Excerpt: Kilburn

"Whatever." Sarah finished the water. "Either way, the next time David offers me a ride home I'll take it."
“Always a good idea. You’re not nearly lazy enough for your own good, Sarah.”
“Hey, I’m plenty lazy. You just don’t see it.”
“Yeah, you’re so lazy you stayed up ‘til God knows when last night. ‘Cause we all know that lazy people don’t ever sleep.”
Sarah made a face at her roommate. “You know I like to stargaze. By the way, did I tell you I saw something weird in the sky last night?”
“Nope,” Jess said, “you didn’t. What weird thing did you see?”
“I couldn’t rightly say.” Sarah started digging through a cabinet in search of a snack. “I saw a meteor first, so at first I thought I was just seeing another meteor. But then it slowed down.”
Jess raised an eyebrow. “Meteors don’t slow down?”
“Not like that, no.” Sarah secured a box of Triscuits and a can of Easy Cheese and started chowing down. “It slowed way down, stopped, and then started to pulse.”
“So? Sounds like it exploded.”
“No, I’ve seen meteors explode. They turn into tiny bits. This stayed whole. It just pulsed four or five times, and then it sped back up and flew away again. I have never seen anything like it in the sky.”
Jess stared at Sarah for a moment. “Sarah Cooper, if you’re about to claim the thing that wasn’t there in the woods tonight was an alien from outer space, I’m going to punch you right in your ovaries.”
“What? I’m talking about something I saw last night. I am NOT claiming I was stalked by an alien.”
“Good. You had me worried there for a second.”
“’Course, I never said the thing last night wasn’t a UFO…”
Jess snatched Sarah’s water out of her hand and flung it in her roommate’s face