He’s sitting at his usual table as the door chimes at precisely 9 o’clock. The woman walks, no, glides in and orders her normal decaf latte. He rubs his sweaty hands down the sides of his tan cargo pants. “It’s now or never,” he tells himself but the thought of approaching her sends chills down his spine.

She grabs her latte and turns to leave but before she can, he strides over and grabs her silky hand, “Look,” he says, “I know this sounds crazy but I’ve seen you here every day and I can’t help but feel as if we’re connected somehow. These days I’m not quite sure of anything but I do know that my feelings are so strong that you must feel them too. Just being near you makes me unbalanced.”

“Who…” She stammers; her eyes dart back and forth.

“Just listen, I know I just meet you but I feel like I know you from somewhere and I can’t imagine my life without you! You complete me and I can’t express how deep my feelings are for you! I am Romeo and you are my Juliet, can’t you see?”

“Who are you? I’ve never seen you before, let me go!” Her free hand makes for her purse but he grabs that one too and holds it close.

“No, I know I can’t be alone in my feelings. You must love me too; it’s the only thing that makes sense. My memories have been foggy and the only thing I know is that you are the missing link. I need you! I love you… I think.” His head begins to cloud and he lets go of her hands. She grabs a shiny object from her purse and he feels a sharp pain in his neck.

A man approaches from the crowd that has gathered to witness the spectacle, “Are you okay miss?” He puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t touch her!” He stumbles forward and slaps the man’s hand away.

“That’s it, buddy!” And the man swings a left hook to the love sick boy’s temple.

He slams onto the coffee house floor, his ears ringing. He can barely make out the sound of a blurry gray haired woman calling 911 as people all around him are shouting and running out the doors, but all he cares about is her, standing over him with a worried expression mixed with something else; something that gives him chills. He blacks out as the doors burst open and everyone that’s still in the coffee house starts screaming.


He slowly fades into consciousness as the ringing in his ears begins to die. Everything is a mesh of swirling colors, “Am I in the ambulance?” He thinks as he looks around the room. There is murmuring and something cold pricks his arm, “. . . unexpected symptoms. None of the other subjects remembered anything let alone were able to seek you out. It’s remarkable!”

Something crashes down and rattles the ground beneath him. The familiar voice he’s been obsessed with for weeks rings out, “I don’t care if it’s what you would call remarkable! He needs to be dealt with now before we are discovered!”

His eyes begin to focus and he realizes two things. One, this isn’t an ambulance and two, the thing standing over him looks nothing like the woman he’s come to love. Despite the voice, the form looks nothing like her, from the clear skin to the green arteries it reveals. Its eyes bulge from their sockets and it’s completely naked, but it has no extremity to determine its sex: it’s a blank slate. The nerve wrecking sound of its needle sharp teeth grinding against each other is enough to drive a man insane! The other form next to it is the same except this one’s a little pudgier and shorter.
The man would scream except he can barely speak, it feels like someone shoved cotton balls down his throat. He looks down at himself and sees that he is also stark naked and strapped to a cold, silver operating table, surrounded by long, horrible rotating arms and each arm holds a different instrument of torture. As loud as he can he croaks, “What are you? Where am I?”
The one he thought he loved looks over at him with disgust, “Silence, you lower life form! You are a mistake that will soon be... corrected. Doctor,” It turns to the pudgier one, “begin the Blank Slate treatment.”
The “Doctor” stutters, “But, he is quite an extraordinary specimen to have resisted programming. The advantages of dissecting him are immense! If we could just…”
“No, we can’t have the others of his idiotic race looking into his disappearance. He must be dealt with quietly. Begin administering the serum!”
“Yes, Alpha.”
The man feels waves of panic rush over him as the steel arms move in closer, “You can’t do this, it isn’t right! Let me go, please!”
He feels the ice cold needle jab his arm and as his vision darkens he can hear the voice that he had once idolized laughing and laughing and laughing until suddenly; silence.

He’s sitting at his usual table when the door chimes at exactly 9 o’clock. It walks in and orders a decaf latte. It’s been so long since he felt adoration for the thing posing as a human being. There was a time when he would have fawned over It from a distance. Now, the sight of It makes him want to puke. He doesn’t know why he remembers things that It wishes he would forget, but he does. He clenches his fist but tries to keep his expression blank as It exits with latte in hand. He won’t have to wait much longer to seek his revenge.