You live your life somewhat carefree, life as you know it up to this point all came down to finishing school and getting a job. You are in your early twenties, society dictated that at this age you should begin to decide your future career path more seriously and take up a part time job as well. However, circumstances being what they are ended up drawing you jobless and in your final semester at college. You didn't have outstanding grades by any means, enough to barely pass and nothing more; grades weren't exactly your most talked about characteristic.
You kept in contact with a few of your high school friends, but as they separated into different universities, different career paths, even your closest friends were now distant. That wasn't to say you weren't still friends with them, just that circumstances drew you apart from them.
Your schedule was rather odd and unusual, the final day of the week was a Thursday for you and also with it came the latest class which had you coming home usually after dark, particularly during the winter months. The air was cool and cold as you exited the bus at your stop, it was still a fairly long walk until you reached home however. You stood idly by at the pedestrian crossing waiting for the light to flash green in order to allow you to walk across the busy 4 lane road. It was dark out, about 7pm and a fairly strong breeze was present which dropped the wind-chill factor quite dramatically, it wasn't freezing by any means but it was still cold enough that it made your teeth begin to rattle. The inside of the bus didn't feel particularly all too warm but it was a heck of a lot better than outside now you thought to yourself as you began rapidly pacing across the road, with the car lights shining brightly into your face which somewhat blinded you.
It was about a 5 minute walk or so home from here, home stretch you thought to yourself as your work week came to a close. The local council had made a particular effort in planting an abundance of local trees and shrubbery along the various sidewalks and footpaths which were often blanketed with a very light cover of ice in the early morning which was a sight to behold. As you walk home you had to pass a football oval, which in was large enough to accommodate various other sports such as archery and track events. It was often unusual to find anybody out of their houses this late at night, particularly with how chilly it was; it was a quiet neighbourhood and nothing in particular happened very often even though you were confident some of the families were anything but innocent.
As you were walking down one of the foot paths which was paved around the perimeter of the field's grounds. A bright light shimmered fairly brightly in the distance in the direction of the oval, it was off the path of your normal route home. At first you figured that perhaps one of the Oval's lights must have malfunctioned or perhaps it was switched on and off rapidly as there often times the local football team training late into the evening, but they weren't there tonight. As that thought was quickly put aside, you figured that perhaps it was a car something in the distance shining it's fog lights and reflected off a surface in the distance to give the impression something gave off that light, but there wasn't anything reflective in the distance, it was simply large chunks to boulder sized granite and bauxite formations. Huh, you thought to yourself, well now or never as you began turning the corner away from the oval and towards your house.
You stopped and pause for a moment, at the corner of the street; the object you thought you had seen was at the end of the street but away from line of sight, particularly because wherever it was, was now in the darkness and out of view of the street lights which lined the street. You thought nothing of it, perhaps it was just your imagination; but something told you to turn around and give it another chance as you were about to reach your door step. Something at the back of your mind told you to turn around and head back the way you came, something your mind didn't often do as being so close to home it often was determined to just head inside and get away from the squalling winds.
You sighed and realized the back of your mind had won the argument, upon reaching your doorstep you decided to drop off your bag as it had been weighing you down quite drastically before turning back the way you had just came. The footpath which linked your cluster of four streets together wasn't very well lit with the streetlights, and in some parts were completely blackened out as the tall bushes and shrubs completely blocked the path of the light emitted from the lights. You began pacing back down the foot path towards the direction of the oval, it was about 50 meters away at most. If anything and even if nothing came of it you thought to yourself at the very least you were contributing to your cardio regime which you hardly followed at all.
You left your Ipod with your bag back at the house, giving you a clear sense of clarity around you which you often took for granted and generally saw as bleak, dull and boring. You were now about 10 meters or so away from the street corner, which would have given you a direct line of sight down the street that you saw the burst of light emanate from. You looked left and right before crossing one of the side streets before reaching the street corner, assuring that there weren't any cars when you noted that something or someone was present across the street, in the patch of darkness created from the tall bush and shrubs that was present alongside the footpath.
As you began crossing the road your feelings began more and more apparent, and only when you got substantially closer did you note that nothing was immediately there, nobody. Your sense of judgement kicked in, and took over from your sense of logic which told you to turn back home at this point. Your arms shot out in front of you and started to wave slowly out in front of you, you could easily make outlines of a person at this point but still had not yet seen anyone. You could hear faint but definitely made out breaths and pants as well as steps, even though you were certain none of the neighbours was just playing a prank on you in their backyards.
Suddenly the same flash of light happened again, this time substantially closer to you, almost right in front of your face which blinded you to some extent in the complete darkness. It revealed a tall and slender young woman who was clearly in need of help, but she was cautious and she began backing up and away from you, down the street towards the corner which you had first seen the shimmer. "Wait!" you whispered out with caution, not wanting to alert the neighbours. She had her arm tucked across her mid-section and clasped against her left arm as she began rearing up back down the foot path into the light which revealed to you more of her body.
She was wearing something you had never seen before, what appeared to be metal plating fashioned into armour on top of a greyish white skin tight suit. Her long blonde hair drooped across her face as her facial expression became clearer, she was panting heavily as if out of breath and weak. Upon seeing her condition, a part of your subconscious lifted your arms out and to your sides to signal that you didn't mean her any harm. You stopped dead in your tracks and at the same time so did she, which made you realize that she was only moving backwards because you were moving towards her. "Hey, are you okay?" you said in a reassuring tone towards her, she gave no response other than clenching her waist tighter with one arm and an expression of crippling pain on her face. "Do you need to see a doctor? I can call an ambulance if you need it" you said, this time with more intensity as her situation became more apparent to you. You slowly paced towards her, one step at a time with your arms held high and to your sides, seeing if she began taking paces backwards to which she didn't.
She began appearing weaker and weaker, with her legs barely holding her up and her knees quivering. Her neck began to droop forwards and her whole body looked as if she was going to fall forwards flat onto her face, you were a few meters away now and sprinted forward to catch her as she began falling forwards. She collapsed into your arms with her head landing just on top of your shoulder blade, her weight was surprisingly heavy causing you to slightly lose your balance even with the momentum you had.
You flipped her over onto your backside, only now did it become apparent to you that she had a massive rifle on her back side; your eyes widened at the thought of taking her in now, but regardless your adrenaline was now in full flight as you began to carry her in your arms quickly towards your house. Upon reaching the door to your house, as you frantically rushed to find your keys, you began to hear a faint voice coming from her "D-Don't call an ambulance…" as she slowly passed out. You freaked out, thinking that she was dying at first but you could still see her breath in the cold air coming out of her mouth along with a slight shiver. You rapidly picked up your bag and brought her inside, at first placing her down on your couch in your living room. It was only now that you began realizing that she wasn't any ordinary person, nor was she wearing any ordinary armour or clothing.
You had a particular interest in firearms, and couldn't identify the firearm nor the cartridge or any which part of the rifle she had slung on her back. You removed the rifle from her back and placed it carefully down on the side of the couch, keeping your hand well away from the trigger housing. You thought it was rude to stare at her, much so as she was sleeping so you attempted to try and keep your mind busy and attention away from her as you began your normal daily routine upon returning home, checking up on her once every now and then to make sure she was still in a stable condition.
Hours had passed, and it was now becoming fairly late into the evening and you had just finished your shower in preparation for bed. Coming downstairs to once again check up on her, to your surprise she was awake however her eyes were only barely open. "Hey, are you okay?" you decided to ask again to which she clutched her arm across her waist and had a general look of pain and discomfort on her face as she tilted her head to get a better view of you. "Are you sure you don't want me to call an ambulance?" you asked but once again, she shook her head. Suddenly she tried to force herself up which you were certain she wasn't in any position to do, launching yourself down to her side to prevent her from doing so. "W-Where am I? Where are we? What year …" she mumbled out of her mouth in disarray, almost sounding as if she was hallucinating. Upon answering her questions her eyes widened, revealing dilated pupils and very light emerald green iris in her eyes.
"It's what? Earth? As in old earth?" She asked in utter confusion, you followed up with the year which only shocked her further. She began breathing heavily, in a state of shock and almost horror at where she was, beginning to wonder how she managed to get here. It was only now did she begin to cringe her face in discomfort, placing her hands on her head she let out a loud groan. "Wha-What is it?" It was apparent that the year and where she was wasn't the only thing on her mind. It was the thoughts of the neighbours filling her head, the roar of all their thoughts filled her head, blaring into her head. "So many people" she muttered out in discomfort as her face remained cringed, you looked up and around even though you knew there wasn't anyone around let alone anyone talking or making sound. You noted that she placed her hands on her head and not directly on her ears, which confused you and left you with even more questions than answers about who or what this girl was.
"I-Is there anything I can do?" you asked after a brief moment of uncertainty, her face still filled with discomfort before she suddenly relaxed and tilted her head back. "What year did you say it was again?" she asked again, wanting to confirm it once again with you "2014" you said with reassurance, she stared directly into your eyes as you said it, seemingly to see if you were lying. "So here I am on old Earth, huh" she said as she panned her head from left to right around the room. "You live by yourself?" she asked in a curious tone to which you replied affirmatively, "I can't sense the presence of another person in this house, and you have a pretty big house just to yourself, do all people of old earth live like this?" It was only now that you had begun realizing that she was saying "old earth" as if she was from the future or something you thought to yourself. "Yes actually, I am from "the future"" she said with a grin which made you at first surprised but then immediately alarmed that she had read your thoughts.
You began wondering if you should communicate to her in thoughts rather than say anything, "it's okay, I won't read everything" she said reassuringly as she began to get up off of the couch and began pacing back and forth. This whole time you noted that she had her arm clutched up against her waist, you decided to ask "Are you sure you're okay, you look like you're a little worse for wear" to which she turned around and with a reassuring tone replied "Yeah, I'm okay" with a smile. She began pacing around the rest of the house, looking around and taking in the scenery even though it was completely pitch black as she had not turned the lights on. "I like my house too, but tell you what it looks even better when you turn the lights on" as you followed her through the house. She was sure to check every room in the house, allowing time for you to describe details of the room.
Part of you wondered if it was out of curiosity that she was essentially touring your house, or making sure that the house didn't contain anything she wasn't expecting. "It's difficult for me to build trust with people, so you're going to have to have to bear with me for just a little longer" Not knowing a way to respond you blurted out a generic "Oh, okay" which made her turn around and smile.
Upon finishing the tour of your fairly large and spacious house, she had decided upon your room being the ideal place to begin taking off her armour plating. You weren't certain why but something urged you that you shouldn't be looking at her during the process, giving her privacy and exiting the room, to which she closed the door behind you whilst being in the centre of it, alarming you in the process. She poked her head out soon after in the brilliant two toned white and grey under suit she wore underneath, "I'm tired" she said sheepishly before yawning. "You're not going to wash or clean up before doing that?" you asked out of curiosity but also with the underlying thoughts of giving her the opportunity to take a shower if she needed one. Oh well in that case she said as she quickly proceeded towards the bathroom, grabbing what appeared to be a spare towel on the way in.
You began thinking how much of a handful she was setting herself up to be, but something about her was enchanting. You figured that she was making herself feel at home, after all you seemed more than happy to let her into your house in the first place, she was just taking up on your initial offer. You opened the door of your bedroom to note her neatly sorted pile of armour placed in one corner of the room with her rifle placed against the wall alongside it. Well she seems like a nice girl I guess you thought to yourself, if anything a little bit too nice you thought, but then quickly remembered she could probably be reading your thoughts as you were thinking them. There were a lot of things you hadn't quite figured out about her just yet, and sooner rather than later you hoped they could become apparent.
It was also now that you began realizing what her abilities meant, and who else might have an interest in her should other people find out about her. Things like the Military would express a great degree of interest in her, government agencies, FBI, CIA, the list continued which had you mortified as to what her future prospects could turn into. She was essentially an alien, in the form of a human, a very very beautiful human you began thinking to yourself. At that moment she came through the door and reassured you that she only caught the tail end of your thoughts, which made you thoroughly embarrassed in not knowing where she began reading your mind. As you lay down in bed Nova was sure to ask for permission before going into bed with you, it just so happens that you only had 1 bed in the entire house as you don't expect many visitors at all, let alone ones that stay overnight. At first you thought it was awkward, especially since you two had practically only met a matter of hours ago, but she unleashed a pair of puppy dog eyes on you which caved you into letting her sleep on your bed.
She was sure to maintain her distance, placing herself onto one side of the bed and rapidly fell asleep. It was now that the thoughts of other people displaying an interest in her turned into research about her, thinking about how government agencies from around the world might want to conduct scientific research on her, you swore that you would never let that happen to her, as she lay fast asleep by your side. Quickly wanting to change your mind about the whole topic, you quickly turned out the lights and fell asleep as well.