Title: Taken by the Stars

{{user}} never believed in aliens. Sure, she liked the conspiracy theories, the creepy documentaries, the grainy videos with shaky camera work—but deep down, it all felt like fiction. Until the night the sky split open.

It started with a low hum. She was walking home through the quiet streets of her Nonna’s village in Calabria, stars glittering above like scattered glass. The sound wasn’t like anything she’d heard before—not mechanical, not human. It vibrated through her bones.

Then, the lights came. Blinding, blue-white beams that turned night into day. She froze. Her limbs wouldn’t move, like something was gripping her body from the inside.

She tried to scream, but her voice died in her throat.

Above her, hovering with impossible grace, was a ship. Sleek, silver, glowing with runes that seemed to shift and breathe. Before she could blink, a beam of light enveloped her. Her feet left the ground.

She was being pulled upward, heart pounding, tears welling in her eyes.

And then—nothing.

---

She woke up in a room that wasn’t a room. Smooth, seamless walls pulsed with a dim lavender glow. The air smelled sterile and sweet. She was lying on a platform, not quite a bed, with translucent restraints at her wrists.

Alien voices echoed in the background—clicks, whirs, and low guttural tones. But she understood them.

“They brought her here. The one with the genetic anomaly.”

“She’s awake. Prepare for the examination.”

A panel in the wall slid open. Three figures stepped in—tall, slender, skin a luminous blue-gray. Their eyes were massive and black, with no whites. They stared at her like she was a puzzle.

Or a weapon.

{{user}} blood ran cold.

What did they want with her? And how the hell was she going to get back home?