9. That’s a really tight armband

I'm really glad Hunter followed up on me. I was in a really fragile state of mind after the dancing and seeing whatever that was in the sky had thrown me off the edge. My plan was just to walk out into the night and hopefully confirm that my mind was playing tricks on me because I was in a rather vulnerable state. Dangerously, I walked the streets on my own in the general direction of where the strange halo had appeared. My vision blurred as I tried to navigate the streets. Hunter managed to catch up with me before I got myself hurt or worse. He talked me down until I was calm and grounded. I wasn't quite sure what came over me but I was horrified by the fact that it did. I had to take a seat on the ground beside the road to fully gather myself. Hunter stood nearby patiently waiting.

"I'm such an idiot!" I exclaimed to myself.

"You're not an idiot," Hunter said bluntly.

"I certainly feel like one."

"You were just forced way out of your comfort zone. Therefore no need to feel bad about being overwhelmed by it."

"I really wish that helped."

Hunter took a seat besides me and sat in silence for a bit. I stared down at my feet and listened to the cars that zoomed by with no particular purpose. How could I have let myself slip like that? I was determined to just go into the party and leave as I went in. Instead, I found myself running away helplessly after a light in the sky that probably didn't even exist. I was a serious mess.

"I can assure you," Hunter said, breaking our silence. "It's not as bad as you think it is. It's just your notorious imagination working in overdrive."

I sighed. "Maybe you're right. I mean, I feel really embarrassed but maybe I'm just exaggerating things for myself."

I got onto my feet and dusted myself off. Hunter followed suit. Even with my mind much clearer, I was still a bit curious about what I saw in the sky. I looked like it had happened just above what could be the nearest park. If it was Justin my head, I was just going to head back to the party with Hunter and hope I can get through the rest of the night with out losing my mind again. But if it was not my imagination....

"I need to just confirm something really quick," I told Hunter. "I don't think I'll have full peace of mind if I don't."

"Sure," Hunter responded a little hesitantly. "As long as you feel better afterwards."

I'm not sure what I was expecting to see when we set off in the direction of the park. I was hoping it was nothing at all because I wasn't sure I could deal with anything weird than having to dance for a bunch of strangers. Hunter and I barely talked on the way. I was too occupied with my own thoughts, going over what I would do if there really was anything to see in the park.

The open space and natural beauty of the park was a great change from the compact atmosphere at Douglas' house. For the first time all night, I felt like I was not constricted by everything within and around me. I took a deep breath of the fresh, cool air of the night and felt a load of my worries vanish. Continuing a brisk walk through the grass down to the ponds felt like a really good idea after the night I was having. As I thought through the idea, Hunter nudged me frantically. Ironically, I wondered what made him so anxious. I followed his gaze and froze in my tracks. As plain as the stars above, there it was. A small blaze of fire that had ignited a patch of grass and a small tree in the distance. Near the flames, a crater about the size of a small van. Was this what I was looking for? The aftermath of that halo in the sky?

"Bro what the hell did you lead us to?" Hunter wondered.

I wish I could answer that. I was just trying to wrap my head around everything and it wasn't working one bit. Since I was already here, I thought, might as well get a closer look.

I pressed on. Hunter called out behind me trying to get me to stop. He soon joined me and together we cautiously ventured toward the crater. I thought maybe it was a space probe of some sort that had not fully burnt up in the atmosphere or a small meteorite. Those where the two most probable contenders for creating the crater. However, none of them could ever explain the explosion and the halo in the sky.

Up close, the fire looked manageable but that was not completely assured. Too many forest fires erupt because of small trigger flames. What really concerned me, though, was what was in the crater. Prone in the dead centre of the hole in the ground lay some kind of humanoid. It was hard to tell exactly what it was in the dark but I noticed that the light from the fire glistened on the surface of some type of body armour it was wearing. It lay completely still before us and I kinda hoped it would remain that way.

"What the hell is that?" Hunter asked.

"I have no idea," I replied.

"Is this what you wanted to confirm."

"I was honestly hoping for it to be nothing. I can't really explain what I saw but it appears whatever this thing is might have caused it."

"It looks like it could be human. Maybe some failed government test."

"That is possible. Who knows all the stuff that we common people have no clue about."

I practically headed for the hills when I noticed the thing in the crater stir slightly. I was still a bit to curious to leave the scene completely so I hid in a nearby bush with Hunter and watched to see what would happen. The humanoid managed to crawl out of the crater and get to its feet. It seemed barely able to stand and clutched its side. It managed to limp a little bit toward our direction before dropping to its knees. It definitely knew we were around because it kept on looking towards our hiding spot. It called out with a soft voice in what sounded like the most exotic gibberish I had ever heard before going down again. I could only just tell that it was still alive by its breathing.

"This is not how I expected this night to unfold," Hunter whispered to me. "What if this thing is some type of alien and they are more of them on the way. All those alien movies were right. The U.S is an awfully effective alien magnet."

"What should we do?" I wondered. "I mean, what can you do when you actually encounter an extraterrestrial."

"I honestly think we should just leave and forget this ever happened. This whole situation has trouble written all over it."

"We can't just leave it here."

"What do you plan on doing then?"

I stood up out of our hiding spot and slowly moved toward the humanoid creature to inspect it more closely.

"Mate," Hunter called out. "What the bloody hell do think you're doing?"

It was an absolute dream to be this close to what could possibly be the first human-alien interaction in the history of our race. Words failed me. This was an amazing step in the human understanding of life in the universe. For so long, we believed Earth was the only place that could possibly host complex life but here I crouching before possibly the largest evidence to the contrary. That is, if really was an alien. It could easily be one of those secret test runs by some organisation or the government that went horribly wrong. Either way, I was a bit scared that the government would have a many questions for me.

I leaned closer to get a closer look at the details in the humanoid's armour and instantly regretted. I was too late to notice the humanoid's arm slightly lift up in my direction. I was met with an intense pain in my lower left arm that felt like a group of doctors decided to all take a blood sample at once. I toppled over from the pain. I could here Hunter shouting in confusion, yelling something about something on my arm. I took a look at it. Some type of thing metallic object with weird symbols etched into it stretched from my wrist to my elbow. I tried to pulled it off but pulled my skin in the process. I felt like it was cutting of the blood flow to my arm and slowly trying to detach it from the rest of my body. But after close to what felt like forever, the pain vanished and I lay on my back staring up at the stars with only ghost feelings of the experience. Hunter looked at me with great concern, visibly uncertain of what to do. Meanwhile, I continued to lay their, taking in deep breaths as I felt a cold sweat trickle down my face. Despite the immense pain that preceded that, I felt strangely calm.