Unworldly (Completed 2016 version)

Chapter 6

"Who is he, is the question?" newscaster Linda Tumbler's voice rang out from the flickering TV, echoing through the horrible, painful silence. "You wouldn't be the only person wondering, could we have a real-life superhero on our hands?"

"Let's not jump to conclusions too quickly, Linda," Dietrich replied. "We don't know who he is, what he wants, or what he's capable of. Trick or not, all we know about him is that he's already proven himself to be highly destructive. This has been the most violent, unusual car accident the town has ever seen."

The television flickered to illuminate the dark living area, casting a blue glow across my colorless hair and shadowed face.

I stood motionless, staring blankly at my unconscious 'mother' on the couch below me.

She knew the truth now. They all knew the truth now.

Crash! Went the television, once again playing the video of me vaulting the semi truck like a scene straight out of an action movie. With each boom of that video, viewers were slowly drifting out of their shock and disbelief, and slipping further and further into fear.

I couldn't bring myself to move. My throat was closed up tight, and my eyes were blurring, welling up salty nonhuman tears. 

I couldn't even bring myself to decide on a thought. Inside, I was writhing in my guilt, watching my life shattering at my own doing in utter anguish.

The way she looked at me, like she was scared of me, when I said I had those abilities. 

The way her face hardened when I said I wasn't her son... 

The way her life shattered when I said her real son was dead, that I took his place, that I pretended and lied all this time...

I hated the way it came out, and now it was too late to go back and change it. But I won't cross the line of forceful memory removal. Please don't make me have to cross that line...

Now, she was definitely going to hate me. For good, good reasons.

What the hell do I do? I still hadn't even moved a muscle. I still had no idea what my plan was.

Don't just stand there like a defeated human, get up and do something about it. 

Do what? The only thing that mattered in the entire galaxy was Mom, and I'd lost her. I'd hurt her more than anyone else ever could, right where it hurt most, at the most important thing in the world to her — her son. 

What might the feds to do her for fostering an alien? If I didn't come up with a plan, she could get way more hurt than she already was.

I needed to keep them away from her. I couldn't be around her when they came for me. 

They know better than to come at me when I have home field advantage, they'll know I have advanced security systems protecting the house. They won't come at me while I'm at home, and as long as Mom stays in the house, she should be safe too.

I at least had tonight, at home, to be prepared for whatever was coming, but I needed to get out of the house tomorrow to face this, and keep Mom safely out of it.

Get up and do something. For her sake.

I carefully, thoughtfully readjusted Mom's position on the couch so she'd be more comfortable, tucking her in with a pillow and blanket.

Sitting on the couch at her side, I lay each of my middle fingers on her temples, on either side of her head. 

Her neurons were still firing rapidly in her sleep — she was having a nightmare...about a terrifying monster, who could do terrifying, impossible things, and was taking her baby son away from her.