New Host

4 - Truth

After relieving myself, I had a chance to check myself out in the mirror for the first time. I slipped off my shirt and twisted to look in the mirror. Long, black hair fell over my true body. I pulled aside the ratty locks before prodding the mottled red edge of my wing. My feathers had been plucked off, and my skin was sewn in place with fine threads so close together that I couldn't slip my fingers through them. Snipping the sutures without cutting myself would be difficult.

I moved my fingers to my true head. The only parts Dr. Swanson hadn't sewn down were my antennae. Not that that would do me any good right this moment. With clumsy fingers, I took a razor off the counter, slid its blade from the handle, and set about carefully slitting threads. My unsteady hands cut my skin as often as the sutures, but I was making headway.

Dr. Swanson's voice sounded above the furious mutters he and Celest had been exchanging in the hall. "It wasn't for shocking her. It was for that thing on her back. If it goes out of control, we'll want the collar."

"You can't know what'll happen to Leah if you shock that thing. It could paralyze her again--or kill her." Celest scoffed. "The leech can't do worse than that if it goes out of control."

I finished cutting my right wing free and started pulling out the threads. Now might be the right moment to escape entirely, but I wasn't sure. There was every chance Dr. Swanson would send the police after me if I left now. It would be better if I left at night, which would give me a head start.

Dr. Swanson let out a frustrated grunt. "You don't understand. That thing- it isn't a normal animal. It's smart. It-" He lowered his voice past what I could detect.

"What?" Celest shouted. "You put a- an alien person on my baby?"

"I didn't have any choice. She was too far dead for the best healer."

"No, no, she wasn't dead. She didn't-"

The pain twisting her voice made my resolve waver. This wasn't her fault. She hadn't even known what was happening. In the colony, she would've been deemed weak for caring so much about replaceable offspring, but I couldn't fault her. After I lost my favorite hatchling minder, I let my host's immune system weaken enough that the animal nearly died of red fever.

But however grieved Leah's mom might be when I left this host, it couldn't be helped. Nothing I could do would change the fact that Leah was dead. Staying here and pretending to be someone I wasn't would only delay the inevitable loss and pain. Besides, I was never meant to be her. I belonged in the colony.

"Celest, listen to me. She's not dead anymore. Somewhere in there, Leah is alive." Dr. Swanson quieted again, but I moved to the door to catch what he said. "I just have to figure out the right chemicals to sedate or kill the alien without hurting Leah."

"You-" She inhaled sharply. "You said it's a person."

"It's a parasite infecting our daughter."

"Who's fault is that?"

Maybe I didn't need to keep this act going any longer. Celest might have access to the portal room or at least the ability to make Dr. Swanson open the portal room door. I reached for my shirt, but it would only hinder the point I wanted to make. Forcing my face into a pleading expression, I opened the bathroom door.

Celest and Dr. Swanson were only a little ways away in the living room.

She gasped, presumably at the scars crossing Leah's body. Or perhaps it was my free wing poking out from behind me.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm very sorry, Celest. I lied out of fear for my life, but I now believe that might not have been necessary. My name is Elva vor Dariala. All I want is to go home, but the collar your husband put on me prevented me from escaping. It would've killed me had he activated it." I turned partially so she could see my true body. "He's sewn me to Leah's body, and I've only managed to remove some of the sutures." Blood dripped from the many cuts on my wing and Leah's back. I made no attempts to hide them in the hope that they would garner sympathy.