Journey

Elijah

Indiana got a call on the "secret rebel hotline" as he insists on calling it. So now I'm all alone watching someone I used to live with get beat to a pulp. I can't watch so I avert my gaze and pray no one is looking over at me. The lady in this fight gave up. I think her name was Imogen. The ref stopped the fight and pronounced the winner and loser to those of us (me) who weren't paying attention.

The games had been going on for about three weeks and only one person is dead so far. I guess glory or death wasn't as encouraged as Leopold told me it was. I start to wonder what happens to the poor souls who lose their fights. I have to stop immediately or else I fear I might actually throw up.

I have a very active imagination. Or so I have been told. Anyway they dragged the poor girl out of the arena and she was hysterical. I sympathized with her. These games were so messed up and cruel. As the stands were clearing I didn't know what to do. I couldn't just go out or I might not get to talk with my mom. I can't just wait here either.

As it turns out I didn't need to do anything.

"Are you Elijah?" A little voice asked behind me.

"Yes," I say hesitantly.

"Follow me, please."

I wheel myself after the young Extorian down several hallways I hadn't seen before. We enter a room that is decorated elaborately. Everything looks so pretty I almost miss the young Extorian sitting in the center of the room. Almost.

"Elijah come ." My mother says gesturing next to her.

I wheel myself towards her. I don't say anything. I mean what are you exactly supposed to say to your mother who has been lying about her personality for 17 years?

"You look older Elijah."

"You haven't seen me in 9 months."

"True."

"Why did you need to see me?"

"I want to explain your existence."

I don't know where she is taking this.

"As you surely already know I was the first one to wake up. 17 years ago. Almost 18 now. I spent six months studying your people like we were supposed to do when we woke up early. I guess I got bored of just dissecting humans and I wanted to see how you lived and so I left. I never intended to stay long. I just wanted to stay long enough to see what you humans were like. Then I got attached. Not to the colony but to a person. A few months later we were married and had a home together. 9 months after that we had a baby boy. I didn't even know our taxonomy was close enough for us to procreate. I knew I should've left but I had a son and I couldn't leave my husband to raise my son by himself. So I stayed. One of the best decisions of my long lifetime. The years pass and I stopped even thinking of myself as Extorian. I thought of myself as human. I guess I was just that desperate to stay with you I convinced myself I belonged there. That week you were grounded before you left I was contacted by my brother and he told me to come home. I told him I was conducting an experiment with the humans. My brother didn't care. He came three weeks after you left for Sun's Peak and extracted me by force. When he saw that I was married he executed your father. He would've killed you too. If you were home that is. We got back to Headquarters and he started searching for more Extorians. He didn't know if I had a child or not and I wasn't going to tell him. He found faint sources at Sun's Peak but they were disappearing quickly so he bombed it very quickly. He wasn't very smart about it and most of the people actually ended up living. He started getting faint signals from Oasis but he thought it was residue from when I lived there. But it wasn't going away and so he finally decided he would try and find the source."

"So they killed everyone in our room that I hadn't touched at some point." I interrupt.

"Yes."

"I have a question. If you knew I was me why didn't you talk to me about this when I first got here and not now?"

"I thought it would hurt you more than it would benefit you when you first got here. Then I learned you were part of the trials. Then I heard you were in a coma. I had to get to you before the others killed you." My mom replies.

"What are you planning on doing?" I ask her.

"I'm going to tell my brother that you are my son and therefor royalty and we will be on the winning side of the war." my mom explains.

"What about the others in the trials? What about the Colony?"

"What about them? What happens to them happens to them but we will stay safe here and my brother will protect you."

"The most important person in my life is part of the trials!"

"You need to learn to let them go." My mom says soothingly.

"I don't want to just pretend she's dead!"

"Oh I see what this is. You have a crush."

"No mom. This isn't just a childhood crush. This is love," I try to explain.

"Elijah you are to young to be in love."

I don't say anything.

"I'm going to go."

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to be there when she wakes up from her coma."

I wheel myself out of the decorated room and I round the hallways leading to the hospital. I count the numbers on the hospital doors I pass until I get to the room we both share.

I glance over at Lorelei. I grab her limp hand and rub it like I used to. Then something happens. Her hand moves. It actually moves! Her eyes flutter for a moment. They settle back down but she is not going back to sleep yet. I climb on top of her bed and shake her. Her eyes open. The universe is now graced again by Lorelei and her lazy green eyes. I don't care if she just woke up I kiss her. I wrap my arms around her frail body and press her tight. Her body pressed energy into mine and I feel like I just drank a cup of coffee in the morning. I sit up and allow her to talk to me.

"How's that for a wake up call?" I ask.