New story, set after the ending of the Host, maybe a bit less than a year. This first chapter is short, but I assure you that the rest won't be. Comment and let me know if I should continue, I'm just testing this out for now.

I wasn't expecting to see lights flashing. It caught me off guard, and I tripped over a seemingly harmless rock. I went down. I went down hard. My head hit another seemingly harmless rock, and I saw stars. Literally, because I rolled over onto my back and looked up at the pitch black night sky, rubbing my head. I looked around to see the source of the lights, and saw a jeep approaching. That was entirely bad news. Only one kind of...being would be driving a silver jeep in the desert, and that was a soul. I, being not of the soul kind, was in deep crap if they found me, which they had, it appeared, as they parked in front of me, leaving their lights on. I heard car doors open, and tried to crawl backward. My head was throbbing, and I lifted my hand up to feel blood. My stomach churned as I looked at my now red hand.

"Are you OK?" A small voice asked, sounding much like a 14 year old girl. Had to be a soul. A human would assume I was a soul, and attack, or run. Definitely a soul.

I tried to stand, but my head was spinning, and I fell back down.

"Help, guys! She's hurt."

There were more? Crap. Crap. Crap. More car doors opened, and two tall males and a tall female approached. The small female came forward, and as the light hit her eyes, it was proven to me that she was in fact a soul.

"Get away from me!" I yelled.

"Um, maybe I'm not the best person to approach her..." the girl backed up.

"All of you, please, stay away! I don't want a worm put into me! I want to stay me! Don't touch me!" I was pleading with the filthy souls, but what else could I do? I'd been living alone for weeks, and instead of becoming stronger, I had become weaker. Of course I had, without Chase there to help me.

"We're not souls."

I snorted, "Yeah, right. I saw her eyes."

The boy with jet black hair directed his eyes to the light. It had to be a trick, how could he not be a soul? Why would a regular human travel with a soul?

"What's going on?" I asked, trying once again to stand up, this time with the help of the boy with black hair. I was exhausted, possibly dehydrated. I had no choice but to lean on him, or I would fall again.

"We're humans, except Wanda. But she's friendly, she helps us." The other boy explained.

I shook my head, then winced when realizing that was a bad idea, "There's no such thing. Leave me."

"You'll die." The human girl protested, helping the black haired boy to carry me.

"Better dead than a parasite." It took so much breath to speak.

"You wont be a parasite, I promise."

And I had no choice but to believe her. Even if I didn't, it didn't matter. My whole world faded to black. I was in their hands.