Cevic

Chapter 14

Revealed

 

The first thing I was aware of was that I was no longer cold anymore. Waves of comforting warmth draped over my body, and my hospital shirt had been buttoned up to the neck.

 I opened my eyes. I was in a car. Dread filled my veins like ice water. Was I in his car again? No. This was a smaller car compared to his. It was unfamiliar, though. I was lying down at the back seat, my head on someone’s laps.

   My eyes lifted to meet with- Rezia’s.

“Rez?” I croaked.

Her usually placid composure was broken, panic, fear and relief printed on her face.

 “You’re safe now, mi iës.” She swept my mussed up hair sadly. “I failed at my duty.”

 “What…what happened?”

Rezia’s lips uplifted into a half-smile, and she wiped at her eyes. “James happened.”

  From the driver’s seat, James waved from the mirror. “Hey, man, you okay?”

 I felt like I had been slapped. Was I still dreaming? “Whoa, Rez, you-“

“I told him.” Rezia clenched her jaw. “I told James everything about us.”

 “When I suggested getting help from humans you branded it to be suicidal.”

 One human knew our deepest secrets, our identity. It didn’t seem to bother Rez now.

“Are you going to tell anyone?” I asked, my voice a soft whisper from exhaustion and pain.

 “Of course not.” The corner of James’s eyes crinkled as he smiled his usual shy smile. “I’m your friend, Eron.” Not Eric.

James and I have known each other for a mere few days. We knew each other even less than how Isha and I knew each other. Yet he had helped me. Humans…there were frighteningly greedy ones like Markus R., and at the other end of the spectrum of human nature, there were inherently good ones.

  “When you were gone,” explained Rezia, her voice with underlying tremor, “at first I thought you had gone out for a walk. But then I realized that the car was gone, and so was the car key. I wanted to call you but I wasn’t so sure if you had your phone with you, so I looked through your bag to see if it was inside. I couldn’t find your cell phone, so I assumed it was with you, and I saw a piece of paper in the front pocket with James’s name and contact number written on it. I kept it with me just in case, and I was terrified, not knowing what I was supposed to do. From about seven to eight, I waited for you to come, because maybe you were going to come back from a reckless drive.”

  Her voice caught. “And…you didn’t. I wanted to call the police, but it was too dangerous for both of us. Then I got a call from your cell phone, except it wasn’t you but from the hospital. A nurse called to say that you were hospitalized after a car accident, so I took a cab…” She took a shaky breath. “I went to the hospital, and after asking, I went into the ward that you were in, but you weren’t there. I was so scared, and I wanted to call the police to search for you- but I couldn’t. So I called James, if he could help.”

“I don’t know what got into me. Calling the police was not an option. I didn’t want to get the human authorities involved. So- I was a little mad then- I called James for help and told him from scratch, and he came.”

  James let out a small scratchy laugh. “I must admit, I didn’t believe Regina- Rezia- at first. It sounded so bizarre. The first thing that came to my mind was, is she going to abduct me? On the other hand, I realized if she had come to Earth with that intention, she would have done so long ago.”