When I wake up, the van is bumping along and Kyle and Jared are talking in low voices. I don't make a sound, and I don't move, I don't want them to know that I'm awake. I keep my face pressed against the rough fabric of the seat. My muscles are cramping, and I feel stiff from lack of movement for hours. I have no idea if I'll be able to walk properly whenever we get to where ever we are going. I wonder how Angel is holding up alone in the back of the van. Guilt washes through me for so readily leaving her back there alone. But I guess it doesn't matter. I was willing to show that I can put some trust in the humans—Angel has nothing inside of her that is willing to do that. I guess I can understand that.

The van jerks to a sharp stop, and I nearly get thrown off the seat. I dig my fingers into the fabric, hearing a slight tear from how tightly I have gripped on, and Kyle cusses loudly. I hear the door open, and slam loudly, and I can hear him stomping. I have no idea what has happened, but I continue to face the back of the seat, refusing to let Jared know that I'm awake. It's stupid that I'm still doing this, but for some reason, I think they'll throw me back in the back if I am awake. There's a part of me that doesn't want to have to trade the comfort of the rough fabric seat, for a hard, uncomfortable floor of the back. I feel guilty again for leaving Angel alone in the back, but that was her choice in the first place, and I had known her mind wouldn't be changed.

The door suddenly creaks open, the van shifts as Kyle gets back in, and he slams the door. There's no speaking, and the van begins moving unsteadily once again. I still don't move, but the fact that I stretch my legs, and moan, they obviously must know that I'm awake by now, but thankfully they don't say anything. I just keep sitting where I am, until the van slows down, and then stops.

"Let them know we're here." Kyle grunts. "The last thing we need is to get shot at."

I hear the door open and then slam shut and the van turns back on but idles. I slowly sit up. Kyle doesn't seem to notice. From looking at the rearview mirror, his eyes are fixed ahead of him. I can't see out the side windows, they have been tinted so darkly they're black. But when I look closer I realize it's a sloppy painting job. I frown at that; they must have done that when they picked Angel and I up. It's a little saddening, but I understand the need. It's safer, but they knew I wouldn't try to escape. I think it's Angel that they're really worried about.

Kyle must have gotten the go ahead because the van shudders and starts going forward. I curl into a ball against the seat and begin to shiver in fear. I don't know how many humans will be there and that really scares me. If there's a lot…Angel is going to really freak out. I'm tempted to ask if we can go in blindfolded. That may make it better for Angel, but not so much for me. I don't really know how to ask—how to speak to humans.

Suddenly the van is bathed in total darkness and shudders to a stop. My heart begins pounding, and I'm shaking harder, and my hands are getting wet with sweat. In this moment, I don't want to get out of the van; I don't think I'll be able to be in a hive full of humans. I wonder what it's going to do to Angel. I realize that she's more than likely terrified. Especially since she probably has absolutely no idea what is going on right now. At least I have a general idea. It has to be ultra-horrifying for her.

The door closest to me opens, and I sit up. Jared is watching me, a head light lit on his head. I squint, as it's blinding me little. I notice Kyle has gotten out and I hear the back doors open. I quickly climb out. Jared grabs my arm before I can get back there.

"We have to blindfold you." He says apologetically. "It'll make everybody else feel better. Not like we have any issue with you." He frowns.

"I just wanted to make sure Angel's okay." I say to him.

"Kyle." Jared barks. "Bring the other one over here."

Kyle comes to us, holding Angel by one arm he already has a red blindfold tied tightly over her eyes.

"Angel, are you alright?"

"Moon, is that you?" Angel says. She is so scared; she uses the shortened name she'd given me, which we had agreed sounded stupid. That's all out the window now.

I grab her other wrist gently. "I'm right here Angel and we're going to be alright."

She is shaking pretty hard. I squeeze her wrist reassuringly. "I have to let you go now so we can walk, but I'll be here."

She nods, and I drop her wrist and turn to Jared. He pulls purple fabric over my eyes and ties it tightly. I hold still and then I feel a warm hand clamp around my wrist and tug. I begin walking forward obediently. I hope that Angel is as cooperative. The only sounds are frightened whimpering from Angel, and the crunch of dirt under our feet. But as the ground slopes, the crunching turns to the echoing of feet on stone. I am silent, and several times Jared whispers at me to duck, which I do. And then as we get deeper and deeper into the ground, the air temperature drops rapidly, and it feels pretty good. But then I pick up on a few voices talking really loudly. I begin to shake, and it's not because of how cold it's gotten, although the temperature is getting a little warmer and there's suddenly light around the edges of my blindfold. As we cross into the room, some of the voices stop but then start talking again. We keep walking, passing into a dark passageway; I can tell because there's no longer any light around the edges of my blind fold.

After a while of walking, the blindfold is finally taken off and Jared pushes aside a greenish blue curtain, and gestures at me to go inside. I do and I notice the ceiling is low, but the room is wide, with two mats on the floor, relatively close to each other, and there's a stack of books in the corner and a pile of clothes in the other corner.

"You two will have to stay in here a while and…we'll have to get some clothes for your friend, but those should fit you…" Jared trails off.

"Thank you." I say.

Angel comes stumbling in and she clings to me, shivering like mad. Which is ironic, because I'm the smaller one; the one that looks more like a child.

"I'll get you some food. There's a lamp in the corner. Stay away from the door." Jared says. He waits for me to turn the lamp on before he drops the curtain and we go sit in a corner.

Angel hugs her knees to her chest, and is still freaking out. There's no color in her face, and her eyes are huge with fear. She looks at me.

"How can you remain so calm?"

I shrug. "I don't know." It's true. I don't understand how I'm remaining so calm. It's probably because I'm more trusting of the humans than she is.

She doesn't say anything else; she continues to sit there and shiver in fear. I don't say anything to her. I just wait for food to come back. Eventually the curtain opens, but it's not Jared holding the trays. As the figure approaches us, I realize it's my host's cousin, Travis. And he's gotten much taller.

"You've gotten tall." The words accidently slip my lips.

"Yes, I hit a growth spurt after I lost my cousin." He says, sitting down and handing a tray to me and then to Angel, without looking at her. She takes the tray, shaking badly. I just stare at mine, and then take a bite of the grainy bread.

He stares at me for a long minute and then speaks. "Is she still there?"

I know exactly what he means and I look down, while eating. "No. She signed off on life after her….accident trying to escape Seekers."

I look back up and I can see the disappointment in his face. I feel my heart drop into my stomach at that look. I want to tell him that she went quickly; except I'm not sure if that'll actually make him feel better, or if it'll just make him more upset. I look back down at my food, and pick up the large bottle of water, twist the cap open, and take a deep gulp from it, twist the lid back on and set it back down. Then I lift my eyes back up again to look at Travis.

"Did she…" He swallows and tries again. "Did she at least not suffer?"

I repress a shudder. She had lay in a pool of blood and suffered and she had been slowly bleeding to death. She really did suffer. But I'm not going to tell him that. "No, she went quickly."

The disappointment fades and there's actually relief. "Good. I'm glad she was able to pass on peacefully."

Then I suddenly say. "I never wanted to be the one to take her life. When I first got to this planet, I felt really bad, because we took everything that you guys ever had."

Travis frowns. "You knew what you were doing was wrong?"

I nod. "It's wrong on every planet we've taken. But they don't resist or they can't. The others are more welcoming because they don't have as much. But coming here, it makes me realize that whether it's taking a Spider host, or taking a human host, it's taking a life, whether we want to put it that way or not."

Travis stares at me for a long minute, and then strangely enough, he smiles. "I'm glad then that you took my cousin's body and not some other…um…one of you."

I stare at him stunned. I didn't think he'd feel this way at all. In fact, I would think he would hate me. Humans are strange creatures. I don't think I'll ever understand how they work. But then again, I haven't been on this planet long enough to make sense of them, even make sense of the strange, strong, uncontrollable emotions. So how am I supposed to understand what humans will do? I can't.

He suddenly stands up and stretches. "I better get going. Nobody that matters know you're here and there's going to be some serious problems if they find me in here."

I just nod my understanding. He looks like he wants to say more, but then he just shoves his hands in his pockets, peeks out the door, then walks all the way out. I then look at Angel, and she is looking at me strangely.

"I thought…we were going to get killed." She whispers, too scared to talk above a whisper.

"We might. Apparently the important people don't know we're here." I whisper back, the fear beginning to leak through my veins.

Angel whimpers. "I don't want to die."

"I'm sure we won't." I say, frustrated with myself for saying that in the first place. She was already scared about death before we ever got here.

"You don't know that." Her voice is barely audible, and I can barely pick it up.

I sigh. "Can't you be a little more trusting? If they wanted us dead, they probably would have killed us by now."

"But you said it yourself—the ones that matter, whatever that means, don't know about us, and that could mean that they decide what happens to us. It could equal death."

"You could be a little more optimistic. At least we're still alive."

"For now. And we're stuck in this little hole for who knows how long."

I frown at her. "Can't you at least be grateful that they fed us?"

Angel looks at me; the terror in her face and eyes is still clearly there. "I don't know how to feel Moonbeam. What am I supposed to do? I am terrified of humans. They're a brutal race. They always kill our kind.

I touch her shoulder gently. "That's not the case, Angel." I very nearly tell her about the one I had heard about. But for all I know it's just a story. So I keep quiet.

She shrugs my hand off. "You don't have proof of that."

"You're right—I don't." I shrug. "You just have to believe that maybe, maybe, they are actually a kind species."

Angel rolls her eyes. "Yeah, I was told that there was rarely any kindness among them. That it was better that we took over."

"Who told you that…?"

Her eyes suddenly drop. "My Comforter."

So she'd been in normal society long enough to get assigned a Comforter. And I didn't realize that they would tell lies like that. Even I know that's not true. But maybe that's part of their Calling. Telling Souls things that they want to hear, even if it isn't the truth. I have no clue; I didn't get a Comforter; I was going to get assigned one the day after we were kidnapped. Then I wonder; how many days has it been? I don't know.

"They can't know that they were entirely cruel. They were probably saying that to make you feel good about us taking everything that they had, their lives and families, and just acting like it's a good thing."

Angel looks at me, a new light in her eyes; understanding. "Did we really just take it all?"

A sudden phrase pops into my mind. "It's like we decided to go around and steal candy from babies. Except not as defenseless."

Angel flinches at the phrasing I used. That must have hit her hard. "Okay, I got it, so we are the bad ones here."

"I guess so. I mean, they were here first, and we just waltzed in like we already owned the place."

Angel nods. "I get it now. I can see why you've felt so bad for them. Why you're so willing to trust them."

"I just want them to know that I didn't want this for them." Then I add. "And if they kill me, then so be it. I did take my host's life after all. So it'd only be fair."

Her eyes went wide. "Are you serious?"

I nod. "It'd only be fair." I repeat.

Suddenly the curtain is shoved aside and Jared pokes his head in. "C'mon out."

Angel recoils at the sight of him,still afraid I assume, but I slowly rise. "Why?"

"It's time to talk to the others. See what they want to do with you."

Ice cold fear shoots through me. This is it. This is the time.

This is when we find out if we live or die.