Monsters & Fairytales

by Rebecca Suzanne

  “We are a very, how do you say, developed race. We don’t waste our days watching boxes with people in them. We don’t sleep nearly as long as you do. We most certainly do not run around with strangers.”

  I instantly shot up when he said that. How absurd. How else did they judge who was good enough to carry their seed for the next generation?

  “You don’t date?”

  “What is date?” He said, sort of blankly.

  He didn’t seem to be paying attention to my words. He watched me lean back against the couch, then tried it out for himself. He bounced a few times against the back of it, then propped his legs up and cross him arms they way mine were. I smiled. I guess of all the people in the world, learning from me would be best.

  “It’s where two people go out with the interest of being with one another.”

  “If two people want to go out together, isn’t that the same as having interest to being with one another?”

  “Good point. Okay. It’s how we decide whose worth our intimacy”

  “Intimacy?” He was confused.

  “You guys don’t have intimacy?”

  “I do not know the word.”

  He was offended at the assumption he didn’t know what I was talking about.

  “How do you reproduce?” I asked.

  “I beg your pardon!”

  He stood up and stuck out his chest. Clearly, I had seriously offended him.

  “I’m so sorry. I meant, how do you know who you want to reproduce with?”

  I watched him carefully; he was letting his guard back down. He stared at me for a few more seconds, his eyes flashed violet for a quick second and then he took his seat again.

  “That is sacred.” He said.

  Had I asked too much? I was curious, though; I wanted to know what methods they used in picking a mate. Maybe I just needed to think of a better way to word it.

  “You can’t tell me what makes you attracted to a female?”

  “That has nothing to do with reproducing.”

  I then realized just how literal he was taking my words. I suppose asking how you decide who you’d want to reproduce with could be taken as asking how they reproduced. After all, English was only his second language.

  “Right, sorry. Okay, how do you choose which woman you want to be close to? Closer than any other woman?”

  “Ah, well at the high moon, our ‘women’ leave our city and go to their special settlement. There, for three days, they practice their dance. When the high moon has set to the far end of the sky, near the constellation Vela, they return to us. The men of eligible status then wait for them at our ceremonial chalace. They do their dance appointed to them by the stars, and one by one, in order of status, we chose the most enticing woman.”

  “What’s a chalace?”

  I looked at him cockeyed, unsure he knew what the word translated to in our language. Of course that was even if they spelt it the same way we did. He was sort of pronouncing the ‘i’ like it were an ‘a’. My brain enunciated the word a few times, chall-ahse, cha-lah-z, chalace.

  “After all that, you are focused on what a chalace is?” He laughed.

  “Well the story won’t make sense unless I know what all the words mean.” I whispered.

  “A chalace is the place where we hold meetings, and elect elders, and where we pray. It is very precious to us, so we find it most beneficial to have our woman perform their sacred dance there.”

  “Oh, I see. And after you pick the woman, are you wed?”

  “Wed?”

  He obviously didn’t understand that word, either.

  “Yes, as in you spend the rest of your life with her?”

  Sebastian started laughing uncontrollably. My face turned red.

  “Oh, you’re serious?” He said when he noticed I wasn’t laughing, and that I was actually rather offended.

  “Yes, I’m serious. What’s so funny about wanting to spend the rest of your life with one other?” I raised my voice a little.

  “Life is very long. To waste it with one person, well, it would get boring, wouldn’t it? Just because she cooks the best meal today, doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there who’ll cook it better tomorrow.”

  “Food is not that important to us.”

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.” He paused, “You humans really do that?”

  “Me, personally? Yes. I can’t wait for marriage and the opportunity to start the rest of my life with the man of my dreams. Some people may not feel that way, and the value of marriage has gone down, but it’s still the same concept. It’s human nature.”

  “No wonder there is so much hate in your world.”

  He got up and walked in the kitchen with a sense of disgust.

  “What makes you think there is so much hate in our world?”

  I turned around and looked up at him. He was getting down a glass from one of the cabinets.

  “Mirabelle, I spent ten minutes out in that park and saw it oozed with narcissism and greed. How is that this love you speak of?”

  “Well, I suppose. But that was only one teeny tiny place in this whole big world. You can’t judge the rest of humanity on that.”

  “Okay, so what is the rest of human life like? We were taught very closely to what I witnessed today.”

  “Well, there is love and hope and happiness out there, you just have to look for it.”

  “That’s no way to have a world.”

  “What’s yours like?” I asked him.

  “Very ordered. Everyone has a purpose.”

  “And your purpose is to learn and improve your world?” I double checked.

  “In a sense.”

  “What do you mean? That’s what you told me earlier! Things were finally making sense, don’t take that away from me!”

  “I wouldn’t take what I said so literally. I had been hit over the head and I was scared.”

  “Okay, so what should I believe? The part where you said you were my guardian angel?”

  “If you’d like. Whatever rests easiest on you.”

  “What’ll rest easiest on me is the truth.”

  I stood up and walked into the kitchen. I had been watching him struggle with the jug of juice for a while. I grabbed it from him and twisted it off. He nodded and poured some in his glass. He was very intrigued with it. I got my own glass down and poured myself some before putting it back in the fridge. When I turned around he was tasting it.

  “Look, isn’t your life purpose to aspire to God and be a part of the heavens?” He asked.

  “Yes... ”

  I was curious where he could possibly be going with that.

  “Okay. Well, my purpose is basically the same thing.”

  I still didn’t understand what he meant, but I just accepted it at this point. I was getting frustrated and pretty soon he and I would be arguing. When that happened, we’d really be at a point where nothing made any sense. I had to just drop it.

  “Why are you so bothered by this?” He asked me, gathering that I didn’t want anything to do with this conversation anymore.

  “Because I hate not knowing something. You’re a creature from another world who apparently frequents here and I know nothing about you. You keep telling me what your purpose is, yes, but it’s changing every time we talk.”

  “Well, what do you want it to be?”

  He was getting aggravated, too. I knew that’d happen.

  “I don’t know... world domination?”

  “Why would we want to take over your land?” He laughed, it seemed a bit off.

  “Oh, I don’t know, because it has been depicted in pretty much 98% of scenarios that every other alien race that visits us tries to do that. Or at least they try to take one of us back to their world to learn from us, since we are more advanced ya’ know?”

  “Excuse me?” He bellowed out.

  He had taken what I said too literally. He flashed his true form to me in complete anger. I tried to stop him bu
t before I knew it he was blurting words out at me.

  “I don’t see your kind capable of flight. I don’t see your kind hunting and scaring and protecting with the utmost stealth, and I don’t see your kind changing form and going between worlds.”

  I was going to let him have his way, but I couldn’t. I had to defend my kind. I wanted to play this game with him. He was honestly upset and honestly felt us inferior.

  “Well, we may not literally do most of those things that you do, but we can do them, technically.”

  “What does that mean?” He raised his eyebrow.

  “I’ll show you.”

  I stuck out my hand. He took it, curious. I led him over to the left corner where the computer table had been set up. I wasn’t sure if Sebastian had hooked all the cords in their correct places, but I didn’t want to offend him by checking. So I sat down in front of the desk and clicked the power button. It started up. I guess I did underestimate him. I looked over at him and he was standing there, smug.

  “I may not know what it’s called, but I can put puzzle pieces together.” He smiled.

  “Looks like you did a good job.” I complimented him.

  “Do you really think we’d try to take over your world?”

  He was trying not to laugh. At least his anger subsided.

  “I had no idea you even existed until yesterday. So today, anything is possible.”

  “Yes, I suppose.”

  He was silent for a few moments to collect his thoughts. Then he spoke again.

  “I would like to see this world of yours. I have read of all the wars and all the things and people that try to claim it for themselves. I want to know why.”

  “You and me both.”

  “I do not understand. You live here.”

  “So much time has passed and besides, it’s easy to escape from the news and reality wherever you are in the world.”

  “But why would you not want to know?”

  I really didn’t know how to answer that. I mean, I wanted to tell him that the more you know the more you hate this place, but that would just conclude his victory. Who am I kidding; the world should be taken over. Maybe a new race would do it right.

  “It’s not worth it. How do you learn all about us but have never seen it? Can’t you go wherever you want?”

  “I can only go to Earth.” He laughed.

  “Right, but there are tons of places on Earth.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I live in America. America is just one country, there are tons of others. You could go visit them to learn about other things. Have you only learned about America?”

  “I do not know. I wasn’t aware. What are these other countries?” He asked.

  “Well there’s Spain, France, Mexico, Marco... Polo... ” I trailed off when I realized he had no idea what I was talking about. “You really only know of America. How is that possible?”

  “I’m guessing that whoever we are assigned to, that’s the place we learn about. But I was never told you lived in America. So it is also possible that we just look at Earth as a whole, rather than divided.”

  “Yeah, well, if only the rest of us could.” I sighed. “Hey, who tells you which human you’re assigned to?”

  “Just like you have generals in armies that order people on how to kill others, we have ranking officials that tell us our purposes.”

  “You mean, God?”

  I imagined Him in a military uniform in front of rows of Sebastian’s giving them orders.

  “No. Like generals.”

  “Oh.” I nodded; he was making no sense again.

  “You were showing me something?” He pointed to the screen.

  “Oh, yeah.”

  I turned in my chair to face the screen again. I really didn’t want to show him anything anymore. It seemed insignificant to show him airplanes that give us flight, Special Forces in camouflage for stealth, and body modifications that practically made humans, well, not humans. Instead, I looked up local arcades. I found one just about 20 minutes up the road. That should end the awkward conversation and bring things to normal again.

  “I’m still waiting.” He said, crossing his arms.

  “They teach you how to be impatient?” I asked, sarcastically.

  “No, that comes coded in my genes.” He smirked.

  “Well, at least you’re semi-human.”

  “How’s that good?” He laughed, just one small chuckle in his throat.

  “Because then we can understand each other on some level.”

  “Ah, yes.”

  “Okay. Do you need to do anything to go out into public?” I asked.

  I turned in my chair and faced him again. I had been very awkward with phrasing that sentence and wished I was still dallying on the computer.

  “You mean, do I need to go to the bathroom?” He asked. “Spike already taught me that.” He nodded.

  “What?! No! I mean, what?!”

  I looked at Spike lying on the floor in front of the door. He wasn’t looking at us. I wondered if it was on purpose?

  “Yes, in that room over there.”

  Sebastian pointed down the hall in the direction of the bathroom.

  “Oh! Okay.” I sighed.

  Now I found myself wondering if Spike knew how that worked, could he use the toilet? But then I saw him awkwardly trying to hold himself up on the toilet seat, and it just didn’t seem right.

  “Do you realize you trail off a lot?” Sebastian smiled.

  “Yes. Good thing you can hear everything I’m saying in there, huh?”

  I pointed to my head then looked away. I didn’t know why that irritated me, but it did.

  “You’ll never learn that it’s wants I hear, not thoughts.”

  He reached over and touched my chest where my heart is. I looked up at him and felt myself blush a little. Everything went numb. I jumped up and paced in front of the fire place.

  “Okay, so anyway, right. Okay, yes, I was getting at; do you have a wallet or something you need to go places?”

  “Wallet?”

  “Yes, it’s a thing typically used by men for identification purposes.”

  “Identification purposes? You mean this?”

  He walked over to me and held out his arm. It transformed back into its natural form only from the shoulder down. I watched him squeeze just below his elbow and then tap his forearm. The velvet skin seemed to be thinner in that area. I swore it was pinkish. Was the velvet his fur? I wanted to touch it but he stopped me. He tapped his forearm one more time and markings raised up. I couldn’t understand them. They were made up of circles, lines, squares and swirly things.

  “What’s it say?”

  I held my hand over it again and he nodded, giving me permission to touch it. I was right. The velvet was his fur. This was more skin. It was weird. It was still very soft. Feeling over the markings, they were a part of him. Even though they looked more like implants, they felt natural.

  “My name.” He said quietly. I was fascinated.

  “How does it get there? Are you born with it?”

  “Born?” He asked moving his arm back to his side.

  “Yes. The moment we humans come into the world from our mothers’ womb, we call it being born.”

  “Oh, susaka?”

  “You were susaka-ed into the world?”

  I tried not to laugh, but the word was so awkward.

  “Susaka is when we break from our cocoon. Much like what you call a butterfly in your world.”

  “Oh! So you don’t come from your mother’s womb?”

  “We do… ” He said.

  “Huh?” I sucked my bottom lip in for a second. “How can you be from your mother’s womb but then susaka from a cocoon?”

  “Do you think we were placed in our trees of life by no means other than air? Our mothers have to place the sac there and that is where we grow.”

  He was laughing at my stupidity. I wanted to smack him.

  “So, yo
u’re a cat, a butterfly, a Maracore, a Myrian, a guardian angel… ” I said walking towards the balcony and away from him. He was annoying me with his feelings of superiority.

  “What is your identification?” He asked me, trying to ease the conversation.

  I opened the window and sat down on the floor outside. I felt this small part of me hoping Joe would come out. Then, I’d be saved from this horrendous conversation and swept away on another beautiful adventure on the back of his motorcycle. Spike walked up instead to give me company. I took it. Pulling on his cute, floppy cheeks, he gave me a big, disgusting kiss. Wiping my face, we playfully pushed against one another. I really needed to get furniture out here. It was lovely out.

  “Now you are mad at me?” Sebastian said, startling me.

  I looked to the window and he was poking his head through.

  “No. Today has just been a long day.” I sighed.

  “For you, yes, it has.”

  “See? You keep doing that! Will you stop acting all high and mighty?”

  The wind blew my hair around in my face. Was everything going to annoy me? I jumped up and leaned over the ledge farthest from him. It was the one where I had first seen him crouched and stalking me. The image was burned into my brain forever. No amount of blinking seemed to deter it. Why was I getting so emotional? I tried to focus on the people at the park across the street. It wasn’t working.

  “I’m sorry, but I am.” He said.

  The words stung at my ego. He was right. Maybe that’s why it was so upsetting. Everyone was better than me. I expected it out of the world, for some reason I didn’t expect it from a creature of God.

  “Then pretend you are not.” I asked, looking over at him.

  He smiled and moved my bangs back into their pins. Did I want to kiss him? What was going on?

  “Okay. How about we go to that place and I can learn everything from you. Will that be better?”

  “I guess.”

  “Good.” He smiled. “What form of identification do you need?”

  “Huh?”

  “You were asking me, before we were going to leave, if I had identification. I assume this means that you have something you humans need to get places?”

  “Oh. Well, not really. We need an ID to show we are older than 21 to get alcohol, older than 18 to get tobacco, and we need a driver’s license to drive places.”