Visitors

​Geoffrey knelt beside his bed, placed his hands together and prayed. He prayed for love, he prayed for health, but most importantly he prayed that his relatives would leave as soon as possible in the coming weekend. Not that had anything against them, but at some point in his life he grew into an adult and more than that, an adult who had yet to get married.

​Geoffrey did not wake up to the sound of his alarm, but instead the sound of his parents car honking in the driveway. One of the questions that should have crossed his mind when this happened was, “How did they get through the gate?”, but instead he asked, “Why are they here at six in the morning?”

“We took the overnight plane,” Geoffrey’s mother explained a few minutes later while sipping the coffee she helped herself to making. “It was awful, but worth it to see my baby again.”

“Aw, isn’t that sweet,” Geoffrey replied tightening his robe.

“Now don’t you be cheek.”

“I wasn’t being cheeky.”

“Was he being cheeky?” she asked his father.

“I honestly don’t care,” the father replied.

“How are things at the shop, dad?” Geoffrey asked him desperate to change the subject.

“Do you care?” he asked.

“Yeah, I honestly do.”

“Things are great.”

“...”

“...”

“Okay, dad. You want a beer?”

“It’s six in the morning,” the mother argued.

“I’ll have a beer,” my father nodded.

Geoffrey’s parents bickered amongst themselves, so once he placed a glass of beer in front of his father he left them to it and retired to the living room. His parents weren’t the only ones to visit. With them were his grandparents, a mostly-deaf couple who spent most of their time saying the words ‘what’ and ‘speak up’. With the was Geoffrey’s younger sister who constantly wore earphones that blasted music. With all the shouting that he grandparents were doing, Geoffrey couldn’t blame her.

Geoffrey gestured out of the room and his sister was all top happy to follow.

“How is it going, sis?” he asked once they were alone.

“Good for me, not so much for you,” she replied smugly.

“What happened?”

“I spent the last six hours talking to mother on the plane,” Geoffrey’s sister replied. To Geoffrey that would be torture, so why was she happy? Then he realized what his sister was getting at. 

“Who is he?”

“Oh, my guy? A wonderful man I met a starbucks at the airport.”

“You can’t do this, sis. We made a deal to share mother, you can’t just throw all of her at me.”

“I’m sorry, Geff, but after that Christmas dinner where you faked being sick to go to the hospital and escape mother, you are on your own this time.”

“At least tell me what she has planned.”

Geoffrey’s sister gave him a cruel smile and left to join their grandparents. It was at this point Geoffrey wondered if he could get away with the fake sickness ploy again, but he knew it would be pointless. Eventually, he would have to face the music. In that moment he decided to go outside for some fresh air and let the family filter through their chirps until they were ready for him. It wouldn’t take long.

“Geoffrey Evans?” someone asked behind him.

“Yeah?” Geoffrey replied, turning around in surprise.

Behind him was a suit man, all black with dark shades on despite the fact the sun had barely risen. He was tall and from the way the suit fitted him, clearly a strong man as well.

“Can I help you?” Geoffrey asked.

“I hope you can,” the stranger replied. “We have reason to believe that there has been a disturbance in the area. Can you tell me if you have seen or heard anything unusual?”

“Unusual how? Like criminal activity?”

“From that question you clearly haven’t seen anything as such. Let us know if you do, here’s our number.”

The stranger held out a card towards Geoffrey and despite his better judgement he took it. The suit walked down the driveway and through the gate. At the gate there was a black car with another suit waiting for him. Geoffrey of course found that unusual, but didn’t want to say anything more to them. It was enough that they knew his full name that told him they weren’t meant to be argued with.

“Honey, come inside, we need your help,” Geoffrey’s mother called.

Geoffrey sighed and gave in to what was about to happen. He entered his home and immediately he was assaulted by his entire family. His father pinned him against the wall while the rest of his family stared at him blankly.

“What did you tell the man. Geoffrey?” the mother asked with her arms crossed.

“What? Let me go!” Geoffrey complained, but his father had an iron grip. Everything about the situation terrified him, this wasn’t something his parents would do. “I didn’t do anything.”

The mother looked at him curiously and Geoffrey couldn’t help but feel that sending that man away was the biggest mistake he made. As he thought this the door broke down and an ear-splitting sound could be heard. The family he knew so well seemed to liquify into a strange, blue goo. It was disturbing watching his mother, father, sister and even kindly old grandparents burst in such a way. It felt like watching their deaths, but as he would soon learned, those happened long before the creatures entered his home.

Geoffrey fell to the ground, the hands no longer holding him. Different hands pulled him to his feet now and carried him outside. The men in suits threw him to the ground outside and he felt a gun barrel push against the back of his head.

“Please, please, don’t!” Geoffrey yelled.

“He isn’t one of them,” one of the suits told the other. “Put him in the witness program.”

“He has seen more than a most wanted felon,” the other replied.

“Then take him back to HQ where they can deal with him. We can’t kill an innocent man execution style.”

There was a pause and then a grunt.

“Get him in the car and you, Mr. Evans, best be on your best behaviour. We just saved your life.”