Takehiro
I woke up on Sunday morning, feeling groggy. It was a dream. A totally freaky dream that felt totally real. The worst nightmare I ever had. If I told Grandpa, he'd probably suggest therapy.
Three days have passed since that day. And for two days, I haven't had enough sleep. I kept thinking of the dreadful memory. I wished it would all go away.
Zoe didn't go to school and stayed in our bedroom on Friday and Saturday. She was still frightened about what happened at the site. Lucky for us, we had an understanding grandfather (She hasn't told him what happened two days ago) and let her rest until she felt better.
I got up off bed and looked at myself in the mirror. Black short trimmed hair, long enough to tie up into a ponytail, and blue eyes. Strongly built but average. A bit taller than Zoe. The image staring at me.
Strangely enough, that's what I looked like.
Zoe had the same hair colour and eye colour but keeps her hair much longer. She ties in a loose ponytail with two locks of hair each tied with a bead. She's sturdily built but a little skinny.
When we were kids and her hair was as short as mine, we were almost alike. Our parents couldn't tell the difference. We'd like to play a little joke of swapping identities, switching clothes and all. Fun, ain't it?
One thing though, we were quite unusual. We have black hair and blue eyes. Do you ever see a person like that? Maybe not at all. Some people say that we're special.
I heard the vacuum going on downstairs and I felt better. Vacuuming was so...normal. How could people go on vacuuming when horrible alien slugs were invading their brains?
I walked outside the door and looked downstairs. Grandpa was vacuuming. He likes to do chores and we sometimes help out. Otherwise, he'd use chores as a source of punishment for us. Ugh, just thinking of cleaning the toilet gave me goosebumps.
Emily, our little cousin ran out in a pink dress.
Oh, and did I forget to tell you how annoying she can be? Zoe thinks I overreact. Come on! That little brat is a wolf in sheep's clothing!
"How's this?" Emily asked.
"Hmm," Grandpa hummed, stroking his bread. "Very nice, Emily."
I remembered that Emily's birthday party was that day. That reassured me, too. Yesterday, I thought a six-year-old party would have been lame. But that day, I thought it was just the coolest thing in the world. Because it was normal. Just plain normal.
Why was she here? Easy. My Aunt Myrna and Uncle Ben had a meeting today and they wanted Grandpa to look after Emily for a while.
I walked down the stairs. Grandpa looked up at me as I spoke out first. "Grandpa, do you know where Kaoru is?"
"Yes. She went out for a while. Takehiro, can you look after Emily?" he asked. "I have to go to the store."
I looked at him with a face saying, "What the heck?"
"Grandpa, you know how this kid is such a brat," I growled. At the corner of my eye, I saw the little rascal stick her tongue out at me. How I so wished to strangle her.
He laughed. "A little baby-sitting isn't as hard as martial arts. You'll have to look after kids when you are older."
"Fine, fine," I muttered on the way to the kitchen. Baby-sitting does beat dodging aliens, I thought.
Not that I had dodged an alien with killer blades coming out of their wrists and elbows two nights ago. No way. It was a dream.
I chomped away on cereal, but it tasted like sawdust. I kept hearing Prince Elfangor's dying scream. I remembered those razor-sharp teeth and what they did to him...
The spoon clattered in the bowl as my stomach heaved. I bent over, my face buried in my knees, and took a deep breath. That's when Marco knocked the door, flung it open with this big smile and walked into the kitchen.
"Really, you don't have to bow," he said with his usual grin. "A simple 'Lord Marco' will do."
"Very funny," I said. "I felt kind of dizzy for a minute."
Marco slung one leg over a kitchen chair. "It isn't every day you see an alien prince turned into McFood, Daredevil," he said. Daredevil is a nickname he calls me.
It took me probably two minutes to mutter, "So it wasn't a bad dream."
"Not only that, it gets worse," Marco told me. "While you've been snoring, we've been morphing."
I stared at him. "If this is one of your jokes, it ain't funny."
"Believe it or not, it's true," he said, tossing his longish hair behind his shoulder. "I have been designated by our fearless leader, Jake, to recruit you. So far, Tobias has turned into a cat, Jake into the family dog, and Cassie into a truly awesome horse."
I cocked up an eyebrow. "I don't believe you."
"Yeah, I didn't want to believe it, either," Marco said, shrugging. "Considering that I'd like to remain alive long enough to get into an R-rated movie. But apparently, everything that Prince Elfa-diddle told us is true. Which means we're all in big trouble."
"You mean there might be Controllers around?" I whispered. I still remembered what Prince Elfangor had told us. Controllers, slaves to the Yeerks.
"Closer than you think," Marco said, reaching for a banana. "Like Jake's brother. When I told Jake I thought Tom was a Controller, he went postal. I have the jaw to prove it." Macro rubbed his chin. "But it's the little things you notice. Tom just hasn't been acting like Tom. And he goes to this meeting called The Sharing. It sounds totally bogus, but we're all going tonight. Jake says you should come, too."
"And you expect me to believe all this?" I asked him, furrowing my eyebrows.
"Hey, who doesn't?" Marco peeled the banana and began to eat. Suddenly, he bent his knees and loped around the kitchen, making monkey noises. I just stared at him, thinking he was a nutcase.
"Just kidding," he said, grinning. "I don't have a monkey morph yet. Just want you to stay on your toes."
I stared at him with a look saying, "I think you're absolutely crazy." And thought of the most daring thing I have ever thought of.
"If you say all this is true, show me one of your morphs then," I dared. I have an instinct to do anything daring.
"Well, Daredevil, I don't have one...yet."
"Ha! Then all those tall tales were just a joke," I laughed.
"But Jake, Cassie and Tobias can show you a little demonstration. Why don't you come at Cassie's place and see it yourself?" he asked.
"Can't. I promised my grandpa I have to look after that demon," I groaned.
"Demon?"
"My cousin, Emily."
"Oh..."
That was when I thought of something else. "Why not bring Jake over? I still think you're crazy and I won't believe it until I see this morphing ability."
"Okay, Daredevil. It's your choice," he said with his usual grin.
He left and after a while, he came back with Jake. I could not believe we were going ahead with this. Morphing, changing into animals? I still didn't believe it.
We went to our bedroom, which was a big mistake.
"You sleep with your sister?" Jake asked.
"Yeah. It's not life-threatening," I said.
"I never knew you had it in you, my man," Marco said, grinning.
I glared at him. "You better NOT be thinking what I think you thinking...!"
"Are you sure it's a good idea to be here?" Jake asked with a worried face. "I mean what if anyone finds out about this?"
"Look, Grandpa is gone and Zoe went out. And what would you expect a six-year-old to do? Scream "there's someone morphing in Zack's bedroom!"? I don't think so. Besides, the only ones here are you guys, me and a ferret."
Kaoru and I keep a ferret as a pet. His name is Paws. We like pets and Kaoru say I'm a sucker for animals... Which is true. What's funny is that Paws just came to our doorstep the day we arrived here. We found him beneath the bungalow one wet morning and took him in. We didn't know whether he belonged to anyone or not.
"Wait. Wasn't your sister at the construction site with you?" Jake asked. I nodded. "Why did she run away?"
I looked down with woe. "Let's not talk about it. She has issues. Bad ones." They all looked at me with puzzled looks. "Hey, aren't you gonna show me these morphs?"
"Sure thing, Daredevil. Ladies and Gentlemen, Jake will demonstrate to you his Homer morph," Marco intoned.
Jake shot a glare at him but turned to me. "Brace yourself, then."
"Brace myself? For what?" I wondered.
Jake just closed his eyes. The next thing that happened took my breath away. Slowly, fur started to grow all over his body. He was starting to get shorter. There was a scraping sound as his knees suddenly reversed direction. He toppled forward, no longer able to walk upright.
His hands were no longer hands to be exact when they hit the floor. The fingers had turned into short stubby nails.
His face bulged out and his eyes drew closer together, which made me feel sick. Finally a tail sprouted to its full length.
I was standing in a bedroom I shared with my sister, with a guy who was grinning and a dog that was once his friend named Jake one minute ago and was panting in front of me.
What did I do? I just clasped to the wall behind me and dropped my mouth, gapping. Paws was screaming in his cage. He was going nuts in there. I wasn't paying attention to Paws, though. And I did say I like animals but not when someone turned into a dog!
"This is a bad dream. This has to be a bad dream." I muttered to myself. "Someone, pinch me."
Marco did so, very hard. "Well, Daredevil, you're not."
"But...? I mean... Jake, is that really you?"
-Who else would it be,- was the reply I got.
"Huh?" I nearly jumped out of my shoes. My hair stood on ends.
"Relax, Daredevil. It's just thought-speak," Marco explained.
"Thought-speak?" I wondered.
-Yeah. It seems we can send thoughts to each other in our morphs. Like e-mail,- Jake said.
"Oh... Okay." I realized I was talking to a dog, for crying out loud!. "Maybe you should change back." I was still freaked out about this WHOLE thing. "I don't wanna explain to anyone why there's a dog in the bedroom."
Jake nodded his dog head. Okay, very freaky that part.
The change back to human form was stranger than the change to dog. The fur started to disappear and the nose was shrinking. The tail was about to be suck up when the most unpredicted thing happened.
"Zack!"
"Oh no!" I cried. "Zoe's here! Jake, you gotta finish morphing!"
-But I'm only half finished! I need more time!-
"We don't have time. What should we do?" Macro snapped.
"Hide him! Hide in the closet!" I suggested quickly.
Jake, in his unusually half-dog and half-human form, quickly hid in the closet. Just in time too. Kaoru had stepped in.
"Hey, Zoe," I greeted nervously. "Back so soon?"
"Hi, Zack..." She looked worried for some reason but then noticed Marco. "Who's he?"
"Oh! This is Marco. Remember the guy at science class I told you about? This is the man," I explained.
"Hey, nice to meet you," Marco said, giving a nervous smile.
"And the same to you," she said and turned to me. "Can I talk to you...for a minute?"
"Uh, I'm kind of busy right now," I said to her.
"Please? It's kind of important," she told me, giving me a meaningful face.
I couldn't regret it. "...I guess I can."
"Thanks. It's just..." Then she eyed at Marco. "Can we talk alone?"
"What? And miss this sister-and-brother talk?" Marco said.
That made her annoyed. "When I say can we talk alone, I MEANT you stay out of this conversation!" She threw him out of the bedroom and slammed the door in his face.
She turned to me and walked to the double bed.
"What was it you want to talk about?" I asked.
She sat on the bed and looked at me. I could see she was hurt in her eyes.
She looked around steadily and spoke in Japanese. I guess she still didn't trust Marco. "Ore iriyou tame shaberi oyoso sukoshi." Which meant "I need to talk about something." (A/N: I have no idea how to translate English to Japanese so spare me!)
"Zoe, you don't need to talk Japanese," I stated but she gave me the meaningful face. I sighed. "Hosoi. Nani sore?" meaning "Fine. What is it?'
"Itto yaku nan mi tsukihi..." means "It's about what happened three days ago..." (A/N: I could not translate 'happened' because there wasn't even one! )
That got my attention. This was somewhat strange. Zoe who had never talked about the construction site for three days to anyone was now talking about it to me. I found that strange. At the same time, I found it was understanding. Why she was talking me this.
"Itsu ware nokogiri sono seibutsu, ore feruto suihou kochikochi. Hon'in ryouken sono kare shisen nandemonai tousho. Datte ware nokogiri za yaiba."
Translated: "When I saw that creature, I didn't feel afraid. I thought that he looked harmless at first. But I saw the blade."
I understood where she was going.
"Warawa feruto sono onaji kokochi ore feruto ato nagai taimu izen. Raiku sukoshi yoku dzuki choudai auto. Auto mai omoi. Ore kochikochi... Kochikochi tame monogoto saihatsu. Ato iwaku..."
Meaning "I felt the same feeling I had felt a long time ago. Like something wants to get out. Out of my mind. I was afraid... Afraid that everything would come back. The past..."
I saw tears falling from her eyes. She was crying.
"Achira naze ware kouro sakini. Ware kouro sakini...dakara ore suihou inborubu otaku hatamata za tasha. Ware suihou ketsubou dzuki kega daremo sai..."
Meaning "That's why I ran away. I ran away...so I wouldn't involve you and the others. I didn't want to hurt anyone again..."
I walked to her and wrapped my arms around her. Like a brother would do for his sister. "Sore o-rai... Betsuni iki," I told her. "Watashi mune sei sadaka ketsu."
Translation: "It's okay... Nothing's gonna happen. I'll make sure of that."
I saw two eyes in the closet looking at us. I guessed Jake saw all this but I bet he didn't understand a word we just said.
I smiled at Zoe and wiped her tears away with my sleeve. "Haykuji fain, o-rai?" meaning "Everything's fine, okay?"
She sniffed and smiled. "Arigatou." Meaning "Thank you." (A/N: THAT I KNOW HOW TO TRANSLATE! –Faints from exhaustion-)
"Well, I think I should let Marco in," I told her in English this time. "By now, he must be really annoyed."
"Ye-" She was gonna say "Yeah" but she stopped halfway and looked at the closet suspiciously. "Did you hear that?"
"H-Hear what?" I asked nervously.
She got off and walked to the closet. I hurried to the closet door, stopping her. "Hey, maybe it's just nothing. Hee-hee."
She gave me the eye and before I knew it, she slid the door open. I braced myself. I was expecting to see her jump or scream if she saw Jake in whatever morph he was in but instead a bark made me look.
"Zack, I know you like animals, but do you really have to keep a dog in our bedroom?" she asked.
Jake was completely in his dog morph. I could easily breathe. "W-Well, it's a stray! Yeah! I just found it on the streets and thought of bringing it in. Hee-hee!" I laughed nervously.
To my surprise, I heard marching noises and before I know it, the door slammed open and something pushed me to a wall, where I received a broken nose.
"It's a doggie!" Emily, the little brat (And I'll say it again, the little brat!) yelled and rushed in to hug Jake. She hugged tightly around his furry neck. Jake just panted like a normal dog would do.
"Zack! You okay?" Zoe wondered, seeing me aching in pain with a broken nose. Marco peeked in.
"Make any wisecracks, Marco and I'll hunt you down," I growled at him.
After Marco and Jake left convincing me this was all real, I started thinking about what Marco said about Controllers. If Jake's brother Tom could be one, so could someone in my family.
What about Grandpa? No, he couldn't be the type.
Then I thought about Aunt Myrna and Uncle Ben. They left Emily here right because of a meeting. Sure, it wouldn't sound like a big deal to most people. Could it be...? Nah! My aunt is the only one abnormal. She's just too cheerful, giving a great big smile and a deadly hug. And Uncle Ben, he's alright.
Except he has an obsessive desire for traveling around the world. You should have seen his collection of souvenirs from the '90s. From the deep savanna of Africa to the thick rainforests of South America. From the centre of Switzerland to the edge of San Francisco. One time he went to Australia, he brought back a strange ivory claw and claimed it belonged to a creature, maybe a dinosaur or a dragon. That was just a story when we were kids.
But I felt cautious. Didn't they say something about going to a meeting?
I decided to find out if they were Controllers. Which meant to try out my first morph and attend this meeting under cover.
I eyed at Paws in his cage.
And a daring idea came to mind that made me grin.