Navigating the debris littered terrain of the commons, I approached the barricaded doors, the boards nailed firmly in place from the inside. The sight rekindled the embers of hope in my chest; surely the aliens would have no reason to fear this place. I raised a fist, pounding on the weathered wood. "Hello? Hey, I'm human! Open the door!"

A pair of wary eyes peered through the narrow slats, fear evident in the woman's trembling voice. "Are you one of them?" she demanded, her tone sharp with suspicion.

Incredulity twisted my features as I gestured to my battered, blood-soaked form. "Do I look like a fucking alien? And if I was, yeah, I'm just gonna announce it, sure that tracks." Sarcasm dripped from every word, my frayed nerves raw and exposed.

"Show me your neck," the woman insisted, her voice rising in pitch, the edge of panic unmistakable.

Confusion furrowed my brow, my head cocking to the side. "What?"

"Show me your fucking neck!" she repeated, the demand now a shrill, desperate command, her unseen fingers no doubt white-knuckled around whatever weapon she clutched behind the door.

"Now your eyes," the woman commanded, her voice a razor's edge.

I pressed my face against the narrow slats, the weathered wood rough against my skin. A harsh LED flashlight erupted into my vision, a searing white light that pierced through my retinas. I recoiled, my head snapping back as if struck. "Ooh, ouch. What the hell, lady."

Her reply held all the warmth of a glacier, the underlying threat unmistakable. "Keep your fucking eyes up here or I'm gonna fire a shotgun into your gut, you piece of shit." The distinct clink of metal tapping against glass punctuated her ultimatum.

My heart jackhammered against my ribs, adrenaline surging through my veins. "Whoa, no need for that. Look, here are my eyes. Shine away." I braced myself against the door, fighting the urge to squint as she subjected my eyes to a second relentless examination.

Thirty seconds crawled by, each one an eternity under her scrutiny. The silence hung heavy, broken only by the thudding of my pulse in my ears. Unable to endure the tension any longer, I spoke, my voice a hoarse whisper. "I really hope you let me in."

She offered no response, her eyes hidden behind the merciless glare of the flashlight.

"Because I'm hurt, alone, and scared out of my mind, and now I can't see a thing thanks to you," I continued, blinking furiously to clear the kaleidoscope of spots that danced across my vision.

A ghost of a smirk tugged at the corner of her eyes, a fleeting expression that vanished as quickly as it appeared. Another ten seconds ticked by, the air growing thick with unspoken threats. Finally, she extinguished the flashlight, plunging us back into semi-darkness. "Don't fucking move," she instructed.

I obeyed, acutely aware of the precarious nature of my situation. To step away now would be to invite a shotgun blast to the gut. I remained motionless, my eyes locked on the narrow gap in the door, waiting for her judgment.

After a moment that seemed to stretch into infinity, the woman retreated from the door, disappearing from my line of sight. I stood there, my mind reeling as I struggled to process the surreal encounter.

"Over here," her voice called out from around the corner, accompanied by the creak of an opening door.

I stumbled forward, rounding the corner to find myself face to face with a familiar figure. "Lilly!" I exclaimed, relief crashing over me like a wave.

She peered at me, her eyes narrowing as recognition slowly dawned. "Oh my God... Alec, is that you? I didn't even recognize you. You need to get cleaned up. That gash on your head looks bad."

My hand flew to my forehead, my fingers coming away sticky with half-congealed blood. In the chaos of the past hours, the injury had faded to a distant concern.

Lilly ushered me inside, her gaze darting around the area before she closed the door behind us. The hallway was crowded with people, their faces etched with fear and confusion. They watched me with wary eyes, mistrust evident in their guarded expressions.

I turned to Lilly, my brow furrowed. "What was that all about?"

She didn't respond, instead snatching a bottle of water and a discarded shirt from the floor. With deft movements, she dampened the fabric and began to clean my forehead, her touch gentle despite the urgency of her actions. I marveled at my own compliance, too exhausted to protest.

"I thought you might be one of them," Lilly murmured, dunking the shirt into the water again. The fabric bloomed crimson before she wrung it out, the liquid splattering against the tile floor.

I forced a chuckle, trying to lighten the oppressive mood that hung over us. "One of them? C'mon Lilly, you know me. I'm not some fifteen-foot tall monstrosity with writhing tentacles and blue blood. And I certainly don't have a single hideous eye where my head should be."

Lilly's hands froze, the damp fabric pressed against my skin. She cocked her head, peering at me with a quizzical expression. "What are you talking about?"

"The aliens - that's what they look like. Grotesque abominations ripped straight from our worst nightmares." I shuddered at the memory of the horrors I had witnessed.

"No..." Lilly shook her head, voice dropping to a hoarse whisper. "Not those. The others - the ones that look human."

An icy chill crept down my spine as confusion clouded my thoughts. "Others? What others? Lilly, you're not making any sense."

Her eyes went wide as realization struck her. "Oh God, Alec... you don't know, do you? About what those things really do to people?"

Frustration built inside me, my patience fraying. "Know what? Lilly, I've seen firsthand the destruction those monsters cause. They mutilate and slaughter without mercy. What more is there?"

"It's so much worse than that," she breathed, gaze distant and haunted. "When one of them latches onto you, burrowing into your neck... after the agony and the screaming finally stop... that's when it takes control."

"Takes control? What does that-" The blood turned to ice water in my veins as the horrible truth sank in. "No... you can't mean..."

"They put something inside you, Alec. It invades every fiber of your being, hijacking your mind, your body. You still look the same, sound the same - it has access to all your memories. But the real you is gone, replaced by one of them wearing your skin like a suit."

I recoiled from her words, uncomprehending of the nightmarish violation she described. It was one thing to die, but... "That... that's... I can't even... That's so..."

"Fucked? Evil? Depraved? An unspeakable horror that shatters the very core of what it means to be human?" Lilly's jaw clenched. "Believe me, I know."

"So when you examined my neck, my eyes..." I swallowed hard against the lump of dread in my throat. "You thought I might be one of those... those things."

"I had to be sure. We've seen how fast they regenerate damage that should be fatal. Just last night..." Lilly squeezed her eyes shut, fighting back a shudder. "We had to kill someone, Alec. Someone we thought was a corpse, we were hauling her body into the freezer and outta nowhere she sat up and spoke to us, neck wound gone without a trace. Tried to convince us to let her out, claiming the attack was over."

"My God..." I dragged a hand down my face, mind reeling. "But my eyes, you wanted to see my eyes - what about that?"

"In the darkness, they caught the light. Reflected it back, glowing like some animal." Lilly's voice quavered with barely restrained terror. "We didn't have a choice. When we wouldn't let her out of the freezer, she snapped, went berserk. Ripped the freezer door right off the hinges... and when she finally died, her blood ran blue. The same color you described from the aliens."

I stared at her in mute horror, the pieces clicking together in the most awful way imaginable. The things I had seen, the carnage and death - it was only the beginning of something so much more insidious. An enemy that could strip away our very humanity, wearing our faces while it destroyed us from within.

In that moment, I understood with blinding clarity why Lilly had greeted me with such suspicion and hostility. Why she had subjected me to such intense scrutiny.

The world as we knew it was crumbling down around us - and now, even our friends and neighbors could no longer be trusted. Anyone might harbor an alien presence, masquerading as human while working to ensure our extinction.

"Parasites," I mumbled. "We're not just collateral damage in this invasion. They're using us, Lilly. Harvesting us like cattle."

Lilly's shoulders twitched in a minute shrug, her expression uneasy. "Maybe. I don't know."

I squeezed my eyes shut and expelled a long, shuddering breath. The differences in the aliens in the wrecked ship took on a new meaning - the spoils of past plunders. That's why they looked so similar, yet so incredibly different.

"Jesus fucking Christ." The words came out flat, emotionless - a bleak acceptance of the surreal nightmare engulfing us.

"Right?" Lilly's voice mirrored my own incredulity, her expression a fractured reflection of the disbelief and horror churning inside me.

My gaze darted around the room, searching. "Where's your gun?"

A mirthless laugh escaped Lilly's lips. She gestured to a stapler lying discarded on the floor. "You really thought I had a gun? This is a campus, Alec. Firearms aren't exactly standard issue here. You're only the third outsider to stumble in."

"Well, you certainly had me convinced. Bravo." The compliment rang hollow as a sinking realization took hold. "I didn't see anyone outside either. I've been combing through houses, shouting myself hoarse in the streets. It's like the entire population just...vanished."

"They're taking people," a new voice interjected. A young man stepped forward, his face a moonscape of acne scars. "I'm James. I hid south of town and saw them. They were corralling people into those ships like cattle. Anyone who tried to make a break for it...they just...disintegrated them. Poof. Gone."

"And you are?" I asked, the question mechanical, my mind still grappling with the implications.

James glanced down, fingers twisting together in a nervous dance. "Uh, like I said sir, James. I'm one of the others who sought refuge here. I witnessed...what they did."

Rubbing my face, I winced as my fingers brushed against the wound on my head. It was definitely going to leave a scar.

I scrubbed a hand over my face, wincing as my fingers grazed the gash on my forehead. That was definitely going to leave a mark.

"You need a shower and some bandages," Lilly said, concern softening her tone. "We've got hot water still, power. Come on, I'll show you." She reached for my arm, but I flinched away, pain lancing through my battered body.

James and Lilly recoiled, alarmed by my sudden movement. I raised my arm, exposing the mottled tapestry of bruises painting my wrist and fingers. "I also need someone who knows their way around setting a few busted bones."

________________________________________________________________

The locker room showers sputtered and sprayed as I stood beneath the lukewarm deluge. I braced my good hand against the tiled wall, head bowed, watching pink-tinged water swirl down the drain.

Since stumbling into this makeshift shelter, the kids here had shown me more kindness than I probably deserved. Stitching up my wounds, scrounging up clean clothes, even bluntly informing me that I reeked to high heaven and needed to "douse myself in bleach, pronto."

I shut off the water and reached for a threadbare towel, wincing as the movement pulled at my battered ribs. Catching a glimpse of my reflection in the foggy mirror, I barely recognized the gaunt, haggard face staring back.

The gash on my brow, now stitched with black thread by some pre-med student whose name I'd already forgotten, stretched a good two inches. Puffy and inflamed, the skin around it had taken on a sickly white hue. It looked ugly as sin, and felt even worse.

My skin, blanched and taut, clung to my bones like a death shroud. An improvised sling of ace bandages supported the fractured ruins of my arm, each movement igniting a conflagration of agony. A constellation of lacerations and contusions adorned my battered flesh, a savage record of untold trauma. Popsicle sticks and tape formed crude splints around my shattered fingers, the pinky and ring finger mangled beyond recognition.

But vanity was the least of my concerns right now. As I toweled off with slow, pained movements, my mind churned over everything Lilly had told me.

Parasites wearing human skins. Glowing eyes and healing abilities that defied nature. Blue blood. An enemy that could be anyone, everyone.

What the actual fuck had I stumbled into? And more importantly...how the hell were any of us going to survive it?

I shook my head in disbelief. "Fuck this week."

In my peripheral vision, a flicker of movement in the mirror snared my attention. Lilly's reflection materialized behind me, her arm snaking around my waist as she pressed a feather-light kiss to my shoulder. "Hey."

"That's one way to put it," she murmured, her breath tickling my neck.

We remained motionless, clinging to each other in a desperate embrace, an oasis of tranquility amidst the maelstrom of madness engulfing us.

Then her hand drifted lower, fingertips grazing my abdomen. "Wanna make it weirder?"

I blinked, momentarily dumbstruck. "What? Oh...oh."

The towel slithered from my grasp, pooling at my feet in a whisper of terrycloth.

Lilly's hands roamed my bare skin, tracing the ravaged topography of my body with a paradoxical blend of tenderness and hunger. Her lips blazed a searing trail along my neck, teeth grazing my earlobe.

Need eclipsed pain as I turned to face her, crushing my mouth to hers in a savage kiss. She responded with equal ferocity, fingers tangling in my hair, blunt nails raking down my back. She pushed against me, leading me back into the shower, shedding her clothes as we went.

We stumbled backwards, a tangle of limbs and labored breaths, until my back collided with the cool tile wall. Lilly's hands first found the spigot, sending cascading water over the top of us, then moved to my hips, pinning me in place as she dropped to her knees before me.

Pleasure and pain blurred into an exquisite agony as she took me into her mouth, the heat of her tongue a shocking contrast to the chill of the ceramic at my back. A guttural moan clawed its way from my throat, my head thudding back against the wall.

In that moment, the world fell away - the horrors we'd witnessed, the unimaginable losses we'd suffered, the yawning uncertainty of our future - all of it faded to insignificance in the face of this one incandescent point of connection.

This stolen pocket of bliss, ephemeral yet incandescent in its intensity, was a defiant middle finger to the unfathomable darkness besieging us from all sides. An act of rebellion, raw and primal, against the pitiless void that sought to devour us whole.

She stood and turned around before me, casting a glance over her shoulder, beckoning me towards her.

We lost ourselves in each other, flesh against flesh, heartbeat to ragged heartbeat, twin stars colliding in a supernova of ecstasy and anguish. Release crashed over me in a tidal wave, my cry of completion reverberating off the water-slicked tiles.

Spent, I slid down the wall, pulling Lilly into my lap and burying my face in the crook of her neck. She cradled me close, fingers carding through my damp hair, as the shower continued to rain down around us, washing away the salt of tears and sweat.

In the aftermath, tangled together on the puddled floor, I met her gaze - haunted, but alight with the embers of defiance. "What now?" I rasped, throat raw.

"I don't know," she said. "I don't know."