Space Tails

Chapter 2: Things Get Interesting

          Right as we got to the entrance of the Mickey D’s which had felt like a three and a half mile walk, some guy barreled into me.  I fell to the floor and he kept going as if I was simply a fly.  I turned to yell my very angry and highly inappropriate for an airport retort at him when I noticed he was gone.

          “What was that all about?” T.J. asked me as he gently helped me up.

          I was about to say that I didn’t know when I noticed a piece of folded paper placed neatly on my converse.  No one said anything as I unfolded it.  I sucked in a breath as I read:

          The ship is falling down

          Falling down

          Falling down

          The ship is falling down

          My fair lady Aria

          Take your words

          To lock me up

          Lock me up

          Lock me up

          Tell your stories

          To shut me up

          My fair lady Aria

That would’ve been bad enough, but I had to flip over to the back to make sure I had read everything.  I hadn’t.  There was more and it made more sense than the stupid rhyme did.

          The ship will fall Aria, of that I promise.  You and your pack will parish if you don’t follow my instructions.  I will reveal myself to you at a later date, but I don’t feel like telling you now.  Of course, I will share my own story with you after you and five of your pack members share their stories.  I don’t care which of you tell your story or if you volunteer.  If you don’t share a story revealing a personality trait I will cause the ship to crash.  Not that you care Aria, but what will your parents say to Mattie?  Okay they had gone too far!  Insulting me was one thing, but my son?  You have exactly one hour to before boarding to make up your mind.  What will you do?  I wonder.

          This was too bizarre to be just some craze psychopath stalking the sidewalks.  This person knew about werewolves and could very well be a kamikaze MIB agent.  My throat ached reminding me that the wolf, Sabrina, wanted blood.  I told her to check herself and went back to pondering what I should do.

          Informing the pack of this task would help them prepare their stories, but that’s what the guy probably wanted.  Rehearsed stories that wouldn’t do anything to really help the ship from falling.  I made a conscious decision to not tell the pack until it was too late.

          I took a deep breath and put the note back in my pocket before trying to locate them.  I was about to send them a message telepathically when I found them and my first mate.

          Brandon Gabriel James had dark blonde curly hair and soft green eyes.  He was calm, cool, and collected even in the face of danger.  He was also very stubborn when it came to doing any task presented to him.  He was 16 years old.  He was supposed to have been leader, but somehow I got the position.  He was wearing a black jacket, red shirt, jeans, and a pair of very worn tennis shoes.  He looked like he had been through a lot of stuff.  Then again, it could have something to do with wreaking the space shuttle while I was in labor.

          Brandon looked up at me, swallowed, and smiled.  He trusted that I would do the right thing as leader and so, I felt a bit guilty when I took my spot at the table.  Everyone else had already taken their places and were stuffing their faces.  Thank goodness that Brandon had thought to order an excessive amount of food.