Cricket comes up to me, yammering about all the teachers that have yelled at her throughout the day.

"Why can't you be NORMAL, Cricket? Blah, blah, blah, too many questions! I mean, seriously, you ask one… two…. maybe ten… questions about Silkwings and get THAT kind of response? It's not like….."

As she chatters on like she always does, I begin thinking. Does Cricket have all these questions because she knows Queen Wasp can't hear her? Or is it something else?

Whatever it is, she's lucky. I'd give anything to be free of mind control.

No, No, NO! Queen Wasp will hear you, Katydid! No treason thoughts, no bad mouthing, no-

"Katydid?" Cricket grabs my shoulder. "Are you okay? You started mumbling to yourself."

I smile at her. "Yeah… I'm fine…"

When we get home, Cricket darts off to do her thing, while I head to my room. I collapse in my bed and think some more about the Mind Controlling.

Maybe I'm being paranoid… maybe the Queen can't hear everything I'm saying….

Still, why take that risk…..

Where does Cricket go when the Queen takes over? The library, most likely…

Does Cricket ever wish she could be Mind Controlled? Probably not….

If Queen Wasp ever found out about Cricket, what would she do?

Would she force every other Hivewing out to look for her?

Would she leave her alone?

Would she take her away?

Would I have to involuntarily hurt my sister, all because of a Queen who can't leave me to my own mind?

In and out, thoughts float through my head. Asking questions, posing threats. My questions only seem to lead me to more questions, hardly any answers. Some appear to be calm, only to push me closer to an existential crisis. I recall the sensation of waking up, not where I used to be, things I did that I didn't mean to do.

Is there any way to be like Cricket?

Will she ever leave me alone?

Cricket comes in. She sits next my bed and says nothing for a few moments.

Then she speaks.

"Do you think there are other Hivewings like me, or am I just lucky?" She asks.

I roll over to look at her. "What do you think?"

"I mean, I can't get ANY information on how the Mind Control works, thanks to the teachers, and I guess I could try asking some other Hivewings, but they already think I'm weird enough. You're the only one I can really talk to about it." Cricket traces circles on the floor with a claw and grins. "Maybe I should ask the teachers! They LOVE me!"

I laugh. "Yeah! 'What's that, Cricket? You ask too many questions AND you can't be mind controlled? Well, that just makes you my FAVORITE student!'"

"But I thought I already WAS your favorite student, Professor!" Cricket jokes, then stands. "Why my teachers can't take a joke is another question I'll never have an answer to."

I grin, and for the next half hour or so, we make jokes and talk. These are the moments I love. Where I can just talk to someone who is so unburdened by the reality of the Hive. The thoughts disperse, and for those few moments, I feel like myself.

In those few moments, I'm not one of Queen Wasp's puppets to control.

I'm not another Hivewing.

I am Katydid.

And in those few moments, that's all I need to be.

Myself.

This is the feeling I enjoy the most. And I never want it to leave.

But, sadly, all good things must come to an end.

Cricket notices my change in demeanor as black spirals begin to cloud around my vision. It's like I can FEEL the darkness that is Queen Wasp, creeping its' way deeper into my mind to consume me.

"It's happening again, isn't it?" Cricket says worriedly. I nod to the best of my ability. Cricket turns to hide, casting one last look at me in this helpless state, and flees.

Slowly, bit by bit, I lose myself. First my head, then my neck, my wings, limbs, tail, all of me, being pulled out of my own control. More blackness clouds my vision, making it hard for me to distinguish what is and isn't there. I'm involuntarily giving up my own body, succumbing to her. I close my eyes as the last bit of me is yanked away, clouding my eyes, losing my body, and before I fully give up my mind, I hear my conscious wisper one last question.

What will I do this time?

And then, I am gone.

Wake Up.

Wake Up.

WAKE UP!

I jolt up with a start. I'm standing back outside the school.

What was I doing here? I ask myself, then brush away the thought. I stretch, remembering how good it feels to be back in my own thoughts and be in control of my own body. I wonder where Cricket hid this time. I ponder the possibilities as I head home.

She could've gone to the library. Her favorite place in the world.

Maybe she ran around and headed back home when me and dad left the house.

Who knows where she went?

When I get home, I call for dad. He's not home, and my words are lost on the wind.

Wasp must've taken him farther than me, if she even took him at all.

After a little more scrounging around I realize that Cricket isn't home either.

She must still be hiding. Either she doesn't know that we're free, or maybe there are still Hivewings under control. In that case, it's smarter for her to hide.

Seeing that I have the whole house to myself, I decide to take a nap. I head back to my room and lay down, still thinking about where Cricket might be.

She's probably fine. Cricket's hidden for longer than this. She'll be home soon.

Five days Later.

It's been about five days since I last saw Cricket. The queen has taken me over a few more times, but even then I still have no idea where my sister is.

I don't bother talking to anyone as I make my way to school. I know that any conversation I get myself into is going to lead to pity. Sorry to hear about Cricket, Katydid. She'll turn up eventually.

It's like I'm the only one not possessed by Queen Wasp, and all these dragons are her, reassuring me that everything will be okay. She tells me that it'll be okay because she doesn't want me going out to look for her, because there's a chance she could be hiding something. Which she might be.

And I don't even CARE if she hears me. For all I know, Cricket's disappearance could be HER fault. The one dragon who understood my thoughts, the one caring member of my family, my own SISTER, could be dead, and Queen Wasp wants to cover it up.

Well, Queen Wasp, if you are to blame for Cricket going missing, then I don't care that you might be hearing this. If my sister is dead, and it turns out to be YOUR fault, then I'm GLAD you're hearing me rant. In fact, I don't even care if you aren't hearing this. After what you've been making me go through, just to find a single dragonet, then I believe I deserve a moon-forsaken break, you hear?!

No reply. I grumble to myself about just having an entire imaginary rant with the Queen in my head. Not that it matters. No one heard me.

I'm about one block away from the school when I see a crowd of Hivewings crowded around something. I'm about to keep walking when one Hivewing calls to me.

"Hey Katydid! I think you might want to see this!" He shouts. Curious, I push my way to the front of the crowd.

And I see it.

And suddenly, Cricket's disappearance makes sense. Everything falls into place, like pieces of a puzzle, and I feel faint. On the wall, wedged between two Silkwing WANTED posters, is something that nearly tears me apart.

A WANTED poster of my sister.

Yeeeeaaaahhh…

So this exists now.

I hope you guys liked it, I'm not used to writing short stories like this. I'm used to spreading everything into multiple different chapters, not cramming everything into one whole chapter (Which might explain why A WoF Halloween Special was so crappy.)

But yeah, since I didn't have a lot of motivation to continue writing the next chapter of Peculiar, I just went with this. I hope you like it!

Stay Swag,

~Indigo