"Ella! Wake up!" Marley yells in my ear. I slowly open my eyes look around the room. Everything seems normal and Marley didn't break her harness.
"What! What is it?" I gaze at my watch. "It's 4am! Why are you waking me at this time!" I suddenly see that tears are streaming down her face. I look around to see if there's any danger. None. I then proceed to check myself for bruises or pains. All clear.
"I have these really weird dreams, and I feel like my head is going to burst open!" She collapses to the ground and I rush to her side. Her pink nightgown is drenched in sweat and he hair is plastered to her face. "It hurts so much!"
"I'll get you some painkillers, wait here." I rush down the stairs and into the kitchen. I reach into the cabinet and crab an advil. My feet echo loudly through the house as I go back to our room. "Here." I force her to swallow 3 and she begins to calm down. My sister has been getting these surprise headaches a lot lately. I wish I could take her to a doctor but my mom says it's not safe.
"Thank you Ella. You're such a great sister." She falls asleep immediately. I cannot sleep anymore so I sit awake thinking about torchwood and Captain Jack. He thinks I have a normal life. He knows nothing about me. I wish I could tell him, but my mother has trusted me with this secret our whole life. If the wrong people found out we would disappear.
I still cannot believe that aliens really do exist. All my life I had thought that aliens were just a story to make us feel less alone in this universe. But no, they are real. So many possibilities have opened up. This warm feeling of meaning slowly puts me to sleep.
Ever since I gained this new perspective on the universe my orios are starting to look like saturn. I scoop my spoon into my cereal and disrupt their orbit. My mom gives me a glance of death telling me to hurry up.
"Ella, your school is having some sort of dance on Saturday, I told them you would go. You need to interact with people and make them believe that we are just another run of the mill family." My mom spreads a knife with butter across her toast.
"Alright I'll go."
"Can I go?" Marley chips in. My mom turns around still glaring.
"You know you can't. You're not even healthy enough to go to school let alone dance. You'll stay home as usual." My sister's smile drops to a frown. I hate to see her like this: sick, worthless, and depressed. But I don't know what else to do.
"Well I'd better get to school." I give Marley a kiss on the head and run out the door.
As I walk along the sidewalk people give me strange looks. I look at myself to see if I have something on my face or if I'm dressed weirdly. But no, I look like I could blend into the crowd perfectly. But still people stare at me. If I come to close they flare their nostrils and smirk. I know I'm hallucinating, I just didn't get enough sleep that's all. I run quickly to my school avoiding eye contact.
I pass Echo in the halls and she stops me with her hand. "Thought you'd try to escape me huh? Well you can't, once you're friends with me you will be forever." She gives me a possessed grin and pats me on the back. "Are you going to the dance on Saturday?"
"Yes, but my mom is forcing me to go. She wants me to interact with more human beings." Echo laughs at this. She begins to talk but is shoved over by a boy who looks about 16.
"Watch it loser." He spits at her and glances over to me. "Well I see you found one friend." He looks disgusted at the sight of me. He walks away without another explanation.
"Who was that?" Echo's eyes seem filled with sadness.
"Just some Jerk who thinks that because I made a mistake in grade 9 that I am now a loser who will never amount to anything."
"What happened?" I see Echo turn away.
"Doesn't matter. But anyway we should hang out some time. But now we'd better get to class." I nod and she walks away.
I slowly make my way in the opposite direction to my English class. A burly 56 year old male with a face that will never smile is standing at the board writing dates and places down on the map. We all take our seats.
"Well class as you all know Mrs Dawson quit due to family troubles so I will be your permanent teacher. My name is Mr Kingston. I thought it would be fun to start off by reading an article in the newspaper. This happened a few nights ago. Apparently a few people saw a person transform into a demonic monster with scales." This causes me to sit up. It sounds like the creature that used to be Mrs Dawson that I fought. "These creatures have been spotted throughout history and play a keen role in the history of Cardiff. Everyone knows of the Earthquake in 2005 that cause mass cracks in the cement? Well there was another one about 100 years ago. It was not as serious but the people directly near it became insane and people have written accounts of them turning into ravenous beasts. Of course this was a long time ago and those people must have been hallucinating because they do not exist. They are a legend but a fascinating one at that." This can't be possible. I need to show Jack this.
"Mr Kingston? I'm sorry but I forgot to mention to the school that I have a dentist appointment in 10 minutes so I need to leave. May I have a copy of the newspaper so I may study at home?" I don't wait for him to answer. I grab a paper and rush out the door. He chases after me yelling something about checking out but I ignore him and leave the school.
I travel down the streets at a fast speed. People glare at me when I run. I walk passed Roald Dahl plass. I decide to try the main entrance instead of the lift. I walk through the door of the tiny office where Ianto stands inside.
"Welcome to tourist inf- Ella!" He looks up from the book he's reading. "What are you doing here in the middle of the day. You're supposed to be at school." He pushes a hidden button and the wall opens. "Well you might as well go in." I walk down a dark stone hallway and enter the hub where everyone is busy at work. Jack looks over at me.
"What are you doing here Ella? You're supposed to be at school." He glances at the newspaper in my hand.
"You're the second person to ask me that in that past 5 minutes. And before you ask what this paper is it's an article about something that might interest you." I hand it over to him. He scans it with his eyes and a grim covers his face.
"That's it! 100 years ago people began going crazy and turning into monsters. That was because an alien parasite slipped through the cardiff rift. And now in this modern day there has been another infection. The people infected search for the queen of their race. They will sniff and gather around people in close contact with them."
"Yeah. People have been giving me strange looks and sniffing me. But I don't know a queen of an alien race."
"Maybe it's one of your friends? Teachers? Family?"
"Perhaps, it could be someone from my school. There's a dance on saturday. If I go there and let them seek me out you can grab them and kill them, you can chaperone the dance."
"Alright."
Owen walks in. "Jack, I found some information on how the creature infects the host. It attaches to the brain and slowly starts to attack the person." He hands Jack the autopsy report, glances at me and leaves.
"Thanks Owen."
"JACK! We have rift energy." Tosh rushes in. "I think it's more of that alien parasite."
"Well Ella. Want to do some alien hunting?" Jack reaches out his hand.
"You know I do!"