THIS STORY WILL BE PUT ON HOLD UNTIL I FINISH "HOW TO BE ONE", WHICH IS THE PREQUEL TO THIS STORY. READING THIS STORY WILL GIVE AWAY SPOILERS FOR THE PREQUEL, SO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
This is an idea I've had for a while, but have never put to paper. So here's the first chapter. I hope you all like it. Some ideas I'm still working with, so if anything seems off to you, let me know. This story is going to be written in both River and Anne's point of views-as is only fair as they equally share the same body-so every chapter will start with the name of whose POV we're in as well as the chapter name.
River: A new additionto the family
I looked out our side-view mirror nervously as a sleek, silver car switched lanes. The seeker's vehicle seemed to be coming on faster than the other cars and I gripped the steering wheel as it drew even with our ice blue minivan. Seekers had not always made me feel this way. I used to trust them. That was before Anne, though. So long ago now that it's nothing but I dim memory that holds no comfort.
Relax, River. We've done this lots of times. You know they can't tell the difference. As long as your eyes still glow, they'll trust you, Anne reiterated for about the hundredth time in our head.
I sighed and nodded. I knew this, it didn't make me any less nervous to have one so near to us. We had people that depended on us, human people. Sometimes I was sure that the other souls could see that in our eyes, could tell that I had defected toward my host's side. That she and those children we protected mattered more to me than any Soul on this planet or any other.
But no, I knew she was right. We were safe as long as we could pretend to be the perfect little soul that we were supposed to be. But I knew that couldn't last for long. The children were growing bigger, getting hungrier, and every town we went to for food just meant more of a chance that we'd be caught one day.
The cry from the backseat alerted us that little Ivy was not happy with this long car ride and she wanted out, now.
One more mouth to feed, Anne sighed in the back of our head as her busy mind registered the cry and distracted her from calculating how many days the food we had gotten today would give us. We should have stopped in Bellmont as well.
"It would have looked suspicious having Ivy with us if we went into another store, and…" I paused as a stray thought from Anne caught my attention. "…And we couldn't have just left her, Anne! Her Soul-father was going to have her implanted, at only nine months old! Her Soul-mother was frantic to get her to someone who would let her live a normal life, she loved her child enough to give her up!" Didn't that mean anything!
Of course it means something, River. And I wasn't saying we shouldn't have taken her, Anne sighed. But we can't think that the seekers aren't monitoring that site we set up for those Souls to find us through. The only reason why they haven't shut it down is they're probably hoping to catch us, and you're too trusting. One of these days we're going to walk into a trap.
I knew Anne blamed herself for that one. It had been Anne's idea to create the web page where parents who didn't want to see the children they had grown to love changed by the insertion of a soul went to find another option. That option was having us take them in; it was a dangerous task, because once we agreed to take them we had to meet the worried parent in person to do the exchange. Every time we took in a new child we risked discovery and capture. If we were captured…
They'd kill me…and the children would starve. There was a bleak note in Anne's tone.
"They would have to kill us both, then. I told you, we are linked. They can't separate us…I won't let them," I reflexively grit my teeth and had to force my jaw to relax. I absent-mindedly reached one arm back to sooth little Ivy as we continued down the almost deserted highway toward the distant mountains on the horizon…toward home.
As we drove closer to home, my mind began to drift. Anne was thinking of HIM again, and it made me think of him too. We wished he would have stayed. We wanted him to stay. But we understood having family that depended on you for food and protection. So we let him go.
Wasn't that what you did with something you loved?
It didn't make us miss him any less. We remembered every detail of the last time we saw him. We never expected to ever see him again so our memories were precious.
"Sebastian," Anne called, grabbing his sleeve as we caught up to him. He turned around and looked down at us with sea green eyes in surprise. The blue jacket we had given him was buttoned up tight against the evening chill, and the new pants he had gotten from us as well would help him fit in better with the souls, from a distance anyway. His hole-infested pants and dirt smeared t-shirt would have given him away for miles. Sebastian's eyes traveled further down to the pack we held and he smiled.
"Anne, you didn't have to," he said as he took it from us.
"It's just a few things. Mostly water and some nutrition bars. River threw in a change of clothes too, in case you need it…" Anne trailed off uncertain, and Sebastian looked back to the road, eager to be gone it seemed. That made us sad.
I pushed my consciousness forward and grabbed Sebastian's arm again. "We'll miss you, 'Bastian. I-I'll miss you."
He smiled softly and kissed us on the cheek. "I'll miss you too, River. I'll miss both of you. Take care of those kids of yours."
We nodded and he turned back toward the road, shouldering the pack we'd given him. We stood at the edge of the tree line until we couldn't see even a speck of his retreating form, until dusk became too dark for us to see, before we turned back toward our hiding spot and the children we cared for.
A bump in the road pulled me out of reminiscing and I looked around us, worried my daydreaming may have taken us past our turn. But no, there was the last marker before we left the road.
I would have warned you, Anne said comfortingly, and I relaxed still further. Anne was always looking out for us. I looked around us for headlights in the dimming light and when I saw none I pulled the car off the main road and onto a tiny dirt path that wound through the thick tree growth. Parking the car a few miles away from the road under the camouflaged tarp we had built for that purpose we got out of the car, then eased Ivy out of the backseat, trying to keep her calm so that she didn't cry; the dense tree coverage would muffle most sounds, but we never knew who might be around and secrecy was everything.
Making our way down into the gully wasn't easy with a baby in hand, but once we entered the cave mouth I breathed easier. The cave opening was situated between two towering black hill spruce, and to get to the entrance the branches of the evergreens needed to be pushed aside. It was a good cover screen and we would have never found it on our own. One of the older children who we had found a number of years ago had once lived in this area and had retreated to this cave system for safety when the Souls had taken over. It was now our home base as well and we lived there with nineteen year old Emily, sixteen year old twins: Brendan and Corey and seven smaller children, most no older than nine.
Easing the child past the low ceilings near the entrance we walked some ways into the cave, finally coming out into the larger communal room where the sounds of childish laughter could be heard. When we rounded the corner we were met by a rush of children, who bombarded us with, "River! Annie! Momma! Look what Emmi found for us to eat! What did you bring home?"
Even though I loved them all, I still wasn't used to the exuberance of such small children. I started back when they came running toward us, retreating mentally as well as physically. But Anne was there to step forward and she laughed at all the questions the children shouted.
"Hush, little ones," Anne said affectionately as she handed a now crying Ivy over to Emily who hushed her gently. I was right there with Ivy, it was all a little too much sometimes. Anne laughed again, this time at me. They're not that bad, she chided me mentally before turning back to the children.
"Bren, Corey, I left the food in the car, if you would get it, please?" The twins nodded and headed toward the cave exit. "Sorry we were gone a little longer than planned, there must have been a human sitting in Cordon. There were a lot of seekers there, which forced us to go one town over, just to be on the safe side," Anne explained to Emily as she made her way toward the center of the room.
Or they were on the lookout for us, I repeated the worried comment that Anne had voiced when she saw all the seekers and mentally sighed. We wouldn't be able to take any children in for a while, it would be too suspicious if we were contacted again so soon anyway.
Anne nodded and sighed as well. Then she sniffed and looked down at the pot set on the fit pit. There were thick cuts of carrots, potatoes, peas and some sort of meat simmering in a thick soup. "Rabbit?" she asked Emily and our stomach grumbled for the fresh meat.
Emily nodded. "Was able to catch three fat ones this morning. Figured there wasn't any use keeping them and we'd all benefit from a big meal tonight." She smiled affectionately down at little Ivy who seemed to have quieted, even though she still looked around with wide, uncertain eyes.
Brendan and Corey came back in through the entrance, arms weighed down with cloth bags filled with non-perishable foods. As one, the children left us to circle around the twins and try to inspect what was in the bags. The boys expertly kept their precious food from falling into greedy hands and Emily finally called them all back with a simple, "soups done."
We sat down tiredly on a low stool by the fire and smiled when Brendan handed us a bowl. The soup filled our empty stomach and warmed us from the inside out. We watched as our family ate their fill and smiled, laughing occasionally and simply enjoying life.
This is how it's meant to be, Anne said and I silently agreed with her. No matter what, this was worth protecting.
I got this idea when I read about Kevin (from The Host book), whose host was strong enough to push his consciousness forward and block out the soul controlling his body; and wondered what would happen if a host and soul equally shared a body willingly. Hope you liked this little sneak peek of my story. Next chapter will be from Anne's POV, I just need to figure out how I want Sebastian to meet them, and what his initial reaction will be.