Epilogue

Author's Note and Dedication: This marks the conclusion of what has been, for me, a thrill ride I'd not have thought possible. Thanks to each and every reader who followed, faved, and commented; you are all awesome. Especially to the Wrecking Kru, the Krazy Kru, whatever you'd like to call yourselves, for helping make a real, honest-to-God book-length work out of a little crackfic. Kru and the Chipper Chums approve…and a sequel is coming.

Lorelei loved it up here.

It was the one secret place she'd found that no one…not Tante Jessica or Mr. Smith or any of the droids...had thought to look. Sooner or later they would. Then she'd just find another spot…the deep recesses of the hedge maze, maybe, or that one corner of the wine cellar… in which to privately gather with her thoughts. Her new home was every bit as huge as her old one, and she'd barely been allowed to explore its secrets since a guard, either Garrett Smith or, if he was off duty, a droid, was constantly shadowing her now. The one exception to that rule was bedtime. "I don't like being watched when I sleep," she'd loudly proclaimed to the consternation of her aunt.

At the moment she was supposed to be sleeping, but instead fully awake: sprawled on her back, hands clasped behind her head, blissfully looking up at the night sky beyond the torus' boundaries. It made her remember how big the whole universe was, and how small by comparison she must have been. That was strangely comforting. In her enchantment, she didn't care that the roof tiles of her aunt's house were probably staining her nightgown a fantastic shade of ochre again. There were plenty of other nightgowns just like it in the bedroom; she could change. Lorelei didn't think of it as her bedroom, just a place she was staying right now.

"Why do I have to go?" she'd protested vigorously even as the servant droids were packing several large pink steamer trunks with her clothes, shoes and toys from her old bedroom, the one she'd spent her entire life in.

"Because," Aunt Jessica's reply was gentle but firm, "your mother is ill, petit, and she can't take care of you right now. I can, so you'll be staying with me, in that lovely place in Sector 6. Besides, don't you want Maman to get better?"

"Yes." Lorelei hesitated. "Is it…because of me? And what I did?" She was dimly aware that something awful had transpired at home, the night after her birthday party. The events of that day were all so jumbled, stray puzzle pieces that were scattered aimlessly, disparate bits of a whole that made no sense. There had been gifts, she knew for sure, and a pony ride, a cake, and then…blank spaces, a piece of paper begging for something to be written upon it.

Her aunt's expression had betrayed nothing. "Of course not. You have done absolutely nothing wrong," she said, only Lorelei wasn't so sure.

Lorelei had dropped the matter for the time being. Maybe she'd been sick, too. Or really tired. Sometimes, when she ate too much sugary stuff like birthday cake, that happened. Still, even she knew it wasn't possible to forget the events of a whole day. Such an important day, at that. So she'd persisted, probing for clues from these two new grown-ups in her life: Mr. Smith, whom she immediately liked upon meeting him, and Dr. Perine, whom she hadn't. Neither had offered so much as a hint as to what transpired that day. Instead, they'd just changed the subject, driving the conversation elsewhere to mundane topics like the weather or what she'd eaten for lunch.

"I don't know, Orson. You think I got kidnapped by aliens, and they gave me one of those probes?" Lorelei wondered out loud to the battered plush toy beside her. "Or maybe it was the Men in Black, like in that old Earth film?"

Her new favorite toy was just another mysterious part of the puzzle. The little animal, whom she'd dubbed Orson after learning his species from her comm pad, smelled terrible, was missing one of his horns, and, with his many stains and threadbare velveteen fur, looked like the kind of thing that should have been thrown into the Elysian incinerator pile. He'd been there on her hospital bed when she woke up. Lorelei was immediately smitten. She couldn't have said why, or how, only that she had howled and thrashed in protest when her aunt had tried to throw him away. Finally she'd gotten to keep him. Even if she was getting a little old for stuffed animals, having given up her beloved, well-worn Tobias the Tiger just the previous year, Orson was oddly comforting.

He didn't answer her question, just stared into space with his remaining black, gimlet eye.

"You're no help," Lorelei pouted. "See if I save any of my dessert for you next time."

Orson was not the only strange object she'd found. That morning, when she'd woken up, Lorelei had turned her pillow over, wanting to feel the cooler side of it, and found a piece of paper covered in messy scrawls. Strings of numbers, or coordinates, they meant nothing on their own. The name "J.F. Drake" beside them, which immediately made her think of that famous English pirate they'd read about in class, Sir Francis Drake. She knew no one else by that name. Was it some kind of treasure map? She had the mysterious paper scrap tucked into the bottom of her sock drawer at the moment. She'd find out what it was, sooner or later. Even if she had to break into every server, every file system on the torus. It meant something important…that much was clear, and whether it was hidden treasure or a clue about what had occurred on her birthday, Lorelei was determined.

So many stars up there. I wonder if all of them have names? Has anyone ever counted them all?

That was why she'd started coming up here. The universe, as she knew from school, was a really huge place. Even Elysium, the place she called home, was nothing next to all that. It was nice to be able to remember how insignificant you really were once in a while.

In a way, Lorelei wished she was insignificant. Like Esme, or Anila, any of her school friends. Someone regular. They didn't have people trailing them everywhere they went, didn't have to go every day to see a doctor who sat there and tapped away at a tablet while saying things like just tell me how you feel, didn't have to climb out of their bedroom windows in the middle of the night just to be free.

Someday, you'll understand why you are different, her mother's voice cooed gently in her mind. Someday it will all make sense.

"Why do I have to wait? Why can't I know now?!" Lorelei screamed her question to the stars, not caring that the droids, or half of the sector, might hear her. "It's not fair!"

She knew she sounded like a baby throwing a tantrum, didn't care. Wasn't it her right to know? In the days following her release from the hospital, Lorelei had felt a host of unfamiliar emotions stirring within her. Fear, anxiety, and worst of all, anger. If Mr. Smith hadn't been so tall and strong, and so stoic, he probably would have yelled at her for smacking him on the arm the way she had yesterday. That was one thing she liked about him; nothing ever seemed to break through that composure, and unlike her aunt, he actually seemed to smile every now and then.

"I know you're upset," Mr. Smith had said in his deep, comforting voice. "That's natural. But you must let your anger go."

The only place she'd been able to find to let it go, so far, had been up here. The adults wouldn't listen to her, nor the droids, nor her friends. They wouldn't understand. Only the stars, with their billions of years of wisdom and silent, twinkling faces, would. And Earth. The one thing Lorelei did like about her new bedroom was the amazing view. Even now, it fascinated her, that watery orb with its billions of people living on it, even though none of them were visible from here.

"Someday I'll go there," Lorelei murmured, picking up Orson to stroke at his patchy fur.

And of course, there was one more face, or rather, lack of one, that haunted her. The dark one, the boogeyman who stalked through the shadows of her dreamscapes. She felt a shudder pass through her body. Not a night had gone by when she hadn't dreamed of him, despite the pill Dr. Perine made her take to prevent it. She knew the boogeyman was looking for her, that tall, rangy figure with the coarse brown cloak and even coarser beard poking out from the cowl covering his head. Sometimes he would just stand there and laugh, a harsh cackle. Other times he held a long, sharp-looking sword, sharpening it with a menacing, metallic shink, shink sound. But every time…without exception…he was gazing like a hungry wolf at her, and, although Lorelei could never see his actual face, she could make out those piercing black eyes of his meeting with her own.

I'll find you. I'll hunt you down, he liked to dream-speak to her threateningly. His lips didn't move; she could hear every word clearly enough in her mind. Dreams were scary that way. Little one, you are mine.

That was usually how it ended. Lorelei would find herself bolt upright in the new bed, drenched in a cold sweat, looking frantically around for her tormentor. So far he hadn't shown himself, either in the dream world or the real world.

"If he's real, I hope he never finds me, Orson. I'm really scared of him," she admitted, whimpering softly. "At the same time, and this is the weird part, I kinda wish I could meet him face to face. Isn't that creepy?"

Orson's one eye stared back, as black as the dark hooded man's. She wanted to believe the little oryx, as a kindred spirit, understood somehow. But that was silly. Almost as silly as being afraid of a boogeyman. Next thing you know, I'll start believing in Santa again. Or the Tooth Fairy.

The faint tinge of light in the artificial sky, a periwinkle blue against the deep indigo, startled her when it came. She had been up here at least several hours, the last nightmare having awoken her around 0200. Mr. Smith would be coming at dawn; it was time to go now before she got caught, since he surely wouldn't overlook breaking curfew on top of the roof. Sleep would have to come another time. School, Lorelei thought with sudden glee, was a good time. They were doing their sentence structure unit, and she couldn't imagine anything more boring than that.

"Come on, then, Orson. Let's go back inside," Lorelei said, yawning and picking her toy up by his one horn. "Good night, stars. Good night, Earth. I'll see you tomorrow night. Just," she added, pleadingly, "can you let me have one night without the boogeyman? Please?"

No response. She hadn't expected one anyway.

Rising nimbly to her feet, Lorelei stretched. She was exhausted, having not gotten a good night's sleep since her stay in the hospital. It was just one more thing she'd have to figure out, along with the treasure map and the mystery of why she couldn't remember anything on her birthday. She moved toward the little skylight opening, which was just large enough for her to fit through. As she did, a movement caught the corner of her eye.

One of the stars…no, that wasn't a star…was shooting through the sky rapidly, away from the torus and down to Earth. A ship. If Lorelei had to guess from what she could see, she'd pick it out as a Raven-class gunship. It quickly dwindled to a speck before disappearing entirely from her sight.

"I'll take that as a sign if that's all you've got," she looked up, acknowledging the heavens and, for reasons she couldn't begin to understand, Lorelei smiled broadly.

The End