I Will Love You Forever

Chapter 5, part 1: Sugar Beast

Chapter 5  Discovery

Ken came to himself resting in the most wonderful embrace in the world. He was sitting on the mattress, and Lu was holding him cradled across her breast, as his mother had done when he had hurt himself as a small boy. Except, that is, that Lu was still naked. He looked up into her face. There was concern there, and something else. The something else was intense, raw emotion—but he could say exactly what the emotion was.

"Lu?"

"I will love you forever," his beloved said. This time, the words didn't sound flat and uninflected. This time, that overwhelming background of emotion seeped through the words, and she sounded more like the old Lu than anything she had said since the accident. But was she?

"Are you my Lu?" The words came out raw with anguish.

"Yes," said Lu. Then she said, "Not all Lu."

"Not all?"

"Yes. Loss. Damage. Forgotten. Some Lu gone."

Ken closed his eyes, and as the pain rose up to overwhelm him, she spoke again.

"Some Lu here."

Ken frowned a second, then sat up, turning to her. She was still looking at him with that raw intensity. Only one eye was open, but the rest of her face and head appeared intact, although there was a section of pale skin above her left temple that looked very fragile. Most of the right side of her head had only bare skin, although it didn't look quite so delicate.

With a start, Ken realized why that intense expression looked familiar. It was how Lu had looked on their wedding day, repeating her vows. He started to tremble. She reached for him, and he shoved her arms away. The hurt expression was so perfectly in tune with his beloved that he could not stand it. He felt as though he would explode with the pain of it. Was it her, or wasn't it her?

"I don't understand," he finally said. "Are you Lu, or aren't you?"

"I Lu," she said. "I also—" she broke off, and looked expressionless for a few seconds. "No words. I fell."

"You are what hit us?"

"You hit me. I fell."

"I hit you?"

"Yes."

Ken was trying to make sense of what she was saying, but it just got more confusing.

"When did I hit you?"

She frowned, just as Lu always frowned. Then she picked up a pillow from the mattress beside her, and dropped it from about a foot. "What word?"

"What word? Uh, pillow?"

"No. Not pillow. Not bed. Pillow fall. What word?" She lifted the pillow again, and said, "What make pillow fall?"

"Gravity?"

"Gravity." She thought some more, and said, "Yes. Word is gravity. You hit me gravity."

"What?"

"You hurt me. I fell. I fell on Lu."

It didn't make sense yet, but the last sentence said it all.

Whatever was speaking was not Lu.

It was something else. It was the something the government was looking for, and it had killed his wife. Looking at her expression, so like Lu, in Lu's body, Ken vaguely wondered why the turmoil in his head didn't kill him. On the one hand, an alien—with a shock, Ken realized that was exactly what it was—had invaded the dead body of his wife. Invaded. ... Rage began to grow in his gut.

And yet, there she sat, not just like his wife, but actually in the body of his wife. She had wanted to embrace him earlier. Was this some kind of being pretending to be human so it could do something horrible? Was it getting ready to carry out some grade B movie body-snatching invasion? Ken had never taken those silly movies seriously, and yet, here was his beloved wife, occupied by something not of Earth. Still, her expression, if it meant anything, felt more like Lu than unlike Lu. She looked at him with that raw emotion that seemed to combine hunger, yearning, vulnerability, sadness, and even guilt. He didn't know what to make of it, but he couldn't make himself act on his anger.

He put his head in his hands, and felt gentle hands on his hands. He looked up, and she smiled tenderly. "Sugar Beast."

He jerked his head back in pain. "Where did you hear that?" Had he had told her that name when he talked to her all day? He closed his eyes. No, he was nearly certain he had not. It was Lu's most secret pet name for him, used in their more intimate moments, and he didn't think he would have told her about that one.

"I made it up," she said, "on our, our, our," She stopped, struggling for the word.

"Honeymoon," he finished for her. "How could you know that?"

"Lu here." She touched her hand to the uninjured side of her head. "Pictures. Few words." She reached out and placed her hand on his chest. "Love." She reached up and touched his lips. "Fire." That was as far as she got, before Ken pulled her into his arms, weeping again. They had used those words and touches as part of their wedding ceremony. I have to get control of my emotions, he thought, as he held her in his arms.

As he held her, she clung to him, and he felt her begin to sob, too.

That was the anchor he needed. As Lu broke down, he was able to be the strong one for her again. They had been to hell and back, these last few days. He didn't know what was going to happen next, but he wasn't going to let her down again. Never again. He pulled her onto his lap, and held her. As she cried against his chest, her arms around him, finding comfort in his strength, he wondered how he could ever have doubted her. And yet, there was that other question. It took her a few minutes to calm down. Then Ken got up, setting her beside him on the mattress, and got her a tissue, showed her how to use it.

"Let's get up on these stools," Ken said, finally beginning to realize just how strange the situation was. As she got up, he handed her the PJs again. This time she put them on, after a glance at the front of the house. She gets it now.

Somehow, Ken thought, his wife—or some part of her, at any rate—was still in there, but something not of this world had somehow taken up residence in there with her. Something in her—its—emotions convinced him that it wasn't malicious, but he had seen enough alien movies that he wasn't quite ready to let his guard down entirely. Still, when he thought about what the FBI agent and his colleagues would do to her, he shuddered.

They would probably dissect her, just to find out what was in her and what made it tick. That Lu, who seemed to be at least partially there, would die horribly in the process, would not matter at all, any more than Ken's objections to their warrantless entry had mattered. He had heard the man say that this area was a "possible," which meant they were likely coming back here. When they did, Ken was sure they would keep looking, as long as it took.

If they found the clearing ...

With a gasp, Ken realized that the picnic basket was still there, along with footprints and who knew what else. "Let's get some clothes on." Ken quickly pulled out walking clothes for both of them.

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