The Misplacement of Lexi Robinson Read online

  THE MISPLACEMENT OF

  Lexi Robinson

  By Ky Tyrand

  ©2017 Ky Tyrand

  Titles by Ky Tyrand

  Available at Amazon

  Mark of the Gods

  The Misplacement of Lexi Robinson

  Princess of the Gods, Trilogy 1: Hunted Heir

  Book 1: Descendant

  Book 2: Assassin

  Book 3: The Keeper

  Princess of the Gods, Trilogy 2: Guardian’s Quest

  Book 1: The Witch

  Book 2: Stronghold

  Book 3: Underworld

  Subscribe | Author Page | KyTyrand.com

  Contents

  Lexi Robinson

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  1

  What in God’s name is that smell?

  Lexi Robinson tried to force her eyes open, desperately wanting to make sense of it all.

  The buzzing noise. The pulsing light.

  But her eyelids wouldn’t budge. It was as if some kind of glue was holding them shut.

  Her thought was to pry them open with her fingers – make them do what they couldn’t on their own – only to discover that she could not feel her hands, or even wiggle her toes. What’s going on? It was as if they weren’t even there.

  Lexi was paralyzed. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t feel any part of her body. Except … she could feel her heart. It was thumping in her chest, faster and faster.

  This was the worst kind of dream. She’d had them before, and the terror was always more than she could handle.

  -‘Must not die’-

  Her heart shot out of control when she heard the words.

  There was no voice to go with them.

  Just words being forced into her head. She had never experienced anything like this before.

  Am I dead?

  Visions of what had happened to her began flashing in her head. They were vague and all over the place, but they brought her to a single, horrifying conclusion: she was dead.

  This was the afterlife.

  Then I shouldn’t need to breathe anymore.

  But she wanted to. Had to.

  That smell …

  She felt something on her chest, pressing. Warm.

  Her eyes shot open. Everything was dark and blurry.

  The light she had seen through her eyelids pulsed on, casting a blue haze around the silhouette of … someone?

  The person leaned in … not a person. NOT A PERSON!!!

  Giant black eyes were inches from her own. They could see into her. Through her.

  This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. It was a mask. Someone was punking her. The black eyes blinked – it was a very good mask.

  Lexi felt the pressure on her chest again, fighting her heart for real-estate.

  There was feeling in her fingers and toes. Burning. Itching. She could wiggle them, but they were not free.

  Her arms were held fast. She dropped her chin, trying to see – something was on her. All over her.

  Lexi tried to scream, but only a dry croak came out.

  What’s on me...? What the Hell is on me!?!

  It was gray and slimy, some kind of gel. She tried to fight, but it held her firmly in a seated position. It was strong – too strong for her. Lexi was weak, and she knew it.

  -‘Relax’- The word was planted into her head, just like the last ones, though no voice had spoken it. Perhaps it was intended to sooth her.

  It didn’t.

  The creature leaned back and the pressure was off her chest. Her heart could pound freely. Out of control.

  Lexi knew what the monster was. It was just like she saw in the pictures and on TV. Small and hairless, with a big head and giant black eyes. Never in a million years did she think she would see one in real life. Was this real life? And she certainly never expected the smell. Somewhere between strong ammonia and Uncle Bernie after turkey dinner.

  But the ones in the pictures couldn’t smell this bad. Nothing could. Not even Uncle Bernie.

  -‘Helping you’-

  Helping me? Lexi tried to move again – to fight whatever was holding her down. Her strength was at an all-time low. She had been fatigued for weeks now. But this was more than that. She’d been drugged, or something. Maybe that’s why she was seeing what she was. A hallucination. A really, really bad dream.

  The blue light continued to fade on and off.

  Everything was blurry, even the little gray man … thing. Lexi could feel that she was out of it. Trapped by this creature.

  She wasn’t supposed to be here.

  Not in this nightmare.

  Parma’s family had been planning the trip for months.

  Lexi was so jealous. She had always wanted to see the Caribbean.

  When Parma showed up at her door with a weird smile on her face, Lexi knew something was up.

  “Raj was offered a new job in Chicago,” Parma informed her.

  Lexi didn’t understand why her friend was so happy. Parma loved her brother, and would never get to see him if he moved away.

  And then she added, “He can’t go on the cruise.”

  Lexi still wasn’t cluing in.

  Parma rolled her eyes with a sly grin. “There’s an extra ticket, and my mom wondered if you would like to come, instead.”

  “Oh my God!” Lexi’s hands went to her mouth, covering the words that slipped through her fingers, “Are you serious?” Her legs could barely keep her upright. She threw her arms around her best friend; not only to show her appreciation, but to prevent herself from collapsing.

  There was no better friend on Earth than Parma.

  A hand reached out to her. Its fingers were far too long for its arm. Its arm far too long for its body. It grabbed for her. Lexi couldn’t move and it was about to touch her.

  Panic set in. Sharp breaths entered her lungs in rhythmic spasms. Awful smell or not, she needed to breathe. She needed to be away from here. Lexi tried to fight, to kick, but the slime held her fast.

  -‘Must live’- The words entered her head as long fingers touched her throat.

  Lexi was sure that the alien thing was about to kill her. Those long fingers could slide all the way around her neck, and squeeze it, or snap it, or suck the life out of it, or do whatever alien things did to girls’ necks.

  She couldn’t pull away. Her breaths were trying to out-pace her heart. Her screams were nothing but choking gurgles.

  But instead of closing around her, the slender fingers hooked the top of the gray gel cocoon, and tore it open.

  Lexi was able to wriggle her arms free. She leaned forward and the creature stepped back – no, staggered back. Something was wrong with it. The monster vanished into the shadows as the pulsing light faded.

  The girl took the opportunity to tear the slime off her legs, to fight them free. Her only hope was to make a break for it. To get out before the alien returned. She felt so weak, but managed to push herself up off of the table, or chair, or whatever it was. But a single step was all it took to sp
ill her to the floor.

  That smell. Lexi gagged, nearly vomited.

  The light pulsed on, and she realized that the alien was on the floor beside her; its huge black eyes staring right through her.

  The girl scrambled back, trying to get away as the light faded out and everything went dark again.

  When the light eased back on, Lexi was surprised to see that the creature had not moved. It just lay there, watching her. She grabbed hold of something – the chair she’d been fastened to – and pulled herself up. Her legs felt like they were asleep, but Lexi willed them to balance her.

  She had to find a way out. She needed to breathe. Lexi turned from the monster on the floor, only to find it standing behind her.

  No. It was a different one. The alien on the floor was still lying there. It seemed … lifeless.

  -‘Take these’- the words were in her head. -‘Imperative’-

  As the light brightened, she saw that the alien was holding something out to her. A small box of some kind, and a narrow rod, roughly the length of her arm.

  She backed away, but the little figure advanced with her. -‘Imperative’-

  Lexi just wanted to get away. To run as fast and as far as she could. But she didn’t know where she was.

  There was some kind of curved wall behind her, but everything else was dark and hazy. The only time she could see anything at all was when the strange blue light brightened. But everything was so blurry. And then the light would fade, and it was dark again.

  Lexi was certain that she would have to get around this smelly little creature if she had any hope of escaping. But her legs felt like rubber. The girl knew she would collapse if she tried to bolt.

  And the monster kept advancing, cramming the word -‘Imperative’- into her head while trying to shove the two items at her.

  “Okay,” she croaked the word out, snatching the box and shaft from her abductor before backing against the wall.

  The little being backed off. Was it relieved that she took its offering? The light faded and it vanished into the shadows. But the words – the words kept repeating in her head, -‘Must live’- ‘Must live’-

  Another source of light suddenly burst into the room. Intense. Blinding. White light, not blue.

  Lexi nearly dropped the box as her arm came up to shield her eyes. And then she smelled it – fresh air. She inhaled all that she could, and bolted for the light. The girl made it three steps before tripping on something and falling face first onto the floor. Lexi dropped the box. She dropped the shaft. And she was face to face with another lifeless alien body.

  What happened here? Why are they all dead? Lexi had no idea what was going on. Why am I NOT dead?

  -‘Because I saved you’- the voiceless words were thrust into her head. It was the clearest sentence so far. She looked up in the blurry darkness to find the alien standing above her, holding out the box and the staff to her, exactly as he had been doing just a moment ago. -‘You were about to die’-‘You must not die’-

  Lexi pulled herself to her feet and took the items again.

  ‘Imperative,’ it told her.

  Though the situation was terrifying, the creature no longer seemed threatening to her. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess, but the one thing Lexi was certain of was that she had been about to die. This little gray alien had saved her. Why?

  A humming noise that had been pulsing in her ears suddenly grew louder.

  The alien dropped to the floor in a seated position. Something was wrong with her abductor, and Lexi felt the urge to help it. She even stepped forward.

  -‘Must live’- When the little gray being realized the girl was approaching, it shouted into her head while pointing at the white light, -‘MUST LIVE!’- The being was weak, but adamant.

  The pulsing hum grew louder; the air hotter. Lexi could feel it doing something weird inside her body. A static buzzing that made her bones hurt.

  -‘Must liv…’-

  Lexi darted for the light – an open hatch of some kind – as fast as her trembling legs could carry her.

  The humming increased. It felt like her insides were melting.

  She stepped up onto a ledge, and suddenly she was free of the darkness and the stench and the … whatever those things were.

  2

  The moment her head was out, Lexi inhaled an entire sky’s worth of fresh air.

  She spilled onto the ground, thankful to see the Earth. When Lexi had first realized the creature that had taken her was a little gray alien, she’d been fearful that she was flying around in space somewhere. The girl didn’t think she’d ever be happy to be lying on wet, muddy ground. But she was right now.

  The unnatural hum was still pulsing behind her, and she knew that she had to get away from it.

  Lexi forced herself to stand, putting a hand on the silver craft she had just exited.

  It was hot and cold all at once, and she instantly pulled away, thinking she’d burned her palm.

  The girl turned and backed away. For some reason she was not surprised at all to see that it was a metallic, disk-shaped craft that she’d just crawled out of. A flying saucer, just like in the pictures. It was smooth and sleek; completely seamless except for the curved hatch that had opened for her, and a line of small symbols that seemed to form a ring around the outer circumference of the ship. The markings made her think of Egyptian hieroglyphs, but she didn’t know for sure. And with the pulse of the craft getting louder and louder, she wasn’t about to stick around and find out.

  Lexi turned and ran.

  She didn’t even look for a route; she just needed to be away from the alien ship.

  It wasn’t until she was completely out of breath that Lexi realized she was running down a narrow jungle trail, carrying a metal box and a strange rod given to her by a little gray alien. She had no idea where she was, or where she was going, other than that she was in the middle of a jungle somewhere.

  Her mind was still hazy. Her vision blurry. And her legs felt like they weighed a ton. They didn’t, though. They barely weighed anything at all. That’s why they felt so heavy.

  She slowed to a walk, panting out of control as she pushed her way through dense wet foliage. She was on some kind of narrow animal trail, crowded on either side by large green leaves, dripping with humidity and rainfall.

  With no other direction to go, except back to the horrid smelling UFO, Lexi continued on until the winding trail opened to a small clearing.

  Despite the blurred vision, she could see sharp rays of light angling down into the clearing. It seemed to be the only spot in the jungle where the sunshine poked through the clouds and foliage, all the way to the mossy ground. Better yet – there was a fallen log off to one side, but still in direct sunlight.

  Lexi flopped herself down, still trying to catch her breath and clear her head. It wasn’t as comfortable as the loungers by the pool, but it would have to do.

  She set the rod and box down beside her and closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun, immediately reminded of her best friend. The sun had a way of doing that.

  Lexi and Parma spent every moment they could together in the sun, either lounging by one of the ship’s pools, or exploring the beautiful beaches at the many ports-of-call. The weather had been cool and dreary back home, so the girls were determined to soak up every moment of the warm, Caribbean sunshine.

  Despite being careful not to burn, Lexi’s back turned pink by the end of the very first day. But after a week she felt like she had the makings of a decent tan.

  She couldn’t compete with Parma, though.

  Lexi thought her best friend already had the most beautiful skin on the planet. Dark and exotic. Every day after the sun set, Parma would hold her arm next to Lexi’s and tell her that she was ‘getting closer’.

  Then it would be off to dinner with Parma’s family.

  Lexi had to force herself to stop thinking about Parma.

  She had to keep it together.

  First, she had
to get it together.

  Her thoughts were still foggy. Everything seemed foggy here.

  No, not foggy – blurry. The trees, the leaves, the ground. She held her hand in front of her face.

  Crystal clear.

  Lexi let out a breath, wondering how she could be so stupid. Her contact lenses were gone. Probably washed away…

  Don’t think about it, she warned herself, don’t think about it.

  The girl shook her head from side to side, hoping to clear her thoughts. Didn’t help. It just put hair in her face. There was something on it – some kind of crusty grease. Lexi held out a clump of her long hair. There was some kind of gel on it, strong enough to take the brown dye out on her fingertips.

  She had to get it off her. At least get the hair out of her face. She pulled it back, tied it into a ponytail.

  There was that smell again. The rotten alien smell.

  Instantly on high alert, Lexi found herself looking around for any signs of the creature that had abducted her.

  Nothing that she could see. But Lexi couldn’t see very well at all. Her vision wasn’t horrible, but it was bad enough that she couldn’t read what the teachers wrote on the blackboards. Or the numbers on the football player’s jerseys. Or probably aliens hiding in the jungle.

  She’d do anything for her contacts. She would even take her glasses right about now, seeing as how Tonya Henderson wasn’t here to tell her how stupid they looked on her.

  Since she couldn’t see as well as she wished, Lexi decided to listen instead.

  She heard sounds of wildlife in the distance – birds or monkeys, she couldn’t tell which – but nothing that sounded very close.

  Then, what is that smell?

  Lexi looked down and realized that it was her. Or rather, whatever it was that she was wearing. It was some kind of silvery space suit, still covered in the slimy cocoon … pod … stuff that had constrained her.

  It smelled like the alien. It smelled like Uncle Bernie.