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Dust Trails: of Earth, Chapter Eight

 

11-18-16 02:49 AM
Eirinn is Offline
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Eirinn
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Click here to go to the first chapter


or here to go to the previous chapter


I totally didn't tear up while writing this chapter. Also I hope no one wants to kill me for what happens.




Chapter Eight

"and so too, we, of necessity, must change along with it."

It's been several hours, and Lauren still hasn't returned from wherever she ran off to. Aaron went to work in the fields as always at Sanya's insistence that Lauren was just fine. He wants to believe Sanya, but he can't help but wonder how she can be so sure about this. Maybe she can understand Lauren better than he, being a woman herself, but how could she really know that Lauren is safe wherever she is? He tries to push these thoughts aside and tell himself that he's being silly, but a female bond doesn't seem to be enough to base the girl's safety off of.

Still he continues working as much as his distracted mind will allow, but his struggle to focus has him being overtaken by Sanya who wears a look saying she knows why he's so slow today.

"I've checked back several times, but she's still gone. It'll be dark soon, Sanya, we have to look for her."

"She's okay, Aaron. Trust me." Sanya says trying unsuccessfully to comfort him.

"How can you know that, though?" he asks, his voice giving away how agitated he is.

"I just do. Look, if it'll make you feel better I'll look for her."

"I'm looking too."

"Alright. Let's go then." she agrees and they head off to the tool shed to put their things away and begin the search.

Before they can even get started, they see the lights on at Caitlin's old house, where Sanya and Lauren stay now that they've convinced Aaron that he can't keep staying in the shed in this cold.

"Did you leave that light on today?" Aaron asks, his voice hopeful.

"No, I didn't. She must be in there." Sanya answers and stops walking.

"What's wrong?" Aaron asks as he stops beside her.

"Nothing, but she doesn't need to see me right now."

"What are you talking about? Aren't you going to go check on her?"

"No, you are." she answers, leaving Aaron looking at her confused. "You're the one she needs to see right now, not me. You remember what I told you: you're all she has right now."

"What? That's ridiculous"

"You might want to be more careful with that word." she says and smiles.

"Well you know what I mean. She's your friend. You seem to get her better." he reasons.

"You mean more to her. Seeing you is what she needs. Trust me."

"You just keep saying that." he says as he reluctantly walks toward the house.

"Have I been wrong yet?" she calls back playfully.

Aaron knocks on the door tentatively, and after waiting a few moments he starts to knock again, but stops as he hears Lauren tell him to come in. As he opens the door, he feels as though an invisible wall stands before him, one he can't break through. This is the first time since Caitlin's death that he's stepped inside of this house himself. Can he do this?

"Go in already!" Sanya urges in a hushed tone, and he manages to muster the strength to do so.

Looking to his right he sees Lauren seated in the front room, her back to him. The front door of the house leads directly to the kitchen, with the rest of the house lying to the right side of the entrance, and a wall on the left side.

Lauren is sitting in a straight backed chair, her long golden brown hair hanging over the back of it. Aaron stops a moment to think about what he's going to say, he hasn't a clue what to do here, and Sanya had somehow managed to push him in here still.

He decides to start things simply "Mind if I have a seat?" yeah, that's simple enough.

"Oh, it's you." Lauren says sounding genuinely surprised. "I thought it was Ashl, I mean Sanya."

"Yep, just me. So is that a yes?" he asks as he walks into the front room and steps in front of her.

"Oh, yes. Sorry."

He sits down on the sofa and the two of them alternate looking at each other and then the floor a few times, neither knowing what to say.

"Look"

"Aaron" she begins at the same time. "Go ahead. Sorry."

"I just came to see how you're doing. I know that was a really big shock for you earlier." understatement of the year right there.

"You could say that." she says with a soft, nervous sounding laugh.

"Yeah. Well I guess I also wanted to tell you" he pauses for a moment "that I'm sorry. I really could have handled that better in so many ways."

"You yelled at me..."

"Yeah, and I'm ashamed of that. I had plenty of time to regret it while you were missing today."

"No, you didn't let me finish." she says as she studies her hands "I've been thinking about everything in my life today, and I mean everything. I thought about how angry I was with you for hiding the truth, but then I realized that you couldn't have very well told me where you were from either."

"Yeah, you'd have thought I was crazy."

"Or reacted just as I did with Sanya." she answers, her voice telling her regret "I too have had plenty of time to think today, and I" she pauses and looks up at him, tears threatening to fall from her blue eyes "I deeply regret what I said to her."

"I think we both understand, Lauren. It was a shock." he assures her "You've never believed people like us even existed, and everyone kind of does depict us as monsters. Look at all of the classic sci-fi literature and you'll see that."

"Perhaps so, but even still I cannot excuse my reaction. I was very nasty to the both of you, and I'm sorry for that."

"And I'm sorry that I wasn't more understanding," he wrings his hands, his discomfort with this situation apparent "and for losing my temper with you."

"Yes, about that..." she bites her lip, a sign that Aaron's come to recognize from her: she's worried. "My biggest concern while I was wandering around the woods thinking today was that... well, I hope that I haven't caused irreparable damage to our relationship." she says with a look on her face that tells Aaron how afraid she is to hear his answer "A-All of us. Our relationship. You, Sanya, and myself that is." she adds quickly and looks back down.

"No, of course not. Nothing has changed as far as I'm concerned." he says with a smile that he hopes conveys his sincerity.

"Well, I'll not lie to you, I'm not quite ready to go back to the way things were yet, there's so much damage to repair, but I would like to get there. Eventually."

"Soon." he says, a determined but regretful look in his eyes.

Smiling finally, she nods "Soon."

A soft knock on the door breaks the moment, and shortly thereafter Sanya enters, treading softly.

"I was waiting to see how it went before coming in, but it's cold out there ya know?" she says, her voice not taking it's usual tone of mirth "Anyway I didn't see Aaron come flying out so I figured I'd take my chances."

"Yeah well I was just about to leave." Aaron answers as he rises to his feet "I'll see you two tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Aaron."

"Goodnight, Lauren." he replies and heads for the door.

As he passes by Sanya he sees her mouth the words "Don't leave" to which he replies only with a wink. She could handle this herself like he'd had to now.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Rylan stops and scans his surroundings, trying his best not to give his identity away, should Sanya be nearby. He doesn't really want to kill her, but if he doesn't, he'll never be rid of this nightmare task.

Is that what she's become to you, Rylan? Just an obstacle to be eliminated? And why are you trying to kill her? To please some bureaucrat? To make a little money? he stops dead in his tracks, surprised at the intensity of these thoughts. He's never questioned his work this way. He's a hero, keeping the galaxy safe, not some greedy mercenary like Sanya. Or is he? Are they really that different? They both kill for money. Does the person you're working for make that much of a difference? Isn't hunting someone down and killing them murder, regardless of who tells you to do it?

Shaking his head, Rylan tries to put the thoughts from his mind. He's on a mission right now, one he can't afford to fail at. An order issued by the queen of Leocyn doesn't just go away. He's bound by this order until he completes it, or dies trying. If he doesn't, he'll be the next one on their list. He'll be imprisoned for life if he's lucky, and executed if he's not. To defy is to commit treason, and queen Gaelia has shown before that she will not tolerate treachery, nor hesitate to execute traitors publicly. No, he has no choice in this one.


This is the fifth planet he's visited in search of her, but he finds no signs. His radars indicated a Deylonian energy signature in this area, but that doesn't mean much since Deylon is quite the populous planet. It could be any one of their twelve billion inhabitants on a vacation or business trip. He's beginning to second guess the tip that the queen received from her intelligence department, but it's not his job to question them, it's hers.

He's searched everywhere on this tiny planet, but neither he nor his ship's instruments have found anything. She doesn't seem to be here, and he's getting tired, so he retreats to his ship for the night.


"Taenya." he calls and the ship murmurs in reply "Launch auto-pilot and scan for Deylonian compatible energy sources. Alert me if any results turn up." And with that he heads to bed.


____________________________


The sun shines brightly, it's reflection on the freshly fallen snow blanketing the earth nearly blinding. Stepping outside, Lauren shields her eyes from the brightness as they struggle to adjust from the comparatively dim lighting of her house. She's done everything she can think to around the house, read all of the books, and even resorted to watching some of the dreadful local programming, but there's only so much of that stuff that one can endure.

To cure her boredom, she's opted to go look for work to do, but Sanya is more than enough help for Aaron with the firewood, so she heads to Aaron's house to see if it needs cleaned. As she steps inside, she begins searching high and low for any sign of dirt or out of place item in hopes of finding something to occupy herself with, but finds nothing. Surely there's something to do around here, isn't there?

Plopping down on the couch she sighs and finds herself suddenly wishing Aaron weren't so neat. Looks like she'll have to simply idle away the time staring at the walls or taking yet another walk.

"Wait" she says as she sits forward, remembering seeing books in Aaron's room back when Sanya first arrived.

Rising to her feet she heads upstairs and into Aaron's room, hoping he wouldn't mind the intrusion. Looking over toward the desk she sees them just as they were before, and she goes to grab one.

"Ugh, really Aaron? Not a single fiction book? Of course I suppose all of these history books and such could have been useful for...someone like you." it's still difficult to grasp that he's not from this planet. Like something out of movie, only he isn't going to sprout tentacles and destroy the world, or at least she doesn't think he will.

As she turns to leave empty handed once more, she finds the same stone she'd tripped over before lying in the floor again. "What on Earth...?"

Walking up to it she feels that same draw as before, and as she stoops to pick it up, she looks closely. Sure enough the thing is moving as she nears it, and the closer her hand gets, the more it trembles and slowly inches toward her. What kind of stone would exhibit such strange behavior? What kind of stone would exhibit any behavior?

As she scoops the stone up she feels a strange sensation flowing through her, and notices a peculiar light emerging from it, first it glows dimly, then bright, until finally bands of light begin shooting forth from it and wrapping toward her.

Screaming she drops the stone which lands on her foot and bounces back down to the carpet. The impact of the weighty stone landing on her foot so hard elicits another shout from her, only this time it's one of pain. Scrambling backward she trips and falls across Aaron's bed. As she sits back up she pulls her feet up on the bed with her as though the stone she's staring at were some sort of vermin that might scurry toward her any second, but to her relief the stone is neither moving, nor glowing.

"What kind of...thing are you?" she says, still staring at the pretty rock "Are you alive?"

It's at this most inopportune moment that she hears the door open downstairs, causing her to quickly jump back up and run for the hall, shutting the door behind herself. She's out, but how will she explain being up here to begin with? She needs to think of something quickly, because Aaron's coming up the stairs now.

"Oh hey, Lauren."

"Hello." her mind races for something she can say to keep the topic of her presence here from coming up. "Are you done working for the day?"

"Yup, just about to get ready to go into town and sell the firewood. Wanna come along?"

He seems not to care about her reasons for prowling around his house while he works. Does he really feel that comfortable with her? That thought makes her feel both more relaxed about him being what he is, and a little happy.

"Uh, sure. Yes, I'll go get ready." she says and rushes downstairs, out of the front door, and to her place.

Ready? She's already in a flowing pleated dress and has her hair up. How much more ready could she get for a trip to sell wood? Aaron shakes his head and walks into his room.

"Now what are you doing in the floor?" he asks as he picks up the stone and places it back on the shelf, then proceeds to get cleaned up and changed.

_____________________________


Lauren, Sanya, and Aaron, having sold the wood with plenty of daylight to spare, decide to stay out for a while, and head to the nature trail for a walk. There's plenty of land to walk on back home, and even plenty of wooded space, but the change of scenery proves nice. The only thing Aaron doesn't like is sharing the trail with the other people from the city. He's still uncomfortable with them, having never really recovered from what happened to Caitlin.

"This is officer Cox" the memories flood back of that day when he heard the voicemail that had shattered his world and everything in him. "While searching for indentification..." he shakes his head, attempting to dispel the thoughts, but to no avail "We found your number listed as an emergency contact in this phone...."

"I'm going to rest for a moment." Lauren calls from behind Sanya and Aaron.

"Do you want me to sit with you?" Sanya asks, stopping and turning to look at her, but Aaron keeps walking as though he doesn't hear her.

"No, I'll be fine. I'll catch back up. Go on ahead."

"I am deeply sorry to inform you..." the thoughts still assail Aaron, and his vision is starting to get blurry from the tears that the memories bring. Maybe this trip wasn't such a good idea.

"Aaron?" Sanya calls, but he doesn't answer.


Lauren takes a sip from her water bottle, then looks up to see a rather large man looking down at her. For the slightest of moments she's paralyzed with fear.

"Hey there." he says, his voice much softer than Lauren had expected.

"H-Hello sir." she manages to force a reply.

"Mind if I sit here?"


"The body will be kept at..." the familiar anger begins rising up inside as he recalls the voicemail and the scene he'd found waiting for him at the morgue.

"Aaron..." Sanya calls again, her voice tense. No answer. Her heart begins racing wildly and it's all she can do to keep from running. "AARON! AGH!" she cries out and nearly drops to her knees.

Finally snapping out of his daze, Aaron whirls around to look at Sanya as she holds her chest, doubled over in pain. "Sanya!" rushing to her side he places a hand on her back "Sanya, what's wrong?"

"Lauren!" she shouts and straightens her posture once more.

"What? What about Lauren?" looking around he realizes for the first time that she isn't with them. "What happened? Where is she?"

Sanya doesn't answer, instead she turns back and runs full speed, looking furious, and it's all Aaron can do to keep up with her.

Aaron continues shouting to Sanya who runs well ahead of him, asking her what's going on, but she won't answer. What could have happened without him noticing? As spaced out as he was, there's no telling.

Sanya runs faster than she's ever run before, she doesn't know what's going on, but her link to Lauren lets her know something is terribly wrong. She can't recall ever being this frightened before, not even the many times when her own life was on the line.


As they reach the scene where Lauren stopped to rest, they find nothing but her purse, and a bloody handprint on the bench. Not knowing what else to do, Sanya continues running as quickly as she can. Meanwhile Aaron who recognizes the purse suddenly realizes that Lauren is indeed in serious danger, and the sight of what he presumes must be her blood causes his adrenaline to kick in, helping to propel him closer to Sanya's speed.

After running for what seems like an eternity, they see her being dragged off by a man who dwarfs her tiny frame.

"YOU!" Aaron shouts at the top of his lungs, and the man turning to see the pair closing in on him at an alarming rate, drops a limp and bloody Lauren to the dirt trail and produces a switchblade. "IT'S YOU!" Aaron yells in what has to be the most furious and murderous tone Sanya has ever heard, so much so that even she's frightened by the rage and raw hatred in it.


Click here to go to the next chapter
Click here to go to the first chapter


or here to go to the previous chapter


I totally didn't tear up while writing this chapter. Also I hope no one wants to kill me for what happens.




Chapter Eight

"and so too, we, of necessity, must change along with it."

It's been several hours, and Lauren still hasn't returned from wherever she ran off to. Aaron went to work in the fields as always at Sanya's insistence that Lauren was just fine. He wants to believe Sanya, but he can't help but wonder how she can be so sure about this. Maybe she can understand Lauren better than he, being a woman herself, but how could she really know that Lauren is safe wherever she is? He tries to push these thoughts aside and tell himself that he's being silly, but a female bond doesn't seem to be enough to base the girl's safety off of.

Still he continues working as much as his distracted mind will allow, but his struggle to focus has him being overtaken by Sanya who wears a look saying she knows why he's so slow today.

"I've checked back several times, but she's still gone. It'll be dark soon, Sanya, we have to look for her."

"She's okay, Aaron. Trust me." Sanya says trying unsuccessfully to comfort him.

"How can you know that, though?" he asks, his voice giving away how agitated he is.

"I just do. Look, if it'll make you feel better I'll look for her."

"I'm looking too."

"Alright. Let's go then." she agrees and they head off to the tool shed to put their things away and begin the search.

Before they can even get started, they see the lights on at Caitlin's old house, where Sanya and Lauren stay now that they've convinced Aaron that he can't keep staying in the shed in this cold.

"Did you leave that light on today?" Aaron asks, his voice hopeful.

"No, I didn't. She must be in there." Sanya answers and stops walking.

"What's wrong?" Aaron asks as he stops beside her.

"Nothing, but she doesn't need to see me right now."

"What are you talking about? Aren't you going to go check on her?"

"No, you are." she answers, leaving Aaron looking at her confused. "You're the one she needs to see right now, not me. You remember what I told you: you're all she has right now."

"What? That's ridiculous"

"You might want to be more careful with that word." she says and smiles.

"Well you know what I mean. She's your friend. You seem to get her better." he reasons.

"You mean more to her. Seeing you is what she needs. Trust me."

"You just keep saying that." he says as he reluctantly walks toward the house.

"Have I been wrong yet?" she calls back playfully.

Aaron knocks on the door tentatively, and after waiting a few moments he starts to knock again, but stops as he hears Lauren tell him to come in. As he opens the door, he feels as though an invisible wall stands before him, one he can't break through. This is the first time since Caitlin's death that he's stepped inside of this house himself. Can he do this?

"Go in already!" Sanya urges in a hushed tone, and he manages to muster the strength to do so.

Looking to his right he sees Lauren seated in the front room, her back to him. The front door of the house leads directly to the kitchen, with the rest of the house lying to the right side of the entrance, and a wall on the left side.

Lauren is sitting in a straight backed chair, her long golden brown hair hanging over the back of it. Aaron stops a moment to think about what he's going to say, he hasn't a clue what to do here, and Sanya had somehow managed to push him in here still.

He decides to start things simply "Mind if I have a seat?" yeah, that's simple enough.

"Oh, it's you." Lauren says sounding genuinely surprised. "I thought it was Ashl, I mean Sanya."

"Yep, just me. So is that a yes?" he asks as he walks into the front room and steps in front of her.

"Oh, yes. Sorry."

He sits down on the sofa and the two of them alternate looking at each other and then the floor a few times, neither knowing what to say.

"Look"

"Aaron" she begins at the same time. "Go ahead. Sorry."

"I just came to see how you're doing. I know that was a really big shock for you earlier." understatement of the year right there.

"You could say that." she says with a soft, nervous sounding laugh.

"Yeah. Well I guess I also wanted to tell you" he pauses for a moment "that I'm sorry. I really could have handled that better in so many ways."

"You yelled at me..."

"Yeah, and I'm ashamed of that. I had plenty of time to regret it while you were missing today."

"No, you didn't let me finish." she says as she studies her hands "I've been thinking about everything in my life today, and I mean everything. I thought about how angry I was with you for hiding the truth, but then I realized that you couldn't have very well told me where you were from either."

"Yeah, you'd have thought I was crazy."

"Or reacted just as I did with Sanya." she answers, her voice telling her regret "I too have had plenty of time to think today, and I" she pauses and looks up at him, tears threatening to fall from her blue eyes "I deeply regret what I said to her."

"I think we both understand, Lauren. It was a shock." he assures her "You've never believed people like us even existed, and everyone kind of does depict us as monsters. Look at all of the classic sci-fi literature and you'll see that."

"Perhaps so, but even still I cannot excuse my reaction. I was very nasty to the both of you, and I'm sorry for that."

"And I'm sorry that I wasn't more understanding," he wrings his hands, his discomfort with this situation apparent "and for losing my temper with you."

"Yes, about that..." she bites her lip, a sign that Aaron's come to recognize from her: she's worried. "My biggest concern while I was wandering around the woods thinking today was that... well, I hope that I haven't caused irreparable damage to our relationship." she says with a look on her face that tells Aaron how afraid she is to hear his answer "A-All of us. Our relationship. You, Sanya, and myself that is." she adds quickly and looks back down.

"No, of course not. Nothing has changed as far as I'm concerned." he says with a smile that he hopes conveys his sincerity.

"Well, I'll not lie to you, I'm not quite ready to go back to the way things were yet, there's so much damage to repair, but I would like to get there. Eventually."

"Soon." he says, a determined but regretful look in his eyes.

Smiling finally, she nods "Soon."

A soft knock on the door breaks the moment, and shortly thereafter Sanya enters, treading softly.

"I was waiting to see how it went before coming in, but it's cold out there ya know?" she says, her voice not taking it's usual tone of mirth "Anyway I didn't see Aaron come flying out so I figured I'd take my chances."

"Yeah well I was just about to leave." Aaron answers as he rises to his feet "I'll see you two tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Aaron."

"Goodnight, Lauren." he replies and heads for the door.

As he passes by Sanya he sees her mouth the words "Don't leave" to which he replies only with a wink. She could handle this herself like he'd had to now.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Rylan stops and scans his surroundings, trying his best not to give his identity away, should Sanya be nearby. He doesn't really want to kill her, but if he doesn't, he'll never be rid of this nightmare task.

Is that what she's become to you, Rylan? Just an obstacle to be eliminated? And why are you trying to kill her? To please some bureaucrat? To make a little money? he stops dead in his tracks, surprised at the intensity of these thoughts. He's never questioned his work this way. He's a hero, keeping the galaxy safe, not some greedy mercenary like Sanya. Or is he? Are they really that different? They both kill for money. Does the person you're working for make that much of a difference? Isn't hunting someone down and killing them murder, regardless of who tells you to do it?

Shaking his head, Rylan tries to put the thoughts from his mind. He's on a mission right now, one he can't afford to fail at. An order issued by the queen of Leocyn doesn't just go away. He's bound by this order until he completes it, or dies trying. If he doesn't, he'll be the next one on their list. He'll be imprisoned for life if he's lucky, and executed if he's not. To defy is to commit treason, and queen Gaelia has shown before that she will not tolerate treachery, nor hesitate to execute traitors publicly. No, he has no choice in this one.


This is the fifth planet he's visited in search of her, but he finds no signs. His radars indicated a Deylonian energy signature in this area, but that doesn't mean much since Deylon is quite the populous planet. It could be any one of their twelve billion inhabitants on a vacation or business trip. He's beginning to second guess the tip that the queen received from her intelligence department, but it's not his job to question them, it's hers.

He's searched everywhere on this tiny planet, but neither he nor his ship's instruments have found anything. She doesn't seem to be here, and he's getting tired, so he retreats to his ship for the night.


"Taenya." he calls and the ship murmurs in reply "Launch auto-pilot and scan for Deylonian compatible energy sources. Alert me if any results turn up." And with that he heads to bed.


____________________________


The sun shines brightly, it's reflection on the freshly fallen snow blanketing the earth nearly blinding. Stepping outside, Lauren shields her eyes from the brightness as they struggle to adjust from the comparatively dim lighting of her house. She's done everything she can think to around the house, read all of the books, and even resorted to watching some of the dreadful local programming, but there's only so much of that stuff that one can endure.

To cure her boredom, she's opted to go look for work to do, but Sanya is more than enough help for Aaron with the firewood, so she heads to Aaron's house to see if it needs cleaned. As she steps inside, she begins searching high and low for any sign of dirt or out of place item in hopes of finding something to occupy herself with, but finds nothing. Surely there's something to do around here, isn't there?

Plopping down on the couch she sighs and finds herself suddenly wishing Aaron weren't so neat. Looks like she'll have to simply idle away the time staring at the walls or taking yet another walk.

"Wait" she says as she sits forward, remembering seeing books in Aaron's room back when Sanya first arrived.

Rising to her feet she heads upstairs and into Aaron's room, hoping he wouldn't mind the intrusion. Looking over toward the desk she sees them just as they were before, and she goes to grab one.

"Ugh, really Aaron? Not a single fiction book? Of course I suppose all of these history books and such could have been useful for...someone like you." it's still difficult to grasp that he's not from this planet. Like something out of movie, only he isn't going to sprout tentacles and destroy the world, or at least she doesn't think he will.

As she turns to leave empty handed once more, she finds the same stone she'd tripped over before lying in the floor again. "What on Earth...?"

Walking up to it she feels that same draw as before, and as she stoops to pick it up, she looks closely. Sure enough the thing is moving as she nears it, and the closer her hand gets, the more it trembles and slowly inches toward her. What kind of stone would exhibit such strange behavior? What kind of stone would exhibit any behavior?

As she scoops the stone up she feels a strange sensation flowing through her, and notices a peculiar light emerging from it, first it glows dimly, then bright, until finally bands of light begin shooting forth from it and wrapping toward her.

Screaming she drops the stone which lands on her foot and bounces back down to the carpet. The impact of the weighty stone landing on her foot so hard elicits another shout from her, only this time it's one of pain. Scrambling backward she trips and falls across Aaron's bed. As she sits back up she pulls her feet up on the bed with her as though the stone she's staring at were some sort of vermin that might scurry toward her any second, but to her relief the stone is neither moving, nor glowing.

"What kind of...thing are you?" she says, still staring at the pretty rock "Are you alive?"

It's at this most inopportune moment that she hears the door open downstairs, causing her to quickly jump back up and run for the hall, shutting the door behind herself. She's out, but how will she explain being up here to begin with? She needs to think of something quickly, because Aaron's coming up the stairs now.

"Oh hey, Lauren."

"Hello." her mind races for something she can say to keep the topic of her presence here from coming up. "Are you done working for the day?"

"Yup, just about to get ready to go into town and sell the firewood. Wanna come along?"

He seems not to care about her reasons for prowling around his house while he works. Does he really feel that comfortable with her? That thought makes her feel both more relaxed about him being what he is, and a little happy.

"Uh, sure. Yes, I'll go get ready." she says and rushes downstairs, out of the front door, and to her place.

Ready? She's already in a flowing pleated dress and has her hair up. How much more ready could she get for a trip to sell wood? Aaron shakes his head and walks into his room.

"Now what are you doing in the floor?" he asks as he picks up the stone and places it back on the shelf, then proceeds to get cleaned up and changed.

_____________________________


Lauren, Sanya, and Aaron, having sold the wood with plenty of daylight to spare, decide to stay out for a while, and head to the nature trail for a walk. There's plenty of land to walk on back home, and even plenty of wooded space, but the change of scenery proves nice. The only thing Aaron doesn't like is sharing the trail with the other people from the city. He's still uncomfortable with them, having never really recovered from what happened to Caitlin.

"This is officer Cox" the memories flood back of that day when he heard the voicemail that had shattered his world and everything in him. "While searching for indentification..." he shakes his head, attempting to dispel the thoughts, but to no avail "We found your number listed as an emergency contact in this phone...."

"I'm going to rest for a moment." Lauren calls from behind Sanya and Aaron.

"Do you want me to sit with you?" Sanya asks, stopping and turning to look at her, but Aaron keeps walking as though he doesn't hear her.

"No, I'll be fine. I'll catch back up. Go on ahead."

"I am deeply sorry to inform you..." the thoughts still assail Aaron, and his vision is starting to get blurry from the tears that the memories bring. Maybe this trip wasn't such a good idea.

"Aaron?" Sanya calls, but he doesn't answer.


Lauren takes a sip from her water bottle, then looks up to see a rather large man looking down at her. For the slightest of moments she's paralyzed with fear.

"Hey there." he says, his voice much softer than Lauren had expected.

"H-Hello sir." she manages to force a reply.

"Mind if I sit here?"


"The body will be kept at..." the familiar anger begins rising up inside as he recalls the voicemail and the scene he'd found waiting for him at the morgue.

"Aaron..." Sanya calls again, her voice tense. No answer. Her heart begins racing wildly and it's all she can do to keep from running. "AARON! AGH!" she cries out and nearly drops to her knees.

Finally snapping out of his daze, Aaron whirls around to look at Sanya as she holds her chest, doubled over in pain. "Sanya!" rushing to her side he places a hand on her back "Sanya, what's wrong?"

"Lauren!" she shouts and straightens her posture once more.

"What? What about Lauren?" looking around he realizes for the first time that she isn't with them. "What happened? Where is she?"

Sanya doesn't answer, instead she turns back and runs full speed, looking furious, and it's all Aaron can do to keep up with her.

Aaron continues shouting to Sanya who runs well ahead of him, asking her what's going on, but she won't answer. What could have happened without him noticing? As spaced out as he was, there's no telling.

Sanya runs faster than she's ever run before, she doesn't know what's going on, but her link to Lauren lets her know something is terribly wrong. She can't recall ever being this frightened before, not even the many times when her own life was on the line.


As they reach the scene where Lauren stopped to rest, they find nothing but her purse, and a bloody handprint on the bench. Not knowing what else to do, Sanya continues running as quickly as she can. Meanwhile Aaron who recognizes the purse suddenly realizes that Lauren is indeed in serious danger, and the sight of what he presumes must be her blood causes his adrenaline to kick in, helping to propel him closer to Sanya's speed.

After running for what seems like an eternity, they see her being dragged off by a man who dwarfs her tiny frame.

"YOU!" Aaron shouts at the top of his lungs, and the man turning to see the pair closing in on him at an alarming rate, drops a limp and bloody Lauren to the dirt trail and produces a switchblade. "IT'S YOU!" Aaron yells in what has to be the most furious and murderous tone Sanya has ever heard, so much so that even she's frightened by the rage and raw hatred in it.


Click here to go to the next chapter
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Eirinn


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(edited by Eirinn on 12-12-16 06:28 AM)     Post Rating: 3   Liked By: Mynamescox44, TheReaper7290, Uzar,

11-18-16 04:31 AM
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*Wants to kill Eirinn for what happened*

In all seriousness...
Man, that turned dark with a quickness. I really hope Lauren turns out to be ok. At first I thought it was going to be Rylan trying to nap her for leverage or something, but considering his recent moral questioning, I doubt he'd go so far as to actually kill an innocent girl like that. If anything it makes me think this is the guy who had something to do with Caitlin's death, but that's obviously the inference you were wanting us to make lol.

I think I'm going to stop making predictions about what's going to happen. I can't tell if I'm calling things, or if what I'm saying is maybe subliminally / consciously effecting how you end up writing the stories lol.

But anyway... Thanks for the cameo there. I'm honored you thought of using my name for a character in the story
*Wants to kill Eirinn for what happened*

In all seriousness...
Man, that turned dark with a quickness. I really hope Lauren turns out to be ok. At first I thought it was going to be Rylan trying to nap her for leverage or something, but considering his recent moral questioning, I doubt he'd go so far as to actually kill an innocent girl like that. If anything it makes me think this is the guy who had something to do with Caitlin's death, but that's obviously the inference you were wanting us to make lol.

I think I'm going to stop making predictions about what's going to happen. I can't tell if I'm calling things, or if what I'm saying is maybe subliminally / consciously effecting how you end up writing the stories lol.

But anyway... Thanks for the cameo there. I'm honored you thought of using my name for a character in the story
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Universe Breaker


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11-18-16 05:38 AM
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Mynamescox44 : Nuuuuu lol You have to keep up the guessing, it's one of the best parts of replies, seeing what the readers think and theorize about. xD And don't worry, everything key that I write is determined several chapters in advance, so unless you guessed at something closer to the end of the story you won't likely have to worry about subliminally influencing the story much. For example I've had this chapter's two main focuses planned since before Sanya was introduced (though again, she was planned).

Really though, still not worried about that rock? xD *makes note to make the thing grow legs next time*
Mynamescox44 : Nuuuuu lol You have to keep up the guessing, it's one of the best parts of replies, seeing what the readers think and theorize about. xD And don't worry, everything key that I write is determined several chapters in advance, so unless you guessed at something closer to the end of the story you won't likely have to worry about subliminally influencing the story much. For example I've had this chapter's two main focuses planned since before Sanya was introduced (though again, she was planned).

Really though, still not worried about that rock? xD *makes note to make the thing grow legs next time*
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11-21-16 10:23 AM
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Woah, Cox got in the story? Nice!!

I hope Lauren will be okay. You think Caitlyn was an alien too? And was the rock important? I need to know!!
Woah, Cox got in the story? Nice!!

I hope Lauren will be okay. You think Caitlyn was an alien too? And was the rock important? I need to know!!
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I wonder what the character limit on this thing is.


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