FIFTY SHADES OF GREYS

Bellastasia Fawn narrowed her eyes against the clinical glare of the overhanging lamp, slowly releasing the breath that she had taken in almost a minute earlier. She attempted to raise a hand in front of her face but to no avail. Her neurons gave commands that her muscles would not obey, regardless of her willpower. She feigned another attempt, if only to fool herself into believing she wanted to struggle against the invisible bonds. She knew, as before, that movement was a luxury granted to her only if she was compliant. Thankfully, blind obedience had never been her strength.

Her pale skin felt bare against the odd, metallic-plastic alloy that comprised the familiar, rectangular platform she lay upon. Her modesty was only just spared by the paper-thin wisp of linen that concealed just enough to prevent her from blushing. She had long stopped questioning why THEY didn't just allow her to remain in whatever fashion of nightgown she had worn to bed. Was it some form of control? Did THEY realize that by now the control was unnecessary? It shamed her to admit it. This shame and control was just more confirmation that she had once again been TAKEN. She sighed defiantly - full in the knowledge that she was once again back aboard THE CRAFT.

The lamp dimmed, and on cue, as each time before, she felt the presence of THEM - always in their group of three, always positioned at her head, feet and side. As her eyesight began to adjust, she recognized the one poised directly above her - she had referred to him as Mr. Alien Grey. His lidless eyes had always seemed to hold a modicum of false compassion and authority absent in his companions. Had he ever spoken, she imagined that he would have given her words of comfort and veiled commandment as his stewards performed their assigned set of EXPERIMENTS.

Instead, staring into the perfect blackness of his oval eyes, she felt the familiar sensation of his universal sentience as it descended and permeated her mind, assuring her that she was SPECIAL – that she was reserved for an otherworldly purpose he was not willing to disclose. Never had the experiments been physically invasive. The companions had always moved their frail, colorless hands above the length of her body, pausing periodically above her abdomen. She knew instinctively, as a woman, that they were trying once more to gift her womb with some hybrid abomination.

After a time, Mr. Alien Grey tilted his head ever so slightly and motioned for the companions to discontinue their methodical attempts, no doubt frustrated at the repeated inability to seed her. Bellastasia took a small victory in this, as she had the times before. She steadily projected her ardent refusal at becoming implanted if she remained an unwilling conscript. She would have answers first, all the answers.

Mr. Alien Grey placed his thin hands upon each side of her head, the only contact she had ever been granted by the visitors. Her skin tingled and itched as his fingers traced over her temples in a practiced pattern that always preceded a benign coma. She stared into his eyes with her remaining awareness and projected images of defiance before finally managing a wry grin as each wave of unconscious bliss began to pull her further from the celestial shore of any known reality.

Soon she would awaken in her own bed, more steadfast in her resistance and resolute in her desire to doom the intruders.

a.e