-Chapter 5-
Telepathy
I yelp, terrified, as I hear the tiny alien speaking to me. But when he said his name, I realized that his tiny mouth didn't move at all. He must've spoken to me...in my head? How was that possible?
"You...you can talk?" I ask it, my voice a quivering mess.
The alien nods, "Yes. Were you the one who saved me from the fire?"
It's my turn to nod. I watch closely as I confirm what I was thinking. The alien is speaking to me in my mind. But how? None of this is making any sense. "Yes I did. How are you feeling? Are you going to survive?" I ask.
"I do believe so. My arm is the only thing that hurts on me. I can barely move it," the alien says. He tries to move his arm but when he moves it an inch, he winces in pain.
"No no, don't try to move your arm, it's broken. It's going to take a while for it to heal," I explain, "you broke it pretty bad."
"How long do you think it'll take to heal human? I cannot stay here in bed forever. An alien invasion is chasing me and I must leave as soon as possible," says the alien earnestly.
My eyes go wide with fear as what he says sinks in, "An alien invasion? Are you serious? They're coming to earth to find you?"
Nodding, the alien says, "They've been chasing me across the galaxy for some time now. I've always managed to escape them, but now that my ship is destroyed, I won't be able to leave your planet until I get it repaired. And by the time I do, it'll be too late. Earth and the human race, along with mine, will be eliminated. There will be no survivors left."
I know my mouth is hanging open wide but I don't care. I wanna scream because I'm just too stunned by all this news. But how do I know this alien is even telling the truth? It could be lying, trying to trick me somehow. How do I know I can even trust it? Then I think..well, it hasn't tried to kill me yet, so it must be okay. At least, I hope it is.
"You've gotta be kidding me. An evil race of aliens that's after you is gonna find you on earth and kill us all? Why? Why do they wanna kill you?" I ask all in a rush. I can feel my anxiety slowly picking up and I try to calm down.
"It's a very long story, human, and I do not have time to explain. I must get to work on repairing my spaceship so I can exit the earth. Thank you for saving me, but I must be going," says the alien. He tries to get out of bed, but cries out in pain because of his arm. "Noo! I must leave! I cannot stay here!" He screams, still trying to get out of bed.
"Shhh! Stop doing that, my family might hear you! You're just making it worse!" I whisper loudly. The alien groans and lies back down, defeated. He's breathing heavily, as if trying to get out of bed was a huge workout for him; and it probably was.
"Alright, Alright. I can see that I'm not going to be able to go anywhere for a while. Not in this condition anyway. I suppose I'll have to stay here for the time being," the alien decides. He closes his eyes as he leans back on his pillow.
I put my hands down as I realize they'd been facing palms up when I was telling him not to get out of bed. "Good," I say, "Okay, now that we have that settled, I guess we should introduce ourselves. I'm Cassidy, Cassidy Harlow. You said your name was Armani?"
The alien nods, "Yes human, my name is Armani. It is nice to meet a friendly human."
I can't help but smile a little at his bad English. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't be complaining. At least he can speak English at all. "It's nice to meet you too. You don't have to call me "human". You can just call me Cassidy."
Armani smiles and says, "Alright, if that's what you wish."
I nod while smiling, "Yes. So, how can I be talking to you if you can't move your mouth? I mean how are we doing this?" I ask curiously.
"Well, you see, I am able to use telepathy to speak to anyone I wish. However, you're the only human I've made contact with that can understand me. We've been told by our leader that no humans can understand our language," explains Armani.
"Really? Wow that's cool, who's your leader?" I say, getting up and sitting on the bed next to Armani.
At that Armani's expression changes. He frowns and glances away from me, staring out at my bedroom window. I feel bad about asking that, I guess it's a touchy subject for him. "Oh sorry, I guess I shouldn't have asked about that."
Armani sighs heavily, "No, it's alright. It's just...the reason why I left my planet, abandoned my people...was to escape the wrath of my leader. He is known as Lord Vulcan."
I feel myself frown and Armani's expression becomes darker as well. I decide to keep asking him more about his planet. "Oh, that's horrible. Why'd you have to escape from your own leader? Sorry, I'm just so confused. I don't know anything about your race. Heck up until tonight, I didn't even know aliens existed."
"I understand why you'd be "confused", as you say, about my kind. No humans were supposed to know of our existence. Lord Vulcan had made it clear that we were to stay as far away from the humans as possible because if they found us, they could harm us or torture us for information. But you seem like a trustworthy human to me," Armani says, looking up at me.
I smile wide again, "Oh, well thank you. And so far you're the nicest alien I've ever met. Well, you're the only one I've ever met actually." I can't help but giggle a little and Armani smiles.
Armani lets out a small cough and I feel my eyebrows knit together with concern, "Are you hungry? Do you want me to make you some soup or something?"
Armani looks confused, "What is soup?"
"Don't worry it's good for you. It'll help you feel better I promise. You're gonna love it," I tell him excitedly.
Armani shrugs then says, "Alright I will try it."
"Good. I'll make us both some. I'll be back in a few minutes. Don't leave my room okay? I don't want anyone else to see you," I tell him.
"Yes I understand, human. I'll be here." I nod and smile, then head down to the kitchen to make us some soup. I fire up the stove and set a pot on it, then I dump in some noodles and watch them cook.
"Hey Cass, can you help me with my math homework? I don't get it at all," Derek calls over to me from the living room. I roll my eyes and groan. I know that Derek just wants me to do his homework for him. He'll pretend like he gets it then he'll always fail his tests. Plus, I don't really have time to help him tonight. I have to take care of an injured alien that's upstairs lying in my bed.
"Um, Derek just go to tutoring in the morning. I'm kinda busy right now. I'm doing my own homework and I have a lot. Sorry," I say, feeling a little guilty about lying.
"Ugh fine I guess. I'll just have to wake up early tomorrow to get there," says Derek as he goes back to watching tv. I tap my foot anxiously as I watch the noodles boil on the stove. Finally, they're done and I quickly add some seasoning to flavor them so they'll taste better. Then, I grab a few pieces of toast, putting butter on it. Something that'll be light but healthy for the little alien. Hopefully this food will make him feel better.
After I finish making our dinner, I rush upstairs with a tray and shut my door again. Luckily my mom and dad are already asleep so it's only Derek I have to worry about if he decides to come in my room for some reason. I'm just praying that'll never happen.
"Hey I'm back, Armani. I got us some food." I carefully set his bowl of soup with the piece of bread on the nightstand.
Armani sniffs the air and smiles, "That smells very good. Our food never smells like that on my planet."
"You must not have very good food there then," I say observantly. I take a spoon and begin to feed Armani.
He licks the soup off the spoon and makes an "mmm" noise. He grins happily, "That's so delicious! Is that what soup is? It's so good!"
"I'm so glad you like my cooking," I laugh a little as I keep feeding him some soup. He doesn't eat much, which worries me. He only eats about half of the bowl before he's already full. But at least he's eating at all. I guess that's a good sign.
I eat everything that I made because I was starving after saving Armani. My muscles begin to ache from trying to lift the heavy pieces of metal, so I take some pain pills to try and smooth the pain. After we finish eating dinner, Armani slowly drifts back to sleep, and I feel my eyelids get heavy too. I break out my sleeping bag then spread it at the foot of my bed, in case Armani needs me during the night. Eventually, I fall asleep, my thoughts consumed about worrying for Armani's health.
