‘Eyewitnesses claim that Ion Jones, a local man attending a Dads and Kids’ Adventure Weekend at the Getaway Experience with his ten-year-old son Jake, was “beamed up” into the UFO which then disappeared completely. However, all camera phone footage of this so-called “alien encounter” in Middlewich Forest seems to have been mysteriously wiped. Authorities suspect that the incident may be some kind of hoax, as a viral video now being shared on social media shows the same man chasing a runaway Lego spaceship at a local school fete. But this evening, there is no escaping the fact that Ion Jones is still missing and, as I stand outside the Jones’s family home, a young boy inside is missing his dad.’
Stabbing my thumb down on the remote I angrily switch off the TV, but I can still hear the sound of the reporter’s voice.
Getting up off the sofa, I make my way over to the window. The living-room curtains are already drawn, even though it’s only just gone dark outside, but peeking through a gap I can just see the back of the TV newsman as he wraps up his report.
And he’s not the only one out there.
It looks like most of the world’s media is camped outside our front gate. I can see their names on the sides of the vans which fill the street: BBC, ITV, CNN, 5 Live, Sky News and even North West Tonight. Beneath the street lights a small forest of TV cameras crowds the pavement, their lenses all aimed straight at my house. As the first reporter puts down his microphone, I watch as a second news crew starts to set up their shot, the reporter bustling her way to an empty spot next to the wheelie bins.
It’s been like this ever since I got back from the woods.
The police brought me home, but even as they told Mum what I said had happened to Dad, I could tell they didn’t believe a word. Strange lights in the sky. Unidentified Flying Object. No sign of your husband anywhere.
The others at the campsite tried to prove that what I was saying was true. But all of their camera phone videos came out blank and the one photo that Amba’s dad took of the spaceship just showed a few blurry lights in the sky. And when the policewoman asked what Dad was wearing when he went missing and I described his shiny ski suit, she couldn’t stop herself from smiling.
‘So your dad was dressed as a spaceman when he was beamed up by these aliens?’ she said.
Reluctantly, I nodded my head. But I didn’t tell her that my dad was an alien too.
Still peering through the curtains, my gaze drifts up from the TV news crews to the darkening sky above the roofs of the houses on our street. The stars are beginning to come out and, as I blink back my tears, I wonder where my dad is now.
A sudden flash makes me jump in surprise. Then I see the photographer leaning over the garden fence, his camera lens pointing straight towards me. The camera flashes again and I quickly close the crack in the curtains.
Everyone’s desperate to get the first pictures and interview with the kid who says his dad was abducted by aliens. Mum’s stopped answering the door. She says they’ll all get bored and go away soon, but I can’t help worrying that if they do that’ll mean that Dad’s never coming home.
Slumping down on the sofa, the leather squeaks as I reach forward to pick up my rucksack. Inside this is everything I brought back from the woods. Unzipping the bag, I start to pull out my stuff, throwing my muddy clothes on to the floor as I search for the thing I’ve hidden in here. Then I stop as my hand closes round a bundled-up pair of Dad’s smelly socks.
I’d already packed my rucksack ready to leave when the killer robots turned up. I’d left this on the grass when we ran into the woods, but when the robots disintegrated the pop-up tent they destroyed all of Dad’s stuff. Except for these socks. They must’ve got mixed up with my clothes when I was packing up.
I hold the socks in my hand. They still smell rather cheesy, but that’s not what’s making my eyes water now. Unbundling them, I pull out the Quintessence from the place where I’d hidden it away, safely wrapped up inside Dad’s smelly socks.
Resting it in the palm of my hand, I stare at the strange egg-shaped device. There’s no sign of the dazzling light that shone out of it back in the woods. Now it lies lifeless in the centre of my palm, its stone-like surface as black as my mood.
Everyone wants proof that aliens exist. Well, I’ve got this.
Dad told me this was real alien technology. He said this device saved his life when he first landed here on Earth and he used it to save mine. I blink back my tears as I remember being trapped in the tractor beam – Dad frantically twisting the Quintessence between his fingers before throwing it to me. I remember how the stars shone as I felt it changing something inside me and the sinking feeling I got as I glanced up to see Dad changing too.
It looked like he was turning into something else, his skin glowing green in the light. But the light was too bright for me to see exactly what this was. Lizard man? Space frog? Alien blob? The questions whirl around my brain. Is that what’s going to happen to me when I hit puberty?
Only Dad knows, but he could be half the universe away by now. I’ve got to get him back and I’ve got an idea how.
Inside this Quintessence is an emergency distress signal – a quantum flare. When I accidentally set this off in the woods it brought the spaceship back, so that’s what I’ve got to do now. I twist the device between my fingers, waiting for the click that will tell me that it’s worked.
Nothing happens.
I try twisting the device in the opposite direction, but there’s still no click. No lights flicker across its surface. No quantum flare activates to tell the universe that I’m here. My fingers twist and probe the egg-shaped device, but whatever I do I can’t seem to find the right switch. Has it run out of charge again?
Frustrated, I try and shake the pebble into life, but the smooth black stone stays silent in my hand.
It’s not working.
The aliens aren’t coming back and neither is my dad.
I hear the living-room door start to open and quickly wipe my eyes with the back of my sleeve. And when I look up, Mum’s standing there with a mug in her hand.
‘I’ve brought you a cup of tea.’