Alien Tongues ~Humans Spines Book Two~

Hot Chocolate

        She's sitting on a flower printed futon beside a fireplace and a stack of blankets. Her body shivers, her hands held out towards the flames. Except she isn't the one controlling those hands. The demonic life form inside of her is.

        "I'd warm up a lot faster if you came over here." The smile curling her lips isn't what I was expecting. It never is. At least, not for a long time.

        "I'm smarter than that." My head shakes.

        "No, you can't out think me," She's climbing over the blankets between us. I never trust them on their first day. I'd never trust this one any day.

        "What happened there, on your neck? The stitches?" It reaches her hand out to touch the space below my ear, curving towards my jaw.

        I finch away. "Figure it out, you're smart."

        "You're not usually like this. Why are you being so rude to me?" It's hand drops.

        "I know you're a Translucent. Your name is Telliyon. You killed Hans." I look directly into Emmeline's eyes. I can't see the thing inside her now but I watched it possess her.

        "Then you know I saved her life. There's no way she could have fought all of those infants."

        "Infants?"

        "Yes, infants. They were new, young, infants." It shrugs, gently pulling Emmeline's hair out of the braid that I had smoothed it into this morning. It runs like an onyx stream to her hip bones.

        I don't want it to keep talking to me but I have to ask, "how can you tell how old the Translucent are?"

        "Krissy can only control the young. You know that's who's sending them right? The Sibling." It lays on the blankets, resting her chin in her hands.

        "But why? Why doesn't she just come herself? Why attack us at all?" I ask.

        "You already forgot, didn't you? Everything you were supposed to remember?"

        I remember. I remember all of it. Jumping into the pit, meeting the Reaper-Mother and her dog, sitting at a pink tea table in the middle of the rain and talking about nothing. I remember all of the Opaque, looking exactly like my mother, telling me lies. I remember Illyvimsius rescuing us and choosing the correct door. I remember watching Hans fall to his knees, the thing in front of me sucking out his brain.

        "I didn't forget, I just-"

        "Didn't think about it? What have you been doing these past seven months? Making hot chocolate and writing letters to your dear old dad?" It smiles.

        My fists clench. "I've been studying you. Figuring your race out. Learning."

        "And what does the Opaque boy think he knows?" it mocks, "Because I can tell you some shocking things about your own race."

        My fist rises but I hesitate.

        I could show it. Lead it out of this small warm room and push it down the stairs. Where it's cold, cold enough to preserve dead bodies.

        Or I could take it up to the attic. The door is right across from us, hidden in the dusty flower print of the peeling wallpaper. It might take me seriously if I show it what's up there.

        It tilts her head. "You don't know anything do you?" It looks around the room. There really isn't much room to look at though. Beige carpet and beige baseboards and a beige brick fireplace. This is the warm room. It's only function is to retain heat to warm you back up after going outside. There are stacks of blankets and firewood everywhere, a large recliner, and this futon we're sitting on. Everything is either beige, burnt orange, or an aged yellow flower print.