The Alien Inside Me

Chapter 7: Debriefing

"Good morning!" Becca's voice grated on my eardrums as I tried to blink the sleep out of my eyes.

Becca yanked my yellow flowery curtains open, making me recoil from the light. I realized with a start that I was in my bed wearing a long t-shirt and a pair of tight shorts.

"Wha? How'd I get here?" I groaned, squinting at Becca.

"Wow! You're night must have been even rougher than mine." Becca pulled me out of the bed with an insultingly loud grunt.

I rubbed my eyes and stumbled to my feet. Everything looked normal, but I was still in a quandary over how I had made it from naked and shaking in the shower to dressed in bed. I figured it had something to do with Aryzox, but he was uncharacteristically quiet. Not just quiet as in not speaking, but quiet as in I couldn't even feel his presence in my head.

"You had a rough night?" I asked, following Becca downstairs to my kitchen.

"Totally, the freak in my head really messed with me. I couldn't even enjoy watching my reality shows without him complaining about my house being a mess and me being too involved with guys." She rolled her eyes and plunked down on one of four wooden bar stools around the kitchen island.

I grabbed two pieces of bread and popped them in my toaster oven before fetching the makings for a breakfast scramble. My movements were slower than normal due to my soreness from last night, but I powered through. Becca was remarkably candid about the voice in her head and I wondered why she wasn't afraid of it.

"So you have an alien in your head too?"

"An alien?" She gave me a puzzled look, "So that's what they are! I figured they were some sort of paranormal being, but when I asked the freak he just said I shouldn't ask questions I couldn't handle the answer to. And then he went on and on about how I was stupid to try to set up the other chosen ones with a guy, so annoying! I can set up my friends on a date if I want to! Anyways, it's nice that we know they're aliens now."

I continued to listen to Becca while finishing our breakfast, preparing extras either for the other girls or for left overs if they didn't come. I tried to catalog the important things that Becca was telling me: the creature things don't want us to know what they are, they chose a specific host, they are oddly possessive of their host, and they consider their hosts to be chosen ones or mates.

"Also, the girls are coming over in a bit. We have a lot to discuss." Becca ended her rant about her alien.

I laughed at the fact that my house was turning into our control center. Becca's house was always a mess, Dawn's house didn't ever have food that wasn't leftover takeout, and Candice refused to buy furniture (save for a bed and her desk). I was worrying so much over these wacky girls that I was beginning to feel like my mother.

"Wait," I turned to Becca, "Why are you speaking so candidly, considering they can hear us?"

Her plum purple lips turned up into a grin, "I figured you would feel it by now. They're asleep- or at least not here right now. So, I'm taking this opportunity to call a meeting. We need to find out what's happening."

After we finished our breakfasts, Dawn and Candice arrived each looking about as tired as Becca and I were.

"So how do we get these bastards out of our heads?" Dawn asked, sitting down hard on my couch.

Candice stood behind the couch and played with Dawn's ringlets and Becca sat cross legged on the table, leaving me to lay out on the love seat. With our seating, we could all look at each other and I felt as if I was in some odd therapy group for a moment.

"First we need to figure out what their connection was to the tree lighting ceremony and the town, then we can figure out what they are and how to remove them." I said, hoping everyone agreed with my assessment of the situation.

"You're right, Daisy," Candice sat down next to Dawn sighing, "But since the paper is closed today, I think we should just figure out how to actually get sleep tomorrow night before actually trying to execute this plan."

I frowned, "Did you not sleep last night?"

She laughed, "I wish! Krayteq kept me up all night in some weird sexual torture! He was pissed about me considering the date Becca mentioned yesterday."

Dawn growled, "You're shitty attempt at match making made my parasite freak out too, but he was being all whiny and clingy. He wouldn't let me sleep with all his complaining!"

"Hey!" Becca exclaimed, "I didn't have a super night either! I was already scolded all night by Raegov!"

I shushed their bickering, "Becca's matchmaking- though a little disastrous- helped us figure out that our aliens are very possessive and likely consider us to be romantic partners or in their terms 'mates'."

"They're aliens?" Dawn asked, her mouth falling open.

"Yes and just so we're all on the same page, they will eventually have bodies. From what Aryzox told me, I can gather that he has his own body and he will soon be able to interact with me in his physical form." I warned them, leaning my head on my hands and crossing my ankles in the air.

"Then is there a way to force them into their own body sooner?" Candice asked, pulling a pillow to her lap and messing with the tassels on the corners.

"I just want to know how to keep them from controlling our bodies!" Dawn said, pursing her lips.

Becca bit her lip, "I think that they are gradually taking more control of us. First they were just a presence in our head and then a voice and now it looks like they are able to make our bodies move at their will."

I nodded, "I think Aryzox moved me when I was sleeping last night, or made my body move."Candice shivered, "So the first priority must be to keep them from taking liberties with our bodies when they are awake, and then when they sleep we can confer and research together."

After our agreement, we all shared our experiences (more in depth) from last night, Candice and I practically turning red from embarrassment when it was our turns. We hadn't exactly found any weaknesses, but we agreed that the aliens seemed to have some sort of expectations for our behavior. Meaning that if we followed the expectations, we wouldn't be harmed.

"I knew there was something wrong with this backwater town," Dawn grumbled, her dark brown eyes frowning into space, "I should have stayed with my father."

We all dittoed her sentiment. I even wondered if I should tell my parents, but then I thought about how my mother would react and quickly discarded the idea. In the moment all we could do was relax until the aliens woke up again.