1
23 Years Later
(Lithia's Alarm went off for the Third Time)
"Didn't I just shut that shit off?" I rolled over to my phone and looked at the alarm. The phone read,
"Annoyed yet? good! Now go get your niece to school!"
I was confused for a second and then realized, I had Avalia for a month.
"Shit! I forgot!" I threw my blankets off me and threw on last night's sweatpants and one of my Jack Skellington Shirts. I ran out of my room and into Avalia's designated room. I made sure I had a least two guest rooms in my house. So, I made one of them a room for Avalia, when she stayed over for the summer.
I slowed my pace, not wanting to scare her by bursting through the door like a burglar. As I got in her room, this little brat was sitting on her bed watching videos on her phone. She was fully dressed including shoes and her hair was done. She looked up from the phone and smiled.
"Hey Auntie Lee! You want some coffee before you drop me off?" Avalia is Auntie Quinn's and Uncle Ronald's 15-year-old daughter. Auntie Quinn had trouble conceiving for a while and I was somewhat of a problem child as a teen, but not completely by my own devices. Avalia was born on October 11th when I was 15 years old. I didn't go to school that day to help my aunt in the hospital. This was a decision we both made. I was getting into too much trouble with the other kids. I told the school if they wanted to spread false information and get me jumped, they were going to pay tenfold. Also, my aunt wanted Ronald to go to work that day, because she didn't know how long the process would be. She wanted to be as stable as possible, with me by her side and Ronald's office 6 blocks away from the hospital. She felt at ease that everyone was by her side and not getting themselves in trouble. For Uncle Ronald 6 blocks wasn't bad, if there was traffic, he could run over to the hospital. Which is exactly what he did, he made it just in time too.
"You are your Parents kid, Avalia. I can tell you that right now." She chuckled and got off her bed. Avalia came up and smiled at me. Like she was a cute little kid instead of a 15-year-old mischievous teen, who takes after me as well. Even Auntie Quinn jokes that; she can't tell if she gave birth to Avalia, or I did.
"And you are my favorite person in the world, you know that." Avalia said. I gave her a wicked smile.
"Really? I'm your favorite person? Question, how annoyed is your favorite person going to be with the information you're about to dump on me?" That cute smile faded fast.
"I may have not turned in a project for the last, I don't know, let's say 2 or 3,"
"Days?" I asked
"More like months. My teacher would like to speak to you this morning." I could feel my eyes bugging out of my head. While my jaw felt like it would fall off my face.
"Avalia!" She was now giving me that guilty smile.
"Does your teacher know that you are with me for the next month and not your parents?"
"Well, yes. They all got the emails mom sent them 3 days before she left. She gave you permission to talk to all the teachers if anything was wrong." I looked at Avalia like she was insane. Then it dawned on me, she's not in a panic, she was fully ready to tell me this. This is probably why she didn't wake me up when she woke up this morning.
"Avalia? How long have you and the teacher knew that me, personally, was coming to this meeting?" She stepped back and gave a weak smile.
"A week." I know this little girl did not just say "a week." My head has started pounding now, like a migraine was to set in for the day.
"Is there coffee made?" I asked through gritted teeth.
"Yes, just finished brewing around the time of your second Alarm." I just walked out of the room and walked into the kitchen. I went and poured myself a large cup of coffee in my Pokémon Snorlax cup.
My niece is the spitting image of her mother, has the chill side of her father, and she has my impulsive nature. However, she fully has her own personality and nitch in life that is geared to her. She is great at science and is in a program after school where she can go to a local community college and study with them for a Biotechnical degree. They have a program for high schoolers called dual enrollment; she is the first freshman to ever be accepted in her school. She's extremely smart, however being smart in college courses makes her bord in her current classes in High School.
I sat down in the kitchen and drank my cup of coffee; my head was pounding like a jack hammer. However, I also knew I couldn't let her go to school on an empty stomach. Auntie Quinn would kill me and bury me in the back yard of my own home. I get up and make some quick scramble eggs with a side of two waffles for the each of us.
"I'm sorry Auntie Lee. I thought if I told you the first couple of days I was here, you would be mad." Avalia comes in the kitchen and sits in the chair adjacent to mine. I didn't turn to her, and she knows why.
It's not because I am angry with her, something happened to her when she was young. When I was around 23 and she was maybe about 7. Avalia's babysitter at that time was a 21-year-old college student. She had been a long-standing babysitter with my aunt, and she knew I would pop in at random times to check on my niece. One day, my aunt and uncle were out on a date night. They said they weren't coming back until I think around 11pm. I didn't tell them I was going to check in on the house but when do I ever. What had happened was the babysitter was supposed to cook Avalia some mac and cheese from the box. She left the stove on to boil the water while she did some homework and Avalia played in her room. The babysitter took something to relax but she fell asleep instead while the stove was still on and the water boiling.
Avalia came out of her room to find half the kitchen was on fire. She was trying to wake the babysitter up when I ran inside. I know the neighbors saw me because as they were calling the fire department, I ran inside and heard someone scream for me to come back. Avalia was still trying to wake the babysitter up in the living room. Harrison, my childhood neighbor's son, ran into the house after me. He is a year or two older than me and his fiancé is a long-term friend of mine. He carried the babysitter out, while I got Avalia out. To this day Avalia would rather talk to someone's back instead of them turning away from an open flame.
"Did you think I would be mad? Or was it you thought I was going to tell your mom, and she would be mad?" Avalia was quiet for a second.
"Mom has been harping on me since I got into the dual enrollment program. She keeps saying that I can't slack on the schoolwork that I have in my real school. But, come on, Auntie, you went to college. You know how the professors put you up to a standard where they trust you to make a good decision, without a double standard like the high school. They don't treat you like you're still a middle school student and tell us that this is how the world works. Then, the high school teachers will yell at you when you did something correct, because they thought they taught you a different way of doing the work, then you do it the way they told you and get it wrong. Which, in their minds, gives them the right to yell at us again. But, when we question the high school teachers, they take it as an insult to their intelligence and get defensive. They will say we are disrupting the class just to send us to the principal's office for a slap on the wrist. No college professor does that, unless you are being horrible." I nodded my head because she is right.
"Remember what I told you when you first started that program?" I asked.
"Remember who you are." Avalia said.
"Yes, and that included your age. Which means you stay away from people you have no business being around. Although, it also means that you are still a 15-year-old girl. Who still has prom in the next two years, you have high school events to go to with friends, you still have a life with the kids your own age. Which means not sticking your nose up with the work the teachers give you all. Yes, High school is either dull and boring, Gossipy and frantic, stressful and damn near depressing, but these are the things you also go through in life. High school never really ends after you graduate, it just gets more people and slightly different scenarios. Do you get what I am saying."
I could see Avalia's face in the reflection. She was contemplating her answer. I put the eggs on a different burner and turned the stove off.
I turned to her.
"I'm not saying you don't shut out the fun and good experiences of college while your there. Just remember you are still a teenager, and you should still act like a teenager. It's not too much fun after the age of 18. Okay? Trust me, if I could be a teenager again. I mean without all the mishaps I had as a teenager, I would do it again."
Avalia got up and gave me a hug.
"Thanks, auntie." I patted her on the head and told her to get two plates while I put the waffles in the toaster.
2
"Avalia, go into the car I'll be there in a second, I just have to grab my bag."
"Okay!" Avalia yelled back. As I ran back to my room, I changed out of my, "I'm just dropping this kid off outfit" and slipped into something appropriate to have a parent/teacher meeting. I also grabbed my bag with all the domestic orders that I need to put into my computer when I get to the office. When suddenly I heard my other work phone go off in my drawer.
"What the hell?" I go to the drawer on my nightstand. I slip my hand on the bottom of the drawer where there lies a touch pad. I heard the positive click, and I opened it to find my agent calling me.
"What have I told you about calling me before I drop off my niece?" I heard a bad smokers cough on the other side of the phone.
"We got a problem Lithia. And you of all people need to hear this. Illegal portals have been popping up in different places on the earth. We tracked one and it appeared to be a portal from Piri that appeared in the mist of Cairo. This has been a big problem for months now but never anything coming out as a threat until 3 days ago. We are afraid we caught a mass of creatures coming out of the portal. The problem is they dissipated before we could tell what they were."
I almost dropped my phone.
My mother had taken over a full dimension, which exists of 28 planets with 4.3 trillion different species. I, just like my aunt, couldn't stand around helplessly when my mother was trying to take over the world. I refused to join forces with my aunt in the Evalute bureau. Auntie Quinn has been a part of this company years before I was born. Despite that, the rules they have would restrict me from doing anything good. Another reason is they don't trust me because I am Xena Nix's daughter. They feel if I am in power, I could be persuaded into giving her that same power I was granted. I went for the more under the table, a tad bit illegal, (More like borderline death penalty illegal.) Agency that also has the power of controlling and eliminating other worldly threats off our planet. This agency is called The Shattered Vanguard.
"When you have time, I need you to come to the Main office. We will have a meeting with Hagenberg and Lissi, so I would brace yourself for anything and everything."
"You mean today, don't you."
"I mean as soon as you drop off your niece." Fuck me, today has already pissed me off.
"Okay, I'll text you when I am leaving the school."
"Oh, and Lithia? Have a good time at the parent teacher conference. I think it's a good idea for you to experience it before you have your own kids."
"What have I told you about bugging my house, Aubrey?" I heard a clicking noise, meaning she just hung up.
"Well, fuck you too." I tucked my work phone into my bra.
I slugged the bag full of paperwork over my shoulder, even though I wasn't going to need it. Then I started out of the house. As I got in the car, Avalia had already started the engine to turn on the heat and to listen to music. I opened the driver's door to the loud sound of Nickelback. As I got into the car I turned the music down.
"Hey!"
"I know your shoes are not on my dashboard. Are you insane, little girl? Get your dirty ass shoes off my dashboard, now! I know your grandmother, she would have whooped your butt, outside of this car as soon as she saw you."
I shut the door as Avalia plopped her feet back on the ground.
"What took you so long? I thought you were just getting your bag?"
"I got a phone call from work. I have to go in right after your conference." Avalia nodded and quietly said Ok.
I drove 20 minutes to the High school on college street, in the downtown area of my city. I parked in the teachers parking lot and turned off the car.
Something feels off. I looked around the parking lot.
"It's almost 7am, isn't there supposed to be teachers and kids here by now? Why does the parking lot look oddly dead?" I asked Avalia as I looked around my car. I know I've been out of high school for a bit, but I do remember that first period would start around 7:20 am. Now, if the seniors didn't show up that was one thing, but not majority of the school.
Avalia looked around as well.
"That is weird, usually the security guards are out by now. The hurry to class bell is in like 15 minutes. Plus, the freshie moms would be dropping them off like crazy and yelling at the other kids to get out of their way. Did I miss an announcement?" Avalia took out her phone to check. I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw a figure running from behind my car.
"What was that?" I asked.
"What was what? Did you see something?" Avalia asked, still looking through her school email.
"Maybe?" I investigated all the mirrors and windows. In the corner of my eye, I saw a black shadow pass by Avalia's window. Avalia grabbed me.
"Auntie Lee did you see that?"
"That black shadow by the window. Hell yeah, I did."
Shit.
"What is going on?"
"I don't know but since you're on your phone call the police." I looked over to her.
"Avalia, are you listening?" Avalia was staring in the front mirror; I looked too.
"Jeremey Deminco?" A teenage boy stood 10 steps away from the front of my car. He looked pale, a very sickly pale at that.
"Avalia, is he supposed to look like that?" I asked concerned.
"No, not even close. He is a darker shade than I am. My summer makeup wouldn't even touch his regular complexion. I don't understand, I just talked to him this morning. He seemed fine. What is wrong with him?" Avalia cried out. My eyes bugged as I realized the situation.
"Body snatchers!"
I try to start the car, but it keeps stalling.
"Shit! Shit!" I try the key again. Avalia started hitting me in the arm.
"Auntie, Look!" I look up and there were 12 more kids in front of us. I turn around to the back seat to grab a Nighi Gun, when I saw a horde of kids surrounding the back of the car.
"Not Good." Avalia looked back as well, and she saw some of her friends.
"Are they okay? Auntie what's wrong with them?" I looked back to the front of the car, to see the first kid inching up to the car. He smiled; black gunk spilled from his mouth. Fear hit to the maximum in my body. I won't be able to fight with Avalia in the car, she will get hurt and I will never forgive myself.
I quickly pulled open the glove compartment and took out a wheedle stick. It is called this because the person who designed it thought: If the name sounded stupid enough, people wouldn't take it seriously. Nevertheless, the wheedle stick is a high-powered stun gun. If this hit a human at even the lowest charge, the voltage would fry that human crispier then fried chicken.
"What is that?" Avalia asked in a panic. I started the Wheedle stick up. It made the same sound as a regular stun-gun would, but at a higher pitch.
"You're not going to hurt them, right?" Not in the way she thinks. I shook my head no.
Finally, I jammed the Wheedle Stick into the ignition. The car started up immediately, at which point I shifted into reverse. The wheels squealed as I tried to avoid the children standing in the back of the car. I missed a kid by a mere inch. Avalia screamed in horror.
I shifted the car back into drive and hit the gas. The good thing is, I knew the brains of the Body snatchers couldn't comprehend what I was doing. They would have to search the minds of those kids to proceed accordingly to their plan. Which is how I know that some of those kids are still alive. A dead mind cannot be accessed, but a child trapped in their own mind will do anything to be free.
"Oh My God, there running! They are running after the car! They shouldn't be able to run that fast, what is going on?!" I sped up, I had to get the Body Snatchers away from the school. The school has its own two streets; one goes to the school and the other is just a road no one really uses. No more kids should be hurt because of me.
The kids who were running behind me ran faster than a track star. These are the kids who were trapped in their own mind. The other kids, who were leading the group, they were jumping on cars and barreling through whatever got in their way. These were the kids the creatures took over entirely. I moved the car into moving traffic. I wanted to see if the creatures with the humans still intact would slow down to not hurt their vessels, but I was wrong. They moved to the sidewalk and sprinted to the car. The others rammed, or jumped into the cars that wouldn't move out of their path.
"Why are they being like this?" I hear the hurt in Avalia's voice. I opened the lever on my dashboard and put my fingerprint on the pad.
"Evalute Employee Number 822 speaking. What is your emergency.?" The voice rang through the car.
"This is High-value 898, I have a 626 case. I need an immediate retrieval team. I have enemies on my tail. I Repeat I need an immediate retrieval team."
"But auntie Lee?" Avalia said almost crying,
I kept staring at the road, swerving around the cars in front of me, trying to stay out of the opposite lane to pass certain cars. However, I also can see the chaos surging through the streets behind us. I will not let Avalia get hurt, if I can keep anyone safe it will be her.
"Its fine, the people I called, I trust. Don't worry, they will keep you safe." I told Avalia.
"And, are you going to be safe when they leave?" I heard Auntie Quinn's voice in little Avalia. I looked over to her for a second and smiled. Then I set my eyes back on the road and told her what I tell Auntie Quinn all the time.
"When am I ever safe in this world. Safe is a word for people who don't have family members that are slaughtering millions of innocent people, ruling over things that was never there's in the first place. I will never be safe until my mother is dead. But that doesn't mean you can't be." I could see Avalia slump back into her seat almost defeated, which was not my goal. The problem is, right now I can't console her because there are Body Snatchers blazing toward us with rage in their eyes, and all I need to do is to …
3
(Bang!)
Something hit my car, and it wasn't another car. I looked in my side-view mirror and it was the first kid that appeared at the school. He or whatever is cast in him is the leader of the pack, meaning there will be more kids in less than a minute trying to ram into my car. Something hit me on the other side, this hit jolted the car forward.
"Are they trying to ram us off the street." Avalia asked, holding on to her seat.
"No, Body Snatchers know how to tip the largest of predators, there not trying to flip the car." However, I am afraid that if this is not the goal, what is it?
"High-Value 898, two retrieval teams are in pursuit. Keep out of danger as much as you can. They are 5 minutes away in both directions." Two retrieval teams, why would there be…
"Copy that!" I tried to get my purse, to find my phone, but the way these cars are hastily moving to the side of the road now is not helpful.
"Avalia, can you get out my phone?" Avalia did as I said silently, I really hurt her this time.
"Avalia, you know…"
"Auntie Lee, I know that you have gone through a lot. Mom has told me stories and so has dad, they may be sugar coated but I know people hurt you in the past and even now. I just want you to see me as more than a child and someone who can help you." She gave me my phone.
"It's not that I don't want your help. It's if you help me. You are a target on people's radar; you don't need to be hunted down for something that was never geared to you."
"I know, but I hate feeling helpless when I, too, have powers and I am as smart as you and mom."
"Sweetie, no one said you weren't. But in these situations, I rather not have to bury you young." I think the message finally got to her. I unlocked my phone and speed dialed Dawn Crown. I heard the click tone meaning she picked up.
"Dawn!"
"I don't want to fucking hear it Lithia. You are both being retrieved, if you turn my people away for you, I will come get you myself."
"Know Dawn what have you always told me about the abuse of power." I heard her scuff.
"The same thing you tell me, Power is only abused if to gain more power not to save a life." Avalia started laughing.
"I can see why you too have been friends for so long." Before I could react, the car jolted one more, this time pulling the front end up in the air. My car looked like those jumping Cadillacs that I always thought were great, for teenagers.
"Shit!"
"What was that? Avalia, are you okay?" Dawn screamed over the phone.
"I'm okay. Auntie Lee, are you okay?" My brain froze; all I wanted to do is keep the car on the road without flipping. I could still hear what was going on, but I was too focused to talk. I swerved though the street faster now. I could hear Dawn trying to calm Avalia down while my hyper focus was still going. I could see in the mirror the body snatchers creeping back up to my car.
"Lithia! You have to snap out of your hyper focus, the rescue team is close and if you are still like this you will avoid them too. Then no one is safe." I tried snapping myself out of it, but my instincts can still feel that the danger is way too close. Why is this? The body snatchers are still not close enough to hit us or even touch the car. Why do I feel like danger is still right on top of us.
"Ah!" Avalia screamed so loudly I swerved into the wrong side of the street. Now I must avoid cars coming straight at me. I couldn't look at her to see what was wrong until I heard my back window shatter. They were on my car. My hyper focus slightly lessened so I could instruct Avalia.
"Avalia, grab that gun under your seat." Avalia did as I told her.
"This isn't a gun."
"It's called a Nagi Gun. Turn around and shoot the snatchers off the car."
"But there my friends." I felt tears in my eyes.
"The ones that are on the car are not your friends anymore. They have been killed, and their body was taken over by a body snatcher, I'm sorry." Avalia stayed silent for a good minute until she screamed in pain this time. One of the body snatchers climbed halfway in and started pulling at Avalia.
"Pull over and the abomination won't die!" I heard a sinister voice coming from the back of my car. I turned and grabbed the gun out of Avalia's hand and shot it at the creature who held on to her.
"Look out!" Avalia screamed, I turned back to the wheel and a truck was coming head on. I tried to pull the car to the left as hard as I could, but the car tipped to the left side fully. Leaving Avalia so close to the street she was seeing sparks by her head. She kept screaming while I was trying to prevent us from going all the way over. However, unknown to me there was another snatcher on my car.
As the car started to finally tip back over, the body snatcher hit the driver's side window shattering it. The glass flew in my face; I tried to shield my eyes. I let go of the wheel, and the car tipped completely over. The car rolled over 9 times before it stopped on the roof.
I could see Avalia hanging from her seat. Her seat belt kept her in place but there was blood coming from her hands and face. I tried to reach out to her when I heard snarls coming from outside of the car.
"Avalia, wake up. Please! I need to get you out of here."
"Princess? Come out, come out. All we want to do is talk." The voice that I could hear was so unappealing that my body shivered. It sounded like a grinder that spoke.
"Come out, or we will kill the halfling." I unbuckled knowing damn well if I didn't do something, we would all be doomed. My whole body crashed into the roof and what was left of the front windshield.
"Auntie Lee?" I heard Avalia say. She was too hurt to run away.
"You're okay, Avalia. Come on, I'll get you down and you just lay down until someone comes and helps you." I moved my whole body close to Avalia, so I could pull her down a bit more gently than I went down.
"There you go, that's it." Avalia groaned in pain as I pulled her down. I dragged her out of the car on my back. I could feel glass shards ripping into my back. It stung like nothing I have ever felt.
I can see the Snatchers standing in an oval 20 feet away in every direction of the car. As I am still dragging Avalia out of the car, I yelled at them.
"You come anywhere close to my niece, and I will kill myself on the spot. I don't think your mission is to bring me back dead. So, I suggest keeping your God Damn Distance!"
I finally get both of us out of the wreck. I roll Avalia off me and on to her own back. She had passed out already. I prop myself up with my right arm, the pain I was going through was so bad, I wanted to dig my nails into a rock to counter it. I gave Avalia a kiss on her forehead.
"Help will be here soon. Don't wait up for me. Also Always know that I love you."