Hello, readers!

Last one! Besides the epilogue, of course. The finish line is right there at my fingertips! I may have kind of rushed through these last couple chapters, so PLEASE let me know if they're weak in places or need to be buffed out a little more. It may have taken me this long to get this done, but I'm never above going back if I really need to.

This chapter has been updated as of 11/1/2017.

~ Crayola


Chapter Twenty-Eight

Watch Time Fly By

The rest of the week continued about how I had expected it to. I'd lost the majority of my friends in one fell swoop, and now people weren't sure how to act around me. To be fair, I wasn't sure how to act around them, either. I endured their stares and their whispers as much as I could and smiled when they tried to me nice to me. If anything, I could be grateful that I didn't have anyone trying to scare me. Not after I had laid Danny out.

That weekend I played catch up with my school work. Several students from my classes had been more than happy to share the notes I'd missed, and the teachers had completely dismissed the assignments I hadn't completed, telling me to do my best for the rest of the year. They couldn't give me full marks, but they at least wouldn't give me an zeroes. I took copies of the notes with my Dad's printer, intent on returning them to their owners the next time I was at school.

Homework was even more of a chore than I remembered, but it was a good distraction. Busy work while I tried to figure out what I was going to say to Wolf when I saw him. It kept my mind off all the other things, too.

I had more trouble with what I was going to say than I wanted. Guilt crept up my spine like a weed, convincing me that he was going to be disappointed. Why, I wasn't really sure. How would this disappoint him? He was probably doing me a favor by taking me away from this. It couldn't possibly be that he wanted a human to take care of.

Though, maybe that was the case. He'd already gone through all this trouble to track me down and try to steal me away in the middle of the night.

The days passed by too quickly. As the sun started to dip below the horizon on Tuesday night, an overwhelming sense of dread hovered over me. I found a very difficult series of emotions that ranged from anticipation to worry to anxiety and all other things. What was certain was that I was looking forward to seeing him again, but not the conversation itself.

Looking forward to seeing him. I couldn't explain that one to myself if I tried.

As the day trudged on, I more than once caught myself imagining what he'd been doing for these past seven days. Had help arrived to un-strand him from my planet? I figured that had to be the case, otherwise why would he have tried to collect me without a means of leaving.

My favorite theory was that he and Brutus had spent their time wrestling bears or something out in the mountains. If anything, it brought a smile to face imagining it.

Stupid macho aliens.

"What are you doing in your heavy clothes?" Mom asked as I struggled down the stairs later that night.

I didn't speak as I concentrated, then answered her once I was safely down the steps. "I'm gonna go outside for a little bit. Get some fresh air."

"It's getting dark out, though."

"I want to see the stars."

Mom and Dad glanced at each other, then shrugged. "Alright sweetie. Stay warm, okay? It's supposed to snow some more tonight. Don't stay out too long?"

Nodding, I opened the door to the backyard, told Atlas to stay and locked the doggy door, then made my way through the mush of half-melted snow toward the swing set. Dad had installed the sandbox and small playground when Alan was born so we all had a reason to go outside—because living five minutes away from any number of hiking trails wasn't good enough.

The last thing I wanted to do was let Wolf see me walking with aid, so I tossed my cane aside once I reached the swings and wasted time with practicing some of the exercises my doctor had given me. They made my legs ache, but it was a good kind of pain.

Finally, the sun disappeared and the stars came out, twinkling in the heavens. I leaned back in the swing and stared up at them as I swayed back and forth, wondering if they'd look any bigger in space.

Back in the house, Atlas was barking up a storm. I sat up a little straighter and looked around. It was dark now and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to see Wolf the same way I could when it was bright out. It had been so dim on the ship that I'd barely been able to make out the shimmering air effect they made when invisible.

Now that I knew they didn't actually need light to see like we did, I figured it must have been a secondary effect. Like they used the lights to heat up their surroundings or something.

The door creaked open across the yard and I looked up in time to see Atlas tearing toward me, his ears flopping with each leap and bound.

"Mom, what are you doing?" I demanded.

"Atlas won't shut up. I think he wants to be outside with you. The doggy door got locked somehow. Throw the ball for him a couple times," she suggested before going back inside. I opened my mouth to protest, but her shadow was already disappearing back into the living room.

Whining, Atlas shoved his nose under my hand, tail wagging. He occasionally turned toward the trees behind our fence and growled, but he stopped when I admonished him.

"Now, Atlas," I said quietly, taking his face in both of my hands. He tried to pull away a couple times, but I forced him to look at me. I gently massaged his cheeks and touched my nose to his. "I have a visitor coming, okay? You're going to be nice to him okay? Otherwise he might try to kill you and I really don't want that."

His only response was a gentle whine, followed by a lick to my face. I spluttered and pulled back, wiping my nose on my sleeve. "No kisses!"

He whined at me and fidgeted, but his tail was still wagging.

"Alright, I'm glad we understand each other," I chuckled, letting his head go. "Now where's your ball? Go get your ball!"

The reaction was instantaneous. The moment the word "ball" was out of my mouth, he was flitting across the yard, frantically searching for one of his many tennis balls. He found two and somehow managed to bring both of them to me after some trouble fitting them in his mouth. I rolled my eyes and picked the less slobbery of the two.

"I can only throw one, you stupid dog," I cooed. He backed up a few paces, tongue lolling from his mouth, and I wiggled the ball in the air, making him twitch with anticipation. Finally, I flung it across the yard. "Fetch!"

Atlas chased after the ball each time I threw it until he was too tired to continue—which was fine with me because my arm was tired as well. We played fetch for probably fifteen minutes before he stopped and flopped to the ground. I watched him chew on the tennis ball for a little bit before I called over to him.

"C'mere boy."

He picked up the ball and trotted over to me, dropping it in the snow-covered sand. It was past the slobber threshold for me—the consistency was a little too similar to theirs for my comfort—so I didn't touch it, but I did pick up the other ball and throw that. Atlas observed it fly across the yard, ears perked.

However, he didn't chase it. Despite this, it came flying back through the darkness of the night and landed at my feet. Atlas' fur stood on end and his hackles raised. I stopped my swinging as well, just as he started to growl.

"Atlas," I crooned, leaning forward to pet his rump. He didn't flinch or stop looking into the pitch black yard. His growl grew in volume, and then he lowered his head and peeled his lips away from his teeth.

Perfect. This was exactly what I had been trying to avoid. I doubted Wolf would kill my dog, but I wasn't positive. I definitely couldn't trust Brutus not to try something.

"This is the visitor I was telling you about, come here and sit."

There was no budging him. He stayed right there in front of me, warning off the invisible intruder in front of us.

Finally, Wolf showed himself. Atlas didn't move or start barking, but his growl turned into a more menacing snarl. I reached out and took the tip of his tail in my hand, wiggling it a little bit, but he didn't so much as glance back at me.

Sighing, I pushed out of the swing and carefully lowered myself into the sand next to him. I knew I had to be cautious around a dog during their threat display, but I was sure he wouldn't hurt me on purpose. Atlas finally acknowledged me, but did not relax.

"It's alright," I whispered, rubbing his neck and ears. Turning my attention to Wolf, I said, "He shouldn't hurt you. He's just protective."

From where I was, I barely made out the derisive sound Wolf made before he ambled toward us. Atlas stiffened under my arms, and when Wolf was too close for his comfort, he pulled out of my grasp and shot forward meet Wolf.

"Atlas, no! Wolf don't hurt—"

For a brief second, I was certain I was about to lose my dog. I expected those three red dots to show up right before he lost his cute little head. I searched frantically for Brutus, but if he was around, he wasn't showing himself.

However, Atlas stopped just short of reaching Wolf and tried to warn him off with a few angry barks. I staggered to my feet and stumbled toward them, casting furtive glances toward the house. The kitchen remained dark, though.

Each step was unsteady and difficult, but I grit my teeth and bared it, trying to look as steady as possible as I made my way to my dog.

Wolf looked down at Atlas, head tilted, and squatted in front of him. Atlas took a step back, but didn't stop growling and baring his teeth. Wolf growled back at him, but Atlas didn't waver. I was half expecting Atlas to latch on to his arm at any moment, but he was more keen on looking intimidating and trying to assert his dominance.

At last I reached them and I managed to keep myself from collapsing while I fought to kneel down at my dog's side. I was careful to make sure Atlas knew I was there before I grabbed a hold of his collar and pulled. He turned long enough to slap me with his tongue, as if to say that he had everything under control, then gave Wolf his undivided attention and one last growl before he fell silent. He kept his ears down and teeth bared, pink tongue licking his lips every few seconds.

The two of them stared at each other, and then Wolf turned toward me and rattled off a question. I tried to pull Atlas away again but he was intent to keep as much of his fuzzy body between me and the strange alien as possible.

"I can't go with you." I blurted out at last, meeting his gaze as much as I could.

He tilted his head and waited for the explanation to come. I was expecting more of a prompt, but he just waited silently.

"I have . . . things to hunt here. Until I can, um, finish this hunt, I won't be ready to come with you. But when I am done, I'll be ready." It had taken almost the whole week to compose this in a way he'd understand and accept, and still I found it hard to say without wavering. The "interrogations" with Cooper and Rawlins had helped.

They were hunters—that was their culture.

For a few minutes Wolf considered me. As he started to stand, I let go of Atlas and stood on shaky legs, but I kept my head high and met his impassive gaze. I was trembling, but more because of the cold than any real fear. I'd been outside a lot longer than I'd anticipated.

When he finally responded, he dipped his head and reached out once more to shake my shoulder. Atlas let out a warning growl but didn't move. I had the presence of mind to return the gesture, though it compromised my balance and nearly toppled me. He grabbed my arm and steadied me, and I was glad Atlas didn't take that a threatening move.

"I'll find a way to contact you somehow. I don't . . . know how, but . . . I'll find a way," I said with a sharp nod.

His shoulders shook with his rumbling laughter and he lifted his arm with the computer. I watched him with mild interest as he punched in a sequence, then unhooked the computer part from his wrist and handed it to me.

It wasn't too heavy, but it was still heavier than I expected and I almost dropped it. I looked it over, turning it in my hands, then stared up at Wolf. Surely he was going to elaborate.

"What do I do?" I asked after a second.

He leaned forward and mimed a sequence for me. After the third repetition, I mimicked him, indicating toward the weird symbols in the order he'd demonstrated. Wolf nodded and motioned for me to repeat it a few more times. When I did so with more and more confidence, he finally pulled away with a satisfied nod of his head.

"If I do that, you'll know to come?"

Another nod.

Okay, that's a start. My stomach twisted with excitement. He would be a phone call away, kind of. "Won't it take you years to travel across the universe to come back?"

Wolf rattled his response and indicated in the negative. I wasn't sure exactly how long it would take him, but at least the answer wasn't "years". I wondered if it was hooked up to his ship but figured it wasn't important how it worked, just that it did.

"What if it runs out of power?" I asked.

At first he didn't immediately answer. I watched him and waited for a response, but I was forced to take in his body language—expanded chest, squared shoulders. . . oh. I lowered my head and smiled sheepishly. "I guess that's a stupid question."

He reached out, rattling quietly, and did that patronizing head pat. It seemed he was about to leave, but he stopped and turned back toward me. I tilted my head to the side, shivering from the cold. Standing without my cane was also becoming difficult with time.

There was something attached to his waist, and he untied it. With one hand he held it out to me and I accepted it without hesitation. It was another piece of jewelry, this time lined with sharp yellow teeth the size of my pinky fingers.

I looked up at Wolf, my mouth slightly open. "Is this—are these from the queen?"

Nodding, he pointed at the spot on my chest where the mark was, then to the leather thong with teeth strung to it. The chittering he made had no meaning to me, but I thought I understood the gist of what he was saying.

So that's what they'd been doing. Salvaging stuff from the ship. I wondered if they'd destroyed it yet or if the government had seized the scraps. Wolf and Brutus had needed their trophies, and the queen was one hell of a trophy.

Though I couldn't mount her skull on my wall, she was as much my kill theirs.

My fingers tightened around the trinket, careful not to poke myself on the sharp fangs, and I brought it in close to my chest. This held so much more value than the one he had given me before. This one celebrated a victory, not a defeat. I was going to make sure the government didn't confiscate this one. I was going to have to be careful to keep the computer hidden, too.

"Thank you. For everything," I said.

Wolf inclined his head and looked to Atlas, who hadn't made a peep since I'd shown no discomfort. My dog's muscles were still tense, but at least he was quiet. Wolf chuffed a few words, assumed to be for the dog, and then he disappeared into the shadows. I couldn't even hear his footsteps on the slowly freezing slush, and I could scarcely make out his shimmering form as he jumped over my six foot fence.

Then he was gone, vanished into the trees. I was glad I hadn't had to see Brutus again, but I was still curious as to his whereabouts.

Doesn't matter.

I waited a couple minutes longer, then limped back to the sandbox to fetch my cane. My legs were on fire, demanding rest, but I still had to make it into the house.

Still had to sneak my new belongings up to my room.

*:・゚✧

"Someone really did that?"

"No," I said, arms crossed over my chest. "He snuck up behind me, grabbed my shoulder, and shouted in my ear."

Huffing, Ava tapped her pencil against her notepad and shook her head. She had asked me about school and we were talking about ways to deal with my jumpiness, so I had decided to tell her about the incident with Danny.

"What did you do after that?" she asked.

I looked down at my lap and worried a stray thread from my jeans. "I hit him with my cane and bruised his shin."

She rubbed her face and sighed. "That's a perfectly normal reaction. There's really no wrong way to deal with something like that, so don't feel bad Nichole."

"Yeah, no one really blamed me. He wasn't happy about being hit but I didn't get in trouble."

"Good, good." Ava smiled. "But hopefully you didn't hurt him too bad?"

"No permanent damage," I muttered.

"Is that your general reaction when you feel threatened like that? To attack?" she asked, turning on her "therapist voice."

Shrugging, I finally pulled the thread free. "I guess so."

"I figured it would be. Everyone has the fight or flight reflex. You just happen to have a strong fight reflex. Nothing wrong with that at all. Do you ever . . . have flashbacks when you're startled?"

I shrugged. "Sometimes? I . . . think back to the aliens. Sometimes it's my friend's deaths. When he grabbed me . . . I thought one of those things had found me again."

She nodded and scribbled down a note while saying, "Has your dad given you any more issues about anything?"

Before I could answer, someone knocked on the door. I turned in my seat to watch Ava answer, and when she opened it a familiar man greeted her. I recognized him from the press conference.

"Hello, Ava," he said, sounding disgruntled. "I came to meet with Nichole?"

"Ah, yes!" Ava said, clapping once. She stepped aside to allow Mr. Dixon inside the office. "Thank you for coming, I know it means a lot to Nichole."

"Yes, so I heard." Mr. Dixon looked anything but happy to be there. When he spotted me, he nodded a greeting and summoned a smile to his unshaven face. "I trust Ava told you I was coming to see you today?"

"Yes, thank you for coming," I said, more as a formality, as I stood up to greet him properly. I'd made sure to wear my nicest shirt and jeans to meet with him, and I made an effort to give him a firm handshake.

An awkward silence descended until Ava cleared her throat and clasped her hands together. "Nichole, would you like me to stay here with you while you two talk, like I have been with Agents Cooper and Rawlins?"

I looked up at her, then smiled and shook my head. "No, I'll be alright. I'd like to talk him alone, if that's okay."

She hesitated, but agreed nonetheless. "That's fine. Are your parents here? I'd like to have a few words with them, whether it's your mom or dad or both."

"Um, my mom's in the waiting room. Is something wrong?"

"Oh no! I just like to chat with the parents sometimes, see if I can't help them better help you when I can't be around."

"Oh, okay. Sure, that's fine."

Before leaving, she said, "I'll come back when Mr. Dixon leaves."

"Thank you."

Mr. Dixon readjusted his suit while Ava stepped outside, closing us into the room alone. The click sounded almost final. Mr. Dixon glanced behind him, then put his hands in his pocket and looked at me. "I hope my agents treated you well?" he asked.

"As well as possible," I said. "Cooper's been kind of mean."

"Ah, I apologize. I'll have a word with him about it."

I shook my head and said, "No, it's fine. He was just . . . doing his job I guess. Ava helped keep them under control."

He indicated to the chair behind me and suggested, "You can sit if you'd be more comfortable like that."

"No, no it's fine."

Another slightly awkward silence followed as I tried to gather my courage to speak my mind. He cleared his throat and prompted me. "So, what can I do for you, Ms. Shain?"

Taking a deep breath, I prepared myself. I had been imagining this moment since Ava had left me the message. After the speech I gave Wolf, failure was not an option. No matter what it took, I had to convince this man. If I didn't, there was no way I was going to be able to call Wolf back.

Wolf was probably expecting trophies, since I'd told him I needed to finish a hunt. I supposed if Mr. Dixon rejected me, I could just go hunt anything and grab a skull, but I'd always know I failed.

He scrutinized me, then let his hand fall to his side. "Ms. Shain?"

Squaring my shoulders, I inhaled one last time and just came out with it. "Mr. Dixon, I want you to hire me."