Unexpected Love

Chapter 7: Who Knows?

I was sleeping peacefully when I heard a noise. I got up from my bed and followed the noise. I shushed Noble who was growling and barking every five minutes. I picked up a knife on my dresser. I went into my living room and squinted. My night vision kicked in and I saw a person with a black outfit and black thigh boots. I threw the knife and the person grabbed it by the handle.
"Nice try," It said. I crept closer and saw the figure was a woman. She had a scar on her cheek.
"What do you want?"
"I need your help. You are Marie's daughter, am I right?" She had a thick Texan accent.
"How do you know my mom?"
"I am Svea. Marie's protector."
"If you are my mom's 'protector' then why did she die?"
"She died of cancer. But that's not entirely true. Your father killed her." She sat down on my couch.
"How? How can he do that. She died of natural causes."
"Jack, your father, has a special power called Death Inducement. he could kill people by touching their forehead and letting his power go into their brain. When he realized that his power worked on her, he called me and told me."
"How do you expect me to believe this?"
"Because you saw it."
"How do you know that I saw that?" She was very creepy.
I have the memories of your mom. And your dad, and I have yours. When I took your mom's memories, I took yours too."
"Oh,"
"Lagerin needs your help."
"Mom's world?"
"Yes. See, our enemies from years ago decided to surpassed us. Everyone important is either dead or hurt. Your mom was the most powerful ally we had, but she's dead. You are the closest thing to her. I will teach you to use your Aellans and you will get stronger."
"Um, hold on, I can't just leave. I have a life here, a boyfriend. I can't leave with you to your planet or whatever. What does Aella mean?"
"Aella is your powers. We call them your Aellan powers," She removes her boots and puts her feet on my coffee table. "And that's fine. I'll teach you here."
"No, no! You can't stay here. Kevin is going to be here tomorrow." I push her feet off my coffee table.
She stands up. "Lagerin needs you. I need you. We need people to stand up to them. Your dad was an enemy to us but he proved himself. But then he kills Marie. I think that was his mission all along."
I huffed. "I'll do it, but on one condition."
"What?" She looked at me and waited.
"You tell me everything. About my parents, about Lagerin, about you. Everything, I need to know."
"Ugh, fine. We start practicing tomorrow at four o' clock, sharp."
"Eight o' clock. I have people coming over the entire day. I need to keep this quiet. I don't want anyone knowing about this."
"It'll be our little secret."
"Just pretend that your my aunt or something."
"Okey dokey, hon. Goodnight." She picked up her boots and was going to leave but I stopped her.
"You can sleep in the extra room, Svea. Stay tomorrow too. I bet my friends would want to meet you. You can wear one of my clothes tonight."
The next morning. I woke up and smelled coffee. I remembered when my mom would make the house smell like coffee and my dad would smile and kiss her head. I don't even know if that was fake or if he actually wanted to marry her. I don't know what is real and what's fake anymore. I remembered the coffee and I literally jumped out of my bed. When I got to the kitchen, I saw a woman in there humming. Mom. She had blonde hair up to her shoulders. She was wearing one of her outfits. Very colorful, a Indian cardigan with black jeans and a black shirt. Mom always hummed when making something. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, even dessert and drinks. She made everything hand-made. I miss her so much.
"Mom?" I said, and crept closer. "Mom? Is that you?"
She turned around and it was Svea? "No hon, it's me." She smiled. "You want some coffee?"
I was disappointed. "Yeah, sure." I realized how Svea looked like my mom in the smallest details. Same blonde hair and blue eyes. Svea was a little taller than my mom and she had a strong frame. She looked like she fought a lot. "You hum like my mom does when she's in the kitchen."
"Oh? I do? Your mom had such an effect on me. We were best friends back then. Everyone thought we were twins. They only difference was our hair. My hair was short, her hair was so beautiful and long." She sighed, sitting down on a chair and staring out into space. "We did everything together." She realized that she was thinking too hard and stopped. She started to clean the counters again.
"Tell me. What happened?"
"Well, she fell in love with this guy. Your dad, and she believed that he was a Lagerin. But we never saw him around. Everywhere he went, people would turn away. Which meant that he was a traitor back then, or something. She didn't see that he was being turned away and rejected by everyone. She loved him and she wanted to marry him. One night I followed him home, but he didn't go home, he went to this old rusty building. He was talking to someone and when I looked around the corner, I saw the Coreeshvi, our enemy. So I told Marie, she didn't believe me." She sighed again. And covered her face. "That night, her dad died by the sword of the Coreeshvi. They must have figured out that she knew or something. They thought it was Marie that night, not me. I feel so bad, you know?"
"It's okay, Svea. It's in the past. We need to save Lagerin now. I promise I'm going to fight. This is my fight too, my mom would want me to stand up for you guys. I'm so sorry about what happened and to my grandpa."
"Chloe, you have no idea what this means to me. Thank you so much."
I smiled. "Well, where's that coffee? I need it just about now."
She smiled back and handed me a coffee mug. I cleaned up my house and Svea helped. I let her keep my mom's clothes. I think she needs it more than I do. She hugged me when I said that she could keep it, then she made some more coffee. We were drunk with coffee and when I wanted more, I practiced my telekinesis and floated my mug to the counter where she would fill it, then I would let it float back to me. I would move things with my mind when I got tired picking things up. I would move them to my room and put them away. I scrubbed my whole house with my mind and a scrub brush. When I was done, I sat down.
"Svea! I think my house is as clean as it is going to get." I laughed and she popped out of the guest room.
"Not my room," She went back inside and I waited. Then when she was done, she plopped down next to me. "Wow, I haven't cleaned my stuff for awhile. I travel a lot, especially to get to you."
"Oh. Well, at least you cleaned it now. Make sure you put all the alien stuff away where my friends can't see it. They tend to wander into things they're not allowed in."
"Thanks for the tip. Chloe, can I ask you a question?"
"Yeah, what?"
"Where is your dad?"
"He's in Iowa. It's where I was born, where my mom lived. But he had to move out of the house because he didn't have a job. Why?"
"It's just, I have to turn him in. For killing Marie and for breaking the rules of the handbook." I heard a shuffle. Two people beyond the wall, I think. Or maybe I'm just going crazy. Yeah, that's it.
"What's the handbook?"
She smiled. "I'll teach you, just later. Someone's at the door."
"How do you know that?" I heard a knock. "Wha-" What just happened?
"Better go answer it..."
"Yep, I got it." I got up. "You're telling me how you did that."
"You have the same ability as me. Just use it."
"Okay? Um..." I patted my clothes and opened the door. "Hey! Come in, Emma, Darren. Where's Kevin?"
"Oh, he's still on his way."
The phone rang. "Oh, just close the door." I walked into my office and answered the phone. "Hello?"

"I have Kevin. If you want him, meet me at the warehouse on 11th street at 7 o' clock. Come alone. If you don't, he's dead."