Hugh was escorted into the gates via a black SUV and men with helmets dressed in all black. Every aspect of his day did not seem real to him, he was starting to speculate whether or not this was all a dream. The windows were so tinted it was hard to tell the time of day from inside of the vehicle. He was sure no one could see in.

The SUV rolled up to a kiosk that scanned the front of the car. Upon scanning it opened an even higher security gate that slid up the side of The Cube like a wall. There were no words on The Cube, nothing to identify it other than its sharp-cut shape.

He was brought out of the vehicle into a preparation room. A nurse came in wearing purple scrubs and a mask. Behind her positioned unique screens for unusual vitals like hair length and pupil dilation readers. All of the probes started booting up around him, and he could almost feel their soft lasers brushing over his skeleton.

“Good Afternoon Mr. Hobart. I am here to prepare you for The Cube.” She sat down on a typical doctor’s roller chair and rolled over to her desk to grab some files.

“If you could sign these please while I go over the confidentiality agreement then we will be on our way!”

She proceeded to talk about liabilities and shortly wrapped up their talk. She led him towards the door into the next room and informed him that he was going to be surprised.

He stepped forward into a massive corridor and walked straight down to the other side. He could feel the sensation, that the Alien was near. He couldn’t describe it by any words but he could feel it internally. He followed that feeling into a room. The room was square, high security, and featured a pane of one-way glass, only this time Hugh could see through it.

“Well hello there.” a soothing voice spoke from the corner.

Hugh whipped around rapidly only to be caught entirely off guard by the form of the being that spoke. He started heaving again, his breath catching. Oh my god, it’s happening again! He thought.

“I am a friend of a friend.” her legs were crossed, covered by a tight metallic suit that covered her feet to her neck. She had a thin and lovely figure, but proportionally off to that of a human being. Her skin glowed purple, with tones of amethyst and periwinkle. Atop her head laid a crown meeting the edges of her chunky horns that reached nearly a foot off the top of her head. “I have some news to share with our dearest friend on the other side.”

Hugh glanced in to see The Alien, low and scared to the ground. They were doing something to him. Just hours before he was glowing so brightly.

“He has been waiting patiently for me to share this information with him, but I can feel that he knows what it’s about. I think his visual receptors caught a glimpse of who I am with as we were coming in from the elevator shaft.” Every word she spoke sounded impossibly casual, as she removed herself from her chair and made her way to the glass.

Hugh and The Alien let her continue, as there wasn’t much to be said from either of them after the day they both had.

“I know your girlfriend, back from your planet.” She almost whispered. “I know how she died.”

The Alien shot up off of the ground and ran towards the glass, his field was glowing once more.

“I know that you came here to get away but the truth is, you should be here getting revenge. I know you saw that ship when we were coming in. I know why you care about Earth so badly!” She was shouting now, raising the tension in the air.

Hugh watched in disbelief, feeling a sense of mourning protruding from his friend. He got it now, he understood. He could recognize how The Alien was feeling without a peep. He could feel his experience through his own flesh and blood. It was some sort of energy transfer.

“Come up to the glass, old friend. Put your palm on the glass. Do you even remember who I am? Your energy remembers me. I was there.” The purple woman extended her hand out to the glass. “Mr. Hobart, why don’t you join us? It’s too late for you anyway.”

He walked over meekly and put his hand on the glass.

Like a shockwave, he jolted into a locked position, and memories began flooding his mind. However, they were not his memories, they were The Alien’s. Washes of love, a sense of home, a life even. It was all there, he could feel all of his experiences. But then a new energy took over, something darker. The woman slammed her hand into the glass and out poured a plethora of imagery from multiple perspectives of tragedy. It was a shipwreck, a little ship blown to bits by some sort of missile or rocket branded with an American flag. It was too overwhelming for Hugh, he felt as if he needed to tap out, but he couldn’t. He wanted to experience this.

A pandora’s box of emotions came over him and he began shaking and crying as the Earth rattled beneath him. Flashes of blue and white whipped and whirled all around the room and the glass shattered.

“That’s right!” the woman yelled, “They killed her!”

The energy field was all-consuming now and busting through the walls of the building. The Alien threw rubble left and right with the wind of his electric story. He let out a yell so loud it could burst an eardrum and he flew up through the ceiling. He burst out into the daylight, finally free to feel his emotions. The crumpling cube was falling to pieces but he didn’t care! He finally knew the truth and he was so overwhelmed by it, until he realized what he had done.

Thousands of men surrounded him. Bunches of small green helmets lined The Cube. There was no escaping. Admiral P. Johnson stood on the front line, a tank positioned directly behind him, aiming at The Alien.

“Go ahead and come down here son, we need to have a chat,” he spoke into a megaphone.

The Alien prepared to use the rest of his energy to blast himself away from the men, or at least shoot himself into them, but he couldn’t. Instead, he felt a deep pull back into The Cube. Something cold, something dark. A suction of emotion and power.

Instantly, he fell from the sky, crashing into the decrepit pits of what was once his cell. His vision blurred, and he fell into unconsciousness.