Light Through the Window

by Cassandra Morphy

  "But this was after I was born, right?" Ellie asked.

  "Right. I think it was actually the November before she died. I think something spooked her something fierce. Anyway, she was gone most of those few months. After that, well... you know more than I do on that day."

  "The day she died. My fourth birthday."

  "I think your friend was looking into it, the, uh, father of your girlfriend. Did you ever hear anything back on that?"

  "No," Ellie said. She shook her head, slinking down into her chair as she stared up at the ceiling. Or, at least, what she could see of it in the faint light from their cell phones. Dave had only a low reading light wrapped around his neck to read by, and it did little to chase away the darkness engulfing them. "Maybe, when this is all over, he'll have some answers for me. Then again, maybe I'll have more answers for him."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I... uh... nothing. Never mind. But... What about before that?"

  "Before what?"

  "Before she went back to work, before she had me. Was there any time that she just... sort of... stopped being her?"

  "Before you were born? No, I don't think so. Unless..."

  "Unless what?" Ellie asked.

  "Well, unless it was before I met her," Dave said. She shrugged his shoulders a little, the reading light jarring under the motion. "We met in college, not like you and Alex. It's a shame that didn't work out between you two. Not that I have anything against Mare. It's just that it would have been so romantic, high school sweethearts and all that."

  "Yea," Ellie said. She was suddenly lost in her thoughts of Alex, the feelings that still swirled around her. Feelings of love, lust, betrayal, loss. Had Alex ever really loved her at all? How could she be professing love one moment and utter disgust the next? "Wait, Mare is still my high school sweetheart."

  "Yea, but not like Alex was," Dave said. He seemed more broken up about the lost relationship than Ellie was. "You've known each other for forever. Mare, you've known for two years. Not even."

  "Anyway, we were talking about your life affirming romance, not mine. You met in college and she never... I mean, you never really noticed any change between who she was then and who she was when she died?"

  "Well, of course there were changes. Everyone changes over time, no matter what people say. People grow, people learn, people change. But, no, there was never any point where it was like I didn't even know her or anything like that. She surprised me every day, but that was more that she was still with me than that she did something uncharacteristic."

  "But, I mean, she was... a spy, right?"

  "She was a field operative, yes. We were stationed in France at one point. I taught at the Nouvelle Sorbonne while she did her thing around Europe. It was easier that I didn't know what she was really doing, though. She saw a lot of hard things in that time, even did some of them. That was enough to change anyone. Then, well, we got pregnant with you, and we decided to come back home to Chicago. I started teaching here and never left. When she went back to work, it wasn't even a discussion about me going with her. She came back four, maybe five times over that two year span, some of it to see you. Then she was in the car accident. It made sense at the time, she was always rushing everywhere, trying to put things in order. I never really heard the whats or the whys of it, but I wasn't expecting to."

  "That's it, though?" Ellie asked. "That's all of it? All of my mother's life?"

  She wasn't sure what she had been expecting from her father. Some great revelation about who, what, her mother was. Some indication that everything these aliens were saying was true. Her mother was an alien. She was an alien. There had to have been some point that her mother had been converted, just like Miranda and Barry had been doing to the students on campus for the past few weeks. She couldn't have been born an alien, like Ellie apparently had. All indications were that they hadn't been here for that long. As far as she was able to tell, it all started with Sam's mom, back in '01. Before that, nothing.

  But, now, with her mother's whole life spelled out, the whole whirlwind romance of her parents, it was looking like she knew more about her mother than her father did. There was no great bump in the road, no big upset that they could point at and say "that's it, that's when she became an alien." Was it really a big deal, like Miranda had said, like everyone around them had somehow shown? Alex leaving her, the mob rioting, Miranda and Barry converting people, knowing that they would die young, all for something that amounted to... nothing?

  "Well..." Dave said. Ellie's heart stopped at that word, the hope spurring up once more before being slapped down once again. "Not all the details, of course. It's not like we lived in a blur, in a blurb. But you weren't asking about the details, were you? I could tell you what we did on our first date, how I proposed, and all of that. If you want."

  "No, that's not... I guess I was just... looking for an answer," Ellie said. She looked down at her feet, as if the answer was down there. Perhaps it was in her, somewhere deep inside. Some answer that she just couldn't find, couldn't pull out. Wasn't there something in that spore that had infested her, without her knowledge, without her consent, that tied her to her mother? Couldn't that supply her with an answer where none could be found outside?

  "I just... I don't know what the question is," Dave said.

  "Funny," Ellie said, laughing a little. "Neither do I."

  "You do look like her, you know. More and more every day. It's not... I hope that... that these last couple of years... I didn't want to abandon you like I have. I know you're struggling; I've seen it. I've seen it getting worse every day. I just... I didn't know how to help you with it. I didn't know where it was coming from. You sailed through those exams, so I knew it wasn't school. What is it? How can I help?"

  "I... I don't think you can."

  Ellie shook her head and a tear fell loose, hitting her shoe. She hadn't even noticed it was forming. Suddenly, she realized that she was questioning everything that she did, everything that she had ever done. Wondering what was her human side, what was her alien side. Did she love Mare because she was an alien? Did Mare love her because she was an alien? Where did the alien part stop and she begin? Or was there even a part of her that was just her? Did she even exist at all or was it all the alien? If, somehow, the alien parts went away, if they were eradicated, would she go with them? Would she die?

  She felt hands on her back, a smaller one on her left that belonged to George, a large, more familiar one on her right that belonged to her father. The comfort they offered only caused the tears to come more, harder, faster. She turned into her father, finding the familiar love and comfort that had always been there. The day that she had come out to him, they had been there, when her mother's hadn't been, couldn't have been. The night that her father had been rescued, they found her again, despite the fact that it was him that needed rescuing, not her. Even as far back as that first time riding a bike, when she rode it straight into the tree, though then they also promised revenge against the tree.

  After a few moments, a few minutes, in that embrace, she pulled back. She looked up into his eyes, the eyes of her father. She wanted to tell him, to tell him everything. He needed to know. She knew that he needed to know. But, would that only hurt him? If there hadn't been a sudden change, if her mom had always been the way she was, did that mean that she was always an alien? Would knowing that color his memories of her? Would it ruin them? Would it ruin him?

  "Dad, I..."

  "What is it, honey?" he asked. "You know there's nothing you could tell me that would make me love you any less, right?"

  "I'm a--"

  "She's an alien, pops," came a call from the door. All three of them turned towards the door, towards the voice, only to see a group of them, aliens all, coming in the door. Into their little hideaway. Into their safe haven.

  And, at the front of the group, the one that had spoken, was Miranda.

  "Your little girl is an alien," she said.

  Chapter
Forty-Nine

  The Faults of George

  Dave looked between Miranda and Ellie, at a loss for words. At a loss for what to believe. Ellie was crestfallen, the look in her eyes, on her face, making it plain the truth of Miranda’s words. At first, Dave smiled, like he thought it was all some elaborate joke. Then he stood up, slowly, and backed away from her. The look on his face, a mixture of doubt, pain, and loss was a fresh knife into Ellie's heart.

  "W-what? An... An alien? Like... like the demons? You're... Are you not really my Ellie?"

  "No, Dad, of course I am," Ellie said. She reached out to him, but he shied away from her. It was Alex all over again, but so much worse. Her father had always been there for her, even when he wasn't in the same country. She had always thought that he would be there for her. His eyes went to her wrist, her naked wrist, where her fitness band had once rested. "And it would tell you so if I was wearing it," she said. "I'm the same person I've always been. It's just... I'm also... this."

  "You're... an alien."

  "Yes."

  "You've... always... been an alien."

  "Yes."

  "But... you're my daughter."

  "Yes."

  "My... I mean, your mother..."

  "She didn't sleep with an alien, if that's what you're thinking," Ellie said. She rolled her eyes at the very thought of it.

  "No, but you did," George said, snarkily. It was the most offensive thing he had ever said, at least in front of Ellie. She turned towards him in shock, only to find him standing with the others. "I mean, seriously, you lived with an alien for years, raised one as your daughter, and you didn't even know it. What kind of scientist does that make you?"

  "Well, most of us do give good human," Miranda said. "It's not exactly his fault. We rely on our ability to not be noticed, otherwise we would have been killed off ages ago."

  "George, what are you doing?" Ellie asked. She took a few cautious steps away from George and the aliens. When she backed up into her father, he didn't flinch away from her, didn't move away. Instead, he reached out, hugging her to him. She looked at George's eyes, making sure they were still normal. "Why are you with them?"

  "Oh, he's not," Miranda said. "Not really."

  "Not yet, anyway," George said. He smiled, knowingly, gloating without really gloating about something that no one should want. Why would he want that? Why would he want to be one of them, knowing that it would mean a shorter lifespan?

  "Why? Why would you want to be one of them?" Ellie asked.

  "Well, for one thing, they're clearly the winning side. I mean, you can't compete with enhanced strength, speed, intellect, and a one way ticket to their side."

  "We are pretty great," Miranda said.

  "As for another, well, they promised me something that no other team could offer. Not the humans, not the demons, not... whatever we encountered up there on that roof. I told you what I wanted the first day we met. You probably don't even remember what it is."

  "You want to be a woman?" Ellie asked. "And they can do that for you?"

  "Yes, they can," George said.

  "Uh... no," Miranda said, sheepishly. "No, we can't."

  "What?" George asked. He turned around to look at Miranda and the rest of the group that had come in. "What do you mean you can't?"

  "Really, is it that much of a surprise? You said it yourself, no one can give you that, not on the level you're expecting. Sure, there's surgeries, hormones, all that good stuff that's been around for decades. We can... help pay for that maybe?" She looked towards the rest of her group, but they all seemed uneasy about the question, let alone what few answers they had for him. "But if you want a quick, simple pill you can take, that's not going to happen."

  "W... what? Seriously?"

  "We just sort of told you that because we needed someone to keep an eye on that one and you seemed like an easy mark. Sorry."

  "But..."

  George was at a loss for words. Ellie didn't have that problem. Several words were flitting through her head, most of which were not nice, none of which stayed long enough for her to yell them at him. Instead, she settled for figuring out just how much damage George had done.

  "How long?" she asked.

  "What?" George asked.

  "How long have you been... spying on us, on me, for them?"

  "Oddly enough, it was Sam's idea," Miranda said. "Not that we use George, that was all me. But that we put a spy into your inner circle, so to speak. Oh, if only he knew it was our group, not his, that controlled the spy. Not that he even knew about our group."

  She motioned around her, to the group that had followed her in. Most of the group just blended into the background, as they had all month, though she recognized Barry near the back and Rebecca Anne, of all people. It was clear that these were the people, the aliens, that were converting as many people as they could. Perhaps there were more in this group, this faction of the aliens, but there were already more than Ellie had been expecting. She tried to count them without making it obvious that she was doing so, but they kept bobbing and weaving, trying to avoid her glare. There were at least twenty there, standing in the doorway, with more in the hall. Ellie tried not to look behind her, back towards the other door, which might end up being their only escape.

  "I don't think Sam would have liked the method, either," Ellie said. "I mean, assuming he really is gay."

  "Oh, he's gay alright. We are just as diverse as those humans are. It's just that we're all also this."

  "Also, aliens," Ellie said, using the word as a weapon.

  "Just like you," Miranda said, with a smile, not bothered by the word at all.

  "Still want to join them?" Ellie asked George.

  "I... uh..."

  He kept looking between Ellie and the group behind him, though he was already edging away from them. Without looking where he was going, he tripped over the bottom step, falling backwards onto the stairs leading towards the back of the room. He reached out, trying to grab onto the chair closest to him, up on the second row. Before he could, though, Miranda was there, right beside him, holding him against the chair.

  "I could do it right now," Miranda said.

  Despite her words, Ellie figured, hoped, that it was still too soon, still too recent that she had tried to convert Hero. It had only been a few hours. If it only took that long, she could have converted six to ten a day. Their numbers would build up way too quickly for her to fathom.

  "Or, maybe you'd prefer to be infected the other way?" She looked back towards the others, more pointedly at Barry. Barry's eyes went wide before he slinked back behind the others. "I'm sure we can find someone to accommodate you."

  "Leave him alone," Ellie said. Her words came out sounding more brave than she felt.

  "Help me, Ellie," George begged.

  "Oh, shut up, traitor," Ellie snapped. "You deserve whatever comes your way."

  "Ellie," Dave scolded.

  "What? He spied on me the whole time. He was just pretending to be my friend. No wonder why he didn't turn on me like the others did."

  "Others? Your other friends? Where are they?"

  "Oh, Eric and Alex didn't like the thought of cavorting with an... And, well, Becky got hurt, because of that bitch. And it's all because of him."

  "Well, then, you would want me to do it, wouldn't you?" Miranda asked. "You know what it means. You know what would happen to him."

  "Wait, what would happen to him?" Dave asked. "What's going on? What is all of this?"

  "Mom would have died anyway," Ellie said. "She would have died and it's all their fault. She would have died because she was one of them."

  "But... then... you?"

  "No, I was born this way. I'm fine... for now. There's no way of knowing..."

  "We haven't been around that long," Miranda said, nodding her agreement. It was clear that, despite her words, despite her professing that being alien for a decade was enough, she dreaded the possibility of it all coming to an early end as much as E
llie did. As much as any of the converted would have.

  "Enough of this," Rebecca Anne yelled. Her eyes, dark and empty as always, seemed to take on a new red tint as her rage was bared. "Are you going to start playing nice?"

  "Who's playing?" Ellie asked. "This isn't Global Thermonuclear War. This is people's lives you're 'playing' with. You're destroying. I'm not going to just let you keep infecting people."

  "How are you going to stop us? It's not like you managed to hold onto that roster you stole from me. That's gone, destroyed. Not even Sam got a look at it. You didn't have time to make a copy, either. I don't know how you knew it was there, but you're not going to stop us now."

  "Oh, but I already have," Ellie said, as a thought occurred to her. "You just don't know it yet. Your days of infecting this city are numbered."

  "Really?" Rebecca Anne said. "Because we've already gotten the mayor and the chief of police. Once they're fully vested, they'll start converting down the line. And we owe it all to this stupid riot that Sam started. Who even cares about that stupid bill anyway?"

  "What bill?" Ellie asked, surprised. "I thought this was about the Martian colonists."

  "Only because I said it was," Miranda said.

  "No, it started out that way," Rebecca Anne said. "But then the stupid demon bill passed the house. We couldn't get enough of the congressmen on our side, or it never would have come to a vote. No matter. Once the demons are spread out, it'll be easier to pick them off, one by one. Their numbers shrink. Ours only grow. Now, do you see whose side you should be on? Are you going to side with the humans that would let the demons off their chains or us, your own people, who will rule this world like it's supposed to be ruled?"

  "Oh? And how is that? By giving everyone that doesn't agree with you a death sentence? No, thank you. I'll stick with team human, if it's all the same to you."

  "It's not," Rebecca Anne said. She glared at Ellie, the same look she had given her when she glared at her through the window to the dorm. Only, this time, she didn't have a lamp post to get caught up on. She did, however, have a whole group of super strong, super fast aliens, all seemingly hell bent on evening some score that Ellie still hadn't gotten a handle on.