Alien or Alian

The walk home was extremely unpleasant.

Ozias had nearly slipped and fallen on the frozen puddles at least six times and had actually fallen once into a small mound of snow, and as a result, snow had invaded his nose as well as one of his ears.

For the rest of the way home he’d been sniffling and sneezing and cursing at himself under his breath for ever going to that party in the first place. It was worth it walking seven blocks to Ethen Knillimhyr’s house in the rigid cold after sunset, but at the same time, it wasn’t.

He lugged his feet up the snow covered steps to get to his front door while simultaneously digging through his jacket pocket for the house key. Just as he climbed the last step, he stumbled yet again causing the key to fall right by the door.

As he leaned down to pick it up, he caught part of his reflection in the glass window; acne-spotted umber skin, dreary forest-green eyes, short black hair with an uneven faded back, and his incessant runny nose that was insistent on doing a marathon. It was right then that he was wholeheartedly glad he hadn’t taken that chance to meet Ethen alone. He was an icky sight even before he fell into the snow, or at least he felt like he was.

He grabbed his keyring from the porch floor and jabbed the sole key into the lock, twisting it both ways before it unlocked.

An echo rang through the inside of the house as Ozias shut the door. He scuttled over to a corner nearby the door to hit the light switch. The house was empty, both of people, and mostly furniture. A small brown leather couch, a pint-sized gray wooden coffee table, and a mini flat-screen t.v. in the middle of the room were the only company that greeted him.

His mother and father had taken off at the start of the school year for a trip around the world, or wherever interested them. They had left behind their only child Ozias who was starting out in his first year of university, along with a compact two-bedroom house located in an isolated area in the town of Elbel Court.

His parents had promised they would return from their travels when winter break rolled around, but by how excited they had seemed during the weeks before they left, Ozias suspected they might want to stay abroad longer. He hoped he was wrong, but he couldn’t blame them if they did.

Rina and Damian Precht had been their son’s best and only friend since the day he was born. Ozias would’ve liked to have solely blamed it on the innumerable times the Precht family had moved in the last fourteen years, but he’d known for a while that he and his lack of self-confidence were the prime culprits.

After tossing his jacket onto the coat hook, Ozias collapsed into the leather couch and stared vacantly at the ceiling. The advice Rina repeated to her son nearly everyday for weeks until the day she and Damian left for the airport, came drifting back to Ozias as it usually did since they day his parents left:

‘Invite a friend over. Have a party. Look for a roommate!’

Extreme measures, Ozias thought. He had decided that the least he could do was try to find someone who he could have more than one short conversation with. It’s what he considered doing tonight at Ethen Knillimhyr’s end-of-semester bash. Every student at Belrynn University had been invited, but Ozias still took it as a potential sign that maybe he and Ethen were meant to be companions...or, possibly, more.

He tossed and turned against the cushions, hoping he could fall asleep any second. But then, through a reflection in the front door, he saw it.

It was bright, and it flickered. It was...yellow? White? It almost looked like fire. Maybe fireworks?

Ozias didn’t know why he was playing guessing games. He rolled off the couch and lurched his way towards the kitchen behind him; that had to be where the reflection was coming from. He went straight up to the narrow window by the sink and peered through.

There was an odd shape in the sky, a heavenly ball of fire with a constant glowing tail, plummeting towards Earth.

A shooting star, Ozias guessed.

His ten year old self would’ve bolted out the door and run for miles trying to pin-point the location of where the star would land. But being older now, he had learned that it wasn’t an actual star that was falling, but a meteor that would likely burn up and disintegrate before it even hit the Earth.

It was still worthwhile though, to make a wish.

“I wish…” Ozias whispered it, certain it would add a layer of sincerity and urgency, “that I would find someone that wants to talk to me, spend time with me, who wants...me.”

The meteor continued to fall, until at last, it could longer be seen. It’s gleaming tail had faded out of sight.

Releasing a yawn and stretching out his arms, Ozias stepped back from the window to get a look at the clock that was in the corner of the kitchen.

10:30 p.m.

If he took a nap now, he could wake up later around midnight and resume studying for his exams.

He glanced one last time out the window. Nothing but the dark and gradually overcasting sky. Even if it wasn’t an actual star falling, he always enjoyed observing the brilliant spectacles that were out in outer space.

Trudging back into the living room, Ozias grabbed his phone and set an alarm for midnight. He removed his glasses and set them on the coffee table along with his phone, then flopped back onto the couch and shifted around until he was comfortable again. It only took a minute before sleep claimed him…

Knock knock!

Ozias blenched awake, and at once sat up feeling both parts dazed and alert.

Knock knock knock!

The sound was louder this time. Ozias grabbed his glasses and fumbled putting them on. There wasn’t a soul he was expecting company from tonight.

Riiiing Riing!

Ozias nearly jumped out of his skin. He watched for a moment as his phone vibrated inches across the coffee table. It was the midnight alarm. His arm found the snooze button in one swift tap, then went still. He waited almost a minute to see if whoever it was would go away, but the knocking continued, becoming louder than it had before.

There wasn’t really anything nearby Ozias could use as a weapon, so he took out one of the couch’s leather cushions. Maybe he could smother whoever was at the door.

He got up slowly and tiptoed his way to the door’s peephole, the couch cushion gripped tight in his hands. There were two people standing out on the porch: one of them hunched over and clutching their stomach, while the other helped them to stand.

Ozias gasped as one of their faces turned back towards the peephole:

Ethen Knillimhyr.

A million questions raced through Ozias’ head as he stared wide eyed at the boy of his dreams. How did he know where Ozias lived? Who was the other person he was holding up?

Knock knock knock knock!

The sound wrenched Ozias from his thoughts, and he finally unlocked the door.

“Umm, hi-”

“Where’s your bathroom?” Ethen shouted. He didn’t wait for Ozias to invite him in, and hauled himself inside the house along with the individual draped over his shoulders.

Though flustered by the immediate intrusion, Ozias still stepped out of the way for them to enter. “W-what do you-”

“Your bathroom. Where the hell is it?” Ethen said again. A hoarse cough escaped the other person, and Ethen quickly tended to them with forceful pats on their back.

Ozias couldn’t see their face because it was covered by a hood, but he could hear how pained they were from the sound of their cough. “U-upstairs, all the way at the end of the hall.”

Ethen didn’t waste a second as he dragged the unknown figure towards the staircase.

“D-do you need help?” Ozias squealed out.

“Towels, rags, any kind of cloth,” was all Ethen said without looking back, and continued up the stairs.

It wasn’t what Ozias had meant, but it was better than helplessly standing there. He rushed towards a closet near the kitchen, and inside were several small stacks of dish rags. He took two stacks then darted back for the staircase, quickly yet clumsily climbing them.

When he got to the top he paused for a moment to try and calm down, but how could he? Ethen Knillimhyr was just down the hall, in his house, in his bathroom. There was no calming down. And although he wouldn’t be completely alone with Ethen, that fact was fast becoming inconsequential to Ozias.

He continued down the hall until he reached the bathroom, clenching on the rags the entire time. The door was ajar and there was a sound of running water that sounded to Ozias like it was coming from the bathtub tap. When he peeked his head through, he gasped once again, much louder this time.

There was Ethen, something dark blue staining his forearm, sitting on the closed toilet seat attending to the person he came in with.

And then there was that person — a boy — laying unconscious in the water-filled bathtub while mostly naked, something dark blue staining his abdomen that slowly turned the rest of the water the same colour.

And, that boy, he looked...exactly like Ethen Knillimhyr.