I Didn’t Mean To...

It was a crispy fall day, temperature didn’t affect Rae.. he couldn’t feel it, but still his new human friend, Ally, insisted he bundle up. Dressed from head to toe, in boots, pants, and a hooded jacket that was a big too baggy, mittens, and she even let him keep his scarf and even took the time to wrap it around his neck for him, it even went over his mouth as well. Hehe, he wasn’t used to such loose clothing, but he liked it, he felt safe and hidden underneath all the fabric. That was an important feature as she had also advised him to not bring attention himself.

He was taking the time to explore the city, and boy was it noisy, and crowded. “Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.” He zigzagged between people, ducked under others, and continued his little pursuit on the busy sidewalk. He didn’t really know where he was headed, but he was headed there anyway. “Excuse me.” He wasn’t really noticing the eyes upon him, a lonely bundled up child, scuttling alone through the streets, it would draw eyes, but not enough attention for people to do anything about it.
He stopped in his little tracks when he heard a certain sound, laughter. He looked over his shoulder and noticed a very colorful place, there were colorful bars everywhere, a lot of humans running around, and get this, they were all around his height! Maybe some a little taller, but not by much. Some were sitting on top of a metal curved sheet and sliding down it, how peculiar, but it looked like fun! He ran across the street, not noticing that this was in fact a very dangerous thing to do. A loud honk was heard but before he could react to the loud noise which was drawing close, he felt himself being lifted into the air, and before he knew it he was on the other side of the road. “Woah there! You have to be more careful! You can’t just run through the streets like that! That’s dangerous!” The man lectured Rae, wiping his brow as he had barely managed to save the life of the young skeleton-...child. “Where are your parents?” Parents? Why was running so dangerous? Rae was very confused... he glanced over back at the park and this gave the man the suggestion that that was the child’s destination, or where his parents were waiting for him. Whatever it was the man looked at his watch then picked up his briefcase. “Man, I’m running late, look, just don’t go running into the road okay?” He softly shoved Rae towards the entrance of the park, thinking he would at least be safer there. “Go play with the other kids, and wait for your parents there okay?”
“Okay” Rae responded and started running towards the lively sand covered playground. He was about to run up the steps of the play ground equipment when he was knocked over by a force against his noggin. He lifted himself up, struggling a little through the stiff jacket, like a turtle on its back. A young girl, a whole foot taller then him came running to his aid. “I’m so sorry! I did not mean to hit you! I didn’t know I kicked the ball too strong.” She pulled Rae up with quite the ease, he was very light. He looked at her, and if his mouth was showing, with a smile. “It is okay, it did not hurt, I am quite sturdy.” He liked to believe. The little girl ran to her kickball And picked it up, so that is the object that had toppled him over. “Wanna play kickball with me?”
“What is kickball?”
“Oh it’s bery easy, you just do this!” She set the ball down and took a couple steps back before running up to it and kicking it as hard as she could. The ball was sent flying at least a good 8 feet but this was a long distance to the girl and she laughed and went running after it. “Okay now it’s your turn!” she picked up the ball and set it in front of Rae. “I bet you can’t Kick higher than me!” Rae’s eyes gleamed, as he stared at the ball. All he had to do was kick it? Wow this was an easy game. “Okay!” He said excitedly as he took a couple steps back, before charging forward, and giving the ball a good kick. At least he thought it was good, but the restricting clothing actually hindered him and the ball was only sent a couple feet forward. This caused the girl to break out in laughter, and it was contagious as Rae joined in as well. “Don’t worry, I have lots of practice.” She admitted to him, picking up her ball again. “Wanna know a secret?” She set the ball down again right next to Rae. “If you go back further, and run super fast, you can kick the ball harder. Watch!“ she demonstrated her secret to him as she took quite the number of steps back and charged towards the ball, using all her strength she kicked the ball into the air. Rae was amazed, her secret technique worked! The ball went so far it landed into the nearest tree. The child and young skeleton waited for the ball to come down, but it seemed like it had gotten stuck between the branches. “Uh oh!” The little girl ran towards the tree and Rae followed. “Oh no it stuck!” The little girl was clearly upset by these fold of events as she pouted at the sight of her ball in the leaves. Before Rae could offer his assistance, their attention was drawn to an approaching yelling voice. “Margaret! Margaret, where are you? It’s time to go home!” An older lady who looked similar to the young girl approached the two, it was clear the little girl knew her as she addressed her back. “But mom! My ball is stuck!” She pointed up to the tree, and the mom shook her head at the sight. It was out of either of their reaches. “Well there’s not much we can do about it now, but don’t worry, we’ll just buy you a new one.” The little girl looked down at the sand, tears building in her eyes. Rae had never seen anyone cry, but he could feel she was highly upset. “I don’t want a new ball... I want my ball!”
“Honey we don’t have time to-“
“No! I want my ball!”
It seemed like an argument broke between the two, and Rae wondered if he could help settle it.
“I can help you get it down!” He said cheerfully as he turned to face the ball. He extended a hand towards it and the ball began to levitate. The mother and daughter both stared on with wide eyes as the ball was lifted from the trees and into Rae’s hands. He walked up to the little girl and was about to hand her her ball when he felt the mother get in the way and shove him onto his bum, knocking the ball out of his hands. “Get away from her!” Rae was trying to understand what he did wrong, he glanced up and as he did so, the scarf fell from his face and laid loosely around his neck.
Fear grew on the mother’s face as stared into the little skeleton’s glowing eyes. She quickly picked up her child in terror and ran towards the exit of the park, making a call on her phone as she did so.
Rae looked on, before realizing something very important.
“Ah! Wait! Please wait!” He shot up onto his feet and ran to pick up the ball, and tried running towards the family only to give up after a few steps as they had gained quite the distance on him. “...you forgot your ball...” This saddened Rae, the girl had clearly had an attachment to this. “Do not worry friend, I will hold onto it for you.” He made the little promise as he continued to hold onto it. “I will not let anything happen to it.” He made this his own little personal mission. He looked at the ball and set it down, could he kick it like the girl did? Would her secret technique work? He took quite the amount of steps back before charging at it and kicking it super hard. His face lit up as the ball went further than the last time he had kicked it. He giggled as he ran to pick it up again, and tried again, not even noticing how dark it was getting as the sun was beginning to set. As he continued playing by himself, as the park had emptied by this time, he would suddenly be blinded as a very bright light, was shined in his direction.
“Is that the thing we got the call about? What the hell is it?”
“Is it a child? But it’s eyes are glowing...it kinda gives me the creeps...”  
Rae lifted his little head as the officers approached him, “Oh hello! Would you like to play kickball as well? I can show you how to play, it is quite easy!” He said excitedly, setting the ball down again.
“I don’t know man, but he doesn’t seem that dangerous...”
“We don’t even know what it is, don’t let your guard down.” The officers approached slowly, a flashlight in one hand and the other close to the holster around their waist. “You there! Set that down and step away from the ball, put your hands up where we can see them and don’t move!” Rae listened to them, glancing at the ball and back at them, then back at the ball as he stepped away. “But I promised I would take care of it.”
“...It really doesn’t sound dangerous man.” The officer further back stated, taking a step forward and taking a kneel, “Plus, with the way it’s dressed, someone had to dress it right? So that means it belongs to someone right?” He stretched a hand out towards the little skeleton. “Hey little guy, where’d you come from?”
Rae continued standing still like he was instructed. “I came from my friend Ally’s house.” He stated, was he in trouble? Were they just as curious about him as he was of them?
“See? He belongs to someone. Well we’re gonna take you back to your friend okay?” The officer assured him, but the other officer still kept his guard up, his hand drawing closer to his holster.
This news however brought a smile to Rae, they were going to guide him home, how nice! “Okay! Will you also help me return this to my new fri-” Rae said excitedly and forgot about the warning the first older officer had given him about not moving. As Rae turned to run and pick up the ball, he heard a very loud bang, it was deafening! And caused him to stumble backwards. “I said don’t move!” Rae noticed a graze in the ground ahead of him was smoking, was that what caused the loud bang?
“Dude what the hell!” The second officer yelled as his comrade was obviously blowing this whole situation out of proportion. “Put the F**** Gun away man, you’re gonna scare him away!”
“Don’t you remember what that lady said?! This thing made things levitate with its mind! It tried to abduct her little girl! How do we know it’s not trying to play mind tricks with us huh!? Just look at it!”
The way this officer was reacting towards him was starting to scare Rae, he was not trying to do any of those things he was suggesting, he just wanted to help. “I do not-“ Rae began lifting his little arms to show he meant no harm but the response was even more aggressive yelling from the same officer. “I said don’t move!!” He threatened, still pointing the gun in his direction. The other officer was at a stump, he knew his comrade was overreacting, but...
“Dude just put the gun away...” the officer tried to deescalate the situation. “...He was already listening to our orders...he’s staying still...come on..”
Rae felt himself beginning to shake, he was scared, where was Ally, or Tazz, why was the officer yelling so angrily at him, what did he do...
He could tell the thing in the officer’s hands was dangerous, especially with how the other officer was pleading him to put it away, but he refused, holding it steadily in his direction.
Rae didn’t know what to do, he thought they were going to take him home, why was he being told to stay put, how would he make it home this way.
The officer who was holding the gun, freed one of his hands to talk into a little box on his chest. The other officer was trying to counter his command into his own little box. Maybe this would be a good time to escape...Rae knew from which direction he had come, he could backtrack his way home. He kept his little arms up and slowly began taking a step back, stopping when he noticed the ball, he couldn’t just break his promise and just leave it could he? He began using his powers to roll the ball towards him, as he did so, the aggressive officer noticed this and fired towards Rae again. Rae shifted his powers from the ball, and instead stumbled backwards again as the loud bang rang. A cyan blue lit barrier manifested in front of Rae just in time to block the shot. Whatever was happening was happening so fast it was hard to process what was happening. He heard the officer let out an agonizing yell and fall backwards, apparently the bullet had ricocheted back towards the officer. “S***!” The second officer tried to catch him, as the injured one gripped at his side, and he began yelling into his little box again.

Rae was trying to gather what just happened, was the officer injured?
“I’m sorry!” Was it his fault? Did he do that? “....I’m sorry...” his little glowing pupils were shaking in fear and he took a few steps back, he didn’t want to cause any more harm, so he picked up the ball and ran away in the opposite direction.
“No, Wait!”
Rae didn’t stop, he didn’t turn around, he hugged the ball tightly as he continued to run, a little upset humming noise coming from his mouth, his pupils shaking vigorously. His kind couldn’t cry, but if he could he would be.

Earth had been a strange adventure for Mania so far. As with most planets, she had no idea how anything worked when she first got there. Luckily, she had an easier time assimilating than most. She awkwardly grabbed the hand of a struggling human, only to let go ten seconds later and see them scatter a bit.

"Ahhh..."

She knew the language with the absorbed information, but sometimes it took time to learn the way to pronounce things... she'd figure that one out later. For now, she wanted to find sustenance. Rudely pushing through the crowd to go into an alleyway, Mania spotted a large dumpster. With a hup, she jumped into it.

This was heaven. The alien had only just learned of the human concept of heaven, but this was definitely it.
She shoved things into her mouth quickly, banana peels, thrown out leftovers, was that a shoe she just ate? That was a shoe. This world tasted great! Why was this the first time anyone ever told her how wonderful Earth tasted?! She jumped out, looking at the ground and thinking for a moment. Yes, this could do. She licked the ground but then made a face. Not that good. She needed to find more.

Her dumpster diving continued until day turned to night, and she'd kept a list of the dumpsters with the best food in them - but they were all great. There was a particularly nice one by a pizza place. Her next one was by the playgro- BAP! What was that? A strange noise that made Mania pause. She started walking towards the playground when another BAP! It made her jump a bit. Then ANOTHER!

She started running towards the sound, not sure what it was. Did she not assimilate a good human? How typical! That's when she spotted the running little skeleton. She quickly decided to follow the kid. She ran next to him, easily keeping pace, and the next words out of her mouth would probably sound terrifying.
"AHGR! Hwaaaaaah. Heeellllouggg. Hello. Hello, you."

Nice. Talking, down. She really wanted to taste the skeleton. Maybe she could ask?

Rae was trying to run as fast as his little feet could carry him, but still something managed to catch up to him. He squeaked as he noticed someone running up to him. This startle caused him to lose his footing and he went tumbling with the ball, bouncing a few feet before he managed to ground himself. He shook his head and jolted back up, running to the closest bush and diving in. He thought the Cops were scary but the way this one looked and sounded was even more terrifying, but Rae felt like the true monster here.
“Please leave me alone, I did not mean to hurt the human, I did not mean it! And I do not mean to hurt you either! So please leave!” He yelled from his little hiding spot.

Meanwhile back with the two officers, the one who had been stupidly injured had asked for backup. He was asked if what they were dealing with was out of the norm, and if it was, special back up would be sent their way. A motorcycle pulled up to the gate of the park, it looked fast and high tech, but so did the person who climbed off of it. She walked up to the scene and barely even glanced at the two officers. “Which way did it head” she asked with an unenthusiastic tone. Before the injured cop could reply, the agent put up a finger to silence him. “Not you, you.”
“Uhh, it went north-east bound, deeper into the trees of the park.”
She made note and began making her way to find whatever was causing the stir around here, but before taking a step she glanced down at the injured officer with the bullet wound to his shoulder, obvious recoil from his own fired weapon. “Tch, pathetic.” She’d mention loud enough for them to hear before continuing her pursuit.