Rachel
I was angry. Really angry, not just with myself, because I was angry with myself, but with Marco. He was Jake's friend and he was demoting him. I wanted to go over to Jake's house and tell him what they were planning to do; but somehow, I couldn't bring myself to do it.
I reached home a complete mess. I had started to cry again, which was quite unlike me. Dad had come down from the city for Tom's funeral and was staying on our couch. I had never seen him cry before, now I have.
As soon as I walked in the house, the first thing I saw was mum and dad sitting on the couch leafing through our photo albums. At least they weren't yelling at each other.
"What's going on?" I asked when I walked through the door.
"We're just looking at some photos," mum sniffed. "Want to see?"
I walked over. Mum wasn't usually an emotional person, but she was now.
I sat down in between them and looked down at the open page and gave a little laugh. It was a picture of Jake and Tom when Jake was about three. Tom had Jake in a head lock and Jake was balling his eyes out. It was cute. You'd never have guessed that Jake would have turned out to be the leader of a small army on Earth.
"Jake's grown, hasn't he?" dad said after a while.
"Jake's mum was over here before," mum said.
"Oh, yeah?" I asked, trying to be polite.
"Yeah, was worried about Jake," she continued. "He doesn't eat or speak much."
"What?" I asked, startled. "Jake doesn't eat?"
"Yeah," dad said, almost pitifully. "He doesn't speak either. It's like he's withdrawing himself."
"Has he said anything to you?" mum asked.
"Well, it's not like we talk much," I said. Now that I thought about it, Jake did look kind of thin and he doesn't talk unless it's about the Yeerks.
"If he said anything, would you tell us?" mum said. "His parents are really worried."
"Yeah, sure," I said as I looked down at the two boys again.
We were due to meet again at Cassie's barn five minutes to eight, but I went straight over to Jake's. I caught him as he was walking out of the house. I could hear his parents screaming at him as he was leaving.
I reached him as he slammed the door. He didn't say anything to his mother as he left and when he saw me he didn't say anything either, he just fell into step beside me.
"Hey cousin," I said, trying to be joyful.
He just kept walking, not a 'hey Rachel, how are you going?' nothing.
"I was speaking to my mum today and she said your mum is pretty worried abut you," I said trying to get something out of him.
Nothing, he just kept walking.
"She said you don't eat or speak," I pushed. "But that's not true, is it? I mean you were speaking to us before."
Still nothing.
"But do you eat Jake? Do you talk to your parents?"
Still nothing. We were now drawing closer and closer to Cassie's barn and I knew I had to finish this conversation soon.
"If you don't speak to me, I'm going to have to tell everyone," I said, kind of pathetic, but I wanted him to talk…I needed him to talk.
"Look Rachel," he said. "I'm fine, what you heard is a load of crap. I eat and I speak."
"Then how come you didn't speak to me before?" I asked, glad that he was speaking.
"Because I wanted to frighten you," he smiled, a weird, fake smile, that didn't match him at all.
We reached Cassie's barn with everyone already there. I was starting to feel sick. I had a bad feeling about what's going to happen tonight, but I didn't say anything. To protect my reputation.
"Okay," I said, trying to sound like nothing was wrong. "Let's do it."
We flew to the mall. Jake didn't talk once even though I was trying to make some conversation about how the Yeerks couldn't possibly think about building a Yeerk Pool under the mall.
We landed outside the mall in a sort of alley. It was past closing time and the streets were really dark. We started to demorph. I finished demorphing. I was human first and without a second thought, started morphing into my grizzly bear. I could make out the others coming out of their morphs fast and then gradually morph into their combat morphs. Jake was morphing a tiger, Cassie a wolf, Marco a gorilla and Tobias and Ax staying in their original shapes.
((Let's go,)) I said, hurriedly as Marco finished morphing.
We raced out of the alley and to the front of the mall. It was locked obviously.
((Marco, some assistance please)) I said, impatiently. I just wanted to get this over with.
Marco slammed his body against the double glass doors and within an instant, the glass broke and we ran through it. The mall seemed completely empty. There was no one inside and for a moment I thought maybe Erik got the wrong information, but then I saw what I had missed. A big, large hole in the middle of the mall. I walked carefully to the edge and peered down. It was a cavern, a large cavern. There was a giant Yeerk pool in the centre of the cavern. People surrounded the Yeerk Pool, many in cages. There were many Hork-Bajirs and at one side standing with one person by his side was Visser Three. I looked closer at the person standing next to him, trying to see if I could recognise him. Unfortunately I did. Tom.
