Us

By Dennis Vogen

“They fell in love with a child that wasn’t theirs.”

IN DENNIS VOGEN’S THIRD NOVEL, the sequel to and final chapter of “Them”, Kim discovers the truth: about her parents, about them, about us and about herself. A battle for control boils over as Kim tries to find her way home. A story about finally growing up, forgiving and accepting your past and choosing your family while figuring out what love is... during an alien war.

For mature audiences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483523835

Book preview

(US)

A NOVELLA

DENNIS VOGEN

Copyright 2014 Dennis Vogen

Us

Written, edited and self-published by Dennis Vogen

Sleeping Kitty Productions

First edition published in March 2014

Them officially released on April 1st, 2013

Us officially released April 1st, 2014

Special Thanks To –

My Amazing Supporters

Sara Beck, Jackie Daugherty & Tony, Lindsey Duthoy, Dereck Flom, Heather Henry, Ben Johnson, Amy Kielmeyer, Erin Krupke, Poly Mendes, Carrie & Tom Michaud, Jason Eddie Nowak, Zach Prax, Cody & Sarah Putnam, Mary Roswick, Shane Wallick, Eric Damon Walters, Wayne Zbytovsky, Kody Kile, Lora & Matt Mays, Elizabeth Ferguson, Justin & Magan Marie Schoeben, Cathy Lola Kleven, Lydia Siefken Fitzgerald, Stacy Scherer & Matt, Peter L. Vogen, Nicole Sublet, Jill Hanson, Nicole McDonald, Cat Havumaki, Blair Warnemunde, Bekah Fitz, Krista Baker, Eliana Hutchison

My Friends

Kody Kile, Brian McDonough, Steven Starks Jr.

My Family

Mark, Diane, Nina, Dustin, Mickey, Maggie, Amy & Kitty Vogen

My Loves

Holly & Jack

Dedicated to

Jack

My parents, Mark & Diane

Thank you for making me become who I am.

Table Of Contents

(Prologue) 5

(1) 6

(2) 13

(3) 17

(4) 23

(5) 27

(6) 31

(7) 35

(8) 37

(9) 40

(10) 45

(11) 54

(12) 57

(13) 60

(14) 66

(15) 68

(16) 70

(17) 72

(18) 73

(19) 76

(20) 78

(Prologue)

Kim was just a normal twenty-year-old girl.

Until the day her television informed her that people from another world had invaded our planet.

They appeared with an entrance of destruction, before declaring an intent of peace.

As soon as Kim learned this information, she passed out as a red light entered her parents’ home.

When she woke up, her parents were gone.

She joined forces with a gay truck driver named Guy to find them.

Kim and Guy quickly became best friends, and both fell in love with the prince of them, Idle.

When they finally found Kim’s parents…

They weren’t who Kim thought they were.

(1)

Unsolved Mysteries

They fell in love with a child that wasn’t theirs.

The small, white spaceship was falling fast, like an egg without a parachute.  Sparks were drizzling past the oval windows.  Carrie looked through the thick window closest to her and admired their beauty.  Her cheeks were pressed against the glass, and her breath beautifully condensated to evaporating, fading life.  Flames were birthing, and grew around the tiny craft as it cut through the atmosphere’s layered layers and plummeted towards Earth.  Roger’s hands were gripped tightly around the ‘ship’s wheel, and he could feel himself burning up.  His hands were shaking, trying to control the fall.  Sweat shattered through his skin’s pores, trying to break the fever.  But he, by nature, wasn’t the kind of man who would wait for the metal to melt, or for the wood to burn.

Carrie was strapped to a chair in the back of the ‘ship.  Roger was the sole pilot of the ’ship, and this had been the first time he had piloted so far away from home by himself.  Apparently, he was a shit-poor solo pilot.  But it wasn’t his fault.  They had been set up to fail.

I love you, Carrie called from the back, her voice cracking through her calm, measured bravado.

I’ve got this, Roger called back.  He pulled the large metal wheel towards him, turning the front end of the ‘ship straight up.  It did a backflip mid-air, creating the sound of silence with its sudden stop.  The flames evaporated, becoming instead a tide of smoke.  Then the ’ship began to fall again.

Faster.

Harder.

What is the plan? Carrie yelled.

Just trust me! Roger affirmed her.  He pushed the wheel as hard as he could forward, and the ‘ship took a nose dive, straight towards the hard ground.

It sank.

And sank.

And sank through the thickening air.  The oval windows started to burst inward, one by one, sending angry glass and violent wind throughout the cabin of the ’ship.

Tell me you love me, Carrie said.

Stop it, Roger said warmly, a constellation of sweat beading on his forehead.  I love you.  I have always loved you, and I will always love you.  You know that.  But stop saying it like this is the end.  It isn’t.  Let’s assume it’s a beginning, Roger said.

A cornfield below grew closer and closer, the ‘ship’s windshield a zooming lens.  A tear escaped from Carrie’s eye and ran behind her cheek.  And at the last possible moment, Roger pulled the wheel back once again, with all of the strength he had, which again sent the ‘ship upside down.  When it returned from its loop, they hit the cold soil of the field.

Hard.

Carrie hit her head against one of the ’ship’s walls and was knocked out instantly.  Roger was dazed, his vision blurry, his breath weak.  He checked back on his love.  He saw she was still breathing, still beating with his heart.  Tried to reach out to her.  But his body started to give out.  His eyelids dimmed.

Lower.

Lower.

And then black.

When they woke up, they found that they had killed two people.

Carrie awakened first.  Blood had dried to her face, smeared like war paint.  She crawled over to Roger, and felt his chest.  He was breathing.

He awoke suddenly, with no warning.

Are you okay? he asked his wife.

Yeah.  I think I’m fine, she said.

She helped him up to his knees, and they crawled towards the open door of the ‘ship.  She looked out to the quiet, open field.  And then she looked down, under the craft.

No…

Carrie gasped as she climbed out of the ‘ship, her eyes locked on a woman’s hand and a man’s leg protruding from underneath it.  The hand had a small, beautiful ring around its finger; the leg, a plaid sock that was only half on, with a foot covered by a red shoe.  Two human bodies were under the ’ship’s melted, now congealed body.  She turned her head and vomited a multitude of colors, but mostly red.

What do we do? she asked her husband.

I don’t know, he replied, shaking.  Are you sure you’re okay?

I don’t know, she said.

They stood there for a moment, grateful to be alive, but dying inside.

The glass door slid open; it was unlocked.  Carrie and Roger had walked over to the cleanly-designed house just feet from where they had crashed.  It was the only house for at least a mile in any direction.

Hello? Carrie called out.  No one answered.

This is obviously… their house, Roger estimated, gesturing to the faceless limbs they had snapped in the field.

Silently, they walked over to the kitchen and started to remove their torn clothing.  They washed themselves in the tap water from the sink and checked one another for any kind of fatal wounds.  They had none, physically.

Roger picked up his small, white watch from the counter and rotated the glass face, like a compass.  The watch lit up brilliantly, and a voice answered through a small speaker:

This is James.

Hello, James.  This is Roger.  I have terrible news, he sighed.