1. Jody

Chapter 1

Jody

I did this every year.

I left Christmas shopping to the last minute. I know it’s a bad habit. And I’m sure if my parents were still around, they’d say something about it. Of course, they haven’t been around since I was about three years old. And none of my foster parents were big on Christmas. So no one was going to call me out.

Today I needed to get gifts for my fellow teachers at school and a couple decorations for the classroom. In and out of the store in ten minutes. I could do it. And if I was lucky, I wouldn’t even need to listen to the holiday songs I hated.

I wasn’t going to get distracted.

Oh! Shiny.

Okay, I did not need a unicorn covered in sparkles and lit up with glowing lights. I really didn’t. And it wasn’t my style.

But it was so shiny.

Discipline.

I had to teach it to my preschoolers. And the best way to do that was to lead by example.

But it was so shiny.

I tore my gaze away from the unicorn and looked into the store. It was huge. One of those big box stores that carried a little bit of everything under the sun. Did I need camping equipment? Lawn furniture? Cooking supplies? Groceries? I could find it here. But what I really wanted was gifts.

The store seemed strangely deserted. Then again, it was kind of late and they were probably going to be closing soon. I should have looked at the sign on the door, but they would kick me out when they had to.

It was so deserted that I thought I was alone for a while. And then I spotted Santa and his elf sitting on a little bench at the center of the store and I couldn’t help but smile.

He wasn’t really Santa. I didn’t believe in Santa; well, I don’t think I ever believed in Santa. Right now I was just looking at a man in a red suit and a woman in green tights with curly shoes.

But at least I wasn’t alone. I wandered down an aisle, but kept glancing back at the door, wondering if someone else would enter the building. It felt a little creepy when it was this deserted. My eyes strayed over the various gift displays, but when I heard the tinkling bells over the door, something jauntily holiday-themed, almost a song I recognized but not quite, I looked over and had to bite my tongue for making a noise.

Damn .

He was an alien. A lot of them had started moving to town over the last few years. Ever since those Detyen warriors showed up and protected us from a violent alien who tried to destroy our planet. Earth had gotten quite… intergalactic all of a sudden. It was cool.

But the alien at the door didn’t make me think of warriors. He made me think of bed.

No. I wasn’t doing that anymore. That was a long time ago. Anonymous nights between the sheets were a thing of the past, and I wasn’t going to break my own rules.

It took more effort than it should have to tear my eyes away from his glistening golden skin. He even looked good under fluorescent lights. How was that possible? He was wearing a bulky coat, but his pants were tight enough that I got a view of his ass that left little to the imagination. My fingers itched to touch.

Instead, I jammed them into my pocket and forced myself to turn away. My resolve lasted for all of thirteen seconds, I counted. But when I looked back he was gone. Clearly he hadn’t seen me.

Or, he hadn’t been interested in a mousy preschool teacher. Not that he knew I was a preschool teacher. But the mousy thing came through. I couldn’t help it.

Christmas gifts, I reminded myself. In and out. Just find something.

I had made it to the end of the aisle and turned so I was almost completely out of view of the door when the bells chimed again. I tilted my head at just the right angle and spotted another Santa.

Or was he?

No, he was an alien. A shiver ran up my spine and I tried to ignore the immediate hit of revulsion. I didn’t know anything about him. It wasn’t cool to make judgments. But there was something about his face that I didn’t like. It looked evil. He looked like an Evil Santa Claus.

He was wearing a huge red robe, and what I had first thought was a Santa hat was actually some kind of horn coming out of his head. He had a giant white beard, but it was kind of scraggly, and the hair was so thick that I wasn’t sure that it was actually hair. Alien hair.

I ducked behind a giant display as he walked past. I was more than a few meters away, so there was no way he saw me, but my heart stuttered and my palms sweated.

I didn’t want him to see me.

Was it because he wasn’t hot? Was I that shallow? I see one alien with glistening golden skin and I want to wrap my arms around him and tug him to my bed. Another alien that’s not quite as… well-built… and I’m hiding like a monster’s after me.

Not good.

Then I looked even closer, careful to stay hidden. Were those tusks?

He passed between two more aisles and I got half a glimpse of them. Yeah. Tusks.

There was nothing wrong with tusks. Some aliens had them. Just because humans were tuskless didn’t mean that it was automatically a bad thing.

But I wasn’t about to walk out into the middle of the store so he could see me. Something told me that was a bad idea.

I just had to find the gifts and get out of there. It would be fine.

Or maybe I needed to just get out.

I walked blindly into the next aisle. It was mostly children’s toys. Cars and space shuttles and little blasters. Not the actual weapons, of course. Some of my kids would love this, but I couldn’t afford to get gifts for all of them. They would be happy with the candies I brought in on the last day before break.

Maybe I’d shape them like stars. They would like that.

I was ready to give up on that aisle when a woman’s scream cut through the store.

I froze, unsure of what to do. What was going on? Was it Evil Alien Santa? Or maybe the other Santa? Or the hot alien? What was going on?

A braver person would have run towards the action to figure it out. Or maybe would have called the authorities. I was frozen, unable to do anything but clutch the toy I was holding like it was a real blaster.

I didn’t know what to do.

The woman screamed again.

I had to move. I had to do something . But before I could take a step, a force hit me hard enough to knock the wind out of me and I fell to the ground as blackness swallowed me whole.