Strange lights and other occurrences; a guide to alien housemates

Chapter 5: Time for the truth... well, some of it

Morning broke finally. Sun streamed in thorough the spare room curtains, smells of toast drifted in from the kitchen. Birds tweeted outside, and the warm sheets were a cocoon of comfort. Anya was drifting back into the real world from the land of sleep, her eyes fuzzy, slowly and silently-

THUMP. 

She landed on the floor. Now she was awake. She stood up, and hobbled to the living room, her eyes still fuzzy, her head wobbling. She greeted Dan and Phil, who sat on the sofa eating breakfast. Her shoulder hummed with pain. This reminded her.

"I'm sorry about last night, by the way, I should not have been so... rude."

"That's alright," said Phil "You were tired. And in pain as it turned out."

"Just, next time, let us know sooner." Dan added.

Anya nodded, thankful that she had not caused offence, though still rather embarrassed. She rubbed her head.

"In all my years, I have rarely felt this... useless." She considered her options of ever leaving Earth.

"Aww, don't say that, you helped us a little" Phil tried to comfort her. This wasn't quite what she meant. She was sure she could find something to do on Earth, but her exhausted body worried about loose ends left untied pre-crash. She smiled.

"I'm glad you feel that way, I wouldn't want to be a burden on you both. But my worry is more of... things left... unchecked... outside of Earth." She stared into space for a moment, frozen in her thoughts. What if something- Snap! She returned to reality, taking a deep breath as though she had just surfaced from the depths of an ocean. "I could help you with your videos?" she looked between the faces of her confused friends, who seemed to be having a silent staring conversation with each other. They were silent, but Anya got the impression that a lot was being said. She felt the need to supplement her suggestion.

"You know, like prop management, lighting and... well, I could help you think of creative ideas!"

The eye conversation continued, but its tone changed. Nods of agreement would have been a feature of the conversation if it had been vocal. Dan raised an eyebrow, and Phil responded with a slight smile. Anya stood, a fake expression of confusion on her face. She awaited the verdict, the countdown timer theme ticking in her head. She had seen too much countdown on her days off. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick, PING!

Dan spoke.

"Sure, we'd be happy to show you how to use equipment, but on one condition. You have to introduce yourself to the viewers."

Anya considered this. She would have to make up an introduction, be presentable for it, make it a convincing statement. But what if the fans disliked her appearance? What if she did something wrong or let out some information that was unintended? What if her BROTHER saw it? He would so tease her for- Wait. If her brother saw it... she could communicate with him! It could be her solution to finding a way home, or, at least, of monitoring the things she had been keeping an eye on. It would take time to get her home, but it could be done. Provided, that was, that Yana was paying attention. But no, that wouldn't be a problem, eventually, even if not right away, he would notice.

"OK Sounds good to me!" Anya chimed, satisfied. 

"Great! We'll do that tomorrow then!" said Phil, happy that the matter was resolved.

"You have to understand, though, Anya, we won't explicitly lie to the audience, just... not mention you're alien." Dan was right. Lying was not a good idea.

"Speaking of not lying," He continued "I, well, we, have a few questions for you. Mainly, who are you?"

"Yeah," agreed Phil "and why do you have two names?"

Anya had been wondering when this would happen. She sat on the floor, cross legged, in front of them, as though on trial. 

"Well, if you're ready, I'll tell you as much as I can. Ask away, there is no limit to the questions you can ask, at all." She expressed this in hand signals, though a little too enthusiastically, almost decimating a vase that stood next to her, but only just managing to catch it before it fell. She moved it slightly further from her expressive hands.

"O... K" said Dan, unsure of what to make of this. He looked at Phil, who repeated his question.

"Right, yes, that... I... uh, that's mostly a safety thing. Outside of Earth I'm rather... I guess you could say famous? Not like with fans or anything, just a lot of people know the name Anya Delmarla. And in this corner of your galaxy... there are... some who dislike the name. If they knew that Anya Delmarla had crash landed on Earth, they would likely try to track me down, and saying the name in public is the best way to help them do that."

"Don't they know what you look like?" asked Dan. Recognition was, after all, a useful tool to track someone down with.

"Ah, now you see, a lot of these... enemies... don't actually know what I look like. They're mostly bandits, you see, and have inherited the hatred for the name from ancestors that have been imprisoned by my... investigations." She assumed this would explain a lot, but it seemed to cause more confusion. Dan's furrowed brow intensified, and Phil's voice took on a higher pitch when he asked,

"Ancestors?"

Anya hadn't spotted the problem with this word.

"Yes, parents who tell their children things like, "if you ever find Anya Delmarla, kill her, she imprisoned your grandfather" and "The name Delmarla means death" you know, those sorts of things don't leave a good impression!"

Dan was squinting

"How old ARE you?"

Now Anya recognised the problem.

"Ah, yes, probably should've said."

The tension built in the room

"I'm abooouuut... hmm... don't remember my last birthday... " as she thought, Dan and Phil were frozen in their tense confusion. "2310 years old by now. It's difficult to know exactly, I don't celebrate every year."

Dan turned his still squinted glare to Phil, who turned his squinted stare to Dan.

"2310?????" Phil's voice could now summon dogs to their location "How can that... be?"

"Well, my species can actually live to 50,000 years with good diet and exercise"

"50,000 YEARS!?" Dan shouted. That was quite a lot.

The room was silent for about 3 minutes after that.

Finally, Dan spoke. "What species are you?"

Anya shuffled nervously. She disliked keeping the information from them, but it could endanger them if they knew. She had always sworn to keep it relatively secret. That sort of information was risky.

"I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me for that, I... can't say. You have to understand that its highly dangerous for that information to be... public" She was deadly serious now.