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Author's Note: Ok so I wasn't planning on posting this one this early, partially because I only have one full chapter written. Lately though, I've been questioning the quality of my writing. Not just as a writer but in general. I really want to know if a story is worth writing before I really get into it or if I should just abandon it and go back to something else. That's what is happening to me a lot lately. I start something, run out of steam halfway through and CAN'T finish it :(. I'm really going to try with this one. The goal here is a short and fun summer tale, maybe 10 chapters or so. I have a pretty good idea what I want to do with it and there's room for more later down the road. This story came about from an idea I had on a walk. Chase is a normal, average teenager with an average life who ends up getting thrust into an extraordinary situation with strange, new and alien things. It might take a bit of any TG element to show up so bear with it for a bit :)

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1.

There was something about the water. It was so serene and peaceful, so relaxing. I felt at home here. Stroke after stroke, gliding from one lap to the next. Not a care in the world. In the water, it felt like all my problems just went away. No teachers, no angry father, no disappointments. It was just me and it. A world of my own. A place where I could be myself, think what I wanted to think, do what I wanted to do. No rules, no responsibilities, not a care in the world.

My place.

I broke the surface for a breath and just long enough to tap the wall before quickly turning and going back. This was sadly only my fifth lap. I was already starting to feel it too, the fatigue. I knew my limit but today I was going to fight through it. I'd been working up to it and trying my hardest to prove I was capable of much more. Sadly I knew my body wasn't. Not without trying though.

That's when I felt it. I was halfway to the other side when I knew I couldn't push it anymore. I inwardly cursed.

“Awesome, Chase, you’re doing great!”

I heard the shout as I stopped, treading water with a pant. Looking around, I spotted my friend Charlie off to the side, waving his stopwatch over his head. He looked so happy and excited. That was Charlie, he the enthusiastic one, always happy, always smiling. I think he was born with one. He was one of those optimistic, “You can do it” kind of guys. In all the years I’ve known him, I don’t think I’d ever seen him upset or angry. We were strangely opposites in that respect. Not that I was an angry person but I’d had my fair share of things to be upset at over the years. Regardless of how upset I got though, he was always there to cheer me up.

Leaving my current lane, I swam over to where my friend was now standing. Charlie reached out to take my hand but hung on the side instead, treading water still.

"I was close," I said, disappointed.

"It was a lot better though," said my friend with an encouraging pat on my shoulder.

"Not good enough though."

It was never going to be sadly.

Charlie bent down, still smiling. Even when I was feeling bad, he was still smiling. Nothing could deter this kid. Here I was upset for not doing my best and he was still smiling. Like I said, complete opposites.

The opposites didn’t end there though.

I was tall and thin, barely enough muscle to keep me moving from one end of the pool to the other. I tried though. It was a sad attempt on my part. I was getting better though. I just wasn't happy with how things were going. Not Charlie though. He was short and stout, like a dwarf from one of those fantasy movies but not quite as tiny. He had that typical Irish/Italian heritage which was pretty common for this area. Whereas I was pushing five ten, Charlie was barely five five. Though he liked to boast he was taller, just so he didn’t feel so short and inferior. That was Charlie too. It was funny really. People always wondered how the two of us could be friends. Walking side by side we looked like the number ten. Yes, there were jokes.

I’d known Charlie most of my life though. We’d been friends since well before I could even remember. Our mothers were friends. They used to go to birthing classes together. It was almost as if we were made to be friends. It was the one constant in the whole world to me. Ok, so maybe the second constant.

The first had to be swimming.

My mother used to say, “I was born to be in the water”. I almost was. Mom went into labor while in the pool. Thankfully Dad managed to get her to the hospital on time for the delivery. She joked about it with me all the time. Well used to joke about it with me. Thinking about her put one of those lumps in my throat. It also made me only want to swim faster. Swimming had been Mom’s thing. She was a World Champion once, nearly Olympic quality. The only thing that stopped her was family. She used to tell me she had no regrets but that didn’t stop me from feeling bad about it.

Mom still liked to swim though.

She got me into it too.

I was in the pool as soon as I could walk. From that moment onward, whenever I got the chance, I was in the water. I would never be a world class swimmer, I knew that. I didn't have the power. Nor the muscle for it. There was also my heart to take into account. I was born with a murmur. It was better now but I'd been pretty sick when I was a child. It kept me from doing a lot of things. The swimming helped though. It just sadly wasn't enough to make me able to compete with others.

That didn’t stop me from trying though.

Its why I was here.

Every day.

Summer was slowly winding down. The new swim season started next month in September. This year I was bound and determined to prove to everyone I was ready for it. I’d been practicing all summer long, a couple days a week. It would have been more but Dad worked most days and I had to stay home to watch my sister, Carrie. She was ten and though she thought she was old enough to stay home by herself for a few hours a day, Dad wouldn’t allow it. So my practice time was when I could manage it.

I was just happy to get any time at all swimming.

I felt at home in the water.

I was still treading water when the door to the pool made a loud banging sound. It echoed off the walls. Turning, I groaned. I must have lost track of time because we were usually out of here before the swim team arrived. They practiced all summer. I usually scheduled my swimming around their time, hoping to avoid them.

Well one of them in particular.

“Hey, it's Ariel, the Little Non-Mermaid!”

Kurt Donner and I have NEVER been friends.

He was a year older than me and never let me forget it. Kurt knew my problems, everyone did. I'd been trying out for the swim teams for as long as I could remember but I never made the cut. I was either too scrawny, too small or not fast enough. Kurt never let me forget it either. He used to like to push me around, harass the hell out of me growing up. He was bigger than me now too, taller with the typical V-shaped upper body that all swimmers craved. It sucked that he was an awesome swimmer too. He was going places. I heard college scouts were already looking at him. There was even talk about the Olympics in a few years. Kurt was a Phelps in training. He shouldn’t have had time for our schoolyard rivalry.

But he was an ass.

That’s how the name “Ariel” came about. It was a dig at my hair. Most of the boys on the team shaved their heads, it was less drag in the water. Me, I had this thing about my hair. Well, actually my mother did. She used to like it when I let it grow long because when it did it was silky smooth and she loved to brush it. I stopped letting it grow ridiculously long in middle school. That didn't stop the name calling though. My hair was reddish brown and it the water---with it streaming behind my back as I swam---I looked a lot like the Disney princess.

Kurt was the only one who still used it though.

To me, it wasn’t a name of endearment either.

Grunting, I pulled myself out of the water. The team was on the other side of the pool, near the entrance to the locker room. I ignored them for the moment. Charlie handed me the towel he was holding, a sour look on his face.

Charlie turned to glare at Kurt. “We could have done without him today.”

Like me, Charlie didn’t have the greatest history with Kurt either. Unlike me though, Kurt was downright nasty to my friend. Being bigger and stronger meant he could push people around. At least in Kurt’s eyes anyway. Charlie was one of his chief targets. Charlie was the kind of kid who took it too. He never fought back, never reported it. He just let Kurt and others like him continue to terrorize him. I tried to help whenever I could but unfortunately, I wasn’t always there to have my friend’s back. That was the problem with the world today, nine out of ten times bully’s got away with it. I know the school had a Zero tolerance policy toward them but only as long as they were caught or reported.

Kurt was slick.

Charlie was still glaring at Kurt. The older teen finally took notice.

“What are you staring at, Tubs!”

“Donner, zip it!” snapped a voice.

Kurt looked surprised, as Coach Grant came wandering out of the locker room. It was nice to know there were some adults out there who cared. Or who noticed. Charlie looked surprised too, probably not expecting the Coach to say anything. That’s not the kind of man Coach Grant was though. Name calling, harassment and especially goofing around. Those things didn’t belong here. He didn’t mind the typical locker room name calling but he knew most of that was in good fun. He also knew the kind of ass that Kurt was. Kurt tried to bust everyone’s balls because he thought he was the best. He was good but there were others who were just as good if not better. I wanted to say something more---maybe even thank the man for caring---but instead I sent Charlie a reassuring smile.

I finished toweling off, giving Kurt a glare of my own.

I didn’t expect a response.

Instead, Kurt and the team started filing toward the benches along the side, getting ready. I watched them with interest. That should have been me. Coach thought so too. Last year, before my first year in high school, I tried out at the end of eighth grade. The Coach told me I had a lot of heart, I just didn’t have enough of it. Well more specifically, I didn’t have the power to keep up with the other guys my age.
The other guys could do way more and keep it going.

I was a liability they couldn’t afford.

I watched the team doing warm-ups as I meandered my way toward the locker rooms. I was nearly toward the door when Coach Grant walked alongside me.

“Looking good out there.”

“Still not good enough though.”

He sighed. “You know I would let you on the team if I could.”

I nodded.

In most circumstances, the Coach would have tried working with me. There were ways to make me improve. I could pack on the pounds then work it into muscle with a steady exercise regiment. The school wouldn't allow it. Well, actually Principal McKenna. I was too much of an insurance liability. They were afraid something might happen to me and were scared they’d get sued. I could still use the school pool to swim laps if I wanted but I wasn’t allowed to compete in any sports or use the weight room.

It was bogus.

It also killed my dreams of a swimming career before it even started.

“You know my offer still stands,” he said, following me into the locker room.

“No offense sir but I don’t want to be the equipment manager.”

The damn Towel boy.

It was a disgrace.

It would also just give Kurt more ammunition.

“Keep working at it, we’ll figure something out.”

He left me there.

I wandered over to my locker, put in the combination and started to dress. I thought about hitting the showers but I didn’t really have the time. It was Saturday. I just had enough time to catch the bus and make it across town to pick Carrie up from Ballet class. If I shower now, I’d miss it. So instead, I pulled my damp hair back in a tiny ponytail and covered it with my hood. I was still a bit wet as I put on my shoes but I’d been a bit distracted out there. Not just with the Coach and Kurt.

It was Mom.

More specifically the accident…

A knocking on the door drew my attention.

“I’m decent” I shouted.

A moment later, the door opened and Charlie came wandering in.

“You disappeared. I looked away one second and the next you were gone.”

I smirked. “I was avoiding The Kurt.”

Its what we called him. Kurt had a tendency to refer to himself in the third person. “Kurt loves that” or “Kurt is horny.” That kind of stupid thing. So Charlie and I started calling him The Kurt as if his ego defined who he was. It was our own shared joke. The funny thing is, another fellow “bottom feeders” overheard us and started spreading the name, secretly half the school called him that now. Until a couple of months ago, when Kurt himself found out. Instead of being offended, the moron wasn’t in on the joke. He started calling himself that too and even spread the rumor he was the one that came up with the name.

It only made things funnier.

Thinking about it made me smile.

It was nice to smile again.

Charlie gave me a look. “You ok?”

“I’m good.”

“You don’t look good.”

“Just thinking”.

“Oh,” he said then softly. “About you...”

“No” I snapped, interrupting him then apologizing.

It wasn’t Charlie’s fault. It wasn’t mine either. It was just one of those things.

“Hey,” said Charlie, trying to change the subject. “You want to head to my house after this, Jay got an advanced copy of the new...”

“Have to get Carrie.”

“Again?”

I sighed. “Dad’s working.”

Its all my father seemed to do lately. He’d always been a bit of a workaholic but after the accident, it's all he did any more. We barely saw him. Everyone deals with tragedy in their own way I suppose and my father it would seem liked to avoid it. I avoided it too but in a different way. Carrie had no problem talking about Mom. Sure she cried just as much as I did but she wasn’t scared to say her name. I couldn’t. Even thinking about her made it hurt. Which of course made me think about her even more. When it happened over a year ago, the school counselor Mrs. Rice wanted me to go see a therapist. Dad wouldn’t allow it though. So I was stuck wallowing in my own little pity party.

It wasn’t fun.

“Maybe you can come over later then?”

I shrugged. “I’ll see what happens.”

“I love your family, Chase,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “And no offense but your dad can be a real dick sometimes.”

I didn’t argue with him.

Instead, I cursed but not because of what he said. He was right. I cursed because I saw the clock on the wall behind him. Carrie’s class was about to get out and I still needed to get to the bus.

Damn it!

Greenfield wasn’t a large city but it wasn’t small by any means either. It had on average about twenty thousand people. When you look at that number and the city proper, it was hard to see where they all were. The city itself was not that much to look at, the tallest building was only about eight stories and the only main attraction to draw in the tourists was the large canal that ran smack through the middle of it. We had all the typical things most cities would have: churches, schools, a police and fire station. Except there were no big things. No multi-screen cineplexes or chain stores. Greenfield was a simple place with simple people.

It was also a city of people late to picking up their sisters.

I cursed as I just barely made the bus.

The driver gave me a nasty look as if I was cursing at her.

I rushed to the back of the bus to find a seat, ignoring the driver’s glare. I dropped down next to an older woman, apologizing for bumping her handbag before whipping out my phone. I checked my messages and wasn’t the least bit surprised to find one from my sister. She was wondering where I was. I sighed as I typed a furious reply:

OMW.

She replied a few seconds later with an Annoyed emoji.

I groaned.

Mom would have too.

She always used to hate when Carrie relied on those little things instead of typing. She wasn’t too thrilled with my sister having a phone at all but she knew she couldn’t deny her one. Everyone had their own phone these days. Carrie’s was supposed to be for emergencies only but being a young girl she was probably never off the thing.

USE YOUR WORDS, I typed.

It was a phrase our mother was fond of.

FINE. YOU OWE ME ICE CREAM.

Of course, I did.

That was Carrie. She always made you pay for something you did wrong. She learned that from Dad. When my parents got married twenty years ago, Dad was a young patrolman straight out of the Academy. Mom was just finishing up her teaching degree. The way my mother used to tell it, Dad didn’t even want to date her. They met at a party and he seemed disinterested, almost career driven. Mom softened him up though, wore him down. They were married a year later. A year after that, they had my older sister Becca. She was a freshman in college now. I came two years after that. I’m not saying Carrie was an accident but she wasn’t planned either. My mother loved us all each and in her own way. Dad on the other hand…

My father wasn’t a cold man by nature.

It's just that if Mom was the loving parent then he had to be the hard one. The Disciplinarian. Dad’s form of discipline was where Carrie got her edge from. “You do something wrong, you make up for it.” Carrie was still pretty young to truly understand what Dad tried to instill in us but she got the principle of it. Dad just used a different kind of wording: “You made a mistake, now fix it.” He wouldn’t have been happy with Carrie extorting me for ice cream but he would have been angrier if he knew I was late picking her up. So the ice cream---in his opinion---would have been payment for my screw up.

He carried that with him to work too.

It helped him become the youngest Chief of Police in the state. Dad was ambitious like that too. It made him put the job first. A part of me hated him for it. Especially after losing Mom. Instead of dealing with the problem, he ignored it with more work. His stubbornness almost sidelined Becca’s college dreams. She was ready to drop out and help raise Carrie but thankfully our Aunt Grace---Dad’s younger sister---stepped in. Ten years younger and single, Grace had the time to help. Unfortunately, that help only came on the weekends. Even with her around though, I still picked up a lot of slack. Like with Carrie. Aunt Grace was awesome but when it came to my sister, the woman just didn’t know what to do.

Like I said, she was a lot like Dad.

ICE CREAM, NO PROBLEM.

A smiley face followed.

I sighed, defeated.

I shut off my phone, stuffing it into my gym bag. It was a loaner from Becca’s track days. Whereas I was the sickly, frail one, my sister was the star athlete. She could have gone to school on a athletics scholarship but she chose a scholastic one instead. She wanted to be a lawyer. Another influence of my father’s. He couldn’t be prouder of her. I didn’t envy my sister but sometimes I wished she didn’t try so hard. It made the rest of us look bad. By the rest of us, I meant me of course. I won’t lie. I wasn’t the son my father was hoping for. My heart condition kept me off most sports teams, it also squashed my father’s dreams of me following him into the police force some day.

He would never openly admit to being disappointed in me but I could see it in his face. Every time he looked at me, he always frowned.

It was painful.

I distracted myself from thinking about him by looking out the window. Sadly there wasn’t much to see. There wasn’t anything impressive to look at in Greenfield. The streets were lined with little shops and brick buildings, broken up by the occasional city tree plot, flower bed, and bench. There was a bustle of people but not nearly as many as one might see in the Fall. Greenfield was not a summer town. Most of the people migrated to the far south for the beaches or to one of the many amusement parks in neighboring cities. The rest either stayed indoors where the AC was constantly blowing.

That made me frown a bit more.

Lazy people bothered me.

I think it had something to do with being cooped up in the house a good portion of my young life. Well until I was ready to go to school anyway. With my heart murmur and a very nervous mother, I spent a lot of time in my room in bed or playing video games. Things changed when the murmur cleared up on its own but it still didn’t stop my mother from being overprotective. Swimming was the one and only constant in my life. It helped me stay active. That’s why it bothered me so much to hear a lot of my friends talking about playing this game or that when they could be outside, walking or running.

Doing something active. Something besides shooting imaginary zombies or bragging about their multiplayer kill death ratio score. Things I didn’t really and never would truly understand. Losing oneself in a game or on your damn phone all the time, it was counterproductive.

I looked away from the window for a moment and scoffed at what I saw. There was a girl my age across the aisle playing a game on her phone. She was the perfect example.

My scoff must have been louder than I thought though because she turned and locked eyes with me. I tried turning away but her eyes were mesmerizing. I think they were green but they looked almost gold too. It had to be a trick of the light or contacts or something. It was strange though because, with her hood up, her eyes were the only thing I really noticed.

The bus came to a stop an instant later but she was standing ever before it did. Weird. She stuffed her phone into a carrier bag and started down the aisle before anyone else. I watched her go, transfixed for a moment more. Others started to file off behind her.

The bus driver shouted at me, “Kid, this your stop!”

I blinked and jumped to my feet a second later.

I thanked her before running out the door.

The bus stop was a couple block from Madam Gertrude’s Studio of Fine Elegance. No, I’m not being an ass, that’s actually what the place is called. Rushing down the sidewalk, I barely noticed that mystery girl was standing in front of me. I nearly bowled over the top of her because she was stopped dead in the middle of my running path. We fell together in a tumble, me on top of her.

Bumping into her had knocked off her hood and I finally got a better look at her. She couldn’t have been much older than me. She had short dark hair, shaved on the sides and streaked red. She had a single ring in her nose, and several in each earlobe. It helped sell the punk look she was trying to embrace. Like her dark makeup, which only helped to enhance those strange “gold” eyes of hers more.

"Are you ok?' I grunted, pushing myself off of her.

"Watch where you're going!"

"Me?" I said, annoyed. "You're the one who was standing in the middle of the sidewalk, staring into space!"

This time she grunted. She snapped to her feet quickly. Scary fast in fact. As soon as she did, she turned to glare at me. I quickly pulled myself up, embarrassed. As soon as I did, I was surprised that she was actually taller than me. It was rare to find a girl taller than me. She was at least two inches taller, which meant...wow.

There weren’t too many six foot girls around here.

Maybe that’s why I was so drawn to her before.

It wasn’t just her height though.

She was ripped. Her hoodie was sleeveless and I could see her arms. They were well muscled. It kind of surprised me more. This girl was clearly some kind of serious athlete. Judging by her height and those arms, I’d say Volleyball player easily. It was strange though because I’d never seen her before. Greenfield wasn’t exactly a bustling tourist town so for her to be from another city, it was pretty rare. I suppose she could be here to see the canal but why get off a bus here? I looked around. Wasn't the canal in the other direction too?

“You are tall enough,” she said, after sizing me up. “Perhaps you could take me in a fight.”

Fight, what?

“I don’t want to fight you!”

She smirked. “Smart boy, you’d lose.”

What the hell?

I was about to say something else but my phone buzzed.

I cursed.

Pulling it out of my bag, I checked my message:

WHERE R U?

Crap.

I looked at the time. Carrie’s class got out ten minutes ago.

Damn.

Dad was going to be pissed already.

I looked at Giant girl, shaking my head. “Have fun with whatever?” I said, stepping around her.

If she said anything, I was already too far away to hear.

It was all weird. I finally meet a girl that was semi-interesting and the first thing she wanted to do was kick my ass. Must be my lucky day. I rushed away, typing a quick apology as I did. She replied with a couple more disapproving emojis and more demands. I sighed. I would probably end up catering to them all or face the wrath of both her and Dad. Dad I could deal with, Carrie scared the hell out of me.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

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Author's Note: Ch.2, finally. So I was planning on posting this a couple of days ago but got sidetracked with a bit of MMO stuff. I'm on track with this story currently so that's a good thing, I just finished Ch.3 this morning. This chapter is the beginning of the weird things. There will be a certain amount of weirdness in this story, not like Whisper Pines though. A different kind. You'll start to see it at the end of this chapter. The picture might be a hint ;). Also I'd like to thank everyone who commented on my last chapter and said all those nice things, its helped boost my writing confidence a great deal. I was pretty depressed about my writing as of late, so thanks again.

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2.

Carrie didn’t look happy, which scared me even more.

I saw her as soon as I rounded the corner. There were six girls milling about the front of the dance studio, all of them in pink leotards and tights. Carrie was looking around, annoyed. I sighed. She stood out from all the rest and not because of her auburn hair. Though only ten, she was already the tallest girl in her class. It was Dad’s genes. The man was six foot three and quite the presence. We took after him in our own way. Becca and I were the same height which wouldn’t have been a problem for me but it bothered Dad. He thought I was too short. He had two older brothers, both of them over six feet. Even Aunt Grace was tall. My male cousins were pushing six feet and above too. I was somehow the disgraced male member of the Matthews clan. My height was just one more of the many disapproving things my father hated about me.

I slowed down my pace as I approached.

“Hey Bun Head,” I said, trying to lighten her sour mood.

It didn’t help.

“Dad’s mad,” she said, waving her phone.

Of course, he is.

I was about to tell her what I thought of it but then realized I was about to tell it to a ten-year-old. I gave her a weak smile and said nothing.

“So what’s my punishment?”

She smiled. “Marsh’s.”

She was letting me off the hook this time.

Last week when I forgot her, she made me give her a piggyback ride all the way to the bus stop home. We lived in a newer development just outside the city. It was one of the furthest things from civilization, save maybe the cow and apple farms beyond it. Being the Chief of Police, Dad had one of the bigger houses in the neighborhood, not that it mattered much. Most of the houses there were pretty large. The elite of the elite was supposed to live there: doctors, lawyers, dickheads. Kurt lived there. Most of his cronies did too. Growing up there hadn’t been a walk in the park. Especially because Charlie lived in an apartment complex on the opposite side of town and not one of the fancier ones.

Dad frowned on that friendship too.

Nothing I did was ever good enough for my father.

“So your torture is to make me go to work on my day off?” I asked.

She didn’t say anything.

Marsh’s was a General store that sold pretty much everything. I worked there part-time during school and most of the time over the summer. It wasn’t the best job but it put money in my pockets. My boss---Mr. Marsh---wasn’t a bad guy so that was a plus. The store was a local staple, the Marsh’s having owned it for years. The way old man Marsh tells it, his great-grandfather built it at the turn of last century. He took over from his father in the 1950s. The store had that old Mom and Pop vibe to it. It was a favorite for a lot of the kids Carrie’s age though. It was one of the few places around that still had a Soda shop and they had a section that sold candy for a dime.

Kids like Carrie ate that stuff up.

It helped that it was only around the corner from the dance studio.

Taking Carrie by the hand---much to her distaste---I walked her to the shop.

It was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday afternoon. The place was usually bustling with kids, running about, screaming. Doing the things that kids do. I pushed open the door, the bell chimed to announce us. As soon as we were inside, Carrie pulled away and took off. No doubt to load up on a bunch of junk I was going to pay for later. I watched her little bun head disappear down one of the many aisles before I meandered about. I was trying to be inconspicuous. Most of the kids knew me, knew I worked here. It didn’t matter that it was my day off, if they wanted something, they’d badger me for it. Thankfully my hood hid most of my face. One of the regulars rushed right by me without even noticing.

“Chase!”

I grunted.

So much for being all stealthy.

I turned, smiling at the owner of the voice.

“Hey, Kel!”

Kelly was Mr. Marsh’s granddaughter. Unlike me, the girl never seemed to take a day off. She was always here, always doing something. Today it was sweeping the floors apparently. Like Charlie, she was usually all smiles. Today was no different. When Kelly was around, her bubbly personality was infectious. I found myself smiling too. I liked Kelly a lot. Not in any sexual way either. I’m not going to lie though, she was cute. She had flaxen blonde hair, a smattering of freckles and baby blue eyes. She was sadly taken. Her boyfriend Rodney was on the basketball team. Most things told me I should hate him but I didn’t. Rod was a great guy. He was one of those guys with the golden heart: he helped little old ladies across the street, he offered you his umbrella in the rain, he stuck up for you if he saw you in trouble.

Everything that Kurt wasn’t.

“Chase, isn’t this your day off?”

She had stopped sweeping and was giving me a false frown.

“Carrie,” I said as if it explained everything.

She giggled. “I think she’s in here more than you, maybe I should ask Pops to hire her too.”

We shared a laugh.

“Pops” is what everyone called Mr. Marsh.

Its what he told us to call him.

“Does she sweep better than certain girls I know?” asked Pops as he passed by carrying a box.

Without even thinking, I reached forward and took the box from him.

Pops was pushing seventy and was starting to show it. Not that he’d ever admit it though. At one time, he’d been a pretty active guy. He had awards and trophies to prove it. His office was decorated with them. Most of his accolades had been in boxing though. Not that you could tell by looking at him though. Age had taken its toll. I’d seen pictures of the younger man and it was hard to make a comparison. Gone was the buff, muscled man with the full head of hair and the toothy smile. In his place was a stooped elderly gentleman with thinning hair and a toothless grin.

“You’re off today,” he said, trying to take the box back from me.

I wouldn’t allow it.

He stopped trying with a grunt.

I said goodbye to his granddaughter then followed him to the back room where the box was clearly going.

“So how’s the swimming going?”

I sighed. “Not as well as I would like.”

It was true. I was hoping this summer training would make a difference, it wasn’t. It wasn’t a total disaster but I was pretty much where I was at the beginning of it. No amount of anything was making any headway. It was almost as if my body was stuck at default. No matter how much I trained or ate, I just couldn’t seem to change it. The start of my junior year was only a couple of weeks away too. Swim team tryouts were next week. It was beginning to look like I was finished before I even got started.

“Sounds to me like you’re giving up?”

I shrugged. “Don’t have much of a choice.”

Pops smacked me in the back of the head. It wasn’t meant to be malicious or anything. It was his way to “knock some sense into me” as he liked to call it.

It had the effect he desired.

“There’s always a choice,” he said “and there’s no quitters. Not here. I didn’t win all those trophies by quitting...”

I nodded as he talked. I heard this speech before so I tuned most of it out.

He was halfway through it when he stopped and glared at me. “You’re not listening are you?”

“Of course I am.”

He huffed.”You, young people, have no respect...”

He went off on that.

This tirade was a little harsher. He meant well though. He was just one of those older people who thought they couldn’t understand “our generation”. It was a wicked cycle. I bet his grandparents had the same tirade when he was my age. Pops wasn’t old school though. He was a pretty active man. Just last year, he and his son went on a hiking trip across Europe. Of course, that was before he had his knee surgery. Now the man was a shell of his former self. That didn’t stop him though. Like trying to do his own inventory and stocking. I couldn’t even count how many times I had to intervene on that bit. I wasn’t exactly Hercules but at least I was strong enough to carry the larger boxes.

“You’re not paying attention again...”

I sighed. “I’m sorry, Pops, I’m distracted today.”

“Girl trouble?”

I scoffed.

I wish.

I had a girlfriend once: Lacy Peters. Or as Charlie liked to call her, “Looney Lacy”. Not that she was crazy or anything. She was just very enthusiastic. She was a bit of a glitter nut and liked to bedazzle everything. We dated for a bit in seventh grade. The relationship ended after she gave me a bedazzled t-shirt with a kitten on it. When she tried to get me to wear it to school, I called it quits. A shirt like that was blood in the water. It all worked out in the end though. Lacy was with George Dietz now---he collected bugs---it was a strange match made in heaven.

Lacy was sadly my first and last girlfriend.

Not that I didn’t try after her. Seventh grade was the beginning and the end for me sadly. The summer before eighth grade, ninety percent of my peers hit puberty in a big way. Most of the guys started to grow in height, hair and sadly muscle. Being under six foot I didn’t have the desired height, I barely grew any hair on my face and my muscles. That’s where the real problem started. Most girls my age weren’t looking for the tall, thin and scrawny type. Add to the fact that my auburn mop made me look like a darker haired Ron Weasley and well, I wasn’t exactly a chick magnet.

"There hasn’t been one of those for me in a while” I finally confessed to the older man.

Pops nodded, gently gripping my shoulder. “Nothing wrong with that my boy, I didn’t meet my Mary until I was in college”. He looked over at the picture of his wife on the wall. “God rest her soul.”

I never knew Mrs. Marsh.

She passed away even before Kelly was born.

Pops talked about her a lot though.

She seemed like a nice woman.

I smiled. “Maybe someday.”

We left it at that. Pops shooed me out of the storeroom. I left reluctantly. I knew what was going to happen. He’d continue to bring in boxes by himself. He was stubborn like that. It was one of the reasons why I dreaded taking days off. The man was constantly bringing in new supplies. When I wasn’t here, there was no one else to help him. Kelly and I were the only employees. Pops never liked the help. The only reason he even agreed to hire me was that Kelly’s Dad talked him into it. He was a cop too. Unlike my Dad though, he was just a patrolman. That didn’t make him any less of a police officer though. In fact, I respected him for it more than I did my father. Kelly’s Dad was actually out on the streets, making a difference.

My Dad never left his office anymore.

“Pops, maybe I should...”

He cut me off. “It is your day off, enjoy it!”

Any further protest on my part was interrupted by the arrival of my sister. She was carrying a large brown bag in one hand and an ice cream cone in the other.

“I need money!”

I rolled my eyes. Taking out my wallet, I handed her a twenty.

“I want change!” I shouted as she ran off to pay for her stuff.

I knew she heard me. Whether or not she actually listened was another story.

Carrie came wandering back a few minutes later with a big smile on her face.

“My change?”

She gave me a look with a wicked smile.

Damn.

The bus stop home was only a block or so from Marsh’s.

It took some convincing to drag Carrie away though. When she got going, she really got going. Even after she made me buy all that junk for her too. I literally had to pick her up and carry her out the door. It was quite the scene. Carrie even fought me a bit. Her struggle was for show though. My sister liked to play games. One of them was to annoy the hell out of me. Every weekend we played the “I don’t want to leave” game. She thought it was funny. Me, not so much. Especially a couple of weeks ago when a police officer didn’t know she was pretending to be an annoying little brat. When my sister explained to him he laughed but that didn’t stop him from telling our father.

Dad didn’t think it was funny.

And yet, I got in trouble for it.

Go figure.

Carrying her---while she threw a fake tantrum---drew the eyes of several passersby. I ignored them. Then pretended to carry her over to the trashcans. This was my part of the game, pretending to "throw her out". I opened the lid on one, preparing to throw her in.

That was usually the end of her charade.

“Ok, ok!”

I set her down.

She giggled.

“You were going to do it this time, weren’t you?”

I shrugged.

She faked a pout. “You’re the worst”.

“Says the girl who throws a fake fit whenever she doesn’t get her own way.”

She stuck out her tongue.

We both laughed.

To look at us, one might not think we got along but that’s how we liked it. Our animosity toward each other was pretend like her games. We were actually pretty close. A lot closer than I’d ever been to Becky. It was strange. Becky and I were closer in age to one another but we never really got along. She was the outgoing jock and I was her sickly, bedridden little brother. Becky was Miss Popular too, she had a load of friends, went to a bunch of parties, even dabbled with cheerleading for a bit. Me, well I was the complete opposite. Charlie was the only true friend I had. It was worse for Carrie and Becky. Becky was nearly ten when Carrie was born. The decade of age difference was a pretty big deal. It's not that Becky didn’t have time for her, it's just that Becky was a teenager by the time Carrie really started wanting that sisterly love.

Now it was too late.

Becky was off to college.

She tried of course. I think it was hard. Becky was willing to give up everything to help us but she wasn’t a mother. Carrie needed that. Aunt Grace was great when she was here but Carrie needed something more permanent. I tried my best but I just didn’t have what my little sister was looking for. It sucked. It was a shame too because if I could, I’d be there. I mean the way she wanted and needed. Of course, I’d never admit that to anyone. It's not every day that a teenage boy would willingly admit he’d “mother” his little sister if he could.

Speaking of which:

“I’m hungry.”

I looked down at her. “You’re kidding right?” She shrugged. “Carrie, you just ate an ice cream cone and truck ton of candy?”

She shrugged again.

I looked at my watch. Technically all I had to do today was pick her up from dance class. Dad never said anything about getting her home afterward. Looking around, I tried to see what was closest. I knew there was a little diner not too far away but I also knew my sister. She was going to want fast food. I pulled out my cell, looking for the nearest one. I was only partially familiar with this part of town. I usually took a bus here, went to work and took one home. Except when I had to pick up the squirt of course. Even then, we only went to Marsh’s afterward. I only knew about the diner because I’d been there a couple of times.

I found one.

“There’s a Mickie Dee’s a couple of blocks away?”

Her smile was enough.

We walked.

This time she didn’t try to protest about me holding her hand.

We found McDonald's on the left, across the street. We were almost to the crosswalk when Carrie stopped and pointed:

“Look!”

I looked. At first, I thought she was pointing at the familiar restaurant until I noticed where her finger was pointing too. There was a little street kiosk set up. A pleasant looking older woman was harking wares out of a wooden cart. Squinting I saw the glint of several colorful gems. I groaned. My sister was at that age where little girls craved all things shiny. Mom had a lot of jewelry but Carrie was sadly not allowed to touch it. Aunt Grace bought her a kid jewelry set last year for Christmas. It was all cheap plastic costume jewelry but she’d been ecstatic about it. Looking at the old woman with her necklaces, I inwardly groaned.

I knew where this was going.

Carrie started tugging on my hand.

As soon as the light turned, she pulled me across the road.

We went right past our destination and of course right to the cart. I tried to be polite and return the old woman’s smile.

“Well don’t you look adorable!” she gushed at my little sister.

I’d almost forgotten Carrie was still in her bun head outfit.

“Thank you,” said, my little sister. “I’m a ballerina.”

She did a little pirouette.

Carrie was a big show off.

The woman smiled. “That you are and a pretty one at that.”

My sister blushed.

I did my best not to be noticed. The woman gave me another smile. It was warm and welcoming. The kind of grandmother might give. This woman definitely had that grandmotherly like quality to her. She couldn’t have been more than sixty. Her dark hair was pulled into a tight bun, most of it going gray. She was dressed sharp though, not dowdy as one might expect. She wasn’t like the typical street vendors that’s for sure. The city was known for them. There were a lot of little shops like this but I’d never seen one so far from Main Street. Looking from her to her necklaces, they didn’t look cheap either.

They looked well crafted.

And expensive.

Carrie’s eyes were as big as saucers.

I groaned.

I knew what was coming next.

“Chase, I want one!”

“I just bought you ice cream and a bunch of candy.”

She pouted, not fake this time.

“These are so much cooler though”.

I rolled my eyes. The woman looked from her to me. She gave me another warm look. “You know, I am currently running a deal. Two for one. I’ve got quite the selection.”

“I’m not sure I can...”

“Half off too.”

That was generous of her. I knew how this was going to go. Carrie was already pleading with me with those eyes. The death stare. I knew there was no way I was going to escape it. She knew it too. She was a Master at that stare. Even our stone cold, stoic father fell for it.

I sighed.

Defeated.

“Ok fine,” I said finally.

"I want this one," she said, reaching for one but stopping. "No this one!"

She was holding one with a purple stone but if I knew my sister she'd probably change her mind in a couple of seconds. Just as I had that thought, the purple one went back on the cart. I rolled my eyes. I was trying to feign interest when Carrie surprised me:

“You need one too!"

"Why?"

'Because I can't look cool alone!"

"Carrie, boys don't wear stuff like this".

"Please?"

She was using the eyes and the pout again.

Great.

The woman continued to smile at me. “You know I do have a couple of nice, more masculine ones.”

She winked.

I did my best to smile back. “Its fine really.”

I looked at the large assortment she had. I didn’t really know much about this stuff. I knew though that if I didn’t pick something, Carrie would whine. When she set her mind to something, that was the end of it. If she wanted me to have one, then I was going to have to buy one. Though I think most of her excitement was over the fact that I was even letting her have one in the first place. So I did my best to try and find one that I could hide away in a drawer somewhere that no one would ever see.

I tried to find one of the "masculine" ones she mentioned. Guys wore necklaces, right? Surely she had something here that could appease me. I started looking over the ones that weren't all glittery and gaudy. I thought I found one that matched my style, it was silver, with a cool skull pendant. I started to reach for it but stopped. My eyes were suddenly drawn to something else.

It was on a thin chain and shaped a bit like a water drop.

Aquamarine.

I knew it well.

It was my birthstone.

More than that, it was my mother’s stone too.

Mom and I were both born in March. When I was growing up though, she used to go out of her way to always buy me something blue. Most of them were a darker blue though. Boys didn’t like light blue, it was too girly. I’d always had a soft spot for it though. It reminded me of her. Mom used to have an aquamarine necklace too. The gem on hers though was pretty tiny compared to the one sitting in front of me.

I absently reached for it.

The woman followed my eyes. When her eyes fell on the necklace, they widened a bit.

“How did that get...” she said softly, surprised.

I paused, looking at her face.

“Something wrong?” I asked, confused.

She shook her head. “No, it's just...well...I didn’t think I packed that one today.”

She was stumbling over her words a bit.

“Is there something wrong with it?”

I pulled my hand away, afraid.

I hope it wasn’t cursed or something.

She chuckled. “No, nothing like that. It's just...well...I’ve had that one for years. I’ve tried selling it but no one seems to be drawn to it. I finally stopped trying. I thought I left it back at the shop but this old gal ain’t what she used to be. Must have packed it without looking.”

“It's my birthstone,” I said, absently staring at it.

It was weird.

I’d never really been interested in necklaces. There was something about that one though.

It was almost as if it spoke to me.

I reached out for it, my fingertips hovering over it.

Carrie beat to it.

“Oh, it's really pretty!” she said, snatching it up. “Like Mom’s”

Huh.

Carrie held the aquamarine necklace in one hand and her current selection, a pink one. She stared from one to the other before putting the pink necklace down. A second later she picked up another necklace, one with an identical stone to the one I was “supposed” to have.

The old woman smiled. “Are you sure you’re all set?”

Carrie nodded. “These two are perfect, like sisters!”

I groaned.

That’s the last thing I needed.

The two necklaces ended up costing me sixty bucks. It wasn’t that bad a deal. I paid the woman. She put them in a little velvet bag and handed them to my sister. Carrie beamed at her like an idiot. The woman smiled and waved. We started to walk away when she gently touched my arm.

“Young man,” she said, her voice soft and low. “You look after that now, it's very special.”

I humored her with a smile and a nod.

Weirdo.

I started to follow Carrie back toward the McDonalds.

We were just going through the door when I felt something.

A tingle in my hand.

It was only there for a second though.

What was that?

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

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Author's Note: As promised, here's Ch.3 one week later. I'm sorry about that. Some personal, very avoidable issues came up last week preventing me from writing. As I said in my blog last week, I like to have at least a chapter or two buffer before I post the next one. I finished Ch.4 a few days ago and hope to have Ch.5 finished in the next day or two. If I'm lucky, I might even get to Ch.6 this week. On a side note, I've decided to post pictures for the chapter based on the chapter. Its something I did with Whisper Pines and I think it turned out well. Thanks again for reading and your patience.

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3.

The Barbarian smashed his giant hammer into my face, slamming me to the ground. A second later, GAME OVER flashed across the screen. Charlie cheered. He was the Barbarian after all. Me, I’d been the little Elf girl he just smeared across the ground. I groaned. There was a reason I hated these kinds of games. To be honest, I wasn’t really fond of most games. Charlie always seemed to drag me into them though. Games were his thing. You could almost say he lived and breathed them. Like I said, we were complete opposites. I tried though. It was hard to enjoy something that you hated though. It was the same when I tried to get him to do some swimming with me.

I sighed, setting my controller down.

On the screen, his Barbarian was doing some crazy victory dance.

“You ok?” he asked, giving me a strange look.

I shrugged. “Same.”

He set down his controller. “We can stop if you want or play something else...”

I tuned him out.

Not that I was being rude, its just Charlie was talking games. Whenever he talked games, I felt like a complete idiot. The same could be said when I talked swimming I suppose. The difference between the two things though was that Charlie was supportive of my attempt at the sport. I was not supportive of the gaming though. If that made me a bad friend then so be it. There was no way I was going to enthusiastically cheer my friend on in his quest to be a perpetual couch potato.

“We can stop if you want?”

I shrugged again. “I think I might head home actually.”

Charlie didn’t look happy but he didn’t say anything either.

We were finding it harder and harder to hang out these days. I’d like to say it was because of my mother’s death but I would just be using that as an excuse. Our friendship had been strained for a while now. Its what happens when two people don’t really have anything in common. When we were younger, it was easier. We do the things that most kids that age would do. In small doses anyway. I didn’t mind games back then because I was young and didn’t have a lot I could do. When I wasn’t home in bed, I barely had the energy to do much else. As I got older and my heart condition was less severe, I was able to do more. Sadly, Charlie never took the initiative like me. He did try once but it never really stuck.

Now, I could barely get him to walk to the bus stop.

“You want me to ask Jay if he’ll drive you home?”

Jay was Charlie’s older brother. He like Charlie was a perpetual gamer but unlike Charlie, Jay had a social life. He had a job and car too.

“No, I’m good.”

Coming home with Jay would have just caused problems. It was Sunday, Dad would be home today. Whereas Dad was semi-miffed about my friendship with Charlie, he would have gone ballistic to see me with Jay. Charlie’s brother was a known pothead. He’d been in and out of county lockup for that and other small infractions. Usually petty crap but enough for my father. He made it pretty clear that I wasn’t allowed to hang out with Jay if he was around. Not that I ever would. Jay was usually high and usually too stoned out of his mind to even cobble two sentences together.

Charlie followed me out of his room and through the empty apartment. Like my Dad, Charlie’s Mom worked most of the time. Unlike my Dad, she had to take two jobs. One as a waitress on the weekends and one as a cleaner at one of the office buildings. Charlie’s Dad bailed a long time ago. He was a drunk, when he wasn’t slugging on a bottle, he was slugging at his family. That all stopped when Jay kicked his ass. Hey, the guy might be a stoner but when he was lucid, he apparently threw a mean right hook. Charlie’s old man bailed after that. Just as well. As much as I didn’t care for Jay, I really HATED their Dad.

Outside, my friend rubbed his arms.

“I’m sorry,” he said, apologizing for some slight he thought he did me.

“For what?”

He sighed. “Not being cooler.”

‘What are you talking about?”

Charlie looked at his feet, toeing the ground. “I’m grateful that you still hang with me even though you don’t want too. I get it. We used to be great friends but now...”

I cut him off there. “Charlie, I want to hang with you!”

He looked up at me, surprised. “But earlier...the game...”

I sighed.

So he noticed.

I was hoping I could hide the fact that I wasn’t really into it. It wasn’t that I was trying to be bored with the game, its just that well...I’m not really sure, to be honest. I’d been pretty distracted lately. The last few days had been the worst too. Before I thought it was just because I was so focused on making the team but now, it was as if nothing I did seemed to satisfy me anymore. There was this void in my life and I couldn’t fill it. I’d been feeling this way for a while now too. I thought maybe it was Mom’s death, that my grief was causing this overwhelming sense of loss. I’d been doing some research about it online, I knew depression did some nasty things to people.

It wasn’t that though.

Sure Mom being gone left a huge hole in my life but it was more than that.

It was almost as if there was something I should be doing but I couldn’t.

It wasn’t swimming either.

“It's not you, Charlie” I finally confessed. “I’ve just been feeling pretty empty lately. Like my life is going nowhere and there’s something out there for me but I just can’t get it...”

He put a hand on my shoulder. “Maybe you should talk to someone after all.”

I scoffed. “Like my father would ever allow that!”

Charlie didn’t say anything.

He didn’t have too.

It took a few seconds to say anything actually.

“Just...I’m not… dissing you, ok” I finally said. “We’re still friends, I’m just kinda dealing with some of my own crap on top of everything else.”
Charlie opened his mouth but wherever he was about to say was drowned out by sirens.

A moment later, two police cars blazed by us. They were followed quickly by a fire truck. I snapped my head in the direction they were going. There was a plume of smoke rising into the air. Shit. It wasn’t every day you saw a fire that big. Especially not in the city proper. Sometimes you heard about house fires and things. It happens. Something like that in the city though. The first cars were followed quickly by several more. Charlie and I watched in stun silence.

“What’s going on?” he finally asked.

I shook my head. “I better get home though, I bet Dad will be called in on this.”

I whipped out my cell and called for a cab.

Or tried too.

The line was busy.

Cursing, my phone rang a second later.

I didn’t even have to look to know who was on the other end:

“I know Dad,” I said, annoyed.

“I don’t have time for the tone,” said my equally annoyed father. “I need you home here to look after your sister.”

“I’m trying but the cab company is busy.”

I could almost see him rubbing his temples.

Its what he did when he was frustrated.

“Where are you?” he asked, a moment later.

“Charlie’s.”

I heard him groan. “I’ll send a patrolman to pick you up.”

Wow.

He didn’t usually do something like that unless something really bad happened.

Like when Mom died…

“Is it bad?” I asked, concerned and a bit scared.

I looked toward the smoke.

“Its...just...I need to get to the office.”

He left it at that.

Damn.

Dad never really talked about his work. He had a policy: Work was Work and Home was Home. That still didn’t stop him from making the passing comment here or there though. Usually about how tiring, hectic or even boring his day had been. Life had been a lot more exciting for him back when he was in a car and not behind the desk. At least that’s what he used to say. At nearly fifty, Dad wasn’t getting any younger. He was also behind a desk as long as I could remember. The Chief of Police thing was new. He’d only been promoted last year, a few months before Mom...well…

The thing was, I couldn’t remember the last time Dad insisted on going to the office on his day off.

Whatever this was, it must have been serious.

I turned and looked toward the smoke.

I could hear several sirens now.

“What did he say?” asked Charlie, after I ended the call.

I’d forgotten my friend was still standing there.

“He’s sending someone for me.”

“No shit!”

Yeah, my sentiments exactly.

The patrol car arrived about twenty minutes later.

Charlie and I had spent the time sitting on the front steps, pondering what was going on. We had some crazy theories from the more realistic terrorist attack to the far-fetched alien invasion. The aliens were his idea. Charlie was the less rational out of the two of us. Not that I didn’t believe in aliens, it's just that I was pretty certain they weren’t going to choose Greenfield as the top place to invade. Charlie didn’t agree. He said it was the best place. He tried to use movie logic on me, which I tuned out. To say I was grateful to see the car pull up was an understatement.

Being grateful to see a cop in this neighborhood was like an oxymoron.

“I’ll see you later,” I said to Charlie as I approached the car.

I smiled as I saw the driver.

“Hey Uncle Frank,” I said, to the gruff looking fellow peering out the open window.

He didn’t like the neighborhood either.

“Hey kid,” he said, smiling too.

I opened the passenger door and climbed inside.

Frank wasn’t really my uncle, he was, however, my father’s oldest friend. They went through the Academy together. Whereas Dad went all fast track with his career, Frank was perfectly happy on the streets. He never married, had no kids, so he never really had a reason to want more. He lived in a quaint apartment on the other side of town, kept mostly to himself and loved the hell out of the Yankees. Though Dad had brothers, Frank was more of an uncle to me than any of them. Dad and Aunt Grace were the only ones of his family still in the state. I loved my Dad’s brothers but they never around much.

Frank was the best and closest thing to a real uncle that I had.

Hence the reason why he let me sit in the front seat.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I buckled myself safely inside.

He sighed. “Some kind of gas leak I think”.

I nodded but I wasn’t sure if I believed him.

This neighborhood wasn’t exactly well populated.

I wouldn’t exactly call it the Slums but it definitely wasn’t all high rises and condos either. Not that we had stuff like that here in Greenfield. Regardless of that, I knew what was over there. Charlie’s apartment block was right on the edge of the old industrial district. At one time, most of this area was big factories. There used to be an auto parts factory over there. Now though, it was all old abandoned buildings. Mostly warehouses and the like. Lots of vagrants and junkies lived there. There was no way it could have been a “gas leak” because there was no gas. There was also all that smoke. Since when did gas leaks have smoke too?

I smirked.

Maybe there was a crazy conspiracy here after all.

Charlie was so hellbent on it being aliens.

He even claimed to have seen strange lights over there the other night.

Wasn’t a Gas Leak the company line for an invasion?

I laughed.

“Something funny?”

I shook my friend. “Charlie and I were trying to figure out what was going on. He’s convinced its aliens, even claims he saw lights in the sky.”

Frank gave me a look.

For a moment, I thought he might actually tell me Charlie wasn’t lying. It was one of those looks. Then he smiled. “You kids need to get out more.”

“He needs to get out more. I get out plenty.”

Swimming wasn’t my only exercise after all. I did a fair share of jogging too. I tried full blown running but I just didn’t have the stamina for it. I jogged every morning though. Well tried too. Some mornings---like today---I just didn’t feel like it. My failed attempt at swimming the other day was discouraging. For the last two days since I’d been lazing around, feeling sorry for myself. If Charlie hadn’t called this morning, I probably would have still been in bed. It was that empty feeling. Now it was keeping me from doing the things I liked to do.

“So was anyone hurt?” I asked.

“You’ll see soon enough,” said Frank, turning the car in that direction. “Your Dad asked me to check in.”

Dad was there?

A moment or two later, Frank pulled the car up to the roadblock where two uniforms were stationed. He rolled down the window, causing one of them to wander over.

The officer looked into the car with a laugh. “Hey Franko, aren’t the perps supposed to be in the back?”

He and Frank shared a laugh.

“Not the Chief’s kid, Skip.”

The officer---Skip---quickly stopped laughing.

I gave Officer Henderson a cold hard look. I was trying to mimic my Dad but failed miserably. Instead, I burst into laughter instead. The Officer looked scared for a moment but sighed when he heard me laugh.

“Let me call it in,” said Officer Skip a second later.

He took a step back, speaking into his shoulder mic. I couldn’t hear what was being said but he waved us past. I was surprised by that. If this place was so dangerous then why were they letting a civvie like me through? Frank didn’t bat an eye though and drove around the little barricade. He didn’t go very far though. There were a couple of squad cars off to the side. He pulled alongside one of them. From this angle, I could get a better view of what was going on. I couldn’t see much through all the smoke but there were more than a dozen police cars there. I saw at least three fire trucks too. All of them putting water on one of the warehouses. The smoke was billowing from its windows.

Strangely I saw no fire though.

Dad appeared a few seconds later. He was dressed in his sharp gray suit but I noticed his tie was missing. He was sweating too. Well, it was a hot day. I was sweating a bit myself. I looked at him as he approached. Dad cut quite the figure, six foot three and just as menacing. Age hasn't slowed him in the least either. The man ate like a health nut and exercised constantly. The back half of our garage was even converted into a work out room.

He ran a hand through his sweat-drenched buzz cut as he approached the car.

He leaned down to speak to Frank.

“He give you any problems?”

“No, sir.”

When Dad was on the job, I didn’t exist. It was the same with my sisters. When he spoke to us it was official. That was even when he did. Most times, he referred to us in the third person.

I was actually surprised when he looked at me.

I saw a worn and haggard man look back.

I was shocked.

I just got off the phone with him less than an hour ago.

How was he so beat already?

“I want you to head home immediately. No stops. When you get there, make sure you and your sister stay inside. Set the alarm too.”

Shit, this was serious.

Dad never told us to set the alarm during the day.

“What’s going on?” I asked, concerned.

He turned away from me. “I want you to stick around the house for a bit. Just to be on the safe side.”

“Sure, no problem, boss.”

He looked at me again. “I’ll be home when I can.”

With that, he turned and walked away. I watched him go. At the perimeter of the smoke, he stopped to talk to one of the firemen there. I watched for a moment before something else caught my eye. No, not something, someone.

A person.

I only saw them for a minute though.

They were on the other side of the road, watching from the shadows between two warehouses. For a moment, I wasn’t even sure what I was seeing until they moved. It was strange because they were tall and moved incredibly fast. One minute they were there then the next they were gone.

“What the hell,” I said softly to myself.

“You see something, kid?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”

Wait, why didn’t I tell him?

Uncle Frank didn’t say anything more. He started the car back up and turned it around. The rest of the ride was in relative silence, which was fine by me because it gave me a moment to think. Did I see someone or not and if I did, what were they doing there? How did they even get there? The police had the whole area on lockdown. I found it pretty hard to believe that someone could just slip through that and not get noticed. Especially someone as tall as the person I thought I saw.

I tried not to think about it anymore.

Just as well because it only took about ten minutes to get home.

Frank dropped me off in the driveway.

“I’m going to sit here for a couple of hours, per your father’s wishes.”

I nodded. “You need anything, like a drink or something to eat, you know where to find it."

He gave me a nod before I climbed out of the car and walked slowly to the house. Inside, I found Carrie already sprawled out on the couch, watching TV.

“Dad’s on the News.”

“I’ve seen him.”

She was still at that enthusiastic and impressionable age.

I walked over anyway. I stood behind the couch and looked at the TV. It was one of those large 50 inch flat screens, Dad insisted on it. Sure enough, my father was on the news. I noticed he put his tie back on. He was being interviewed by the girl from Channel 4. They must have arrived after I left. It didn’t matter. What mattered was what my father was saying. Apparently, they ruled out a gas leak and now they believed it was an act of arson. I suppose that finally explained the smoke.

“Do you have any leads, Chief Matthews?”

“One,” said Dad, surprising me.

What surprised me, even more, was the sketch that appeared on the screen:

It was her.

The tall girl from a couple of days ago.

“Eyewitnesses put this young lady at the scene,” said Dad, the sketch was up in the corner of the screen.

It was a good likeness.

“Anyone who has any information about this girl” my father continued “are asked to call the Greenfield police department.”

The reporter started to end the broadcast but I was already making my way to my room.

Carrie shouted something about food but I ignored her.

What were the odds?

I walked into my room, flopping down on my bed as I did so. I lay there, staring up at the ceiling. As I did so, I absently started fingering the necklace around my neck.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

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Author's Note: So I'm happy to say that I'm actually two chapters ahead of myself now, having just finished Ch.6 yesterday morning. I'll start on 7 as soon as I finish publishing this. This story has been fun to write and appears to be going longer than I originally planned. I don't think I'll be able to fit it all in 10 chapters. The transformation aspect of it hasn't even happened yet and I'm starting Ch.7. We'll see what happens though. Oh, the picture for this one refers to something that happens that's minor but fun.

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4.

A gentle rapping on the door woke me. I opened my eyes to a dark room, having pulled the curtains shut tight last night. I grunted, rolling away, pulling my pillow around my head like a helmet. If it was still dark that meant the sun hadn’t come up yet. It was summer. Teenagers weren’t supposed to get up before noon in the summer. They were especially not supposed to get up at---I let go of my "helmet" and turned toward my alarm clock and groaned more---5:20 am. I pulled the pillow tighter, hoping to drown out the tapping. It only got louder though. I wanted to scream, instead, I violently threw off my covers, jumped out of bed and stormed the door. Whoever it was...I was going to kill them…

Yanking open the door, Carrie was standing there.

I was about to chide her when I saw her face:

She’d been crying.

All thoughts of anger subsided immediately.

Damn it.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, my rage replaced by compassion.

“I saw Mom...she was here...she didn’t know me though...she...she..”

I quickly dropped to her level and wrapped her in a hug.

I held her tight as she openly cried on my shoulder.

This was new.

Ok so not new. Carrie had had a lot of bad dreams, especially after the accident. It was natural. I had a few myself. Her’s were more frequent though. They were in the past though. Whereas Dad didn’t want either one of us to see a professional, he could not deny the school shrink from talking to Carrie. Wells Elementary---Carrie’s school---offered students a well rounded and cultured education. That was their actual tagline. Dr. Pierce was a nice woman. She used to be the shrink there when I was a kid. Every student was mandated to meet with her at least three times a year. She went out of her way to meet with Carrie on a regular basis though, first for grief counseling then to help her deal with the nightmares.

I thought we were over them.

I held her until she stopped crying. When she finally did, she pulled away and looked at me strangely. At first, I didn’t realize what she was staring at until she reached forward.

She touched something on my chest.

I always slept in just my boxers.

It wasn’t unusual for me to be bare-chested.

What was unusual was what else I was wearing.

That damn necklace!

How in the hell…?

Carrie fingered it with a giggle. “I never actually thought you’d wear it”.

I thought up a quick lie.

“Of course I want to wear it, we have to match, right?”

What the ever living fuck was going on?

When I came home from Charlie’s house, I finally realized I’d been wearing it. It was strange though because I think I’d been wearing it all day. I didn’t really notice it though until after I was in my room, laying in bed. Then only after my mind drifted into boredom. It was the strangest thing though because I couldn’t remember putting it on. I obviously must have because I was wearing it but why. When I bought the pair of them for Carrie and me, I never had any intention of putting the damn thing on. In fact, I vividly remember sticking this thing as far back in my underwear drawer as I could. Had I put it on this morning without even knowing? And if I did, why?

Color me freaked.

“I like it there,” My sister continued to finger it. “It makes your eyes stand out."

I bopped her nose.

My sister and I had the same dullish, blue-green eyes.

“So” I finally said after a large moment of silence. “You want to tell me about it?”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to think about it. I just, I had the dream, woke up and went to Dad but he wasn’t there.”

Are you serious!

Damn him!

It was one thing to be absent most of the day but to be gone now too, it was ridiculous. Dad always kept a futon in his office. It was in case something bad happened and he couldn’t leave. I respected that. What I couldn’t respect though was how he was always gone. Call me selfish but most kids want their fathers around. Especially at night and early in the morning. This was taking it too far now. The worst part of it was not calling. Sure he called shortly after Uncle Frank dropped me off. He only did so to make sure I stayed in the house the rest of the night. Our conversation was brief. The one he had with Carrie was twenty minutes longer. She always knew how to keep Dad’s attention after all.

The thing was, I overheard him tell her he promised he’d be home last night.

What a joke!

Grunting but trying not to let her hear, I gently took her hand and led her down the hall. At the top of the stairs, I paused. I wanted to be one of those cool big brothers. You know scoop her up in my arms, carry her about but I just wasn’t strong enough. I used to be able too when she was smaller. But she and I were different now. Whereas she was getting bigger, I was not. I just didn’t have the strength to carry her anymore. It made me feel like less of a person. I could still give her a piggyback but I didn’t want to do that on stairs. So instead, I continued walking with her down the stairs and into the kitchen.

“What are we doing?” she asked, as I left her at the table.

“Getting something to eat.”

I knew there was a plate of cookies in there. Mrs. Noble was a nice old lady who lived down the street with her daughter. She was a widowed former teacher. She taught me in Fifth grade in fact. She liked to bake and often brought us cookies every couple of days. I think it was her way of showing that she cared and understood. After all, Mr. Noble only just recently passed too.

I brought the plate out and sat in front of her.

“Dad will be mad.”

I grunted. “He’s not here, is he?”

She smiled and started eating the cookies.

I fixed her a glass of milk to go with it before wandering out of the kitchen. I managed to grab the home phone before I walked out. I dialed his office while I wandered into the living room. It rang only three times:

“Greenfield Police Department,” said a kind voice on the other end.

“Hi Judy,” I said, trying to be polite.

There were only two dispatchers. I knew them both because well my Dad was their boss after all. Judy was the night one. She was a kind lady. Her daughter went to school with Carrie, I think they were a grade apart?

“Chase, sweetie, you’re up early.”

“Occupational hazard when your father is a workaholic."

I didn’t hide the vinegar in my voice.

Judy knew the animosity I carried for her boss.

She sighed. “It was a very busy day, hun. I’m sure he wanted to get home..he...”

I cut her off. “I’m sure it was. I’m not mad about that. I am however pissed off that he promised Carrie he’d be here and when she had a nightmare, he wasn’t here to comfort her, you know doing the more important job...”

I hated unloading on Judy like this but I was angry.

Sometimes I let it get the better of me.

There was a moment of silence before, “I’ll see if he’s available.”

“He better be.”

It didn’t take long.

“Chase,” said my exhausted Father after only a couple of minutes. “You know not to call me at...”

“At work” I snapped. “Well I wouldn’t have to if you know, you were home, where you said you’d be.”

Like I said I was pissed.

I also had no problem directing my anger where it belonged.

“I’m busy.”

“Big surprise."

“What’s this about?”

“She had another nightmare. She went to her father but you know, big surprise, the bastard wasn’t there.”

“Don’t use that tone...”

“Zip it. You gave up the right to tell me how to talk a while ago.”

Wow, where did that come from?

I’d never actually talked to him like that before.

I felt confident suddenly. Almost as if everything I wanted to say just seemed to flow out of my mouth. I didn’t stop there. I gave the man a full two barrels of it. I chastised him for being an absentee parent, for breaking promises, for making Carrie cry. He said nothing the whole time. There was nothing for him to say and I didn’t really give him a chance. I dominated the whole conversation and when I was done, I hung up without saying goodbye. My hand was shaking after I hung up.

That felt really good.

Cathartic even.

I felt a surge of energy flow through me. It was overwhelmingly warm and calming. I smiled. Then I walked back into the kitchen, absently fingering the necklace again.

What am I doing here?

It was strange really. After deciding that going back to bed was kind of stupid, I stayed up. I tried sending Carrie back to bed after her cookies because she practically fell asleep at the table. She refused to go though so we ended up snuggling together on the couch, watching cartoons. She fell asleep eventually. She woke a few hours later, I made us some french toast and we watched more cartoons for a while. The whole time though there was something nagging at me. I couldn’t figure out what it was until I saw a breaking news report. It was nothing more than a rehash of last night’s events at the warehouse. I tried to ignore it until I saw the same picture of my mystery girl.

That’s when I realized what was nagging me.

It was her.

There was something about her.

I stewed about it for about an hour or so before making up an excuse to go to the pool. I called around, found someone to watch Carrie for a little while then headed out. As soon as I got out the door, I had every intention of going to the pool. I was even on the right bus. Halfway through the ride though, the nagging returned. It was then that I realized what I really wanted to do. What I needed to do. At the next available stop, I jumped off. I ran a couple of blocks to an opposite bus route, taking the bus further into the city. Away from the school, toward Charlie’s. More importantly though, toward the warehouse.

Stupid.

I’d actually gotten off the bus about three minutes ago.

Now I was standing across the street just like before. It was strangely quiet for an active crime scene. There was only one police car now and though the area was taped off, there was actually no one patrolling it. I half expected it to be swarming with cops still. I’m not sure what I was even doing here, to be honest. Did I actually expect to find something that the police couldn’t? Was there some hidden clue waiting for me to discover? Was it terrorists? Gangsters? Hell, even aliens? Or maybe it was something else entirely. Something more personal.

Maybe it was her.

I’m not going to lie, there was something about her. I just couldn’t place my finger on it. She was mysterious and brooding and if the cops were right, dangerous. I should have said something. I’m not sure what it would have done but I might have been able to give them a better description of her. I almost called Dad up last night and told him about meeting her a few days before. Not that he would have believed me. He probably would have told me I was mistaken, that it was a big city and all that crap. I know what I saw though. I knew who I saw. It's not hard to forget someone like her after all. She was so tall and those eyes...no one else I’d ever seen had eyes like those.

No, I wasn’t mistaking it.

I knew it was her.

And she was in trouble.

Making up my mind, I stuck my hands into the pockets of my hoodie. I slowly made my way across the road, toward the cruiser. I half expected to be stopped as soon as I got there but I wasn’t. In fact, the car was empty. Weird. Weirder still was the steaming hot cup of coffee sitting in the holder. If there was still steam coming off it, it had to be fresh. Yet where was the cop that belonged to it? I tried the door but it was locked. Sighing, I almost left. I say almost because now this was the best opportunity. Wherever the cop was, he probably wasn’t far.

I smirked at my luck and slipped quickly under the tape.

I kept to the shadows just to be on the safe side though, slinking along the side of the nearest building.

There were several abandoned places in this part of town. This old warehouse district was one of the more popular scumbag destinations though. At one time, the city tried to bulldoze the whole place but apparently, a flock of seagulls started to nest here. A couple of environmental agencies got involved and declared the place a wildlife habitat. So instead the buildings stayed. Now everyone from addicts to vagrants called the place home too. It was one of the reasons Dad hated me coming to this part of town. Cops only came around here if absolutely necessary and most of the people here hated them.

Ditto for a cop’s kid.

Surprisingly, most people left me alone.

Not that many of them knew or even cared.

Trying not to think about that, I continued to move along a predestined path. I knew where I was going after all. It was hard not too. The building in question was directly ahead. At one time it looked like every other one in this place. Now, it was a blackened wreck. Whatever fire had happened last night, it had done its toll. Most of it had even collapsed in on itself. There was no way a gas leak had caused this. It looked like an explosion. Of course, if that was the case, we all would have heard it. Hell, Charlie lives across the street pretty much. The strange thing was though, it didn’t look like a fire either.

I’d been around fires before.

The remnants of them too.

We didn’t always live in the rich neighborhood. We used to live in a normal house, on a normal street. Dad didn’t become the Chief until a couple of years ago. The house we were living in was fairly modest. I loved it there. It was just the right size for our family. My parents thought it was too small though. It was also too close to the houses around it. That’s where I saw a fire, up close and personal. A house two houses down from us had a grease fire. It got out of control pretty quick. The firefighters barely managed to contain it. Luckily it didn’t spread and no one got hurt. What made it so memorable though was the intense heat, all the smoke, and the smell.

Stepping closer to this burnt out wreck now, I noticed that immediately.

There was no smell.

I knew there was smoke, I saw it last night.

Taking a step closer, I looked at the collapsed portion of the building. It didn’t look like it was burnt by a fire. There was no charred wood and when I touched it, it didn’t crumble away. It was still black though but more like it was scorched. I dropped my hood for a moment to rub the back of my head. What kind of fire burns but doesn’t burn? Sighing, I took a step back when I heard something. Thinking it was the cop, I quickly jumped around the rubble, hiding as best as I could. I crouched and waited. I was there for a few minutes but when no one showed up.

I did hear someone right?

Getting to my feet, I dusted off my jeans and decided to investigate further. At first, I thought maybe whatever I heard was coming from the burnt out building but I realized there was no way anyone could get in there. I did search around it a bit though but when that search proved fruitless I decided maybe I just heard things. In a situation like this, imaginations tended to run wild. Especially considering I was expecting the cop to come out and grab me at any moment. He didn’t but there was that fear.

I kept that fear in the back of my head as I continued to look around. It was clear that this was no ordinary fire. That much was obvious. No wonder the police were keeping this place so tightly guarded. Or at least they did last night. I stopped, looking around cautiously. Where was that cop anyway? And why was there only one of them? This place was swarming with them last night. All of this mess was just too strange to leave for one cop to look after by himself. I kept thinking about him as I continued to poke around a bit. After another ten minutes of it---trying and failing---to find anything, I finally decided to give up. I mean maybe I was grasping at straws anyway. Sure it was a strange fire but it was probably just a fire like every other one. More than likely the result of stupid kids or some tweaked out junkies.

Smirking at my own stupidity, I started to make my way back toward the tape barrier.

I even pulled my hood back up.

You know just in case the cop was back.

Approaching the barrier, I didn’t get very far before I heard something again. I stopped, this time I was sure I heard it. I turned, following the source. It was one of the buildings off to my right. For a second I thought I imagined it again then I smelt something. I think it was barbecue. There was the distinct smell of burning meat. Was someone cooking something? It wasn’t unheard of. This was a place frequented by many homeless after all. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that one of them might have a little grill or something.

Dropping low, I slowly started to approach the source of the sound and smell. When I got closer, I definitely smelt something. I heard something too, voices I think. I found a spot in the wall where some of the boards were rotting and coming apart. There was enough of a gap there that I was able to squeeze through. It was stupid but I couldn’t help but wonder if it was my mystery girl. As soon as I slipped through though, I was sadly mistaken. She wasn’t here. Instead, I found two large figures near the far end of the room. It was a pretty large room so I was kind of surprised I could hear them. It was pretty dark, dimly lit by what little light trickled through the grungy windows.

Staying low, almost on my stomach, I crawled closer.

Now I could really hear them:

“What’s the matter with you!” said one, he was wearing a trench coat.

“He saw us,” said the other, who was wearing a wool hat.

Both looked out of place.

It was August, they must have been sweating like crazy.

Their attire wasn’t the only strange thing though. They were huge. Bigger than any person I’d ever seen in fact.

“You’re paranoid.”

“Am not?” said Wool Cap. “He was looking right at us!”

Trench Coat grunted, stepped aside for a moment.

I finally saw what they were talking about. It was strange though because there was nothing there. At least at first, I thought there was nothing. Then I saw it or what was left of it. There was a strange black scorch mark on the wall. At first, I thought it was just more dirt and grim, the place was full of it. Then I realized the mark had a strange shape, a strangely human-like shape. That’s when I smelled it again. The barbecue. I crinkled my nose. Was that what I thought it was? And if so, how?

“Your itchy trigger finger is drawing too much attention,” said Trench Coat, giving Wool Cap a rough shove.

I moved an inch closer.

I could see them better now. Both men were pale. Trench Coat’s head was clean shaven, his skin was almost white. There was something odd about it thought too. It was covered in strange black marks. Almost like tattoos but I could swear they were moving. Like insects crawling all over his skin? I couldn’t see Wool Cap’s head because it was covered but he was stooped over a lot, like an old man. Not much different than Pops actually but Wool Cap definitely was not Pops. Like I said, he was huge. There was something else though too. He was just as wide as he was tall. The two of them were a strange pair indeed. Like a demented, twisted version of Charlie and I.

“Watch who you’re shoving!” snapped Wool Cap, pulling something from his large coat.

I thought it was a gun. It looked a bit like one but it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The metal was shiny and seemed to ripple, almost like the other’s tattoos. The barrel of it was short though and as far as I could tell, there was no handle. How was he holding that thing?

I looked from the “gun” to the scorch mark and back again.

Was that…

No…

Not possible.

“Point that somewhere else, the Stalker is still somewhere around here.”

Wool Cap laughed or I think it was a laugh, it sounded like a hiss.

It was a shame I couldn’t see their faces but their backs were to me.

“I vapped him last night.”

Trench Coat shoved him again. “You idiot, they always travel in twos!”

What were they talking about?

What’s a Stalker?

What did I just stumble in to?

“I’ll kill that one too. No Stalker gets the drop on me!”

Trench Coat snarled at him. “Idiot, we're supposed to keep a low profile. We have one job to do. Find the girl, get the Thing and get out of here. No incidents. Do you want to piss the boss off!”

“I...I...I...”

Girl?

Were they talking about my mystery girl?

And who was this Boss?

Shit, this was bad.

Real bad.

I needed to get out of here and fast.

I started to scurry away and would have gone unnoticed but my foot hit a can. It made a loud clattering sound as I kicked it away. The sound was like a gunshot in such a large place. I cursed. Trench Coat and Wool Cap snapped around. This time I saw their faces. Cold, blank features, almost like masks. But those eyes...they were red. Who had red eyes? I didn’t have time to ponder it though because a second later, Trench Coat was on me. He was fast, really fast. I tried to jump to my feet to run but he was already on me. I didn’t even get fully to my feet before he grabbed a hold of me and lifted me off the ground. He did it with one hand too, lifting me a good two feet into the air.

Like I said, he was huge.

I didn’t realize how big until he was holding me.

Holy crap, he was massive.

“Hue-man” he hissed, I wanted to gag because his breath was horrible.

And what did he mean by “human”?

He was human too, wasn’t he?

“It can see us,” said Wool Cap, a moment later as he appeared at Trench Coat’s side.

“Most definitely,” said Trench Coat, with a sneer.

“Do you smell that?” asked Wool Cap, sniffing around me.

Trench Coat leaned in and sniffed me.

It was the weirdest thing ever.

His eyes grew big.

“It has it!” he said, tightening his grip.

“Give us it, boy” snapped Wool Cap, reaching for me.

He never touched me though. One second his hand was there, the next it wasn’t. I thought I saw some movement, maybe a glint of metal. It was so fast though. A second after that, Wool Cap howled, grasping his severed stump. The cut was clean, it sliced through flesh and bone. What I saw though made no sense. The flesh was purplish in color and the blood, it was green. People didn’t look like that.

Wool Cap screamed:

“STALKER!”

There was another flash. This time from him. He got over the shock of losing his hand, dropped to the ground and rolled back up, firing blindly. It was an amazing thing to see, especially considering how large he was. When he rolled, his cap came off and I saw something else amazing too. It was the reason he was wearing the cap because he had tiny horns all over the top of his head.

What the hell was this?

“Kill it” snapped Trench Coat. “I’ll deal with the boy!”

Damn.

Wool Cap continued to fire blinding behind us, his weird gun shooting strange beams of orange light. Every time one of those shots hit something, the area was scorched black. Like the char marks on the other building. so it wasn't a fire after all.

My attention was quickly drawn away to Trench Coat though as he tore open both my hoodie and my shirt. His nails were long and sharp, like claws. He drew his red eyes to my bare chest and smirked.

“There you are...” he snapped, reaching...

Wool Cap screamed.

Trench Coat was caught by surprise. He let me go, I dropped to the ground with a thud. After the scream, what happened next will be etched into my brain forever. Someone appeared out of thin air, swinging a strange looking spear. It was her, my Mystery Girl. She slipped in close to Wool Cap, sliced off his other arm then cleaved his head off. All in two fast and fluid motions. Wool Cap slumped to the ground, more green blood poured from his severed stumps. Trench Coat snarled, completely ignoring me. Two wicked blades came out of his sleeves and he charged the girl. He swung like a maniac, fast and furious. She was just as fast. She parred his swings with the agile grace of a ballerina, spinning her weapon about like it was apart of her.

None of his slashes got anywhere near her.

As all of this was going on though, something else caught my eye.

There was a quick shimmer to my left.

A person shaped shimmer.

A third person.

They came at me fast, faster than the others. For a split second, I saw them. They were in a skin-tight black suit, wielding a sword. Like a Ninja. They came at me quick. I panicked, threw up my arms as the blade of the sword came toward my neck.

There was a flash of bright, blinding light.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

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Author's Note: Ok, so I'm ahead of schedule on this story for now. I have Ch.6 fully written and almost done with 7. This is shaping into a fun tale for me to write. I will say there's a tad bit more action at the end of this one. The two chapters that follow are all talking ones. There will be a lot of explanation in the next two chapters too. This is also the chapter where we finally learn Mystery Girl's name, thus I used a pic of her for the Chapter photo :D.

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5.

The blaring of my alarm woke me.

The constant drone louder than I would have liked. Rolling over, I took a swing at it, instead of shutting it off though, I managed to knock it on the floor. Cursing, I slowly pushed myself to waking before bending over the side of the bed to retrieve the offending thing. I was halfway to reaching it when I stopped and looked around. It took me a few seconds to make the connection but as soon as I did I was as confused as hell. Was I in my room? How did I get here? When did I get here?

What the hell just happened?

I pinched myself then yelped.

So I wasn’t dreaming.

Did that mean I’d been dreaming before? I groaned. Sitting up fully, I looked around to make sure this was, in fact, my room. There was no doubt that it was. I had the same posters on the walls, the same desk in the corner, my dresser, my end table, even my bookshelf. Everything was the there and where it should be. Finally grabbing the alarm---which had finally stopped---I looked at the LED display: 6:02 AM. That was enough to warrant another groan. I didn’t get up this early unless it was a school day. I set it back on the end table then grabbed my phone. I checked the date. Nope, it was still July. Hey, I had to be sure. There were, after all, a lot of strange things going on. This also wouldn’t have been the first time I dreamt about summer when it was really Fall.

I sighed in relief all the same.

I was not mentally prepared for school.

Especially not after that dream.

I mean it was a dream, right?

I tried to recall everything that happened yesterday. I remember waking up like usual, making sure there was someone to watch Carrie before heading out on my own. My plans diverted once I got out and about though, leading me to the warehouse district instead of the school natatorium. That’s where things got weird. It's also where I knew everything had to be a dream. There was no way those guys, that girl, and that light…

It just wasn’t possible.

Laughing at it, I managed to slowly make my way down the hall to the bathroom.

I always tried to shower quickly in the morning. Most days there was no one home in the morning besides me and Carrie, so taking care of her was my top priority. A long shower was a luxury I couldn’t afford. This morning was no different. I rushed into the bathroom, took a quick pee, brushed my teeth then hopped in for a quick one. I closed my eyes, letting the water soothe my body after a restless sleep. I was halfway through it when something felt off. Not the water itself but something with me. As the water caressed my body, I felt it. Sure I always felt the water but this time it was different. I couldn’t really describe it. It was almost as if for the first time I felt at peace. It was strange and yet absolutely invigorating. I didn’t want it to stop.

Sadly I knew it had too.

After another ten minutes of it, I shut off the shower. Sighing, I quickly stepped into a towel, wrapping it absently around my waist. I started over to the sink, wiping away the fog on the glass. I got my shaving kit ready but looking in the mirror, I could see it wasn’t needed. I didn’t grow much facial hair, just some stubble every couple of days. I liked to keep myself as clean shaven as possible though. The less hair on my body, the less friction in the water. It was the main reason I stopped letting my hair grow so long. Not only did it keep the teasing at a minimum but it was easier to handle. Looking into the mirror now though, it was clear that I needed another visit to the barber.

How long had it been?

I ran my hands through the mop. Did it feel thicker? Was it longer too? It was hard to keep track of these things. Over the summer I always let it get a little shaggy. I generally cut it shorter right before school started. Groaning, I stepped away from the sink, the more I looked at it, the more I was reminded of Mom. It broke her heart when I started to cut it. The combination of teasing and wanting to be a better swimmer ruled out in the end. She wouldn’t let me shave it all off though. So I had to settle for a more manageable cut. It still bothered her though.

Grunting in the mirror wasn’t going to get me anywhere this morning though.

I finally left the bathroom, meandering my way back to my room.

There were a total of three bathrooms in this house. One was downstairs for the guests and my father had one attached to his room. Though he barely used it. Much like his room. We’d only been living here a couple of years. The house didn’t even feel lived in. There were still unpacked boxes in the back of the garage and the attic. Long forgotten memories of a time when my father didn’t throw himself into things so much. Also, memories of a childhood long gone. A childhood with her. I think it was the memories that kept Dad away most of the time. I knew it was the reason he chose to sleep in one of the guest bedrooms. The master suite had barely been stepped in since Mom died.

If there’s one thing I understood, it was that.

Back in my room, I dressed quickly. I decided too. I was going to try swimming today. With school not in session over the summer, the school board decided to open the pool for the community. Though it was mostly used by high schoolers. It was weird. Instead of spending time at the mall, those of us not on actual vacations spent most of our time in school. Ok so technically it was the pool but still, it was strange. I couldn’t help but laugh a bit as I packed my gym bag.

I started out of the room when the mirror on the back of the door stopped me.

This had been Becca’s room once. At least briefly. The plan was that we each got our own room. By then though, she was in college. She told my parents she didn’t want it, that she was barely going to be home. Dad insisted. Eventually, though, she got a little apartment off campus. It being the biggest room---save the master---it was agreed I could move in. The problem was that it was already set up for her. I’m not saying it was a girl’s room, its just that it had some girlier things, like the mirrors. There had been three. The only one I didn’t move to the attic with the rest of her furniture was the one on the back of the door. I usually hung my coats back there so I rarely saw it. It being summer, all my coats were in the closet at the moment. It was a good thing the mirror was there today.

I cursed.

The necklace was back.

I cursed my sister.

This little prank of hers was going too far.

It was one thing to slip it around my neck once but again, I was getting tired of it. When I walked around wearing it the other day, I was convinced it had to be her. I scolded her for it but she feigned innocence. Today though, I was fed up. I was surprised too. I managed to hide it pretty well or so I thought. I shoved it way back in my drawer last night...no wait, the night before right? I was confused. It was weird. Once again, I vividly remember getting up, going about my day. Up until…

The dream.

It was a dream, right?

What the hell am I saying, of course, it was a dream.

Though if it was, what happened instead?

Trying not to think about it, I quickly pulled open my door. I rushed out of my room, bound and determined to forget it ever happened. I got to the top of the stairs when I smelled bacon. Who was cooking breakfast? Cursing, I rushed down them, mad as hell at a certain ten-year-old. I stormed into the kitchen, ready to raise hell. I stopped in the entryway, surprised to see…

“Grace!”

Grace was a good fifteen years younger than my father. My grandparents had her very late in life. Its one of those rare things that happen from time to time. More so now than ever before. Being fifteen at the time, my father and Grace never really connected. By the time she was old enough, he was off to college. It wasn’t all that dissimilar to the relationship between Carrie and Becca. The difference was, Dad never really cared. I think he treated his sister more like a distant cousin than an actual sibling. The way she tells it, they didn’t really start to bond until she was in college herself. When she decided to be a Realtor, she actually helped my parents land this house.

“Hi sweetie,” she said, turning from the stove.

She was holding a spatula.

I looked past her to the sizzling bacon.

Wow.

Real food.

Usually, I just made Carrie and myself something frozen. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time anyone used that stove.

“I’ve got some eggs too,” she said, plating some of the bacon while pointing to another tray on the counter.

I nodded, helping myself.

Grace went back to cooking, humming.

No one did that around here either.

She and my father couldn’t be more polar opposites. Though both fairly tall, Grace took more after my grandmother. Lighter hair, bright blue eyes and a smattering of freckles. She was always happy and full of life too, smiling and singing. Dad was stoic, like his own father. I never met either sadly. Both of them were gone before I was born. Cancer took grandma and grandpa drank himself to death. Grief does horrible things to people. I’m just glad Dad never went down that road himself. As it was, he abhorred drinking of any kind because of it.

I smiled as I sat down.

“It's nice to see you, Aunt Grace...” I said and meant it.

I was curious though.

“But,” she said with that smile of hers. “You forgot, ‘What the hell are you doing here’, is that about it?”

She laughed.

She had a great one.

I smirked. “So what’s his excuse this time?”

Grace dropped the smile. “Not an excuse, an all hands on deck type of thing. An officer is missing.”

Shit.

I opened my mouth to say something but quickly closed it.

Wait, wasn’t there an empty car at the warehouse…

No, that was a dream.

“At the warehouse?” I asked absently as I forked my eggs.

She gave me a weird look. “How did you know?”

I sighed. “I had this weird dream...”

I told her.

I always told Grace everything. I didn’t have a choice. Like my father, she always could smell out the truth. Unlike Dad though, she was good at getting it out of us. Dad always knew when we were lying of course but he never pressed it. Like when we did something wrong. He let us stew with the guilt of it until we confessed to it. He glared at us the whole time though and wouldn’t stop until we confessed. It was the cop in him. I always wondered if it worked on bad guys the same way?

When I finished, she gave me a look.

Then she giggled. “It wasn’t a dream honey.”

Wait, what?

She laughed this time, responding to the freaked out look I was probably giving her. “I mean sure some of it clearly was. I doubt you ran into some guys and a strange girl with a spear cut off their heads”.

She laughed even more.

I felt like pouting.

When I was growing up, Grace was the cool aunt. She was young and hip and I loved her. She liked to tease though. She meant well by it but it used to rub me the wrong way sometimes.

I felt like a kid again.

“Your friend brought you home yesterday,” she said, her laughing finally stopped. “Said the two of you were poking around the warehouse and that a beam fell and hit you in the head.”

Grace was glaring now.

Like, Dad.

“You’re lucky to be alive” she scolded. “I could have killed you. The only thing that stayed my hand was how out of it you were. You were barely conscious. I wanted to call 911 but you insisted you were fine.”

She was giving me a look.

It was strange because I couldn’t remember any of that.

The only thing I could remember was the dream.

I must have dreamt up the rest of it to account for what I clearly couldn’t remember.

I smiled though.

“Hey at least Charlie stepped up,” I said happily.

Good for him.

Grace smiled. “It wasn’t Charlie, sweetie. It was some girl. Very cute. Kinda strange though and so tall...”

Tall.

Oh god.

Her.

It made no sense.

The truth is in the lie I suppose.

My mind couldn’t remember parts of yesterday, so my subconscious filled in the blanks with a dream. Why that particular one though? Why the crazy, weird guys and my Mystery girl with that spear thing? I groaned as I looked out the window, staring at the city as it slowly zoomed by. Breakfast was little over an hour ago and yet I couldn’t get what Aunt Grace said out of my head. So I went to the warehouse yesterday and what, got bonked on the head? It made no sense. I mean, why was I there with her? Where did she come from? I definitely didn’t show up with her that’s for sure. I would have remembered that part. Why there? Why the strange guys too? What did any of it have to do with the missing police officer? I wanted to scream. That would have looked pretty weird though, what with all the people sitting around me. The more I thought about it though, the more I wanted to blame Charlie for it.

He had to put that stupid alien thought in my head.

That combined with my addled brain, it was the only thing that made sense.

What did they say? That dreams were your brain processing the day’s events? Well, clearly my accident at the warehouse molded with his crazy alien theory in a weirdly messed up dream sequence where my Mystery Girl suddenly becomes Xena the Warrior Teenager. I couldn’t help but laugh at it all. It was all so strangely stupid and liberating. I mean, at least I wasn’t going crazy. For a split second, I actually thought maybe the dream had been real all along. Thankfully, Aunt Grace set me straight.

After she told me about “my friend”, I laughed. I think she thought I was nuts until I told her how crazy I’d been this morning. Of course, she wanted to call 911 again. I think she thought the head bump was more severe than it really was. I talked her out of it though. The rest of it was forgotten by the arrival of Carrie. An over ecstatic girl was enough to distract anyone. She was practically bouncing with joy at the sight of my aunt. Carrie dominated the rest of the morning with her animated talking. She was strangely always hyper in the morning, it was creepy. It was welcomed today too. It got Grace to forget about smothering me with concern.

It was also a perfect getaway for me.

While Carrie had her distracted, I quickly excused myself. I told my aunt my plans and rushed out the door before she could say anything. I know it was cowardly and stupid but I just didn’t want her to worry. I got away with it too. She texted me a few minutes later when I got to the bus stop. She scolded me for leaving without discussing things further but she told me to have fun too. Grace only ever worried if it was really serious. After Mom died, she was just as much of a wreck as the rest of us. Grace often said that she just didn’t have the time or the energy to have her own family. Ours was the surrogate one she always wanted. Mom was like the big sister she always wanted too.

Grace had been devastated.

We all were.

It hollowed her out though. She tried to hide it but I think its one of the reasons she didn’t come around as much as she used too. Sure, she helped out from time to time but she used to be over a lot more. She and Mom used to spend time with each other every day, going to lunch, shopping on the weekends. Like sisters. Grace put on a good front with us but it was a mask. She was hurting. I knew that pain all too well. We were healing though. It took nearly two months for any of us to laugh again. It still wasn’t great but it was getting better a little bit each day.

“That’s a nice one,” said a voice next to me.

I turned and looked at the woman sitting next to me, smiling. She was middle-aged, wearing a business suit. She looked professional, hair pulled back, sharp.

“Excuse me?” I asked, lost in my thoughts.

“That necklace you’re wearing,” she said, pointing at my hand. “You don’t see ones with pure stones like that”.

I paused, looking down.

What the...again…

I was fondling the necklace, rubbing the stone absently between my fingers.

This was like…

What the second time...maybe…

What was wrong with me.

I smiled. “Its soothing” I lied.

She smiled. “Aquamarine is an important stone” She reached around her neck, pulling out a necklace of her own. “I wear one too.”

There was an aquamarine stone there but much smaller than my own.

“It's for clarity you know. I was never into that whole crystal crap before until my sister bought me this one. I used to be horrible at public speaking. After I starting wearing this, it really helped. It's a stone of truth...”

I smiled. “I was born in March, it's my birthstone, my little sister talked me into it...”

We shared a small laugh.

She started talking about holistic healing and all that stuff. It wasn’t really my thing. I tried not to be rude though, half listening. She was really into it. She went on and on about chakras and cleansing the soul. I’m sure it was all very interesting but I was distracted. I couldn’t stop thinking about yesterday. It still bothered me that I couldn’t remember what really happened. Maybe Aunt Grace was right and I did need to see a doctor. Head injuries were bad and the fact that I couldn’t remember the rest of my day, that was really bad.

I decided there and quickly interrupted her.

“Do you know where the nearest clinic is?”

“What?”

“I wanted to get a quick look over” I lied. “Bonked my head yesterday. Want to make sure I’m ok.”

Maybe get a Cat scan or something?

She nodded. “I think there’s one on South Street.”

South Street.

That was only a couple of blocks from here, right? I looked out the window. I knew this route well enough to know I was almost at the school now. South Street was on the way. In fact, it was almost coming up.

“Thanks,” I said, jumping to my feet, barely remembering to grab my bag.

I didn’t even bother to say goodbye as I rushed down the aisle toward the front of the bus.

“Can I get off here, please?”

The driver was not amused.

“This isn’t a stop!”

“It's important!"

He grunted. Slowly he brought the bus to a stop. He opened the door and I jumped out without even thanking him. Just as well because he was moving even before the door was shut. I didn’t waste my breath on it though. I looked around, checking where I was. I was almost at the school anyway. I was only slightly familiar with this area though. Looking around, I tried to find a familiar street sign.

Greenfield was split up into two major sections, upper town and lower. Lower Town was a much older part of the city, centered around the canal that ran straight through it. The houses and buildings there were older, built toward the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. That part of the city had been built, dismantled and rebuilt so many times it was hard to tell what was new from the old. Its where the warehouse district was for instance. Its also where Charlie lived. Upper Town was much different. Everything was new there. It had all been fields and farmland once. I’m not sure when the city expanded but most of the buildings in the Upper part of the city couldn’t have been more than thirty years old. The high school was here. I lived there.

Upper and Lower Town were only ten minutes away from each other by car. About thirty by bus because of the constant stops. If one were to walk from one end of the city to the other though, it would probably take a couple of hours. That didn’t count the remaining farmland either. It also didn’t count walking from Lower Town to my newer housing development. Driving back and forth added another ten minutes or so to the journey.

Thinking about all of that right now was pretty useless though.

Right now, I needed…

Ah, there it was.

South Street.

I smiled.

I quickly rushed across the street, huffed it two blocks before finding what I was looking for.

The Emergency Clinic.

The hospital was on the other side of town. There was a professional district with doctor’s offices and things but you needed an appointment for that. Whereas the clinic was smack dab in the middle of what was affectionately called “Professional Parkway”, one could simply walk in. It was just as well. I didn’t want my father to know I was coming here. I didn’t want anyone to know. People worried about the littlest things and it was frankly no one’s business but my own. I needed to get checked out though. Grace was right.

I started into the building like I belonged there.

I walked up to the front desk, smiling at the wo…

Man.

That was weird, you don’t see too many male receptionists.

Oh well.

“Hi,” I said, trying to remain calm. “I had a bit of an accident yesterday. I think I need to be checked out.”

He nodded.

“Of course,” he said, his voice strangely cold.

He was a tall man. Really tall. He was strangely pale too. I smiled as he continued to stare at me. I was waiting. He was supposed to give me some paperwork or something, wasn’t he? I looked around the counter, there was a clipboard right next to him. He continued to stare at me though. It was uncomfortable. I looked away, hoping that someone else thought it was uncomfortable too. Then I realized, there was no one else. I turned and looked out the large glass front of the building. There were cars out there in the parking lot, at least ten. Where were the rest of the people?

I turned back to the man.

"Pretty quiet, huh?"

I was trying to make small talk because it was kind of creepy. Where was everyone?

He was still staring.

“You smell nice,” he said, sniffing. "Like the water."

“Umm….thanks...” I said, creeped out.

The water? Who even talks like that?

I backed away from the counter. I started to make my way toward the waiting area but stopped. There was an abandoned purse sitting by one of the chairs. On the coffee table nearby there was also a cup. I could still see steam coming off it. There was something wrong here.
Something very wrong.

“I think I better...ummm….just...”

I took a step back further.

That’s when he reacted. He was fast. Too fast. His arm shot out toward me, grabbing my wrist. His grip was surprisingly strong. I tried to pull free but I couldn’t. I started to struggle but his grip was like iron.

“Let me go, you fucking freak!”

He smiled, his mouth spreading a lot larger than humanly possible.

What the hell?

How was he…

What was he…

The dream....no, it couldn't...

“He was right,” he said, his tongue slithering out of his wide mouth, flicking about his chin. “He said you'd come here. We just had to wait..."

What was going on?

“Let me go!”

I tried to pull away from him but he was inhumanly strong. Like before.

Like the dream.

“Not a chance, you know too much, hue-man.”

The way he said it though.

Two words instead of one.

“Hue-Man”.

Like before.

From the warehouse.

From my dream.

Oh, my God.

I panicked.

Without even thinking, I swung my bag around. The heavy duffle whacked him hard up the side of his head. It was enough to stagger him, his grip loosened. He didn’t let go but it allowed me to grab something else. There was a large glass container of gumballs on the counter next to the phone. While the bag staggered him, I snatched it up quickly. I didn’t even think. I swung it at his head too, smashing it against the side of his face as hard as I could. He didn’t even flinch though. There were glass shards and blood all over his face but there was something wrong.

Something wrong with his face.

It was cut in several places but it was...there was something underneath.

Almost as if this face was a mask?

A mask covering something gray and slimy.

A strange greenish puss started to ooze out of his facial wounds.

He hissed.

“YOU RUINED IT” he shouted.

Finally, he let me go but not gently. He pushed/threw me away from him. The force of it sent me flying backward into the waiting area. I crashed into the little coffee table, it collapsed under my weight. I was dazed and it hurt. I grunted, trying to push myself back up. I was shocked too. More so by what I managed to see just behind the counter. There was a pool of blood there. Oh god. I think I knew what happened to the previous receptionist. I couldn’t help but wonder if the rest of the patrons had met a similar fate?

What the hell was going on here?

I snapped back around to “Slime Head”. He wasn’t paying attention to me though. He was trying desperately to fix his face. Half of it was coming off now though. I could see what was underneath. His face was grey and besides the slime, there was this strange scaly texture. It was almost reptilian with a large wide mouth too. It was his eyes that drew me though. I could only see the one, the other looked human but this one was like a snake’s.

Shit.

I made a mad dash for the door.

I almost made it too but he was there. He leapt over the counter and landed in front of me in one quick pounce. He had clearly given up on his face because the destroyed part was just hanging there now. He blocked the whole door, it was clear I was going nowhere.

“What do you want with me!”

“Not you” he hissed. “It!"

It? What It?

“Give us It and you can live”.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Archon lie” He hissed. “Can smell it. Where is It.”

He started pawing at my hoodie, trying to rip it open. I remembered something. Something from my dream. The other one---the one in the trench coat---he tried to do the same thing. He got it open though, started too...I couldn’t remember…

“Give It to me, Archon!”

That word again.

Archon?

What the hell was an Archon?

“I don’t...”

Something outside caught his attention, he turned for a moment. I took a chance, kicked him as hard as I could. The kick did nothing to him but it sent me backward. I landed hard on my back. Kicking him was like kicking a wall. My leg throbbed and the force of it...ouch. It got me further away though. There was now a good couple of feet between us. I started scrambling back on my butt, trying to get further away. Toward the door, toward safety.

He turned, hissed loudly. He let out an ear-shattering scream before jumping toward me, his arms outstretched. He would have made it too. What happened next was so fast that neither one of us saw it coming. One minute he was in the air, flying toward me and the next he wasn’t. There was a loud shattering of glass and something hit him out of the air. I blinked a few times and looked around. My head quickly snapped around to where the Slime Head ended up though. It was a grisly sight.

He was pinned to the wall, mangled beyond all human recognition.

His opponent.

A car door.

I snapped around, wondering where it came from.

A moment later, I got my answer.

Walking across the parking lot---wielding that spear---was the girl.

My Mystery Girl!

She threw it, like a frisbee.

How was that even possible?

When she finally reached the building, she shattered the rest of the glass the door went through. She stepped through, looking around the room. She never once looked at me though. She walked forward with a purpose. She went up to the mangled scene on the wall. She grunted. Then reached forward, grabbed the door and ripped it away like it was nothing. It clattered to the floor where she dropped it, covered in that green ooze and other disgusting things. I looked from it to the rest of Slime Head, smeared in a mess all over the wall and some of the floor too.

I felt sick to my stomach.

For a moment I couldn’t find my voice to talk but when I did, I only wanted to know one thing:

“What the hell is it?”

She smirked, still not looking at me. “It was weak. Now it's nothing.”

She finally turned to me and when she did, those gold eyes of hers were shining.

“You,” she said, taking a step toward me. “You and I need to talk.”

I nodded but still found myself asking, “Who the hell are you? What the hell is going on?”

“My name is Dey’ya Vynn, Emissary of Zeeka, Servant of Her Holiness Tryn and you are in great danger, Chase Matthews.”

I gulped.

Definitely not a dream.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

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Author's Note: Ok here's Ch.6, right on schedule again. I'm proud of myself :D. This is a very talky chapter. Everyone kept asking me what's going on and this is the chapter with all the answers. Well at least a good portion of them. This chapter and the next one will be very light on much of anything, except talking. I'm trying to break the story up that way. I knew going in there was going to be a lot of action so these quiet moments are always fun to write too. The picture I used this time is not really representative of the chapter but you'll understand when you get there.

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6.

What the hell?

I stood there, staring at this strange girl, holding this wicked looking spear. I would have called her a crazy nut job except I was kinda afraid to insult her. After all, she just threw a car door across a parking lot and into a building. You don’t call someone like that crazy. There was no questioning that. There, however, several other questions that I had. So many. First and foremost, clearly what I saw yesterday had actually happened. She did fight off two weird guys in the warehouse, kill one of them with that spear and...and...I couldn’t remember anymore. I only just now remembered that. It was strange really. As soon as I saw her with that spear, it just came to me.

Did she do something to me?

Make me forget?

I stared at her. She was poking at the body smeared on the wall. Or rather what was left of it. The car door had done a number on him. When it caught him in midair, it split him in half as he hit the wall. I was too grossed out by it all to really look before but now I could see it. What was left of it? Most of him now seemed to be dissolving. It was the only word I could think of. He was literally oozing away off the walls into a grayish puddle on the floor. Even that was starting to melt away too.

“What’s happening to him?”

“It,” she said, poking some of the sludge with the tip of her spear. “They are genderless Constructs. We call them Mutates. A bastardized amalgam of several different species spliced together.”

Mutates?

I nodded like any of it made any sense.

“But it's not human, right?”

She sighed. “It is not of this world.”

Well, that answered one of many questions.

I groaned. Charlie had been right. Oh god had he been right. This was crazy. Aliens were bullshit, made up by conspiracy theorists and Hollywood blockbusters. The things of superstitious nut jobs, paranoid loonies, and talented writers. Nothing more. Yet, here I was staring at one. Or what was left of one. Then I looked at her. Standing there with her large spear, glaring down at the gray muck. Maybe I was staring at two?

“Are you?” I asked.

She turned to me. “Am I what?”

I needed to be tactful about it.

“Are you human?”

She looked at me, her golden eyes no longer shined but they were just as foreboding. “Yes”.

I sighed.

“And no,” she said after a moment. “It's complicated.”

I wanted to uncomplicate this as much as I could. “Are you from Earth?”

“No,” she said, looking around.

Clearly, something was spooking her. Since coming into the building, she barely stood still for a minute. It was almost as if…

My other questions were abandoned when a more pressing matter came to mind. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

“No doubt,” she said, running a hand through that short hair of hers.

I cursed. “You’ve killed what...three…of them?”

“Ten actually. It doesn’t matter though. More will come. Mutates are like insects. Their Master can summon as many as they want.”

Master?

So that meant there was someone behind this.

A boss.

An Alien Boss.

This was all so crazy.

Shit.

I slowly started to reach for the necklace but stopped myself. Not now. I could be a nervous twitch later, right now I needed my hands where I knew I could control them. Besides, I didn’t want to show weakness around her. I had a feeling that someone like her might frown upon something like that. I mean she threw a fricken car door.

Which reminded me.

“How did you do that?” I asked, pointing to the mangled door on the ground.

“My people are strong.”

Understatement of the century.

“How strong...”

She interrupted me. “Look, you can ask all the questions you want later, right now, we need to go!”

I nodded.

She took charge, moving toward the door. I started to follow but remembered something. It didn’t dawn on me until I looked out at the parking lot. At all those cars. There were still people here. I cursed. I quickly moved back into the waiting room. I rushed the counter and looked behind it. Besides the blood, there was nothing. Cursing, I quickly rushed down the hall. She was right on my heels.

“What are you doing?”

“There are people here!”

“No there isn’t.”

“Yes, there is.”

“There was,” she said, quickly stepping in front of me, halting my progress. “Mutates leave nothing behind. It's in their programming. Its why they were so hell-bent on you. No Trace. Its how they operate. Anyone who was here, they are long gone now.”

I pushed past her.

These were people. How could she be so cold?

I went from room to room, looking. Each of them empty. That didn’t stop me though. I checked the whole place, including closets, cabinets, and drawers.

There was no one though.

Where did they all go?

Dey’ya seemed to read my thoughts because she grimaced. “You don’t want to know.”

This time I did get sick.

I rushed to the nearest bathroom. I just made the stall before puking up my breakfast. Dey’ya stood by impatiently waiting. I puked for a couple of minutes before finally stopping. I almost threw up again from the taste in my mouth. I hated puking. It was the worse ever. Name anyone who liked to puke and I’d sign them up for a psych eval on the spot.

“Are you better now?”

I wiped my mouth. “How can you be so calm about this?”

“Practice.”

I slowly pushed myself up from the porcelain throne. A second or so later, I was at the sink. I bent over the running water, turning my head to the side to rinse out my mouth. I gargled and spit at least twenty times. Then washed my hands just as much. The whole time, she stared at me. She probably thought I was some kind of freak. Let her. I wasn’t the one running around with a giant spear, slicing and dicing things. Thinking about it though, made me think about other things.

“How did you know I was here, anyway?”

“I’ve been following you.”

“What!”

She smirked. “When you stumbled into that yesterday, I was surprised. I’d been scouting that place for a day or so. They killed my partner. I wanted to take them out before they caught someone else off guard.”

Her partner?

Wait, didn’t one of them say something about a “Stalker”?

“What’s a Stalker?”

Her eyes opened in surprise. “Where did you hear that?”

I shrugged. “Those things were talking about it yesterday.”

Her eyes widen even further. “You understood them?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“And the one here, you could understand him too?”

I nodded again. “Yeah, he was speaking English."

She gave me a look.

“We have to go. Now!”

She grabbed my arm, pulling me from the bathroom. After seeing her throw that door, I wasn’t about to stop her. On my way through the waiting room, I managed to pull out my cell phone. I quickly dialed 911. I made it quick. Someone needed to know what happened here. I didn’t leave my name and hung up before Lucy---the Day Dispatcher---could ask me for any more details. I was actually kind of surprised she didn’t recognize my voice. As it was, I barely had time to shut off my phone before Dey’ya took it from me.

“This is dangerous,” she said, crushing it in her hand.

“What the fuck!” I snapped, watching as the crumbled remains of my phone dropped on the ground.

“You people have ingrained technology into your lives now. It's too integral. The Mutates figured it out quickly. They no doubt used it to track you down.”

“They’re that smart?”

“No, but they’re persistent.”

She left it at that, dragging me through the hole she made.

She finally let me go in the parking lot. I rubbed my wrist. Damn, she was strong.

She started toward the road, a girl on a mission. I watched for a second before rushing to catch up. I gently grabbed her wrist. “You can’t go walking around carrying that, you’ll get arrested.”

Where had she been hiding the spear when I saw her before?

She nodded and second later, it vanished. Ok, so it didn’t vanish. She flicked her wrist and it seemed to collapse. Folding smaller and smaller until it became a bracelet on her left wrist.

How was that even possible.

She saw me staring. “The Kaagan is an extension of our bodies.”

I nodded as if that explained everything.

“You have so many answers for me!”

“First, we need to find someplace to hide then you can ask your questions."

Fair enough.

I looked around, noticing a billboard near the road.

I smirked.

I had just the place.

It's every teenage boy’s dream to bring a gorgeous girl to a motel. In any other circumstance, I might be thrilled at the prospect. This, however, was not one of those. I smiled as the woman at the counter handed us our room key. She even winked. I found myself flushing. I thanked her and pulled Dey’ya out of the office to stop her from glaring. When I saw the sign on the road, I thought for sure it was a bad idea the moment I thought of it. Weren’t motels the first place people look? Then again, that was the movies and we were being chased by alien things from another planet.

Logic went out the window a long time ago.

“Why did she do that with her eye?”

“Do what?”

Dey’ya tried to mimic the woman’s wink but couldn’t.

I blushed. “She thought...she thought...”

I couldn’t say it.

Dey’ya caught on though. “Do you wish to mate with me?”

I nearly choked.

“What...I….”

I think I turned every color red imaginable.

It sure felt like I did.

She stared at me for a few moments before smiling.

“I’m sorry but The Goddess does not permit me to sleep with lower life forms."

Ouch.

Instead of turning more red, I think I lost all pigment at that moment.

She left it at that.

“Now, where is our room?”

I held up the key absently. She took it without question. I was dumbstruck for a moment. I don’t think I've ever met someone so direct before. Sure I was thinking about her sexually, it was hard not too but I would have never been so blunt about it. She was this mystery to me though. One I couldn’t stop thinking about these past few days and here she was, in the flesh. Then she turned me down cold and hard. I didn't even get a chance to try.

Depressing.

It took me a moment or two to recover.

When I finally did, Dey’ya was already at “our” room.

She was standing in the doorway when I got there. She was staring at what I could only guess was a dismal place. I looked beyond her. It wasn’t much to look at. There was a bed, a TV, a dresser. A small armchair sat near the window and there was an ice bucket near the bathroom door. It was pretty much what I was expecting from a roadside place like this.

“People sleep here?” she asked, stepping into the room.

“I know its not much...”

“It's too much” she interrupted. “To have such luxury...this is not right...”

Luxury?

What kind of place did she come from?

“You don’t have rooms like this back home?”

She shook her head. “Zeeka is a lush place. You would call it a jungle I believe. Places like this, I didn’t see anything like this until I reached the capital of Xernos as a girl.”

Zeeka? Xernos?

I had no idea what she was talking about.

I let her look around a bit first. Then walked into the room myself, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I suppose you can have the bed, I’ll take the chair. There’s a bathroom back there, you can shower first if you want.”

I was trying to be accommodating after all.

I still had hundreds of questions for her. I wanted her to feel like she was ok to tell me anything. First and foremost, I needed her to think that I was staying. It took us nearly two hours to walk from the clinic to this place. It would have been faster but we hid from the cops on the way then she kept stopping to make sure we were safe. While we were doing so, I started to think about my situation. I was only in it because I saw something I shouldn’t have. It was pretty clear what was going on. They killed her partner first---that’s what caused the “fire”---then they killed the cop. I’m guessing his death was unforeseen. Much like what happened to those people at the clinic and what would have happened to me.

I guess I was lucky she showed up when she did.

This was the end of it though.

I wanted to go home.

I needed to go home.

But first, though, I needed her to tell me what the hell I stumbled into.

She finally stopped looking around. “I’ve been on this small planet of yours for only a handful of days and already I feel like I’ve seen more than I thought I would.”

“What do you mean?”

She sighed, finally settling into the chair. “I told you I would give you answers and I’ll try my best” She looked about. “You call this planet Earth, correct?”

I nodded. “Does it have a different name?”

She nodded. “We classified it as X2936, a No Zone.”

No Zone?

“What does that mean?”

“Primitive”.

Gee, thanks.

Though that made me wonder. “You’ve been here before?”

“Me personally, no. The Foundation sent scouts before though. They like to keep tabs on the No Zones, to check on them every few centuries. The last one was here over two of your centuries ago. They reported no progress. Your advancement is quite remarkable. I've never seen a No Zone progress so quickly”.

Yay us?

“And these people...”

“The Foundation, its our central government. The organization responsible for all our laws and order. Its composed of a large number of planets, the capitol of which is on Xernos. I’m from Zeeka. We’re not officially apart of the Foundation but we are awarded certain liberties because of The Goddess.”

There she goes, mentioning The Goddess again.

“This Goddess, that’s Tryn?”

She smiled. “Yes, the Holy of Holies.”

The way she said it surprised me. Before she’d been harsh and kinda cold but when she spoke of this Goddess, she spoke with a soft and devoted sounding voice. Clearly, religion was a big part of her society. It must be nice to believe in something so much to be that devote to it. I believed in God sure but I’m not sure I would go around calling myself His Servant.

“Did this Tryn send you to Earth?”

“No,” she said, her voice losing that softness. “We came seeking a fugitive. They committed a vile crime. As a Stalker, it's my job to hunt criminals. That we ended up here was mere coincidence. She could have gone anywhere.”

She?

“You’re looking for a woman then?”

“A princess, yes.”

Princess?

Did I just wander into a really bad sci-fi movie?

“I’m not sure I understand.”

She sighed, then took a moment before she spoke again: “I’ll try to explain it the best I can. You see, The Foundation is built around the Holy Goddesses. Six Divine Sisters of Great Strength and Power. The Goddesses rule through the people. To have a Goddess is to be Eternal. To Speak for One is the Greatest Gift of All Time."

Speak for one?

“What does that mean?”

“Every generation, the Goddesses choose new Mouths to Speak Through. There is a ceremony called the Ascension of Light, whereupon those deemed Worthy are brought together so that the Goddesses may choose a new Mouth for the next generation. The Mouths are usually of blood, the Rite passed from one daughter to the next. Most in The Foundation take this as an honor. One daughter is chosen to step forward and Speak for her Blood. On the planet Quel, there was a problem. There were, in fact, Five Worthy daughters. Each one as remarkable as the next. The Eldest---Jellia---was thought to be the most Worthy. Sadly the Goddess Aniqa did not believe so and chose her sister, Nalia---the second Daughter---as her Mouth. Jellia was enraged by this decision, stole the Goddess and fled the Ceremony".

“Wait, she stole the Goddess?”

Now I was more confused than ever!

Dey’ya nodded. “The Goddesses do not have a corporeal form of their own, that is why they chose a Mouth to speak for them. After being rejected, Jellia stormed the podium and snatched Aniqa from her resting altar. She fled the room before any in attendance could react. Stalkers were dispatched. We gave chase. She fled in this direction. I have good reason to believe that she came to Earth to hide.”

I nodded but I was still a little confused.

“I still don’t understand this about the Goddess?”

She paused and looked around. She went over to the dresser and came back with a pad of paper and pen. Apparently complimentary of the motel. She started drawing, turning the doodle to me a moment later. I saw a crudely drawn circle I think.

“The Goddess is bodiless. She is just a Heart. The Mouth takes that Heart into themselves and becomes the Goddess in flesh.”

She tapped the circle on her drawing, hoping her little diagram clarified things. Was that supposed to represent the Heart she spoke of? Did she mean they actually ate it or...something flashed in my mind for a quick second. An image of a glowing stone being placed on someone's chest. Almost as if...

I think I was finally understanding.

“Like a symbiote.”

She gave me a confused look.

“A life form using another life form to live,” I said, hoping to clarify.

I almost went to Star Trek and the Trill but I’m not sure that would have been any easier.

“In a way yes. Except The Mouth and the Heart are separate from one another. The Mouth lives their life until the Goddess calls upon them.”

What did that mean?

“The Goddess takes over?”

She shook her head. “No, the Mouth allows the Goddess to Speak through them. She controls her actions, speaks with her voice. Uses her body to do what she needs to do. Then returns back to the Silence of the Mind.”

Sounds like a takeover to me.

"And the Mouth allows this?”

Dey’ya nodded. “She cherishes it. It is Her Life to Share and Serve the Goddess.”

Still sounds crazy to me.

Of course, I didn’t tell her that.

A vision of me flying across the room like a discus scared the hell out of me.

“Dey’ya,” I said, hoping not to sound horrible. “That sounds like...”

“Dey,” she said with a smile. “You can call me Dey.”

“Dey,” I said, blushing.

"Yes, and I know what you’re thinking too. I assure you, the connection between the Goddess and the Mouth is not like that. Together they are powerful. They form a holy union. Galaxies bend to their will, civilizations could crumble at Their Word. It is why Jellia coveted such a power. She was always headstrong but no one ever thought she would try something so low.”

Sounds like a bitch to me.

“What happened? I mean after she ran away?”

“We chased her. My partner and I and Nalia.”

“Wait, her sister came too?”

Dey nodded. ‘All of us were trained together in the Academy. Nalia and I were honor bound to seek out the traitor and bring her to justice. We almost succeeded but Jel opened a Rift and went through it. We gave chase but...”

“But what?”

“When I came out of the Rift, I was the only one. Jel and her sister were both gone.”

“And your partner?”

She nodded. “He was called Nox. He was from Via. Our craft seats two. When we landed, we agreed to scout the area separately. My best guess is that he caught the Mutates by surprise."

Ok, that story explains how she got here and what she was doing here but it didn’t explain them.

“How did they get here?”

“My best guess, Jel created them and had them waiting for us?”

“That fast?”

“Rifts are strange things. You can enter one and not always come out in the same place or time that you entered.”

“You time travel!”

Now I was excited. I used to think that time travel was the coolest thing when I was younger. The idea of being able to travel backward or even forward in time. What kid didn’t dream of something like that? I used to watch everything time travel related---movies, TV---I even read a few books. My fascination with it became even more so after Mom’s death. The idea of being able to travel back in time and save a loved one, that had a lot of possibilities too.

“Time travel is an accidental after effect, it happens from time to time, especially with the firefight we were having. Her craft took quite a few hits before she went into the Rift. Its possible one of those hits damaged her stabilizer and she couldn’t compensate. She could have landed weeks or even months ahead of us, laying a trap would be easy”.

That was a scary thought.

“So now what happens?”

“I find her.”

“Just like that.”

She nodded. “Jel is on Earth. She does not belong here. She needs to be brought back home to face her crimes. The fact that she might become a Rogue Archon is even more dangerous.”

Archon?

There’s that word again. The Slime Head thing used it when it attacked me. He said he smelled It and accused me of having It. I thought it was crazy but now.

“What is that?”

“Archon?” she asked, I nodded. “Its what we call someone in possession of a Heart. The Mouth becomes the Archon when they take the Heart into their possession. It was a job meant for Nalia until Jel stole it from her.”

If Jel was the Archon, what did that have to do with me? And why did they think I was one?

Thinking about it made me start to fidget. I got up to clear my head, absently rubbing the gem hanging from my neck.

I felt a tingle in my fingertips than a warmth.

Then everything felt right.

I smiled.

And for just a slight moment, I could swear I heard someone whisper my name.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

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Author's Note: And We're back. So it took a very long time. I could write a whole bunch of amazing and cool excuses but I don't really have any. Life is a Bitch. I guess that's all I got. I will say though that I've been sitting on this chapter for a while now because honestly I have NO IDEA where I want to take this story from this point. If anyone please has any suggestions, PM me. I'm serious, I'm really stumped. I wanted to go one direction with it but the story went another. Now I'm lost.

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7.

It was bright, like before.

That blinding flash of light right before...right before I woke up from my dream. The dream I thought was a dream. The dream that turned into reality. I blinked, looking around. Everything was white. It seemed to go on for miles and miles. No matter what direction I looked. Where was I? Was this another dream, a true dream this time? I waved a hand in front of my face but for some reason, I couldn’t see it. Weird. Then I pinched myself. I couldn’t feel a thing.

Was I dreaming?

Taking a step forward, it felt like I was walking on air. Looking down, all I saw was more white. I should have been scared but I wasn’t. It was strange. This place---wherever it was---it was strangely calming. Absently, I reached up to touch my necklace. It was gone. When I touched my chest, I felt nothing there either. Was I even here? Was I even a person? I tried waving my hand again but nothing happened. Did I even have hands here? Everything was so strange and weird and calm. Why was I so calm?

I started to walk more, wondering if I was even walking.

This was one strange dream.

Stranger still was the fact that I didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Every step I took just seem to lead further and further into the white.

A white that never ended.

Sighing I finally gave up.

That’s when I heard it, someone calling my name.

It was faint at first.

I snapped around, looking for the source. The person called again, it was closer this time. There was something about the voice, something familiar. I’m not sure why but it felt like I’d heard it before. I just couldn’t remember when and where. I started to look for it though. I started walking then moving at a more brisk pace until I was full on running. The more I ran, the louder the voice became. Over and over it called my name. Running in this place wasn’t exhausting at all. In fact, I felt stronger than ever. Whatever issues I had in the real world, they didn’t apply here. I felt like I could run forever.

Maybe even swim forever.

That thought made me smile.

This place.

It was amazing.

I could stay here forever.

But first I needed to find that Voice.

“Closer”.

I was getting close.

“Yes, closer.”

The closer I got, the more it became like a person.

Instead of being something faint and disembodied, it started to take shape.

“CHASE!”

It sounded like a girl.

“Where are you!”

“Here!”

I stopped running. I’m not sure why but I suddenly felt like I should stop. As soon as I did, she appeared. It was almost as if she appeared right out of thin air. I almost went over the top of her. I had to take a step back from an inevitable collision. The girl standing before me was beautiful. She wore a long white dress that billowed around her legs, the skirt covering her feet. She was tall and thin but not twig thing like a starved supermodel. She had subtle curves. An ideal body shape. It wasn’t her most striking feature though. That would be her hair. I’d never seen anyone with blue hair like that. It could have been dyed but I’m not sure someone could get hair like that from a bottle.

Her back was to me and when she turned around, I gasped.

There was something familiar about her.

It wasn’t just her voice.

It was…

I looked at her face but I couldn’t place it.

“Finally,” she said, smiling. “I’ve been trying for a long time, you’re a very hard person to get in contact with”.

She giggled. She had an affectionate laugh.

“What’s going on?” I asked, confused. “Who are you? Where are we?”

She smiled. “Always questions with you. Good, I like that. As for answers, well let’s see”. She waved a hand and a chair appeared just as she was sitting down.

I sat too.

Where did my chair from?

She laughed. “To answer your first question, you’re right. You’re asleep. You’re in the motel room. You’ve had a busy day. You needed the rest. This is a dream. Well in the sense that you and I can talk this way.”

“I don’t understand.”

She smiled. “That was not the response I thought you’d have. I would have thought by now that you might have figured some things out.”

“Figured what out?”

I was confused.

Who was this girl? What was she doing in my dream?

She opened her hand, in her palm was my necklace.

I absently reached for my neck.

I felt my neck now.

It was gone.

“Hey, that’s mine!”

She smiled. “Actually, it's mine. Has been for quite some time now. You could almost say, all my life to be exact.”

The necklace dissolved away, leaving only the gem. It slowly floated in the air, a few inches from her palm and started to glow. First a strange white light than blue. The light was mesmerizing and relaxing. It was familiar too. I’d seen it before. Back in the warehouse, back when I was about too...the Ninja girl! How had I forgotten about the Ninja girl??? I panicked, realizing that I should be dead right now. She swung that sword at me and...and…

Blue Haired Girl smiled. “You were saved. I saved you. I had to protect my...my...”

She paused, I think she was trying to think of the right word.

As she sat there to think, some things started to come to mind. It was a slow process as my mind slowly started to play catch up. It didn’t take very long. The pieces were starting to fall into place but it wasn’t possible, was it? I bought the necklace from an old woman on the street, there was no way...wait, what had she said about it? Something about not even packing it to sell and that she tried for years but no one wanted it? She’d been surprised it was even in her wares that day? It was almost as if...as if the necklace put itself there. That was crazy though. Necklaces weren’t sentient, they couldn’t do things like that.

Unless…

The Mutates…

They smelled it. The first two in the warehouse, the one in the trench coat actually ripped open my shirt. He reached for my throat to strangle me, no not to kill me. He was reaching for...reaching...I absently touched my throat. The necklace. The other one, the one in the clinic. He smelled something too. He was convinced I had whatever it is he smelled. Had demanded I give it to him. Then he called me...he called me….

Archon.

Dey’s words were suddenly in my head: “ Its what we call someone in possession of a Heart. The Mouth becomes the Archon when they take the Heart into their possession...”

The Heart into their possession…

I stopped touching my neck and looked at the blue stone, still glowing and floating above her hand. The little stone that had meant so little to me and yet so much.

The Heart.

Oh, God.

“Goddess actually,” said Blue Hair with that warm smile of hers. “Your Goddess if you’ll have me.”

Not possible.

I pushed back, knocking over the chair as I suddenly got to my feet.

“You can’t be...I can’t be….”

She sighed. “Not the most ideal situation, I’ll give you that. Things are still a bit fuzzy for me too. I remember choosing a Host. I remember the Ceremony then I was stolen. We were running. There was a ship, a chase, time distorted around us...and then...then…

She shook her head. “I can’t remember anything more, its all a blank until the other day. On the street. When you appeared. There was something about you, something calm and familiar about you. I think it was your nature. You have a good heart, Chase. These past few days while I’ve been building my strength with you, I’ve come to realize you are a good person. I think that that’s why I chose you. You care very little for yourself and you help others. Like your sister and your boss. Others too.”

“You know all that?”

She nodded. “I’m able to read your thoughts, share your feelings, your memories...”

“This is crazy.”

“I know its a lot to process and understand,” she said, standing up. “Its hard for me too. I’ve never had a male host before. It's different...its...hard. It might be dangerous too...for both of us...”

“Dangerous?” I asked, suddenly concerned.

More so for myself then her.

“I feel weak. Empty. Not just my memories either. I should have this power but for some reason, I can’t find it. I need to keep trying though...”

That last bit was more to herself then me.

“Can you leave?” I asked, more like blurted.

I’m not sure where that came from but it felt right. Maybe I could help her. Find her a new Host, a proper one. She said it herself, she’d never had a male Host before. Maybe I could find her a better one, a female one. This was all just too crazy for me. There had been someone better for her, someone, more suited for her. Someone like…

“Hey what about the princess?”

“Jellia, the Thief” she snapped, vinegar in her words.

“No,” I said quickly “the other one. Her sister. The one you were supposed to be with. Your true Archon?”

“Nalia,” she said, there was warmth when she spoke the name.

I nodded. “Where is she? Dey said the two of them pursued Jellia together. They followed her through the Rift. Shouldn’t Nalia be here too?”
The girl---Goddess---shrugged. “It's strange. It's rare when One of Us and Our Host are separated. It does happen from time to time but it's usually very painful. Even then, One can usually sense Them. When I woke up on the street, all I could sense was You.”

What?

“You weren’t bonded though,” I said quickly, trying to think of an answer. “Dey said Jellia snatched you away before the Ceremony was completed?”

“She did?” The girl seemed lost in thought. “Strange. I have no memory of that. The Ceremony is for Show. It's for the Masses. We’re bonded to our Host before then. The only way we can be unbonded is by force...or...”

She didn’t have to say.

I saw the look on her face.

There was sorrow. She sighed. When she spoke, there was a foreboding in her voice:

“Maybe that’s why I can’t sense her...”

I found myself stepping forward, putting a hand on her shoulder. “If she’s alive, I’ll help you find her, I promise.”

The Goddess smiled, reaching up and putting a hand on my own. “You’re a good person, Chase. I promise not to intrude on your life. I will also respect that you are only a temporary Host and I will not make the Convergence with you.”

“What’s that?”

She smiled sadly. “Its the final bonding. Now that we’ve spoken, I can sense it. You and I are not Complete yet. Our Souls are still separate. When we find Nalia or another suitable Host, I can be passed to them without any pain.”

Well, that was good to know.

I mean I didn’t mind being a “Delivery Boy” but I’m not sure I liked the idea of having her stuck with me forever.

“It's not ideal for me either,” she said with a smirk.

Great, she can read my mind too.

She was still smirking.

I sighed. “So do I call you Goddess or Girl or...”

“Well my given name is Aniqa but that doesn’t seem appropriate here. This is not Quel after all. We are not in my Temple. I think perhaps an Earth name. What is that you call this stone again?”

I smiled. “Aquamarine.’

She smiled too. “That is perfect then.”

Aquamarine, The Goddess in my head.

Fun times.

“Yes, we need...” she stopped talking to yawn. “I guess that’s going to have to wait, I appear to have exhausted myself. I guess I’m not as fully recovered as I thought. We’ll have another conversation soon after I’ve rested some more.”

There was a flash of light...

I opened my eyes, blinking.

Now that was one hell of a dream.

I groaned, shifting my body. The flimsy blanket slid off me and onto the floor. Where did that come from? Blinking again, I looked around. The room was unfamiliar to me for a sec. Where was I? Slowly though, everything was coming back to me. I was in a motel room, on the run. Shit. I sat up straighter, every muscle in my body was stiff. Sleeping in chairs did not agree with me. I looked toward the window, the early rays of the morning were just shining through the blinds. I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling the familiar chain still there. I smiled and absently started to reach for the gem but stopped myself.

The dream…

Oh shit, the dream…

Was it real?

Did I really have her in my head now?

I suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of calm. And warmth. Lots of warmth. It started in my fingers as a gentle tingle then coursed through my whole body. I felt this feeling before. A couple of times. All after putting on the necklace. It was her, it had to be. So it was real, all of it. Oh, God. The necklace was not a necklace but a vessel for a God. I had a God in my head. I was her Archon. Well at least temporarily of course. That was a little overwhelming to process. All this time I’d been carrying a Goddess around my neck and never knew it. Had it all been by chance? Or was it something else? The old woman had said the necklace wasn’t supposed to be there but then how did it get in her cart? Aquamarine---ummm, Aqua---said she woke up when she sensed me.

So if that was the case, how did she get there?

That was going to nag at me.

Just like something else…

I cursed, jumping to my feet.

I had to pee.

Real bad.

I rushed quickly into the bathroom. I sat on the toilet and quickly started to relieve myself. I was halfway through peeing when I realized I was sitting. Why in the hell was I sitting?

After I flushed, I got to my feet.

I stumbled over to the sink.

I gasped.

The person staring back at me was completely different. Of course, it was still me but everything was different now. For one thing, my hair was really long. It had been shaggy looking yesterday. Today---this morning---it had grown past my shoulders and down my back. I couldn’t remember the last time my hair had grown that long. I cursed. Was this some of what she was talking about? Convergence? She said it had started but it wasn’t finished. Leaning closer, I noticed it was a shade or so lighter too. The color of my hair always straddled between auburn and brown. It never really tipped the scales toward downright brown or red. It was definitely moving more toward the red category now.

My hair wasn’t the only thing that had changed.

My eyebrows looked thinner and my skin, it looked blemish free. Smooth and---I touched my face---soft to touch. My skin had never been rough but it was never this soft though. What’s more, my scar was gone. I used to have this tiny little scar above my right eye. When I was in kindergarten, I got into an argument with another kid over some wooden blocks. In retaliation for not giving him what he wanted, he threw one of the blocks at my head. He caught me above my eye. I had to have a couple of stitches. There was a court hearing over it, the teacher was reprimanded for not paying attention, blocks were removed from the classrooms and we almost sued. It was a big mess. I always used to like that scar though. It gave me character.

Now it was gone.

I reached up to touch the spot where it used to be.

Had she done this?

Was this more of the Convergence she was talking about?

Grunting, I took a step back from the mirror. I stared a bit more at my face. At least, I still looked like me. I’m not sure what I planned to look like but with the changes already, I wasn’t sure. I was scared what might happen if we continued to stay bonded like this. She said she never had a male Host and it was dangerous. I think I was starting to see what dangers she was referring too. It was almost as if…

No, I shook my head.

I didn’t want to think about it.

I quickly undressed and got into the shower. I closed my eyes as I let the water flow over me. It felt good again. There was that tingling and warmth. The calm was back too. I was starting to associate those feelings with her. Did she like the water as much as I did? Is that why she was reacting to it the way I sometimes did? Trying not to think about it, relaxed. I opened my eyes a few moments later to wash my body, taking a slow and careful time with my hair. The motel had provided tiny little shampoo bottles. Washing long hair wasn’t new to me but it felt strange to be doing it again after all this time.

I took my time with the shower today.

I didn’t have to be anywhere…

....Wait...

I cursed.

Carrie!

Damn it, how could I have forgotten. I quickly shut off the shower, grabbing a nearby towel. I wrapped it around my waist and rushed out of the room, nearly colliding with Dey as I did so. I flushed in embarrassment. Not only because I was only wearing a towel. Apparently, she slept in the nude, something she clearly didn’t tell me about last night. Then again, I think I fell asleep before her.

“Ummm...wow...I...”

She gave me a strange look then looked down. “You do not sleep in the nude?”

I shook my head. “Not usually no.”

She nodded. “I can see where it might be uncomfortable then. I will remember that in the future.”

I nodded. “Good to know.”

It was strange really. One minute with Dey it was like talking to a real, normal girl. Other times, it was like talking to a robot. I think it was the way she spoke. So formal sometimes and other times…

It was just weird.

“I need to shower?” she asked, it was as if she didn’t know.

“Most people do,” I said like a dick then quickly added. “You don’t shower on your planet?”

She nodded. “Of course but Zeeka is a lush, beautiful place. We bathe whenever we can. There are many streams and rivers. There is this one spot---outside my village---where several people gather in the morning.”

Several?

I guess where she comes from walking around in the nude wasn’t so weird.

“I miss home,” she said with a sigh.

“When was the last time you were there?”

“It has been a while” she left it at that.

Before I could ask anything more, she slipped around me and into the bathroom. She closed the door just as fast. A minute or so later, I could hear the sound of rushing water. I guess she wasn’t a morning person. Or a morning talking person. Just as well, I wanted to make a phone call. After she destroyed my cell, I’d been nothing but worried about how much Grace and Carrie were probably worrying. Sure I’d been running for my life but that shouldn’t have stopped me from calling them. I was still a little pissed that she crushed my phone though. I understood why she did it but she could have said something before she did it. At least give me a moment to let them know I was ok.

I went over to the room phone. I quickly dialed home, Grace picked up on the second ring.

“Hello?” she asked, a bit sleepy.

I hadn’t realized it was so early.

I inwardly cursed.

“Grace,” I said in a low voice, hoping that supersonic hearing wasn’t one of Dey’s many “superpowers”.

“Chase! Thank God!”

I sighed. I’d only been away for a day or so and I was so happy to hear her voice.

“I’m sorry I made you worried...”

There was a tiny bit of silence. “What have you gotten yourself into?”

Wait, huh.

“I’m not sure...I...”

Grace lowered her voice, almost as if she didn’t want someone to hear: “The cops are here, they’re looking for you and that friend of yours.”

Wait, what?

How?

Then I remembered and groaned. I called it in on my cell. Of course, they’d know it was me. Even if I made an anonymous call, my number would still be on record. A number that my father knew all too well. A number that the dispatchers probably knew too. So not only did I call from a potential crime scene but I fled it too. This was bad, this was really bad. Even more, they knew I was with Dey. They were already looking for her after all.

I quickly grabbed the remote from the floor, flicking on the TV.

It didn’t take me long.

It was all over the news.

Incident at the Clinic. I caught the tail end of it:

“POLICE ARE LOOKING FOR CHASE MATTHEWS, ELDEST CHILD OF CHIEF MATTHEWS, GREENFIELD POLICE’S...”

I muted the TV and cursed.

My school picture was on the screen.

A second or so later, Dey’s picture was there too. First the grainy image from the warehouse then a better one of her outside the clinic. There was video too, must have been from the clinic’s security cameras. Shit. Of course, they had security. The video was pretty damning. It showed her throwing the car door then stepping through the broken window. Double shit. I unmuted the TV, wondering how they were going to spin that little bit:

“That was incredible,” said the female anchor. “I’ve never seen anything like it. That was a car door, an actual car door!”

She was obviously stunned.

I cursed again.

“This is bad,” I said, shutting off the TV.

“No kidding,” said Grace, I completely forgot we were still on the phone together. “How did she do that? Nevermind. Your father is flipping out. He’s got half the police force out looking for you. What the hell is...”

I cut her off. “It's not what it looks like. It's complicated. Dey isn’t a bad person. Look it's better that you don’t know anymore. It's dangerous.”

“Chase, honey, this is crazy. You need to come home or go to the police station or...”

“I can’t. They’ll find me there.”

There was no doubt about that. Whoever was controlling these Mutate things, they seemed to be one step ahead of me.

“Chase...you need...”

“Is Carrie ok?” I asked, hoping to change the subject.

Grace sighed. “She’s fine. She’s worried about you but she’s good. We haven’t told her what’s going on obviously. She just wants her big brother home.”

Damn.

I felt myself tearing up.

I couldn’t remember the last time I started crying.

“I’m sorry Grace, I really am. I didn’t mean to get involved in this. It was...it was out of my control. I wish I could tell you more but I can’t, not right now. You need to know that whatever they say, I’m not the bad guy here. Something’s happening, something bad. Something that might change the world.”

Understatement of the century.

“Just...just be careful ok?”

“I promise,” I said, “I’ll call again soon.”

As soon as I hung up, I rushed over to the bathroom. I banged on the door like a maniac. The water shut off a few seconds later then the door opened. At least she was wearing a towel this time. That didn’t stop me from looking at her body. Before I was too embarrassed to notice but now that she was partially covered, I saw an intricate tattoo that started at her toes, wound up around her knees and though I couldn’t see, it probably wound up the rest of her too. I could see a portion of it on her shoulders too. Whatever the symbols were though, I didn’t recognize them.

Wow.

I stood mesmerized.

I snapped out of it a few seconds later.

“We have to go,” I said, after averting my eyes.

"It's your authorities?"

I nodded.

How did she know these things?

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

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Author's Note: First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their feedback on this story. Thanks to all of you, I have now been able to figure out the rest of this story going forward. It just took me 4 months LOL. With that out of the way, I'd like to say first of all this is a VERY short chapter. It also does not include Chase at all. Its done in third person and its something I've been wanting to do for a while now but never knew where to do it. I'm thinking I might want to insert more chapters like this into the story going forward. I might even do one in-between one of the earlier chapters, possibly when I decide to publish this on Kindle.

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8.

Elsewhere

The room was dark, she never cared for the dark. You never knew what was lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce. Walking into the room, her hand gripped her cane tightly. She wasn’t even sure why she was here. She did her part, she thought she was done with all of this. She did a job, a job she was paid handsomely for. Everything had gone according to her employer’s plans and yet he still wanted to see her. The thought of meeting with him again---after all these years---sent a shiver down her spine.

Taking a cautious step forward, she held her breath and waited.

She could sense he was there.

The Dark Man.

She could even almost see him, sitting, the distinctive outline of a brimmed hat on his head. Even the sight of his shadow chilled her to the bones. Time and distance had not changed that fear. When he first walked into her shop nearly thirty years ago, she wasn’t sure what to make of him. It was late at night and she had already locked up. Yet as she was leaving, there he was. The man in the dark. He said nothing at first but when he spoke, his words were like ice:

“Miss Grady”.

Hearing her name come out of his mouth---even now---made her want to run the other way.

She gripped her cane tighter and took a firm step forward.

“What’s this all about?” she asked, with more confidence than she had.

He leaned forward, still in the shadows.

“I wanted to thank you once again for all your hard work.”

Work that took nearly three decades.

When he showed up all those years ago, he wanted one thing. A necklace. Not any necklace though, it had to be a specific one. Made out of Aquamarine on a silver chain. She spent a long time looking. She finally found it about ten years ago. It was in a little market stall in the middle of nowhere. The owner acquired it from a pawn shop a few states over. The last place anyone would look for something that she thought had extreme value. She wasn’t even sure it was the right one until she brought it to him. There had been several false ones in the past. As soon as she passed it over, she knew she’d finally done her job. That’s when he surprised her. He handed it back, told her to hold onto it until someone sought it out and left.

She heard nothing from him until three days ago.

That’s when he told her someone would come for it.

She never expected the boy.

“I still don’t understand any of this” she stammered, this time letting her fear slip.

This Man terrified her. He paid her a large sum of money, waited thirty years for something precious to him then tossed it away like it was nothing. It made no sense. She wanted to ask more for years but was afraid of what the answer might be.

“As it should be, Miss Grady. Questions are dangerous in my line of work.”

“What line of work?”

He sighed. She’d never heard him sigh before.

“If you really must know, the necklace belongs to someone important. Someone I’m looking for. I have reason to believe the boy will lead me to them.”

She bit her lip. She knew she shouldn’t say more but she’d always been the curious sort. As a child, her parents and teachers used to tell her that her curiosity would get her in trouble some day.

She never listened.

“I saw him,” she said, pushing the issue. “The boy. He was on TV with a strange girl. The police are looking for him. Is this what it's about?”

The Dark Man leaned forward.

For the first time in thirty years, she saw his face. She was not sure what she was expecting but she was not expecting a normal man. Sure he was paler than usual but he had a handsome face, striking blue eyes, and nearly white blonde hair. There was something about him too, something familiar. She’d seen him before. He was famous somehow. She just couldn’t place his face.

“I know you...”

“I know,” he said, gesturing to the left with his head.

She turned just in time to see the quick blade snap out of nowhere.

She didn’t even have time to react before her life was snuffed out in an instance. The blade whipped back around, returning quickly to its silent wielder. Her body dropped to the floor a moment later, followed a second later by her head.

The Man leaned back, the lights turned back on.

Flanking him on either side were two young women, both dressed from head to toe in skintight black jumpsuits. The only thing visible were their eyes. To an untrained person, they might look like ninjas. He knew better though. They were soldiers, his soldiers.

“Was that truly necessary, sir?” asked the one who delivered the killing blow.

The Man sighed.

“She asked for too many questions,” he said, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping a spot of blood from his lapel.

This was a new suit. It was now ruined.

He grunted as he dropped the soiled trash on the floor. He would have to replace both now.

It was a shame.

“Killing her is going to cause some unwanted attention” continued his soldier, trying her hardest to work some kind of warm into him.

She was far too late for that.

Any bit of kindness was worked out of him years ago. All he had left was his Duty. He served a purpose and in order to carry out that purpose, he would do anything. Including disposing of lesser life forms like her.

“We’ll replace her with a Mutate.”

“They don’t last” she reminded him.

“When it dissolves, we’ll let the authorities find her body...”

Did he have to think of everything?

“And what of the authorities. Have they located the boy yet?”

“No, not since you let him get away.”

She lowered her head in shame.

Rightly so.

He had set up that scenario perfectly. The boy was like most humans. He got a small taste of something strange so he let his curiosity get the better of him. He went back to the warehouse just as predicted. Things were supposed to be simple. He wasn’t sure why the boy was so important, just that he was connected to all of this somehow. It made sense now. The stone protected him. It wasn’t all the Lieutenant’s fault obviously. She had the boy, neither of them could have predicted the stone would activate and shield him like it did. It was a failed attempt to acquire him and the stone. He needed to know why this boy was so important to It. Why did It wake up to him and not someone else?

Someone like him?

The thought of a mere human bonding with the Goddess infuriated him.

It wasn’t supposed to work that way.

He tried to make it work though. The stone wouldn’t react to him. That’s why he gave it back to Grady. He figured that eventually, the stone would wake up. He thought for sure Nalia or her sister would come for it though. When the boy showed up, he was intrigued. It was the only reason he let the boy live. Just maybe this boy could lead him to his prize. Sadly the only thing the human led him too was more trouble. First the Stalker and now the rest of this mess.

He grunted.

“Clear up this mess,” he said, waving his hand at the body on the floor. “Then reacquire our targets.”

“What about the Stalker?”

He smirked. They were a dime a dozen.

“Kill her like the other. She’s no match for you, my Dear.”

He said that with the utmost confidence. He trained her himself after all.

His soldiers were the best of the best.

If anyone could find this boy, it would be them.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

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Author's Note:I had every intention of posting chapter last week, then the power company screwed us over. Due to lack of communication, they shut our power off and it took nearly the whole week to get it back on. So not only did it stop me from posting this chapter, it stopped me from writing Ch.10 too. I'm working on 10 now, hopefully I'll have it ready to post next week. I'm also currently working on something for the new contest. So I might end up splitting my writing time between a couple of different stories going forward.

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9.

I sneezed.

How did that old saying go?

Someone must be thinking about you?

I shook off the thought, needing to concentrate more on what was going on in the present. Particularly the situation at hand. I looked over at Dey, who was standing near the window. The curtains were closed but that didn’t seem to bother her in the least. I couldn’t help but wonder if X-ray vision was one of her superpowers. I also couldn’t stop staring. She was fully clothed now but I couldn’t stop thinking about what I saw less than an hour ago. She was a beautiful woman, with or without her clothing. The funny thing was, I’m not sure she actually knew it. I think that’s what made her more beautiful.

“You’re distracted,” she said after our very long hour of silence.

“What?”

“We don’t have time for your thoughts, we have to concentrate.”

Wait, could she read minds too?

She turned to me, an impish smile on her face.

“Your pheromones give you away,” she said, stepping away from the window. “You are young and at that age but now is not the time.”

And there goes the mood.

Ok, so there was no mood.

She was right though.

I was distracted.

I was more than a little confused too. I had a Goddess in my head and she just told me in a dream that I was her Archon. Well, temporary one but still her Vessel nonetheless. I thought about telling Dey everything but something stopped me. I knew I should trust her but there was something about this whole thing that felt off. If I had a Goddess around my neck, how had she not noticed? She said she was a Stalker, she said she was looking for this renegade princess. Yet she was here with me, instead of fulfilling her mission?

It didn’t make any sense.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked, trying to distract my betraying thoughts.

“We need to leave this place,” she said, finally stepping away from the window.

She flicked her wrist and suddenly that metallic looking staff appeared in her hand. No, not a staff. It was a spear of some kind but it had sharp knife-like points at both ends. What had she called it again? A Kagan? No a Kaagan.

“What is that anyway?” I asked, looking intently at the spear.

“It is the weapon of my people,” she said, twirling the spear as if it was made of paper.

Sure that explained everything.

She saw my look of confusion. “We do not have time for a full explanation but I will try to elaborate” She swung the spear around her body, wielding it effortlessly. “I come from a jungle planet, I mentioned this before, yes?” I nodded and she continued. “From an early age, the people of my Tribe are trained as warriors. First with practice weapons then when we come of age, we participate in a ceremony and at the end of it we are awarded with our Kaagan.”

“A ceremony, like the one to chose the Archon?”

“Not exactly,” she said with a sad smile. “All the youths in the village are sent out into the wild to hunt a Grogar, it's a large beast. Those who survive the Hunt pass the test.”

“Those that survive?”

“It is a very large beast.”

Wow.

So they sent kids into the jungle to die.

That’s messed up.

“It is our way,” she said, reading my thoughts again.

She walked over to the door, looking at it for a moment.

“Tell me about your authorities. Do they wield weapons?”

“Yes, but they only use them if they’re threatened and ONLY if they’re fired upon first.”

“Fired?”

“They’re guns.”

She was still giving me a confused look, so I made a "hand gun" with my thumb and index finger. I followed it up with a little "pew pew" sound.

“Projectile weapons?” she asked, I nodded. She scuffed. “How cowardly.”

Cowardly or not, they got the job done. Say what you will about guns or gun control or the like. My father was a police officer, I was all for guns. If used responsibly of course. He already promised when I was old enough he’d take me to get certified. It wasn't on the top of my priorities list but I think agreeing to it made Dad happy. After all, there were few things we actually had in common. I think he thought if he showed some kind of interest, he might win some kind of points with me. Taking me to the range wasn’t my ideal place but I could sacrifice my discomfort for his happiness.

“Whatever you think about them or their weapons, they’ll be onto us soon.”

It was only a matter of time after all.

Our faces were all over the news. Someone was bound to have seen us come this way. Possibly even the motel manager. We needed to get out of here. The faster, the better.

After figuring out some kind of plan in my head, we set out.

I was quick about returning the room key. Thankfully there was a different person at the desk this morning than last night. It was strange. Had the two of us really spent all night here? Everything was a bit foggy still. I remember renting the room yesterday. I remember lying low for a while with her, asking my questions, finding out the truth about her. The rest of the day and into the evening was blank. Though be fair it was weird hours. When I fell asleep and woke from the dream, it was barely five am. Now it was nearly eight or so, which meant the police had a three-hour head start on us. Grace had mentioned they were at our house, probably rifling through my stuff. A small part of me wanted to run home and forget all of this but I knew it wasn’t possible now. I was committed to this cause, wherever it led.

Which reminded me…

“What is the plan anyway?” I asked after the two of us walked out of the office.

“We have to find the princess,” she said as she started walking.

I’m not sure where too but I followed.

“Which one?” I asked as I rushed to keep up.

“What?”

“There’s two right” I was panting. Wow, she was fast. “Princesses. Jellia and her sister right?”

She didn’t say anything as we crossed through the parking lot. We hopped the guardrail and made it quickly across the street. It was still pretty quiet out. The road we quickly crossed had a diner on the other side. We made our way toward it but she made no attempt to go inside. Instead, she led me over to an abandoned picnic table under a large oak tree. We were barely at the table when she turned toward more, a fire in her eyes.

“You dare question my duty!” she snapped, her fists clenched at her sides.

“Of course not” I stammered, staggering backward.

I did not want to face an angry Dey.

The girl threw car doors.

She glared me down for only a few seconds though. The fire in her eyes dissipated. She sighed heavily and dropped to the bench. Gone was the violent alien girl who wanted to rip off my head. In her place was a sad and broken very human looking girl. I dropped down next to her, making sure I wasn’t too close just in case. Dey was one of those people who clearly wore their emotions on their sleeve. I’m not sure I was ready to close to an angry Dey again.

“I failed” she groaned. “I had one job. Find Jel but then Nal got into this. I should have never let her go.”

“Why did you?”

She scoffed. “I can’t disobey orders.”

I was confused.

“I thought you were from different planets?”

“We are,” she said then sighed. “The Zeekans have no true royal family. Though we have a Holy Goddess, her Archon is always chosen from one of the High Clans. My clan is not. So those who do not serve the Goddess, serve in other capacities. I was sent to Xernos at a very young age to train in the Academy. When I was old enough, I was stationed on Quel.”

I think I was starting to make some sense of all of this.

Dey was some kind of soldier. She was honor bound to serve the Quelan royalty.

“It's not your fault,” I said, hoping to cheer her up.

“It does not matter. I failed in my duty. Upon returning home, I shall petition to have my title removed. I do not deserve to be a Stalker.”

“Now you’re just being ridiculous.”

She smirked. “Is this how you humans cheer people up because you’re horrible at it.”

I laughed, placing a hand gently on her’s. “No this is a friend telling another friend to stop being hard on herself. You couldn’t have anticipated everything. Jellia getting sucked into that rift distortion or whatever was not your fault. You pursued her. You did your job. Its also not your fault that she’s not here. We’ll find her.”

She scoffed. “How?”

This time I smirked. “Dey, this is the age of communication and information. There’s no way an alien spaceship coming to Earth would go unnoticed for long.”

“Where would we even look?”

I sighed. Now, this was the part I was definitely going to regret.

“I know a guy.”

“You can trust this friend of yours?”

The cab pulled up across the street from Charlie’s place. I looked out the window, wondering what the hell I was even doing here. When I called Charlie from the diner payphone, I was so sure about things. Now that I was here though, I realized how stupid all of this was. Of course, I could trust him. He was my best friend. He was an alien nut. If anyone knew anything about spaceships arriving on Earth, it would be him. The problem---my problem---was that I didn’t exactly want to get him involved with any of this. It was too dangerous. I didn’t want to be involved in it either but I didn’t have a choice anymore.

Charlie did.

And now, I stupidly made that choice for him.

Shit.

“Here we are...ummm….” said the driver, turning around in his seat.

“Thanks,” I said quickly, handing him my last twenty.

I only had about a hundred bucks on me from before. I spent most of it on the motel room. Then we made a quick pit stop at one of the nearby gas stations to grab some fresh clothes, not the best selections but the hoodies hid our faces well. The driver took my money then gave me my half back with a toothy grin. Most of which was directed at Dey. Even with the hood, her attractiveness shone through. She seemingly ignored him as she climbed out of the vehicle. I thanked him again before clamoring out myself.

The cab didn’t stay around long.

I stopped to watch it go before turning my attention to the building in front of me. I get why Dad didn’t like this neighborhood. All the buildings were old and decaying, the streets were covered in garbage and the people, don’t even get me started on the people. It wasn’t a friendly place. Dad’s attitude about it pissed me off though. He was the Chief of Police, he went to all the city council meetings and not once did he propose anything be done about it. It was like the city had given up on this part of town. Given up on these people. It always angered me when cab drivers sneered at me for having them take me here or the way they bolted off as soon as I stepped out their cars.

“This is disturbing,” said Dey, standing to me.

“Tell me about it”.

So she did:

“I’ve been on your planet, in your city, for nearly one of your weeks now. I’ve seen many things. I have seen how you treat one another, I thought I had seen how you live. It's unbalanced. Your society, for all its advances in the two centuries, you have truly not progressed at all. How can one part of your city live in grandeur and the other part live like this? It's shameful.”

She was right.

I was ashamed that she was right.

“I can’t argue with you there.”

“Your leaders should be ashamed.”

“Our leaders are lazy” I added with a grunt. “Fat politicians who don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves...”

My father included.

She grunted too. “My people have ways of dealing with those types.”

She didn’t elaborate.

I’m glad for that.

After we were done mutually agreeing that my city sucked, we crossed the street. Charlie lived in one of the many identical brick duplexes. Many people passed on by without even bothering to wonder what type of people lived here. Not me. I started up the steps of Charlie’s place when I stopped to turn and look toward the direction of the warehouse district. Had it only been a few days ago? It felt like a lifetime. Dey looked too.

She muttered something under her breath but I couldn’t make it out.

Had it been some kind of prayer?

Maybe for her friend?

Turning toward the task at hand though, I pushed the buzzer for Charlie’s apartment.

The door clicked a second later.

I led Dey into the small foyer then up the narrow stairs to Charlie’s floor. Dey didn’t say anything but I saw the disgust on her face. When we reached Charlie’s door, I knocked once. We had this code. Whenever I visited I always knocked once so he knew it was me. In return, he knocked a few times depending on who was home. If his Mom was home, it was just once. If Jay was there it was twice, if both were there it was three times. Three knocks was the signal for me not to come inside. Jay and their Mom fought constantly. It was not a good place to be.

Two knocks greeted me.

Great.

A second later, the door opened.

Charlie looked from me to Dey and back to me. When his eyes scanned my face, for a moment I saw confusion.

It was gone just as quick though.

He turned to Dey. “Wow, you’re tall.”

She nodded. “My people take pride in their height.”

“Right,” he said, bobbing his head like an idiot. “Well come inside.”

To say Charlie’s apartment was small was an understatement. I tried not to notice but sadly I always did. There was a tiny living area that opened right into the kitchen area. It also fairly small. Both areas led to a hall with three equally small rooms. The sad price to pay to live in this part of town. Dey followed my eyes around the room, directly to where mine was currently looking: on Jay. Charlie’s brother wasn’t a bad person per se, he just had this way about him.

“Hey, who’s the babe,” he asked, eying Dey up like she was a side of beef.

“WAY out of your league,” said Charlie, ushering us down the hall to his room.

When we got inside, he made sure the door was securely locked.

“Sorry about that,” he said, clearing a stack of comics off his desk chair so he could sit.

Dey and I awkwardly took up residence on the edge of his bed.

There really wasn’t a lot of room for three people but we’d manage.

I watched as Dey looked from the bed and dresser to Charlie’s walls which were littered with sci-fi movie posters, game memorabilia, and newspaper clippings. The clippings outnumbered everything else. They covered most of the walls. They were part of Charlie’s obsession. His search for extraterrestrial life. A search I thought was absolutely crazy. Well, that is until I met the alien sitting next to me. When I called Charlie on the phone and told him I had someone he had to meet, he was intrigued. When I told him we were looking for something that only he could find, he was excited.

I’m not sure if he put two and two together but he anxiously told me to come.

So here we were.

Me, the alien nut and the real McCoy.

Charlie was the first to break our very long silence:

“So, Chase says you’re from out of town”.

I scoffed.

“Yes.”

“Where exactly?” he asked. “Ohio, Florida?”

She smiled. “Not this country."

“Oh, are you a new foreign exchange student then?”

I rolled my eyes. Was Charlie being dense or did he really not figure it out? He kept on guessing though, throwing out one country name after another. Dey either answered “No” or gave strange looks. This went on for a few minutes before I all but cracked.

“Show him” I finally snapped.

Dey raised her arm and flicked her wrist, that amazing spear of hers materializing out of nowhere. I thought Charlie was going to piss himself. He did curse though. He also fell out of his chair. I made a move to help him up but he slid away across the floor.

“No way, no fucking way!”

Finally, he got it.

“Yes, fucking way,” I said, rolling my eyes.

At this point, Dey dropped her hood and took off the sunglasses she was wearing. When she did, those amazing golden eyes of her eyes caught the light and sparkled.

Charlie’s mouth went fishbowl.

He stared for some time. No one said a thing. I couldn’t help but wonder what thoughts were going through his head right now. I was the skeptic but the truth was thrown in my face. I had no reason to doubt it because I’d seen it. I thought maybe visually showing Charlie might help ease things for him. Looking at my friend now though, I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. He should have been excited---this was the moment he’d been waiting for all his life---and yet, he looked…

“Amazing” he finally said in a low voice.

Ok maybe not.

Charlie finally recovered from his stunned shock. He slowly got to his feet. He approached Dey slowly, raised his hand and poked her cheek. I waited for her to lash out but when she didn’t, I sighed in relief. She did smack his hand away though. Charlie actually giggled. Well, this was going well. He backed away a second later, dropping back into his chair.

“I have so many questions...”

Of course, he did.

“Those can wait, first we...”

He didn’t seem to hear. He quickly launched into his questions, seemingly forgetting I was even here. They started out simple enough---where was she from. Dey told him about Zeeka and The Foundation. Which of course opened up a whole new set of questions. Charlie wasn’t just an alien geek, he was big into astronomy. So many of his next questions were purely science related. Ranging from what galaxy she was from, to how she could breathe oxygen and how she was speaking our language. Honestly, they were pretty smart too because I never really thought to ask those myself.

“Zeeka is on the edge of your galaxy” she explained.

She flicked her wrist, a holographic planet appeared in her palm. It was the coolest thing ever.

“How in the...” asked Charlie, mesmerized. “What is this?”

Dey smiled. “At a young age, every denizen of the Foundation is given an implant. It allows us to do a variety of things. Like summon my Kaagan for instance or bring up this star chart.”

Now that was cool.

“It allows you to speak our language as well?”

Dey smiled then turned to me. “Your friend is very smart, I’m impressed.”

Charlie flushed.

I rolled my eyes.

“What else can it do?” he asked, excitedly on the edge of his seat.

I groaned. This could go on for hours if I didn’t put a stop to it. I also didn’t like the way she was smiling.

"Look we could spend hours here with all your questions” I quickly interfered. “We came here for a reason.”

Dey nodded, Charlie sighed.

“Charlie,” I said, drawing his attention. “We need your help finding a ship.”

Whatever disappointment that he had before melted away quickly. His eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store. He spun around in his chair, cracked his knuckles and opened his laptop. He started typing furiously. I tried to keep track of all the motion on his screen but it was too fast. When he finally stopped, there were several grainy pictures on his screen. Most of them I’d seen at one point or another. They were all the “aliens” he’d been tracking over the years. Most of them were hoaxes even if he didn’t want to admit it. Dey leaned closer too.

“These are...” she said, as he scrolled through one after another. She sighed. “They’re useless.”

Charlie sighed. “What are you looking for?”

She flicked her wrist in front of him.

Once again a holograph appeared. This one was different than before. Instead of the floating planet, there was a sleek black shape of some kind. It looked a bit like an arrowhead but very smooth. The surface of it almost shimmered. She tapped the image with her finger and it changed. The sides of it folded out into wing-like structures and the sleek black surface gave way to one that had a dull shine. There were seams that formed in this metal, clearly indicating a door of some kind.

“This is a Class Z scout ship,” she said, making sure we both got a good look. “Pride of the Quellan Navy. We use these for long ranged interstellar flights. They’re two manned craft. Jellia stole one when she fled. Nalia, Nox and I took ones to pursue her.”

Then that meant there were at least three of these on the planet somewhere.

"Hey Chase” said Charlie after a moment. “Doesn’t that look a bit like a Stealth Bomber?”

Huh.

I squinted at the image again.

The ship was different. It was a lot sleeker and shinier but Charlie did have a point. I could definitely see some similarities between the two.
Well, the original anyway.

“What are you talking about?”

Charlie opened another page on his screen. He quickly typed B-2 and brought up an image. He enlarged it so Dey could take a closer look. Now that I saw it myself, there was very little doubt. The B-2 and Dey’s Class Z were very similar. The Class Z was slimmer though, more streamlined. No doubt designed to navigate space. It was also made from a different material. There was no metal on Earth that could ripple and shine like that. Plus the Class Z had some kind of morphing technology. The way it rippled and transformed like that. We’d never in a million years be able to replicate it.

We clearly tried though.

“Your people stole Quellan technology” she finally sneered.

“I think repurposed might be a better word.”

“This craft,” she asked, still seething. “Where can I find one?”

We both laughed.

She gave us looks.

“We’re not going to be able to get anywhere close to one of those” explained Charlie.

“That won’t be a problem for me.”

I saw that look in her eyes. She wanted to do something crazy.

“Dey, it's a lost cause,” I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. “The B-2 is an older model. We use far advanced craft now. It's clear we used a Quellan design though. It just stands to reason that Jellia is on Earth or was." I turned to my knowledgeable friend. “Charlie, when was the B-2 made?”

He shrugged then quickly typed. “It was shrouded in secrecy for a while but I think 1975.”

75.

That was like forty years ago.

“Time travel, Dey,” I said, turning to her. “You said you hit her ship, is it possible she went forty some odd years into the past?”

She nodded. “Rift technology is still very chaotic. We only use it for long flights. With the damage she sustained, she should have never activated her Rift drive. Especially so close to your planet. I’m no scientist but I’ve flown many Rift capable craft. I know the risks. Jellia was very inexperienced. Not only is it possible but very plausible.’

Charlie squealed.

“AREA 51!” he shouted, jumping to his feet. “I FUCKING KNEW IT!”

I groaned.

I was never going to live this down.

Dey gave him a strange look.

I quickly explained. “About seventy some odd years ago, there was an incident outside a little town called Roswell, in New Mexico. Many locals claimed an alien spacecraft crashed near there. There’s been conspiracies about it for years, including a massive government cover-up. They brought the craft and the alien bodies to a secret government base code-named Area 51.”

"The very same base the B-2 was developed at, Chase!”

I ignored him.

Dey did not. “A Class Z, damaged by the amount of firepower it took, would not have been able to land safely. Especially after going into an emergency Rift jump.”

This time my eyes popped open.

“What are you saying?”

“I think your conspiracy theorists were right.”

“YES!”

Charlie started to do a stupid little dance.

I was flabbergasted.

Roswell wasn’t a hoax.

Oh, God.

“You know what this means, Chase?” she asked, excited too. “We have her!”

“Not that easy...”

I was going to further explain why it wasn’t so easy but I was interrupted by the blaring sound of police sirens.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF