THE VISITOR
ALM No.94, October 2026
SHORT STORIES
The light in the corn field was not lightning. Lightning does not stay still.
Ravi almost went back inside. He had a new rule now. He moved to this house three weeks ago and started a new school, and the rule was simple: don’t get noticed, don’t talk much, just get through the day. Nobody said his name right yet. Nobody saved him a seat at lunch. Most nights he could not sleep, so he sat by his window and counted the same six houses across the street. But tonight the light in the field kept blinking, small and strange, and it made him forget his rule.
Ravi got down low between the tall corn plants, his phone light off, his heart beating fast. The light turned blue, then went dark, then came back again, low to the ground, like something breathing.
He walked through the last row of corn and found it: a shape the size of a dog, curled up tight, skin the color of wet stone, eyes closed. Small ridges ran down its back, like little rocks in a row. One thin leg was bent the wrong way.
He almost ran. His hand was already going for his phone to call someone, anyone, when the shape opened its eyes.
They were not scary eyes. They were scared eyes.
“Hey,” Ravi said quietly, not sure why he said it, not sure who he was talking to. “It’s okay.”
The creature did not move. Its small ridges lay flat, like it was trying to hide. It breathed fast, like it was trying to stay quiet.
Ravi sat down slowly, a few feet away, the way he used to sit near a stray cat back home. He did not reach out. He just sat, and waited, and let the wind move through the corn around them. He knew this feeling too.
After a long time, the creature’s shoulders went soft, just a little.
“I don’t know what you are,” Ravi said. “But you can’t stay in a corn field.”
He came back the next night with a flashlight, a granola bar, and an old blanket from the garage. The creature jumped a little at the light, so he turned it off. Up close, Ravi saw thin blue lines under its skin, like tiny rivers of light. It smelled the granola bar, then ate it in one bite, wrapper and all. Ravi laughed before he could stop himself.
“Okay, not that part,” he said, softly pulling the wrapper from its hands. Its fingers were long and thin, and they held on tight.
Every night that week, Ravi came back. He never told his parents. He was not fully sure why. Maybe because they would call someone, and someone would take the creature away. He just knew this thing was scared and alone, the same way Ravi had felt his first month at his new school, when nobody knew his name and he ate lunch alone in the library. Maybe that was why they understood each other without words.
By the fourth night, the creature let him touch its bent leg. It was healing now, and the blue lines under the skin glowed brighter there. By the sixth night, it walked a few steps behind him when he stood up to leave, like it did not want to be alone again.
On the seventh night, the sky above the corn field turned white.
Ravi ran through the corn and found the creature standing. Its leg was healed now, and the blue lines under its skin moved fast, like they were excited. It looked up at a shape coming down without any sound, all light and no engine noise. It turned to look at him one more time.
“You’re leaving,” Ravi said. It was not a question.
The creature made a soft sound in its throat, something between a hum and a sigh, and touched Ravi’s hand with one long finger, just once. It felt warm, like a small spark.
Then the light took it away, and the field went dark and quiet again, the corn moving in the wind like nothing had happened.
Ravi stood there a long time before he walked home. He counted his six houses again, but this time, his room did not feel so strange.
At school the next week, a new kid sat alone in the library at lunch, his food untouched, watching the door like he wanted to leave.
Ravi walked over and sat down across from him without asking.
“Hey,” he said. “It’s okay.”
My name is Martin Alonso Gamarra. I am a writer and content creator based in Orlando, FL, but my roots are from Uruguay. I have already built a voice on social media and reached many people through my videos, but writing and being able to narrate in a human and organic way through books is something I truly want to achieve and perfect. I published my first book with the help of AI, and that experience taught me a lot. Through my studies, I have had the opportunity to step into this world of writing, and it is something I want to keep growing in. Right now I am studying Media Communications at Full Sail University, and I create content in the world of mystery and the unknown.
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