Chapter Three – Melanie:

In bed with Jared after dinner, I felt at peace. Jared supported me. Jared didn't think I was crazy. He believed we had a chance. The humans. We would fight! This is who I was- Melanie Stryder, a fighter. A survivor. Didn't the two go hand in hand? I couldn't help but frown at the thought of how Wanda would feel about this. The exact reason the souls decided to take over our world; humans were too angry and violent. But this was for a good reason. We don't want to be violent. We just want our planet back.

"What are you thinking about?" Jared asks, and I am pulled from my thoughts. Those deep burnt sienna eyes are ablaze, watching me intently and lovingly. I could look at them for the rest of my life if I was given the option.

"Nothing. Just tired." I lied. His eyes fill with concern, being Jared, he is able to tell when I am holding something back. Instead of urging me for more, he sighs contentedly and kisses my forehead lightly, before brushing his lips over mine for a second.

"Let's go to sleep." And I do, without protest. I'd do anything for Jared.

I awoke the next morning with Jared's arms wrapped around me, which would usually be suffocating and uncomfortable if it weren't so damn endearing. I savored being enveloped in his big strong arms before gently nudging him in the ribs.

"Hey. C'mon. Time to get up." I whispered, nudging him harder as he ignored me.

"Too early." he mumbled, but I only moaned at his laziness.

"Come eat with me." I said, bouncing up and down on the bed like the immature young adult I am.

"No." he groaned, turning away from me.

"I'll make it worth your while." I said with a smirk, leaning down and trailing kisses from his collarbone to his jawline before resting my chin on his sternum. He looked down at me and raised his eyebrows before sighing and sitting up. I smiled because I had gotten my way with him, as always. "Let's go for a walk before we eat." He nodded his head, pulling a shirt on and following me out the door.

As we were walking through the tunnels out to the open world I slipped my hand in Jared's and laced our fingers together, which got a subtle smirk from him. Once we were finally out with the fresh air I felt at ease. Living in caves became quite uncomfortable, enough to give anyone claustrophobia. I also never wanted to visit that crawl space Jared had made me live in again. We hiked in silence off to a little cliff that outlooked the desert, about a mile away from the entrance to the caves. That was the thing with Jared and I; we didn't need to even exchange words to convey how we felt. He pulled my onto his lap as he sat down and idly began toying with the ends of my hair.

"So what did you drag me out of bed to talk about at this hour?" he asked quietly. It was beautiful out, the sun just beginning to rise.

I smirked. "We couldn't just come out here for no reason?"

He frowned at me. "Melanie." I stopped because Jared rarely if ever uses my full name.

"Okay, fine. What we were talking about... Who would support us? You know Ian wouldn't. What about Wanda? She would see it as murdering her people. But if you think about it- what had they done to us?"

Jared looked off into the distance, his face full of concentration. "Are you having second thoughts?" he asked quietly. I simply nodded my head. "Mel... I-I know this won't be pretty. I know we'll lose a lot. But this needs to happen. You know the human race will just die out if we don't do anything. I want our world back, I want to have that world with you, I want to get married and get a house and have kids and live my life with you safely without always trying to make ends meet." His words touched me, it was unlike Jared to really voice how he really felt like that. I touched his face lightly with my hand.

"Hey. We can still have all that." I said, kissing him lightly on the corner of his mouth. "It's just... It's just not practical now that I've thought it out. I could never lose you again."

"I said I'll always find you. No matter what." he said, tightening his embrace around me. I was reminded of the past and his voice rang in my head, "I will always find you, no matter what. I'm excellent at hide and seek."

"You can't find me if you're dead." I said bitterly, remembering the world we lived in. Jared was always risking his damn life. Running on raids, pissing off others, being the first to step forward in a troublesome situation. He tilted my chin up with his index finger and thumb.

"I'm not dying after all we've been through. When are you going to get that through your head? I've lost you once, I'm not going to lose you again." I looked down, avoiding his eyes that were burning of sienna and mixed flecks of gold.

"You can't make promises like that when the human race is going extinct." I retorted, before he silenced me by pulling me into a deep kiss full of passion and lust.

"Did you talk to Ian?" I asked Wanda in the dark caves with the pools while we were doing laundry alone.

"No. I'm afraid he might lock me away in a padded room if I mention it." Wanda said with a smirk.

I laughed. "Now there is a sense of humor in there! I knew it!" Wanda pushed me away playfully.

"What about Jared?" she asked.

I hesitated. Maybe now was as good a time as any to tell Wanda. "Yeah, I did talk to him," I started then paused. "Wanda?"

"Mhmm?"

"I think we should try to make peace on this world." I said.

"What do you mean?" Wanda asked.

"Us humans should be able to live on our planet without fear. Why can't we just co-exist in harmony?"

She stayed silent for a long time, focusing very hard on the laundry she was scrubbing to nothing. "How do you think I should feel about this?"

I was dumbfounded. "I-I don't know. That's why I'm telling you. I won't do anything you don't want me to..."

"You expect me to be able to slaughter my own people? I've already given far too much away. We souls... we don't want any trouble like this. This is the exact reason we took over your planet!" Wanda said with a huff, dropping her laundry and storming out.

A/N: So here's chapter three! In case you haven't caught on yet, each chapter will bounce from point of view of Melanie and Wanda. I am finding it very difficult to write Wanda, as you know... she's not human! Hats off to Stephanie for writing in her perspective for like 600+ pages! I personally like Melanie more, but it just wouldn't be true to the Host if I wrote only in her perspective. I also hate writing in first person generally, but it's also necessary if I am being true to the book's style of writing. I feel like too often first person turns into cheesiness where the author creates a character like themselves. I hope I'm not doing that at all. Please leave a review! They help me out so much! I love hearing your opinion- good or bad. Also, if you have any ideas on what you would like to see happen in this story, shoot me a PM! I love to hear from all of you! And if I get lazy on updating, also bug me through PM or reviews. :) Right now, I am trying to update once I finish another chapter. (i.e., I'm posting this one because I finished chapter four.) Thank you all so much again!