Jared's POV
We drove back to the caves easily. It was night out and Kyle drove at the alien's speed limit. I laid in the back and wondered what it was like back home. I was going to see Jamie again, see my son again. What about the parasite inside Melanie's body? Would it still be there?
I tried to imagine a million scenarios and I knew none of them were okay with me because I knew I wanted her with me. But Melanie was gone, one of them in her place, and I tried to look at the bright side of it.
The truck slowed down a little and I knew we were close to home. I closed my eyes tight and thought of Melanie before we reached there. What kind of life we would have had if she hadn't been taken, if we got to raise our son together.
I imagined Melanie telling me she was pregnant, how I wouldn't be able to stop kissing her or her belly. We'd take baby clothes and a pregnancy test to make sure on our raids. We'd celebrate and Jamie would find it gross and want no part in it. That made me want to laugh.
The first time the baby kicked, she scream in excitement at me and tell me to feel it. Melanie would call over Jamie too and since it was his family, his nephew, he'd want to feel it. He'd smile with the two of us and be excited. We'd look through baby names and try to pick three favorites each, not knowing what the sex would be yet.
Damn them. Damn everything. They ruined our future. They ruined hers. I would never forgive them for taking her away from whatever she could have been. Everytime I went down this path, it pissed me off more and more. I missed her too much. There was a hole in my chest where how much I love her is.
There was a sharp turn in the truck and we must be pulling into the other cave, where we keep the cars and the clothes for the raids. I sat up and so did Aaron. We waited for the car to stop and then once it was, the back door opened and there stood Kyle and Brandt.
"Come on," Kyle said and the two of jumped out of the back and started grabbing things to bring in. I focused on the task at hand and let my thoughts of Melanie slip to the back of my mind as we got the supplies everyone needed inside.
We carried each thing carefully inside, careful to not drop anything on our way even though there was really no one out here to find it besides us. Kyle and Aaron ran back to the truck when we were done to pick the rest of it out. Brandt and me stood there waiting. I didn't want to go in first and a part of me wanted to be alone when I did. I didn't think I could be but I hoped at least.
They came back too soon, carrying the more perishable foods and went in first. "Move along, Jared."
I glared at Aaron and replied, "I'm coming."
When we got into the caves, we went straight to the big room. It was very quiet in there and I figured they were either eating or playing soccor in our homemade rec room. Kyle led the way down to the hole where Melanie's body was staying and I worried about seeing it again.
But then we got down there.
There was nothing. The hole was empty and there wasn't any sign of anybody having been down here so I pushed aside the assumption that Jeb was taking it on a walk.
Everything and its boxes got packed neatly into the small hole and I looked one more time at it, still thinking it'd magically pop out but nothing. Kyle came to stand beside me. "Looking for your parasite, Howe?"
"Shut up, O'Shea," I replied and tried to walk away from him.
He followed me. "No, really. Are you? Because if I didn't know any better, I'd think you want it alive."
"I don't," I said defensively.
"It's better off this way," he said as if I hadn't spoken. "The thing belongs dead. I just hope it was my brother that got it done. Make me proud."
I scoffed. "That's stupid."
"Excuse me?" he asked. "Which part?"
"That Ian should or could do it, first of all," I told him. "Or that it'd be better off that she was dead."
"She?" he questioned. "Man, you're forgetting. That was not your girl. Not anymore. The sooner you can separate the two, the easier it will be."
"I can separate," I say.
But can I? That might seem like a simple slip but I was defending that one of them didn't belong dead. Kyle was right. I was just glad to be done with it. I'd never have to see Melanie-not-Melanie ever again.
Boy, was I wrong.
We entered the dining area and there it was, sitting right next to Jamie and my son in a stroller next to its end of the table sit. I was seeing red. "What the hell is this?"
Jeb turned to look at me, not at all alarmed. "We're having dinner."
"With that?" I spat and nodded my head in its direction. No. This was not happening.
"Yes, with Wanda," Ian answered.
"Ian?" Kyle exclaimed. "Are you on their side now?"
"No," he answered. "She's on ours."
I shook my head. "What is this? And Wanda? You gave it a name?"
"She already had a name," Jeb told me. "We just never asked it."
"I can't believe this," Kyle interrupted. "What did you let happen here, Jeb?"
"Nothing," he answers simply.
"Jeb," he seems to think I'm kidding. I'm not, I'm not even close to kidding. I'm furious at seeing that...thing sit besides Melanie's brother and her son as if it was her. "I'm taking her back to the hole."
"You can't!" Jamie stood up. "She's my friend!"
I gave Jeb a look, one of disapproval and walked to where it sat. "No, Jamie, it's not." Then I turned to it and grabbed it by the arm. "It's coming with me."
It gave me a panicked look but I didn't care. "Please."
Ian stepped in front of me. "Jared, let her go."
"No," I told him.
And right when the word left my mouth, Kyle stepped in front of him, helping me move out of the room and away from the stares I was getting. In the corner of my eye, I could see Maggie and Sharon were disgusted I would touch it but proud I'm not with Ian and Jamie. I just kept moving.
Once out of everyone's eyes, I threw its body - Mel's body - over my shoulder. I had carried her plenty of times and I knew how light her body would feel. But this was different. This was someone else, something else. My Melanie was gone and Kyle was right - I needed to separate.
We reached the hole fast with it on my back and when we got to the entrance I tore it off my back and slammed it into the boxes. It cowered, scared. I didn't care. This wasn't a person. It didn't have feelings.
"You need to stay away from Jamie," I told it and pointed my finger to its face. "Never. Or to my son. Do you understand?"
It nodded slowly.
"Speak!" I yelled at it. "I know you can. I've heard you talk before. Now do it."
"Yes," it gulped. "I understand."
"You're gonna stay here," I told it. "And you're gonna listen to whatever I want them to do with you. Jeb put me in charge of you and you're going to deal with it. If I want him to get rid of you, I will."
It nodded again, this scared look on its face. Melanie's face. I hated to yell at her but it wasn't her. I had to keep reminding myself. This was for her. She'd be here if it wasn't for this thing inside her body.
I started to walk away and turned to see Jamie standing there. He was looking at me in shock. "How can you yell at her like that? You'd never yell at Melan -"
"Melanie's gone," I said. "That thing is not Melanie."
He swallowed hard and looked at me with sad eyes. "Doesn't it bother you to yell at her face? To throw her?"
I stared the kid right in the eyes to see if he was trying to trick me somehow. Maybe he was one of them now and I didn't notice it in the dining area. But no. He was still human, still Jamie. "No."
He stook his hand at me. "You're not the Jared I knew."
He ran off and I moved after him, not bothering to look back at the cowering alien in the storage hole. "Jamie! Wait!"
I ran after him but he ran faster. He got to our room much sooner than I did and slammed the door at me. I stood there and began to knock. "Kid, come on. Let me in."
He didn't answer and after a long while, I left and let him be. I ran into Kyle who was waiting at the hallway closet to my room. His face didn't look gloating. It actually looked serious for once so I prepared myself.
"We found something out there," he told me.
"What?" I asked. "Another alien?"
He nodded. "But this one's a Seeker."
"Seeker?" I repeated. "Did it follow us home?"
"I'm not sure," he shook his head. "We were sure to make sure no one see us."
I nodded this time. "So what do we do?"
"We already blocked off any sign of anyone down here," he answered. "Hopefully that helps."
"The mirrors?"
"Done and done."
I looked back at the way I came when I followed Jamie out here. "Do you think it's here for it?"
"Or they're working together," he answered.
"But why wait this long to find it?" I said out loud to myself really. "Why wouldn't it follow right after?"
"Maybe it was supposed to be a quick mission," he said. "But since it's been gone for weeks now, the others are coming to look for it now."
"Maybe," I agreed. "What did Jeb say?"
"He thinks it's looking for it," he said. "But..."
"But what?"
"But he doesn't think they were working together."
"Figures," I mutter. "He's on the parasite's side now."
"I guess it's up to us then to question it," he replies.
"I guess so."
And so we walk back to the storage hole where the parasite was last seen sitting on boxes. When we get closer, I start to think maybe Jeb came and took it away. It doesn't look like a body could be in there but the closer we get, the better we see inside. There, bundled into a ball in a corner of the hole is the alien.
Kyle steps forward first. "One of your friends is outside, parasite. It's looking to find you and kill us all."
I stay in place and so does it. It just looks up at him with silver ringed Melanie eyes and looks scared.
"But it's not going to get us," Kyle explains to it. "Your Seeker is never going to find you, or us. We're going to make damn sure of that."
"Seeker," it says.
"What did you say?" I ask it.
"Seeker," it says again but more loudly this time.
"Yes, we know it's a Seeker," Kyle says. He's clearly annoyed at this not going anywhere yet. "But you're going to tell us all about this Seeker in black."
"Black?" It asks. "Oh, no."
"Oh no what?" I ask. "You do know what one we're talking about that?"
"Yes," it says. "That Seeker...she's my Seeker."
"Yours?" Kyle asks. "Like you each have one?"
"Yes," it looks to me. "I don't want to talk to him."
Kyle laughs. "Me? You don't want to talk to me?"
"Who do you want then?" I say. "Jeb? Or how about Jamie?"
I make Jamie's name into a sneer so it'd understand just how much I won't let that happen. It answers though. "I want Ian."
"Ian!" Kyle laughs. "My stupid brother! My God. What has he done now? Gotten into the bed of an alien!"
I flinch when he says that. That'd be like him in bed with...I couldn't even think it. I try to sway it. "You'd talk to Ian?"
It nods. "Yes."
"You're not getting Ian," I tell it. "You get us. So either you tell us right now what you know about that Seeker or we could just kill you right now."
I see something flash in its eyes. For a moment I see Melanie and my eyes burn. No. It stands up, trying to look brave. Huh. Wouldn't think the parasite would need to be brave. Its kind already killed how many of us humans? Two must mean nothing to them.
"The Seeker suspects I'm not like the others," it begins. "It started with the pregnancy months ago."
We both listen and watch it as it explans.
"She pressured me for a name. I never knew this body's name until the day the baby kicked. The memories were locked. That didn't please the Seeker. She got angry."
"Your kind can get angry?" Kyle interrupted. His face looked ready to laugh. "Those tv programs you guys showed were worse than anything before violence, sex and swears came around!"
I gave Kyle a look to shut up, that we were finally getting it to talk. He quickly closed his mouth and I gave it a nod to continue.
"Yes, she can and did," it says. "She threatened to put herself inside the body, that she would force the memories out. But I said no. So did my healer. He told her she had to wait for the baby to be born before any souls were switched."
Souls. Not exactly the word I'd expect to call them. "So what then?"
"Once James was born," it sighed. "Seeker asked my Healer every day if she could be put inside this body. For everytime he said no, she got more furious. So instead, she came to me asking to put a soul into James' body."
I swallowed hard. One of them inside my son? I hoped to God that wasn't ever going to happen and I would fight til my last breath to make it not happen.
"I told her no every time she asked me it. But she got tired of it. So one day, I packed his stuff and I left. I needed to protect my son."
Hate and anger formed in my throat more than ever. "Your son? He is not your son! His mother was an amazing woman. You are not her."
"I'm sorry," it shook his head. Her face seemed like something else, like she was thinking really hard. "I didn't mean that. Melanie always corrects me when -"
"Melanie corrects you?" I manage to get out.
Kyle looked between the two of us. "Whoa."
"What the hell does that mean?" I ask. "Melanie is no longer here. Because of you! You don't get to speak about her in the present tense. You don't get to speak about her at all."
"I'm sorry," it repeats but I had enough. I walk to it and hit hard across its - Melanie's - face. Hearing it talk about the woman I love made me sick. I wouldn't allow this.
Kyle stands there stunned and obviously disappointed he wasn't the one who got to hit it. But a throat clearing behind us makes all three of us look towards the hallway. The way the parasite was looking earlier, that scared expression, well it must be mirrored on my face now.
"What, may I ask, is going on down here?" Jeb asks me and Kyle.
"Jeb, I -"
"Nothing from you, Jared," he snaps at me. Then he looks down at the shivering alien on the floor and his face softens. "Are you all right, honey?"
I roll my eyes and want to say something but considering what he just saw, I don't think he'd hesistate in throwing me out right now if I said something.
It nodded. "I'm fine."
Jeb smiled at her but his face turned to acid when it looked at me and Kyle. "You two, go on out of here."
"Me?" Kyle questions poutingly. "I didn't do anything!"
"You aided," he answers. "Now. Go."
The two of us walk slowly down the hallway back to the rooms. I look back and see Jeb kneel in front of the parasite and check its face. I feel disgusted all over again but especially at myself for leaving. What did I let Jamie get close to?
We walked back down to Doc's and I peeked in. Kyle had broken off to his own room but I wasn't sure Jamie would let me in. I definitely knew he wouldn't when Jeb returned from the tunnels.
Sure enough, the baby was in here. They must have made him a makeshift crib next to the beds because there James was, fast asleep in what looked like a homemade crib. I smiled like I hadn't in months.
James. My son.
I sat beside him and Doc watched me, saying nothing. He let me have the moment I so very much needed, especially right now. I could still feel the sting of Melanie's face under my palm. I looked into my son's eyes and saw Melanie and some of myself in there.
That's it, I said to myself. This kid will help me heal. He'll make me better.
And that night, I fell asleep at Doc's, holding my small son's hand.
