“Probably.”
We sat in silence for a long time, each minute felt like an hour. I had to resist the urge to race inside the building and demand they let Lochie go. I knew it was fruitless and wouldn’t work, so I had to sit there waiting instead. I seriously was going to kill him if they didn’t beat me to it.
Our entire plan of watching through the window went out the door the moment Lochie showed up. I couldn’t risk being caught with him in there. All we could do was sit and then sit some more.
After two whole hours, the doors opened and people started spilling out onto the street. I quickly scanned the faces, trying to find the one I loved. He was toward the back of the group, looking unscathed but not happy.
“Garrick, he’s out. Can you please go get him?” I looked at him pleadingly. My puppy dog eyes must have worked, Garrick went without argument or further prompting. He pulled his shirt sleeves down to cover his triangle mark as he moved.
He crossed the street and waited in the shadows while the group disbursed. The moment Lochie was walking alone, Garrick hurried after him. He finally caught up, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. Lochie swung around quickly; his nerves seemed to be on edge. They had a discussion, Garrick pointed to the car. I waved back, and a smile spread across Lochie’s face. They headed for the car.
I shuffled over to the driver’s side and started the vehicle. I didn’t want to be around the Originals’ building for any longer than I needed to. The moment Garrick and Lochie climbed in, I floored it out of there.
Lochie sat in the backseat. “What are you doing here? I thought you couldn’t come back.”
“I couldn’t, but we had to,” I replied, not even knowing where to start. I wasn’t prepared to see Lochie, I hadn’t had the discussion in my head a hundred times beforehand like I normally would have.
I wove around the streets until I was certain we hadn’t been followed and then parked in a deserted industrial parking bay. There would be virtually no traffic there until morning. The orange glow of a streetlight provided the only illumination for us to see each other.
I turned around in the seat so I could see Lochie up close for the first time. Besides the concern across his face, he looked exactly as I had remembered – gorgeous intense blue eyes and thick caramel hair that made me want to run my hands through it.
“What the hell were you doing at an Originals meeting?” I started, I didn’t have time for pleasantries.
“Nice to see you too,” Lochie replied. Garrick sat in the front seat, staring ahead, hopefully not listening to us too intently. I didn’t need a witness to our dysfunctional and complicated relationship.
“Of course it’s nice to see you, I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed you. Now what were you doing there? Have you been trying to get yourself killed?”
He seemed to soften a little. “Of course not, do you think I’m stupid? Don’t answer that. I went because I’ve been trying to figure out what they’re up to. I told them you screwed me over and I wanted revenge on all the aliens and the government. I told them I wanted to join their group.”
“And they bought that?”
“Yeah,” Lochie replied, like it should have been obvious. I guessed I wouldn’t be underestimating his acting skills in the future. “I heard them talking once about how they can use me to get to you. They want to use me as bait, basically, so they let me into the group.”
I had to take a minute to process the information. It didn’t help that Garrick cast a panicked look my way, like I had entered into a trap with the bait sitting in our backseat. “It’s okay, Garrick,” I started, feeling the need to reassure him. “Lochie is on our side, he wouldn’t hand us into the Originals. Or the Department for that matter.”
Lochie leaned forward, resting his arms on the back of the seats. “This guy’s parents are FBI agents too?”
“Yeah, we’re in the same boat,” I explained. The extent of my lying stabbed at my chest with guilt. “We’re helping each other get out of the current situation. So have you found out anything more about the Originals than we already knew?”
He sat back again, relaxing a little. “They don’t tell me much. All I know is they are planning something big.”
“What kind of thing?”
“I don’t know, just big. They talk about it behind closed doors, only a fraction of the members know about it.”
Garrick turned around, joining in. “You need to find out what it is.”
“What do you think I’ve been doing all this time?” There was a gruffness to Lochie’s voice I hadn’t heard before. He was obviously more stressed than I knew. “Do you really think I’ve been attending these stupid meetings just for the free tea and coffee? I’ve been working my butt off trying to get into the inner circle. I’ve been trying to work out what the hell happened to my girlfriend.”
Garrick spun around in his seat again, staring at some unseen thing outside. I looked at Lochie. Was it wrong that all I picked up from his outburst was that he called me his girlfriend? So he hadn’t moved onto a blonde bimbo model like I had imagined. Perhaps he really did love me after all.
“Lochie, I’m sorry about what you’ve gone through,” I said quietly, trying to calm him down. “I really appreciate what you’ve done for me, but you can’t keep going to these meetings. It’s too dangerous.”
“Can you come home yet?” Lochie asked.
“No.”
“Then I’m going to keep going to them.” Typical Lochie, stubborn to the last word. “How did you escape from them anyway? I thought they had you until I heard their plan to use me as bait. I knew then you had gotten away.”
Garrick raised his eyebrows, I really wished he wasn’t there to witness all my lies. I couldn’t let Lochie know about the Department, it wouldn’t make sense for them to try to take me. He thought the Originals were only after me to get to my FBI Agent parents. If he knew the FBI were the ones eager to get to me too, my whole cover would be blown.
There was no other option except to make up another lie. What was one more? I felt sick. “We managed to escape when the guards were distracted by a fire. We ran until we could get help and then returned here.” Technically, not a lie, just an absence of truth.
Lochie shifted in his seat and leaned forward to the side, I moved to the other side of the headrest to match him. When he spoke, it was barely a whisper so Garrick wouldn’t hear. “When they took you, I thought I was going to die I was so scared for you. I can’t let anything happen to you again.” He placed his hands over mine on the back of the seat. I couldn’t bear having space between us anymore.
I slid out the door and joined Lochie in the back seat. Throwing our arms around each other, we held on like there could be no tomorrow. As he cradled me to his chest, I could hear his heart beating, it was comforting like nothing else.
When he let me go, it was only to cup both my cheeks in his hands. He held me there, leaning down until our lips met. I melted into him, wishing we could stay that way forever.
Garrick cleared his throat in the front seat, pulling us from our reverie. Lochie let my head go but gripped both of my hands, making sure I didn’t go anywhere. I twisted my arm a little to make sure my triangle mark faced downwards. I really needed to get something to cover it.
“Come home with me, I’ll look after you,” Lochie whispered, staring into my eyes. My God, he had beautiful eyes. They bore right into my soul. So much so I almost said yes.
“It’s too dangerous, I can’t. Not yet, anyway. We still have work to do before it’s safe.”
“I will keep you safe.”
A snort came from the front seat, I tried to ignore it. Garrick obviously had some sort of problem with Lochie. “And I’m going to keep you safe by staying away.”
“You don’t need to keep me safe, I can look after myself. I’m not the one being hunted,” Lochie pointed out. The entire conversation was going around in circles and I didn’t have time to argue with him like t
hat.
“I can’t go with you, Lochie. It’s impossible.”
“Amery, I can-”
“She’s not going with you,” Garrick interrupted grumpily. “Accept it and move on. She doesn’t belong to you.”
Anger washed over Lochie’s face but he didn’t say anything in retort. Instead, he kept his focus on me. “Promise me you won’t disappear again. Otherwise, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“I promise I’m not going anywhere.” I hoped that wasn’t another lie. I freed my right hand and ran it down the side of his face gently. He smiled in response.
“I don’t want you going anywhere.” He captured my hand and kissed it. A shiver ran down my spine from the intimate touch. If Garrick wasn’t there, I’m pretty sure I might have thrown myself at Lochie.
“We need to go,” Garrick interjected. “It’s getting late.”
“We’ll drop you back at your car,” I explained to Lochie. “You’ve got the number of my temporary cell phone, call me if you need me.”
“You call me if you need help.”
I nodded as Garrick slid into the driver’s seat and started the car. I dreaded leaving Lochie but I knew it had to be done – for his sake and my own.
I pointed out Lochie’s car when we passed the Originals’ meeting place and he waited for us to say goodbye. I made it a simple one, refusing to believe it would be forever.
CHAPTER 11
The trailer was cramped and probably hot during the day, but it was going to be our home for an indeterminable amount of time. Hopefully we wouldn’t still be hiding there when winter rolled around. I guessed the metal box would be freezing in the middle of the season.
After a quick stop for food and necessities like underwear, Garrick and I had hired the trailer. It was snug in the back of the trailer park, lost in a forest of the metal houses. It was comfortable enough and far better than the complex. At least we could come and go as we pleased there.
I curled up in the sole bed, trying to shake off the melancholy that had overcome me ever since saying goodbye to Lochie. I had spent so many years fighting and hating him. It felt silly missing him so much now, but he had always been there. Having to stay away from him now was like losing a limb.
Garrick sat at the small table, eating a bag of chips. He kept looking my way. “Are you alright?” He finally asked.
“Do you ever think it would just be easier to give up?”
“All the time. But then I think of the people back on our planet and know they are counting on us succeeding down here. If we give up, an entire planet of people will be destroyed.”
That was the main reason I hadn’t given up yet either. Still, it was tempting sometimes. There was only so long you could run before it really started wearing on you. Living a life constantly looking over your shoulder was not really much of a life.
“Do you think we will succeed?” I asked, wishing I could shake my mood.
“I think we have to keep trying. Besides, where would all the adventures be if we just gave up?” Garrick smiled, cocking his head to one side. “Life is just one big adventure.”
“We’re aliens, maybe we aren’t supposed to be here in the first place.”
“Then why do we look like humans?”
I shrugged, I never said I had all the answers. “We should have special powers if we have to be aliens. Like being able to fly, that would have been cool.”
“I would choose invisibility as my special power.”
“So you can hide from the Department?”
He flashed me a cheeky smile. “Among other things I could do while being invisible.” I didn’t want the details, I was sure I could fill in the blanks with my imagination. He was a teenage boy, after all.
“I thought you were sneaky enough without being invisible?”
“Oh, I am. It would just make me super sneaky. That would always come in handy.”
All I could think of was how handy it would be if we were both invisible. Being able to stop running would be like heaven.
“I think I should get some sleep,” I yawned. Considering the last few nights were spent in a cramped car, the hard and lumpy bed was going to be a luxury.
“Goodnight, Amery.”
“’Night Garrick.”
I turned over to face the wall and tried to let myself drift off to sleep. I didn’t have long to wait considering my exhaustion. My dreams were filled with memories of the Originals and how they had captured me when I saw them last. It was only marginally worse than when the Department had taken me from the park.
When morning came, I was still tired but I couldn’t sleep in. We had a guy to follow and we weren’t going to fix anything by staying in the trailer.
I rolled over, my arm asleep from lying on it for most of the night. I don’t think I moved at all for the duration of my slumber. I was face to face with Garrick as he slept beside me in the bed. I hadn’t realized he had climbed in with me. The perils of only having one bed, I guessed.
I let him sleep and carefully climbed over him to make some breakfast. I poured two bowls of cereal, expecting he wouldn’t sleep for too much longer. My clumping footsteps in the tiny trailer would wake him soon enough, it was difficult to remain quiet.
Garrick looked really peaceful as he slept. I was so glad to have him with me to get through everything with. It was so easy being around him, he just understood everything I felt without having to say anything.
Unlike with Lochie. I couldn’t shake my guilt about lying to him. I knew if I told him I was an alien, he would freak out. He would probably think it was disgusting that he had been kissing an extraterrestrial. I should have given him the option when he first told me he loved me. If I had a time machine, I would have gone back to that moment on the campus and told him. At least then he wouldn’t have broken my heart when he walked away from me. Now, I knew it was inevitable.
Garrick and I were the same kind, from the same planet. We had so much more in common, it made me feel completely comfortable around him.
I don’t know why I was thinking about those things as I ate my cereal, but I couldn’t help it. The stark contrast about how I felt when around both of them was playing on my mind. Something was bothering me and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was.
I had to prod Garrick to wake up when I was nearing the end of my breakfast. I went to the shower block and got ready for the day while he ate. By the time he was ready, I was sitting in the car and raring to go.
Not that we had anywhere overly exciting to go. We spent all morning sitting outside 135 Rio Grande, staring at the house that hadn’t changed since the day before. The man hadn’t left or come home. We weren’t even sure if he was still inside the house.
“He’s got a lot of solar panels,” I pointed out. The roof was littered with the alternative energy beacons. My eye ran over the side of the house to settle on a rainwater tank. “And a water tank.”
“So he’s environmentally friendly?” Garrick shrugged. “A lot of people are nowadays.”
He was right, a lot of people were doing their bit for climate change but something Hayden said came to mind. They were self sufficient so they could stay off the grid and away from dependency on the government. By generating your own energy, catching your own water, and growing your own food, it meant you weren’t relying on the establishment. If anything happened to that establishment, you could continue to live with minimal interruption. According to Hayden, it was the way of the future.
“Do you think all members of the Originals try to be self sufficient because of their distrust of the government? Like Hayden and Harmony?” I asked.
“I guess, they seem pretty hardcore.”
“He might have a vegetable garden in the back too.”
“Probably,” Garrick agreed. While it didn’t really help us with trying to work out who the guy was, it was interesting. I made a mental note of it for later, who knew if it would come in handy sometime?
We
had to wait almost another full hour before the front door of the house was opened. The man we had been watching walked down the few steps of his front porch and to the mailbox. He checked it – empty. He then looked around the neighborhood and stretched in the sun. Garrick and I slumped down in our seats so we couldn’t be seen. Only the tops of our heads peered over the front dashboard of the car.
The man turned and headed for his house. However, as he did, he crouched down and looked intently into the garden. Something caught his attention, which in turn caught ours. Our eyes were glued, trying to work out what he was doing. Perhaps he was a keen gardener? That was the best explanation I had.
The man reached into the garden, his hand springing into action quickly. He snatched something up and held it in front of his face.
“Is that a beetle?” I asked, my face twisted with disgust.
“A huge one,” Garrick agreed. His lips were curled into a grimace too. “That’s the biggest bug I have ever seen.”
I have never been a fan of creepy crawlies and bugs definitely fell into that category. I cringed just seeing it across the street. If there was one, there were probably hundreds or thousands of the things crawling around. Ugh.
After studying the beetle for a few moments, the man thrust the thing into his mouth. He chewed away happily. I wanted to throw up.
“That’s the most disgusting thing I have ever seen,” I mumbled. I had to fight the reflex to gag.
“And definitely not normal,” Garrick added. “Something’s up with him and it’s not just the Originals.”
“Any idea what it is?” I still couldn’t shake the image of him eating the giant beetle. Some of it was probably stuck between his teeth, the crunchy shell making it nice and chewy. I couldn’t suppress the gag this time.
“I wish I knew. But how many people do you know eat monster bugs?”
“If they do, they don’t tell me.” We settled back into silence again as the man left the garden and returned back inside. Apparently his appetite was satiated.
I wondered how long we would have to sit in the VW until we worked out who the man was. It was beginning to look like we would learn nothing just from watching him. Besides the fact he ate bugs, anyway. And that was just gross, hardly revealing anything about his life.
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