caught up to the owls. She looked back down at the ground. Under her feet, the snow started to turn pink, and eventually red. Annie wondered how she forgot to put on shoes. She crouched down in the snow and clutched her bare feet. Her body began to shiver and go numb. She didn’t even notice all the owls.

When Annie finally looked up she found herself surrounded by dozens of snowy white owls. They all watched her intently. Annie was filled with terror. Suddenly, their eyes shot up towards the sky. Annie’s gaze followed. But he couldn’t see what they saw. After looking upwards for several minutes, she felt herself becoming agitated.

“Leave me alone” she screamed at the owls. “What do you want from me?”

              Their eyes snapped back to Annie, but only for a second. Their eyes soon returned to gazing at the empty night sky.

                  Annie was about to go back home when she noticed flashing blue and purple lights reflected off the snow. Annie looked up. A ring of lights hovered in the sky above her, rotating clockwise. From the center of the ring, a circle of blue light shot down, covering her like a spotlight. One by one the owls took flight. They circled overhead making terrible screeching noises. Annie was frozen. Her heart seemed to have stopped beating. The last thing she remembered was being lifted up towards the sky.

 

Scene 3:

Annie woke up the next morning feeling very strange. She had no idea where she was or how she got there. Everything from the previous night was fuzzy, almost like a dream. There was a high-pitched ringing noise in her ears. She thought she remembered hearing voices but they all came from inside her own head. The voices had told her to stay still and she obeyed their commands without question. She didn’t speak their language but she understood what they were saying. Annie did exactly what the voices told her to do.

Annie struggled to remember her dream. She wanted to tell James exactly what happened. She remembered running away but she couldn’t remember what they wanted from her. Her memory was a blur of flashing lights and static. It was almost like some of her memories were missing from her brain.

 Annie sat up in bed and noticed a sharp pain in her neck. With her pointer finger, she felt a small incision at the base of her skull. Annie started to panic. Maybe it wasn’t all just a dream.

 “James, wake up” she said. But James didn’t move. She looked down at her husband. His eyes were wide open and staring straight at her. Annie thought she heard herself scream. She convinced herself she was still dreaming.

 “Wake up, James” she shouted over and over again.

The owl watched Annie from the other side of the room.