YOULKAY

seven; maybe Elliot is not so crazy after all...

The streets were creepily empty, giving a feeling of a ghost town. 

Elliot was dancing down the streets, as we were following Gwen and Spidey, the mechanical alien spiders.

"Come on, Love, there's no one to judge us, everybody's lock up in their house, loosen up a bit, would ya?" They laughed.

Elliot seemed to be trying every acrobatic moves they could think of.

Strangely, they were quite good at walking on their hands.

How they managed to do it with a cast on was a complete mystery to me.
I preferred to not question it.

"I can do what I want, right?"

Not waiting for an answer, I let out the loudest yell that I could muster, which startled Elliot so much that they fell, knocking themselves on a car parked in the streets.
After that, I felt better.
I found that yelling was a good way to let frustration escape.
A good way to evacuate bad energy.

Walking down the streets, I looked around the little I grew up in.

Mrs Johnson's house was as dark as I remembered.

We passed right in front of Elliot Torres's house. It was neat and seemed perfect. By the windows, you could get a glimpse of a clean house that probably want aware of what dust is.

I spared a glance at Elliot. They seemed messy, with their dishevelled hair. It was unfitting with the place where they lived.

I saw their parents sitting in their living room. A stiff woman with dull eyes and a big man with a stern look.

It was hard to believe that Elliot was their child. In the same time, not that much. If some aspire to become like their parents, others want to be nothing like them.
They struggle as best as they can so that they never are like them and become their own person. To be who they really are.

I wondered if Elliot's parents accepted them.

Maybe, even with their old school look, the Torres were loving and accepting people.

I doubted they'd accept someone like me.

Carol and Patrick were wary of me. They had grown less and less fond of me through the years. At first, they really loved me, I know. When they welcomed me to their home, they were really nice to me. They still are, but things are different.

Sometimes, I think that they regret taking an alien in.
Would they feel guilty if they got rid of me?

It was a beautiful day outside. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming.
On a day like this, I would have loved to be calmly outside, by the tree in our backyard, smuggled in a blanket, since it was kind of chilly, reading a book with a smoothie or a hot chocolate. I don't like tea or coffee, or really anything containing caffeine. So a mango smoothie from Tim Hortons would have been nice.

Soon enough, we arrived at the tunnel Spidey led me to, a few days ago.

It was as dark and creepy as I remembered.

Elliot was looking at it in awe.

"Love, do you realise?" Elliot's eyes were sparkling.
"What?"
"This definitely means the beginning of a brand new adventure!"

I thought a moment.

"So…  if we were in some sort of crappy book, you think this would be the trigger for the story?"

Elliot suddenly took hold of my arm, smiling at me.

"Straight ahead, mate! To our nearest adventure!" Boomed loudly Elliot's voice, making me comparing them to a pirate.

Elliot Torres would be one hell of a pirate.

While we were walking forward, Elliot's hand joined mine.

"To make sure we stay together." They said softly.

I nodded before realizing that they couldn't see me.
My cheeks heated up, feeling deeply dumb.

"Of course." I finally said after a minute or two.

Did I wait too long? It was making me look stupid, didn't it? Even if, right now, I didn't look like anything.

The floor below us was wet. It didn't take long before my sneakers got soaked.

I felt Elliot's hand squeeze mine. They slowly got closer to me.

We could hear Elliot and I's footsteps. And the faint sound of Spidey and Gwen's mechanical spider legs on the ground. Their creepy little clicks.

Soon enough we saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Something was faintly glowing blue.

It was big and made out of a weird metal. It sort of looked like a square and a circle had a child together and that child couldn't choose which form to take. It had many spirally sort of windows. But the strangest things definitely was that it was floating at least a meter above the ground.

Elliot squealed in excitement, next to me.

"That's the spaceship I saw!" They yelled.

I stepped near it, feeling drawn by the spaceship and, for my body, all hell broke loose.

I felt my skin, my eyes, my hair, everything change longer, texture, color.

So much it hurt.
The changes were forced in me.

It finally settled on a dark burgundy for my hair, which became short and wavy. My skin became far too soft for my liking, in a pale lilac.
My eyes hurt like hell.

"What color?" I asked, groaning.

"Burgundy and lilac." Said Elliot flatly.

"My eyes!"

"Oh! A pale pink."

Great just great…
It sure changed from the basic brown hair, brown eyes and white skin that I opted for to pass as a human.

My true colors were out.
Quite literally.

Why did it even hurt so much? It usually didn't.

My head was fuzzy and my thoughts were all but clear.
The was something wrong here.

I could feel Elliot next to me. I knew they were talking, but couldn't comprehend anything.

Then more voices joined in.
There were suddenly multiple people here.

My breathing fastened, becoming shallow. Though, I snapped back in reality when I felt Gwen and Spidey clasp themselves on my wrists, who were automatically brought together with a strong magnetic force. The mechanical spiders were cuffing me. 

A sort of door on the spaceship opened. If that wasn't a sign for me to enter, I don't know what it was.

Then I noticed who were there with Elliot.

Oh Vranajri, end me now.

Please.