Alien Tongues ~Humans Spines Book Two~

Removing Marvin K. Mooney

Over seven months ago...

Dumaine

        "How much do you know?"

        "I don't understand your question."

        "How much have you been told about what's going on? With the Translucent and the Opaque?" I clarify. I fold my legs and push myself up so I'm sitting beside Drexel, leaning against a stack of firewood. It's only been ten minutes since I've woken up but I need to figure out what I'm going to do when Emmeline wakes up.

        "Oh...I thought you knew. Well this is going to be tricky to explain..." He lays his poetry book down, rubbing his fingers over head. His eyes flick towards Emmeline, asleep beside me. "Dindolcon is the one who is with her now, correct?"

        Emmeline's body is haphazardly sprawled out, as if she had been knocked unconscious. Not cool. Drexel's face relaxes as I nod at his question, seeing the moustached camouflage beetle-cat thing laying atop her hand.

        "I know a lot." He exhales. "Different things than what you know but enough to understand. Osinsious visited me as soon as Hans left New York with you a bit over a week ago. He gave me...a gift." He cringes at the word. "He put these dreams in my head. Just little bits of the past or what you and Hans were up to or...other things. Future things, like the kind of stuff the Great Osinsious sees. Amazing and horrible things." He gives a strained smile, the corners of his eyes bunching up. "I saw you. And the things you did to those poor people. I was frightened, of course, but then Osinsious showed me something that will happen in the future and I understood why you did it. You practically saved us all. Thank you."

        I give a confused nod. He still hasn't exactly answered my question. I give him a moment that Emmeline would never allow and he continues.

        "I got off track a bit there, my apologies. I know about the coterie,-"

        "The what?"

        "You know, the higher up Demon group. With Sir Amistifer, Lady Illyvimsious, Dr. Fonsfvic, and General Dindolcon. I know what each of them can do. What they have done. And I know about the Reaper-Mother. And other things." He goes silent.

        "Future things?" I push.

        ".....I don't know. Just other things." His words lack hand gestures.

        "Explain?"

        I see his eyes panic for a second before righting themselves. "I was shown a dream in which a woman and her two children, a boy and a girl, were being stalked. And I was the stalker. And then, one by one, they were murdered. And I was the... the murderer, but of course it wasn't actually me. I was just seeing through the monster's eyes, I would never actually kill some-"

        He stops, realizing who he's talking to. His head is slowly lowering, his eyes unsure where to look. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking." He admits as if talking about my murders was like talking about his wife to a recent widower.

        "No, you were thinking perfectly." My head twists around to find Emmeline, sitting straight up, a defiant look in her eyes. "It's this one who wasn't thinking."

        Oh. That defiant look and finger pointing right at me doesn't belong to Emmeline. It must be-

        "General Dindolcon? Yes, this is she." Emmeline's lips furl into an annoyed grin. Her fingers splay then clench at the clothing around her. "Why am I wet?"