Short Story

The trees in the park looked beautiful. Fall had just begun and the leaves were beginning to change. She pulled her cloak tighter around her to keep out the cold. Fala enjoyed seeing that even deep in the city here on earth that there was still nature to be found. She enjoyed the parks the most out of all the places she had visited on earth. They were a great place to see nature and it was quiet for the most part. Sometimes she found the city streets to be a bit too loud. It was not that she was a shy person, but the noise hurt her ears which were more sensitive than a human's. Fala had not been on earth long and was delighted by how much there still was to learn about the planet and the creatures living on it. She was glad that many people did not stare at her for she was sure that her kind must look strange to them. She had been told that she looked like a giant version of this earth creature called a cat. She had come to earth as a diplomat for her planet. She was tasked with making peace and establishing a trade agreement with the citizens of earth. Whenever she had free time she liked to wander down to the park. She found it to be a good place to relax.

Fala found a bench to sit on and pulled out her notepad. She liked to write about her experiences on earth so that she could share them when she got back to her home planet. Many things were different here on earth. She wrote about the trees and the strange creatures she had seen. All was peaceful. The only sounds was the wind blowing through the trees and the occasional footsteps of passerbys. A few leaves were already starting to fall from the trees. Suddenly a man ran up to Fala. “I need help,” he said, “Someone has taken my girlfriend.” “Did you see which way they went?” Fala questioned. “This way,” he said. He lead her away from the park. They were both running; the cool autumn air whipped around them as they moved. The man lead Fala to a warehouse. “They have her in here,” he claimed.

Fala went to the door and found it unlocked. She opened the door as quietly as she could hoping that she could sneak up on who ever was in there. She moved swiftly and silently through the warehouse. At first all she could see was boxes. Suddenly she heard what sounded like someone crying. She moved toward the noise. There was an area near the center of the warehouse where the floor was clear of boxes. In the middle of the floor sat a tape recorder. Fala moved toward the tape recorder and realized that that was where the sound was coming from. Suddenly a force field appeared around her. She moved toward it and found she could not go through it. She was trapped.

She tried to break her way out of the force field but even her energy blasts had no effect on the barrier. While she was trapped she noticed that the building had a second floor. There was some sort of control panel up on the second floor and she figured it more than likely controlled whatever was creating the force field. She could see people moving around up there and realized that she had been lead into a trap. The only question was why would anyone want to trap her. She yelled as loudly as she could hoping to get the attention of someone.

A man came down from the second floor and approached Fala. “What do you want with me?” she asked. The man laughed, “your powers could be of use to us.” A woman approached the  man. The two of them talked quietly, too quietly for Fala to hear what they were saying. The man turned back to Fala and said, “it appears a problem has come up, my associate here will wait here with you while I take care of the problem.” The man went back upstairs and Fala could see that the man who lead her here was waiting for him. The two men didn’t seem to be having a friendly conversation. The man who lead her here looked mad. Fala was too far away to hear their conversation but she thought if she could that they would be yelling.

The two of them started getting in each others face. The man who lead her here pushed the other man and he collided with the control panel. Suddenly the barrier disappeared. The woman who had been left to watch her looked scared now that she was not trapped. She quickly hit her with an energy blast and took off running as fast as she could. She had to find the exit before they tried to trap her again. Very few of the people in the building tried to stop her. Once she made it to the exit she ran as fast as she could. The chilly air made her lungs ached but she ran until the muscles in her legs burned. She feared that they would catch her if she stopped running. She made it back to the area of town where she lived and was glad to see that no one had followed her. She quickly made it back to her apartment. Once home she allowed herself to calm down. Some people are not to be trusted she thought, I will have to be more careful when interacting with human that I do not know. She figure that it would be best not to tell anyone from her homeworld about this particular experience.

While she watched the men argue she thought of ways to escape. Suddenly there was a loud bang and lots of people ran into the building. The people who rushed in were police officers. The lady guarding her looked scared and the men upstairs pulled out guns. The police officers seemed like they had expected that to happen and had their own guns aimed at the men. Realizing that they were outnumbered the men put their guns down. The police were able to free Fala from the trap she was in. “How did you know someone needed help here,” she asked. An officer responded, “we have been watching these guys for a while. There were rumors that they were capturing people with superpowers and brainwashing them so they could use them for their own evil plots.” Fala was glad to be able to leave and thought that the cold air had never felt to good. She would have to be careful in the future. She didn’t want anyone to try to exploit her powers.