Disclaimer: The Host belongs to Stephenie Meyer. I just like to play in her world from time to time.
A/N: The timing is a little off because well… I wasn't really sure about when this took place or how fast the take-over was so I just decided to wing it. I really don't even know where this came from... I was working on something else entirely when it popped up and I couldn't stop writing it. The song Honey and the Moon by Joseph Arthur inspired this and that is also where I got the title from. Please review!
Honey and the Moon
Every tick of the clock seemed to mock him. The second hand moved at an alarming pace, tearing away at the hole where his heart should be. It was getting larger, almost too large now, and he was certain it was going to swallow him whole. Ian sat beside him in the passenger seat of the small, non-descript sedan they had managed to steal back in Oregon. They were across the street from a Trader Joe's parking lot in a small town just an hour outside of Los Angeles.
"We should probably get out of here," Ian said, eyeing the way the sun lit up the sky as it rose over the grocery store. The golden light was like a disease that turned the two brothers into creatures of the night. They couldn't stay out in the daylight; it would expose them for what they were: humans that still possessed their free will.
He didn't want to go. Staring at the black tar pavement only made things worse but he couldn't leave. He was supposed to wait for her, he had promised to meet her here. And she should have been here by now. Her plane had gotten into Vegas four weeks ago, and it was only a four hour drive from there to here. He knew he shouldn't have let her go off to her mother's by herself. She was supposed to keep herself safe. He would never forgive her if she let herself get taken.
"Maybe something held her up," Ian suggested, trying to explain away her absence. His brother's kindness, while appreciated, was getting on his last nerve. Why couldn't he just say what he was thinking? They had gotten her. They must have! She would have never kept him waiting like this. He didn't say anything as he started the car up and drove to the alley they had been hiding in. It was just large enough for the car to fit in and it was behind an abandoned shopping complex. They usually slept in shifts so they would always be on alert. It would be just plain stupid to let their guard down now. The parasites were everywhere. They didn't even try to hide their existence any more, probably because they knew they had won. He and Ian were the anomalies, members of an endangered species that would soon be completely extinct. He took the first shift, not that it really mattered. He hadn't slept in days. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was one of those worms crawling into the head of the woman he loved.
He could still remember the day he had learned of the invasion. Ian had come bursting into the apartment he shared with Jodi, screaming about how their parents weren't really their parents anymore. At first he had thought that Ian had just watched too many episodes of The X-Files but then he started to notice it too. They had become so… nice. Not that their parents were assholes but they were just acting a little bit too nice. They started having these dinner parties at their house and invited people they didn't even know. And by the end of the night, all of their guests were just as weirdly nice as they were. But what had really sold it was the fact that his father had lost his competitive edge. They were all into sports, him, Ian and their father, and they all enjoyed winning simply for the bragging rights it brought. And during one of their weekly one-on-one games of basketball, his father had simply let him win. He kept giving the ball up to Kyle and didn't even call him on any of the fouls he had made. That combined with the small scar on the back of his neck convinced him that Ian hadn't, in fact, lost his mind. That was the last night he had seen Jodi.
--
He was dreaming again. He knew he was dreaming because he had this dream every time he fell asleep. He was dreaming and he couldn't stop it, even though all he wanted was for it to end. Because he had seen this before, he had lived it and he wanted nothing more than to go back and change it.
He had gone home upset that night, so upset that he was ready to put a couple of holes in the walls. But he had been too panicked to do anything but find her and get her out of there. He didn't have a plan, he didn't have any place to go, he just had keep her safe.
"Jodi!" he yelled as soon as he walked in the door.
She came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel and looking more than a little alarmed. "What's wrong, Kyle?" she asked, her sweet voice laced with her concern.
"He was right!" he said as he rushed into their bedroom and got their suitcases out from under the bed. "Ian was right!"
"What do you mean he was right?"
"He was right about everything! My parents aren't my parents, they're pod people," he said.
"How do you know?" she asked.
"They have these small scars on the back of their necks, right under their hairlines, and they're just so fucking nice," he said.
She started to laugh but stopped at the look on his face. He was not trying to be funny. Jokes were the furthest thing from his mind at that moment. "Kyle, you're serious about this?"
"Do I look like I'm joking around, Jodi?" he asked. "They're here! They're taking over! We've got to get out of here!"
"What?" she asked, confusion written all over her face. "Where are we going to go?"
"We're going to go into hiding," he said simply. "We're getting the fuck out of here and we're going to hide somewhere where they'll never find us."
It was a sign of her absolute trust in him, the fact that she believed him. Or maybe she had already had her own suspicions that she had never voiced. But she was in. He knew that she would go where ever he went. "But what about your parents?"
"It's too late for them!" he said. "You heard what Ian said. The aliens get in their brains somehow and erase everything about them. They're already gone. We've got to leave before they get us too."
"What about Ian? You're not just going to leave your little brother here, are you?"
"No," he said, shoving more and more clothes in the suitcases. "We'll grab him on our way out."
"What about my parents?" she asked, the horror washing over her face as she realized that her mother was clueless out in Las Vegas. "I have to go get them."
"What?" he asked, whirling around to stare at her in shock. "We can't risk it, Jodi! You said yourself that you haven't talked to her in almost a month. She could already be one of them!"
"I have to try, Kyle! I won't be able to live with myself if I don't at least try to save her!" And he knew that she would do anything she could to save her mother. Hell, she would do anything to save any of her family or her friends. It was one of the things he loved so much about her, the selfless way she would put the ones she cared about before herself. "Look," she said, "I'll go by myself –"
"What? No way!" he shouted. "You're not doing anything by yourself! I'm –"
"Kyle, listen!" she shouted, grabbing his arms with her small hands before he could really work himself up. "I'll fly out to Vegas tonight. My mom wanted me to come visit her anyways. We can meet up afterwards, in California. I know a place in Baja. My uncle built it years ago, far away from everyone. It'll be a perfect place to hide."
They argued more about it but in the end, she got her way. She usually did. He had always had a hard time saying no to her. And she was just like him, once she got an idea into her head, she would stop at nothing to get it done. Her sheer determination and complete stubbornness was something that drove him absolutely crazy, and yet it always made him love her even more. They agreed to meet up in a parking lot outside of a supermarket outside of L.A. They both knew the town and thought it would be a normal place for two people to meet in. Hopefully, the aliens wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
He drove her to the airport but grabbed her wrist before she could get out. "Jodi, listen to me," he said softly. "Keep yourself safe, okay? If you suspect anything, I want you to get out of there with or without your mom."
"It'll be okay, Kyle," she said, leaning in to kiss him. She tasted like cinnamon and something he couldn't really describe but it felt like home. He didn't want to give this up, especially now that there were real, actual dangers out there. He couldn't let her go. He knew that when she left, she would take his heart with her. He didn't know how he'd survive without her, even for a week.
When he pulled away, he held her face softly between his hands. "Do not let them get you. I won't ever forgive you if you do."
"Okay. The same goes for you, too," she said, smiling at him. It lit up her whole face. He was glad that this was the last memory he'd have of her, smiling that small, sweet smile that had made him fall for her in the first place. It was a smile that would fill him with warmth in any situation and, though he would never admit it, made his knees weak even after all of this time. He loosened his grip on her arm and watched as she got out and grabbed her bags from the bed of the truck. She walked over to his open window and leaned in to kiss him again, this one short and sweet. "I love you," she whispered.
"Be careful," he whispered back, pulling her in for another kiss that he poured all of his love into.
"I will," she said when she pulled away. Then she turned and walked into the airport. He couldn't shake the feeling that this was the last time he would ever see her, the real and true Jodi. He turned the car around and headed off to Ian's place.
--
He woke up to something hitting the hood of the car. "Shit, Kyle!" Ian said, wide awake now. "You were supposed to be on the look-out!" He couldn't believe he fell asleep, now he was going to be responsible for his little brother's death as well as his own. Because he and Ian had agreed that they would go down fighting instead of willingly give up their bodies. No one would occupy his body except for himself. He reached down under his seat and found the machete that he had stolen from someone's garbage in Sacramento.
He looked up and saw two men. One was older with a beard that was slowly turning from gray to white, a large cleft-tipped nose and hazel eyes that were set deep into his wrinkled skin while the other was tall and definitely on the older side too, although not as old as the first one, with pale brown hair. The first one carried a rifle while the other had large flashlight. It was strange though, the only worms who used weapons were Seekers and it didn't make sense for only one of them to carrying. And he'd never seen one of them with a rifle before, usually they used some kind of handgun. They'd have a slight edge in the fight but it would work out in the end since Kyle and Ian planned on taking their bodies down with them. They both got ready to jump out of the car and fight for their lives but the second one did something that was completely absurd. He turned the flashlight on and pointed it at his eyes and then his brother's. Then the two of them shared a strange look before the first one lowered his gun.
"What was that about?" Ian asked, his hand hesitating over the door handle.
"I don't know," he said. "Let's go!" They both jumped out of the car, ready to fight. He raised the machete while Ian had his fists up.
"Easy, boys," the older man said. "We're human too. Look." The second one raised the flashlight and pointed it towards the older one's eyes first and then his own.
"So what?" he asked. "What does that prove?"
The second one spoke up for the first time. "The aliens… their eyes reflect the light. That's how you can tell the difference between them and humans. Didn't you know that?"
They didn't know that, which only made them more suspicious. It's not like they would know if these two strange men were telling the truth. "How do we know we can trust you?" Ian asked, his eyes narrowed.
"I'm not shooting at you, am I?" the older one asked.
"That doesn't prove anything. You might just be good at manipulation like the rest of them," he said.
"No," the younger one said. He turned around and they could see that he didn't have any scars on the back of his neck. He lowered the machete then. They seemed to be telling the truth but he would have to be on his guard.
"I'm Jeb and this is Doc," the older one said, pointing to the one who had showed them his neck. "Where are you boys headed?"
He shrugged. "No where in particular."
Jeb pursed his lips and then said, "I have a place in Arizona, out in the desert. We came up here to get some medical supplies."
"We thought they'd still be at least pretending to be human," Doc said, shaking his head. "It's the strangest thing. It's like they just decided to reveal themselves almost over night."
"They know they outnumber us," he said softly. "They have no reason to hide now."
"Right," Jeb said, staring at him in shock. It was almost as if he hadn't expected Kyle to be smart. He wasn't sure if he should feel insulted or not. Jeb was silent then and it looked like he was thinking something over. "You're welcome to come back to my place if you like. It's completely safe. None of them will ever be able to find it unless someone tells them exactly where it is."
"And how do you plan on stopping anyone from telling them?" Ian asked skeptically. Jeb raised the rifle in his hands slightly, effectively answering Ian's question.
He turned to Ian. "I'm in if you are," he said softly. It was a hard decision to make. Leaving this town meant giving up all hope that he would ever see Jodi again. On the other hand, staying here would only put them in danger. Doc was right, the parasites were showing their true colors now. In fact, there were more of them here than there were humans. It would only be a matter of time until they were taken. And he didn't want to be one of them, he would rather die.
"What about Jodi?" Ian asked.
He just shook his head. He didn't want his brother to know that he had to face the obvious. Jodi was not Jodi anymore. The filthy worm they put in her head had probably already told the Seekers where they could find him. Holding on to her would only kill the both of them faster. He probably would have stayed if he could have gotten Ian to go on without him but he knew that Ian was determined to stay with him. And he couldn't make Ian live through losing his parents and his older brother all in one month. "Jodi's not coming," he said, his voice hardened from the pain he felt by simply saying that. They left their car abandoned in the alley and hopped into the one that Jeb and Doc had been using. On the way to the hospital, they passed the supermarket's parking lot. It was full of men and women in dark clothes that were all on high alert, carrying small handguns in holsters on their hips. That was the moment that he lost his humanity. He couldn't even mourn over Jodi. All of his pain was burned away by a hatred for those parasites that was so strong, he was sure it would burst out of his pores at any second.