The lake rushed up to meet them, and Jessica tucked her head against her chest, bracing for impact.

  CRASH!

  Water exploded around her, the violent collision sending waves to the distant shore. The alien werewolf's corpse absorbed the worst impact before splintering apart. Chunks of alien flesh hissed and dissolved in the water around her as Jessica sank into the murky depths, her lungs burning for air.

  The lake's chill penetrated her skin, a shocking contrast to the heat of reentry. Darkness pressed in as she sank deeper, her limbs leaden with exhaustion. Just when black spots began dancing in her vision, her foot struck something solid—the lake bottom. With one desperate kick, she propelled herself upward.

  Jessica broke the surface with a gasping sob, water streaming from her hair as she gulped down precious air. Around her, the last pieces of the alien werewolf sizzled and melted away like sugar in hot tea, leaving nothing but ripples and steam.

  "Jessica!"

  The voice cut through the night, distant but unmistakable. Blinking water from her eyes, Jessica turned toward the sound. Two silhouettes stood on the shoreline, waving frantically.

  "Kevin! Salina!" Relief flooded through her as she raised a weak arm in acknowledgment.

  Each stroke toward shore sent pain radiating through her shoulders; each kick felt like moving through concrete. But the sight of her friends—alive, safe, waiting—gave her the strength to continue.

  As the water grew shallow enough to stand, Jessica staggered to her feet. Water cascaded from her body, and she suddenly realized she was completely naked—her undergarments incinerated during the fiery descent. Steam rose from her skin where the cool night air met her overheated body.

  "Holy shit," Salina muttered, rushing forward with what looked like a discarded beach towel she'd found on the shore. "You're actually alive."

  "I think so," Jessica croaked, her voice raw and unfamiliar. She accepted the towel despite its questionable cleanliness, wrapping it around herself. "Not exactly how I totally planned to make an entrance."

  Kevin stood a few feet back, eyes wide with a mixture of relief and disbelief. "We thought... when we saw you go down with that thing..."

  "Yeah," Jessica managed a weak smile. "Me too."

  Her legs gave out beneath her, and she sank to her knees on the pebbly shore. The adrenaline that had carried her through the fall was ebbing now, leaving her hollow and impossibly tired.

  "What happened to the escape pod?" she asked, suddenly remembering. "You two got out okay?"

  Kevin nodded. "It dropped us about half a mile from here, then just... vaporized itself. Some kind of self-destruct mechanism, I guess."

  "We've been searching the shoreline since we saw your fireball hit," Salina added, kneeling beside Jessica. Her eyes narrowed with curiosity. "How did you even survive that? The ship exploded and you just... what? Rode an alien carcass through the atmosphere?"

  Jessica nodded wearily. "The alien werewolf was already dying after our fight. I just... used it. Let it take the heat while I steered." She shuddered at the memory. "It died somewhere in the mesosphere, I think. After that, it was just dead weight."

  "That," Salina declared, "is legitimately the most badass thing I've ever heard."

  Kevin frowned, studying Jessica's face. "Your wolf features... they're gone. You are normal again.”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Jessica's hand flew to her face, the fingertips tracing her familiar human jawline. The elongated snout, the fur, the fangs—all gone. Relief washed over her. "Thank god," she whispered. She was still a werewolf—nothing could change that now—but at least she looked human again.

  In the distance, sirens wailed, growing louder by the second.

  "We need to move," Kevin said urgently, glancing over his shoulder. "Someone must have reported the 'meteorite' that just crashed into the lake."

  "My place," Salina offered. "Nana is away at some couples' pottery retreat. We can get you some actual clothes."

  Jessica nodded gratefully, allowing her friends to help her to her feet. Each step sent fresh pain shooting through her battered body, but the familiar outlines of Moon Valley's trees and distant buildings grounded her. They had made it home.

  They stuck to back roads and walking paths, avoiding the main streets where emergency vehicles raced toward the lake. By the time they reached Salina's modest two-story home, Jessica could barely keep her eyes open.

  The warmth of the house enveloped her as they stepped inside, and Salina quickly led them upstairs to her bedroom—a dark sanctuary of band posters and occult paraphernalia that Jessica had once found intimidating but now welcomed as a haven.

  "Shower," Salina commanded, pointing Jessica toward the bathroom. "You smell like burnt alien and lake water."

  Jessica didn't argue. Under the hot spray, she watched as rivulets of gray-purple slime and lake grime swirled down the drain. Her body was a map of bruises and scrapes, but miraculously, nothing seemed broken.

  When she emerged wrapped in a fresh towel, Salina had laid out some clothes—black sweatpants and a faded band t-shirt. They were a far cry from Jessica's usual attire, but she pulled them on gratefully.

  "Here," Kevin said, offering a steaming mug. "Hot tea with herbs. For the shock."

  Jessica accepted it with trembling hands. "Thanks," she whispered, suddenly overwhelmed by their simple kindness. These were the friends she'd pushed aside for popularity, for normalcy. And yet, here they were, taking care of her after the most abnormal night imaginable.

  "So," Salina said, settling cross-legged on her bed. "We survived alien abduction. That's a new one, even for Moon Valley."

  "And Jessica went full werewolf and took down an alien-turned-werewolf monster," Kevin added, perching on Salina's desk chair. "Which, for the record, was both terrifying and incredible to witness."

  Jessica lowered herself carefully onto the edge of the bed, wincing as her bruised body protested. "I didn't exactly plan it," she admitted. "It just... happened. Instinct, I guess."

  "You did what you had to do," Salina said. "Even if that thing transformed. You couldn’t control your infection.”

  Jessica shuddered, remembering the moment her teeth had sunk into the rubbery flesh. "Yeah, but thank god I didn’t need silver to kill it.”

  "A different biology, I guess," Kevin said, his eyes lighting up with the thrill of scientific discovery despite their exhaustion. "Good to study in case they come-”

  "Can we not?" Jessica cut in, her voice sharper than she intended. "Not tonight. I just... I can't think about them coming back. Not yet."

  Kevin's enthusiasm dimmed, and he nodded apologetically. "Right. Sorry."

  An awkward silence fell over the trio, broken only by the distant wail of sirens and the soft tick of Salina's skull-shaped wall clock.

  "What about tomorrow?" Salina finally asked, voicing the question they'd all been avoiding. "Do we just... go to school like nothing happened?"

  Jessica stared into her half-empty mug, watching the herbs dissolve into the dark tea. The normalcy of school, of cheerleading practice, of cafeteria drama—it all seemed absurd after what they'd experienced. And yet, what was the alternative?

  "Of course we can," she whispered. "Who would believe us? We'd sound insane."

  Kevin sighed, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "As always, we just let it slide by. Right?”

  "Hey," Jessica said, meeting his gaze. "We're alive. We escaped. We destroyed their lab. That's a win."

  "Yeah," Salina agreed, though her tone suggested otherwise. "Totally a win."

  They talked a while longer, piecing together their fractured memories of the ship, the escape, the crash. Eventually, exhaustion claimed them. Salina offered Jessica her bed, but she declined, opting instead for the pile of blankets and pillows on the floor beside Kevin, who had claimed the beanbag chair.

  As the first hints of dawn lightened the sky outside, Jessica stared at the glow-in-the-dark stars on Salina's ceiling. They seemed childish and innocent now—a pale imitation of the vast, terrifying reality she'd glimpsed.

  But as far as Jessica knows now, humanity wasn’t alone, and that was scary.