Christmas time in California is only slightly more cold and only slightly more wet than the rest of the year. I, of course have coats and scarves and boots and such for much colder weather, I just never need them at home. Today is slightly overcast and cold by California standards, but for me it wouldn't really matter. I am going to be wandering around a mall most of the day with Jodi. She had decided to stop by in the middle of her little road trip during her winter break. When she told me she had never gone shopping for Christmas before, I figured it was my duty to help her in this endeavor. Also it gives me an excuse to go shop for myself.
I tell Jodi to sit and make a list, while continue to work on a little pet project of mine. The list, I tell her, must have the people she's buying presents for as well as any ideas for them next to their names. She mutters something about being on break and not having to do homework, but she sits just the same. My little project is spread out over half of the table as I slowly piece it back together. It's a tablet, much like the one I had made my dad for a prop. I can see Jodi looking up at me every once and awhile as I work, curious.
"Why do I have to do this?"
"Because," I say, not looking up as I solder the small circuits. "Having an idea going in will save you hours of searching. I assume you aren't a mall rat. You want to get in and out and this will help." I pick up the board and turn to blow on it, blowing off the excess pieces before looking it over. My shoulder pinches just a little, objecting to the action. 5 months of physical therapy and I still have some shoulder pain. It probably won't ever go away at this point. So I simply continue to look the board over a few more times before setting it down.
"What are you working on?"
"You done with your list?" I try to dodge while I try to come up with a lie.
"Yeah." I look up, staring to put away my tools and put the pieces all together loosely so I can look at them again later.
"My tablet was busted," I finally say. "Figure I'd put my engineering skills to use first instead of wasting the money on a new one."
As lies go, it's not a bad one, and a perfectly reasonable explanation. Just, not the truth. I've been lying a lot lately, something I don't like but something I seem to be getting pretty good at. I don't want to lie, and I don't like lying, but I don't want to get my ass tossed into the asylum either. After the first few times of Harper asking what was making me so jumpy when we'd walk back to the car, and I couldn't say it was a car, or a plane flying overhead, without sounding crazy, even to myself, I just started lying.
Jodi seems like she believes me as I pack up and we head to the mall. Driving is ok, I have managed to get behind the wheel of my little Fiesta with no trouble. It's walking through the parking structure I start to get jumpy. Jodi notices I either quicken my pace away from cars or shift sides with her. But she says nothing, just watches me curiously.
I wish I had an explanation for my behavior, but I don't. Not a full one anyway. Walking up almost every night, in a cold sweat, having been chased by crazy, transforming alien robot things through my nightmares has made me jumpy. Sometimes they feel so real, I think they might be memories. But then my rational brain kicks in and says that's crazy talk, Lia. Get over yourself. Harper, at least, has stopped asking me about my dreams. He just makes sure I get back to sleep ok.
The mall trip is successful, at least for Jodi. I'm still a little preoccupied for some reason to pick anything up. But Jodi is here for a few days, and she didn't get everyone on her very short list yet so there might still be time in the future. She says it's actually pretty long, at least for her. Mine is as long as my arm. Luckily there is online shopping, which I have already started on, because while I have no problem with malls, I have a problem with malls during the holidays.
The next few days are uneventful as I take Jodi to play tourist and give her a break from the mall. One day is enough. At least on the weekend. Fighting for parking is always an adventure and I didn't want to do it twice in two days. But during the week it's fine because everyone is at work during the day. And today, I have a list of my own. A partial list mind you, I don't want to spend all day there. Don't think Jodi does either.
There's a knock on the door as Jodi and I prepare to leave. She seems excited to go, and I never pegged her for one to like shopping but I guess if you're shopping for other people, it's not so bad.
I walk over and open it to see Harper there and grin like an idiot. I always like seeing him, and I always have this goofy grin plastered on my face around him, but this was a surprise. "Hey," he mirrors my smile. "Thought I'd take you two ladies to lunch." There may be a small giggle that escapes as I let him in, just as Jodi gets a call. I mentally kick myself to calm down, I'm not in grade school. But really, he just makes me feel like a giant dork, in a good way, so sometimes I'll get a little goofy and he doesn't seem to mind. The relationship isn't exactly "new" new, at least to me, but this is the longest this feeling has ever lasted for me.
I go to close the door as Harper wanders farther in and then I see it. Sitting outside in the parking lot at the bottom of my stairs. A freaking Tesla. Not just any though, oh no, it looks just like the one from the movie, the one I crashed in. I throw my purse over my shoulder and charge outside.
"What the hell is that?" I say, taking the stairs two at a time.
"Uh...a car?"
"Very observant, officer. Why is it here? Where did it come from? Why is it in my parking space?!" I storm over to the Tesla and see a small envelope under the windshield wiper. It has my name on it. Oh dear god, if he thinks he can by my silence I will ruin him. I will punch Jace in the face and throw the keys at him after I'm done.
I throw open the driver's side door, not too surprised to find it open when Jodi comes running out of the apartment.
"We need to move. NOW!" She shouts as she flies down the stairs.
"Why? What's going on?" I ask? Harper doesn't seem to question Jodi too much after a moment. He looks at me and shoves me in the car.
"You heard the lady. She means it."
"What the hell is going on?!" Harper is running around to the other side to get into the Tesla when a missile hits my apartment. I scream and put my hands over my head and I feel the car around me rumble. And then start to move. I open my eyes to see it backing out of the parking spot and Harper getting up off the ground with a hand from Jodi. I press myself against the window trying to get their attention, pulling at the door handle vainly. One of the last things I see is another missile hit my building, sending another shower of debris as the car kidnaps me.
"NO! No, no, no, not again! You won't take me again!" I turn in my seat and start kicking at the door.
"Hey, could you not kick me, please? I did just save you from exploding." I freeze, looking around the car for the source of the voice. There's no one else and it sound like it came from the speakers. I'm dreaming, or having a nightmare.
"You...you...you're…"
"Theeeeereee's the lightbulb. Knew you'd get there eventually. And no. I didn't take you last time. The guys that blew up your apartment did that. And they're trying again, so we're running away very fast until back up gets here."
"Oh...god, there's more of you."
"That's generally how the whole 'species' thing works."
"A species?!" I shout. "Alien species?"
"Knew you were smart."
I start to hyperventilate. This is too much. I must be crazy. I have to be. And yet...I've been damn jumpy around cars lately, all the nightmares I keep having, feeling like bits and pieces of memories trying to surface, making me skittish. I want to believe this is just another nightmare, I mean, in what other part of my life besides my job does my apartment blow up? How can I not possibly be dreaming? I must have fallen asleep watching Knight Rider or something.
But that doesn't feel right either. Even though I try and convince myself of it, I'm staring down the barrel of a very inconvenient truth: this car is more than a car. There is much more to it than meets the eye.
"You don't...transform do you?"
"I do! This is just my alt mode, you know, for getting around town, running Sunday errands and the like. It's pretty inconvenient to just go walking around and get all those done in a day. Trying to find clothes in my size is ridiculous. "
"Oh my god. I've finally lost it...I've gone crazy. This can't possibly be real. You can't be real."
"You say such hurtful things." The voice seems more directed, off to my right and I slowly look over to see a guy sitting in the passenger seat. He looks familiar to me, kinda slim, crazy blonde hair going every which way and my mind comes screeching to a halt.
"You! What the hell were you doing in the warehouse?!" He looks at me, just a bit sheepishly, and I'm starting to go from panicked to angry.
"Ah...yeah...about that. Sorry. I was just messing around with some spare parts and got a little carried away. My sensors didn't pick you up in time. I didn't think the teleporter would actually work. I mean, I was using such outdated technology, it felt like I was playing with rocks. So when Prowl told me you disappeared, I realized what happened."
"Prowl?! As in Officer?!" My mind picks up racing again right where it had left off. It made a sick sort of sense if you were an alien species to have a person or two in law enforcement to help cover up any sort of strange activity. Like say someone going missing. His insistence on showing me those horrible sets made sense now, seeing as I didn't remember at the time what had happened to me, he had been trying to give my brain something to cling to. To cover it all up. Too bad it was so soundly rejected.
I go to yell at him some more but the road in front of us decides to explode and suddenly I have a seat belt strapping across my chest, keeping me pinned to the seat as the brakes kick in with a very loud screech. In the sudden and brief silence that follows after the car comes to a stop, I hear the rather familiar roar of a jet engine and it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
"Looks like this is our stop. Gonna need you to vacate the premises. And run. I kinda like you not in pancake form. I'll hold him off until backup gets here. Which it should be soon. Hopefully."