I felt them following me once about two weeks ago. After that, my sixth sense burnt out and I wasn't able to detect them watching me anymore. As I ate my ham and cheese sandwich I thought that maybe they had given up, but I couldn't be too sure. That's how my life has always been, as soon as I learn about something new I excel at it with a supernatural aptitude but only once. After that, it's as if I could never do it in the first place. That's why I was eating such as sub par lunch. After learning to cook for the first time, I whipped up a Michelin star worthy duck confit with roasted peaches and endives, a shallot red wine sauce and a shallot ring garnish. I've been eating sour sandwiches ever since.
As I was pitying myself that I didn't wait a bit longer to learn how to play Call of Duty, a group of people wearing dark suits suddenly joined my table.
"We've been watching you," said the dark haired man.
"We know all about your...ability," demurred the blonde woman with the ponytail.
"We need you, Rachel. The world needs you," the man with freckles stated a bit too eagerly.
I was used to people's fascination with my abilities, shouting new tricks for me to perform in a bar or at school. I wondered if this was another ploy to get likes on YouTube or upvotes on Reddit. I didn't see any cell phones at the ready, so I decided to humor them.
"Who do you say needs me?" I smirked.
"All of us. Human kind." said the dark haired man.
"They're coming, and we don't have anything better to stop them," grimaced the woman.
"Oh, yeah? Well, what do you want me to do about it?" I asked, sarcastic but intrigued.
"Just come with us. We'll take you to their leader," said the freckled man. "All you have to do is speak with him."
"Speak with him?" I asked. "I've already used up my ability to speak in public and to have an engaging, amusing conversation," I said as I recalled my first debate match and my first date with Mark.
"It's not how you speak," said the woman. "It's what you speak."
"They speak a language with many tones," said the dark haired man. "We need to let them know that we mean them no harm. We need to ask them to come in peace or to leave our world and us, humans, safely alone. One slip of the tongue might trigger our doom. Their word for 'war' is only one tone away from their word for 'peace.'"
"And their word for 'leave' is only one tone away from their word for 'come,'" added the woman.
Speaking quickly the freckled man blurted, "We need you to get this right, on the first try."
"Sounds like a decent plan," I agreed as we pulled up to the ominous tower with red light shining out of the top window.
We rode up the elevator in silence as I concentrated on the pages of the language book they gave me. The symbols seemed simple enough as most things did to me on my first try. I repeated the phrase that I needed to utter again and again my my mind, not wanting to mess things up for humanity and all.