Imposter Syndrome

Written By: Nic Chatree Sridej

Narrated By: Rebecca Usoro

The end is nigh, and an eager alien body snatcher finally gets assigned a human to snatch. But as she observes and reports, she begins to doubt her mission objective -- and more disturbingly, her life purpose -- which ultimately begs the question: who is snatching who?

Collection Four: “Among Us”: Stories about Aliens, Infomorphs & Other Invaders

Episode #: Five

Release Date: Wednesday, April 1st

Est. Runtime: » 21 Min

Standout Lines:

"I had a question the book couldn’t answer. It only discusses the brood parasites that succeed. But what about the brood that fails? The brood that realizes it’s an imposter but decides she’d rather be a cardinal or a blue jay or a songbird. What happens to them? Are they happier in the end?"

"She cranks on the oscillating fan as high as it will go, stands in front of it for a while, closes her eyes, imagines she’s somewhere else, somewhere cooler. On a cliffside, her body a sail for a powerful soothing wind. Then a car honks outside and the spell is broken. She opens her eyes, but a part of her remains closed."

From the Author:

The moment Robbie told me the theme for this collection, a funny thought occurred to me: What if one of the alien body snatchers in Invasion of the Body Snatchers had a mid-snatch crisis?

It humored and intrigued me, so I started noodling on the idea without much notion of where the story might take me. In the back of mind I prepared alternative short stories to pitch in case this one fizzled out. It probably would. And before I experimented with a dual POV, boy did that fizzle fizz. I was in quite the rut.

I got to thinking about the rut itself, and the many others I had been in before. Like clockwork, I started to hear a familiar little voice, chipping away at my confidence: “You live here now. This rut is your home. You'll never leave again. In fact, you've always been here. You are the rut.”

But as annoying as that bug in my ear was, I pushed ahead. I tried to use it. What I discovered along the way was more than I expected from my silly riff. It was a tale about dreamers stuck on different hamster wheels; a tale about self-doubt and loneliness and clawing out of a rut.
I haven't totally shaken that bug off. He still comes around (probably always will) and reassures me that yes, I am an imposter and it’s only a matter of time before they find out. Only now I ask myself: Has anyone checked in on the bug? Maybe deep down, he feels like an imposter too.

— Nic