"I dream of a stairway to the skies, my angel is coming down from heaven to..."
I hit the pause button on my game, looked at my phone, and my breath caught in my throat the way it always does when I see my girlfriend's name on the caller ID. Dumping the controller unceremoniously on the floor, I yanked the charging cord out of the phone and raised it to my ear.
"Fallie?" I asked.
"Hello, Daniel," her voice replied from the other side of the phone. It sounded strangely smooth and pure, like rubbing lotion across a freshly shaved leg. When we first met I'd thought she sounded like a robot, but it quickly grew on me and now I couldn't help but smile every time I heard it. "Have I interrupted anything?"
"Nah," I said, looking at the half-dead boss that stood frozen on my tv set. "Just relaxing. What's up?"
"That is good. If you are free of previous engagements tonight, then I..." Her voice faltered. That was enough to make my eyebrows rise in concern. In all the time we've known each other, she hadn't so much as stuttered a single time.
"Are you okay?" I asked, tentatively.
I could practically hear her nod on the other side. "I am well. Daniel, if you are not otherwise I engaged then I would like you to..." She paused again. "To come visit me at my house."
Slowly, I nodded. "Sure, all right. What's the occasion?"
"I think you will understand when you arrive. Can you be here in one hour and twenty seven minutes?"
I smiled again. How she did it, I didn't know, but that was probably exactly how long it would take me to get cleaned up and drive over to her place on the dot. She was always saying things like that, and I had long since given up trying to understand how she could make such accurate guesses at the spur of the moment. It probably had something to do with what she was.
"Absolutely," I said. "Should I bring anything? Movie? Pizza?"
"No," came her answer, "that will not be necessary. Just you."
"All right." I got up before I'd even hung up the phone, making for the bathroom. "I'll see you then, okay?"
"Good. I love you, Daniel."
"Love you too, babe."
We both hung up, and I got into the shower to wash away the day's worth of grime that had somehow accumulated despite me doing nothing but sitting in my chair all day.
What's she up to?
I wondered as I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair. She was nervous about something. That by itself was enough to get me worried. I wouldn't call Fallie overconfident, but she's always had this air of self-assurance, like she doesn't
need
confidence because things were just made to work out her way in the first place.
Thirty minutes later, I climbed into my car and backed out of the apartment parking lot. I knew where Fallie lived. I'd been there enough times that I didn't even need to GPS it anymore. Not only had I dropped her off there after more dates than I could count, I had been inside it plenty of times too. Fallie had a collection of movies and video games that rivaled mine, and I'd spent many a night getting my butt kicked at Smash Bros. and Mortal Kombat.
I hummed in my throat as I stopped for a red light, halfway to her house. I'd spent so much time over there I'm surprised she hadn't started charging me rent, and yet never once had anything besides our shoes and socks come off while I was there. Perhaps that was what she...
Don't get your hopes up
, I thought to myself, pressing down the gas pedal and continuing on my way.
We've dating each other for just over two years now. You might think that was a long time to stay abstinent, and honestly I would agree with you. I had brought it up once on our fifth date, while we were watching a movie at my place. She had immediately shot me down in that no nonsense way she did everything, saying that she wouldn't give up her virginity until she was absolutely sure that she had found the right one. I had honored her wishes— not that it was easy. She was beautiful, the kind of girl every guy wishes he could score but knew was out of his league. She could have been dating a movie star, if she'd wanted. When we cuddled up for a movie night, my cock would grow hard in my pants just feeling her soft cheek pressed against mine, her breasts rubbing against my side when she wrapped her arms around mine. I'd never brought it up again, though, for fear that she'd feel like I was pushing her too hard and end our relationship. Maybe I was being irrational, maybe I wasn't, it was hard to tell with her people. All I knew was that she was the kind of girl who was worth waiting for.
One thing I should point out before I say anything else: Fallie isn't human. She's what's called an Avyd, a race that began appearing on Earth when I was a just a kid. For all intents and purposes, they're human, besides a couple of... let's say cosmetic differences. For one, their eyes are all one pure color. No whites, no irises, just one color through and through. Fallie's were as green as the purest emerald. Their skin was also so white you would think they were a race of albinos, but they seemed entirely immune to the sun's rays.
Nobody knows where the Avyds came from. At first we thought they must have come from underground, some giant cave city, but there wasn't one to be found anywhere. Then there was, of course, the theory that they were aliens who'd been beamed down onto our planet. Not one single ufo was spotted that day, but there were theories that they could be beamed from light years away according to the law of Dead Scientist #379, bla bla bla. A lot of people still believe this theory, but there's one thing that keeps me from buying into that: the Avyds don't know where they came from either. Maybe their memories got wiped during the journey, but I still think there's more going on than we think.
If you ask me, though, they're magic. And just like magic, you can't explain why they appeared out of nowhere, already fully clothed and fluent in whatever language the people around them spoke. They just
are.
There's also their abilities to take into consideration, too. Ever Avyd who appeared has a special "gift," as they call it. No two gifts are alike, and I have yet to see one that
doesn't
break the laws of physics in one way or another. One can, for lack of a better term, reverse fire. There was a wildfire in California a couple weeks after he appeared, and all he had to do was wave his hand and every inch of land that got burned was suddenly un-burned. The fire retreated back the way it had come, leaving lush and green forests behind it. Even the animals that had gotten caught in it were no worse for wear.
All the Avyds were like this. Some were more powerful than others, but they all had a gift. Unfortunately, the human race being what it is, that led to a few of them being gunned down in fear— and that's where we learned that Avyds could die just as easily as humans. Luckily for us, the Avyds are perhaps the most peaceful creatures on the planet. Even with all their power, even when they were being hunted down, they never even considered using their gifts for anything besides helping people. The government quickly realized that the war being waged on them was entirely one sided, and demanded a complete and immediate cease of hostilities. After that, within months the Avyds had integrated so much into human culture that it was like they'd always been there.
Not American culture.
Human
culture.
I'm getting off track. I'd never seen Fallie's gift, and she had dodged the question every time I'd asked. I hummed in my throat again. Maybe that's what she was going to show me tonight.
Fallie and I met about three years ago— at school, no less. Some Avyds appeared as fully grown adults, while others were children. Fallie was right there in the middle. Despite the smooth way she spoke and the calculated way she thought, she still ended up still having to go to school like a normal kid. She'd been beautiful even back then (most Avyds are) and so the entire male population of Venson High School had immediately pounced on her. I had watched from afar, the geek sitting alone at the lunch table, sighing with the depressing knowledge that someone so interesting would never take an interest in me, so I'd be better off not even trying.
Imagine my surprise when
she
came to
me.
Fallie had been shy back then, and she'd quickly asked my permission to sit there. I had nodded, mute and more than a little shocked. The other kids would have gladly let her sit with them, she'd explained, but they were all so loud. She didn't like loud noises. My table was empty, except for me, and I was quiet.
After that, things progressed the way you'd imagine. We got to be friends, and the year after we both graduated we started dating. Fallie might have sounded like a robot to someone who didn't know her, but she had feelings just like any other girl— and despite all odds, she had feelings for
me!
I pulled into Fallie's driveway and got out of the car. Her house was small, but not because that was all she could afford. After high school, she had almost immediately gotten a high paying job at a computer company without having to spend a day in college. Now, after two years of hard work, raises, and bonuses she could have afforded a freaking mansion if she'd wanted. No, her house was small because that was what she liked. Small and cozy, rather than big, fancy, and empty. Meanwhile, I could barely afford rent in my one bedroom apartment. She never judged me for that, though, which meant more to me than I can say.
I rang the doorbell, and the door immediately opened to reveal Fallie's smiling face. One hour and twenty seven minutes, indeed. She wasted no time in taking my hand and pulling me inside with her, closing the door behind us.
"Hello, beautiful," I said, smiling at her before leaning down for a kiss. She was half a foot shorter than me, the perfect height for a pretty girl in my opinion.
"Hello, Daniel," she replied when we separated. "How are you tonight?"
"Any night I get to see you is a good night."
She smiled and nodded, as if that were exactly how things should be, and led me into her living room. Her hair was naturally white. Not old person white, white like snow. She could go rolling around in the mud, but it would always be as shiny as if she'd just shampooed it. Last week she wore it long, almost down to her butt, but now it was cut short, almost boyishly. In a couple days, it would probably be down to her shoulders again. I don't know how she does that. I asked if that was her gift, but she had only laughed.
"Come with me," she said, taking my hand again and leading me into her living room. It was just big enough to fit a couch on one side, and a massive tv on the other— so big that it could practically serve as a wall in and of itself. Every game console known to man was laid out before it, like offerings before a god. Fallie had never played a video game before she'd met me, but once she'd tried one she was hooked for life. In fact, I've never asked, but I think it was because of me introducing her to the the joys of computers that she got her job at the computer company. I felt a hopeful flutter in my heart at the thought of a few rounds of Mario Kart, but instead she took me straight to the couch and sat me down.
