Gabriella dreamed of a light blue house in the Georgia countryside with paint chipping off, and a wrap around porch with a creaky screen door. She dreamed of the creek and the train bridge. She dreamed that she and her brothers were digging in the cool early morning for worms to give to the bait shop in town, and in exchange receive a few pieces of candy. If Gabie had any say in the matter this would be her heaven.
She became aware of a warm, soft hand grasping hers. She grasped the hand as tightly as she could and jolted awake. She sat straight up in bed and looked around with blurry eyes. She saw who was holding her hand. It was a strange woman. The woman was clearly startled by Gabriella sudden movement. She had a heart shaped face, and golden brown hair that was a cascade of waves down her back. Her hazel eyes, with a hint of silver flashing from the lights reflection looked up at Gabie.
Gabriella collapsed back onto the bed. Tears began to pour down her face. How stupid must I be, she thought, to be fooled twice into thinking my mother is alive. I know she's dead I saw the proof myself.
. . .
They had been living in the new house for three months now. Gabiei hated this house. She hated living so close to others. The Suburbs were almost as bad as the city. In her opinion their yard was hardly a yard at all. She missed the cover of the trees, she hated being able to see all of the houses surrounding them. She missed the creek, and the old house's creeky door.
And now her mother was dragging her and her brothers away from their favorite show to greet the new neighbors. They didn't even have any kids! So why should she care who they were. She was missing the new episode of Spongebob for goodness sake.
The couple were middle aged with their hair starting to turn silver. Her brothers and her stood there politely as their mother introduced them and answered all the same dumb questions, what grade they were in, if they liked school and so on. Eventually Gabie's mother and Mrs. Peterson, the new neighbor, started having a in-depth conversation. Gabie could see her brothers looking over their shoulders back at the house probably imaging all the hysterical randomness they were missing. Sighing impatiently Gabie examined the woman before her. There was nothing particularly interesting about the woman. But then the sun reflected off her eyes just right and Gabie saw a flash a silver.
"Do you wear contacts?" Gabie blurted out, as her mother was speaking.
Gabie's mom looked down at her surprised, "Where on earth did that come from."
"Her eyes look funny," Gabie explained.
"Manners Gabriella Anne!" her mother said sharply.
"No, no it's fine," Mrs. Peterson said. "Both my husband and I wear contacts. We're both blind as bats unfortunately."
Gabie nodded understandingly. "My step dad can't see very well either but he only wears his glasses when reading, and won't get contacts."
Mrs. Peterson smiled kindly at Gabie.
"Kids," Gabie's mother said, "If you want you can go back to the house and watch TV."
As Gabie walked back home she thought nothing more about Mrs. Peterson's eyes since Seth had once told her contacts could make it look like you had purple eyes. Silver didn't seem like that strange of a choice.
. . .
A small warm hand gently stroked Gabriella's hair. "Sweetheart why are you crying? Is it something I did? Do you want me to leave?" The soul asked softly.
Gabriella looked into the souls soft hazel eyes and felt the words slip from her mouth on their own will. "I thought you were my mother." Admitting it, only made it more painful and Gabriella began sobbing.
The soul's eyes widened horrified. She scouted onto the bed and held Gabriella in her arms as Gabriella cried. She did it as if it was the most natural thing, and it felt natural to Gabriella too. She let herself be comforted, despite her knowledge that this was a parasite and she was as much to blame for the loss of her mother than anyone else.
After awhile when Gabriella had stopped crying she pulled away from the parasite and wiped her eyes. "Who are you?" she asked.
"I'm Leaves Above, Harnesses Light's partner. I was the one that found you in the woods." Leaves Above shuddered from the memory.
"Oh, yes Harnesses Light has told me about you. Your the one looking after my dog."
"Yes I am," Leaves Above said with a smile. "She misses you very much. I um... came here today to make sure you are alright. And to ask if, once you got better, you would want to live with me and Harnesses Light."
Gabriella stared at her blankly. "I don't understand," she said finally.
"I'm asking if once you left the hospital if you would like to come live with Harnesses Light and me. You'd play outside, go to school, make friends, watch TV. You'd live a normal life." Leaves Above explained hesitantly.
The words a normal life resonated with Gabriella. It brought up distance far off memories that seemed like dreams.
"But that's not how it works." Gabriella stated. "Parasites don't let humans live, they put another parasite inside them, or kill them."
"Well I talked to the seekers and there's no law that says you can't live with us."
"But why would you want me to?" Gabriella asked confused.
"I don't... I don't know. I just know it would be wrong to ki- to dispose of you."
"Oh I get it!" Gabriella exclaimed. "I'm like a little piglet, the runt of the litter."
"What are you talking about?" Leaves Above asked.
"Like in Charlotte's web. Wilbur, is going to get killed by the farmer because he is the runt of the litter. But it upsets the farmer's daughter even though she's watched lots of other pigs grow up and then get turned into bacon and she knows the same thing is going to happen to all of Wilbur's siblings. But she can't stand to see Wilbur get killed cause he's just a baby and still really cute. So the farmer shakes his head at his silly daughter and lets her raise the pig so she doesn't cry. I'm the baby pig, your the farmer's daughter, and the Seekers are like the farmer."
"Oh," Leaves Above said. Not quite sure how to respond. "So would you like to live with us?"
Gabriella stared down at her hands and thought about it for a long time.
"Yes," she said solemnly, "I would."