A Human Element

by Donna Galanti

Laura felt her words cut through him like light in his darkness. Heaviness lifted off him. She sensed he thought for the first time that perhaps he wasn't a murderer. "I paid for whores. I used women. I was a drunk. My punishment was to be raped and killed by those Samoans, but Felix rescued me. It's as if I escaped my fate of being raped once to another fate of the same. It must be my destiny. Does destiny set course to find a way to make it happen even if you buck the odds?"

  "I don't know. Felix thinks so, but I have to believe things can change for the better if you have hope it can. Ben, you were unlucky and unloved. You lost your parents young and no one showed you love. How could you then love yourself? That's what Hawaii was about. You fell into a life of drinking and being with…those women because you didn't feel worthy of yourself or of love. I saw it. I felt it. I know. And you have me now. And Andy, your friend. You still have him. I wish I still had Moe. She was the best friend I ever had."

  Her voice broke with emotion and Ben pulled her to him. The light stretched across the room in soft shadows. All was dark outside the window as branches scratched across the glass pane. The moon hid behind clouds, covering the night with a black blanket. Laura wondered about Felix somewhere out there. Where did he go to seek out the future? And did he know what they just did together in the warmth of the cabin?

  "I've never been this close before," Ben said. "Never opened up to love. I'm just finding my way. Because of you."

  Laura moved in close, not knowing if she could now give him what he found. She felt torn, as she believed he should find happiness with a real woman. She felt guilty dragging him into this danger. All she could offer was uncertainty, an alien body harboring strange powers, and a crazed twin coming to kill them. It sounded like a fantastic science fiction novel. She felt glad he couldn't read her thoughts. Ben's feelings burned over her, leaving her awash in want and need and belonging.

  She pressed herself in deeper to him and felt their hearts beating together as one.

  She wondered if it was as it should be.

  Even if it was, she didn't know if it could be.

  CHAPTER 28

  Laura woke up early, drawn to the lake. She had to work on her powers. She wanted to chase the anxiety away that filled her with jumpiness. Her arms and legs twitched with energy. What would the day hold? Murder and mayhem? Alien chases and bloody battles? Blasting of brains and ripping of throats? Action packed gore at its finest. She wanted to laugh at it all.

  In a way they were sitting ducks waiting for her twin to reach them. But Felix was right. He wouldn't stop coming. He would kill more people and eventually her. It had to end here and now. And where was there a more appropriate place then the lake where it all started? Strangely enough she felt in control for the first time in years. Death came for her now and she could stop it.

  She slipped out of bed as Ben slept. His arm was flung over his head and his face turned toward her. He looked so peaceful. She took in his lean muscles and angular, handsome face. She thought of him the night before holding her up in the shower, driving into her body, owning it with desire and passion. When he had stared into her eyes it was as if he claimed her soul. She didn't know if they had the promise of forever or if she could give it to him. She just wanted to make it through what came for them now.

  She turned away to dress and left the cabin after downing a banana. She taped Ben a note to the fridge of where she went.

  The sky hung over her a dismal gray, holding the promise of rain overhead, and the world spread out before her, furried in frost. The tree branches and grass twinkled with silver ice in the low light covering the landscape in dimness. The sun still rose behind the clouds. The stillness was solid around her. The crunching of her feet on dead leaves was painful to her ears. She walked past Mr. B's workshop and toward the picnic table overlooking the lake. In summer the fullness of the trees hid the lake. Now their skinny branches bent and twisted in naked agony, hiding nothing.

  Then through the trees a speck of black poked through the gray world around her. It was Felix. He had come back. She scrambled down the trail, rushing over fallen branches and rocks. She had many more questions to ask him and they had very little time. If he was here then her twin could be too.

  Jim woke up to sunlight streaming in his hospital room. Something scratched his hand and he looked down. A note. He uncrumpled it.

  Mr. B, don't come back to the cabin. He is coming now for me. The man in black is here to help us. He has a name. Felix. And I have Ben. You were right about him. But I don't want to lose you too. I hope I made you feel better. I love you, always. Laura.

  Jim sat up and bumped into a covered breakfast tray. He felt so alert and full of energy. He downed the toast, eggs, and canned pears in front of him, then chugged the orange juice. It didn't taste great, but he needed all the energy he could to help Laura. He didn't give a hoot about keeping himself safe. She was the daughter he never had and his one reason for going on this late in life.

  He had to get out of this damn hospital. He wasn't sick anymore. He felt wonderful! He tried to fathom how since last night he could be recovered. He looked down at Laura's note from her visit last night. He wished she had woken him up so he could talk with her, and then it hit him. She was the reason he felt better. I hope I made you feel better, she wrote. She used her healing powers on him. And it worked. He had to get out of here and tell her.

  First, he needed to find a bank machine in the hospital to get cash, and a cab willing to take him all the way up to the mountain. He bounced out of bed and giggled. He then burst out a hearty laugh at the fact that at eighty-seven he could still giggle.

  He washed his face, brushed his teeth, and got dressed. He stared at his wrinkled face and body in the mirror. He still looked old but he felt young. Blood coursed through his body quicker, making his steps lighter. His lungs were clear. He felt better than he had in years. Not just years, decades. Despite Laura's magic could he be up for this? It didn't matter. He had to try, whether it would be the end of him or not. As long as Laura survived. He then walked out to the nurse's station, although he had an overwhelming urge to skip.

  "Miss, I'm ready to go home."

  "Mr. Barrens, the doctor is making his rounds soon and needs to check on your condition first before he can release you."

  "Nope, gotta go now. My girl is waiting." He bolted for the elevator and giggled again as the door slid shut. He actually did bolt. Dash. Run. Scurry. Abscond. Escape. Laura would like all those words. And she made his doing it happen.

  "Mr. Barrens, wait, please!"

  But he didn't stop. He had to go home. There was something there he had to show Laura.

  Laura reached Felix who stood by the lakeshore facing away from her.

  "Felix?" She caught her breath as she stopped. He shimmered, a transparent figure. He turned to her. She could only stare at his vision. She reached out to touch him but her hand moved through him.

  "What are you? How did you get here?"

  Felix crossed his arms and looked out over the lake. Mist rose off it and the sun burned it away. "I am transmitting myself to you, Laura. I had to see if you were all right, to make sure the desired outcome is still the correct future. I see I am right, so far it has not changed. Let's hope it doesn't."

  Laura stared at him, captured by the trees that blended into his body from behind him through his black clothes. "I-I don't understand. I remember seeing you like this before. A long time ago. I didn't just imagine it, did I? Is this some power you have?"

  "It's through a belt device the Elyon had on board the spaceship that crashed here. I took it. I didn't know what it was at the time when we dug around the crash site. I found it buried in the dirt and instinctively picked it up and hid it. I knew it would come in handy. It took me some time to discover its use and how to operate it. With the right combination of numbers on its key pad here, I then visualize where I want to go or who I want to see. I have used it many times to watch over you. I did seek out life on Elyon as
well, through the belt's technology. There are some still alive I saw last night, though their numbers diminish daily. I am transmitting myself to you now to assure you I will be there soon."

  "Then my brother is near?"

  "He is a day or less away. You need to prepare. Work on your powers today. I will be there soon at the cabin. I must go now." His image faded and Laura could see the lake clear through him.

  "Wait! Are you really the only one besides my twin, and Doctor Britton, who knows about me?"

  "I see you're full of questions today." His image became stronger again. "Doctor Britton is dead."

  "Was it my brother?"

  "Yes. I saw it would happen after you visited with him. X-10 ripped out his throat."

  "Then he's near!"

  "Yes and no. He killed the doctor from afar in his mind's eye. He's still on foot moving under cover of the night. Federal agents are on his trail, keeping it out of the media. This is a botched science project gone very wrong. People have been murdered, more than you know about. The agents have not located him, yet. And I don't know if they ever can."

  "Then he could kill me now, from afar, as he did my parents, Moe, Renee, and Doctor Britton. And he could kill Ben. Mr. B."

  "No. I told you, he wants to kill you in person, and I believe he wants you to watch him kill others you care for, too. He wants you to feel pain, emotional and physical. Sweet, sick satisfaction is what he wants, Laura. He hates you with a raging intensity."

  "Why does he hate me so?"

  "Because you got to live a life he didn't. You've had love and happiness. You've lived free while he's been a caged animal in a zoo."

  Laura raised her arms up in frustration and paced alongside the lake's edge.

  "There is no need to worry others know about you and will take you away to experiment on you. I kept your birth secret and out of my report to my superiors. I took it upon myself to watch you through the years to see what you were, if you were like other Elyon beings."

  "Well, that's evident." She snorted and kept pacing.

  "The government assessed long ago I would not disappear and they gave me my freedom. It's why I continue to work for them carrying out their orders. They call me the garbage man. I take out the trash. I do the dirty jobs others don't want to do. And I took a leave of absence this week. I saw what would happen and planned this time off."

  "And what will happen?"

  "I see your baby, Laura. All could end well. I can't see the exact outcome of your contact with X-10, or Ben's. The end result could change luckily. Or unluckily so."

  "So, you don't really know for sure, do you?"

  "No."

  "Then you don't know if I actually will have Ben's child, for sure."

  "No, I cannot be one-hundred percent sure."

  Laura sighed and listened to the wind blow through the sun-dappled trees as birds twittered and squirrels tapped nuts open. It all sounded so laconic and normal. Felix moved a little closer to her, his green eyes bore into hers as she looked up. His image wavered like fine lines as he moved. She huddled inside her coat.

  "I've been watching you a long time, Laura Armstrong. We're from the same distant planet. We share the same genes. We're the only ones on Earth who do so, along with your twin."

  Laura was held captive by his eyes. "What else did you see about me when you watched me all those years?" She moved closer to him to see his face better.

  "I watched you the day you lost your first tooth in your front yard. I watched you on your many walks in the woods. I've seen and heard you sing songs from the tree branches. I watched you at the lake the day Jim Barrens came to tell you your house caught fire. I watched from the road too, but I knew I could do nothing."

  "I don't believe that. You could have left me a note, warned me. Something!" Laura wanted to shake his image.

  "They were destined to die. You sense that too. I told you fate seeks to re-align its set course to its final destination. Your mother was meant to die when she fell on that pitchfork years before, but you saved her. Your father was meant to die from a heart attack later that year after the fire. You might have saved him as well. Then X-10 might have come back later and killed them in more gruesome ways. They died in their sleep from the smoke and never felt anything. He won't stop, Laura. You must stop him. Only you can do it."

  She reached out to Felix's hand. She intertwined her solid fingers with his ghost ones.

  "We are connected, you and I," she said. "I feel it. Part of us comes from so far away. I want to know more about this planet, Elyon. Is that why you watched me all those years?"

  "That…and more." Felix didn't move his hand away from hers. "I found you to be a beautiful person inside and out. You are the closest thing to love I have ever known."

  His eyes held hers. She could not look away. She was bound to this man by genes, history, and destiny. "I don't know if I could love you. I think I love Ben."

  "I know. It's not meant to be. I wanted it so much to be true that you and I were meant to mate and have a child. I thought it must be destiny. I grew to love you over the years. When you were a child I discovered it was not me you should be with. It was Ben. The vision of the future came to me and I saw it clear. That is why I started watching Ben."

  "I don't know if I can face what is coming. Until recently, sometimes I just wanted to die myself. As my parents did. As Moe did. As Renee did. Then I would be at peace and it would be over."

  "You are so strong, Laura. I am a witness to your life and strength. I know what you can do. I wanted so much to be with you. I wanted us to carry on the Elyon people, in the hopes someday more would come here to be with us. I had a fertility test to discover I was indeed sterile, as the scientists had predicted I would be. I knew then, when I found out I could not impregnate a woman that the destiny of you and Ben must happen. My role was to ensure you both survived and meet one another to mate. As you did."

  Laura felt her cheeks grow hot. She moved away and put her hands in her coat pockets.

  "That's such a funny word. Mate." She laughed to cover her embarrassment.

  "It's really making love for you, isn't it?"

  Laura nodded. "I do love him," she whispered. "We've known each other such a short time but it's like—"

  "It's meant to be, right?"

  She nodded. "Yes."

  "And that is as it should be."

  Then Felix vanished. Laura let out a sob staring at the space he had just been in. She looked around her. Her sudden aloneness filled her with despair. The water lapped smooth at the lake's edge in a silent pulse. Ben. There was Ben. But she was still alone. Alone in this standoff between alien and human. She had to be alone in it. Whatever would happen, after it was all over, she wouldn't be staying. She was a freak.

  She didn't want to believe Felix's vision of her bearing Ben's child. She felt ashamed thinking it, but if she were pregnant she could just get rid of it. It could look like a freak too. Like her twin. Even though she looked human, she felt like a freak. She would have to isolate herself from everyone she knew to start over. If she lived. And if so, would it be crazy to think she could turn her brother to the side of good?

  Part of her wanted to hold Ben forever, to feel his love flow over her and his body never separated from hers. But soon they would be separated. They had to, for his sake.

  X-10 woke up from his pile of leaves to see the moon high overhead. He had left the Appalachian Trail as it veered east toward Vermont, upon reaching the corners bordering Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. He now moved north into the Catskill Mountains, just south of Albany. One night he stole a car to move faster. He hid in the bushes beside an all-night convenient store just off the trail, where the highway passed through.

  His patience paid off. At 2:00 a.m. a man stopped, looking at a map in his car. X-10 seized the opportunity to rush into his back seat, put his pod fingers around his throat, and order him to drive. When the man looked in his rear view mirror he let his bladder loo
se in fright. A urine stench rose up from the seat. X-10 kept his hands on the man's throat as he drove north. The man chattered on, begging him to let him go. X-10 told him to shut up and squeezed his throat harder.

  The man drove for two hours until the gas gauge registered empty. The car shuddered to a halt on a dark, rural road. X-10 broke the man's neck with one crack and left him in the car, slumped over the wheel. He then returned on foot to the woods that would hide him. But the car had gotten him a considerable distance ahead. He believed he was fifty or so miles away from the girl. He could reach her within two days if he remained unfound under the cover of darkness.

  As he ran under the full moon, leaping over rocks and roots, darting around boulders he could see her in his mind. Laura. You are mine. Then he saw her with her man. Water coursed all around them. Her hair hung wet about her shoulders. They were naked and sliding into one another. Her mouth hung open in ecstasy. Her breasts bounced as the man held her up, driving into her. X-10 closed off his mind's eye to the scene. He didn't want to see her naked. It made him feel strange. And in that strange feeling he couldn't define, X-10 hated her even more.

  Rage surged through him and his blood pulsed fast, throbbing under his white skin in blue rivers. Why did she get to have her man when he couldn't have his woman? Why was she worthy and he wasn't? But Sabrina's touches had made him feel worthy. Even if they were paid. And she had smelled and looked so good.

  The night flashed through him again and he moaned with agony over the loss of the girl who left a hole in his heart. The girl who called him Charlie and loved him for just one night.

  After her fear of him had left her, she sat down on his bed then. "Why don't we just lie here for now? We can talk, you know. Like real…people."

  He stood over her, considering. What would he talk about with a human girl?

  She lay down on her side and he did too, facing her. Her blonde hair curved along her breasts like silky strands of sparkly cotton candy. He'd seen a picture of it once being swirled on a stick at a fair. He wondered what it would taste like. What she would taste like.