CHAPTER 03

"BBZZZ...BBZZZ" "BBZZZ...BBZZZ"  Sammy wakes up abruptly to her alarm clock buzzing.  As she rubs her eyes she lazily turns over to see in bright red:  8:00 A.M. on her alarm clock.  She thinks to herself briefly "This hangover is going to kill me today at work...My head is pounding... I don't even remember getting home last night...Did I really drink that much last night? I cound't have!"

Sammy grabs her phone off her nightstand to see a few unread text messages in her notifications.

2:17 a.m. Message received from Kate: 'Hey Sam, just got home... Nite!'

2:19 a.m. Message received from Jenny: 'Goodnite Sam.. Had fun 2nite.  Bet you're sleeping good after your ride on Bully lol'

Sammy suddenly remembers the night bfore at "BC" and begins blushing slightly as she recalls the "reaction" she had while riding "Bully."  Sammy shakes it off and quickly responds back to Kate and Jenny, knowing they're probably still sleeping, apologzing for not answering their texts last night.

Sammy glances at the alarm clock again to see 8:15 a.m., so she rolls out of bed and lazily makes her way to her bathroom to retrieve a bottle of Advil from her medicine cabinet.  She pops a few Advil and chases it with some water hoping it will help counter act this horrible headache of hers.

Sammy splashes some cold water on to her face as she thinks to herself, "I remember telling Kate and Jenny bye whhen we were leaving "BC".  I remember driving home and after that...Nothing!  Just waking up this morning...Did I really black out?...I've never done that before and I know I only had a few drinks or noone would've let me drive!" 

As Sammy splashes more cold water onto her face, she suddenly has a vivid flashback from the night ebfore of pulling her truck over on Fowler Road because something had caught her attention in the sky.  Shortly after pulling over, she could see a bright blue light that began blinding her to the point it caused extreme pain, ultimately making her pass out.  Sammy is suddenly brought back to the current moment as her head begins to hurt just as it had seemed to the night before.  This is unlike any headache Sammy has had before or any other type of pain she's felt.  The pain level continues to worsen and increase in intensity to the point where Sammy unknowingly shouts out in pain "Owww. Owww. Owww. Owww."

"SAMMY! ARE YOU OK?" Sammy hears her dad yelling as both her parents rush in her room to check on her.

The pain subsides somehwat and Sammy is able to answer, "Yeah, I'm sorry.. its just... my head!  I have a pounding headache this morning."

"Are you sure you're okay honey?.. You look like you're hurting!  Maybe you should stay home from work this morning?" Sammy's mom asks her with a look of concern on her face while rubbing her back in an attempt to also console her.

"Yeah Mom, I'm sure..  I'm fine.. It's already starting to feel alittle better... Plus I already took some Advil.. I'll be fine mom, I promise!  It's just a headache." Sammy responds to her mom truthfully while hoping her headace really will faid quickly.

"Oh yeah, Mom, Dad, I almost forgot.. I won $500 last night at the "BC" riding "Bully." Sammy cracks a smile as she tells her parents about her winnings.

"Honey, you really can't be beat on that thing can you?" Sammy's dad asks her with a proud smile on his face knowing full well how talented his daughter is.

"Guess not" Sammy responds with a shy smile on her face.

Her parents leave her be and Sammy continues along with her morning routine seeing as she has to open the bar at Thompson's for 9:30 a.m. and it's already 8:35 a.m.  Sammy takes a look at herself in the mirror for the first time this morning and notices 3 small circles in an almost small triangular formation on her left temple.  The marks are such a light shade of red that she almost didn't even notice them at first, but once she did, she couldn't stop staring at them.  It's not so uncommon to have a mark pop up on her face, but these circles, although small, seem to be the exact same size as the others and equally spaced apart.  As Sammy continues to wonder about these new found marks on her temple, she instinctively reaches up to touch them as she starts to feel a light burning sensation.  This burning feeling causes Sammy to further question what the circles are.  After a few seconds, the light burning sensation dissipates just as fast as it arrived and Sammy ultimately gets in the shower to finish getting ready for work.

At 9:10 a.m. promptly, Sammy is waving and yelling "Goodbye" to her parents as she turns her truck around in their driveway and heads off to work at Thompson's.

"Have a great day at work hun!"  Sammy's mom shouts back as she waves in return.

While driving along the country roads Sammy begins to flip through the radio stations as she stops abruptly when she hears "Take the Money and Run" coming from the speakers which triggers another sudden flashback bringing Sammy back to what once again seems to be the night before.  The flashback seems to once again bring her back to where she was pulled off to the side of Fowler Road before she was blinded by the mysterious blue light.  Within her flashback, Sammy is able to recall that she was seeing a small, abnormal blue light in the sky that garnered her attention. 

As Sammy continues looking at the light trying to determine what it is, it suddenly darts across the sky traveling a great distance within a split second.  As the light come to a rest, it then begins to grow in size from something that had previously looked like a star to what now seems as large as the moon.  As Sammy looks on quizatively, the light abruptly shrinks back down to it's previous size and once again darts across the sky, moving what seems to be hundreds of miles within a second.  The light seems to be able to travel in any direction without warning, unlike a typical aircraft that travels much slower in a straighter direction.  This is unlike anything Sammy has ever encountered before.  The blue light grows in size and brightness one last time before completely dissappearing from the flashback, instantaneously bringing Sammy back to her senses. 

Sammy thinks to herself trying to determine some sort of explanation for what is happening and thinks, "This is so odd.. What really happened last night?  And what was that light?  It was so fast and it moved so freely..What the hell was that?"  Sammy continues running the previous nights events that she can remember, along with this mornings through her mind at an attempt to somehow piece together what may have happened.  As Sammy continues thinking, she unknowingly begins to rub her temple again where the strange formation had shown up earlier that morning.  As Sammy rubs her temple, she starts to feel the same odd burning sensation as a short time ago.  The sensation begins to increase it's intensity from barely being able to feel it, to a stronger burning feeling as if she was in a tanning bed with all the lights concentrated directly on her temple. As Sammy begins to wonder what is happening, she continues to rub her temple and the burning sensation completely disappears as quickly as it arrived. recall the events of last night she starts to feel a slight burning sensa diminishes as fast as it appeared. Sammy can't help but to mutter "What is happening?  Am I losing my mind?"  Sammy glances at the radio to the see the time change to 9:21 a.m. and says "Oh Crap" as she quickly puts her truck back in drive and continues on to work.

A short drive later and Sammy is arriving at Thompson's at 9:26 a.m., luckily still a few minutes early.  Sammy has never been late to work and usually tries to get to work a little early, but today is cutting it just a little too close.  She's just glad that her head is finally starting to feel a little better, so she grabs her things and climbs out of her truck to head in for her shift.

As the door of Sammy's pickup slams, another vivid flashback is triggered bringing her to the night before again.  This time her flashback seems to bring her back to where her first flashback left off with Sammy blacking out.  Sammy slowly begins to open her eyes, as she groggily attempts to gain her bearings, she can see that she is in a bright, all white room that doesn't appear to have any windows or doors.  As Sammy continues examining the room, she can't help to think that the room strangely reminds her of a hospital room with the bright lights and everything in white.  The lights aren't so bright that she can't look at them, but if she concentrates on one for more than a few seconds she has to close her eyes.   As she continues examing the room, she can't help but to notice that she cannot see a single seam or any sort of seperation where there would be an entryway into it.  It seems almost as if she is encapsulated within the room somehow. 

Upon this realization, Sammy knows that she is definitely not in any sort of hospital, at least she's never seen one like this. Sammy begins to panic at this thought and attempts to move her head when the realization that she is unable to move strikes her.  With so much concern of Sammy's being focused on the all white room she's in, she hadn't noticed that she is actually strapped to some sort of table while in a standing, upright position.  She has multiple tight, wide black straps  running across her body constraining all movement of hers.  There are straps constraining her ankles, arms, and even her forehead.  However, as Sammy attempts to examine the straps further, she is also able to now see that every piece of her clothing has also been removed and is strapped to the table fully nude. As weird and unfathomable as the situation is, Sammy can't help but to be somewhat thankful that the straps are at least wide enough they are covering her private areas and she isn't exposed to whomever brought her here.  Upon all of these realizations and wondering why she is in this room, Sammy's feeling of panic has turned into a full blown state of shock.  Sammy attempts to yell out in fear only to notice that there are no words , let alone a scream coming her mouth.  She begins to breath heavily, her heart rate begins to rapidly increase as her body trembles violently, filling with more and more fear of the unkown when she hears:

"BEEEEEEEEP, BEEEEEEEEP" coming from a car horn on Main Street as Sammy's abruptly brought back to reality.  Due to the vivid flashback, Sammy is sweating profusely, breathing heavily, and feels as if someone is bouncing a basketball off of her chest with how hard her heart is beating.  Sammy unknowingly says out loud while trying to catch her breath "Wha-what the hell is going on?  How can a dream feel so, so real?  And...And, Why do I keep having these day dreams?"  

Sammy takes a quick look at her phone to see it's now 9:29 a.m., "Oh crap" Sammy mutters.  While already sweaty, she begins to sprint towards the back door of Thompson's to make it in just in time.  While Mr. T wouldn't mind if Sammy was late to work, it's more about Sammy's pride with showing up to work on time.  Sammy has never been late to work ever and she wasn't tryig to make today her first, even if it has been the strangest day she's probably ever experienced.

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A couple hours go by and it's business as usual at Thompson's.  Most of Sammy's regulars have come in like most Saturday's which is keeping her busy and her mind off all the strange things happening to her. Luckily she hasn't had any more of those weird day dreams and time is moving pretty quickly.

"Hey Sammy, can you turn that up some?" Bobby Burns, another one of Thompson's regulars asks Sammy as he points towards the TV.

"Sure thing Bobby!" Sammy responds to Bobby as she picks up the remote for the TV.

Sammy and the bar patrons  all look towards the TV to see what Bobby is looking at.  It's the local 12 o'clock news with a Breaking Story across the screen.:  CROP CIRCLES SPOTTED ON THE FORRESTER RANCH... REAL OR HOAX?

"That's a bunch of horse shit!" Bill Turner another local farmer exclaims, "I've lived here for 64 years and ain't never saw nuttin like that round here."

"You got that right!.. Me neither." Bobby Burns responds almost immediately "We used to play pranks as kids, but never nothin' like this."

Sammy continues to watch the news story intently as they have been showing the "crop circles" on the TV for the last 10 minutes or so, as the News takes a commercial break, the change in the screen allows Sammy to briefly see her reflection in the screen and is abruptly reminded of the strange formation that appeared on her temple this morning.  Sammy concentrates further and thinks back to the details she had noticed earlier this morning, realizing the reason the circles on TV looked so familiar is because they are shaped the same as the ones on her temple.  Three circles that seem to all be the same exact size, equally spaced from one another, and forming a triangular shape.  There are two circles at the bottom, with one at to form the triangular shape.  Without realizing it, Sammy had brought her hand to her temple and had begun to instinctively rub her temple where the circles have formed and as she continues to rub her temple, she starts to feel a slight burning sensation emerging when her train of thought is interuppted by:

"Hey Sammy, Are you OK?" Bill Turner asks sincerely while checking on Sammy after noticing she seems to be alittle out of it.

Sammy comes out of her slight daze and abruptly answers "Ye-yeah Bill, I'm fine.. Just a little headache is all"

"What do you think about all this Sammy?"  Bill Turner asks questionably, referring to the "crop circles" on TV.

"Ahh, it's got to be bogus right?  I mean crop circles?  Come on?" Sammy responds back to Bill wondering if it is some sort of hoax while keeping a gut feeling that something just ins't quite right in Rigley.

"You got that right!"  Bobby Burns responds once again agreeing

She shakes it off and gets back to work, but she can't help but wonder "What in the hell is going on around here?"

3:00p.m. finally comes along and it's thankfully the end of Sammy's shift and she'll have tomorrow off too since Thompson's is closed on Sundays.

"Have a good weekend Samantha!" Mr. Thompson exclaims as Sammy clocks out for her shift.

"Thanks Mr. T, you too!", Sammy responds with a smile on her face as she opens the back door of Thompson's and heads for her truck.  "I'm so glad that is over with" she thinks to herself as she walks to her truck to head home.

As Sammy is driving the same path she took the night before, she finds herself pulled over on the side of Fowler Road once again.  She hadn't even realized she had pulled off to the side of the road and without thinking she climbs out of her truck and is pacing around.  Sammy begins to stare in to the sky with a look of wonder on her face and can't help but to think "What is going on here?  There's way too much happening for all this to just be a coincidence right?"

Suddenly Sammy's head begins to hurt again, just as the sudden pain onsets like before,she's instantaneously brought back to another vivid flashback from the night before to that bright, all white room. 

Sammy is still strapped to the same table as before, but this time she can feel the coldness of the table all across her back side.  Sammy continues to look around the room, attempting to gain some sort of insight as to where she is once again, when without warning the smooth wall adjacent to her suddenly seperates to create an opening.  Sammy attempts to focus her attention to this new change in the room, but a blinding white light emerging from this new found opening forces Sammy to once again to have to close her eyes as the light floods the room. 

As Sammy closes her eyes tightly trying to get some relief, she can feel  burning all over her body from the heat emerging from the light as if she was outside in the hot sun for hours.  Within a few seconds, Sammy can feel the warmth of the light ease up to the point where she feels comfortable enough to open her eyes, however as she does Sammy begins to wish that she had kept them closed.  As she slowly begins to open her eyes and regain focus, she looks over to the new found opening in the room with an attempt to gain some sort of insight as to where she might be at.

Sammy can now see that there are three small, human like creatures slowly making their way through the opening in the room.  With the easing brightness of the light coming from behind the creatures, Sammy is only able to see black shadows detailing the distinct outlines of the creatures.  She can see that there are definitely three of them in total, all with abnormally large heads and they can't be more than 3 or 4 feet tall at the most.  As the lights finally begin to settle, Sammy begins to be able to make out more details and can see that each one is a slightly different color than the other.  The one to the left is a bright shade of red, while the one in the middle is a vivid royal blue in color, and the third to the far left is a bright neon green that is almost glowing.   Their large heads are wider at the top and taper down towards the chin and contain large black, oval shaped eyes.  As Sammy looks on in shock she notices that their noses and mouths are very small in comparison to their heads and don't seem to emit any type of expression or movement, and they haven't even blinked their big football shaped eyes once.  They each have long arms that look disproportinal to their body, but they don't appear to acutally have any legs, only feet with 3 large toes each that seem to be attached directly to their body.  At the end of their long arms sits a hand with only three fingers on each one as well.  The fingers emerging from the being's hands are lanky and at least 12 inches reminding Sammy of a chopstick.

Sammy continues to stare at the 3 creatures intently, wondering if this is all a dream or if it is actually happening to her.  The creatures finally make their way into the room fully, when the second they cross the threshold, the large opening behind them closes abruptly without warning.  The creatures slowly get closer and closer to Sammy, while all along seeming to communicate with one another.  Sammy can only assume that they are communicating with each other because she is able to hear some sort of audible noise emerging from their mouths even though their mouths haven't moved.  However, even if she is able to determine they're communicating, she cannot understand what they are saying.  Sammy is beginning to fully understand the gravity of the situation she's currently in as her body continues to tremble due to the fear coursing through it.  The beings finally end their approach as they stop within inches of Sammy, causing Sammy to feel as if her heart is going to jump completely out of chest as it beats faster and harder with growing anticipation and fear.

As they finally reach Sammy, the beings look at her intently while slightly tilting their heads one way and then the other.  Upon their inspection of Sammy they can once again be heard making some sort of noise in babbling tone, almost what you would hear from a toddler where the sounds just don't make sense. The beings continue to communicate as the table Sammy is strapped to suddenly spins a full 180 degrees to the point where Sammy is now upside down with her head hovering just above the floor.  Before the table began to spin, Sammy could feel the fear growing within herself, but strangely as the table started to spin.. The growing sense of fear Sammy had been feeling completely dissipated in an instance as she could feel herself entering into a state of ease and calmness.  Sammy understands the situation she is in is extremely serious and she also knows that she should be scared to death, but the more she tries to understand the situation, the calmer she actually becomes.

Sammy looks on at the three creatures trying to understand what exactly is going on and what they want with her.  They continue communicating with one another as Sammy looks on, but Sammy only wishes she could understand what they are saying.  As Sammy looks on, waiting in anticipation, the 3 being's all simataneously point their right arms down towards Sammy's head as each one of their long, chopstick like, middle fingers suddenly begins to extend and stretch out.  The fingers are becoming much larger than they previously were, growing to the point where they must be at least the full length of their small bodies.  The fingers all finally stop stretching once they find a resting place, touching Sammy's head on her left temple in the same spot the formation had occurred.  Within a few seconds, Sammy can feel a growing burning sensation on her temple, however she still feels at ease and oddly isn't frightened.  As the burning continues to grow, it is suddenly interrupted by an onset of extreme pain similar to the headache Sammy had felt this morning.  Sammy attempts to scream out in horror and pain once again, but finds that she is still unable to speak.

Suddenly the pain begins to fade and Sammy hears, "We apologize for the discomfort Samantha.  It will all be over with shortly."  Sammy quickly realizes that what she is hearing is actually in her head, as if she was thinking to herself, but it wasn't her voice speaking.  She looks to the creatures, questioning if she was actually just spoken to telepathically when the red one tilts it's head slightly as to signal it was the one that was just speaking to her.

Sammy wonders to herself, "If I can hear them, ca-can they hear my thoughts?"

"Yes we can" she suddenly hears, but this time in a slightly different pitched monotone voice which seems to be coming from the blue creature this time.

"What are you doing to me?" Sammy asks to herself hoping to find out what is actually going on.

"We are ensuring that you are the ONE!  You needn't worry Samantha!" Sammy hears wtihin her head once again

"Th-the one?...The one for what?" Sammy asks back quizatively

"You will know in due time." Sammy hears as she receives a response once again

After what seemed like an eternity, their fingers all suddenly begin to retract from Sammy's head and shrink back to their normal chopstick like size.  As soon as their fingers lost contact with Sammy's head, she could feel the burning sensation and headache immediately cease as does the flashback when Sammy suddenly comes out of her dream like state to find herself standing on the side of Fowler Road.

""What in the hell was that?", she thinks nervously as she begins to shake "There's no way... IT'S NOT POSSIBLE, is it?... but it felt so real, like I was right there."  Sammy tries to shake it off so can try and have a good rest of her day.  She glances at her cell phone to realize she has been on the side of Fowler for over 30 minutes when it seemed like she was only there a minute or two.

Sammy hops back into her pickup and continue her drive home, but can't help thinking to herself once again "the crop circles.. the dreams.. my head... the blackout... Is it all related?.. and if it is... then, did I really get abducted?.. and what is this about being the "ONE"?"  she continues to think "I can't tell anyone, everyone is gonna think i'm crazy.  Right?"  Sammy has never really believed in Paranormal activity and things like Aliens, but she's also not so naive to not realize that the size of Earth relative to the rest out of outer space is minimal... so the possiblitly of their being other life forms out there could be a possibility.  On top of that the government recently released footable of unidenitifed flying objects so the thoughts racing through Sammy's head can't be that outrageous, can they?

Sammy continues her drive and a short time later she arrives to the entrance of her family's ranch along Ridgeland Road.  As Sammy starts up their 1/2 mile long dirt road that runs up to the main house of the ranch, she can't help but to notice her father and small group of people out in the front pasture.  From where Sammy was, it was hard for her to see what they were doing from such a distance, so she decided to pull her truck over and walk out to the pasture to see what was going on.

As Sammy starts walking through the pasture and grows nearer to her father, she can see that Mr. Bennett, Jack Briar, Mr. Forrester, and even Cap are all out there with her father.  A short walk later and Sammy quickly approaches the small group.

"Dad, what's going on?" Sammy asks her father with a concerned look on her face

"Ah, it'll be alright" he answers back, "We just lost a few cattle last night is all." "

"DAD, Cap's never came out here before when we've lost cattle!"  Sammy responds quizatively

"Yeah, well we've never lost cattle quite like this."  Sammy's father answers back seriously

"What happened Dad?"  Sammy asks her father once again with a concerned look on her face

"Samantha honey, don't worry about it.  Why don't you head up the house with your mother."  Sammy's father tells her while trying to avoid educating Sammy on the horrific scene they've all been discussing

"DAD.. STOP! I'm not a little kid anymore...  I can take it!"  She answers back sternly "What's going on?"

Sammy's father looks to Cap and gives him a slight nod as Cap starts to explain "Your dad was doing his usual rounds this morning and when he was doing his count in the front pasture, he realized he was 5 cattle short."  Cap continues on "He started checking the property and other pastures where he ended up finding them along the western edge of the farm"  Cap states as he points towards where the cattle were found

"Okay, so what's so bad about that?"  Sammy asks Cap trying to understand further.

"Well, all five of them were missing both of their eyes... And all 4 legs were removed with almost surgical precision..and all of their internal organs were gone!  As bad and odd as all that is.. it's not even the strangest part..  There wasn't even a single drop of blood anywhere... the Heffer's seem to have been drained of their blood...  From what we can tell, they died where we found them based ont he imprints in the field.  There weren't any other tracks leading up to them or any signs of drag marks.. They were mutilated without a single piece of evidence!"  Cap finishes up while he rubs his brow trying to understand how this could happen

"H-how is that possible?"  Sammy starts to stutter slightly as she asks

"That's why Cap is here.. We're trying to figure out what happened."  Sammys dad responds as he gives Sammy a reassuring hug

"Mr. Forrester.. I saw your ranch on the news today... Do ya'll think it has something to do with this?"  Sammy asks as she looks to Mr. Forrester and the rest of the crowd

"We really don't know Samantha...These are some sick pranks though."  Mr. Forrester responds to her seriously. "Who would do something like this?"

Sammy continues to chat with the group for a short time longer before she heads back to her truck to make her way up to the main house.  It's already been a long, weird day thus far and she really just wants to take a shower and relax before dinner.  It's Saturday and like every Saturday Sammy and her friends have a bon fire on Luke's family's property.  After the day Sammy's head she just wants to relax and hang out with her friends and forget all about the weirdness today.

"Hey mom"  Sammy says to her mother who is in the kitchen cooking as she walk through the front door

"Hey there honey.. How was work, your head any better?"  Sammy's mother responds in a motherly tone

"Yeah, mom" Sammy responds "It's a lot better...Thanks!"

"Good..I'm glad... Dinner will be ready in about an hour or so." she says to Sammy as she peels potatoes over the sink

"Okay...I'm going to go take a shower first."  Sammy responds as she makes her way to her room and closes the door behind her.

Once in her room, Sammy lays out on her bed and starts to think to herself once again..."With everything going on and now the cattle?...Is it really all connected?  I mean, I've always considered the fact that there is a whole solar system with other planets out there...is it so far fetch to believe that we aren't alone... but all of this in one day.. isn't it too much?"

Sammy shakes it off and heads to her bathroom to shower before dinner.  It's Saturday night and after the crazy day so far, Sammy is looking forward to seeing her friends tonight and being able to clear her head.

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"Dinner was great hun!"  Sammy's father says to her mother

"Yeah mom, it was really good."  Sammy follows in suit

"Thanks you two!.. Decided to try something new tonight."  Sammy's mother responds happily

"You cooked Mom. I'll do the dishes tonight"  Sammy says to her mother "Oh and I'm going out in a little bit.. We have the bon fire tonight..I'll be home later tonight."  she adds but this time talking to both of her parents as she starts to clear the plates from the table

"You sure you don't want to just stay in tonight honey?"  Sammy's dad asks her with a bit of concern on his face 

"I'll be fine" Sammy quickly responds "My head feels a lot better and it's not like i'm going in to town.. It's just across the property to Luke's"

"Oh, well that makes me feel a little better at least" Sammy's father responds "Are you just gonna take one of the 4 wheelers over then?"

"Yeah, probably so."  Sammy says as she starts to dry the last of the dishes she washed

"Alright, well be careful tonight."  Sammy's mother quickly adds "If you need us, we're just a call away!"

"I will and I know Mom"  Sammy says as she walks over and gives her mom a kiss on the cheek.  "I'm going to get ready now."

Sammy heads to her room to get ready and a half hour later she is dressed and ready to go.  It's just the usual bon fire tonight so Sammy is dressed in a pair of her favorite jeans, a tank top with a button down flannel over it, and a pair of cowboy boots.  Even though Sammy is dressed simple tonight, she is still often the object of many glancing eyes wherever she goes.  Sammy takes a look at her phone and sees 7:15 p.m.  "Time to go!"  she says to hersef