Melissa sighed and peered at her pedometer that had been clipped to her waist-band as she came to a light halt. It read "12,300", which was large enough of a number that she agreed she could go home to enjoy a light ice-cream feast of some-sort, or better yet, chocolate. She licked her somewhat-chapped lips in anticipation for it. Wincing at the sudden burn of her lips when she smiled, Melissa pulled out her chap-stick from her back-pocket and ran the gloss over her lips.
Melissa, although incredibly smart and brainy, also had acquired fairly-large muscles through training and was able to keep her body-fat below average, even against her sugar and chocolate-cravings. Her light and dark brown hair was usually kept in a bun with the excess curls that naturally curled themselves hung neatly around and above the bun. Her usual outfit consisted of mainly black apparel, but now her clothes were black pants with a lavender shirt, both light and made for working-out. Melissa had a five-foot, seven-inch frame, and a slender yet strong look to accompany it, but it had been a long time since she had ever gone a date…or had a boyfriend, for that matter…
Remembering that she was in Central Park and running around alone at nine in the nighttime, Melissa re-adjusted her strap and headed on back to her condominium. A few strides later, she was in a small clearing, and saw a large human standing in the middle, crouched in a fighting-stance. She bit her lip, unsure of whether to go back the way she came or to go around the human that was not too far off. Shrugging, Melissa chose to follow another path to her right that would be parallel to the one she wanted to be on for a while, so she knew that she could get back onto it if she desired.
Although her attention was now on the road ahead of her, Melissa noticed through her peripheral view that the humanoid was watching her pass by, and was rather creeped-out at the thought. The only thing that comforted her was the fact she had previously attended a Self-Defense class upon her daughter's wish—or, rather, command. For a four-year-old, Kimi could be quite demanding and one would meet a ferocious end if they did not follow the rules of "Kimi the Conqueror", as she called herself. The thought of her daughter comforted Melissa to no end, wherever she was and no matter the situation—but at the moment, all it did was terrify her, knowing that if she didn't make it out of here alive, which was just for a late-night run, Kimi would have to go to an orphanage. No, Melissa told herself, I'm not giving myself that option! With that thought, she strode by the humanoid with more courage and force than before. And then, before she knew it, the humanoid was gone. Melissa smiled at the disappearing image and—
Suddenly two large arms had wrapped around her body from behind as another arm took hold of her neck. Melissa then saw another arm approach her neck with an open pocket-knife, and silently swore at herself for zoning-out and not paying attention to her surroundings.
"Such a pretty neck…" the first set of arms belonged to a male, that much she could tell. Melissa suddenly opened her eyes, and then realized that she never remembered closing them in the first place. The 'first' man rested his beanie-hooded head against her shoulder, and she could almost feel a smile creep across his face.
"Let's get this over with, Margie. I don't like it, not one bit…" the one who was holding the knife said this and, to her dismay, Melissa found the voice to be a woman's.
Margie grunted and then placed his cheek against Melissa's own, and this time Melissa could see his smile. "Pretty bitch you'll be, wontcha? Any experience of this sorta thing'll make your death more painless later—and this is only once you'll get fucked. It'll be easy. Look, first go with Ron and-"
His words were cut short as Ron screamed-(the two are an oxy-moron for each other, she realized)-and Melissa felt warm blood spurt out onto her face. It did not help that it had gotten pitch-black out and no one could see anything. Margie and Melissa fell quiet. After the thump of Ron's body on the ground floor, Margie let go of Melissa and thrust hew away from him as he darted off. Melissa found herself to trip over a body—presumably Ron's—and fall into someone. Melissa inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to calm herself down—although it was a rather frightening experience, and she did not feel frightened during the moments before blood was on her, Melissa had a rather horrid after-shock, and silently thanked the person who had helped her, even though she didn't agree with killing someone else.
Melissa placed her hands on the someone's chest (much to her relief, she realized the person was masculine, and not feminine, and mentally cursed herself that she should have made sure before doing so just in case next time her rescuer was a female). She pushed herself off of him, but not before realizing he was almost encased with metal—of which kind, she could not tell. She looked up and strained her eyes in an attempt to see his face, but, to her dismay, could see nothing. She smiled.
"That-…thanks. A lot. Thanks." The words had stumbled out of her mouth with no smoothness, as if she had just learned the sorry language known to man as "English".
She heard a nod from the being in front of her, and then heard a grunt from him. Melissa guessed this was his way of saying "your welcome", but shrugged it off—well, he had practically just saved her life! She smiled, remembering she hadn't used any moves from her so-called "self-defense" class, and knew she would later tell Kimi of the experience (Melissa hid nothing from Kimi). Then, remembering Kimi, she sighed.
"Look, I gotta get going, but…again, thanks a bunch. Really…and, uh, if you ever need anything-" Melissa felt a sudden, heavy hand on her shoulder and was pulled down a little from the weight put on it, and then realized her savior was leaning on her and not just putting his hand on her shoulder. "I, uh, oh, whoa, kay…are you okay? Do you need any…Okay, Mell, you know he's passed out, and a person won't respond when they're passed out, so why are you talking to him? And, secondly, why are you talking to yourself?"
Sighing at her predicament, Melissa felt around her waist belt that held a mini flashlight and pulled it free from its clasp. She flicked the light on and found the "human", as she had called him, actually a large-muscled man with mesh covering the areas that his metal did not cover, which was only about fifty-percent. His skin was a light mahogany-yellow with mottled specks of dark brown running all over his body. He had many weapons, one of which was the combined force of two blades that were rather close to her head. Sighing and placing the flashlight in her mouth for some light, she re-adjusted the being on her shoulders and again checked to see if he was still awake so that she would not have to lug over eight-hundred pounds almost a mile to her home. She found that luck was still with her as she saw his hand find its way to his mask-covered head, informing her that he would only have to use her as a crutch rather than a tow-er.
Putting one foot in front of the other, as her daughter's video of "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" sang, she found herself suddenly running with the being and almost halfway home.
Melissa managed to get to the edge of Central Park safely, but how she was too cross a street flooding with cars without being seen was beyond what she knew. She hid herself and the human-thing behind a large oak tree that was close to the street and tucked the flashlight away. Sighing as more and more cars zoomed by and skidded to stops, Melissa wondered to herself just how she was going to get home. The thought of flying occurred to her, but her hopes were suddenly swept away as she realized she was no super hero. Then it dawned on her: she could just leave him at a Hospital, and come see him later. Or, better yet, leave him here all together and forget anything really happened!
Sighing at her foolish thoughts, Melissa freed a hand of hers and flicked her head (it was a thing she did when she was irritated, whether she was upset with herself or another person). Again she flicked, and then looked up across the street—
And then it truly dawned on her as she saw her neighbors and other kids run along the sidewalk in costumes. Halloween. People dress up on Halloween. Halloween, I've never loved you more! Yes! Okay…Michelle paused her thoughts as she thought of something. Okay, he's your drunken boyfriend who watches too many sci-fi videos. That's perfect. Okay, a one and a two and a—
Michelle stepped into the crosswalk with only one of the being's arms around her shoulder and then immediately drew back as a jet-black car swerved around the corner and zoomed away.
UngratefulFuckingBastardsTheyAllAre…she thought to herself as she mentally prepared herself for running across the street. One…Two…Wincing, Michelle flung herself and the humanoid into the crosswalk and sprinted to the other side.
Just as soon as they reached it, a bright-red car whizzed by, barely missing them. Melissa sighed, relieved, and hurriedly rushed through the doors of a grey-stoned building. Inside, she passed a female and a male with a graying beard, and made her way to a staircase and climbed up two stories. On the Third Floor, she, still holding the humanoid, made a sharp right to a door, jammed her keys into the lock, unlocked the door, and went into it, and then shut the door behind them. She quickly dragged the human-thing onto the nearest couch, which sagged under its weight. Although the couch had been inexpensive, it had been her favorite, but she shrugged it off and ran to another room where she found Kimi, bundled up in the blanket Melissa had made for her, on the floor.
Smiling, Melissa went to Kimi's small form and gently picked her up, cradling her in her arms. Kimi's shiny, jet-black hair was held up in two mini pony-tails on the backside of her head. Her hair was cut just short enough to give an effect that Kimi liked to call "pom-poms". Kimi had a small, round face with a thumb wedged between her small lips right now—what Melissa enjoyed and was also saddened by was how similar she looked to Lucas, her husband who had died in a driving incident three years ago. Kimi was too young at the time to remember much of him, which Melissa found lucky and unlucky for Kimi—lucky, because then she didn't have to deal with the pain of loss, unlucky, because she would never know what a great person her father was. Sighing, Melissa placed a light kiss on Kimi's forehead and cautiously set her down on her bed.
Melissa then went back into the room that the strange human-thing was occupying at the moment. She sighed and set to work on his wounds—Melissa was glad her mother had taught her necessary skills of healing, such as stitching, after Melissa was repeatedly been sent home for being in fights at school when she was younger. Her mother did not have time to always heal Melissa, so she had taken one afternoon to show her many valuable skills—some of which she was using now.
After cleaning the human-thing up, Melissa sat on a chair not to far from it. Though she was a little concerned at the thought of it being an extraterrestrial, Melissa was more interested in finding out more about it than being frightened. Plus, it had a strange marking on his head, and that was something she wanted to know about. She dared not remove its mask, just incase it might be offended in anyway—she knew she couldn't stand up against it, even if she tried.
She heard a light grumble deep from within the throat of the human and peered queerly at it. Was it finally awake? ...
"Ooman…Water…" It's voice was raspy, but Melissa could make out what it was saying. She went to the kitchen and poured some water into a glass, and then came back to the thing, giving it to him. It nodded, she guessed in appreciation, and then set the glass down on the table. Its hands found their way to a cord that was hooked up to the mask and he undid the cord, a spew of misty clouds puffing out from it. He undid another cord, which had the same effect, and he pulled the mask off—
Melissa herd Kimi's cries in the other room and ran to her aid. She found Kimi still asleep on her bed, but tossing wildly while enduring a nightmare. Melissa laid her hand on Kimi's head and shushed, trying to calm her. Eventually, Kimi quieted and became quiet once more.
Melissa came back to the room with the glass still on the table, though empty, and the humanoid still on the couch, though sitting up. And, much to her dismay, with his mask on. She sighed, and then flopped down onto the chair opposite of him.
"What's your name?" she asked, trying to start up a conversation. Receiving no answer, she shrugged, and then sighed. Melissa pulled out a cigarette from her back-pocket, as well as a lighter for it. As she flicked the lid open, and the flame danced wildly, the creature stood up and did something of a small roar in her face. Confused, Melissa held the cigarette in his direction, tempting him to take it, but he slapped it away.
"You humans waste and destroy your planet, as if it were nothing…" He growled then, looking away and sitting down. "You will miss it when it's gone."
"Wait, what's this about?" Melissa frowned.
"…Shir'at'uk."
"What?"
"…My name is Shir'at'uk."
"…Shir-That's your name? Wow… It sounds kind of-"
"Well what is yours, Ooman?" Shir'at'uk roared defensively. This ooman, though she had healed him, proved more a hassle to him than necessary.
Melissa winced at his roar. "Please, I'm sorry if I insulted you in anyway, just please don't roar like that—you'll wake Kimi."
Shir'at'uk paused. "Keemee?"
Smiling, Melissa shook her head. "It'a 'kimi'. She's my daughter."
"Your husband?"
Shir'at'uk immediately found sadness swell in Melissa's eyes, and at once found pride in finding a weak point, but then mentally stabbed himself for hurting an unarmed ooman. Though, he thought, I've heard a female ooman's words are equivalent to the might of many ooman male's fists.
Melissa cleared her throat. "So, uh," she stumbled at the words, trying her best to overcome her threatening tears, "how-how did you-" Melissa was immediately cut short when her tears began pouring down her cheeks and tremors erupted all over her body. She held her hands to her face in an attempt to hide her emotions, but knew it was a pointless gesture. Shir'at'uk snorted.
Weak ooman.
He saw Melissa look up at him suddenly, and it was then that he realized he had said these words aloud. Anger had immediately washed over her form and she stood, slapped him powerfully, and then paused and sat herself down, looking to her right and out a small window. She breathed deeply, trying to calm herself down.
"I'm, I'm sorry…I guess I suffer from mood swings a lot, which isn't good when I have guests." She looked back at Shir'at'uk.
"What...are 'mood swings'?" He asked, though a little surprised she referred to him as a 'guest'.
Incredulous, yet understanding of his point, Melissa answered softly, "What happens is that someone might be all happy at one moment, and then angered or gloomy the next. Do you get that?"
Shir'at'uk nodded. An idea formulated in his mind as he thought of more questions that he desired the answers to. "I am sure, ooman-"
"Melissa." Finding him to pause, Melissa cleared up what she meant. "My name is Melissa."
Shir'at'uk growled, then regained his composure, remembering his questions. "I am sure, Melissa, that you are full of questions—but so am I. As of now, I will answer one question of yours if you, in turn, answer one of mine." He received a slight nod and was content with her answer. "But, remember, these are to be reasonable questions—I do not know more about the meaning of life than you do."
"Yeah," Melissa nodded, "I'm sure that even Gandhi didn't find that one out."
"…Gandhi?"
Melissa sighed. This is going to be a loooong night…
Stanley found himself filing and filling out papers for the next month after his comment—for the reason why, he had yet to discover. Though he was fairly old to Swason's hand and personal government facility, he did not understand the Sergeant anymore than a detective might—a good one at that, like Detective…now, what was his name, again?
Stanley had zoned-out for the time being, and did not notice yet the strange markings blinking on the radar-screen next to the table he was at. Also why a radar-screen had been established in the file room he had yet to discover as well.
FPM: yeah, well…Smile-iez for all:) Poor, poor Stanley, when will he ever learn? (-evil grin-). Anyways, thanks for the reviews—although there may not be many, I enjoy the ones I receive very much. And I praise you reviewers for them. :)
PS: the "santa" movie song chorus goes like this: put one foot in front of the other, and soon you'll be walking out the door!
Yeah, yeah, a little strange, but my dad watches it so much he insisted I added something in here. Chapeau, Chapeau Dadio:)