Fellowship

One thought raced through Bradley Burke's mind as he watched his son snap a selfie with the seven-foot-tall extraterrestrial dressed in a pale white onesie.

Humanity is doomed.

They called themselves the Participants. They landed on Earth months ago to observe, monitor and study. No one knew to what end. More importantly, no one had been disintegrated, abducted or probed.

Yet.

Bradley impatiently watched as his son Tyler continued taking pictures with the pale-skinned extraterrestrial being. The alien, for his part, stood as still as a statue amid the flurry of clicks from Tyler's smartphone. The Participant's face appeared chiseled with strange, shifting bony protrusions which fluctuated across the alien's face in a series of fluid patterns.

These Participants showed amazing patience with human beings. The aliens appeared in raves, shopping malls and even on dating shows without once blasting a single human being into oblivion. As a small town lawyer, Bradley envied their restraint. A day didn't go by without Bradley wishing he could disintegrate a client into a puff of smoke. It was a minor miracle that the Participants didn't do the same when hordes of phone-wielding Millennials descended upon them every day.

Bradley glanced at his watch and frowned. He was late for church. Pastor Tim had something he wanted to discuss with him, as a part-time elder and a full-time lawyer, that could entail any number of things.

"Tyler!" Bradley shifted his feet on the street corner. "C'mon, it's time to go."

Bradley watched as his son eagerly thanked the Participant - not that the Participant's reaction showed any response in return. "I've got a meeting after church," Bradley told Tyler as he moved towards the Ford Explorer. "It won't be long."

"That's what you said the last time," Tyler protested but Bradley ignored his teenage son. He briefly checked the rear view mirrors, only to pause as he saw the Participant's head fixed on him from the street corner. A chill ran down his spine, but Bradley did his best to put the thought out of his mind. After all, he thought as he pulled into the morning traffic, the Participants looked at lots of people.

*    *    *

Worship came and went as usual. Bradley glanced at the half-filled sanctuary as Pastor Tim's voice lulled him towards the brink of sleep. Still, the lack of attendance frustrated Bradley.

Bradley didn't know why Pastor Tim's sermons always put him to sleep. After all, boring meetings were an occupational hazard in his line of work. Whatever it was, whenever Pastor Tim started talking, Bradley began dozing.

Usually his wife, Teri, nudged him awake before he started drooling in the church pew.

Usually.

Instead, Teri held his hand like a vice grip with such pressure Bradley feared she'd cut off his circulation. Bradley jerked awake, expecting Tim to be looking right at him. Instead, Pastor Tim continued his sermon, unaware of his cat nap. He looked over to Teri to see her eyes wide with surprise.

"What?" he whispered.

Teri didn't respond. Instead, her eyes, framed by her dark brown hair, lingered sideways at something beyond his periphery. Bradley turned to see a tall, slender and dull white form sitting in the church pew directly across from him.

The Participant.

The same one Tyler had taken a selfie with just a few minutes before.

He had followed him.

To church.

*    *    *

Bradley avoided the Participant's gaze immediately after the service. The parishioners all flooded out of the sanctuary, eagerly hovering around the Participant like fireflies. The Participant, for his part, didn't reply to any of their questions. He simply moved purposely to the exit without a single word.

Bradley instead headed to the back classroom for his meeting with Pastor Tim. He found the pastor eagerly pacing in the well-lit classroom.

"That was quite a sermon," Bradley said, almost out of habit. What he heard of the sermon, as it related to the Holy Spirit, he quite liked. He apparently liked sleep more.

"I didn't think you heard the sermon," Pastor Tim said without looking up. Bradley started to panic.

"I don't think anyone heard the sermon," Pastor Tim continued. "They…