It was a chilly November afternoon and the dark clouds hanging above the hospital grounds were threatening to flood the world. Andrew Lawson sat all alone in a secluded waiting room on the second floor of the building, fidgeting with his thumbs. One look at his exhausted face was enough to realize he hadn’t been getting much sleep. He was feeling disconnected from the world and most of the people living in it because of what he had seen and heard. The impossible images haunted his mind in every waking moment, but things were much worse when he closed his eyes and darkness came to collect his thoughts, so he resisted the temptation at the expense of his already dwindling sanity.

“Come on, what’s taking so long?” he mumbled, his clammy eyes tired of the waiting game as much as the rest of his body. He looked nervously across the lifeless, aseptic room, hoping for a bit of solace to come his way but his thoughts were getting bleaker by the second, almost as if his brain was about to liquefy from the inside out.

He heard the familiar click of Dr. Janet White’s heels echoing in the distance long before he saw her emerge from the end of the hallway, walking towards him. Andrew stood up, dusted some imaginary dust off his red and blue flannel shirt, and looked at her as if she were the only person alive who could deliver him from the madness devouring him whole.

“Well, Dr.? he blurted, his worried eyes desperate for her comforting words. “What have you got for me?”

The fifty-six-year-old dyed brunette stopped in front of him, pristine white coat hugging her waist. She had inquisitive cerulean eyes, a Roman nose, and rosy cheeks, and looked young for her age, with only a few expression wrinkles visible around her lips and forehead. Her smile was infectious, and she always knew what to say even when she had bad news to share. Luckily, that wasn’t the case.

“Thank you for waiting, Andrew,” she said, holding a medical chart in her right hand. “I have the test results right here and it’s as I’ve been telling you all along. There’s nothing wrong with your wife. Tammy is in perfect health, and I only wish all my patients were like her. You have nothing to worry about.”

“But...” he mumbled, restless fingers not sure whether to bury themselves in his scalp in disbelief or plug his ears to avoid listening to something he knew couldn’t be true.

“But what?”

“That can’t be right. You... you didn’t see what I saw, Dr. She...”

“Andrew, look at me! How long have we known one another?”

“About ten years,” he nodded. She had been his mentor back in the days when he still dreamed of being a surgeon, but his frail nerves had doomed such ambitions right from the start. Andrew couldn’t stand the sight of blood and his hands often failed him in situations of extreme duress. It was a wonderful dream while it lasted, though. The charismatic woman was also one of his mother’s closest friends. The two of them had been the greatest heartbreakers of all time during their teenage years, or so he had been told.

“Almost eleven,” Dr. White corrected him, tapping her white-painted fingernails on the acrylic chart. “We’ve been through a lot you and me. Have I ever given you any reasons to doubt my judgment?”

“No, but...”

“Please stop. The exams don’t lie. You’re the one that’s giving me cause for concern right now. Perhaps we should continue this conversation in my office.”

“Why?”

“Indulge me, Andrew,” the commanding woman beckoned him. Dr. White was a prime example of female authority, a woman who took charge of every situation she was confronted with. That was a desirable trait for someone who had to deal with many patients, especially the uncooperative kind. Her strong attitude was often misjudged as arrogance but that was a far cry from the truth. She knew what she was doing, and she did it well. Her specialty was neurophysiology, but her medical expertise was almost all-encompassing, and if he didn’t trust her, then who else was he going to turn to?"

“Okay,” he followed her across the deserted hallway while the skies outside grew even darker. Everything was quiet in that wing, perhaps too quiet, compared to the hustle-bustle of normal work days. He noticed a lot of closed doors but hardly any nurses or patients. The air was thick with eeriness and loneliness.

“Why is everything so silent today?” he asked, his eyes firing in every direction, looking for additional signs of life.

“I’m not sure but it’s a pleasant change of pace. I love a bit of chaos but, sometimes, this place is overkill,” Dr. White replied.

“Hmm, right...” Andrew muttered, walking two steps from her. His curly hair was disheveled, and his proud angular face had lost all its natural charm. He felt like a walking Picasso from his Cubist period whose canvas could break down at any moment.

Dr. White led him to the end of the corridor and then veered right to what was the largest office on the floor, a heartwarming space painted in bright colors and with a distinctive flowery scent that reminded him of a Japanese garden in full bloom. Besides the long rectangular desk that centered the whole room, there were two comfy chairs, a leather sofa, and three bookcases, two of which contained medical books and textbooks covering a wide range of topics and pathologies, and the other reserved for her favorite novels and poetry volumes. Every item on the shelves was arranged by color and shape, creating a satisfying visual experience for anyone walking in. There were two entrances to the room, the one they had used in and another small door hiding behind a pair of white curtains. The latter was rarely used nowadays but it had served the previous occupant of that room well.

Andrew waited for Dr. White to take a seat and then did the same, still feeling uncomfortable by what she had told him. Nothing to worry about? Hell no! He wet his lips and said,

“Dr. White, I know I’m not crazy. Tammy is...”

“I’ll do the talking from now on if you don’t mind,” she crossed her legs under the table. “Andrew, you told me her strange behaviors began last Tuesday, correct?”

“Yes.”

“The same day when all radios and TV channels declared there were women falling out of the sky?”

“Yes! They’re aliens, and they’re here to...”

She interrupted him again, raising a curious eyebrow and clicking her tongue.

“Oh, my sweet boy... Aliens? You were always a bit on the gullible side, but this is too much! It was just one big publicity stunt for a new movie. I know what you think you saw but a shape-shifting creature from outer space did not replace your wife no matter how much Hollywood will try to make you believe otherwise. You’ve been burning the midnight oil again, haven’t you?”

“What? No, I...”

“Don’t deny it.” Dr. White shook her head as if she were a school teacher chastising her most promising student. “I can see it in your eyes. You’ve been working too hard, and your imagination is out of control. That’s what happens when we don’t get enough rest. We start seeing and hearing things that aren’t real, confusing imagination with reality in the most absurd ways. That’s not good for you. Tammy has been a dear all this time, but she doesn’t want to see you all worked up like this and neither do it. You need to get a few good nights’ rest to clear away those intrusive thoughts from your mind. I’m going to prescribe you some pills for you to take right before going to bed and, after a few days, those silly delusions should start to go away. Can you do it for me, Andrew? Will you be a willing participant in your recovery process?

“Recovery process?” he clenched his teeth. “No, Dr. I didn’t imagine all of this! Stop suggesting I’m crazy because I’m not!”

The memories of that horrifying event were still fresh in his mind, and he saw them flash before his bloodshot eyes. He was in the garage, looking outside when Tammy came out to greet him and the skies began to weep. The rain was glacial, and its drops were larger than normal. One of them hit his wife straight in the forehead and oozed down her face like a gelatinous transparent mass that began to envelop her entire body. His companion’s eyes turned blank as more and more slithering drops cocooned her in the blink of an eye. Andrew was still trying to process a scream when the cocoon shattered and the Tammy he knew was gone, replaced by an alternate version of her with liquid black eyes and limbs covered in a white scaly membrane similar to the shedding of a snake’s skin. Finally, he exploded in horror and fear, his larynx producing the most grotesque combination of sounds ever to come out of an adult human. Overwhelmed by surprise and fear, Andrew tripped on his feet and banged his head on the concrete floor, blacking out.

“Andrew, focus!” Dr. White brought him back to the present moment with a snap of her fingers. “No one is saying you’re crazy, but you’re confused. You’ve had nervous breakdowns before, so the chance of a relapse was always there. It’s a shame it had to happen in such a dreadful way, and I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like to have your brain warped like this. I’m here for you, though.” she produced a vial of purple pills from the top drawer of her desk. “Two of these, every night for two weeks and those awful images will leave you be. Trust me.”

He felt his skin crawl as more visions of a recent past crawled inside his brain. He remembered waking up in the living room of his house, with a bloody bandage on his head and Tammy looking down at him with a dead expression straight out of a classic horror movie. Her eyes had returned to their normal hazelnut coloring and there were no signs of the alien membrane that had once covered her skin, but the ghoulishness remained. He was looking at a beast in disguise, still learning the ways of its new anthropomorphic body, and studying his every reaction like a predator fixated on helpless prey. Andrew didn’t say a word, but his mind screamed and hadn’t stopped doing so ever since.

“What’s awful is that my wife...” he sobbed, his eyes swelling up with tears that were as cold as the rain.

“... is not only worried but also scared of you right now,” Dr. White said, leaving the comfort of her desk behind to sit next to him and caress his scalp with soothing hands. “She doesn’t understand why you forced her to come here to be tested for anomalies when the only thing abnormal is the way your brain is operating right now. She played along so far but she doesn’t want to do it anymore. She wants her husband back, the gentle soul who’s in love with her and would do anything to make her happy. Do you believe me, Andrew, or do you want to continue holding on to the silly notion of impossible invaders from a distant galaxy?”

“I... I don’t know,” he cried. “I saw... Fuck, that’s not her! That can’t be her.”

“You’ll always think that way as long as your thoughts are clouded,” Dr. White rattled the bottle of pills in his weary ears. “Ask yourself if that’s what you desire instead of getting better. It’s not real, Andrew. It’s not real.”

The room spun around like a dreidel and the veins on Andrew’s arms and forehead became more pronounced. The stress and confusion of all the restless nights thinking the love of his life was now a mimicking creature devoid of heart and soul was getting to him and he cracked into a whimpering mess inside the doctor’s office.

“Fuck! Can I see her, please? Can I see my wife?”

“Soon, okay?” Dr. White placed the bottle of pills in his left hand and wrapped his fingers around it. “Perhaps you should take two of these right now instead of waiting for later. Please, Andrew. It’s for your own good.”

The troubled man shivered in his seat, seeing nothing but the alien rain falling all around him. “Am I losing it?” he murmured. overcome with the weight of all the contradictions floating in his brain. “Help me, Dr. White! Please!”

“That’s what I’m trying to do, she reached for a small bottle of water and opened it for him. “Take them now. Do it for me and for your wife.”

“Are you sure it’s the only way?”

“I’m sure it’s what you need. Do as your Dr. says!”

“Okay.” he wiped the tears off his eyes and cheeks with the palm of his right hand and swallowed two pills as instructed. The results were almost immediate with the powerful drugs inside each casing mixing in his bloodstream to make his voice calmer, and his mind grow numb. Already mellowing out on the chair, he was escorted out of the office by the smiling doctor who said,

“You’re such a good boy, Andrew, and you will get better, I promise. Your shattered mind will soon be whole if you stick to the plan we agreed to. Tammy will be with you in a minute. Go sit in that room you were in before and wait for her. Wait and think only about forgetting this whole mess. Forget, Andrew. You need to forget so you can smile again. Go.”

Andrew wandered off into the quasi-deserted hospital, The dark clouds all over the city were dissolving into an oppressive blanket of rain whose sounds drowned all the others. He dragged his arms and feet until he found the perfect spot to rest his drugged head, thinking how much he loved his wife, the most perfect woman on the face of the earth. He closed his eyes and fell asleep, dreaming of gentle caresses and comforting sex under a warm feathered duvet.

Meanwhile, Dr. White was back on her desk and knocking on the hidden door behind the curtains. “You can come out now, the coast is clear.”

The door opened from the inside revealing a small hidden cubicle that was perfect for a quickie when no one was watching. Tammy crawled out of it, naked, her virginal skin glistening with sweat, vaginal fluids, and rainwater. The humiliating display was the perfect way to punish her carelessness.

“What the hell were you thinking, assimilating a body in plain sight?” Dr. White vociferated, reptilian tongue hissing. “Answer me! What moronic stunt was what?”

Tammy cowered by her desk, knees buckling forward. She had fucked up, but she wasn’t the only one.

“Forgive me, Grand Marshal, I didn’t think...”

“You damn right you didn’t and neither did the ones who sent you down here! Whose idea was this, anyway? We don’t descend in broad daylight, for fuck’s sake! There are rules and procedures for quick and seamless transitions, and you broke them all in one fell swoop, just like the rest of your group. Do you have any idea how many confused boyfriends and husbands I had to deal with already? It’s been a fucking PR nightmare! There will be repercussions, I assure you.”

Tammy bit her lips, the furious words of one of the most powerful leaders of her kind searing her soul. She had every reason to be mad and no one doubted her innate ability to punish the wrongdoers in the harshest way imaginable. If she had her way, consequences would just be a euphemism for total obliteration.

“Will you... will you be returning to the Homebase soon to file your report?” Tammy did her best to hide her perky breasts and shaved pussy from her angry eyes.

“I’ll be there in the next cycle, no doubt about it. I didn’t spend eons of my life coordinating this infiltration to see it all go down the drain because someone forgot to do their homework.”

“And my... husband?” Tammy spat the word as if it were a sour piece of candy. “What will become of it now?”

“Nothing. You’re lucky Andrew and I already have history together and he’s easy to manipulate. The pills I gave him will reset his brain. The moment he forgets this ordeal, you may resume your original assignment.”

“Understood. I look forward to enslaving him and converting him to our cause,” Tammy grinned.

“Deep down inside, he’ll love it too, but be careful, Don’t act out of character again, and do not show your true form until he’s your obedient thrall. Did you get all the memories of the original Tammy when you cocooned her?”

“The assimilation was successful but I’m still having trouble accessing them all.”

“I see. Some transitions take longer than others and you’re still within normal parameters, but you’ll need to keep me apprised if something happens, are we clear?”

“Of course, Grand Marshal, and thank you for your patience.”

“You’re welcome. Now, put on some clothes and the most disturbed face you can think of. Your fear will make sure he believes none of this is real.”

Tammy kneeled before her to show her appreciation and submission and left shortly after, ready to make her superiors proud.

Alone with her thoughts, Dr. White peered through the window of her office, thinking of the merciless shores she had left behind so many years ago. Planet Ahnara was a cruel place to live in, but it would forever be her one true love. She couldn’t wait to return home but, until then, she would do her job to ensure the survival of her species.

A young redhead nurse walked past her office door to enjoy a ten-minute break. She was a recent arrival as well, but her societal integration had been flawless. On her ears rested a pair of wireless earbuds but the music playing was loud enough to echo in the room. It was an 80s cheesy song that depicted an unusual weather phenomenon only foolish earthlings could think of.

“It’s raining men? How ridiculous!” Dr. White scoffed, peering into the cloudy skies.

She reached for a pair of turtle-rimmed glasses and walked out the front door to conduct her last rounds of the day. The sunset was drawing in, and with it, a new batch of invaders prepared for their descent. It was going to be a long and tempestuous night.

The End