The Abduction of Her Dreams

The next day’s sun peeked in through the curtains much faster than Mindy had hoped. The dread in her belly only grew as she got dressed. They were to have a meeting after breakfast this morning, and she would make her decision known then.

The thought made her feel ill. She knew there would be no need for breakfast this morning, even with the amazing array of food they had in the food hall for every meal of the day.

She had decided that she was going to go home. Then she had decided the opposite. Now she was once again leaning toward home, as she thought of her roommate and her work.

She had a whole life, and while she didn’t have a person even close to as appealing as Kayon in it, Mindy couldn’t help thinking back on all her mother’s personal experience with all the many terrible men that seemed great, at first. Her mother had shown her that following those feelings never led anywhere.

When Mindy was a kid, her mother had relied on love to solve all her problems. And all she had gotten in exchange for her love was more problems.

Some problems had dragged Mindy right into the middle of them, like the time one of her ex step-dads had an obsession with Mindy and tried to kidnap her in the middle of the night after her mother found pictures of her in his wallet and kicked him out. Thank goodness he got pulled over for drunk driving and locked up, or who knows what would have happened.

Mindy had moved out as soon as she could from her mother’s home, but she loved her mom. She knew her mom needed her. Especially considering her mother’s love life hadn’t changed—if anything, it had only gotten worse.

Mindy replayed these childhood memories now, to try to reinforce her decision to leave. She’d always been there to help pick up the pieces when things fell apart with her mom’s boyfriends. She’d been there to clean up the baggage that more times than not came with them.

Mindy had never known anything else. She didn’t know another way to help. She knew she would never get her mother to stop. Even after Mindy had almost gotten kidnapped, her mother had a new boyfriend the next week.

Thoughts of her mom’s most recent gym rat boyfriend flashed through Mindy’s head. She couldn’t leave her mother alone with Benny. He was a six-pack short of a felony conviction, and she knew that because she’d looked up his rap sheet. But her mother said he’d changed.

There was also her friend and roommate Ginnie, who was having a hard time as it was paying her mortgage. She couldn’t seem to find someone that wasn’t sketchy to rent the third bedroom in her house. With that room empty for six months, Ginnie depended on her. Moving out and taking away that income for her would be devastating.

A knock on the door of her room brought her back to the present.

“Come in.”

Mindy felt surprised to see Jukar come in without Kayon on his heels, considering how Kayon felt about her being alone with him.

“I hear you will still leave today. Kayon has left for his vacation home already. I do not give up so easily. I am hoping I can somehow still convince you to stay.”

Mindy felt flattened that Kayon had assumed he knew her decision before she had even made it. Then she was even more upset because he was right. She’d been going back and forth, but she’d talked herself into going because of her mom and Ginnie.

She wanted to see Kayon so badly. At the same time, she didn’t. She felt a mess, inside and out.

“I think you will make someone an amazing Yuai mate one day,” she said with a sad smile. “I am sorry that I am not that lucky one. I’m sorry, Jukar. Knowing you have someone out there that is destined to be your true Yuai mate makes it an even bigger no.”

“It is not something that is likely to happen for me. While everyone has a destined Yuai mate, most never find them. But I accept your decision. I can see you do not feel for me the way you do for Kayon. If you should change your mind, I will be here for you.”

“Thank you, Jukar.”

Hugging the large, slightly sweaty alien, Mindy wondered what Kayon was doing in that moment. Was he thinking of her, too?

Jukar kept his arm around Mindy’s shoulders as he guided her into the hall. He stood too close for her comfort.

Pushing off the heavy weight, Mindy shook her head at Jukar in a “boy, I said no,” way.

He shrugged, as if to say, “hey, I tried.”

“Mindy! Jukar!”

The scientist Percheen greeted them excitedly. “Over here.”

They headed to a room Mindy had not been in yet. Where she was staying must be some sort of hotel or apartment building. She knew thousands of others stayed here. She didn’t understand the technology exactly. She just knew everything on the inside was bigger than the way the building looked on the outside. She’d decided it was basically magic that made it work. Pretending everything was magic made it much easier to accept.

“Come in, please. We have been waiting.”

Walking into the open doorway, Mindy nodded in greeting to the four other aliens she’d met on the ship. They sat at a table.

The one who had come into her bedroom stood up. She recognized him from his familiar horns.

“Mindy Hulton, I am Gretter, your first contact. It is very good to set eyes on you again. I heard you Yuai mated with none other than that grouch, Kayon Pertron. I am sorry for your misfortune.”

Mindy was horrified. In that moment she understood that everyone, maybe millions or billions of their people, knew of her bungled Yuai mating. Her cheeks burned.

Mindy sat in the chair that was most likely intended for her, as it was dramatically smaller than the rest.

“We have a new human Yuai DNA match,” Percheen said. “We are going to bring them back here after taking you home to Earth. If you still wish to go. If you do not wish it, then I am sure Kayon would be happy. I know him better than most.”

“Kayon is nestled in his vacation home.” Jukar sounded angry.

Mindy felt that Jukar was right. Kayon wasn’t even here to say goodbye. He’d already accepted she was leaving. So why couldn’t she?

She looked to Percheen. He’d been studying her.

“If you are still unsure, maybe you wish to make this trip, and then decide. If you choose to stay, we will pick up our newest Yuai mate prospect, and drop you off. If you choose to come back here, you can help the newest human acclimate to life. Maybe that could even be a job for you while you live here, should you decide to stay.”

That sounded doable. Mindy made an effort to smile, and nodded. She pushed away all thoughts of Kayon.

“I guess I’m heading back to Earth.”

***

Waking from her warm, goo bath, Mindy felt groggy. The feeling cleared much faster than last time. She headed to the shower to change and watch the rest of the trip to Earth.

As she walked out freshly clothed and showered, Mindy took in the Earth from afar. She was dismayed at how much space garbage there was floating around the blue-green planet. You never saw that in photos.

“I do feel bad for this planet. It’s dying slowly and painfully, the way it’s being treated.”

She turned to find Jukar. He nodded toward the view.

Mindy couldn’t help but feel guilty. She knew that not enough humans cared about the Earth’s resources and ecosystems.

The ship sped down through the atmosphere. The ground went from a blob to the outline of her house.

“Maybe we should pick up the other human before I leave?”

Mindy wasn’t ready yet. She reminded herself of how easily Kayon had given up on her. For a moment, she felt a rush of heat in her groin, and couldn’t believe just thinking of him was still affecting her this way.

“That is what we are doing. The human we have been led to lives here as well, surprisingly.”

Mindy was shocked. This time when the yellow bubble of light appeared in her home, it was her legs poking through it. She emerged in her bedroom, and the two aliens whose names she still hadn’t learned trailed behind her.

She gaped at them. “You want Ginnie?”

“Yes, Ginnie McIntire.”

“Holy shit. Are you home, Mindy?”

Mindy’s roommate and friend Ginnie poked her head in the door. She liked to do cosplay, and today she wore a long, pink wig. Her short dress displayed a lot of cleavage. She wore the dress over poofy leggings and clunky, black shoes.

“Oh my god, Mindy! Where the hell have you been? And who the hell are ~you~?”

Ginnie furrowed her eyebrows at the open-mouthed aliens that loomed in the corner of the room. Their beautiful bronze skin glistened in the light from of the ship beaming through the windows.

Racing over to hide behind Mindy, Ginnie gasped.

“Of all the hot, muscular, horned gods. Mindy? Am I dreaming? It’s because your mom and I were freaking out about your disappearance right before I fell asleep, isn’t it? This is all some weird, lucid dream.”

She felt a little better about her own insistence that things had been a dream. “No, believe me, it’s not. These are aliens from the futuristic planet of Nulamore. They’ve got a machine that finds people who are the perfect…what they call ‘Yuai mates.’ Basically they have somehow concluded that you and I are prime candidates for other aliens on their planet.”

“Ummm…okay… Not to change the subject, but did you know your work called you a total of thirty-seven times between yesterday and today? Pretty sure you lost that job.”

Focusing back on the aliens, Ginnie shivered.

“They aren’t going to hurt us, are they? They look very…menacing.”

“Didn’t have access to a phone when I was being dragged millions of light years from here for days, honestly. Good riddance anyway—I hated dealing with Karens.”

Gesturing toward the corner, Mindy continued. “They’re safe—in fact they practically worship the ground we walk on. We are the first to be matched as Yuai mates for our race.”

“So, you’re saying a machine that detects sexy peaches somehow picked you and me out of a whole planet of humans. We’re the ideal candidates for these hot, horned, horny alien males on the planet…Numore…or whatever. Are they all this hot?”

“Well, I think you only get one…”

“It can be multiple, and it’s called Nulamore.”

One of the aliens spoke up.

“Okay, wow,” Mindy said. She wondered what else they hadn’t told her yet. “Learn something new every day. So, I guess some get multiple partners. I have been matched with just one. He’s named Kayon, and let me tell you, he is too hot to handle. He’s also not interested.”

“Hotter than these two?”

Ginnie finally removed her pink wig, revealing her auburn pixie cut underneath. She her fingers through her flattened hair.

The aliens’ faces contorted in shock.

“This is like one of those hot alien romance books my mom likes to read. Where they come to Earth to impregnate us with their babies.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what this is.”

Mindy studied Ginnie’s face. It wasn’t clear how her friend was taking this.

Finally, Ginnie crossed her arms and smiled at the aliens.

“Cool. I’m on board. I’m losing the house anyway. I’ve only been stressing so hard to keep it since you depended on me for a safe place. I could never let you go back to your mother’s. Since you’re coming back with me, I’m all for a little field trip. I’ve been looking for a fresh start.”

Mindy’s heart dropped at the mention of her mother. She was surprised with how cool Ginnie was. Then she remembered Ginnie was an anime fan. She had probably dreamed of some type of scenario like this happening all her life.

This just made everything harder. Mindy had been pretty sure she was staying on Earth. And now she wouldn’t have a place. She could never live with her mother, and apparently she had no job.

“You said you and my mom were freaking out. Is she okay? I should call her.”

“Yeah, she’s in Vegas, ’cause her boyfriend had a poker convention there. I tried to get her to stay, considering you were missing. I wanted to form a search party, put up flyers, or something, but her boyfriend convinced her that she should go support him. So off she went. We did speak late into the night, though. She wanted me to contact her the moment I heard from you.”

Mindy felt hurt that her mother hadn’t cared enough to stay and search for her. Especially since she had been missing over two days. Normally they spoke daily, sometimes even multiple times a day. Her mother didn’t know if she was even alive. She found her phone on the floor. It was dead.

Pulling her phone from her bra, Ginnie handed it to Mindy.

“At least talk to her before we go.”

The phone was already ringing. Mindy put it up to her ear just in time to hear her mother’s tired and worried voice.

“Ginnie, did you find her? I’m worried sick.”

“It’s me, Mom.”

“Mindy!”

Her mother’s sobs rang from the phone.

Ginnie rolled her eyes.

“How could you disappear like that on me? You know I rely on you so much.”

“Why didn’t you stay to look for me then? I mean, I know I should have called, but what if I had really been kidnapped or something? I mean, I sort of was.” She didn’t want to explain it all now. “You didn’t do anything to try to find me.”

“Honey. You sound fine. I spent hours talking with Ginnie to think of solutions. I mean, I had to wait a while before I could even report you as a missing person. You are an adult, after all. Benny knew you would be all right.”

“Fuck Benny, Mom. He’s a douche, even more so than the others. I wish, for once, that you would worry about me. When will you put me first?”

“You are so reactive today. You know I worry about you constantly. I wouldn’t be so exhausted right now if I hadn’t worried all night about where you could be.”

“Yet you couldn’t be bothered to look for me.”

“Where is all this coming from, Mindy? You know I need you. I rely on you so much.”

“Please stop saying that.”

“It’s true though, honey. I mean I kept wondering what I would do if I never saw you again. And then, god forbid, Benny could leave me too. Then I really would be alone. You know I can’t deal with that. Not after everything you know I’ve been through.”

Mindy stood and listened to her mother’s overly dramatic crying.

It was the first time Mindy felt truly alone. She had always known her mother viewed her as a prop in her own life, but hearing it from her mouth made it impossible to ignore.

Hanging up, she handed the phone back to Ginnie, signaling to silence any future calls.

Ginnie nodded.

Mindy felt free, finally. Now that nothing held her back, Mindy could go to the planet of hotness. If only Kayon wanted her.

She felt a tear fall down her face.

Her small room filled with yellow light then. She saw a well-shaped foot in weird sandals, and then his muscled legs. When he stepped through, Mindy started crying in a totally different way.

“Kayon!”

“My mate!” Kayon rushed out of the portal and scooped her up in his arms.

Jukar spilled out after him, looking angrier than Mindy had ever seen him.

“How in the seven hells of Gretta did you even get on the ship, Kayon? You were forbidden on this journey.”

Kayon was busy kissing Mindy’s tear-stained face. Eventually, he glared at Jukar.

“I told you to stay away from my Yuai mate. Yet here you are again, traveling off world with her.”

“I am appointed to this ship, no matter what race we have aboard. Your mate and I have already spoken on this matter. We have agreed it would not work between us.”

Kayon growled, then turned back to Mindy. His familiar tongues found her neck.

She melted in his arms. She’d tried so hard to convince herself she didn’t need him. She was so relieved that he still wanted her.

“Maybe we should leave those two alone for a minute,” Ginnie said. “Is your planet just through this ball of light, then?”

Jukar held one hand to his chest, and looked her up and down. He held out his other hand as an offering that Ginnie all too willingly took.

She followed him into the bright portal, a skip in her step.

The other aliens hurried for the portal.

“Just call when you’re ready.”

The portal closed behind the last aliens, leaving Kayon and Mindy alone.