Curled up on the living room leather couch, I watched as my dad surfed through different movies on Netflix. It was another boring Saturday night with nothing to do, so we figured Netflix could entertain us for a while.

        “Why is there never anything good?” asked my dad to no one in particular, obviously frustrated with being bored. I chuckled.

        “I keep telling you that we need to get Youtube TV or Hulu or something,” I stated as I got off of the couch and turned towards the kitchen. I heard my dad sigh in exasperation as I walked to get some food. Boredom causes hunger.

        I entered the kitchen to find my mom.

        “Did he find anything yet?” she asked, opening the fridge. I walked over and peered at the options over her shoulder.

        “Just a whole lot of nothing,” I sighed. There wasn't anything that I wanted in the fridge. “Why don't we have any food?” I whined. My mom shut the fridge and turned to look at me.

        “You're kidding me, right?” she asked, annoyed. “There's a whole fridge of food!” I laughed and continued my search. I looked in the Lazy Suzan and the cupboards until I finally settled with graham crackers and milk.

        Just as I was pouring the milk into a bowl, I heard music coming from the living room. He must have found something. I thought. Please, God, don’t let it be a documentary.

        I put the milk away and walked into the living room just as the word “evidence” disappeared from the bottom-right corner of the screen. I tilted my head in confusion.

        “What did you find?” I asked my dad as I walked to the couch and sat back down, careful not to spill my bowl of milk.

        “Something about aliens,” replied my dad, already engrossed in the movie. “I think it said Extraordinary: the Stan Romanek Story.”

        The first video of “evidence” was a video (taken by Stan Romanek) of a UFO flying above him. It was a pretty clear shot. Then the movie showed that Stan had apparently over 195 documented events of extraterrestrial experiences. When I read that from the screen, my heart fought to believe, but my mind stopped it. I really did want to believe that there were aliens out there in the vast darkness above our heads. I hated thinking that we could be alone out in space. That’s just unnerving, to be alone. The only life for an area as big as light years. But I knew it could also be impossible. We could actually be alone. I mean, why haven’t they contacted us yet? We have been a thriving planet for generations, so shouldn't they have said something to us by now?

        For the next few minutes, I pulled out my phone and looked up the movie and exactly who Stan Romanek was. The movie itself was made in 2017, and Stan is apparently an author, UFO proponent, and convicted sex offender. The last part made me doubt his words even more.

        My mind was winning the battle until I saw the next round of images of evidence. He had apparently taken multiple photos of UFOs following him. I could feel my eyes widen in complete shock. They were actually good photos. You could clearly see what they were. I glanced over at my dad. His eyes were wide too.

        “Mama! Bryce!” I called to my mom and brother, who were in their rooms at the time. “You guys need to see this!” I heard footsteps and mumbles, but I was too focused on the movie to really pay attention to if they were really there or not.

        The next “section” or “chapter” of the movie was “Equations.” Apparently, Stan just saw the equation the scientific community uses to estimate the number of active, communicative civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy called the “Drake Equation” in his head. But Stan’s version multiplies the probability by 100. Stan, over the years, has written multiple equations and diagrams that are very complex and even in a different, unknown language. That creeped me out even more.

        “Holy crap,” I heard my mom say. I looked up at her curiously. Sensing my stare, she looked over at me with her mouth hanging open in utter amazement.

        The rest of the movie was just as shocking. Stan documented everything that happened to him and told the story to us in an interview like it happened yesterday. He remembered what they did to him when he was abducted; he remembered the encounters he had with them in his own house and peering through his window.

        He told us how strange-looking little kids would come up to him, hug his leg, and call him “daddy.” Stan told us how the kids’ eyes were freakishly large and almond shaped-like the aliens.

        He told us about the videos he got of the aliens themselves peering through his windows and how he wasn’t the only abductee. That there was a woman there too and he actually found her in real life.

        Once the movie was over, I couldn't shake away the fear. I was terrified. My family and I just sat there for a minute until my brother broke the silence.

        “I don’t believe it,”

        “And why not?” I countered, honestly annoyed. How could he not believe it? There was so much evidence. And other people saw it too. Not just Stan.

        “It has to be fake. Those pictures and videos looked so staged.”   

        I just looked at him. I believed everything that happened in that movie and I could tell, after looking at her, that my mom believed it too. I could never tell with my dad.

        We started talking about it and ended up talking until late at night. I still couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling of fear.

        When we finally decided to go to bed, I noticed with a start that I had left my curtains open. I rushed over and closed them as fast as I could. Slowly, I climbed up to my bed and crawled under the covers. I buried myself within them as if they would save me from whatever creatures were flying above me.