ALONE

Prologue

Hi, I'm Cassie. It's been two years since I last saw my friends. In my heart, I already know what happened to them. At first I still held on to hope, hope that maybe, just maybe they'd return. All that hope is gone now. I know I have to face reality. They're gone, and they're never coming back. Although whenever I think about Ax, Rachel, Jake, Tobias, or Marco I cry, I know it is time to move on with my life.

After all, I'm a hero now and everyone knows it. My mom and dad are proud of me and so is everyone else in the world. I just wish that my friends could get the same recognitions as I did because without them, I surely wouldn't have made it this far. It pains me to even speak of this to you, but I feel you have to know the truth.

The war isn't over yet. In fact, it's just begun…

Chapter 1

"Where are we going?" I asked my friend, Ronnie Chambers, excitedly.

Ronnie smiled and said, "You'll see. Hop on."

I climbed aboard his motorcycle. He started the engine with a roar and in no time we were on the road. "Seriously, what's the big surprise?" I asked.

Ronnie just smiled.

I wrapped my arms around his waist to keep myself from falling off the motorcycle. I could feel the vibrations of him chuckling. He stopped at a red light and asked, "Hey Cass, you watched any TV lately?"

It was a random question, I guessed, he was just trying to get a conversation going. "No, I've been really busy taking care of all the animals and such."

My answer seemed to satisfy him. For the rest of the way, he was silent. Then he curved into a parking lot and parked his motorcycle. He put his helmet on one of the handles and I put mine on the other. As I looked around, I realized we were at the movie theatre. It was a new addition to the neighborhood and boy was it beautiful. The lights were flashing in rainbow colors and it was huge. The shape of it reminded me of a castle.

"C'mon," Ronnie said. He took my hand and led me to the ticket booth. Then he got two tickets and handed me one. "You won't believe this," he said.

I felt butterflies in my stomach. So he was taking me to the movies, like a…date? I couldn't help but blush. Fortunately, he didn't see me do so.

When we got in, the ticket clerk took our tickets and punched holes in them to certify them. She pointed to the direction of our movie. Just as we started to walk away, the ticket clerk bellowed, "Cassie?"

I stopped in my tracks and turned around. Now that I looked at her, she seemed a bit familiar in a way, but I couldn't remember who she was or even if I knew her. Of course, it wasn't odd that she knew me. Most of the people in the world knew me.

I nodded, "Yep."

"Oh my gosh! Cassie!" she ran to me and held me in a hug. "Don't you remember me?" she asked.

"Um…" I really didn't want to say no, but I really didn't remember her.

"It's me! Melissa!" she cried.

My heart seemed to skip a beat. Melissa? I felt a tear crawl down my cheek for some unknown reason. She had been friends with Rachel. That is, until we found out she was actually a Yeerk infested human. Now of course, the Yeerk was no longer in her. I saw that she had tears in her eyes too. Rachel's death had been devastating.

Ronnie waited patiently as I jabbed my tears away with my sleeve. I burned with embarrassment that Ronnie had seen me cry. Then I turned to Melissa and smiled. "It's nice to see you."

"It's nice to see you too," she said. Then she embraced me one last time and went back to work.

Ronnie's smile slowly faded as he realized how hard times must've been for me. Then he smiled again and held my hand. He led me to one of the rooms. It was the largest one in the whole movie theatre. The movie screen was huge, it took up the whole wall and was at least fifty feet tall. We sat down next to each other.

"What movie is this?" I asked.

"You'll see," he answered.

I silently giggled to myself. So, this was his big surprise? Taking me to the movies. The word "date" kept popping up in my head and that just made my heart burn with intensity. When the commercials were over, the movie started.

The movie, I realized, was called "The Animorphs". Tears were swarming down my cheeks. Ronnie noticed and he wrapped his arm around me. I shook all over. Marco would've loved this, I thought.

The actress who played Rachel looked a lot like her. That just made me cry even more. Although the scenes weren't real, it felt real. I'd been there. At the end of the movie, a screen appeared with writing on it that read, "Let us remember our brave heroes who risked their lives to save humanity. Jake Berenson, Rachel Berenson, Tobias Fanger…" Tears welled up in my eyes and I couldn't even finish reading the rest of the names. It was too painful.

"Cassie, are you alright?" Ronnie asked.

"Yeah," I sniffed, "I'm fine."

"Cassie, I'm sorry if you didn't like the movie. It's just I thought—,"

"I loved the movie," I interrupted. "It was wonderful. Thank you."

He hugged me and kissed me on the top of my head, a reassuring kiss. Then we walked out of the room. I wiped the rest of my tears away with my sleeve. Just as we were about to leave the movie theatre, Ronnie said, "I'm going to go to the men's room for a sec, be right back." Then he left.

While I waited for him to come back out, I suddenly heard a crash. I spun around and saw a tiger. Everyone was screaming. "Call animal control!" someone screamed. I was too shocked to move. The tiger, it was Jake's morph. It was Jake's tiger.

"Jake?" I asked. The tiger slowly walked towards me with fierce eyes. Then he snapped its jaws at me, baring his sharp teeth. "Jake, is that you?" I asked. The tiger charged. I dodged its attack. It was clear that this tiger was not Jake, but then how did it get here?" The tiger charged for me again, missed. I jumped into the air and morphed into a falcon. I had learned over the past years to morph with great speed. I finished morphing while midway in the air. Then I scratched the tiger's left shoulder with my talon. The tiger tried to bite me but I was on its back.

I tore his flesh away with my sharp talons in the same spot, leaving a large scab on its left shoulder. Was this tiger nothing but an animal, or was it more? I tried to scan through my mind to think of what was normal tiger behavior and what was not. Now all the people had evacuated the area. I saw a group of people charging. It was animal control. I didn't have time to think of tiger behavior before it shook me off and bit my wing. Feathers flew everywhere. I felt blood ooze out of the wound. I dug my talon into its right eye as hard as I could and it gave one deafening roar of pain. As the animal control officers neared, the tiger ran with an intense speed and ran out the back door. I slowly morphed back to my human self. The animal control officers ran out the back door to chase the tiger. Minutes passed and I began to wonder: Where was Ronnie? Was he one of the people who had evacuated because of the tiger? I had to find him. What if something bad happened to him?

I ran to the front door of the theatre and out. There were so many people outside it was impossible to find Ronnie. Just like finding a needle in a haystack. I walked into the parking lot to search for Ronnie's motorcycle. It was gone. Had he left without me?

I called Ronnie's cell phone. He didn't answer. Panic filled my chest. I hoped nothing bad happened to him. Maybe the tiger had chased him so he left. He wasn't the kind of person to abandon anyone. I was sure of it.

I called my mom. "Hello?" she said.

"Mom, I'm at the movies. Can you come pick me up?" I asked.

"Isn't Ronnie supposed to take you home?" she asked.

"He…" I didn't' want my mom to think badly of him, "He had to go home early. He told me he was really sorry. He had to visit his sick grandfather." I wasn't used to lying, but in this case, I felt it was the right thing to do.

"Ah…poor fellow. I'll be there soon Cassie." The phone went dead as she hung up.

I waited outside for my mom to show up. Eventually, she did. I climbed into the backseat and she drove me back home.

"How was it?" she asked me.

"What?" I asked.

"The movie," she said.

"It was beautiful," I stated, my voice shaky.

My mom didn't say anymore as she noticed how hard it was for me to watch it. When we got home, I flipped on the news. There on the screen was the tiger that had attacked me at the movies. They showed video footage of me on top of the tiger in my falcon morph that had been taken by the security cameras. The tiger. How could I have mistaken it for Jake? He was gone. That was just the past talking to me. I should've just moved on, but after today's incident, I didn't know what to do anymore.

What if they were still alive? I thought. What if…

"Cassie," my mom walked into the room and the glass of water she held in her hand dropped to the ground and shattered. She stared open-mouthed at the television screen. "That didn't happen today, did it?" she asked worriedly.

"I'm afraid it did," I said.

"That isn't you is it?" she asked me frantically.

"I'm afraid it is," I sighed.

"Oh, I'm so glad your okay," she hugged me. "Mom, of course I'm okay. In case you've forgotten, I helped save planet earth," I said. I didn't want her to worry about me, ever.

Just then the phone rang. I went to get it. "Careful. Don't step on the glass," she warned.

I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Ronnie. Listen, Cass, I'm really sorry about what happened earlier. I was just so…so freaked out I ran for it. I'm sorry, but I knew that you would be okay or else I would've never left you. You're so strong and brave, but I'm sorry. Forgive me okay?"

He sounded so truly sorry it was impossible not to forgive him. "Sure, I forgive you."

"Thanks, oh listen, I gotta go now. Dad's calling me. I'll see you some other time. Bye," then he hung up. As I went back into the living room, the Breaking News had already ended.

I wondered what a tiger was doing in the movies. It had been a white tiger, just like Jake's morph. Was someone trying to play games with me? But the Yeerks were gone. Who'd want to kill me?

I decided it was just a coincidence. A tiger must've escaped from the zoo and ended up in the movie theatre. Since generally humans were prey to tigers, the tiger must've wanted to eat me. That was all there was to it. Basic animal instinct, nothing more.

My thoughts of the day's earlier disaster slowly transitioned into thoughts of Ronnie. Ever since I'd met him, he'd been like a brother to me, so kind and caring. Suddenly, I heard a scream from downstairs.

I hurried downstairs. "No!" I screamed as I saw my mother lying on the couch, bleeding. Her shirt was torn in the shape a claw would make. The window had shattered with pieces of glass on the floor. "Mom!" I screamed, tears blurring my vision. I ran to the phone and called the ambulance. Then I wet a paper towel and tried cleaning my mother's wounds, but there was so much blood I felt it were impossible.

When the ambulance finally arrived, they took me and my mother to the hospital. I stood by my mother the whole time. The nurses all held grim expressions. They told me to step outside for a moment. Then a doctor walked over to me. His head was bent low.

"Is she gonna make it?" I asked.

"I'm afraid…she's not," he said slowly.

My eyes filled with tears. The doctor placed his hand on my shoulder. "No!" I screamed, pushing his hand off. "Not my mom! Not her too! No!" I cried frantically.