Roxy stopped, leaning against a tree and panting. The smell of wet moss and dirt filled her head, the sound of high-pitched whining continuing to drone on overhead. Behind her was a bright, white light, and ahead of her was nothing but blackness.

She closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the rough bark and trying to get her bearings. Then, counter to human intuition, she ran into the darkness. Tears welled up in her eyes as she ran: partially from the sharp wind and partially for the friend whom she had left behind.

Although her body and mind both ached and on the outside it looked as if she had given up on Simon, she mentally swore she would find him again. She knew in her soul that they would be reunited, even if it her took the rest of her life.

~ * ~

Eight years later

A bright light flicked on, blinding Roxy temporarily. She squinted, shielding her eyes and trying to see past it. She was in a cold room, handcuffed to a table. Across from her was a mirror, which she strongly suspected was actually a window.

She examined her reflection wearily, taking in the current mess that was Roxy Chamberlain. Her short black hair was disheveled, and there were bags under her eyes. Her suit was wrinkled and covered in dust.

A door on the other side of the basement opened, and a tall, sharply-dressed man entered the room, sitting across from her at the table. He had dark skin and a neatly shaved head, and was frowning at her sternly. Despite being twenty-four years old, she felt like a child who had been called into the principal's office.

"Ms. Chamberlain. You've certainly been giving the CIA some trouble lately." He opened a manila folder he had been carrying, pulling out some official-looking forms. "Hacking into a secure government database, infiltrating our headquarters, posing as a federal agent, destroying government property." He looked up at Roxy, scrutinizing her expression. "Care to explain yourself?"

She crossed her arms (as best as she could while wearing handcuffs) and stared at him defiantly. "I have explained myself," she retorted, "And no one will fucking listen to me."

The CIA agent sighed again. "Yes, the, uh, alien defense. You see, Roxy, we don't quite buy that."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes like a rebellious teenager. "Really? The CIA doesn't know what's really happening on American soil? Yeah, right."

The man sat back his chair, crossing his arms and mimicking Roxy's position. "Fine," he said, "I'll bite. What's there to know?"

Roxy stared at the table for a long moment, recalling the recent events. "Well, it all started two days ago..."

~ * ~

Two days earlier

Roxy was the last person left in the building, long after everyone else had gone home to their families and the lights had been turned off. The blue light from her computer screen illuminated the determined look on her face as she typed away. Her job as a software engineer granted her certain privileges, such as access to expensive software and databases, and she had never been so grateful for that access as she was now.

She had stopped searching for Simon years ago, but a small light of hope had always lingered in the back of her mind, nudging her forward. Every time she saw a headline about a UFO sighting or a conspiracy theory, that small part of her couldn't help but be excited. Nothing had ever panned out for her, though. At least, not until now.

She had been working on a security program for the federal government, being one of the best programmers in her field, when she stumbled across an interesting piece of information: a file on the CIA database called "Sightings."

Now, she didn't generally consider herself a rule-breaker, but there was nonetheless a rebellious streak in her that she couldn't always contain. The file was encrypted, of course, and that was why Roxy was still at the office so late at night.

"Gotcha," she whispered, a slight smile spreading across her face. Her eyes lit up as she read, realizing she may have finally found the information she needed.

The file contained a list of names and locations. No explanation, but none was needed. After Roxy saw the world "Roswell," she knew she had stumbled upon something big. She printed out the file, trying not to think about the risk to national security such an action posed, and wiped any trace of the file from her computer history.

It was a cold night in early February, and snow still lay thick on the ground. Roxy walked briskly to her car, locking the doors behind her. She was nervous and jumpy, feeling more paranoid with every passing moment. Her car hummed to life, and with a suitcase in the backseat and a tank full of gas, Roxy set out to find her childhood friend.

~ * ~

She had been driving down the interstate for four hours now, and it was almost midnight. As she drove, she recalled some of her favorite memories of Simon: listening to music through shared headphones, calling each other late at night and talking for hours, sneaking out of class to dance in the rain. They had been inseparable, and it had been a devastating blow to Roxy when she lost him.

She became depressed, secluded, and obsessed with finding him. She blew off her schoolwork and would hardly speak to anyone. When Simon's parents arranged a funeral for him, Roxy refused to speak to them again. She felt betrayed, the only one who still had hope.

Now, Roxy pulled up next to a farmhouse in the Pennsylvania countryside. The barn looked decrepit, like animals hadn't lived there for years, but there were still lights on in the house.

She knocked on the front door, hoping it wasn't too late for a visit. She was too impatient to wait for the next morning.

An elderly man opened the door, eyeing Roxy suspiciously. "Do I know you?" he snapped gruffly.

Roxy cleared her throat. "Mr. Ronald Jones? I'd like to talk to you about your wife, Catherine. I've been sent here by the CIA."

"Hm. Badge?" he requested shortly.

"Er, I don't have one. I'm sort of a contractor," Roxy said hastily. "I work with the CIA, not for them."

"Why the sudden interest?" Ronald asked. "It's been nearly a decade and I haven't heard any news since she was taken."

"I'm, uh, investigating a similar case." Roxy lowered her voice, taking on a pleading tone. "Mr. Jones, one of my best friends was taken in a similar manner as your wife. I need to find him, please. Just a few minutes of your time."

That seemed to soften Ronald, and he stepped aside to let her in the house. Ronald gestured to the couch and Roxy took a seat gratefully.

"It was our anniversary," he began, settling into a well-worn armchair, "and we were on a romantic date in the park. It was just after midnight when -- when they arrived. I saw a blinding light, and the next thing I knew my Catherine was screaming. And..." He looked down at his lap.

Roxy leaned over. "It's okay, Mr. Jones," she told him softly, "You ran, didn't you?"

His voice cracked as he replied, "Yes. I abandoned her. Some small part of me wonders what would have happened if I had stayed, but I -- I think they would have just taken me too." Roxy nodded, knowing exactly how he felt.

"You know," he lowered his voice to a whisper, "Others have been taken too."

Roxy nodded again. "All couples," she said. "Always couples."

"It has something to do with -- with love," Ronald hypothesized. "These creatures, it's like they need people who love each other. The government refused to believe me, but I know, in my heart, that's why they took her. Because she loved me."

Roxy tried not to let on how hard this was hitting her emotionally. "Mr. Jones," Roxy said, "I understand this is hard for you, but can you tell me anything else that might be helpful?"

Ronald hesitated. "Well," he started slowly. "There is one thing. When my case was being investigated by the CIA, they brought me to their headquarters to be questioned. I got lost at one point looking for the bathroom, and... well, I wandered into a lab and there were all these... things I didn't recognize. Devices and such, and there were pictures everywhere of missing people and spaceships."

He leaned forward, lowering his voice. "They had alien artifacts in there, I just know it. For years I've suspected that they've known how to contact the aliens all along, but they won't. They can, but they won't. Typical bureaucracy." He sat back in his chair, clearly frustrated. "Listen, I could never convince them to do anything, but it sounds like you have some sway there. Maybe you can succeed where I failed."

Roxy nodded, standing up. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Jones. That was very helpful. I'll let you know right away if we find anything."

Ronald nodded gratefully. "Good luck, Miss...?"

"Chamberlain," she said, not being able to bring herself to lie to this sweet old man who had experienced so much heartbreak.

Now Roxy had two people to find.

~ * ~

She spent the night in a hotel on the road, getting up as soon as the sun rose and heading for D.C. with a healthy dose of caffeine. She arrived at the CIA headquarters in a fresh suit at 10:00 AM.

Roxy had hacked into their system the previous night to obtain credentials, knowing all the cracks and loopholes in the code. After all, she had designed it.

She managed to get into the building and pass the security checks with no issue, although she was tense and nervous the entire time. She wondered what the penalty was for breaking into a high-security government facility, but tried not to think about it.

She had also obtained plans for the building from their website. Most of them had nothing interesting on them, but, in the depths of the highest-security database they had, she finally found what she was looking for. This map had a room on it that none of the other blueprints did: a secret lab tucked away in the basement of the CIA, near the interrogation rooms.

Roxy knew how to look like a woman who knew where she was going. She was a good liar and oozed confidence with every word she spoke. She may have had high levels of stress while navigating the CIA headquarters, but not even the best agents there would have been able to detect it on her face.

She finally arrived at the lowest levels, deep underground. It looked like a massive warehouse, stretching on so far that Roxy couldn't even seen the other wall. Dim fluorescent lights cast the whole level in a creepy blue glow. Massive objects covered with cloth and tarps loomed on either side of her as she walked, looking for a specific door in the wall.

Finally she found it: Room 000. She could see through a crack in the door that the lights were off, and fortunately for her, the door was unlocked. She supposed that no one really came to the lowest levels, so they probably thought their secrets were safe.

Flicking on the lights, Roxy saw that the lab was exactly as Ronald had described: tables full of strange gadgets and tools unlike anything Roxy had seen. Pictures and newspaper articles were pinned up all over the walls, as well as scattered across the tables. Everything was covered in a fine layer of dust, and it was evident no one had touched the lab in years.

As she examined the contents of the lab, Roxy realized there was an organizational system at work: the gadgets at each table correlated to the photographs and newspaper clippings nearby. Meaning that if she could find the articles talking about Simon, she could find relics from the aliens who took him.

It took her nearly half an hour to sort through the hundreds of pieces of evidence, but she finally found what she was looking for. On a table next to newspaper clippings about Simon, Catherine, and six missing couples, there was a single device. It was about the size of a softball, shaped like a slightly oblong sphere. There was a seam running through the middle, like an easter egg, and a small indentation that looked like a button.

Roxy carefully lifted the device from the table. She hesitated for a moment, not knowing what would happen if she messed with it, but she knew she would regret it forever if she didn't find out.

She pressed her thumb into the indentation and heard a faint click, then an eerie green light shone from the crack in the device. Two paper-thin wings shot out of the crevice and started whirring. As Roxy looked on in awe, the device lifted out of her hands and floated in midair. It began to emit a high-pitched whining sound, just like the one she had heard eight years before, and then vanished from the air without a trace.

Just then, the door swung open and Roxy knew she had been caught.

~ * ~

The CIA agent stared at her, processing the story she had just told. "So the 'alien' device is gone?" he asked, "Just vanished into thin air?"

"Yes," Roxy confirmed shortly.

The agent sighed. "Then we may have much bigger problems on our hands then your expert hacking skills," he told her. "You're going to need to come with me."

He took a small key out of his jacket pocket and unlocked Roxy's handcuffs. "Call me Justin," he said.

"Okay..." Roxy said slowly, as if she was suspicious of his motives. "Where are we going, Justin?"

He held the door open, gesturing for her to leave the room. "On a road trip," he replied.

~ * ~

The sun was just setting when they reached the edge of the forest in upstate New York where Roxy had said goodbye to Simon. Justin pulled two lawn chairs out of the CIA van they had driven in and they sat on the grass, waiting for... something.

"The device you activated was a communication device. It summoned the beings to the same location where they last visited. Which, unless our information is wrong, was here."

"You seem awfully calm about this whole situation."

Justin shrugged. "I don't believe in aliens, Roxy," he explained. "I'm only here because it's protocol to tie up loose ends. And because I want you to give up on this silly fantasy."

Roxy scoffed, ignoring him.

"I'm serious, Roxy," Justin said quietly. "You need to let it go. You were a child when it happened, you were just seeing things. That device was made by some tinkering conspiracy theorist who couldn't leave well enough alone."

Roxy stared silently into the growing darkness. The memory of leaving Simon behind felt so recent, so vivid. There was doubt in her heart: doubt that he was alive, doubt that he was the same as he had been. She felt heavy, as if the memory of him was weighing her down. What if all of this had been for nothing? What if they didn't even come?

After they had been waiting for two hours, both of them half-asleep, a bright light shot down from the stars, searing the earth just a few yards away. Roxy sat straight up, instantly wide awake. "Justin!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, shit," he said. "I didn't think they would actually... I mean, wow. I should have brought backup."

The light grew brighter, and soon two silhouettes appeared, dark against the brightness. Roxy jumped up from her seat, walking tentatively towards them. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Please let it be him.

Suddenly, the light was gone. Roxy looked up at the sky just in time to see what looked like a shooting star -- but she knew better.

She walked briskly toward the figures before breaking into a run, Justin right behind her. One of them was an old woman, whom she recognized as Catherine. The other was a young man with dark hair and warm brown eyes, his face scruffy like he hadn't shaved in days.

Roxy walked up to him, tears in her eyes. "You look so different," she whispered, her voice cracking as she touched his face.

"Roxy," Simon said. "You didn't give up." He scooped her up in his arms, and she didn't want him to ever let go.

Simon kissed her cheek, and then her lips, and Roxy recalled the first kiss they had shared, just moments before the aliens had arrived. Part of her thought she was dreaming, but in her heart she knew this was real; he was real.

"They didn't want us," Catherine explained to Justin nearby. "We were singles, and they only wanted couples."

Justin looked confused. "So why didn't they return you sooner?"

"I think they -- they had to be summoned," Catherine said. "Maybe they thought no one wanted us anymore, since there was no attempt to contact them. Or maybe they forgot where they found us."

"It doesn't matter," Roxy said quietly, still staring at Simon like she couldn't believe he was really there. "What matters is that you're back."

"But wait," Justin asked, "What about the other couples? There are twelve people still missing. And why did they want you to begin with? We have a lot to discuss."

"I think... it has to do with love," Catherine said quietly. "They were studying people in love."

"It was about love?" Justin repeated, still seeming confused.

"Yes," Roxy said, although she was really only speaking to Simon. "It was."

~ * ~

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