It was just a day after I had that nightmare in which I thought I had lost Yemra forever. Unfortunately, today was also the day that Yemra had to come out of my head to "reconstitute" herself, or so she says. Usually we did that in the comfort of my own room, but today Yemra had decided that she wanted to visit the feeding center, for what purpose she wouldn't tell me. Of course, I protested, since it was just a day after I had that nightmare where I saw her get crushed by someone's foot, and the memories of that bad dream were still fresh in my mind. If you're the kind of person that doesn't easily forget stuff like that, which I am, then those bad memories will be stuck in your head for a long, long time.

Oh, come on, Jen, it's the middle of the day! Yemra told me as we were walking over to the feeding center. No one's gonna go to the Pool to pluck me out and squash me right in front of you!

((But still, Yemra, I don't want to take that risk!)) I replied. One of the few disadvantages that humans had when it comes to Yeerks is that a Yeerk can immediately take over its host's functions whenever it wanted, while the human was powerless to take control back from the Yeerk. It's one of the many reasons why people are still distrustful of the humans that wanted to become Controllers and those Controllers that decided to stay with their Yeerk after the war. Sure, there was some kind of chemical or something that was currently making waves because its makers claimed that it could help humans regain control of their bodies from their Yeerks if some kind of situation that required that kind of change in control was needed. It was confusing, honestly, and I'm not the kind of person that could stand confusing.

When I had refused to go to the feeding center as part of Yemra's "experiment," she just up and took over without my permission. She made me take some of my notebooks and pens and then she returned control to me once we were already within sight of the feeding center. That was just one of a handful of times that Yemra had forcefully taken control of my body, but this was the first time where she didn't give me any warning at all, she just went and took over.

That brief glimpse of life as an involuntary Controller made me see why there were still people who didn't trust the Yeerks, even the ones in the Peace Movement. Even though they did not forcefully take over their hosts' functions, they still had the capacity to do it, and that was what was making people still nervous and edgy about them.

Look, Jen, I'm only doing this because if you had your way, then you wouldn't even let me out of your head anymore, Yemra said. Besides, it's only going to be two hours of me wading in the Pool, maybe gathering some gossip from the other Yeerks in there. Besides, you've got your stories to occupy your time!

((But I don't want my stories, Yemra, I want you!)) I replied.

Oh, don't be such a crybaby, Jen, Yemra said. Besides, who knows what will happen to me if I stay in your head for more than three days. I could end up getting permanently attached to your brain!

((That's even better, Yemra!)) I said. ((That way we're stuck with each other for the rest of our lives!))

Oh, by the Kandrona, no! Please! I can't stand being in close proximity to your crazy brain for more than three days!

((Oh, so that's the real reason why you won't stay in me for more than three days. You don't think you can handle twelve consecutive years of being right next to my crazy?))

Puh-lease, Jen! I'm actually the one that reins in your innate craziness to normal and acceptable standards! Without me you'd probably already be locked up in some mental hospital or whatever their politically correct name is now! Besides, it's probably good for the both of us if you got used to me being out of your head for extended periods of time. It's a good way to dissuade you that you've got an addiction to me.

((I'm telling you, Yemra, I'm not just imagining it. I really am addicted to you!)) I protested. ((You've seen what happens to me when I'm faced with the possibility of losing you forever. I'm a wreck if I don't have you!))

Don't talk like that, Jen; I'm telling you. But before I could reply, we were already at the Yeerk pool inside the Human-Yeerk Friendship and Community Center. I knelt down on the feeding pier and waited as Yemra disengaged from my brain and plopped out in the Pool. Of course I felt a little resentment towards her because of the things that we'd just talked about, but then I remembered how lonely I felt whenever she was out "feeding," and so whatever resentment I may have felt for her was quickly replaced by a longing feeling in me wanting her immediate return into my head.

Since I was already there in the feeding center, I decided to indulge Yemra and wait for some time before coming back for her. When you're a writer, times flies fast, and sometimes that can be a good thing.

Yemra's somewhat twisted sense of humor had struck again. The notebook that she had made me bring was the one where I had written that story about the girl who thought she was addicted to her Yeerk. How ironic or coincidental is that? Thanks for keeping my mind off of you while you're feeding, Yemra, I thought. Real classy.

Since I was in the right frame of mind anyway, I decided to go on ahead with my story about the Controller who thought she was addicted to her Yeerk for all the right and wrong reasons. And apparently my muse was with me because I somehow ended up producing some long-winded ramblings which overall gist was that my character—obviously based on yours truly—absolutely loves her Yeerk so much that she can't stand the thought of being separated from her, and she therefore starts hating her Yeerk for turning her into such a person. There was a lot of raving and ranting, and some shouting and swearing, but basically it's just me angsting.

I was so engrossed in my story that I didn't realize that two hours had already passed since Yemra went out of my head. Of course I had stopped for a few moments to buy some snacks and drinks, but it wasn't like I hadn't looked at my watch the entire time that I was working on my story. So when I finally noticed that two hours had passed, I almost yelled both in surprise and happiness. Additional proof that time flies when you're having fun. At least now I'll have Yemra back in my head once again.

See, Jen? Yemra asked me once she was fully connected to my brain once again. That wasn't so hard, was it now? That's proof that you're not actually addicted to me.

((Oh, come on, that wasn't fair!)) I replied. ((First, you took control of me when I wouldn't indulge you in your little "experiment," and then you used my own stories to distract me from missing you!))

But it worked, didn't it?

((I guess so,)) I conceded.

Look on the bright side, Jen. Now you've got three whole days to bombard me with your absolute craziest!

((I'll be sure to do that, Yems,)) I replied. ((As soon as we're back home.))

We went out of the Pool area and went up to the ground floor. The area that could be called the lobby of the community center was lined with shops that could be considered the standard fare for community centers like this one. There were food stalls, cheap clothing boutiques and maybe some cheap stationery supplies and a second-hand bookshop. Now that my Yeerk was back safe and sound in my head, I was feeling much better, but I still hadn't forgiven Yemra for forcefully taking control from me just a few hours ago. But it wasn't like she was enslaving me, so I was pretty sure that I would end up forgiving her for that in just a few more hours too.

Also, since Yemra was back in my head and would stay there for at least three more days, I could now look forward to those three days. Some of my friends had invited me to go out with them later tonight. It would be a good chance to get out of the house and just have some fun.

Little did I know that those plans were about to come flying out of the window.

I was just a few paces away from the community center's exit when I noticed this dude just about to come in. I don't know why my eyes felt drawn to him. Maybe it was the way that he carried himself; maybe it was his clothes. I just don't know. And then, suddenly, he reached into his jacket, pulled out a gun, brought it up to eye level and fired.

My reaction at seeing a gun being pointed in my general direction was automatic, almost reflexive. I bent my body and dived low and to the right towards the nearest available cover. There weren't a lot of people inside the community center, but once the gunman fired his first shot, the panic and chaos that immediately followed was almost deafening in its intensity. People went every which way in their rush to escape the terror that had suddenly come upon them. The gunman fired at least four more shots, and I heard the distinctive sound of four bodies hitting the floor. People everywhere were screaming: they were screaming in pain; they were screaming for help; they were screaming because there was nothing else that they could do. It was deafening and maddening, and it was especially deafening when you've got a Yeerk in your head screaming along with them.

((Yemra, for the love of God, shut up!)) I tried to shout mentally above her shrieking, which oddly enough sounded like a little girl's scream. All the while I was trying to squeeze myself behind an upturned table in a café that served some kind of cheap Starbucks rip-off coffee.

Oh, shit, Jen, I'm sorry! Yemra said in apology. Her thoughtspeak sounded quite raw after having expended most of it in screaming her imaginary lungs out. I got a bit carried away, she said.

((That's the first time that I've heard you say sorry and mean it,)) I thought, a bit sarcastically of course. But even as I said those words, I noticed a woman standing in the middle of the concourse, like a paper target in a shooting range. She looked like a target just waiting to be hit because, honestly, that was what she was right there, a sitting duck in a shooting range that was the community center concourse.

Maybe one day, aliens like Yemra will finally understand why humans do the things we do. But I don't think such a thing would be likely today, since even the humans who do the things that make them ask such questions can't easily answer those questions. Take me, for example. I could have just yelled at that woman to take cover. It was the safe and reasonable thing for me to do. In doing so, I would have remained in my cover, safe and sound, never risking life or limb. But sometimes humans like to go for the risky and dangerous options. Maybe it was for the adrenaline rush. Maybe it was the thought of playing with your own life that makes them tick. Nobody knows, actually.

I tightened up my bag's shoulder strap to keep my bag close to my body. I then lifted myself up to a crouching position, kind of like a runner preparing for a sprint around the track, and breathed in deeply.

Jen, what are you doing? Yemra asked.

((I'm going to save a life,)) I replied matter-of-factly.

I launched myself from behind my cover, my legs acting like springs that brought me both upwards and forwards. I used my forward momentum to break out on a run, right towards the woman in the middle of the community center concourse. I admit that I wouldn't be able to beat Usain Bolt in a competition, but for a soccer forward player, my sprint and pace were good enough.

As I neared the woman, I bent my body forwards and shrugged my shoulders. I was already a bit short for my age, but this woman was probably half a head shorter than I was, so I had to bend myself really, really low.

I hit the woman in her midsection with my right shoulder, which absorbed most of the impact on my part. It was a classic football tackle, and it would have done my dad and cousin Jude—both football fanatics—proud. As we fell towards the floor, I felt a bullet whizz by the spot where the woman's head had been just a second or so ago. The passing shock wave of the bullet rippled the top of my head, and Yemra actually yelped in surprised fear. Or was that supposed to be fearful surprise?

The woman and I laid down on the ground, and then I half-carried, half-shoved her towards the nearest store that I could see, some kind of bookshop for second-hand books and the like. I pushed her behind the first bookshelf in there that I saw, and then I followed her soon after.

Shit! Yemra said. That one almost killed me!

((Oh, so it's all about you now once again, huh?)) I said. ((I could have had a hole blown through my skull too! Not to mention that we'd both be dead if that bullet got you.))

Oh, shush, Jen, Yemra said. You'll get over it.

Well, she was right in a way. I can't help being a bit sarcastic, even in life-or-death situations. It's kind of in my blood.

Meanwhile, I turned to the woman whom I had just saved and asked her, "Are you okay?"

"Yes," she replied. "Thanks for saving me back there."

"It's nothing," I said. "You'd probably do the same thing in my place."

"Maybe," she replied, with a hint of hesitation. "But I'm sure it wouldn't be like the way you just saved me. I never was good at athletics."

"Let me guess; you were one of the last kids to be picked for the teams during gym class."

"You guessed right."

I held out my hand. "Jen," I said. Since we were probably going to be stuck behind this bookshelf for the foreseeable future, we might as well get acquainted with each other. Also, I did save her life, after all.

She took my hand and shook it. "Emily," she replied.

"Are you a Controller?" I asked. "Or are you just tagging along with a friend?" In any other context, if I asked someone if she was a Controller then that might be considered rude, but since we were in the Human-Yeerk Friendship and Community Center, I was with a more open-minded bunch.

"I'm a Controller," Emily replied matter-of-factly. "How about you, Jen?" she asked me. "Are you a Controller, too?"

"Since I was nine," I replied. "Or maybe when I was eight. It was all so long ago that I can't remember exactly how old I was when it happened."

"That young? Were you voluntary?"

"It's a long story," I replied. Both Yemra and I noticed the look of intense curiosity that Emily gave us when I had told her that I had been a Controller since I was eight or nine. But my gut was telling me to not ask about it just yet. At least, not as long as we were stuck inside the community center Die Hard-style. Not that I had any illusions of being some kind of John McClane or something like that.

"You just fed?" I asked Emily. "Or were you about to feed?"

"Thankfully, my Yeerk had just finished feeding when all this happened," Emily replied. "Why? Was your Yeerk just about to feed before this?"

"Nah," I replied. "Good thing she also just finished feeding before this shit happened." As I said shit, I noticed Emily wince just a little bit. I let out a big and quite possibly exaggerated sigh. "Oh, come on!" I said to no one in particular. "First there was that guy who shot up Ottawa, and then that guy in Sydney that held up that café, and of course there was that attack in Paris! Is going postal the new in thing now or what?"

"If it helps, Jen," Emily said, "I don't think that man is inspired by radical Islamist fundamentalism."

"You think so?" I asked her.

"Well, either that or he decided to hit the first public place that he saw."

"Christ, that's a thought to chill you to the bone," I muttered. And then another thought struck me. "Do you think this could be motivated by the Nothlit Rights Movement attacks?" I asked her.

"Who knows, Jen?" Emily replied. "Maybe he has issues with Controllers. Maybe he's a nothlit, trying to kill as many as his quote-unquote traitor brethren before the police get onto him."

"You really think he's a nothlit out to kill those who remained Yeerks and got hosts?"

"That is possible," Emily conceded. "But then again, nobody knows I'm here. I've made sure of that."

I gave Emily a closer look. There was something about her that really got my interest. "You know, you look familiar," I told Emily. "Have I seen you anywhere before?"

"If you've seen me before, then it's surely not because I'm from here," Emily said. "Perhaps you've seen me on the news or on the Internet. I will tell you this, Jen. Once I tell you who I really am, then you'll probably kick yourself for not recognizing me."

Uh-oh, Yemra said. I sense a big revelation of some kind coming. Gah! The suspense is killing me! Ask her already!

"Who are you, Emily?" I asked. "Really?"

"I am Tarash Five-One-Four, founder of the Yeerk Peace Movement. And I am the reason why you and your Yeerk are still together."

A/N: So yes, Anifan's Emily and Tarash are now officially appearing in my fic too! Yes, I did ask permission from her, and she gave it! Yes, anyway, leave a review or a like or a favourite whether you like it or not!