The Helrinians by Sambhu Vasudev (the best books of all time TXT) 📖

up and go home but I was too tired. My eyes started to shut without my permission and just like that, I fell asleep.

Chapter 3- NEVER eat tomatoes

In church whenever I get bored I just stare at certain people until they realize that I'm looking at them and turn around. It's a fun game but it doesn't last too long because after like two seconds the person realizes someone's staring at them and they turn around. But still it's fun.

"Hey kid, wake up. Come on, you odd little human. Get up," whispered a voice, somewhere close to my ear. 'Ungh.' I grunted but wearily opened my eyes. Standing in front of me was a tall lady wearing a long, silky dress. Her eyes were a brilliant red. She was skinny, yet pretty and had a bunch of strait, gold hair that fell down her back. The weirdest part of all though was that she was a pale green and about 7 feet tall. "This is one of the many reasons why I'm glad I'm not human," she said in a very high-pitched voice. She hiccupped between each word. She sighed then added, "sleeping just wastes so much of your time." I blinked twice to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Not thinking I blurted out, "Then what are you?" She closed her eyes and I watched as her face and whole body turned a dark red and her hair rose up then actually turned into a flame. I scooted back a little.

"Why does everyone ask that?" She screeched and rose into the air a few feet, her hair about 5 feet tall. Her crimson-colored arms stretched out and flames shot out of her palms. By now I was on my feet, ready to run if I needed to. "Okay, calm down Gelharnma. He's just an earthling boy anyway." She said only loud enough for me to hear. I looked around for a 'Gelharnma' trying to figure out who or what it was but then I realized something. Her name was Gelharnma. I watched as she slowly faded into an aqua blue and her hair turned a wet silvery color then her feet hit the floor and her hair was blonde again. Her body was slowly fading from aqua to green. "Excuse me. Sometimes I get a little overheated." She giggled, "Anyway back to business. My name's Gelharnma and you're my new husband." She giggled again. My expression turned from confused, to happy (because I was glad not to be dead), to aggravated.

"Wait. What do you mean I'm your husband?" I demanded. The smile faded from her face. "The mist that tried to pull you in was a test. The mist calls all who are worthy of me, I mean I'm the princess of Helrin," she snickered again, "Daddy says I had to come up with some test to pick a husband. I didn't want to have some boring boy from my planet so I came here to pick an earthling. Daddy said it was fine. Anyway, if the mist does call, you feel a longing to follow it and if you survive then you're my husband. Although, I'm a little mad at you for killing all of my precious little pets." She said. "You mean I have to marry you?" I paused a moment, "And those demon bunnies were your pets? Besides, wouldn't you want to marry one of your own kinds?" I asked. "Well, I'm going to. After I get to know you a little I'm going to change you from a human to a Helrinian. Isn't that great?" she said giggling every couple words. Just wonderful, I thought sarcastically to myself. "Why me? I mean you don't even know me." I told her.

"Ahh, but I do know you. I took many forms in your life. I've been watching you for a while Kendall." She said. "Remember this." She added then suddenly she grew shorter and her skin got white and chalky. Her hair faded to a light gray then a rubber band appeared and wrapped itself around her hair. Her legs grew short and one grew wrinkled and shorter than the other. "Remember Mrs. Adams?" she said in Mrs. Adams croaky voice. "Or perhaps this." She whispered in a light, bouncy voice and grew only a few inches. Her skin turned light and pink in several areas, and then her hair turned red and pulled itself into two pigtails. A gray sweatshirt floated down onto her body and she told me, "Your friend from Alaska." She giggled in Janie's little laugh. Then she grew taller, her hair turned blonde again and her skin was that sickly green. "Maybe this will jog your memory." She clenched her fist hard then opened it. Lying in the middle of her palm was the little stone I had found in Mrs. Adam's creek. I sucked in a deep breath. "How'd you get that?" I asked, mesmerized at how she kept changing form and making objects appear out of thin air. "Ohh, you don't understand any of my powers do you?" she laughed. "Ask me for anything you want." She suggested. I was pretty hungry so I said, "Umm, a Big Mac." "Got it." She snapped her fingers and a warm circular object appeared out of nowhere in my hands. I unwrapped it slowly and sure enough a big cheeseburger inside the paper wrapper. I took a bite then wrapped it back up. It definitely was McDonald's food- greasy and deep-fried, my favorite. "Anyway, this stone was a prophecy stone, otherwise known as Gneh Helhsin. Well, whoever picked up this stone was already decided to be my husband." She waited for me to say, 'Ohh." like I understood everything she just said but my expression was blank and clueless. "Uhhh. It's long and complicated. I'll tell you on the ride home to Hilrin." She snapped her long fingers and a pearly white, thin, long skyscraper thing appeared.

"This is my spaceship. Its name is Nelirna." She pointed out to me. Weird, I thought. Who would name their space ship? As she walked up to the strange spaceship she called back to me, "You're going to be fun to have around. Kind of like a new puppy. At first they're just a bunch of work and stuff but-" her voice got cut off as the spaceship's door eased shut. I stood in the sun, letting the breeze hit me in the face. Was she just going to leave me here? Was I going to get to escape? Then, a chunk of the whitish metal lifted up and floated in the air for a few seconds. Gelharnma stuck her head out of the hole and yelled to me, "What are you standing around for? We've got days of flying to do until we're home." The door opened again and Gelharnma motioned to it with her hand. "I don't want to go just yet. Can't I say good-bye to my mom?" I admitted sheepishly.

She narrowed her eyes, "This is too risky. I can't have another one of those scums trying to hurt you. If I make too many people disappear you humans will all realize." She said to herself. Suddenly something clicked in the back of my mind. She had made JT disappear, but how? "Wait. You're the reason JT disappeared?" I inquired. "Oh, if you mean that little boy in the back of your class then yes. Thank you for pointing out the obvious." She said smugly. "Why and how?" I asked. Her expression turned from smug to annoyed. "I can make things appear. Right?" she said. I nodded. "Well, I can also make things disappear. Plus, I can read minds. It comes in handy a lot." She told me. I raised my eyebrows. "Now, no more questions or stalling, get in the ship. Now." She glared at me as she talked in a lethal voice. "No." I shrieked and turned to run away. She sighed. "I'll just have to take you by force." Gelharnma snapped her fingers and all went black.

When I woke up I was in a small room painted tangerine-orange. I was lying on a hard bed with the kind of sheets they use at the hospital. Next to me was a big bowl filled with all kinds of 7 eleven foods. There was Cheese-in-a-Can, Skittles, Snickers, a jar of peanut butter, saltine crackers, a huge bag of trail mix, two bottles of sprite, and a gallon of water. On the floor next to me were some jeans, a plain white t-shirt, and a pair of red socks. I realized I wasn't wearing any clothes. How embarrassing. I rolled off of the uncomfortable bed and quickly threw on the jeans and shirt. I opened the wooden door off to the side of the makeshift bedroom and stepped out onto a wide-open space. The floor was black marble and on the corner of every wall was a box that looked a lot like a TV.

It took me a while before I finally realized, I was on Gelharnma's ship. As I continued walking I saw several odd things. In one room there were several demon bunnies all surrounding a huge ball of pork. The pork ball probably weighed a ton. One by one a bunny would hop forward and rip a piece of meat off. Then the next bunny would go. I pressed my face against the window and watched for several minutes before losing interest, like a toddler at his visit to the zoo.

In the next window before I saw anything a weird stench hit my nose, it smelled like acid and ketchup. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and peered in the window, almost vomiting at what I saw. Dozens of pudgy, deformed rabbits hopped around and pooped out fat, juicy tomatoes. The rabbits elongated necks twisted in an arch, with a dingy head on the end. White foam gathered around their mouths and creepy, huge green eyes curiously stared at me. I took a step back and vowed never to eat tomatoes again.

As I continued walking down the corridor I saw various animals doing various weird things. My palms and underarms were as sweaty as ever, my mind rang with questions, such as, "Where are the humans? Where is Gelharnma? What am I going to do?" I kept briskly walking down the hall, the heels of my new shoes making loud tapping sounds as I strode. I stuck my head into various rooms, scanning everywhere for a familiar face, but none were found. After hours of searching I decided to just go back to my room but there was a big problem. I had no clue where I was. I leaned against the cold, white marble wall and thought for several minutes, then I heard, "Kendall, oh my dear Kendall. Where are you?" I just about had a heart attack at the familiar melodic voice of the alien-girl. I curled up in a ball and tried not to breath so she wouldn't find me, but I could have sworn my thumping heart beats could be heard from miles around. I licked my lips and pressed them hard together and slammed my eyes shut tight. I lay there for what felt like hours before I felt someone's cool hands on mine. I slowly opened my eyes to look right into the bright ruby red eyes of Gelharnma.

"Honey, why did you leave your room? I've been looking for you for hours. Daddy was so unhappy, thought you'd jumped from the ship to get away. No, though, told my daddy that you were way too smart to do that. I said you were probably just exploring." Gelharnma babbled fastly, then paused for a moment at my unsure look.