Miranda nods solemnly, until a thought occurs to her. “Um, do you know what hospital, he’s at, exactly?”
The blonde plants a manicured talon on her popped-out hip. “Who’s asking?”
Miranda pauses for a moment, frosting in hand, and says something surprising. “A friend.”
The manager nods, as if to grant her access to something very exclusive and personal, and then she snaps her gum, as if to break the spell that Miranda seemingly cast over her with her little white lie. “Oak Memorial, on the other side of town.”
“Great, thanks.” Miranda turns to leave.
“Hey! You gotta pay for those…”
Miranda’s face turns red, and she turns back to the checkout counter. “Of course, sorry about that.” Then she pays for her junk food and walks to the bus stop to make her way over to the hospital.
✷✷✷
“Delphine, try on this one.” The very well-meaning Elizabeth hands Delphine another sundress, but nothing she tries on feels right to her, except for the black sweaters and combat boots.
“Elizabeth, I really don’t like it, it’s… itching me.”
Elizabeth steps behind the curtain where Delphine is trying on one dress of many, trying to assimilate into Earth culture the best she can. “Well that’s weird. This one is 100% cotton, how could it be itching you? Oh well, I’ll keep looking, sit tight.” Elizabeth disappears yet again to go find more things for Delphine to try on, but it seems like such a losing battle.
It was hard enough walking through the mall without such strange reactions. Delphine doesn’t appear all that different than anyone else, aside from the jumpsuit and pastel pink hair. But the strangest thing, is the way that any toddler or baby that she walked near would immediately start crying and run away from her. She isn’t mean, and she sure doesn’t look scary, but they ran from her like she was a monster, or something of that sort. Delphine manages to brush it off, thinking that perhaps it was just because she wasn’t assimilated yet, and that maybe things would improve with time. Or at least, she sure hoped it would.
“Delphine, honey, try on these please!” She grabs the white pants dangling from Elizabeth’s outstretched arm over the dressing room curtain. But oddly enough, she didn’t have to try them on to know that they would burn her skin. Anything she tried on that wasn’t black or her own jumpsuit from the Upperworld was irritating.
“Um, Elizabeth? Would you mind terribly if we just go home now? I’m really quite… tired.”
“Sure, Delphine. I can imagine you would be.”
Delphine grabs the rest of the discarded clothing, all while ignoring the way they made even her fingertips severely itch.
“So, perhaps just the black pants, sweaters, and boots for now?”
Delphine nods. “Sorry about everything else.”
“Not to worry. We’ll just come back another time, I can only imagine what you must be going through.” Elizabeth pays for their items and then they walk back through the mall and out to her car, leaving a trail of crying toddlers and babies in their wake.
CHAPTER 5
“Anthony?” Luna wakes from her slumber, and gets his attention from her hospital bed across the little room.
“Yes? Luna? How are you, how are you feeling?”
She smiles briefly and then almost frowns, while her hand rests gently on her slightly swollen abdomen.
“They say it’s… gone.”
Anthony nods. “I know.”
“Is that bad?”
Anthony is at a loss for words. Of course losing a baby would be considered a tragedy, but in her situation, he couldn’t help but consider it to be a gracious reprieve from a life of suffering. “I don’t know, Luna.”
Oddly satisfied with even an indecisive answer, Luna allows herself to succumb to the sleep tugging at the corners of her eyes. She’s likely tired from the trauma of everything that has happened to her. Anthony doesn’t quite know everything about her, but he can sense that there are deeper secrets more wild than anything he has ever experienced in his life, hidden behind those deep violet eyes.
Anthony is pulled away from his thoughts by Felicia tugging gently on his sleeve.
“Anthony? Is she okay?”
Anthony nods. “Yes, I think so. She’s just sleeping now.”
Felicia nods. “Can we go home, now?”
“I have to talk to the doctor first, and then we can all go home. Wait here please.”
Anthony leaves Felicia in the hospital room with Luna in the search for a nurse or doctor that has been treating Luna. He finds one nearby before too long.
“Excuse me, are you the nurse for Room 206?” The woman clad in light blue scrubs nods busily while jotting something down into a notebook.
“Yep. What do you need?”
“I was just wondering when she can be discharged. She seems okay now, just sleepy.”
“We’re going to need to keep her until the morning for observation. She’s also got some broken bones to attend to, so the doctor said it could be a few days.”
Anthony tries and fails to hide his frustration. “Okay, thank you.” The nurse nods curtly before turning away to care for another patient.
I better call Tiffany to let her know that I may need a day or two off of work.
He takes out his cell phone and punches in the main phone number of his boss.
“Hi Tiffany… yes, I’m okay. She is too, just a few broken bones… But I think I may need a day or two off of work, just to take care of her and my sister… Okay, thanks… yes, I’ll keep you posted… bye now.”
He places his phone back into his pocket, hoping that everything will pan out quickly so that he can resume his life as usual. Well, as usual as it can be for a 19-year-old raising his little sister on his own and taking in a strange girl with a penchant for pale pink jumpsuits.
✷✷✷
Onyx finds himself on a wooden park bench, underneath a bright blue sky. It’s exactly as I’ve studied it… fascinating. Rather than being scared or frightened the way most sorters might be upon a sudden and unexpected journey to Earth, he is invigorated. Unsurprisingly, he feels like he belonged there the whole time, which makes sense, since he did.
Okay, now to find Luna. I suppose I’ll just have to walk around and see what I can find. He rakes his fingers through his short, bleach-blonde hair and tries to adjust to the different gravity levels as quickly as possible.
He soon recognizes the convenience store across the street, from the footage following Luna before her embedded communication device was expelled from her body. He walks casually across the street, carefully navigating through the traffic lights and pedestrians with ease. The door opens for him automatically upon his approach, and he finds a woman at the front counter who appears to be counting currency. He makes eye contact with her as he walks over.
“Hi, how can I help you?”
“I’m looking for a girl-”
“Yeah, aren’t you all.”
“No, I mean, a specific one. She knows one of your employees… Anthony, I think it is?”
Recognition floods her face. “Oh, I think I know who you’re talking about - he recently took some girl in, saying she was hurt, lost, and needed a place to stay. He’s at Oak Memorial Hospital with her now.”
Hospital… I remember that term. That’s for the injured. Wait a minute… Luna is injured? Did Seth already get to her?
“Oh, okay, thank you. I better get going, then.” The girl nods, and then resumes her busywork at the front counter.
Okay, Earth studies, don’t fail me now. Onyx considers himself extremely lucky to have had the extensive training that he did - it would make his assimilation to Earth a lot faster and easier than it would have been, had he had zero training, like Luna. Poor Luna! It’s a miracle that she survived as long as she did. But I am grateful, nonetheless. Now to get onto a… bus, I think it’s called.
Onyx finds the nearest bus stop, and pays his fare with the emergency Earth
currency he carries with him always. He is unprepared for the many blank, curious stares he gets from onlookers, his pale blue jumpsuit clearly bringing a lot of unwanted attention his way.
Note to self - obtain humanoid clothes as soon as possible. Luckily, the bus ride itself was quite pleasant, even though his mind is whirring with the many possible ways that this could play out. Luna could have forgotten all about him by now, if she was even still alive.
CHAPTER 6
Jade tries to carefully walk out of the transport room with as little suspicion as possible. If Zephyr finds out about what she did, she has a gut feeling that she would be punished with something worse than death. She is about to get back to her post in the Sorting Room, but she realizes that she should talk to Evander about what has happened, as well as address the realization of who Delphine really is. And worst of all, the sheer reality that Delphine was made a sorter at all, points to some severe problems with the Upperworld itself, meaning that Zephyr himself may be deteriorating.
She tries and fails to focus on her objective at hand, which is her typical overseeing of the Sorting Room operations. Quickly realizing that she is unable to focus, which could put humanity at risk for another failed humanoid, Jade decides that it may be best to just have her assistant cover for her.
After that is settled, she walks to Evander’s pod, hoping that he is doing okay with the shocking news about Delphine. It was high-clearance information, but she feels strongly that given the crazy circumstances, he has a right to know. There is just too much going on that seems beyond protocol anyway, what’s one more thing?
The door opens on its own, and she walks in to find Evander sitting with his back to the wall and his head in his hands. Clearly, the news did not go down easily for him.
“Evander, are you all right? I’m just… I need to talk to you.”
He barely turns his head to look at her, but the red rims around his eyes show either debilitating fear or anger. “Why did you never tell me this? That I was harboring a demon? Don’t you think that would have been helpful for her guide to know? Heck, I shouldn’t have been her guide at all - she should have stayed in Hell where she belongs!”
Jade exhales softly, searching for the right words to defuse the explosive unwittingly wired by her own design.
“I’m sorry, my loyalty is to Zephyr, I was just following orders…”
“I know, but don’t you see it? Onyx sees it, I see it… the system is breaking. I was thinking, hoping -fa that maybe the rules wouldn’t apply the same way anymore. There’s just too much that’s going wrong. I think we have to just do whatever it takes to save it.”
“I agree with you completely. Actually, about that, you should know: Onyx is gone.”
Evander is pulled out of his sobbing with this sudden news. “What do you mean, gone?”
“Well, he went to Earth… to protect Luna.”
“Protect her from what?”
“Seth - uh, her undead fetus.”
“Do you realize how ridiculous you sound right now?”
“Unfortunately, I do. But it’s all very true.”
“Well, when’s he coming back?”
Jade fingers her silver strands of hair and avoids eye contact with him.
“He’s not, is he?”
She shakes her head. “It’s up to us, now, to fix things.”
“You mean, to get Miranda and Anthony together?”
“Well, not entirely, Delphine will do that. I was thinking more, on a larger scale.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“Not yet - I’ve got nothing.”
✷✷✷
Delphine arrives back at Elizabeth’s house, where Snuggles begins barking at her unceasingly again. He always does - it was becoming less of an oddity, and more of a routine. And that was strange. Elizabeth notices her discomfort and tries to ameliorate the situation.
“Hmmm, perhaps I can have my friend watch Snuggles for a bit, just until we get you settled in more?” She yells over the barking, an unfortunate example of the way dogs tend to sometimes control their owners. The piercing, brown eyes of the dog never leave Delphine’s gaze until he is ushered back into his crate and brought out to the car.
“I’ll be right back, Delphine. Please try and make yourself comfortable, I’ll just bring Snuggles to Sabrina’s house and then I’ll be right back, okay?” Delphine nods.
“Okay, thank you.”
“Anytime, Sweetie.”
As Elizabeth makes her way out the front door with the dog who stops barking as soon as the door closes, Delphine plops down onto the couch in front of the television. The remote sits next to her on the side table, and after messing with the buttons for a few minutes, she turns it on, and is immediately mesmerized by the color images of people that appear.
It’s just like the screens in the Upperworld.
✷✷✷
Walking down the long, cold, hallway toward Zephyr’s throne, the slow, deliberate steps of Luna’s scorned child approach. The cold, ashen colors of the stone corridor mix with the tepid air that grows steadily colder where Zephyr is seated.
His large, violet eyes lock into a powerful stare, challenging even Zephyr’s power. But the esteemed leader of the Upperworld does not, would not, back down. This is the beginning of a collaboration, not a fight.
“Seth, I presume?”
The young recruit nods. “You summoned me here, my leader?”
“Indeed. I have something I need you to… take care of, for me.” The pair of striking violet eyes, framed by hair as dark as raven’s feather, widen in anticipation.
“Seth, I need you to go to Earth via the transport room, located adjacent to the Sorting Room. You’ll be going to assassinate a girl who used to work in the Sorting Room, under the moniker ‘Luna’.”
“But isn’t she immortal if she worked here?”
“On Earth, she is rendered mortal.” Seth slowly nods, but there are still many questions floating around directly behind his violet irises.
“What method of assassination would you prefer?” Zephyr strokes his ghastly, pale, nearly translucent chin with two long, bony fingers.
“Any is fine, really. But…” He pauses for a moment, and then snaps his fingers in the foggy air. Immediately, a short, silver blade appears in his outstretched hand.
“Take this dagger, and plunge it directly into her heart. When you have accomplished that, squeeze this piece of magnetized rock three times.” Zephyr hands him a small black pendant on a metal chain.
“There is a heat and pressure sensor embedded into it. Do that immediately after her demise, and then you will be able to reappear back here.”
“And what would I gain from this?”
Zephyr strokes his chin in thought, and then pauses.
“Only the greatest reward of all - the opportunity to work alongside me as my primary advisor for all of eternity - a position of great power. You want that, don’t you?”
Seth’s eyes widen even further, and he nods excitedly.
“Thought so.”
CHAPTER 7
Onyx carefully follows the map on the bus, and navigates his way to the hospital. Once inside, he nearly freezes in confusion. It is going to be a lot harder than he intended to find Luna, but he figures that he has to try. In a moment of panic, he squeezes the communication device embedded in his wrist, which is luckily still there for the time being, until it is expelled from his body. He whispers into it.
“Locate Luna.”
But then he remembers that hers was expelled days ago, and the chances of it still working were slim to none. Despite what he knows to be true, he tries to locate her with his embedded device anyway.
Luna Located approximately 500 yards from current location.
By some miracle, it appears that though expelled, her tracker is still working, and might be near her. It is a long shot but Onyx follows the tiny, barely visible map that appears on his own inner wrist, leading him to her. Of course,
he has to keep this advanced technology away from the wandering eyes of humans, as arousing suspicion is the last thing he needs if he ever hopes to assimilate into society.
Within a few moments, the map on his wrist leads him into what he remembers learning was the emergency room, with many people rushing around tending to various medical problems. There are many curtained-off areas housing various patients, and he knows he is getting close. And then, just about ten feet away, he sees her, sleeping, but alive. And there is a faint, blurry blue light emanating from a plastic bag on a bedside table next to where she lay.
“Hello? Luna? Luna!”
Onyx rushes over to her side, finally living the reunion that he had craved for so long. Although, in his most desperate dreams to find her again, he never considered the possibility that she would be unconscious, or worse yet, dead.
“Excuse me? Who are you?”
Onyx turns around abruptly to see a human boy standing up from the chair he was sitting in at the foot of Luna’s bed, with a small girl cowering behind him. Both had very curly blond hair, and faces filled with nothing but fear and confusion.
“Anthony, who is this guy?” The boy draws the small girl closer to himself, protecting her from this potential safety breach.
“I don’t know, Felicia. Yet.” He wastes no more time and locks eyes with Onyx.
“Who… who are you? And what are you doing here?”
Onyx shifts his glance from Luna, the girl he’s been thinking about nonstop since the moment her molecules were scrambled in the transport room, to the mysterious human who is staring him down.
“My name is Onyx. I’m here to see Luna. I’m… responsible for her, so to speak.”
Anthony’s cheeks begin to turn a rosy red, but not because he is embarrassed. Rather, he is jealous.
“What do you mean, you’re responsible for her? I’ve taken her into my home, and helped her, even when she was… expecting an unwanted child. I already take care of my little sister alone, but Luna was someone who needed help and a place to stay, so I gave it to her, simple as that. Where have you been?” His words seethed behind his clenched teeth, his hand balled into a fist at his side.
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