I was afraid other people in the office would notice the way I look at you’ ‘I never even noticed you looking at me why would anyone else?’ ‘Y...u never did? Really? I guess I must be better at hiding it than I thought’ he chuckled nervously. With that said, he took a step closer to me. The butterflies in my stomach were growing and I felt a little lightheaded. He just stared at me, his deep blue eyes melting me. I wanted to speak but I didn’t know what to say. He moved a little closer and I took. “Roomba! What’s going on?”I heard Vi hiss, and there was a flare of green from her plasma rifle that lit up the space like the flash of a camera, the scene illuminated for a fleeting moment like some nightmare polaroid. I remembered where I had heard that screeching sound, and why it made the hairs on my arms stand on end.Chryssalids.One had fallen where Vi had gunned it down, its insectoid carapace melting inward like slagged metal where the bolt of super-heated gas had hit it, its body. It was a high pitched, yet soft and breathy soprano voice, but, then again, he almost expected it to be. No, that is not what made him shudder. David knew that voice from somewhere. It was strangely familiar, although he could not immediately place it.No answer was forthcoming from David's rhetorical question. It prompted him to ask another to the powers that be."How can this get any worse?"That query was answered by a most unlikely source. A child's voice spoke squeaked from very close. As I lay on my stomach, my head resting on the pillows, the Drama Mistress pulled the sheet and duvet over me and smiled as I snuggled into them. The blonde-haired woman leaned over and kissed me softly on my lips.“Sleep well, naughty boy. Perhaps Auntie Natalie will come and check on you in a little while and maybe she’ll show you that you’ve been forgiven,” she whispered.Mrs. Bolton brushed my shaven head with her left hand before she walked over to the bedroom door. Sylvia walked over to.