Dangerous Days of Daniel X

“And on our left, the Danster continues to hold up the game,” my sister complained. “And to slurp in the most disgusting way imaginable.”

“I call,” I said, turning over my aces.

All six of them.

“What the -?” Pork Chop said in outrage. She picked up two of my aces and shook them in my face. “This is outrageous. I don’t care if you are delirious.”

“That’s the ace of crosses and the ace of cats,” I said proudly.

“Those cards don’t exist,” Pork Chop said. “Those suits don’t even exist.”

“Daniel, c’mon. That’s not like you,” my mom said.

“Gee, Mom,” I said, clutching my aching stomach. “I guess I haven’t been in the best of moods since Seth gave me this new belly button here.”

An overwhelming sense of sadness and anger had finally enveloped me. Here I was about to be executed or maybe something worse-and what was I doing? Sitting here and taking it.

“Who am I kidding with this garbage?” I yelled. “Pork Chop, listen to me! You think cheating at cards is a shocker? I know something that’ll blow your mind… You’re not real! I invent you, create you, bring you into being. I daydream you like the alien that I am. Mom and Dad aren’t real either!”

“What are you? Crazy?” Brenda said, making a face. “Who died and made you God? Explain that one to me.”

A chilling realization came to me then. I knew who Brenda really was. And why I could manifest her so easily.

“Okay, here’s your explanation. Ready? You used to be real, but you were killed.”

My sister’s face was drained of its color.

“What do you mean? I feel perfectly fine. When did this happen?”

“When I was three a killer came to our house. His name is The Prayer. Mom must have been pregnant with you. When she died, you died.”

Pork Chop turned to my mom and dad. Tears beaded in her eyes. “He’s lying,” she said. “I don’t want to be dead. I don’t want you both to be dead.”

I looked across the room, where my mother and father were hugging Pork Chop. Both of them were crying too.

And then they were gone.

Chapter 62

I WAS SLUMPED over in my cell, feeling awful about what I’d said to Pork Chop, when I sensed wraithlike movement on the other side of my cell door. Then Seth entered with a contingent of formal-looking, uniformed alien guards. Now I felt even worse. If I was murdered, I’d never be able to tell Pork Chop how sorry I was.

I was herded into a large, high-ceilinged chamber crowded with a couple dozen horse-heads in black smocks, working at computer consoles.

Was this the execution chamber?

My mind reeled, coming up with a couple dozen horrendous ways in which I would now be put to death. I gritted my teeth and erased all the bad images. I wasn’t going to give Seth the satisfaction of seeing me afraid.

“Get it over with, Seth,” I said. “Do your worst. I can take it.”

“You think so? Put his home up on the big screen,” Seth commanded.

I turned as a soccer field-sized wall seemed to vaporize and a star-sprawled view of space appeared.

Oh, I thought. This wasn’t the execution chamber. It was the bridge of the spaceship. Whoops, I’d jumped to the wrong conclusion. I liked this one a whole lot better.

The view on the screen seemed to pan to the left. I gasped! Filling the screen was Earth in all its massive, beautiful glory.

“Why have we come back?” I asked. “And why is Terra Firma greenish at the edges? What have you done now, Seth?”

“Come back? Did you hear this fool?” Seth called out to the other aliens. “Of course, we just went for a seventeen-light-year spin around the block. That’s not Earth, idiot. I said you were home. Welcome to Alpar Nok, your home world, jackass.”

Alpar Nok? I thought, staring at the green-tinged planet. My home?

The screen tilted suddenly, and the shining green planet on it got larger and larger as we approached in a hurry.

My poker face crumbled as we blasted through clouds and an ocean appeared. An ocean, calm and limitless and filled with the purest, bluest water I’d ever seen.

I felt it then, a kind of warming of my soul. I could hardly breathe. I couldn’t take my eyes away from this miracle.

I was home.

Chapter 63

I WAS STILL DUMBFOUNDED as Seth and his security contingent of armed mutant killers escorted me through the bowels of the ship and toward the landing elevator.

A million questions and feelings rushed through me at once. What would my people look like? Would anyone know me? Did they all have powers like mine? Did I have actual family still living here?

“You may wonder why I brought you home,” Seth prattled on with his fancy English accent. “I’m such a show-off. Love to rub it in. I wanted your race to see that their defeat was complete across the universe. All hail the returning conquered loser! That’s you, by the way.”

Unfortunately Seth was right. My hands were shackled behind me, then I was shoved roughly into the elevator car.

We plummeted, and almost instantly slammed to a sudden stop. The forward ramp automatically dropped down, kicking up dust. I squinted through it as I was pushed out and…

Felt panic. Huge Perfect Storm waves of horror and dread and shock.

No! I thought. This can’t be my home.

For mile upon mile, as far as my eye could see, corkscrewed metal girders and wrecked vehicles poked out from mountainous piles of scorched rubble. The few buildings that were still standing were warped, shattered, windowless. The prevailing sound was the whistle of wind over tumbled bricks. From horizon to horizon lay the demolished remains of a massive city, one that had been as big as New York or London.

Staring at the destruction, I stood frozen with despair. Grief for my people and my ruined world filled me. Seth had gotten me yet again, I realized. Hey, look, Daniel. Here’s your home planet. Oh, I forgot to mention, it’s been leveled.

Chapter 64

I CAUGHT HIM staring at me, a mirthful smile on his fetid alien face. He’s fooled me twice, I thought with a shake of my head. Shame on me.

Twenty feet below the rim of the elevated landing ramp was what looked like a derailed bullet train. Someone