Chameleon ✔️

24 cages

          I sit on the love seat, hand over my heart as if I've just been given the most terrible fright. Eli sits next to me, watching my every move with concerned eyes, prepared to catch me if I need him to. Ian has gone into the kitchen to wash our glasses.

Due to all of the mind-numbing things I'd just learned, I'm finding it hard to focus on them as a whole. My brain compartmentalizes them, brings them out for me to examine in chronological order, piece by piece.

One: Ian knew my mother. Two: My mother knew Gray — my mother admired Gray. Three: My mother could control dreams. Four: My mother could seemingly bend the realities around her, create visions of things that were not actually there. Five: My mother could do those things because of Gray, meaning that; Six: Being her offspring, I am the way I am because of Gray, too. Seven: It's a possibility that she might've been the giver of the countless nightmares and visions I've suffered over the years, but I don't want to think about that possibility right now. And, finally, the one that makes me want to either curl up in a ball and cry or dance and shout with joy (I haven't decided yet), number eight: I may have a half-sibling out there somewhere. And Gray might have them.

"Do you know where to find him?" I ask when Ian returns to the room.

"I wish I did, kiddo," he sighs. "The first thing I did when I remembered was look him up. He doesn't work at the university any more. He could be anywhere." He looks to Eli and then to me, back to Eli, back to me. His aura goes olive. "You kids aren't gonna go try and find him, are you? 'Cause I don't think that'd be wise."

"He'll find me before I find him," I tell him. "Trust me."

Ian seems not to heed my warning. "Well, if he does, send him my way, would ya? I'd like to give him a piece of my mind."

I'd like to give him back a piece of mine, too, I think. Whichever one he gave me first.

Eli and I thank Ian for meeting with us so late and for his hospitality. He shakes Eli's hand. I expect he'll shake mine, but he surprises me by pulling me into a hug. I'm caught off guard, so I don't reciprocate much. But he doesn't seem to mind, and it feels kind of like he's telling me goodbye. Or probably actually that he's telling Delia goodbye.

"You know where to find me," he says with a curt nod. "Drive safe, and you two take care of yourselves." He winks at Eli. "Take care of her for me, eh?" Eli gives him a smile that I can tell is forced.

He doesn't tell me what I'd known was coming until we are out of the neighborhood, as if Ian were to somehow hear. "I don't trust that guy. He gave me a weird feeling."

"Well I had my eyes on his aura the whole time. I don't think he was lying."

"Maybe he wasn't," he agrees, "but maybe he wasn't telling the truth, either."

"All I know is that I've been blindly moving from state to state the majority of my life, and I come here and I meet someone who finally gives me some answers. I mean, what are the odds of that? He knew my mother. He was engaged to my mother! What were the odds of finding him? That's gotta count for something."

He slumps back into the passenger seat. "I still don't trust him."

All is silent until I stop in the road in front of his house. He unbuckles his seat belt and opens the door, but he doesn't get out.

"So what happens next?"

"I don't know."

"I mean, how do we find him?"

Again with the "we". As if we're in this together; as if Gray is hunting him, too. I don't know what's going to happen next, but I do know that I want Eli to play no further role in it. If he got hurt because of me... I wouldn't be able to live with myself. From here on out, any resources needed will have to be my own.