I start looking around the room again, wondering where the bullet came from. No one is holding a gun, at least not one that’s aimed at Chris. I have to do a double take to make sure I’m not dreaming. I’m not. Everything is real. So where did that bullet come from?
The guards answer my question by turning to face Daniel, who is sitting sideways, propped up by his good arm. He lowers his gun down to his side and collapses to the floor. The guards begin to move toward him, one drawing a heavy-loaded machine gun from what seems like thin air. He points it at Daniel and again there’s a loud bang. But I don’t close my eyes this time.
Instead, I see the guard with the machine gun fall backward, the guard behind him catching him and laying him down slowly. The bullet comes from my left, and when I turn my head my father is lowering his gun. My father and I take turns firing at the remaining guards, each one somehow unsuspecting.
My ears are ringing, which I didn’t even realize until all the noise stopped. The house is eerily silent. We all take turns looking at each other, relief registering on everyone’s face. Daniel moans, and I rush over to his side. His condition is worse than I thought; his pale face and blank, stark eyes give that away. My father calls the local medical shop and they rush over, glad for something to do. They cart Daniel away and tell us we can visit him in a few days, but he will need a lot of medical attention before then.
After he’s gone, I turn to my mother, who immediately embraces me in the warmest hug. I squeeze her so tight I think I cut off her air supply for a little bit. Kyle joins in on the embrace, and we stand there for minutes. My father finishes signing some paperwork with the medical assistants and then comes back inside. He stands outside the circle for a little bit before my mother motions him closer, and he wraps his arms around all three of us. I get a feeling of protection, one I haven’t felt since before my father left.
My mother breaks away first. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you all,” she says, tears staining her cheeks. “I thought for sure I would never be able to communicate or hug or do anything with you guys ever again.”
“I love you, Mother,” I burst out. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”
She smiles and embraces me again. Just when I’m finally feeling peace again, someone knocks on the door. We all jump and look at it expectantly. My father walks over to the door and opens it. A man stands on the porch, wearing a navy blue uniform with the insignia of the House on his upper breast pocket. He says something to my father, who moves out of the way to let the man through.
“Hello Mrs. Knowles,” he says, looking at my mother. “Hello children. I am here on behalf of the Coreno government. They heard a lot of shooting coming from this household, and it is my job to make sure everything is alright.”
“Of course,” my mother says.
He looks around the room, taking in the bodies on the ground and broken pieces of the remote, furniture, and other things that fell during the fight. “Now, I can see there was a lot going on,” he says. “I’ll have my team come over and thoroughly search the house.”
He nods to each of us in turn and leaves the house. We all stand and stare at each other, talking about what happened in the last few weeks. My father explains to my mother what happened after he left us. She starts tearing up until my father walks over to her and holds her; then she really lets the waterworks flow. My initial thought was that they would talk about everything that has happened in the decade since he left, but somehow the silence answers every question and thought that they each had.
Kyle and I turn to each other, make a silent agreement, and go outside. I walk to the left side of the patio and rest my arms on the railing. Kyle does the same. For a while, we just take in the cool breeze, the warm air that lingers after the wind, and the smell of spring.
“I missed this place,” I say aloud.
Kyle turns to look at me and nods. “It’s been getting warmer these last few days,” he says. “I was getting tired of the snow anyway.”
“Yeah,” I say. “But I miss all the people too. You could hear laughter when you went outside. People used to enjoy Coreno.”
“It was Chris’s influence that drove them away,” Kyle responds. “It’s weird to think that he won’t be a problem for the galaxy anymore.”
I nod, thinking about everything that just happened. Chris is dead, Daniel is severely injured, my parents are reunited, I’m back home, and there isn’t a threat to the galaxy anymore; the list is endless.
“By the way,” Kyle says. “I’ve been meaning to ask you what happened after we left the headquarters. If you don’t want to talk about it, I understand. I was just curious.”
I look at him, not exactly wanting to reimagine what happened, but I see the curiosity dancing on his face. “You know the mind-controlling device Chris used on Mother?” I say. He nods. “He tested something similar on me. It was a serum that allowed him to alter my dreams. It was probably a prototype for what he used on Mother.”
“So you were his test subject?” he says, clarifying.
“Yeah, something like that,” I say. “Rowan helped me escape from the testing room and then he and I confronted Chris in his office. Chris locked us in there with Kelton, but we eventually escaped. Although, I’m pretty sure Rowan died because he was shot and we couldn’t get him out of the room in time.”
Kyle looks away from me. “Did you at least try to save him?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say. “But it’s not as easy as it sounds. The door was locked from the outside and I didn’t really have a choice.”
“Oh,” he says. “So what else happened?”
“I met this guard and-”
“Zandrea!” Kyle says astonished. “Haven’t you already made that mistake?”
He laughs a little and I roll my eyes, but I laugh along with him. “You didn’t let me finish,” I say with a smile. “He was a lot like me, except he had been married. You know Cody and Lila? Those are his kids. I brought them with me from Juema.”
“You just took his kids from him?” Kyle asks, incredulous.
“No,” I say exasperated. I give him a sad smile. “Eli, that was the guard’s name, died before I could get him to Juema to see his ex-wife and children.”
“How did he die?” Kyle asks.
“Kelton shot him,” I say bluntly. “Eli survived for a while, though. After he killed Kelton-”
“Kelton’s dead?” Kyle asks astounded.
“Yeah, Eli shot him,” I say. “After Kelton shot Eli, I tackled him to the ground and beat him up, but Eli was the one who fired the shot. He lasted long enough to see that his wife didn’t care about him and his children didn’t know about him. We watched them from a security camera in the headquarters.”
“That’s sad,” Kyle says. “But I can’t believe Kelton is dead.”
“Yeah, it was crazy, but I’m happy he’s gone. And Eli was a good person from what I could tell,” I say.
“Why did you bring his kids back with you?” he asks.
“He wanted me to tell his ex-wife that he still loved her,” I explain. “That was his dying wish. So I went to Juema to tell her, but after I left her house, I came back to check on her. And so did some Corps’ guards. They killed her and her current husband, leaving the children all alone. So I went back to get them.”
“What are we going to do with them?” he asks. “I mean, I don’t know if Mother and Father will allow them to stay.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I guess I hadn’t really thought about it.” I lean my head back and close my eyes. I couldn’t imagine giving them up to the Government Child Care Agency. I’ve grown a special bond with Cody, and Lila seemed to like Daniel when he was disguised as Damien.
The sound of an aircar pulling up to our house interrupts my thoughts. I open my eyes and see three men file out of the aircar. Two of them move around to the back side of the vehicle and open a compartment. They each pull out a black, medium-sized briefcase and
begin walking toward the house. At first, I have no idea who they are or what they want and my heart starts racing, but then I see the House’s insignia on their breast pockets and relief washes over me.
One of them, the youngest looking of the three, gives me a small nod before ascending the stairs. “Hello,” he says in a pleasant tone. “Is Jordan Knowles at this establishment?”
I almost start laughing at the formality of his vocabulary, but I refrain when I see he’s serious about the question. “Yes,” I say. “He’s inside. I can go get him if you want.”
He smiles slightly, not showing any teeth. “Thank you for the offer, but we will just knock.”
“He might be, um, busy,” I say, figuring he and my mother have a lot of catching up to do. “But if knocking is your choice of method, by all means, go ahead.”
Kyle gives me a funny look and I know he finds my choice of vocabulary just as humorous as I found the man’s. The man gives me a slight nod and knocks on the door.
“Do you two live here?” the oldest looking of the three asks.
“Yes,” Kyle says. “Our parents are Jordan and Samantha Knowles.”
He nods and turns back to the group just as the door opens. “Hi,” a voice says. It belongs to my father. “I think I know what you’re here for.”
The youngest man holds up his briefcase as if in explanation and says, “I’m sure you do. We’re here to investigate the crime scene and the possible murder of Chris Brown, the head of the Intergalactic Corps. Is he still inside?”
“Yes,” my father answers. “Along with some of his henchmen. Feel free to come in and do whatever it is that you do.”
So that’s why they’re here. Usually workers from the House don’t stop by your home unless they have to investigate something, recruit members for the war, remind the people in the household that their supply of food is ready to be picked up, or if there has been a death in the family. Other than that, if something needs to be said, they will usually leave a message on the home cell saying that someone has to go down to the House to talk with a representative of the government.
The men enter the house and my father closes the door, giving us a tired smile before leaving. A sudden worry runs through me. Something I haven’t felt in a while. What if Chris is still somehow alive? What if they try to revive him?
I don’t think they would revive him, considering how big of a threat to the galaxy he is. I’m slightly comforted, but I won’t be completely until I know for sure he’s dead.
“Do you want to go inside and see what they’re doing?” Kyle asks, interrupting my thoughts. I look over at him, worry clear on his face.
“Are you okay?” I ask him.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he says. “Are you?”
“I will be, when Chris is gone and we can put all of this behind us.”
“Yeah,” he says, nodding. “I understand.” He hesitates a little bit before going inside the house, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
A slight breeze goes by, and to most people it probably would feel nice on a day like today. But I pull my light jacket tighter around me and decide to go inside. Maybe it’ll make me feel better to see the men test Chris’s body for a heartbeat and not find it.
When I enter the house, the three men with briefcases are spread out, looking over each body carefully, examining for anything unusual. Kyle stands next to my father, who’s watching the men from the lowest step on the staircase. My mother is nowhere to be seen. I walk over to my father and Kyle, both of them looking worried.
“Is everything okay?” I ask them.
“Yes, but they’re taking longer than usual,” my father says, his eyes staring at the body of one of the guards.
“How do you know what usual is?” I ask.
“Well, when my brother was murdered in his own house because he didn’t pay someone back for something, a House worker came to our home and asked if I wanted to go over there,” he explains. “I said yes because I wanted to see what happened and maybe say a last goodbye to my brother. They worked much faster.”
“But it was only your brother,” I say. “One person. There are multiple bodies here.”
“True,” he says. “But there was only one House worker last time.”
I don’t feel like waiting around much, so I go upstairs and try to find Cody and Lila. I haven’t been upstairs in this house yet, but it looks a lot like my other house. A bedroom off to the right of the staircase, where I would sleep if I lived here. I turn the corner and find a larger bedroom, most likely my father’s. That’s where I find my mother, huddled over something underneath the bed.
“Mother, are you okay?” I ask.
She sniffles a little before turning to look up at me. “I’ll be alright,” she says.
“What is that you’re holding?”
“Oh this,” she says, gesturing to a medium-sized box on her lap. “Nothing. Just mementos I kept from when your father and I were dating.”
I sit on the floor next to her, and she shows me what’s inside. A napkin with a note on it. A small round pendant hanging from a silver chain. A ticket stub from when they went into the Recreational part of the House together. A small Stoneard wrapped in a cloth for safekeeping.
Everything in the box has so much meaning, especially to her. When she picks up the Stoneard, she brings it near her heart and holds it there, closing her eyes. She looks peaceful and relaxed.
“Did he give you that Stoneard?” I ask.
She looks at me. “Yes, after he came back from one of his excursions. He said it wasn’t very valuable, but it was all he could find. However, to me it was probably the most valuable thing I owned and it meant even more coming from him.”
Chris took something very special from my parents: a love only heard of in fairy tales. That moment of reunion should have been memorable, monumental. But it wasn’t. At least, not in the way it should have been. It’s his fault my father left and it’s his fault he didn’t come back sooner. He took the person I love away too, multiple times. I’ve never been more glad to have someone out of my life.
Except he isn’t. He will never completely leave me. There will always be that part of me that remembers him and everything he did. And the more I think about it, in a way he brought me and the people I love most closer together.
Daniel wouldn’t have proposed to me if we didn’t end up on Vulcona. We maybe could have got there someday, but it’s not certain. My father wouldn’t have left, but in a way I feel as though it brought my parents closer together. I haven’t seen her this happy in a long time. And there’s Kyle, who was a scared little child when this adventure began and is now a young man, ready to take on the world head first. And even Kelton, who helped me grow closer and stronger in my relationship with Daniel. Without him, I may never have realized how much I want, how much I need, Daniel in my life.
I didn’t love Kelton, I love what he did for Daniel and me. All those weeks where I thought I loved Kelton, I really just loved Daniel and was too scared to admit it to myself. He brought us closer together without knowing it, without me knowing it. He didn’t take anything from me, he supplied me with the materials I needed to realize it’s Daniel I want to be with forever. It’s Daniel I will choose every time.
Six months later…
“Are you ready to go?” I ask.
“Yes, give me one second,” Daniel yells from upstairs.
I look over my dress again and can’t believe this day is finally here. It seems like forever ago when he proposed to me for the first time. I was so excited, but other things got in the way and it almost tore us apart. But when he slipped the ring on my finger the second time, every single doubt I had escaped my mind and never returned. That was a few weeks ago.
It’s hard for me to remember everything that Chris did to us, since I tried so hard to forget it. But if I focus enough, everything comes back, and I realize the memories never really left me. Some of the memories I’m thankful for, and others I try to
lock away in a part of my brain and never let them out. Daniel helps me focus on the present and the future instead of the past, but he has his own problems that won’t let him forget.
I walk around in my parents’ house as I wait for him. I walk around the staircase and down the hall to my father’s office. I stand in the spot where Damien became Daniel. That’s a memory I like to visit often.
I walk back out of the room and stand in the area where Chris was shot. I get a chill up my spine just thinking about that afternoon—the way Daniel was able to get the perfect angle that got rid of the galaxy’s problem once and for all, the way the men came into the house and hauled him and his henchmen’s bodies away, and the way I collapsed into my father’s arms because I was too tired to support myself anymore.
I shake my head and move into the kitchen, where the house cell rang. It was a House worker calling to tell us we needed to go downtown right away. Once we did, a representative came to get my parents, Kyle, and me and explained why we were there.
“We ran some tests just to be one hundred percent sure, and yes, Chris Brown is dead,” the representative had said. “He was shot in the head and collapsed to the floor of your house, is that correct?”
“Yes, sir,” my father responded.
“Because it was manslaughter, we have some paperwork for you to fill out since you are the homeowner of the house he was killed in,” the representative said.
“Of course, sir,” my father replied. The representative handed him some forms to take home and told him to return them to the Checks and Forms portion of the House when he was done.
Hearing that he was dead was a huge weight lifted off me. Even though I had to wait about a week for them to tell us the results, it was good to know that the galaxy would be rid of him and he wouldn’t be tormenting us any longer. When my father turned in the forms, it was a statement of finality that he was gone forever.
I walk out of the kitchen, a full-length mirror greeting me from across the hall. The dress I’m wearing is the same one my mother wore but altered to fit me, complete with blue strands of silk coming down from my waist. My hair is pulled back into a sleek ponytail, blue strands of silk intertwined into the strands of my hair to match my dress.
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