Red Park was a small city and from the suburbs in the west where Millie lived, you could get anywhere you’d want to go pretty quickly with a car.

  The city also had pces that you wouldn’t want to go to and those took longer to get to. Spread out all around were the remnants of a bygone age. Millie loved these pces. Her collection had started as memorabilia for whenever she went somewhere interesting.

  The quarry that had been abandoned before the 21st century. The steel mill that was caught up in some sort of investor scam. Abandoned mines that she was too scared to enter but she loved to hang around. Walking in these pces is what brought her wonder.

  And of course there was the forest. The walks she used to take with her dad into Red Park’s forests were her most cherished memories.

  There were also pces that she knew but never wanted to think about. She had heard of some organized crime and as funny as the thought of a Red Park mafia was, she stayed away from anything that had ‘gang’ written all over it.

  When a cute girl she was talking to at lunch asked her if she wanted to hang out this weekend, Millie shyly said yes. She needed to stop being a weirdo and had promised herself she’d make more friends.

  When the girl said that they’d meet at Mad Mike’s pce the first thing Millie thought was, isn’t he a drug dealer?

  She didn’t say anything though. Just smiled and told Alice that she’d be there.

  Millie rode up to a dirt road and then followed that until she reached the gate of Mike's property. Around the old wall that surrounded the pce was basically nothing. Mike came from a family that owned a rge amount of nd but any hopes of building more than just the house he lived in had come down to nothing. He’d probably go broke and sell it soon.

  This was one of the things that made her nervous. She was fine hanging out at his house when it was thirty-to-one, but visiting alone was the stupidest thing she could do. Especially when it was in the middle of nowhere.

  “Galon, I’m going to try to keep my eyes on the guy we’re about to meet at all times, but if I have to take my eyes off him please look out for me and tell me if he tries anything funny,” she said.

  “Understood,” Galon affirmed.

  Why was she even here? Hadn't she gone too far for what she knew was her brain lying to her?

  Millie knew that deep down she hoped Galon and aliens were real. She used a pebble she picked up to knock loudly on the rusty green gate. After a minute, Mike opened it and met her outside.

  He was a thin man with a small goatee. He was taller than her, but that wasn’t saying much. He squinted at her and she guessed he didn’t recognize her from yesterday and so she took charge.

  “Hey mister. This is a weird question but I was near the stream yesterday and saw some cool looking bck rocks there. I collect stuff like that and I wanted to pick them up today but didn’t see any around today. Did you see them around? Or know who took them” Millie said, increasingly nervous as Mike just looked at her without saying anything.

  After a few seconds of silence Mike said, “Yeah, I know them. I found them there yesterday and picked them up.”

  “Oh thank god,” Millie said. She then realized she had no idea how to proceed. “Uh…sorry to ask, but can I see them?”

  “I remember you from yesterday, so I have to clear some things up,” Mike said.

  Millie’s heart rate shot up after hearing that. What a stupid idea this was.

  “That whole thing was a favor to my cousin. You know Jamie? He wanted a pce where you kids could have a party and asked if he could do it at my house.

  “Next, I didn’t know anything about the booze you kids smuggled in. If I had I would have cut that out way earlier and when I did learn, I threw that shit out. I don’t want any trouble with kids on my property.” He was getting louder and more animated.

  Millie felt relieved that he was at least trying to avoid being a perv, but she was also a little more scared now. He seemed to be getting angrier and right now his anger was directed at her.

  “Lastly, what are you doing here?” Mike spat out. “Do you know what this looks like? Can't you see that I live in the middle of nowhere?! Is this some sort of predator trap or something?! I don't mess with kids!”

  “Alright mr. Mike! I messed up! But I really am collecting those bck rocks. Can you at least give them to me, Millie said.

  “Five bucks each,” he said without skipping a beat.

  “What?! They're rocks! You can't charge that,” Millie said.

  “If they're so valuable to you, then I’ve got to make something off them. They are pretty and I’ve got seven of them.”

  Millie had a total net worth of the two dolrs in her pocket. She’d have to get the money from Arthur and getting that much would mean getting him involved and having to expin why he’d be paying 35 for her to get some rocks. What a headache this was all becoming.

  Thanks, Galon, she thought towards the alien hoping she’d hear her.

  “You are welcome Millie,” Galon said back. Millie got the impression that she found the statement a bit confusing and didn't understand what she was being thanked for.

  “OK. I don't have the money now, but I’ll be back ter with it,” Millie said. “I’ll probably be bringing my brother around too.”

  “Yeah, that sounds good,” Mike said.

  “So…can I at least see them, so that I know my time’s not wasted?”

  “What, can’t you take my word?”

  Millie just stared at him ftly until he said, “OK, I get it.”

  He looked around to make sure no one was watching and opened the gate for her. After they both entered, they made their way toward the house.

  She started to feel nervous again as they reached the house and then went around to the back. Did she just make a horrible mistake?

  Remember Galon. Keep him in your sights for me. Millie thought to her.

  “I am doing so,” she replied.

  Millie looked around at the back yard, the trash all around, the aftermath of a bunch of a bunch of excited teenagers partying.

  Mike pointed at and began walking towards a small building that she remembered from the previous day. He kicked aside some pstic cups as he walked and she followed him.

  “I kept the pieces I found here. I find wire and old axe heads all the time and when I need to keep them, I put them in there and I’ll go in to get them,” Mike told her.

  When they reached he took out a key ring with a bunch of keys and picked one out. He unlocked the door, opened it and stepped inside and then stopped.

  Millie was immediately put on alert. Something was wrong. She peeked at the inside of the room from around Mike and tried to see what was wrong.

  The building's single windowless room was old and creaky but she expected that. It was filled with the heads of farm tools and old rolls of different kinds of wire took up the corners of the room. In the center of the room was a metal table and what sat on it was destined to live in Millie's nightmares for the rest of her life.

  An insect-like animal that was initially facing away from the door turned towards them. It was dark brown like a roach with a shiny, solid looking carapace split into segments for flexibility. The many legs were more reminiscent of big crabs in how thick and tough they looked except for two small and thin ones that looked like mantis arms. Its head was also an armoured, angur block with the short and wicked looking serrated mandibles and no eyes that she could see.

  The worst thing about the creature though, was that it was around the size of a golden retriever.

  Millie was embarrassed of the squeak she let out when she first heard Galon earlier today, but now she screamed. It was a short one but it pulled Mike out of his shocked state and attracted the attention of the bug.

  As it began to move towards the edge of the workbench, Mike pushed her back and jumped out of the shed. Millie saw the bug seem to leap off the table before he smmed the door close and locked it up.

  “fuckfuckfuckfuck,” was all he could say.

  “What was that?!” she said. “What kind of bugs do you have here?!”

  “I don't know. Fuck, I need something to smack it with,” he said.

  Mike ran to a shovel that was leaning on the shed wall and he brandished it in both hands as a weapon when a loud bang came from the door they Mike just closed.

  “It's after us!” Millie shouted and she took several steps away from the shed. “We have to run.”

  “No!” He said as he stepped in front of the door as it made another bang. “I’m not letting some stupid giant insect chase me out of my own home.”

  They waited and noticed the banging had stopped for a few seconds giving her a bit of hope that it was trapped inside there.

  She dashed her own hope with a realization.

  “Mike, how did that thing get in?!” Millie shouted at him.

  He looked up and Millie's eyes followed and they saw the space between the shed's wall and its roof. The space that the monster was now using to get out of the shed.

  It quickly climbed down the wall and when it reached some height that only it understood, it leaped off the wall and right at Mike.

  He was either lucky or a good batter because he managed to give it a hard, loud smack with the shovel while it was in midair. Unfortunately it now flew towards her.

  The creature nded between the two of them and took a second to reorient itself. Millie was paralyzed during that second. Instead of Mike, it turned towards her, made a terrible gurgling hiss and came right at her.

  She sprinted like she never had. She didn't look back, didn't wait and couldn't even bother wiping the tears from hers. She ran.

  “Millie, drop now!” Gallon shouted at the loudest she had ever heard her. Almost involuntarily, her body just dropped ft to the ground, so fast that she even smacked her head to the ground. Luckily it was grass and soil.

  She felt, more than heard the bug fly right over her and crash way ahead of her. It once again reoriented itself at her and made that terrible hiss. She was doomed.

  The monster was already coming at her and she was still on the ground. She couldn't give up and began scrambling to get up when Mad Mike came in from behind her, shovel raised above his head, with a crazy war cry and ran up to it.

  He hit it with the shovel again and this blow put it ft on the ground. He then began to hit it with blow after blow and stunned it.

  One blow with the edge of the shovel hit a leg and caused a rge crack and a thick bck fluid began to ooze out. The bug dodged another blow and then used the opportunity to turn and scuttle away. Mike chased it until it reached the property wall which it leaped onto, climbed to the top of and then climbed off. He dropped the shovel and climbed to the top of the wall as well, and then looked over it.

  After a few seconds, Millie tried to get her breathing under control and said, “Is it gone?”

  “Yeah, it's gone,” he said. He climbed off the wall, turned around and looked at her. Just looked at her.

  “What was that thing?” Millie asked, her cheeks heating up. “Why was it here?”

  “I don't know what it was but I think I know why it was here,” Mike said.

  He went picked up the shovel and wait straight for the shed. He moved so forcefully that Millie had to step out of the way to avoid being bowled over.

  Mike entered the shed and exited again a few seconds ter holding two shards of bck rock in his hand, each about the size of a fork.

  “Here, take them. Their yours, no charge. Get out of here and I don't ever want to see you back here ever again,” he said.

  “What?! There are only two, I need all of them!” Millie shouted at him, outraged.

  Wasn't a near death experience supposed to bond people together?

  “There are only two left because our insect friend ate the rest! That's why it came here to eat whatever your freaky bck rocks are made of,” he shouted back at her.

  She realized then the monster must have had something to do with Galon. She took the shards and put them near Galon's bck rock.

  Mike saw the rock and said, “Jesus! No wonder it went after you instead of me. No, you’ve got to get out now, before that thing brings friends.”

  The thought of more of them scared her and the two of them rushed to the gate which he opened for her and she went through.

  “Well, thank-” she tried to say but he cut her off, “My advice is that if you tell police about that monster, leave my pce and name out of it. I am not and never have been involved in any of this, got that?”

  She nodded and he closed and locked the gate leaving her alone. Not truly alone though.

  Millie got onto her bike and started off for home.

  After some time she broke the silence and said, “Galon, what was that?”

  Instead of telling her what that thing was, Galon unched into a small speech. She kept quiet and listened to it.

  “Millie,” Galon began. “I have not been honest with you and have lied by omission several times. I have misled you and not given full answers to your questions. I did this thinking that we would be going our separate ways very soon and it would be better for both of us if you were not aware of several key details about me and why I am here.

  “Now, my outlook has changed. In order to assure my recovery, I will have to wage war and I currently cannot do that. In order to accomplish my goals, I will need your help.

  “I am in no position to negotiate and to ask you to fight for me without offering something in return so I will give you two boons to show my goodwill and after you receive them, you may choose to help me. First, I will give you knowledge of myself and my mission to sate your curiosity. Then I will give you power like you have never experienced before, free to use as you see fit.

  I hope for a good partnership between us, more than you know depends on it,” Galon finished.

  Millie began to think about all this. It was a lot to drop on her head at one go, but this whole day had been too much for her. She knew that Galon was still not trustworthy and was still trying to manipute her but at least she wasn’t treating her like she was stupid. Would fighting more evil roaches be in her future? She didn’t know if she could handle seeing any more of them.

  There was a deeper question for her. Did she still think that Galon was an imaginary friend? She supposed that everything from the roach to Mike’s reactions to the house and the whole day could have been in her head. If her delusions were so deep, then what would be the point of even considering whether to believe or not, it couldn’t matter anyway. No, she doubted she was that crazy and chose to believe everything that had happened to her today.

  As Millie rode home quietly, so many things ran through her mind.

  What am I going to do?