Alien X

Chapter 3

During school, I constantly thought about Arson. Who was he? Why was he attacked? By whom? All these thoughts swirled around in my head until I came face to face with my own. Should I show him my secret place? In my parents wardrobe, they made an emergency room. Inside I had photographs of everyone in my family. My great, great grandparents, their children and so on until it got to my parents. They never took one of me, but I had snuck into the schools photography room and taken a quick shot of myself for the room. There was other stuff my family managed to keep when they invaded. A DVD player, some CD’s and an iPod. I never told anyone about that room, not even Sebastian. As I walked home after school I decided I would show him. He was like me, so what’s the fuss? As I walked in I expected Arson to be on the couch, sleeping or reading one of those boring magazines. Instead I saw him in the kitchen, cursing at a freeze-dried packet of what looked like potatoes.

“Umm, you alright with that?” I asked dropping my bag on the couch. A small smile escaped to my lips as I walked into the kitchen. “No. How do you get these things to work?” he grunted. I chuckled and grabbed the packet. It was supposed to be potatoes for a roast.

Its potatoes.” I glanced up at Arson trying not to laugh.

“Don’t laugh, and I know. I was hungry, so I decided to try and make something.”

“Try. Key word here.” I placed the packet into the microwave and pressed 'dinner'. A bright flash later and I opened the microwave and got out the potatoes. They were garnished with rosemary, I think. I handed them to Arson. “I want to show you something.” I said.

I walked to the bedroom with Arson following. We walked into the walk-in wardrobe and I pushed aside a jacket that had once belonged to my Pop. I pressed the single, faded red button that was behind it. A panel silently slid open and I crouched and walked in. Small dust particles floated up from the floor, making me sneeze. The room was exactly the way I left it a few years ago.

“I stopped coming in here when I tried to be one of them.” I said as I walked over to a table. I pressed a button on the wall and the room was instantly lit up in a soft white glow. Old wooden tables were set up on two sides of the room and shelves were put up on all four walls. On all the shelves stood pictures of my family. Only a maximum of two photos were taken from each generation.

The first photo we had was one of my great, great grandpa and his wife, surrounded by a group of people who managed to survive and get away from the aliens. Another was just one of him and his wife. He had short grey hair and she had long grey hair up in a ponytail. Both were smiling into the camera, but sadness filled their eyes. Next to that photo was their child. He looked exactly like his mother, but he had short blonde hair. The same sad eyes and pain filled smile. He looked to be in his mid-twenties. That was the only photo of him, but he had a child called Daisy. She was my great nan. She was on another shelf with two girls standing smiling in front of her. Both girls looked like their mother, but both had seen too much for children. Only one girl survived to have children of her own. The cycle continued to my parents.

A photograph of my mother and father holding hands and smiling at the camera, but this time they looked generally happy. Another photograph showed them in the same clothing as the first, but this time my mother was holding a child in her arms. Me.

I smiled at that photograph and realised something I hadn’t before. Nobody in the pictures were wearing the silver skin lotion. Everyone was a different shade of pink, except for the recent picture of me. In this photograph I was wearing a simple black long sleeved top and brown pants. My silver skin seemed too wrong for my face, which beared a forced smile. Definitely not one of my best pictures. My eyes drifted down to the table which held barely nothing at all. A mini DVD player and some CD’s sat alone on the table. My iPod was on another table, which had a simple picture of a garden with beautiful flowers blooming which was drawn by Daisy. There was crinkles in the edges and one side was torn, but I loved to look at it.

“This is beautiful.” Arson snapped me out of my trance. His eyes took in the entire room, and smiled.

“It's my history in one room, I guess.” I shrugged. Arson walked over to the photographs on the wall and looked at each and everyone of them.

“They all look so scared.” He murmured. I shrugged and looked around again even though he couldn’t see me.

“Everyone was scared.”

“What happened?”

“Everyone died, naturally. Except for my parents.” The memory of them brought tears to my eyes. I tried to dry them before Arson could see. Just being in this room was painful enough. I remember coming in here every night with my parents and we would tell the same stories over and over. Most times I would fall asleep in here, listening to my mother’s lullaby or my dad’s war stories that always had the good guy winning. I really missed that. Arson walked forwards and picked up a CD from the small pile.

“You mind?” he asked.

“Go ahead. Its been a while, though.” I chuckled. He put in the CD player and pressed play. A song started to play. I don’t remember the song's name but Arson sure did.

“Guy Sebastian?” he laughed.

“What? Who was he?” I asked, walking over to him. The song actually started out good, until the lyrics came on.

Darkness is breaking, the windows are shaking It has begun, our time has come Come closer to me let me feel your heart beat, baby Chest to chest, no time to rest Like there's an asteroid approaching, it's approaching

“Its Armageddon. Very relevant to the situation isn’t it?” I continued to listen to the song. It sounded a lot like our current situation. Like he sang the song just for us.

The clock is ticking, and I'm leaving nothing unsaid, nothing undone, nothing untouched So tonight I'm gonna love you like it's the last day on earth It's the last time I'll get to show you all that you're worth Like there's no going back, before the sky turns to black I'm gonna love you so there's no regretting Like it's Armageddon This building may crumble but under the rubble there they will find us intertwined Like there's an asteroid approaching, it's approaching The clock is ticking, and I'm leaving nothing unsaid, nothing undone, nothing untouched

I pressed stop. Arson looked at me with a confused expression but I ignored it. This was my parents favourite song. They liked Guy Sebastian. I smiled and shook my head.

“Sorry.” I said, completely embarrassed. I chuckled nervously and went back to looking through the songs for something else.

"You alright?” Arson asked me.

“Yeah. Sorry.” I found my favourite songs and put them in instead. This is War by Thirty seconds to Mars came on.

“I didn’t know you liked this type of music.” Arson asked me as I hummed along to the tune.

“I like all type of music actually. This is all we managed to save.” I nodded towards the selection of CD’s. We continued to listen to a range of music. Arson actually sang through a few ones. I was completely in awe. I never hear another person sing since my parents died. His voice was softer in the right spots and harder in others, making the song more emotional. We were interrupted when a loud bang shook us out of our bliss. I could only freeze as another round of banging erupted through the house. Arson had stopped the song and was staring at me.

“Expecting anyone?” he mouthed. I shook my head and quietly got out. Adjusting my top I walked to the front door so I didn’t look like I had just come out of a hole. I opened it and was surprised to see Zachary with a gun, aiming it at me

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Edited! Thankyou once again :)