• I could not sleep. Dreams of them had left cold sweat clinging to my body making my skin itchy and restless, so restless. The moon light shone through the window, the only source of light except that of the stars that had long lost the romantic illusion old poets had created. The stars were where they came from and we all knew that there was more out there. They were waiting for the right moment, like they had except their moment had happened and now they were among us pretending to be human though everyone knew they were far from that.

    They had lived among us for a few months now and the media had talked about nothing else since. Headlines flashed across the newspapers both tabloid and broadsheet;'Grey attacks schoolboy' or 'Grey rapes woman' it was no wonder that we were all scared of them. I don't know what possessed the government to let them allow refuge here, after all we were overpopulated enough as it is and we were just breaking through with the plan to migrate before they came. But they were here now and here to stay. I guess I was lucky that my town had only collected a small population of these unwelcome visitors compared to the big cities; London, New York, Manchester, Boston. They had built slums made of stolen materials after the Government had only just eliminated the last remaining human ones.

    I can't remember falling asleep again, only waking up to the strange music of my alarm, of birds and the low rum of traffic heading into town for the new working day. I was exhausted from my midnight nightmares and stumbled out of the comfort of my bed, ready to face the oncoming day. A mug of coffee, a spoonful of cereal, a brush of the hair and I was out the door and at the station waiting amongst the crowd of other commuters all heading north and I let my eyes wander. A smudge of grey against normality alerted me to his presence. Normally I would turn a blind eye to a Grey, never holding a stare for more than a couple of seconds. After all they were nothing special; they didn't deserve my fascination after all the torment they caused, but I had pushed that thought out of my mind a thousand times in my quest to be righteous – a quest I was slowly failing.

    It was his appearance that fascinated me however, a unique urge to keep staring. It looked so human yet at the same time he had all the characteristics of a grey; the skin colour, the large black eyes, the slender tall figure and the wiry coarse hair on his head. Yet his hair had been combed into a generic style, he was wearing a simple suit (that of a banker), and his eyes they had a certain something in them that I would have given anything to call a soul but I knew that couldn't be the case... unless... Half-breed had crossed my mind before and the scientists had said it could be possible but at that time there were no known examples even with the rapes. I was not the only one staring at him I could see by the expressions of other people's faces but it was a busy platform and most people were just ignoring him, like they did with every Grey. And then he smiled.

    I had never seen a Grey smile before, despite the couple of hundred Greys I had seen in my life time. They all seemed so dangerous, so angry, so lacking any sort of happiness and it was this that possibly caused my hate for them whereas I strived so hard to be optimistic all the time. I hated how they could not find happiness in this world so beautiful and I hated how they did not seem to have a concept of right and wrong. Most of all I hated how they had evoked fear into the hearts of mankind. This was why his smile seemed to uplifting to me.

    The train slowly pulled up to the station, its moving advertisements offering me beautiful hair and ‘more natural’ breasts and there was a rush to find seats for the journey ahead. I was lucky my lack of height helped me slip in easier than taller people and I comfortably found a pair of seats with one for my bag near to the door. The rush began to settle and I set to my 'staring out of the window' train stance that was upheld every morning. It was then I noticed him though, stepping onto the train at the same door I had boarded previously and looking around for a seat not unlike the humans who had boarded previously. He noticed that all seats were taken and I watched him as he resumed a position leaning against the glass door that my seat faced, not attempting to take a seat my bag occupied. Was he scared of me?

    A small sort of war raced through my mind as I pondered whether to offer him to sit next to me or not. Maybe I was crazy but he seemed different. I know the looks I would get from the other passengers after all; Humans and Greys should never really mix socially (as society was now dictating). Yet he was so interesting, so many questions I wanted to ask. In a way, I wanted to get to know him, something that confused me the most. Was not I the one so against their invasion of humanity? I was nervous and I glanced over to him trying to catch his eye. I deliberately removed my bag off of the seat as some kind of subtle hint and it was then he looked around.

    He had some kind of awkward smile on his soulful face and I looked directly at him for a few seconds as I plucked up the courage to say "There's a seat free here, if you would like it." My voice sounded childish, high pitched, awkward and I flushed a little.

    "Thanks" was the reply in the metallic voice of a Grey, and he smiled filling me with hope.

    "So um... are you going far?" I offered, in the friendliest gesture I could.

    "Locke." It was a voice that didn't know if it was allowed to talk.

    "Oh um, just a bit further for me. St Andrews."

    He nodded and silence pursued. I noticed that a few conversations behind us had stopped to listen but I didn't care. All of a sudden I wanted to befriend the Greys, welcome the Aliens and treat them as humanly as I treated my own friends, what was wrong with me? Yet the only thing I could share this with was the glossy safety procedure sign that I'd spent the last few minutes looking at.

    Autumnal trees flew by, stations passed by and eventually the voice on the load speaker announced in its warm female voice, "The next station on this service is Locke, thank you for travelling with Northern Rail."

    Soon he was gone and in a strange way I missed him. My one spark of hope in the nature of his kind had vanished along with this mysterious humanoid. It was only when I reached my station, and I looked down to collect my bag was when I noticed the piece of white card on the vacated seat next to me. I picked it up and studied the print-quality handwriting which simply read 'Thank you' and a number.

    *


    I arrived home that night tired after my long day at work. Reading manuscripts and checking for mistakes was not exactly physical but it left my eyes and back sore where I'd been hunched over a desk for the majority of the day. I reclined into the soft leather sofa and took out a cigarette from the packet. I rootled into my pockets for a lighter and out fell the card the Grey had left me on the train. I had managed to forget about it for the majority of the working day but now the whole incident had come rushing back and I felt exactly the same as I did
    on the train, transformed.

    I stared at the phone. It would be stupid to call him after all I didn’t know him I hated his kind, or so I thought. Cautiously and slowly I dialled a number on the electric screen and the call sound began to play. One ring, two rings then silence.

    “Hello?”