ELLIE JAY
Ellie Jay is an independent author with a love of fiction and a nasty habit of sarcasm.
She writes books of all different genres, and ties them all together with sarcastic third-person narration.
At the moment, her published works include The Secrets Series, a trilogy of Russian Mafia action thrillers with dashes of sci-fi and overarching sarcasm and Planet Of Lies, a sci-fi story that is packed full of witty dialogue and narration.
THREADS
I’ve always been self-destructive. The kind of person who will pick at scabs and pull at loose threads, without realising that, sooner or later, everything will unravel, fall apart and leave me bleeding.
This is a final confession, a list of the stupid things I did and how they led to my death. A list of the threads I kept on pulling and how they fell apart.
The first was my mother. I tugged at her patience throughout my life and eventually, it unravelled.
You see, it was always just my mother and me. There never was any greater concept of family. We had one another and that was supposed to be enough. But of course, it wasn’t. I pulled at the threads of her patience, asking her endless questions about why it was just us. The kids at school all I had fathers, or stepfathers, or aunts and uncles that helped out. Why didn’t I?
Eventually, the threads snapped, and she lost patience with me. The alcohol didn’t help, it probably wore her patience thin. I remember her drunken yelling, the blows…
The neighbours must have been able to hear her as well, because someone called the police. There was a social worker, a strange, scatty woman who tried too hard to be my friend. She took me away from my home and I lived in a sort of orphanage for a while, but still, I insisted on pulling at a new thread. Well, in many ways, it was the same one, just a different strand. The strand that connected me to my unknown father.
I was adamant that I wasn’t an orphan, so I did as much research as I could and eventually, I tracked him down. At first, the man wanted nothing to do with me, but I’m nothing if not persistent. Especially when I shouldn’t be.
I kept in contact with him, stubbornly writing emails, texts and letters. As he blocked my numbers and email addresses, as I watched through the window while he tore my letters in two, I planned new ways to get in touch with him. Fake numbers I could use. Places where I could accidentally stumble across him.
Yes, in many ways, I became a stalker. But even as it dawned on me that what I was doing was insane, I continued desperately. Even as I realised that everything I had would fall apart again, I kept pulling at the threads, like some neurotic kid following their obsessive cycle, biting at nails and picking at scabs.
But the threads of my father’s patience didn’t fall apart as violently as my mother’s. He didn’t turn on me when they snapped, but instead, he seemed to take pity on me. He agreed to spend time with me.
We used to have our awkward little chats in a coffee shop near his house. For an hour or two, it would feel like we were normal. We’d sit down and talk. He would tell me about work and his – my – extended family. And I, feeling like I finally had everything I ever wanted, a complete and ordinary family, was careful, for once in my life. I kept the clumsy questions about my mother and their past together bottled up in my head.
The awkwardness soon passed. I felt like my father truly cared for me. If not as his daughter, then as his friend. And I cared for him. No, more than that, I worshipped him, simply for treating me with some dignity, after everything we had been through.
But what leads one to pull at loose threads if not curiosity? A sense that they shouldn’t, perhaps? I had both. So of course, it was inevitable that one day, I would ask the forbidden question, knowing as I did that I was throwing away everything I had spent my childhood dreaming of.
His face was blank and impassive as I spoke of my mother. I asked him all the questions on my mind. How had he met her? Did he still love her? Was she an alcoholic then? Was she violent? Did he know—
Eventually, he cut me off. He looked up at me with cold, empty eyes and told me it was time for me to leave.
I knew then, as I stood up with tears in my eyes, that I wouldn’t see him again. It was history repeating itself.
This time, I didn’t have the energy to chase him around and beg him to charge his mind. I hardly had the energy to do anything. And I certainly didn’t have the time. Because I was eighteen now, and that’s when the system stops caring about the children ‘rescued’ from homes. I had to leave the children’s home and since I had nothing and no one else left, all my free time was spent searching desperately for a job.
However, my rescue came in a completely different, miraculous form. While hunting for a job, I met Thomas. He was handsome, rich and, amazingly, interested in me. Within a month, we were living together in his beautiful apartment. I could hardly believe my luck.
But of course, I had to ruin it, like I ruined everything else. I began to pull at his life as well, with a kind of crazed curiosity. I was trying to find something to reassure me that he actually liked me. After all, we were worlds apart. He had no reason to care for me.
What I actually found was where he went when I wasn’t home. The hotel Nikti was an interesting place. There were always a lot of pretty young women there, for one thing. In his room.
Another beautiful thing destroyed by mindless pulling at threads.
There is another interesting thing about threads, you know? A thread is such a tiny, fragile thing… Like me. But when it’s wound around someone’s neck, it has the power to destroy.
My mother. My father. Thomas. I called them my threads. But the only threads in my life that didn’t snap were the ones around all their necks.
Ellie Jay © 2025
WHAT MAKES AN ALIEN ANYWAY?
Alina was by the park when she first spotted the spaceship. It hovered above her, bleeping ominously. She craned her neck, peering upwards, with one hand clasped firmly to the top of her head. The glow-in-the-dark deely boppers she sported were forever threatening to slip to the floor, but without them, her Halloween look fell apart.
She was an alien. In a silver sparkly jumpsuit and green rubber mask. She had saved up for this costume ever since last Halloween when it had been the coolest thing ever. That only made the flying saucer more exciting. What was it? A prop? A projection from a screen somewhere? How did she get one for next year?
“Hey, dork! What’cha staring at?”
With the loud, obnoxious voice came a great, spotted face that loomed over her, blocking her view.
She sighed. “Nothing, Bobby.”
Privately, she thought Bobby’s round, acne-scarred face looked exactly like a cratered-moon. Where was her moon-blasting laser gun again? Oh, right, in dad’s shed, waiting for him to hot glue the flimsy plastic handle back on…
Bobby interrupted her thoughts by grabbing her mask and twanging it back against her face.
“Aren’t you a little old for playing dress-up?” He sneered.
She glared. She hated him. Oh, how she hated him. Every day at school, he tormented her. And every day, she wished he would drop dead.
Suddenly, Bobby turned a startling shade of green. Strange. He didn’t seem unwell… Alina took a step back, nervous that he might vomit on her. It had happened before. Then she realised that his clothes were green, too. And so was the street around them.
Bobby’s eyes were bulging out of his head.
The greenness enveloped her, and her feet began to part ways with the ground. She let out a startled yelp and struggled, shaking her limbs in a furious attempt to regain control of her body.
Paying her no heed, it continued to drift gently upwards.
Slowly, she tilted up her head to see the spaceship wobbling from side-to-side, bleeping furiously. The beam of green light was coming directly from it. With some kind of bizarre mechanical gurgle, it swallowed her up.
THUMP!
She landed abruptly on a smooth, cold metal floor. Blinking and rubbing her eyes to try and recover from the startlingly bright lights, Alina tried to get her bearings again.
“Child.” A voice called out to her.
As her vison cleared, it became apparent that a short, squat figure was standing over her. It had silvery-grey skin and sharp, slanted red eyes. Otherwise, it was human in shape. One hand was extended towards her in a gesture of goodwill, ready to help her up.
She stared, her mouth dropping open. “You’re… You’re… naked!” In an ideal world, she would have asked some intelligent question about aliens, this being, as far as she was aware, a ‘first contact’ kind of scenario. Unfortunately, the part of her brain that was, very firmly, twelve-years-old, took over.
The alien contrived to look hurt. “Now, dear, we have had this conversation before. Your mother and I are from different cultures. What is ‘normal’ to her and to you is uncomfortable for my kind.”
“Huh? I don’t know you!” Alina protested, confused.
Another, harsher voice cut in, “Don’t you talk to your father that way!”
It was accompanied by a sharp hiss, as the wall behind the grey alien slid upwards and another being bustled in, scolding as it did so.
Alina could only think of the newcomer as being something from her prized comic book collection. Specifically, She-Hulk. She was at least six feet tall, with bulging muscles, curves that made her gender instantly obvious and skin that just happened to be the same shade of green as the cheap rubber Halloween mask on Alina’s own face. Two antennae protruded from her head like deely boppers. Surprisingly, she was clad in a rather fetching blue dress.
“Uh…” Was all the young girl could say.
“Well?” The mother alien crossed her arms. “What do you need to say?”
“I… I’m sorry…”
“So I should think! And where have you been, young lady? What have we said about ejecting to explore odd planets before? You have to take an adult, or at least an android! I’m not having another repeat of Mars! It must have aged me ye—”
“No. I mean. I’m sorry, but there must have been some mistake!” Alina regained control of her vocal cords and tried to hastily explain herself. Under the alien’s glare, she peeled off her rubber mask. “See? I’m a human. I’m not your daughter. I’m sorry!” The last apology tacked itself on automatically, out of sheer awkwardness.
The green woman squinted at the girl. She took a step closer, leaning down to peer at her. It was now that Alina noticed her eyes were very small and almost completely white.
“Is this a trick? You can’t fool me, Klorini!” She batted at the deely boppers irritably.
With the customary splintering noise made by very cheap plastic, one snapped off and whizzed across the floor, scraping on the metal as it went. It hit the wall with a clang and … was eaten. What Alina had assumed was a wall turned out to be something between a garbage disposal and a robot.
“Darling! Look what you’ve done! Are you hurt, dear?!” The father alien, who had lapsed into silence, was spurred into action now. He hurried over and clumsily patted Alina’s head, his forehead wrinkled with what she assumed was a frown.
“Oh! Oh blast! I am sorry, child!” The mother alien clapped a hand to her mouth in horror. “Is it bad? Look, look! A part of you has come off! We must summon the medic!” She scurried across the room with a sense of urgency.
“It’s fine, really.” Alina was rather bashful at this point, embarrassed by the misunderstanding and by all the attention. “Look, it’s just a headband, it comes right off.” With that, she pulled the headband off and waved it hopefully.
With great care, the grey alien plucked it from her fingers and held it up, close to his face. He inspected it slowly.
“Dear… I think it has happened again…” He said, at length.
“Oh blast! I’ll swing for that wretched computer! Asking it to scan for specific beings is next to useless!” The green woman tutted sharply.
“Excuse me…”
“What is the matter? Do not be concerned, human. We will return you to where we found you, and we can arrange a mind wipe if… All this, has been too much for you.”
Alina was looking rather thoughtful now. “It’s not that,” she admitted slowly, “it’s just that you don’t seem to be able to see very well. After all, you mistook me for your child and you’re really squinting… Do you need an eye test?”
“What is this … ‘Eye test’ of which you speak?” The grey alien asked, lowering the plastic from in front of his face.
The child hopped up from the floor with shocking speed and elegance, considering her usual ungainliness. “I’ll show you! My mum’s an optician, she’ll help you!” Her grin was enormous. “All you have to do is fly me home! I’ll do the rest. But please show me around your spaceship first!” Now that the awkward situation was over, she was full of excitement again.
“Okay, tiny human. But first you will explain to us how you came to look this way. We have seen your kind. They do not resemble me,” The mother alien pointed out.
“Oh! It’s a costume! We have this holiday called Halloween. You get to dress up, eat sweets and have fun! I love it. Only some people think I’m ‘too old for it’…” She looked down with a little scowl.
“Yes. That horrible male human. I saw.” The woman’s voice was cold now. “But I do not believe anyone can be ‘too old’ for fun. When we return you, you should enjoy this ‘Halloween’ festival.”
“Uh… Yeah, no. I think my parents might be a tad distracted, I won’t get out and about again tonight.”
“How odd. Anyway, shall we?” She extended an arm, gesturing at the ship full of possibilities.
A few moments later, the flying saucer was hovering over Alina’s house, with one very excited child sat in the bridge, watching the grey alien at the controls.
“Alright, alright! Now how do we get down?”
Alina would come to regret asking that, as at the mere punch of a button, all three beings found themselves whistling through the air. She let out a piercing scream and flailed desperately. The ground was coming up fast!
A green hand seized her and there was a sudden splash!
When Tony, Alina’s completely human and rather tired father came to the door to investigate, his daughter was surfacing from the pool.
In a rather bedraggled Halloween costume that had cost too much.
With two aliens floating in the water.
Wait, what?!
“What on Ear— What the… WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?!”
“I thought you said this was the right house?” The baffled father alien said.
“It is. Only I don’t think dad was expecting us…” Alina admitted guilty as she pushed wet hair out of her face and paddled her way to the edge of the pool.
“I really don’t kn—” Tony began to speak again, then stopped abruptly. The two aliens had hauled themselves out of the pool.
“We apologise, sir. We appear to have accidentally abducted your daughter.” As he began to surface from his stunned silence and turn an angry shade of red, the green woman raised a giant hand in a gesture of calm.
“The matter has been resolved. However, it appears the issue is with our sight. She indicated that your mate could resolve this?”
“Wh… Huh? Oh. Oh. Yes. Of course.” He was beginning to recover his salesman composure. With a glance at his daughter, he gestured to the door. “Come on in. I’ll fetch her.”
And with that, he trotted off to tell his wife that there were two dripping wet aliens in their living room who wanted an eye test.
Natalie rallied rather well. After the initial fainting, she offered the bizarre pair a towel and the use of the spare room. In the morning, before it got light, she drove to her office. Thankful to be the first there, she unlocked and tip-toed inside, unusual companions in tow.
It was the hardest job she had ever done. The little grey man had no pupils, and his head was too big for most of her frames, and the large green lady had the tiniest eyes she had ever encountered, but Natalie had her professional pride.
A couple of hours later, her oddest clients yet were satisfied customers. She was just placing their new glasses into neat little cases and talking them through the proper use and maintenance of them, when she heard the tinkle of the door. Her assistant had arrived.
She froze.
“Do not be concerned, we will make our own way out.” The cases were plucked from her hands, there was a shimmer of blue light and the two aliens vanished.
“Nat? You in?” A voice called.
“In here, Wanda! Just… Ah, tidying up!” She snapped out of her trance, put on her professional voice, and replied.
And everything went back to normal.
At least, for Natalie. For her daughter, whose ruined Halloween costume was
Elli proudly hung in her wardrobe, the memories would last forever. She didn’t care now if she wasn’t ‘cool’ because she liked Aliens and Comics and Halloween. It had all been validated and confirmed, just for her.
Besides, at morning break at school, a UFO hovered over the dark corner of the playground that was Bobby’s hunting ground. It was only there for a second. No one else saw it.
But after break, no one could find Bobby, either.
Ellie Jay © 2024
MERRY CHRISTMAS
I remember staring wide-eyed out of the window at the apocalyptic weather, the icy hailstones being hurled against the glass and bouncing off onto the road, just so I didn’t have to look at you. For your part, you were totally focused on driving. Perhaps that was because of the dangerous conditions and your lack of familiarity with the area… Or perhaps you were avoiding me too, as much as we could avoid each other when stuck on the uncomfortably silent car, listening to the hail because we’d given up on listening to each other.
It was late, getting dark, but you pushed on through the night. I restlessly turned as far away from the windscreen as my seatbelt allowed, watching the hard shoulder whizz by. The now-familiar surroundings of my hometown were more comforting than the weather, which reminded me painfully of the storm raging on between us.
Watching the road, I began to tell we were getting close to home now, and the cold, frightened child in me couldn’t wait to feel my mother’s arms around me and just be home again. The malicious part of me wanted to be home just to spite you, too. The endless back and forth hadn’t helped me work out why you didn’t want to see my family, even with Christmas just around the corner. But it set me against you. I’m open-minded, but now I could no more compromise with you than I could breathe underwater.
You turned to look at me as you swung the car around the final bend and my beloved childhood home came into view.
“I hope you know I’m only doing this because I love you.”
You growled at me, your words as bittersweet as my victory in our argument. You probably don’t remember those words as a tragic surrender but as your last stand. But then we never seemed to share a point of view.
And I never did have the sense to leave a finished argument finished, clearly. I hit back, unable to resist.
“Yeah, you love me so much you want me to spend Christmas cooped up alone with you in a crumbly, half-furnished house!”
I’m embarrassed now, as I recall shouting at you in anger, then listening to the long silence, only broken by the hail bouncing off the outside of the car like my words seemed to bounce back at us from every wall inside. Even then, I must have been a little embarrassed, because I opened my mouth to take them back, if only just to stop them echoing around us.
But you had already turned to face me, your focus on the road broken by my focus on us.
“I just wanted us to have one Christmas to ourselves. It’s our first after moving in together, remember?”
You seemed tender with me, almost romantic, even after my outburst.
“And the house wouldn’t be so bad, it’s coming along nicely. Maybe it’s just my company you would have a problem with, then.”
I rolled my eyes, and my vision blurred for a few moments. Probably just a split second, but it was long enough. Your eyes were still on me, and I wasn’t concentrating, so there was no warning from the road ahead, just a sudden jolt and a loud bang! The whole car shook. Looking up, the last thing I remember seeing was the back end of the van we’d smashed into, then total blackness.
When I surfaced from the dark sea of unconsciousness and guilt-ridden dreams, I was laying in the back of an ambulance, a paramedic watching over me, but no sign of you anywhere. I called your name, trying to sit up, but there was nothing but advice to settle back down again and relax until I’d been checked out at the hospital.
But I couldn’t and wouldn’t relax. I felt sick to my stomach with every lurch of the ambulance, sure my nightmares were all coming true. The rest of that horrible, fateful night is just a blur. The tests, having my broken arm reset, then having to talk to the police, the other driver’s tortured expression as he apologised to me, over and over again. Insurance details mix with family reunions but the only memory that stands out is how we never got to spend Christmas together, just me and you.
So that’s why I’m sitting here, in the cold, lonely graveyard. Because you always wanted us to have a Merry Christmas together.
Ellie Jay © 2025
