THE SMALL SEASIDE town of Hoveton is, to put it quite simply, uneventful. Absolutely nothing happens at all in this place and I've often wondered how I managed to survive so long with such a lack of excitement. All my life, the one thing I'd craved more than anything has always been adventure and exploration - something I'd unfortunately missed out on while being stuck there for twenty-two long and miserable years.

And so, living in such a small and boring town was part of the reason why I was astonished to hear the breaking news when I turned on the radio.

"...Strange light coming from the sky around four-twenty in the morning. Many of the population in the small town of Hoveton in the north-east managed to get a glimpse of the unusual glare but no one was able to make out where the source of light was coming from - or what it was. Reports say it could be seen for miles but was situated right over the small town."

I quickly threw my hair up into a messy ponytail and sat down at the kitchen table, turning up the volume as I did, intrigued. It wasn't often that the town was mentioned on the news and when it was, usually it was only for our product purposes or the beach nearby, never an unusual circumstance.

"I was awake, getting ready for work when I just happened to look up," said a man who'd witnessed the strange light. I listened intently as he continued. "There was this ... this explosion of light across the sky and it was almost like looking at the aurora borealis ... only brighter and much, much larger - it was almost like a sheet of light across the entire sky. It was so strange..."

Strange light? Explosion? I wondered what exactly had occurred during the night. I hadn't seen anything but that was hardly a surprise - I'd been fast asleep, exhausted from the day's work. It may not seem like much but several hours of working in a supermarket really did tire you out. I'd been working there for four years and it still took its toll on me. That's why I was thankful for Fridays - they were my relaxation evenings where I could lie down, have the radio on low volume with a copy of Heat to catch up with.

"Reports are still to be furthered concerning the strange happenings over the town of Hoveton during the early morning and we'll be sure to keep you up-to-date," the news-reader finished, leaving me completely baffled.

A strange light over Hoveton? That was odd, especially for such a small place out near the coast. I decided I'd ask my colleagues at work what they thought of it. No doubt Imogen would have something to say - she was all about the most recent stories and updates happening all around the world. She was the nosiest person I knew.

I made myself a cup of coffee before I pulled out my work uniform and got dressed for the day. I gave myself a quick glance over in the mirror, deciding that I looked presentable enough to serve people at the till.

The radio presenter was still talking about the strange light as I walked back into the kitchen ten minutes later to rinse out my empty mug. I became even more curious as they droned on about it, questions like, 'What was it?' and, 'What would cause a light like that?' running through my head. I knew the supermarket staff would be buzzing about it.

I WASN'T SURPRISED TO FIND that I had been correct; the whole shop was chatting about the odd, unexplainable glare, customers and staff alike. I listened intently as I passed by all the shoppers on my way to the staffroom, picking up parts of their conversations and how the majority of them were a little spooked by the whole ordeal.

"It was so scary," a middle aged woman was saying to another customer. "Just there one second and gone the next."

"Maybe the world is going to explode?" the woman's child asked innocently. His mother shot him a worried look and cleared her throat.

"I doubt it, honey."

Once I'd entered the staffroom and hung my belongings away, I bumped into my fellow colleague, Imogen, also known as the Talker of the Town. She was able to get her nose where it shouldn't be and I had to give it to her, she was bloody good at it.

"Have you heard the news? Did you see the news? What do you think of the news?" she questioned as soon as I hung away my things. Her blonde hair was tied back, out of her face, her blue eyes wide and full of curiosity. Sometimes she looked like she was high and I often thought she was.

"I've heard the news, I watched the news and I think it's all rather exciting," I answered truthfully. Anything out of the ordinary was welcome to occur in Hoveton - just anything to kill the plain and continuous days of boredom I'd endured for so long.

"I think it's something to do with the Government. Experiments maybe? Perhaps a plane carrying some sort of rare cargo? Urgh! I don't know!" Imogen threw her hands in the air, exasperated. I'd not seen her so clueless in a long time. It was strangely refreshing. "All I know is that I want to find out what's happening."

I responded with, "Doesn't everyone?"

The rest of the day passed by rather quickly. I stocked shelves, took my turn at the till and unloaded the delivery trucks - all while Imogen created theory after theory of what happened the previous night. I was about ready to snap at her when the clock struck four. In addition, I was tempted to clonk her on the head with the frozen chicken I was holding. At least that would shut her up for a little while.

Thankfully, on Fridays my shift at the store ended an hour earlier than the rest of the weekdays and I left the building by ten past the hour. I felt proud for having completed all my tasks for the day and the only thing I needed to do before returning home was go to the shop to purchase a few luxurious Friday items.

The man at the till just laughed as I dropped my weekly copy of Heat on the counter along with some ice-cream, a paper and a pack of chewing gum.

"Another week gone," he said as he scanned the items and bagged them for me.

"Indeed," I said as I paid him and asked what his thoughts were about the weird light.

"I saw it, actually!" he said, leaning forward, his voice dropping to a whisper. "I got up to let the dog out for a wee, and when I went back to bring him in, it happened."

"What was it like?" I asked.

"So strange," he admitted, shaking his head in what I assumed was disbelief. "I screamed, I'm not going to lie. I had no idea what it was, after all. Haven't screamed since high school when our footie team was beat by one, you see."

"Yeah," I said, smiling and pretending to care about his sudden switch to football talk. Truthfully, I didn't give a rat's arse about sports. All I could focus on was the light and the more I heard about it, the more I wanted to find out what it was. It was the only thing that had piqued my interest in a long time. Truthfully, I was mad that I hadn't been able to see it.

I arrived home at six o'clock with my shopping bag in hand. 

I'd picked up a newspaper along with my magazine and treats, simply because every front page I saw in the shop was covered with the story about Hoveton's mystery glare. I'd read a short snippet on the front page before I started my car and drove home, sighing deeply when discovering that nobody had yet discovered what was going on.

The first thing I did when I arrived home was boot up my laptop and search the news.

Sadly, there were no photographs of the happening and I grew even more curious (and frustrated) - what the hell was it? Where had it come from? Why could no one seem to work out what it was? It was almost something out of this world, unexplainable and new. So basically, right up my street. 

I groaned when nothing new popped up and I left the room to get changed into my pyjamas. 

It had been such a disappointing day. Granted, it had swung by rather quickly compared to most working days but nothing relatively good had come from it, at least not concerning the news.

My interest had been piqued by something that no one could explain. 

Great.

There was nothing on the television. Usually I'd watch the news and see what was all going on - usually Imogen was the one to tell me first but it never hurt to hear the day's occurrences from someone else once in a while. Imogen, God love her, she was lovely but irritating as fuck. 

Every news channel had a section to do with Hoveton that night. It was a change, having the town on the news and being made to look like some sort of mystery case. I liked that. It was interesting to hear the many theories about the town - how it could possibly be a Government site, a scientist experiment ground - one man from America wearing a Star Wars T-shirt even suggested alien activity.

I rolled my eyes. Talk about over-exaggeration.

What also fascinated me was how quickly the news had spread - Americans were talking about it, as were people from Germany, Poland, Japan. It was everywhere, and was definitely big news. Funny how the unexplainable happened to be a top story.

Soon, I became bored and switched off the TV, standing to turn on the radio instead. I turned it to the classical station and went into the kitchen to pour myself a glass of wine. I loved being able to relax after a week of stocking shelves and serving the same, boring customers every week. It was my job to give one-hundred percent excellent customer service, and I always did, but it became a struggle.

I picked up my copy of Heat and lay down on the couch, wine glass in hand. As I flicked through the glossy pages, I found, much to my confusion, that none of the  usually gripping articles could fully capture my attention. Fantastic. I groaned as I aimlessly flicked to the back of the magazine and then back to the front.

I couldn't stop thinking about the light. It was the talk of the town and no one had managed to capture it on camera. My curiosity was increasing momentarily and I was not only desperate to find out more but I craved to know more. It was the only front page, breaking news story that the town would probably ever be known for and the little information we knew about it was driving me crazy. There just had to be more.

I downed my glass of wine and went to pour myself another.

It didn't take me long to get through my second glass and to fall asleep to the soothing melody of a clarinet concerto. 

IT WAS THREE IN THE morning when I awoke. For a minute, I pondered could have been the cause of my early and unfortunate awakening. It was silent, dead - just like the town usually was. However, all I had to do was open my eyes and the answer was as clear as day; the brightness.

It was supposed to be dark at three in the morning.

Groggily, I pushed the blanket off of my legs and wrapped it around my shoulders. I stood and turned to face the source of the light. Perhaps it was the mysterious light that had shone over the town the night before? The idea made me giddy inside and I padded through to the kitchen and peered out of the window, hoping to see it for myself.

It wasn't what had been described by the few onlookers though - this was a smaller source of light. And it was coming from my back garden.

"What the fuck?" I mumbled as I grasped around for my keys, finding them already stuck in the keyhole. I carefully opened the door and stepped outside, having no choice but to shield my eyes from the glare before me.

What the hell was it? I wasn't afraid, simply curious.

Moments like that would happen only once in a lifetime I realised, and there was no way I was going to blow my shot at being part of something so unbelievable and rare. It was something that most likely would never happen again.

So I took a step closer.

The light had a blue tint to it. I could only make it out if I squinted but that's not all I could see when narrowing my tired eyes - if I looked closely enough, the light almost seemed to be emanating from a figure - a human body.

Yep, I'd definitely had a glass too much of wine.

"H-hello?" I said, not entirely sure what was happening.

Was it a person I was standing before or were my eyes simply playing tricks on me? Who knew? All I knew was that I wanted to know, and so I took another step closer.

That's when I got a fright.

The light vanished, suddenly and unexpectedly. I stifled a scream and jumped back, stumbling over my own feet and landing in a heap of limbs and blanket. However, I didn't stay down for long. I was determined not to miss a thing. With a huff, I stood up slowly and glanced down at whatever the thing was lying at the bottom of my back-yard, under the old maple tree.

I couldn't quite comprehend what I saw.

It was a man. A human man ... yet, not so human. He was blue, and his skin almost seemed to sparkle like a starry night. He lay on his side, eyes closed, completely bare and seemingly unconscious. 

I just stared. What else could I do? There was a strange looking male in my back garden and I had no idea how he'd got there. And how did the light come into play? I glanced up at the sky, wondering if the man in the Star Wars T-shirt had possibly been correct about his extra-terrestrial theory, as far-fetched as it seemed.

I blinked. He certainly looked alien but so had a girl I knew back in primary school. I hesitantly crouched down beside him, my hand shakily reaching out to touch him. If he was from another world, would his skin poison me in some way? Perhaps pass on a deadly pathogen? 

That was only if  he was alien. But how could he be? Nobody knew if aliens actually existed - they were like ghosts almost - some believed in them while other didn't, some claimed to have seen one while others laughed off the crazy idea. He looked normal apart from his bold skin colour. 

I wasn't going to risk losing a limb, however. I pulled the blanket forward with my hand and poked his leg carefully.

For a moment, nothing happened. 

But then he opened his eyes.

Thank you for reading! x
Alien joke: Why did the Martian throw beef on the asteriod? He wanted it a little meaty-or.
Cazza