'Something is scratching

Its way out

Something you want

To forget about

No one expects

You to get up

All on your own with

No one around'

The Fray-Little House

Chapter 1. Found

I took huge gasps of air as I flattened against the wall of an alley, peeking out periodically at the basically barren streets of the city, my heart stuttering. It wasn't that late at all, it was mostly empty, most of the parasites inside eating dinner. Although it disgusted me how they kept the habits that we had, it did make things easier when I was doing stuff like this. I slid down the wall, burying my face in my hands, trying to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth to stop from nearly panting as I was. Or was I suppose to breath in through my mouth and out through my nose? I couldn't remember and ended up inhaling the air in wrong, coughing lightly as I tried to clear my throat.

I was being incredibly stupid right now. I had willingly walked into a city filled with parasites'. It wasn't something that I hadn't done before, but still. It wasn't routine and it sent my body on edge, my fingers tingling with electricity. This time was especially not routine, when I needed food I usually stole from a home but recently I hadn't been able to get what I needed. So here I was, in the middle of a city (though it was a small one), getting ready to enter a grocery store. Something I hadn't done it years.

I had prepared myself though, keeping watch on other stores. They didn't seem to use money anymore, even though they still scanned everything, and they regarded each other so politely as if they were all friends. That was the part I would have trouble with. Regarding them as friends, being able to make small 'pleasant' conversation when all I really wanted to do was rip them out of the body they had stolen.

I ran my hands through my hair, having washed it earlier using someone's hose late last night. I had also washed my face and arms, stealing some clothes from the line. I looked clean enough, though probably a bit wild with my hair. I didn't have to worry about finding a hairbrush or having to go through the agony of working out all my tangles because my hair looked wild wither it was brushed or not.

I bit my lip nervously and slid on the sunglasses that I had found on the ground, sighing as I pressed my hands to my hips. I thought back to my young years of acting school, of what they taught me. Memories think of memories and absorb the emotions from that memory.

I hummed lightly, trying to get a calm casual feeling into my body as I rounded the block to enter the store. All too soon I was inside, being greeted by one of those damn parasites. I happily smiled back, and kept on my way, grabbing a cart. I looked down at the ground but thought that it might look too suspicious and so forced myself to look up.

Don't look suspicious; at all costs do not look suspicious.

I walked through each aisle, putting food into my cart. A lot of it was stuff that would last a bit, though I grabbed a few items that I could eat today and tomorrow. I couldn't get as much as I wanted, I was by myself and couldn't carry much when moving around. I had a backpack, which I had hidden before coming in here, and it had clothes and a couple books. I needed to be able to fit most of this food in my bag.

"Hello." I nodded and smiled at the parasite, repeating back my own greeting. There were still a few of them out, and they were much too friendly, wanting to talk to everyone they passed by. I hated them so much, I wanted to kill them all and bask in their blood.

I dropped a can and winced, the sound surprising me. Before I could reach down I saw a small pale child's hand reach out for it. I followed the hand to a skinny arm and then to a small body until finally I looked upon the beautiful face of a woman. I assumed it was a woman, the face was young but there was something about the expression on the face that spoke maturity.

"Thank you." I murmured, taking the can from her as I glanced at her golden hair. Did she pick that kind of a person to go into on purpose? Had she wanted to be beautiful? Or had she simply been lucky when getting a random body? I wondered what kind of a life the person would have had if it had not been stolen from them, would she have grown to be a model?

"You're welcome." Even the voice that came out of its mouth was beautiful. It was giving me a bit of an odd look but it walked away to join a tall red haired man. His eyes caught the light as he looked at me and I saw the truth of what he was. I hated them, I hated them all.

I quickly made my way to the checkout, trying to appear normal and not as if I was in a hurry. Parasites looked like they had all the time in the world. Which they did I suppose, as soon as their bodys died they moved on. There was no rush for anything if you had eternity.

I smiled at the cashier, a closed lip smile but he returned it back either way. I was glad that they couldn't look me in the eyes, couldn't see the danger hidden there.

"Why are you wearing sunglasses inside?" I tried to keep my heart in check; he was only asking out of curiosity I tried to remind myself, it's nothing more than that.

"They're prescription." I answered, trying to remember how they talked. They always spoke as if they were separate from the body, which they were. "I broke the regular ones by accident, this body is so clumsy." I had stuttered slightly. I had a speech problem and it came out when I was nervous or scared.

He accepted my answer and finished, handing me my two bags. He said good bye and I returned it, leaving the store. The night air cooled the sweat on my body and I let my smile slip away now that I was outside. I slid off the glasses, not able to see a darn thing in the dark with them on, and glanced behind me as I walked out of habit. The beautiful woman and the Ginger were standing there in the store, staring at me. I watched as their eyes widened and realized they must have known.

I turned back around and forced myself to walk to the corner, but as soon as I passed it I started running. The bags were weighing me down, although I wasn't much of a runner anyway. After a few heart clenching moments I thought perhaps I had overreacted. I slowed down and looked behind me just in case.

The Ginger was running towards me.

I turned into the alleyway, my head blank; the only thing I was aware of was my own fear and the loud sounds of our footsteps. I stop suddenly, staring in front of me. A fence. There was a fence in my way. Why? After having survived so long, why was I going to be caught today? I had only one option.

I dropped my bags and began to climb.

"Wait! I'm not going to hurt you!" The Redhead yelled at me, of course he would say that. They didn't consider it hurting us; we were expendable to them, just a way to survive. I didn't even bother to reply, just climbed. I cursed as I scraped my hand on a broken part of the fence, it beginning to bleed, but I ignored it. I hit the top of the fence but the pain of my hand on the bar made me blank out and I messed up on the footing. I slipped and my head hit the ground first, making everything go black. I was a goner.


When my eyes fluttered open a peeling white ceiling stared back at me. My hands slid over the sheets of the bed, closing into fists as they reached the pillow. I was in a hotel room; they had bought me to a hotel room? Why? My body was still waking up but my mind was racing. So many questions running through my head but no obvious answers.

Where exactly was I? Where was that soul? What had happened to me? Was I somehow a-?

I shivered as I pushed that question from my mind, sitting up from the bed. I slid off and walked to the slightly open door in the room, where I could see the white porcelain of a toilet. I tried to calm myself down, I couldn't be one I obvious had control over my body but I was still afraid. I had to make sure; I had to be completely and totally sure.

My face was completely white in the mirror, it and my hair dirty from the fall I had experienced. I needed a smaller mirror, I need to find one. My hands were shaking so bad that I was knocking over everything on the counter but I didn't really care about how much noise I was making, I had to make sure.

My fingers closed around a handle, the handle of a mirror. I moved my long locks of hair back away from my neck and the mirror shook terribly as I held it up and stared at the bigger mirror. Smooth skin, I searched quickly but there no scar, no damage on the back of my neck. I collapsed, sitting on the ground.

Tears began to slide down my face, sobbing in relief that I wasn't one of them. I was myself, I was human. I ran my hands through my tangled hair, so glad that it was still mine, my body was still mine.

I sat there after calming down a bit staring at the cabinets in front of me. He had been a parasite, I was sure of it, completely and totally. He must have been a seeker; no other would run after me like he had. So why hadn't he turned me in to be killed? Was this something new they did now? Keep the natural humans? Maybe we were like pets now? I hadn't seen anything like that before but there was no obvious answer here.

I was surprised as there were footsteps on the soft carpet and then as the door to the bathroom opened. They were back? I hadn't even heard the front door open, hadn't even had time to prepare myself.

It was the two parasites from before but four others. The new ones included a tanned woman, a teenage boy who looked related to her, and two tall, big men, one with golden hair and the other with black.

There was a high scream that I soon realized was my own as I scrambled, trying to escape. I was surrounded by parasites, what was I going to do? I was in the bathroom where the only escape was through the door which was blocked. My panicking only succeeded in me gripping the shower curtains and ripping them off. I fell on my ass after that, the moist plastic material floating down after me.

"Are you okay?" The tanned parasite asked me as she knelt down next to me, her face full of concern. I quickly grabbed at the shower curtains, pulling it over myself to hide. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of mildew, this was childish I was already caught. I should have been more mature, I had lost track of my age quite a while back, but I didn't know how to react to this. I was so confused and lost. I was going to be killed now, years of running and surviving only to end like this.

I felt someone pulling on my shelter and I held tight for a moment before simply letting go. I needed to accept the fact I was dead, there was no way for me to get out of this. A young face stared at me, the body could only be somewhere in its middle teens. Why did they send the young one?

"It's okay." He whispered, white teeth flashing in a gentle smile. "I'm human." I stared into his eyes as he moved his head to cause the bathroom lights to hit his face square on. There were no signs of him being a parasite, he was telling the truth he was human.

"Oh thank God." I whimpered, my body crumbling at the news. I glanced at the group and stiffened as I noticed two, two that I knew for a fact were parasites. The rest of the group appeared human, but this could have been a trick to lure me into a false sense of security. "But they're not." My voice squeaked when I had meant for it to be stronger. The youth glanced at the two I meant and simply smiled.

"That's just Wanda and Burns, they're nice souls. The rest of us are human though." He patted my hand happily, but I didn't stop glaring in hate at the two. The teen forced my attention back on him though as he pulled at my arm. "But I wanna know who are you? What's your name? How'd you survive so long? Are you by yourself? Wha-"

"Okay Jamie, that's enough." The tan beauty from before placed her hands on his shoulders, pulling him away. "We can ask questions later, right now we need to discuss some things with..." Her eyes looked at me expectantly, wanting an answer.

"Elizabeth." I answered her softly, eyes landing on the aliens again. "My name is Elizabeth."


A/N: So I've been actually working on this slowly off and on for a couple months now, revising and kinda creating ideas in my head and now this first chapter is finished. I'm rather happy with it now, though of course I'm always open to advice. I proof read this myself so there might be some things that are wrong, but please tell me what you think.