thing. I wanted to tell her to just shoot the damn dog , but as a professional, I had to give her my professional opinion. All that crap about communicating more and trying to lighten up to the animal and see the personality in it.

When my patients left and all the paperwork was done, I finally packed up my briefcase, gathered my belongings and headed for home for another night alone in the large empty house.
The drive home took longer than usual; I felt as if I had some reason for being reluctant to return home, like returning to an angry wife, you wish you could avoid it and not go home. So I drove slowly, perhaps over cautiously to my humble abode. As I pulled in the dirt driveway, desperately in need of paving, I noticed the sky above the tree line had a reddish hue to it, rather than the usual golden glare the descending sun. The interesting sky color intrigued me and somehow frightened me at the same time. I took little or no more notice of the light then and for most of the night. I did some left over work, ate dinner and turned on the television, my usual night. Also, like normal, I fell asleep watching TV on the couch around twelve o’ clock.

Sometime around two o’ clock
in the middle of the night, I woke from the couch. I got up and flicked off the television. I double checked all the doors and the downstairs windows, to make sure they were locked then headed to the stairs to go up to my room and go to bed.

On the way up the stairs, about the second step, I heard a rustling coming from upstairs. The scattering of what sounded like small children. I paused and stood on the step looking up in the solid black hole darkness at the top of the stairs. Unsure of what to think or do I was about to call the police, when I heard the television on. That fear from the brief but very disturbing rustle faded. I reasoned I must have done a double button tap when turning off the television like people sometimes do. I went back and clicked it off and went back to the stairs and climbed up with no delay. I walked down the hall to my room and into my room. In the back window, I noticed the red light deep in the woods still glowing insistently and even brighter. I was too tired to take much notice so I flopped on the bed and began to snore almost immediately. Just before I faded into unconciousness I read the glowing clock say 2:17.

A bright light flooded the room, lit up every corner, leaving no crevice unlit. A loud throbbing, pulsing woo like the eerie thumping tone of a baby’s heart in the mother’s womb on an ultrasound but in slow motion, flooded the room with sound. The noise increased, getting louder and louder. I woke completely disoriented, the sound painful. I yelled, grabbed my ears and rolled, unable to avoid the sound. From the light, came seven little men with heads too big for their bodies. They circled my bed. Their grey smooth skin and gangly yet controlled limbs were poised perfectly along my bed. As if military soldiers knowing the drill exactly, quickly and proficiently they grabbed me and held me down. I heard in my head, “calm, calm, calm,” over and over again.

Thier huge black eyes on the huge heads seemed so lifeless and dark, yet all seeing. There jaw narrowed down quickly and a tiny slit took the place of where human mouths are. The face bumped very little where a nose would be, but lacked nostrils and any other feature of a nose.

They began to strap my arms with a velcro-like bands but each stronger than velcro tenfold. They wrapped a belt around my waist. A hose took the place of a buckle dangling unattached to anything. I squirmed and wriggled, wretching myself left and right. Terrified I tried to move and get away. The straps, however unattached to anything, wouldn’t move and neither could I. Six of the little beings continued poking and prodding, sticking needles in me. They stripped me down and wiped this rust-colored liquid across my body. One of them just stood by me staring at me. He reached up, his four-fingered hand hovered over me, then rested on my cheek. Silently, inside, I heard, “Calm, calm, calm,” over and over. I stopped wrestling, I stopped squirming. Still horrified, I remained motionless as the other six wrapped up the preliminary work. The seven aliens backed away and stood in lines on either side of me. A red light flashed across me coming from just above the other light. I began to rise and in a second I was hovering over my bed, then floating towards the light and the ship hovering outside my window. The seven aliens followed behind me, avoiding the red light. I came to the source of the light and began to sink into the light. I closed my eyes and screamed a belching high-pitched holler of utter terror. I open my eyes to dim lit hall. A light behind me went out at the sound of a switch as the loud womping sound abrubtly stopped at the same time. The hall was very reminiscent of a hospital hall. The dim lights seem to angle right in my eyes. I was prevented from seeing the hall any further, due to the lights and the inability to move my head as the aliens placed a vice-like instrument on my neck that extended to my temples. They started wheeling me down the hall on a gurney. A hand touched my face and again I heard the soothing, “calm, calm, calm,” in my head. I began to calm down, and my heart started slowing a little, but began beating faster until;out of my chest as I entered the next room at the end of the hall. A giant domed room with red walls resembling that inside of an organ. The room seemed to come alive and recede towards the table the aliens were placing me on in place of the gurney. The walls were also lined with tools and machines. Many of the instruments hovered over the table. Prods and needles and coils, were at the end of almost every utensil. The scene of the room disappeared as a light blared into my eyes. Five silhouettes hovered over me picking up tools and going to work on me. I