Falling into Fiction

11 Not a Big Deal

Morning light streams in through the windows. I stretch, opening my eyes to find that I'm waking up in a living room for the second time, only now it's Dee's and not Katy's. The pillow I had last night is long gone, and something in my head is telling me that this will have been my last interaction with him. For a good while anyway.

The smell of bacon wafts in from the kitchen, and I follow it hungrily. Having no dinner last night, my stomach has resorted to eating itself. With that thought, the rest of the night comes flooding in. Images of a terrifying man pressing me roughly against the wall spring up, and a chill rolls through my body.

That night at the library was different somehow. I was still afraid, but I hadn't realized how easy it was to die here yet. The library taught me that, but it took going through the whole thing a second time to allow that terror to stay with me after the danger was long gone.

I shake off the negative thoughts as well as I can and head into the kitchen. Katy sits at the table as Dee stands at the stove. Her hand is hovering over the skillet as the bacon fries inside of it. A glance down to the stove knob tells me that it's not on and she's using her alien powers to cook.

Dee looks over her shoulder at me as I walk in and immediately pulls her hand back. The sizzling slowly dies down as Katy and Dee both stare at me.

"Um, good morning?" Dee's voice comes out more like a question.

I ignore her greeting and go right into it. "Did you just cook that with your hand?" I point to the now silent bacon.

Dee pinches her lips and distracts herself by taking the bacon off and putting it onto three plates. When she's put on the eggs and set the plates around the table, she finally responds.

"Am I allowed to answer that with a no?" She smiles sheepishly.

I shake my head at her and she sighs, patting a spot behind one of the plates. "Okay. Sit down."

After I sit and grab a piece of bacon, she asks, "What exactly did you see last night?"

I take a bite of bacon and launch into what happened last night. When I get to the part where Andrew comes in, I say, "I had my eyes closed, but a bright light like the one I saw at the library shot in front of me, and suddenly I wasn't held against the wall anymore. When I could finally breathe again, I looked up just in time to see Andrew punching the man that grabbed me."

Dee looks somewhat relieved, as though I hadn't seen anything and she had no reason to explain anything. I just see her fry bacon with her hands, though.

"With a ball of light," I add.

Dee's head drops and she sighs again. "Okay, here we go. Did Andrew tell you anything while he waited in the living room?"

I shake my head, and Dee launches into a whole explanation that I'm sure Katy already heard last night from Daemon. She explains that they're not from Earth, that they're aliens from a galaxy too far away for it to ever be visible from here. Their planet was Lux, and they are called Luxen. 

Dee talks about what they can do, how they can manipulate light and do all sorts of things with it. Every once in a while, Dee will show an example of whatever she mentions. She fades from my and Katy's view when she explains that they can dispel light, earning gasps from both of us as we watch. Dee then forms a ball of light in her hand, something that just hovers there and casts a light on all of our faces.

One of the things she does that I find to be the coolest is the ability to change how she looks. Dee turns into a wolf right before our eyes, just as she does in the books. Then she takes a turn looking like Katy and then me. My eyes widen as my own face stares back at me.