The last ray of sun was fading from the New Mexico sky, leaving behind orange streaks over the distant hills. But in the spacious garden of a large, two-story white house, the sound of a little girl's laughter filled the quiet air.
"Found you!" shouted Leo, a tall, sturdy young man, removing his hands from his blue eyes that shone with curiosity. He saw his seven-year-old niece, Helen, hiding—somewhat poorly—behind a scrawny rose bush.
She jumped from her spot and ran towards him, throwing herself into his arms.
"You were late this time, Uncle Leo!"
Leo laughed as he lifted her into the air and spun her around, a lock of his brown hair falling onto his forehead in its usual rebellion. To him, Helen was more than just a niece; she was the shining ray in his world.
"You were very fast," he said as he set her down on the ground. "But I'll win next time."
"No, you won't," she said with childish seriousness, pulling a small cotton-stuffed doll from behind her back. "Because now you have to find my doll 'Emily'. Okay, close your eyes and count to ten."
While Leo covered his eyes, Helen crept lightly toward his car in the open garage. She opened the heavy back door, reached out her small hand, and placed the doll in the narrow gap between the seat and the backrest, then whispered to the car in the silence of the garage:
"Don't tell anyone... it's our secret."
"Found you!" Leo's voice came suddenly from behind her, and she jumped, laughing.
"No, you found me, but you didn't find Emily!"
Leo searched everywhere. He looked behind the rose bushes, under the porch swing, and even inside the empty mailbox, while Helen watched him and laughed. Finally, feigning exhaustion, he sat on the porch steps.
Leo laughed a laugh of surrender.
"Alright, you beat me this time, little one. But I'll find it when I get back. I promise you and her that we'll finish the game then."
She held his hand and said:
"Are you going out now?"
He nodded. "Yes, I have a date."
"With Gina?"
"With Gina," he confirmed, smiling his broad smile.
She hugged him tightly, clinging to his neck for a moment.
"I love you, Uncle Leo."
"And I love you, my little one," he whispered in her ear. "Be a good girl."
She pulled away from him and said,
"You are my hero."
These words left a warm trace in his heart as he entered the house to grab his keys. He waved to her one last time from the window, then drove off, leaving behind an unfinished game, and a promise he would never be able to keep.
Her scent always preceded her. A mix of vanilla and something else, something like the smell of summer rain on hot asphalt. That was what Leo thought as he parked his car in front of her house on North Virginia Avenue. The engine roared like a beast ready to pounce, and the headlights cast a bright light on the wooden porch where she waited for him.
Gina looked stunning with her dark black hair cascading over her shoulders, and her quiet, classic beauty.
"You're late," she said as she sat beside him.
She brought that scent with her. Her dark brown eyes held an intelligence and calmness that always seemed to be the anchor for his dreaming soul.
"Imaginary traffic," he said smiling, putting his arm around her and driving the car back to the main road, turning left onto Main Street.
They were supposed to meet Mark and Sarah at a party on the other side of town at six o'clock, but the party suddenly seemed like something distant, something trivial. All that mattered was here, in this car.
He held her hand; her fingers were slightly cold, and soft. He ran his thumb over her knuckle, feeling the small silver ring she never took off.
"I love you," he whispered.
"I know," she replied softly, turning her head to look at him, her eyes gleaming in the faint light from the dashboard.
Without thinking, and instead of heading north towards the party, Leo swerved east at the intersection, heading towards Highway US-380 after leaving the last city lights behind. He turned the steering wheel sharply onto an old dirt road known to every teenager in town, "Old Comanche Hill Road." He stopped in the vast open, where there was nothing but scattered mesquite bushes and the profound silence of the desert. He killed the engine. Silence fell, save for a quiet song from the radio and the chirping of night insects.
He leaned in close to her, and the world became confined to the distance between his lips and hers. The first kiss was soft and hesitant, then it became deeper. The strawberry-flavored lipstick printed on his lips, and he felt as if time had stopped.
And here, in the middle of it all, it happened.
It wasn't a normal light. It was a flash, a greenish-blue color, like the color of toxic chemicals. It flooded the car's interior for a single second, casting shadows on Gina's face that made her look like a skeleton. The light vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving glowing spots in their eyes.
A second later, they felt it. A low, deep vibration in the ground beneath them. A vibration that traveled through the tires to rattle their bones.
"What is that?" Gina gasped, pulling away from him, her eyes wide with terror. "Leo, what is that...?"
Leo looked through the windshield, towards the hills a few kilometers away. He could see a faint glow rising from behind the trees, like a mythical beast. He knew then that what had just happened was something grave.
"I don't know," he said, and restarted the engine.
"Leo, what are you doing?" Gina screamed as he began driving slowly down the dirt road, heading towards the glow.
"No! Turn the car around! Let's get out of here! Please!" Gina shouted.
Her voice was sharp and filled with panic, but he couldn't stop. His curiosity was like pounding in his head, as if something was pulling him forward.
"I just want to see," he said in a strange voice, a voice that wasn't quite his own.
Gina started pulling on his arm, clinging to him tightly.
"Leo, something is wrong! I feel it! Let's go to the party, or go home, or anywhere! Not here!"
But he continued driving, as if in a trance, until they reached a bend in the road where the trees opened up to reveal a small field. He stopped the car and turned off the headlights.
In the middle of the field, the Thing was there.
The two sat in absolute silence, jaws dropped, eyes staring at the scene before them. All words had vanished from the world, leaving only fear, and awe.
There was pressure on their eardrums, as if the air itself had become heavy and viscous, and a low hum that Leo felt as a vibration in his teeth. As for the green light, it was piercing his eyes, planting roots in the back of his head, pulling his will as the tide pulls the shore.
"Reverse the car now! For hell's sake, get us out of here, Leo!"
"Okay, okay, we're going, we're going now."
He turned the key, shifted the gear into reverse, and stomped on the gas pedal with all his might.
Nothing happened.
The engine was screaming, the needle on the tachometer trembling in the red zone. But the car was a rock. It didn't move. It was frozen in place. Then, he felt it moving towards that Thing.
The windshield turned into a cinema screen displaying the scene of their approach to the Thing, which now filled the entire windshield with its absolute darkness and sharp angles.
A gateway opened in this Thing smoothly and silently, revealing a rectangle of pure darkness, blacker than any night, while the car continued its course towards it, carrying its terrified passengers inside.