Tergiv sat in the living room, waiting patiently for my dad to get home. Mom was in the kitchen cooking dinner, so it would be ready. Outwardly, it looked like any normal teenager watching TV, but Tergiv's attention was tuned to the front door, and I was too concerned with figuring out how I might send a warning signal to my dad to care whether the TV was on or not.
The door opened, and my dad walked in. Tergiv smiled broadly.
"Hi, Daddy!"
"Hello, sweetums," Dad replied. "You look...different…" For a moment, I hoped that he would somehow realize I was a slave to the alien in my head, but then he said, "Must be your new boyfriend…"
"Aw, Dad," Tergiv said. "Don't make this awkward!"
"My little girl has her first boyfriend! I'm going to enjoy it, and also make sure Lucas knows I'll kill him if he hurts you in any way!" I knew it was a joke, but I also knew that my father would go through with that threat if he ever found out what was truly happening. "It's been a long time since you waited for me to get home like this…"
"There's something I want to talk to you and Mom about," Tergiv said. "It involves The Sharing."
"That outreach group you joined?" Dad asked.
"Yeah! There's a big event coming up, and they want us to invite our families to come along. It would mean so much to me if you guys came!"
«Stop! Stop! Stop!» I screamed inside my head.
«Stop, stop, stop,» Tergiv mocked me. For the next hour, I was subjected to listening to Tergiv use my voice to convince my parents to come to The Sharing Shindig. It took some doing, but eventually my parents agreed to come. Mostly, it was my mom, happy that I was finally involved in something, who talked my dad into going. They had no way of knowing, of understanding, what was actually going on, and I was helpless to stop it. I struggled more than ever, but Tergiv expertly held me at bay.
«You're not getting my parents!»
«You don't get it,» Tergiv said derisively, «it doesn't matter if they get infested now, or later. Eventually, there won't be a free human on Earth! So, you might as well get used to it now. Like I said, your dad is going to play a huge roll in securing Earth for the Empire. Why prolong the inevitable?» I punched at the barricade keeping me from controlling my own body.
«You'll never take Earth! And you definitely won't enslave my parents!» Tergiv laughed, and turned away from me. I was left in that corner of my mind, wishing that something would happen between now, and the shindig. Maybe I would get hit by a car, or something, maybe on Tergiv's way to feed. If I was hurt, in the hospital, my parents would stay at my side, definitely not go to some stupid Sharing event. Maybe, just maybe, it would do more than put me in the hospital. Then, I would finally be free…
«Why do you humans always think that?» Tergiv asked, deigning to pay attention to me again.
«Think what?»
«That dying will set you free.»
«You're not going to make me believe that if my body dies, you'll still be able to puppet it like a zombie.»
«No, in fact, if a host dies, there's a chance of a cataclysmic reaction that will also kill the Yeerk. Even if that doesn't happen, the Yeerk is as helpless as if they weren't in a host. They can leave the host, but then what? Unless there's another Controller nearby to assist, they're as good as dead.» Tergiv smiled sinisterly. «I can sense the idea of that makes you happy. I'm guessing your little fantasy of being struck and killed by a car is even more appealing, knowing I'd likely be killed as well? I still don't see how that would free you. You wouldn't gain control of your body. You'd be dead.»
«Dead, yes, but not a slave. Free.»
«Free and dead,» Tergiv scoffed.
«Better than alive and a slave.»
«You humans are fools!»
«Are we?» I asked. «Or are you Yeerks the true fools? You keep talking really big about how you're going to enslave us all, but I don't think you truly grasp humanity's desire to be free. Sure, we've had dark times where we enslave our own, even now, there's places on Earth where it's still happening. But I can guarantee you that each and every person in captivity yearns to be free!»
«How, then, do you explain the Voluntaries? The humans that allow us to control their bodies all the time? They don't suddenly decide, after finding out what it truly means to be a Controller, that they'd rather be free. No, they walk right up that pier, and with no coercion at all, they lower their head into the pool, and accept their Yeerk back.»
«Like I said, there are bad humans. I see a lot more involuntary than I do voluntary. You may be able to contain them all now, but if you keep getting more, there will be enough to start an uprising! Humans will fight back!»
«Believe that if you wish,» Tergiv said tiredly. «I suppose you have to believe whatever you need in order to accept your fate.» Tergiv turned away from me again, and I sank to the floor of my mind.