Chapter Eight

"It's cruel and unusual punishment for teachers to subject their students to biology homework on the weekend!" Kaitlyn complained as she and Freddie poured over their thick biology textbooks at the local library. Freddie stifled a yawn.

"Whatever, Kaiti, you probably love it. Even if it is the weekend, you still sound way smarter than any other eighth grader. They should've skipped you ahead a year," he said, doodling a dragon in the margins of his book. Kaitlyn shot him a glare.

"What, you trying to get rid of me?"

Freddie raised an eyebrow.

"Nah." He slammed his book shut. "Seriously, I don't care how much homework we've got for Monday, I'm so done for today."

"You realize the more you procrastinate, the more homework you'll have tomorrow?" Kaitlyn asked, closing her own textbook, shoving it in her bag. She hardly noticed Freddie's inquisitive glance.

"What the hell does procrastinate mean?" he asked.

Kaitlyn sighed. "Nevermind, Freddie, just don't leave your homework until the last minute. You're a grouch when Mr. Delano gives you detention because you didn't finish your homework."

"No, I'm not!" Freddie whined.

"Whatever you say, Freddie." Kaitlyn slung her backpack over her shoulder. "I'll talk to you later."

"Yep, see you on chat."

"You know that's just another way of procrastinating, right?"

"Huh?"

"I'll see you later."

Kaitlyn left the library, pulling out her cell phone when it buzzed quietly in her pocket. A text from her mother.

Things are crazy at work. I'll be home late. Love you!

What a surprise.

Kaitlyn walked home a little slower, knowing she was just going home to an empty house. Sure, there was always the offchance that Tyler was home, but he'd been so testy lately, what with his new involvement with the V's. Besides, that was probably where he was. Especially ever since he met Lisa, the girl who stole her brother's heart, or at least that was how he put it. Kaitlyn hadn't met the girl yet, and even though Tyler just told Kaitlyn about her that morning, you'd think he was going to bring her to the nearest chapel and marry her, for goodness' sake. Maybe that was the reason Ty was so excited about the V's; he had his own, personal V girlfriend.

Gross.

Kaitlyn let herself into the house and realized quickly she wasn't alone.

The clanging around in kitchen was her first clue.

Her initial reaction was that her house was being robbed, but when she heard the colorful language that matched her brother's voice, she relaxed.

Tyler was just in a bad mood. What else was new these days?

Abandoning her bag at the door, Kaitlyn wandered into the kitchen where she found her brother clomping around, muttering under his breath as he made a sandwich as noisily as possible. Kaitlyn sighed, wondering if it would be better if she just hid out in her room until his bad mood passed, but these days, he was always in a bad mood. She refused to be a prisoner just because he was going through some kind of psychotic phase.

"Hey Ty."

"Buzz off!"

Here we go.

"Geez, chill!" Kaitlyn yelled. "I just thought I'd tell you mom's not gonna be home 'til late. She's busy at work, and-"

"Tell me something I don't know!"

"What the hell is your problem?" Now Kaitlyn was yelling, and she knew if her mother was here, Kaitlyn would be grounded in a second for bad language. If only she could hear the mouth on Tyler, he'd be grounded for life. The thought brought Kaitlyn a slight pang of satisfaction.

Tyler huffed heavily, stopped what he was doing and met his sister's eye. It seemed like his anger passed, for just a second. He looked hurt, genuinely upset.

"It's just...look, I might be getting kicked out of the Peace Ambassador program, alright?" His voice still had an edge to it, but at least he wasn't screaming, so Kaitlyn decided to ask.

"Why? What happened?"

"I was trying to protect the V's! This guy at the peace centre was harrassing the V's, had a picketing sign and everything! You should have heard the stuff he was saying, Kait! Bad-mouthing the V's all over the place. So I hit him!" Tyler explained.

"You hit him?"

"Yeah!"

"Did he hit you first?"

"No, but that doesn't matter! The V's are getting such a bad rap since they've been here, and I was only trying to protect them!" Tyler sighed heavily. "Besides, Lisa was right there, and I thought...I thought she'd think it was cool, you know, me standing up for her and stuff."

"And?"

"She got ticked and left, but not before telling me I might get kicked out!" Tyler slammed his fist down on the counter, his anger returning. "This was my shot at getting involved with Lisa! My shot at helping the V's! Now, they're gonna ditch me!"

Kaitlyn shrugged meekly. "You know, maybe it's not the worst thing in the world, Ty. Maybe it's a sign. Maybe you should stay away from the V's. Maybe they're not all they're cracked up to be. Maybe-"

She was interrupted by a frustrated sigh on Tyler's part.

"You sound just like mom," he said in a condescending tone.

It was like flipping on a switch. The subject of their mother was always a surefire way of causing conflict between the siblings, hands down, every time.

"Don't, Ty, you're just mad because your girlfriend didn't appreciate your macho attitude!" Kaitlyn snapped. "Maybe mom's got it right; she wanted you to stay away from them. She is our mother, maybe you should listen to her!"

"You're just as bad as she is!" Tyler yelled. "What do you have against the V's, anyway? Or are you just copying what precious mommy has to say?"

"Stop it, Ty!" Kaitlyn shrieked. "And maybe you haven't noticed, but the Visitors just showed up one day without warning in spaceships and claiming things we know nothing about! It's stupid for you to just trust they're all good when you know nothing about them! You're treating them like they're a god! Father Landry says-"

"Oh, don't start preaching at me, Kaiti!" Tyler hissed, grabbing a hold of his messily-made sandwich. "I'm so done!"

With that, he stormed out of the house, making a show of slamming the door behind her.

Kaitlyn felt the tear that trickled down her cheek, hastily brushed it away with the palm of her hand. She couldn't win, she couldn't say anything to her brother anymore. What happened to the days where he would try helping her with her homework, though he never had a clue, where he would offer to drive her to church on his bike, watch television with her in the evenings their mother had to work late? Those days were gone, and Kaitlyn couldn't figure out if it was because he was angry about their father leaving, about their mother working too much, or if the V's had something to do with it.

Or maybe it was everything. Either way, Kaitlyn felt the rock that used to be her family crumbling into pieces all around her


Erica wondered if this was what the start of an ulcer felt like.

Not only had she nearly lost her job, but she came very close to having her secret of knowing the truth about the V's exposed.

Her boss, Paul, had been on her case all morning regarding the sudden disappearance of Dale. After all, she was the last one to see him before he suddenly dropped off the face of the earth. Turns out that entire mill factory was cleaned right out after the ambush. All the bodies were gone, and there was no sign of Dale.

Of course not. If he wasn't dead, he was back with the V's, now that his cover was blown. It terrified Erica to her very core knowing he could still be alive out there. He knew where she lived, where her children went to school.

She couldn't let herself be paralyzed by fear; she had a war to fight.

Somehow, she'd been able to dodge the suspiscion that she somehow knew about where Dale could be, as if she'd been involved in his disappearance. She'd gotten through the meeting with all the big suits, answered all their questions with ignorance, stuck to the story that she hadn't seen him since earlier that day, managed to clear out her vehicle of all evidence that Dale had been in there the night before. One crisis averted.

But then Jack Landry had come to FBI headquarters.

She could've killed him!

On her way for coffee, right after that stressful meeting with Paul and his associates, Erica spotted him. In a room, an interrogation room.

What the hell?

She had somehow managed to dodge that bullet too. It turned out the priest was visited by the police to question him about a leak they'd gotten about an envelope of pictures. The same pictures he brought to the meeting; pictures of Visitors. Though the priest denied everything at the time, he'd been plagued with a guilty conscience over keeping information from the police, and came straight to the FBI, feeling the need to redeem himself.

Luckily, Erica got to him before anybody else.

He'd been surprised to find out Erica was an FBI agent, but she hardly cared. She reamed him out for coming to the police. Visitors were everywhere, there were probably more V's even within the FBI. They couldn't trust anybody, not anymore!

Jack saw her point, after a lot of arguing back and forth, and Jack was able to somehow talk his way out of there, but that had been too close for comfort.

Somehow, in the middle of all these close calls, she'd managed to find a quick moment to send her daughter a text.

Things are crazy at work. I'll be home late. Love you!

She thought back to her conversation with Kaitlyn the night before. Erica wasn't oblivious to the fact that her youngest daughter was crying out for her mother, and it stung. She would have to try harder. But today...well, today she'd almost lost so much; Kaitlyn wouldn't understand, but they'd all dodged an important bullet today.

Erica leaned back at her desk, sighing heavily, thankful for a moment to think. She spotted the framed photograph on her desk. Both of her beautiful children, smiling at her through their glass sanctuary.

A thousand thoughts raced through her mind. It was a mother's job, wasn't it? To worry? Would her babies be okay? Would they be safe? The V's were dangerous, and Tyler was sucked in so far, enamoured with their fancy gadgets and new way of life. What chance did she have of keeping her children away from them if Tyler was already in that deep? Sure, she had asked him to stay away from them, but his promise wasn't convincing. Lately, Erica was feeling as though she was losing her son; would she lose him to the V's?

And then there was Kaitlyn, precocious and clever Kaitlyn. She was such a grounded little girl, and she seemed suspiscious about the V's already. Thank goodness. At least Erica only had to worry about one of her children.

For now. How long before Kaitlyn was sucked into their world?

Or was she already? How would Erica know? How often was she around?

That was going to have to change. Tyler might already be lost in the Visitor's spell, but if Erica had a chance to stop Kaitlyn from following in her brother's footsteps, she would have to take it.

Erica would do anything, anything to keep her children away from those murderous liars.