Brigitte's Brave Escape

Twenty hours. That was how long I had been on this ship, a long metal tube with bright lights and strange noises. The man who kidnapped me didn't speak. He just jabbed at my arm with something sharp and I went to sleep and when I woke up I was here.

I stood, staring out the window, watching the stars fly away. This couldn't be real, could it? It had to be a dream, right? A strange scary dream with bad people. But they looked so normal: a woman in a pink bonnet, a man with thick glasses holding a clipboard. They looked like they should be working in an office somewhere, not kidnapping women and flying around in spaceships. I decided that this must be some kind of test and tried to remember what my kidnapper said before he jabbed my arm. Something about me being valuable, important. Maybe someone wanted me dead or something? It was all very confusing.

The ship jerked suddenly and my stomach jumped into my throat as the world outside continued to whip by at ridiculous speed. "Crap," I muttered, holding onto the window sill for support. "What's going on?"

"Nothing to worry about," said a voice from behind me. I jumped and turned around quickly, hand over my racing heart. A different man stood there, this one smiling warmly. His arms were folded across his chest and he wore white robes that billowed dramatically behind him as the ship lurched through space again. "I am sorry if I startled you."

"That's okay," I said slowly, trying to recall anything I knew about aliens and interstellar travel. "What's happening?"

"We are approaching the planet where we will drop you off." His smile was still in place but his eyes were serious as he took two steps towards me. "I know you have many questions but we cannot answer them just yet."

"We?" I asked stupidly as he continued to advance toward me until he was close enough to reach out and touch my face if he wanted to. He simply peered into my eyes for several moments before glancing at my hair and then back up at me again with that same smile plastered on his face like it was painted there with nail polish. "Um... do you mind telling me why you kidnapped me?" My voice shook a little bit but I think he understood what I said because his smile grew even bigger than before and he let out a deep belly laugh that made me want to cover my ears like Mom used to do whenever she thought Dad had told one of his corny jokes back in the old days before everyone got dead or bad or something terrible happened back home when everything got really weird for no good reason at all!

"You have picked up our language rather quickly!" he exclaimed proudly as his laughter died down into giggles that sounded more silly than funny despite his best efforts otherwise. "You will do fine on our planet!" A second later he sobered up instantly and ran his fingers through his hair while smacking himself on the forehead with his other hand like some kind of clownish version of Doctor Frankenstein who forgot that monsters were supposed to be scary instead of silly looking idiots who couldn't even speak English properly!

"Right!" he shouted after another moment of indecision before turning around dramatically, seemingly ignoring the fact that there wasn't anyone besides us in the room. "Prepare for landing!" He turned back around and winked at me before winking again for good measure (the first wink was clearly not enough!) Then he put both hands together like he was praying and bowed deeply from the waist which made his robe flutter dramatically behind him again - almost as dramatically as it would have if there had been any wind inside this giant metal tube thingy!