text: The fabric of her reality seemed to be ripping apart at the seams. She reached up and used her left hand to whip the steam from her bathroom mirror. Aisha gazed at her reflection, the almond-shaped hazelnut brown eyes, the caramel-colored skin, the freckles that were sprinkled across her nose and cheeks. It was all familiar, she connected with the image, she knew that it was her. She felt crazy, the need to ground herself like this. Her eyes started to well up with tears as she thought about the loss of her wife, her best friend. They had done everything together, they had faced the world together. She felt a wave of anxiety wash over her when she heard the voice calling for her from the kitchen. The voice sounded like Maya, IT looked like Maya, IT had her beauty, her smile, but not her essence. The therapist told Aisha that she was suffering from Capgras syndrome, a psychological disorder that causes one to falsely believe that an identical person has replaced a person close to you. But Aisha knew better. No doppelgänger would fool her. IT was not Maya. The timing was too convenient. Aisha and Maya had seen the spacecraft together. Aisha had captured actual photos of the event, not blurry images but crystal clear professional photographs. Aisha had been following Senator Howard R. Ervin. Maya had gone along with her like she had on so many occasions. Aisha found that Maya provided a cover story so she could do her investigative field work without raising suspicion. Plus, it was a great excuse for having her around. Aisha was working on a piece for the Times about political corruption, and believed that Senator Ervin had been selling influence. They had followed him out to a remote location. Aisha pulled out her Fujifilm X-T4 camera, she felt it in her gut, this was the moment she had been waiting for and she was right. What her and Maya saw next changed everything. A spacecraft appeared from seemingly nowhere. Senator Ervin exited his vehicle and transformed into a kind of lizard man. She shook off the disbelief and snapped as many photos as she could. She took those photos and wrote up a Pulitzer Prize winning piece and hand delivered it to her editor. The push back was almost immediate. She was called in and suspended for two weeks. They accused her of violating the Times code of ethics. They claimed the photos were fake, and that she had knowingly lied. Never before had her integrity been questioned. The idea that others believed she was compromised made her feel physically ill. But Aisha knew the truth. She refused to back down. She went onto the dark web to do research on the creature she saw. The creature she learned was called a Reptilian, known throughout history by many names. They have appeared in the folk lore of different cultures across time, cunning, cruel, bent on ruling as overlords. People speculated that they already controlled the world, using their shape-shifting abilities to take the form of world leaders. She became obsessed with Senator Ervin. She dug through his trash, and followed him everywhere he went. She took meticulously notes detailing his every action. She knew now that the Times couldn’t be trusted, so she went on the web. First YouTube, then TikTok. Showing photos of glitches in the illusions created by the reptilians, and focusing heavily on Senator Ervin. But frustration reigned as the videos would get flagged, and her accounts removed. She went back to the dark web, she published her findings in blogs under the name Grillo and found a following. One night, she was arrested and charged with stalking Senator Ervin. Maya had shown up and bailed her out, but something was off. From that moment onward, they seemed to always be one step ahead of her. Beating her at every punch. Senator Ervin had agreed to drop the stalking charge if she agreed to obey a restraining order and attended therapy. She reluctantly agreed. The therapist tried to convince her that she was sick. But she knew it was a lie. She tried to tell her about the reptilians, about Maya. But she didn’t believe her, no one believed her. The more time she spent around Maya the clearer it became that they had replaced her. She knew Maya, she loved Maya. She could never forget her touch. Nor the love in her eyes, in her voice. The Reptilians could steal her looks, but not her soul. “Capgras syndrome, fuck that.” What truth preyed upon Aisha's mind and plagued her emotions was a simple set of questions that played on repeat. What did they do to Maya? Where is Maya? Was it her fault? IT called out again. “Honey, are you okay?” She summed up her strength and answered back. “I just finished my shower, I’ll be out soon.” IT had cooked again, the smell of coffee and bacon hung in the air. She hated IT, and refused to call it Maya even in her mind. But she had to play nice. Aisha knew she had to keep her wits about her. She couldn’t tip her hand. She knew IT was feeding the other reptilians. information. Aisha got dressed and walked into the tiny kitchen, staring at ITs face. She had seen a glitch before in ITs eyes, they had turned green, and the pupils changed to slits for a split second. IT tried to talk to her, but IT words ran together in Aisha's mind. “I have to run, I’m late for the bus. I can’t risk missing it.” Aisha bolted from the apartment and into the cool crisp morning air. Aisha walked to her bank, she had taken to keeping her evidence of the reptilian in a lockbox. She couldn’t leave anything in the house with IT there. Her mind was racing, she felt like people were watching her every move. Aisha went inside, talked to a clerk and accessed her lockbox. She took her research from a hidden compartment built into a jewelry box. There it was all her hard-won proof on a tiny SIM card-sized memory chip. She placed it carefully into the slit she made in her left shoe . Aisha exited the bank and held a cab. On the way to the meeting spot she felt a sense of relief for the first time in a year. She had found a group of hackers on the dark web who she came to trust, a group that had the same goal, to expose reptilian secrets. The group would hack all the major media outlets and post her story on the home pages. She had the cab drop her off a block away from the meeting spot, and walked the rest of the way. It was a clandestine business building on the outskirts of the city. It looked run down, like it hadn’t been used in years. She followed the instructions they provided to the letter. The door opened and she was led to a room by a small motley group of hackers. Arum_Sahan is the username of the hacker she had spoken with the most. The one she felt close to. Arum_Sahan was the group's leader. He eagerly introduced himself. “Grollo, it’s so nice to finally meet you. Welcome to Prometheus.” Grollo, it was weird to hear someone call her by her dark webpin name. She studied him. He was a short squat man, with greenish blue eyes, short red hair with a short cropped beard. “I have an encrypted computer set up. Did you bring the chip?” She reached down and retrieved the treasure trove from her shoe. Arum_Sahan put the chip into the computer. She told him the code to unlock the chip and decode the documents and photos. Arum_Sahan stared at the screen almost mesmerized. “This is stunning, what you have accomplished, the information you’ve uncovered.” The door opened behind her, and IT walked in. “It’s too bad that you can’t let it be,” IT said. The room started to spin, she fought for breath, as she gazed around the room everyone started to change. She was surrounded by reptilians. They grabbed Aisha, and forced her into a chair. She tried to scream but the words caught in her throat. The reptilians tied her to a chair. Arum_Sahan walked over to her, studying her face. Suddenly Aisha heard her voice but it was coming from Arum_Sahan mouth. Her face appeared on Arum_Sahan face. Horror gripped her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. It was like looking into a mirror. The room began to spin. Arum_Sahan looked at Aisha with a smirk. “We are everything you say we are, and so much more. We are Ananaki, the snake that misled Eve. We are Nahas.