I had a lot of fun with this chapter. Besides Chapter 22, I would say this is probably my favourite so far, so I hope you enjoy it. ^^
From here on it's going to get pretty wild as the finale approaches! This is pretty much the 'calm before the storm' in other words. I really hope you'll enjoy this and what's to come.

Lilo picked up on my distance later on that night. I was sitting on my bunk holding the duck in my paws, staring at it quietly when she came back into the dome.

"Hey..."

I looked up to see my angel at the top of the stairwell, gazing across to me. She had some plates with cake on them. Approaching me, she sat down beside me handing me a plate.

I wasn't too hungry but I took it from her and started eating. She stroked my head gently as I did so.

"Have a fun day?"

I nodded.

"I did too. I hope we can go flying again soon. That was incredible."

I smiled at that. "Why don't we?"

"Hm?" she looked at me. "What, now?"

I shrugged. She grinned. "But... what about..."

"I know. I want you to see the moon, Lilo."

She looked apprehensive, but then grinned again. "Yes! Let's go!"

Finishing up the cake, I put my plate down and waited for her. Once she was ready, I hoisted her onto my back and snuck down the side of the dome. We made a dash for the tool shed.

After opening up the cruiser, I helped her up and inside before shutting the hatch and engaging the engine, quickly taking off before anybody could stop us. Within seconds we were above the clouds.

It was almost surreal at night. Below us was the soft glow of the island lights, just visible through the layers of clouds. Before us stretched miles of nothing but deep dark blue and stars. The moon was full that night, a huge glowing beacon in the distance.

Lilo was quiet, simply pressing her hands up against the glass and looking out in a mixture of wonder and awe.

"Wow..." she breathed.

I grinned. "Wanna fly around it?"

She looked startled. "What? How?"

"Hyper-drive."

"We can actually do that? I thought it took days to get to the moon?"

"Ih, from Earth. Hyper-drive okaba moon fitaba egalucha takiba chitaka."

She looked a little scared. I took her hand into my paw. "Is okay... Lilo, I want you to see this," I told her.

"Alright. I trust you, Stitch."

I tightened her seat-beat securely, before holding onto her hand. "Don't be scared."

She watched me as I flipped open the glass cover and pulled up the hyper-drive lever, twisting it to turn the system on. The on-board computer prompted a warning before I plunged it down.

Lilo screamed as the ship jumped into hyper-drive and we blasted out of the Earth's orbit in seconds. I watched her, making sure she was okay as she adapted to the faster speed of the cruiser.

"Stitch...?"

"Won't take long. This was how Stitch escaped to Earth..."

"You mean... this? Hyper-driving?"

I nodded.

She clutched my paw tightly, looking out at the stars zooming past outside. It was silent between us for a while. Eventually she relaxed enough to stop squeezing my paw so tightly, and I turned on the radio. Lilo looked utterly perplexed as multiple alien languages flooded through the speakers until I sourced a music station I had in mind.

"What is this, Stitch?" she asked.

"Isa Kweltikwan music station," I told her and she listened intently. I knew it was her first time ever hearing alien music. "Stitch favata."

"Whoa..." she breathed. "This is actually music from your home planet?"

I nodded.

She looked utterly amazed, running her hand across the cockpit gently. "This... this is..." she trailed off, speechless.

"Not so different to Earth, ih?"

She gazed at me at that. "Exactly. I can't believe this is actually alien music!"

I nodded. Her interest sparked even more when the song playing ended and the host of the program started speaking. Shortly after, she stopped and it switched to a male voice, reporting a news update. To me it was a fairly boring, but seeing Lilo's reactions made it all worthwhile.

She was staring in disbelief, jaw slack and eyes wide. "What is he saying?"

"Isa news update," I told her. "Talking about..." I paused, listening to what the reporter was saying and translating for her. "Uburnium sudden price increase... that's fuel, like what khodro esafhan use," I addressed her confusion when her eyebrow raised. "New ship being developed. Uh... protests. Big gang leader finally go to jail..."

The report finally ended and it went back to music.

"It's really not that different to the news back home."

"Naga."

Since our civilisations were located in this quadrant of the galaxy and were the closest distance to Earth, it made sense that many of our mannerisms would closely resemble each other. Music was a universal trait – and despite our music was slightly different to that found on Earth, many alien species had adopted the same, if not similar traits, to humans – such as obsessing over alien celebrities or gathering for big sporting events.

Kweltikwan really wasn't that much different to Earth. The only difference was that we were light years ahead in technological advancement and there were many different species of aliens. I'd yet to see a self-aware robot on Earth, or a flying car. They were all over Kweltikwan. Even this ship was a prime example. Humans were well behind and it always amazed me how they'd survived for this long without the advancements we had. Still though – they were amazing in their own ways. They weren't a strong species and died easily, but they had built up their own civilisations with their bare hands.

Lilo gazed at me for a few moments before finally speaking again.

"Stitch? Do you think it would ever be possible to see where you came from? Your home planet?"

There was a small jolt as the hyper-drive warp finished and the ship resumed normal speed, startling Lilo for a moment, but she looked at me again almost instantly.

I gave her a sad smile in response to that. "Naga. Too far. Lilo human – would not survive long trip."

"It is?" She sounded disappointed.

I nodded. I avoided the truth because I didn't want to tell her the ship would be shot down instantly the moment it was in proximity of my old home planet. The UGF was nothing like the police on Earth – they didn't mess around in space. The moment my bio-signature was detected by their radars I'd be dead. I was a mass murderer. It didn't matter who was with me; anybody associated with me would die as well.

Earth was safe. The moon was safe. Space wasn't.

Thankfully Lilo didn't elaborate as the moon had caught her attention. We were right beside it.

"Holy cow!" she gasped as I set the cruiser to autopilot and let the ship orbit around the planet. I sat and watched her reactions.

I'd seen the moon before. It wasn't new to me. I'd actually passed it on my way to Earth all those years back. It looked exactly as I remembered it.

Lilo was beyond amazed. I didn't know how to describe it. I knew she was the first child from Earth to ever be this close to the moon. This was why I'd brought her here. I had lived a life on her planet and adapted to her way of life, so she deserved to be exposed to my background as well, even if it was just something simple, like flying around the moon.

She sounded a little breathless. I quickly grabbed her wrist and felt her pulse out of concern, but I realised she was fine – she was just super shocked. To the point she didn't even realise I'd done so. She had a dreamy look on her face.

Eventually she settled against me. "This is so perfect, Stitch. Just like in a dream."

I stroked her hair. "Glad you are able to see it."

"You made this possible," she turned to look at me. "Because you're in my life... I'm able to see this. All because of you..." she sounded breathless again. "Just... wow..."

I nodded. To my utter shock, she leaned forward and kissed me. It wasn't on the cheek or nose this time. It was on my lips. A small, quick peck... but it was enough to make my face heat up.

I stared at her in shock. I think I was as shocked as she was from seeing the moon.

"L-Leelo...?" I asked quietly.

"I love you," she simply responded. That told me all I needed to know.

"I love you too, Lilo," I responded softly, touching my lips.

I gazed back out the window. Only after taking a moment to stare at the moon reflecting vividly in her eyes.

Lilo had fallen asleep beside me as I flew the ship back to Earth. Upon re-entry into the Earth's stratosphere, she groaned a little, although she didn't wake. I set the ship to autopilot us back to our home, using the remaining time with her to hold her close.

This could very well be the last time she would be this close to me. The last time I'd be able to spend time with her like this.

Since the cell had switched, I had no idea what was going to happen over the next two days. I had already morphed twice now. The demon voice had lay dormant for the past day or so (with the exception of when I attacked Aleka) but I knew that could change any given time. I didn't want Lilo to think I was yelling at her when I responded to it, and I certainly didn't want to scare her again, so I was glad it had shut up for now. Especially with us being alone and out in space.

Gazing down at the sea below, I could see the Hawaiian Islands finally come into view. Maui, Molokai and Oahu were in closer proximity to each other, while Kauai was a little further away. As I stared down I wondered why I'd actually crashed on Kauai and not any of those islands. I truly had no answer for it. Only what I'd discussed with Lilo, with me possibly having that human's soul inside of me.

Kauai was my true home now. I knew it always would be.

I tried to land the ship as gently as I could. Unfortunately, I couldn't control how loud it was. Nani, David and Iwalani were all outside in an instant. Lilo woke up as I opened up the hatch and looked out at them.

"Stitch... are we home?" she began to ask, when she realised what I was looking at and went quiet, pulling back from me and sitting up straighter.

"Lilo. I am so disappointed in you," was the first thing out of Nani's mouth when the silence was broken. "After I told you before not to go off joy riding without telling me. Get out of there and back inside. RIGHT. NOW."

Nani's voice was laced with ice. She wasn't yelling, but I'd never heard anything like it. This was a whole new level of Nani anger.

Lilo squeezed her eyes shut. I knew she was on the verge of tears.

My first response was to snarl at the woman. I knew it wouldn't help, considering it was my idea to leave, but seeing Lilo go from being so happy to so sad in an instant really peeved me off. She backed off slightly, but stood her ground.

"No!" Lilo said. I heard her voice crack. "It's j-just like I said, you'll never understand!"

"NOW, LILO!" Nani suddenly screamed. "I'VE REACHED MY ABSOLUTE LIMIT WITH YOU."

Good God. I couldn't blame how Lilo reacted – she jumped hard in fright beside me. I remained calm but she had started to shake. I don't think she'd heard Nani this angry before, ever.

I stood up in the cockpit. Nani stared me down. She looked like she was about to literally try and kill me.

I put my paw out, in front of Lilo. It sent a very clear message to Nani. She remained quiet for a few minutes. Both Iwalani and David were quiet, but I could hear their hearts racing. Everybody was tense. When Nani drew in a breath to start yelling again, I cut her off.

"Do not scream like that," I said calmly. "You are scaring Lilo. Was my idea. Do not take out on her."

She looked flabbergasted before glaring at me. "Zip it buster," she sneered back. "Get out of the way and let her out – I don't care if it was your idea or not. You didn't say a WORD to me about leaving in that ship."

"Nani..." Iwalani started, but she put up a hand.

"Naanee should have think about why," I simply responded to that.

Lilo suddenly pushed past me and jumped down from the ship, charging for the house and slamming shut the the laundry door. I jumped down, walking up to Nani and peering up at her. I could sense her fear despite she remained calm.

"Good work idiot."

Her jaw dropped and she looked utterly mortified by what I'd said, but I'd already pushed past them and followed Lilo back into the house at that point.

Lilo was heaving into her pillow when I went up to her. I latched onto her and hugged her tightly.

"Why does she have to ruin EVERYTHING?!" she cried into my shoulder. "That was the best night of my life... but-but she... ARRGHHHH!"

I closed my eyes, letting her vent against me.

"Stupid Nani! STUPID NANI! STUPID NANI!" she cried.

Eventually she cried out her frustration, settling down. I ran my paw along her back.

"It's okay..."

"No it's not! Why does it have to be like this?" she cried. "I just want us to be happy again!"

I swallowed at that. "I do too, Lilo."

Lilo hiccuped. She lay down and I stroked her hair to calm her down. Eventually she sobbed herself to sleep. Quietly, I got down from the bunk and headed back downstairs.

I wasn't going to run this time.

Nani, David and Aunt Iwalani were sitting at the table with hot drinks. My presents from earlier had been neatly stacked in the corner, except for the duck, which remained where I'd left it. They all stared at me as I stood there and faced them.

"..."

Nani gave a huff.

"Sit down, Stitch," David spoke, pulling out a chair for me. I looked at him, before climbing up and joining them.

"So then. What now?" he asked.

Everybody was quiet. I knew what was on my mind was on theirs too.

"That's it," Nani said eventually. My ears perked slightly, and David and Iwalani looked at her curiously. "I've hit dead end. There's nothing else."

"What do you mean by that?" Iwalani asked, pulling her chair around to sit beside her niece.

"WHAT I SAID!" she cried suddenly, pushing her cup aside. "I've NO job! NO money! The car's gonna be repossessed in a few days and I'm supposed to be getting married the day after tomorrow. How much longer until the house is gone too? Until we're homeless? A week?"

David frowned. "Hold up. I thought you were going to be working for Mr Kuakini now?" he said, looking at me momentarily. "I won't let the car get repossessed. I talked to my parents, they're going to help out. Nani... you need to relax. Everything will be okay, I promise you! This is just the stress overbearing on you."

She huffed again.

"Look, I know you're stressed to the core, but you're taking this out on Stitch way too much. This is ridiculous."

It was my turn to frown. I eyed the duck before picking it up and twisting it about it my paws. Nani looked at me briefly as I did that, but looked away again. The others watched me.

"What happened between you two?" Iwalani asked. "I sensed something was up from the moment I got here yesterday."

Nani sighed. "We've had a shaky few weeks."

"Why?"

"Why don't you ask him?"

I growled. "Knock it off!"

She just looked at me deadpan. Iwalani sighed. "Can somebody tell me? Please?"

David stared at me. He looked exhausted. I think everybody was. This was getting beyond stupid.

"Feecha," I muttered. "I'll explain–" I had started to say, when I felt a hand on my back and paused. I turned to see my father behind me, looking very agitated.

"No, 626. You go back up to Lilo. I'll deal with this."

I stared at him, before reluctantly turning to leave.

I sat on my bunk. No matter how much I zoned out, my hearing was too advanced. I could hear Jumba explaining how something was wrong to me to Iwalani and all the times I'd scared Nani due to that voice and losing control. When the discussion grew heated, I slapped my pillow hard.

"Agabba–!" I groaned into it. Boy was I ever so sick and tired of this. It was one thing after the other and it was starting to do my head in. Especially Nani's refusal to believe or accept I wasn't myself those times. It truly wasn't fair. I hated her mixed messages. The duck had proved to me that she still cared deep down, but her stubbornness and pride was refusing to allow her to show it.

How had we gone from being so loving towards each other to mortal enemies? How?

"Screw this," I muttered to myself. I scribbled out a note to Lilo, putting it beside her and kissing her on the head, before scampering out of the dome window and out into the night.

As I had done only a few weeks before, I stood in front of Mr Kuakini's residence once again. It was approaching ten o'clock, but I could see lights on inside and hear the TV.

I was apprehensive, but I drew in a deep breath and proceeded forward, knocking on the door this time as opposed to ringing the doorbell. I could hear alarmed voices inside. Shortly after, the porch light turned on and Mr Kuakini opened the door, peering out. He eventually saw me standing there.

"Stitch! What are you doing here? Is everything okay?"

I groaned. I couldn't help it. He opened the door and picked me up.

"Naga. Bad. Lots of fighting. Screaming. I just..." I trailed off, but he took the hint. He sighed.

"Well... I guess you can stay here for a while then. On the condition you let Jumba know where you are this time."

I nodded.

Alanna came forth as the man carried me into the same area I'd been in before. She was surprised to see me. Kalia didn't seem to be home and Mr Kuakini confirmed that to me, mentioning she was at a friend's for the night.

"Is everything okay?"

Mr Kuakini shrugged. "I think he just wants to be away from the family."

He was right. He put me down then handed me a cordless phone. I sighed, but took it and rang my father. He had programmed his communicator to accept normal calls.

They stared at me in disbelief as I spoke to him. Probably because of how alien I actually sounded when I spoke in my native tongue. Kweltikwanian had a lot of guttural pronunciation.

"H's jhilks a'huis ghi zsyshz zy. Kuakini kss h'z haj," I told him.

"Kexdas zh'his shihz, 626," he responded, telling me everything would be okay. I closed my eyes. "Nixn thi."

"Ih. Boochita nasq."

I hung up. The humans just stared at me. I simply just curled up on the couch opposite them, however when they still stared at me after a minute had passed, I spoke up.

"Told him where am."

Mr Kuakini sputtered slightly. "Y-yes, well. Good. Good, Stitch. Er..."

"Kweltikwanian."

He looked stumped. "What?"

"Speaking."

His eyes lit up slightly. "OH! I see. That's your language? Well... incredible."

Alanna was looking between us, looking extremely confused. "Uh..."

I sighed. "Did you tell?"

"No. Should I?"

At this point I didn't really care. I shrugged to indicate that.

"Stitch is an alien, dear."

She shrieked. "What?!"

Mr Kuakini nodded. "You wouldn't think it would you?" he told her, putting his hand behind his head. "With him looking like that."

"Not at all... that's amazing! So you're actually from... you know? Up there?"

I nodded.

She whistled. It went quiet between them after that as she processed that information. They resumed watching the television for a little while. I must have drifted to sleep at some point without realising because the next thing I knew, Mr Kuakini was shaking me awake.

"Wake up..."

"Gaba?"

The television was off, and Alanna had gone. "It's almost midnight. We are heading to bed. Come on, you should have a proper bed to sleep in. Since it's too late to go home now."

I yawned, rubbing my eyes. Mr Kuakini led me down a corridor to a room at the back of the house. He looked troubled, pausing as he put his hand up against the door. I also paused, curious.

"...?"

He sighed, eventually opening it. It was a small room, with blue walls decorated with stars and moons. It looked very tidy and a layer of dust coated each surface. Clearly it hadn't been used in a long time, and I think I knew why.

He nodded at me in confirmation.

"I can take couch, isa no problem...?" I started, but he shook his head frantically. "No. It's time for me to move on, like I said before. I wouldn't expect you to sleep on the couch anyway, even if it's comfy. It doesn't seem right, y'know?"

I had nothing to say to that. I just nodded.

He went over to the bed and fluffed it down a little. "I'll get you some clean sheets."

I could tell he was struggling. I put a paw against his arm and he tensed up. "Is okay. Only if you are sure."

He closed his eyes. "Yes. I am sure," he clenched his fist. "I need to face my past. Also the bathroom is two doors down, on the left by the way. If you need it. Bare with me."

"Okeytaka."

He left the room for a moment or so and I could hear him out in the corridor at a cupboard. I looked around. There was another switch underneath the light switch. I wondered what it was for.

The room was pretty interesting. There was a lot of glow-in-the-dark stickers coating the walls, mostly of planets and shooting stars. Even the full length mirror in the corner was covered with them. A big poster of the solar system was spread across the wall above the bed. Alien toys and plushies sat up against a chair.

The kid sure had loved space. I picked up one of the toys and stared at it.

Eventually Mr Kuakini came back in and started setting up the bed for me. I waited patiently by the door, rubbing my arm, feeling a little anxious for some reason. I had no idea why and couldn't explain it. I felt like something was out of place but I didn't know what.

Trying to shake it off, I asked about the switch.

"Oh. That's a blacklight."

A blacklight?

My expression made him smile slightly. "Yes. We put one in for him on his final Christmas. He loved space – as you can probably tell," he gestured around the room. "It was a big surprise."

He clenched his fist slightly again before turning off the light and flicking the lower switch. The blacklight flicked on and I could see some dust fall from it as it turned on. The room was lit up in an array of neon colours.

My jaw dropped. The wallpaper was actually covered in drawings and pictures that only the UV light could detect. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

"Eegalagoo..." I breathed.

I looked around in awe. Mr Kuakini had been staring at the floor but when he looked at me I noticed he did a double take and stared. I wondered what he was looking at when I caught sight of myself in the reflection of the mirror.

I gaped at myself in amazement. My body was covered in fur and because of that I often forgot that I still had normal skin underneath – I just rarely saw it. Since Earth was much closer to the sun than my home planet was, I could actually see the result of being exposed to UV rays since arriving there; the blacklight reacted weirdly with my skin in a manner that I could only guess was a similar occurrence to what had happened with the bleach. The UV light exposed my skin through my fur.

My skin was practically dusted with spots. I rubbed at them but nothing happened. It took me a moment to realise what they were – freckles. Thousands of them.

I was astounded. I'd never even realised my skin had reacted to the sun like this. It was bizarre – how the heck could an alien get freckles? I would have to tell Jumba about it later.

Mr Kuakini was still staring. "Wow."

I was amazed myself. Especially from how the UV light made me appear, yet he looked no different. I figured that was due to my alien heritage. But then he leaned forward and stared at my forehead with an expression I couldn't read, moving his hand out to me and pushing back the fur covering my face to see something better.

"What is that? It looks like Orion's Belt."

"Isa birthmark."

"B-birthmark?!" he stuttered, backing away slightly. "That's a birthmark?"

I gave him an odd look. "Ih? Been there since I was baby. Lilo has one too, on her back."

I'd never thought they were that uncommon. I'd also forgotten that I'd had that. I had three obvious spots across my forehead, right above the bridge of my nose. Jumba had shaved my face when I was younger to do some minor cosmetic surgery on me after a mission (I'd been belted in the face by an alien and some acid had hit me) and I'd asked him about it after seeing it. That was when he'd explained what it was to me.

"But why does it look like that?"

"Jumba created me, ih?" I said to him, looking at myself in the mirror. "His favourite constellation. Stitch have one on leg too – Cygnus. He likes stars."

Mr Kuakini reeled back from me slightly. Whatever the reason was, something about my appearance and the birthmark on my forehead had startled him. He switched off the blacklight, putting the normal light back on and I had to blink a few times to readjust.

"Um.. well... I'm not feeling to good. I'm going to get some sleep."

I was surprised by that, but I nodded. He seemed a bit highly strung.

"Have a good rest, Stitch. Try not to worry about things too much."

"Gee tu jay."

He stared, but I think he was smart enough to figure out what it meant. He nodded again and closed the door, leaving me in Mitch's bedroom and in a weird head-space.

I sat in that room for a long time. I thought long and hard about why Mr Kuakini had allowed me to stay in here and not on the couch and I concluded it was nothing more than what he'd told me previously – that it was time for him to move on. He'd shut away the chair out of his mind, and I believed he'd done the same with this room too. His way of coping was to just block everything out and pretend it didn't exist and by allowing me to stay here, he was putting how comfortable I felt first by offering me an actual bed rather than the couch – even if he struggled with the idea.

I approached a small desk to the right, pressing my finger against the surface and trailing up dust. A lot of it came off and it left a clean trail mark on the desk. The room wasn't unbearable to be in – it wasn't to a point I couldn't breathe, but it was pretty dust-ridden from how unkempt it was.

It was a shame it had been neglected. This room was nice and I liked it. The wallpaper was cool too – right up my alley. Even more so with the hidden blacklight drawings.

I picked up one of the plush alien toys, twisting it about and looking at it. The tag was still attached at the base.

"..."

As I stared, something about it felt vaguely familiar – like I was experiencing déjà vu, yet not actually having it. I'd certainly never seen this toy before, yet I felt like I had. It was a weird sensation. I put the plush back down and then turned on the blacklight again, this time taking off my bounty suit and boots before I looked in the mirror. I'd already removed the bandages long before.

I really was covered from head to toe in freckles. Good grief.

My arms and legs. My feet. I twisted around to look behind me. My back told a similar story, every square inch being dusted with a fine layer of strange tiny spots. They were all over my tail. Even the back of my legs.

Perplexed, I extended my extra arms and spines. They had noticeably less. My antennae had only a few. It was pretty obvious why.

I sat down on the floor and stared. I didn't feel any different. It was only thanks to the UV light reacting with my skin I could see them as clearly as I did. Had that light never of been turned on I would never have even known.

I wondered why Mr Kuakini had reacted so weirdly about it. Something had bothered him.

I sighed, rubbing my head.

"Not long now. Getting excited?"

Shut up.

The demon voice laughed before everything was quiet again. I sighed, turning off the light before climbing up into the bed, only to feel weird again.

I couldn't sleep. No matter how hard I tried. I didn't know if it was because of where I was or if the thoughts of my situation with my family was too overbearing.

"..."

So I just lay and stared up at the glow-in-the-dark stickers above me. The soft green glow was almost soothing, somehow. Stars dotted the ceiling.

Staring up just made me think about space and my true home. I wondered if Mitch had ever wanted to travel into space. With how decked out his room was, I wouldn't have opposed the idea. He seemed obsessed.

The bed wasn't uncomfortable but I kept feeling something dig into my lower back underneath the mattress and boy was it was annoying. Eventually I couldn't take it any more and pulled back the sheets to feel it. It was a hard ridge. Like a spring underneath had come loose, or the metal framework was poking up through the material. I crawled down and looked around the mattress itself, trying to find a way to stick my hand in and flatten it. Eventually I just gave up on that idea and tried belting it down. It didn't work.

Annoyed, I slumped down against the side of the bed. I could always just sleep at the opposite end, but for the time being I sat there, looking at the moonlight seeping in from underneath dusty curtains. Tiredly, I looked at the clock on his desk. The time was wrong because the battery was dead (probably for a long time too) so I had no idea what the actual time was.

I stood up to climb back onto the bed, eventually resigning to the idea of just sleeping at the opposite end, but somehow I ended up falling backwards instead due to how much of a dumb ditz I was. I cringed hard as I accidentally fell against a small stack of books with a leather bag on top of it, and knocked over the bag onto the floor. And wouldn't you know it, the freaking thing was filled with marbles.

"Choota–!"

I frantically tried to stop them because it made so much damn noise that I wouldn't have been surprised if it woke up the entire neighbourhood, let alone Mr Kuakini and his wife. I threw my body on top of them. A dog started barking somewhere outside. Probably next door.

It worked, but one marble kept rolling. I watched it as it went right underneath the bed, across the floorboards to the other side. I stared.

I was annoyed where it had ended up, because the bed was pushed up against a wall, but that wasn't why I had stared. As the marble had rolled across one area particular area of the floor, my hearing had picked up a slight shift in tone. The difference would have been undetectable to human ears since it was so slight but the marble had sounded different rolling across that particular floorboard to me thanks to my good hearing and I realised something was off.

I slid on my belly, pulling myself underneath the bed. I was kinda fat like Jumba, so it was much harder than crawling underneath Pleakley's bed, but I managed to get myself in without getting stuck.

After chucking the marble back out (and this time making sure it landed on something soft) I knocked on the floorboard in question, and then on the one beside it. No doubt about it, two discreetly different pitches.

I edged my claw into the crevice and tried to pull it up. When that approach didn't work, I unsheathed it to it's full length. It slid all the way through and I could feel concrete underneath... as well as grime build up. It was disgusting. I edged my way around until I felt an area much looser, and pulled. It took me a little while, but I eventually managed to pry it loose and pulled it up. It had been in that position for years, so it was much harder to get out.

I coughed as dust flew into my face. As I switched on my night vision I hit my head on the underside of the bed in fright and had to clamp my wrist against my mouth to stop myself from screaming. A huge spider had somehow got into that hole from underneath and it scared the absolute crap out of me.

Ew... EW.

I poked at it. I hated spiders. It ran away and vanished somewhere I didn't particularly care enough to find out. Once assessing the area for any more horrible bugs, I noticed a small dusty box. I pulled it up out of the floor and pulled off the cover, coughing again.

It was a journal. How cliché.

I figured if the kid would hide a journal anywhere, it would be a place like this. I wondered how he'd managed to get the floorboard up; that thing was stiff.

Pushing myself back out from underneath the bed, I stared at the little book in my paws. I'd never seen this before yet... just like that plush toy, I had. But I couldn't recall where.

I sat there deep in thought for a while, wondering if this was moral or not, before finally opening it and peeking inside.

If I couldn't sleep before, I really couldn't sleep now. I lay in the bed, almost shaking. Not from being cold, but from how creeped out I was.

The journal had started off relatively normal. From what I could make out, Mitch loved his parents and family. I couldn't make out some of the words but I had enough of an idea what it said.

As it progressed and his health declined, he'd started using pictures to describe his feelings. One of them played heavily on my mind. It had shown his legs with a bunch of nails being hammered into them. Another had showed his legs severed off with a crudely drawn saw.

This had majorly confused me and I'd nearly started to believe the kid had become a psychopath when I had actually realised what it was – it was simply how he expressed his pain at becoming disabled and losing the ability to walk. I recalled that jelly-like feeling I'd had in my legs in that dream. Being suffocated, and feeling as though everything was collapsing in around me – it was an awful, helpless feeling. And these morbid pictures had described it accurately enough.

No wonder he'd hidden this journal under the floorboards. I could only imagine how his parents would have felt seeing all this from their son. I wondered how he'd gotten it there. Perhaps the bed had been in a different location back then, considering it was years back.

The end of the journal got pretty freaky. Many things I could not make out or understand, but there was one sentence that I could make out.

I wish I wasn't me.

I'd stared long and hard at it. This wasn't the first time I'd seen a sentence like this appear. There were more hints that Mitch hated being himself. Hated being a 'flawed' human.

It made sense to me. He'd had a lot of health problems, as Mr Kuakini had said. He'd been so positive and wanted to help others, but deep down, he hated himself. He just wanted to be normal and fit in. There were times he'd gone out with his family and hadn't been able to do anything other than watch other kids play around him.

The more I read and saw, the more I learned about him. My reading comprehension was terrible but I had enough knowledge to make out most of it and the fact he'd drawn little pictures really helped put things into perspective for me.

It was clear to me now that he was like any other average ten year old. He liked superpowers. He dreamed of being able to fly, or diving to the bottom of the sea. He wished he could be strong and save people. To be able to get up and do things others took for granted. And since he couldn't have that, he'd started wishing to be someone else instead.

Something else.

By the time I reached the end of that journal, one of the last entries had shown an entire manifestation of his wishes in picture form.

He had wanted to be alien with superpowers that could save the world. He wished he could be another creature. Free from pain and disability.

And that's why I was creeped out. But it wasnt just that alone.

I'd put the journal back out of respect and returned the floorboard to its proper spot as well. But after I lay in the bed again, that weird feeling of familiarity had returned. It had taken me nearly another hour to realise what it was.

It was my own scent I was smelling. On everything.

Ever since I'd stepped directly into that room, it was all I could smell. I knew I had a scent – every living creature did. At home it was hard for me to distinguish with the other scents of my family, but here it was obnoxiously strong. When I'd observed that plush toy I'd felt déjà vu because in reality I was smelling my own scent on it.

I'd never stepped foot in that room in my life. Yet somehow, I was already imprinted all over it?

It made NO sense!

How the hell would I explain this to somebody else? I couldn't! They'd laugh at me. Imagine walking up to somebody and telling them you'd somehow had been in room you've never been in before, and you knew it simply because you smelled yourself in it.

Scents were natural to me. My senses allowed me to track them and pick up on them, but a human couldn't even begin to comprehend or understand what that was like.

Nani thought I was crazy enough as it was with how I couldn't control myself from attacking people and scaring her. Telling this to people would make me look like a complete nutjob.

So I just lay in the bed, shaking.

The journal had left me questioning once again. Why I'd fallen. Why those marbles just happen to reveal that journal's location to me. As Lilo had said, everything happened for a reason. I was starting to believe that.

Starting to believe that perhaps reincarnation was a thing after all, no matter how much my brain opposed the idea.

I turned onto my side and stared at the mirror across the room. Weirdly enough I had freckles. How was that possible? The only reason I knew what they were was because I'd seen other humans around the island with them. Especially tourists.

I'd never once seen an alien with anything of the sort. It was a human thing.

My eyes widened at that.

I think I managed maybe about five hours of sleep? Or at least, that's what I guessed it was. The sun was up the next time I opened my eyes. I'd had another weird dream, but I didn't recall much of what it was unlike the other ones which had been quite vivid.

I pushed myself out of the bed and pulled back on my bounty outfit, quietly opening up the door and perking my ears. Somebody was in the kitchen and a quick sniff of the air told me it was Mr Kuakini. I could hear soft snores somewhere opposite where I was standing, from one of the other rooms. Alanna was still in bed.

I walked down the corridor to the kitchen, peering in. The man was sitting at the table, staring ahead as though in some kind of daze and holding a cup of coffee. I glimpsed at the clock in there. It was approaching eight o'clock.

I watched him for a moment before making my presence known, and when he realised I was there, he jumped. He had bags underneath his eyes.

"Oh. Morning."

I nodded, rubbing my arm again. Mr Kuakini stared at me before rubbing his head.

"Bad sleep?" I asked him, trying to spark some type of conversation and feeling awkward.

He nodded. "Yeah. Something playing on my mind."

"What is it?" I asked quietly.

"..."

He closed his eyes. I didn't press him any further and he looked down at my paws. Once I realised I was opening and closing them again I stopped. He just continued to stare. Eventually he got up and headed for the living area. I watched him. But before he exited the room entirely, he pulled back to look at me. "Come."

Quietly, I followed him. He gestured for me to sit down on the couch.

He pulled out something from a cabinet underneath the television, before returning to me and sitting down. He opened up what appeared to be a photo album, turning to a specific page before pulling some photos out and handing them to me.

I couldn't understand what I was looking at right off the bat, but then I squinted and held the photo closer to my face.

It was somebody's... head? I guessed that simply from seeing a few stray strands of hair. Whoever had taken the photo had zoomed it in on purpose. I could see a few red marks and when I realised what it actually was, my jaw dropped. Was that...?

It was a birthmark, identical to mine. Not as big, but fairly obvious.

Mostly because it was in the exact same place that mine was.

He handed me the other photo he'd pulled out once he saw my reaction. I could see Mitch better now. He was very pale, like his mother, who was Caucasian and likely of European descent, unlike Mr Kuakini who was a native Hawaiian. He was standing in the sun at the beach in a simple tank top and shorts, but something else stood out to me.

He had ginger hair, and he was covered in freckles. Everywhere. Face, neck, arms, legs. I couldn't see it very clearly in the other photo I'd looked at the previous time I'd been here, but now it was obvious.

I'd seen that red hair in my dream, when I'd looked at my reflection in the shop front. Mr Kuakini looked a little distant as he stared at me.

"What is going on?" he asked quietly, though more to himself. He looked extremely freaked out and now I realised why he'd had a bad sleep and was so strung up. I jumped down from the couch, backing away slightly.

"..."

I couldn't bring myself to answer him. This was too much for me to even process; I felt like my circuits would burn out again trying to do so.

So I simply bolted.