Becoming Kelly and Ben

1 / the beginning

Emma made a silent vow to never forget to wear a seatbelt again. The pain in her leg was almost as bad as the sadness she felt, watching Paul walk away with the intent of saving the world. She wanted more than anything to help him; but this leg injury was making her more than incapable of doing anything heroic. She wasn't even able to give Paul a goodbye kiss without spewing blood in his face like a drunk vampire. Every second that went by, the pain seemed to worsen and the little sanity she had left was nearly gone.

She looked around at the carnage around her. The helicopter had crashed a mere fifty yards away from the coastline of Hatchetfield. Emma could see the raised bridge to Clivesdale in the distance; it seemed like so long ago that she had actual hope for survival.

The minutes passed and Emma grew weaker. The piece of metal in her leg felt like a red hot blade cutting through her flesh. It was starting to become unbearable, and the sounds of screams and shouting coming from the city were not helping. She could do nothing but silently cry as she thought of her family and sort-of friends, all being consumed by this evil alien shit. Were her parents still alive? Was Jane's family okay? Something inside her knew that they were gone, but she had nothing else to hold on to. If she didn't have hope, then what was even keeping her alive?

An explosion came from the direction of the Starlight Theatre. It wasn't terribly loud, but it made the ground shake so hard the Emma felt like she was back on the helicopter. The shock wave grew closer and closer to Emma; the skyline turned a dark purple. Up from the ground rose a fog that was an identical color to the slime Emma had seen at the coffee shop and at Hidgen's lab. The entire island of Hatchetfield felt like it was purging a deep force of evil. There was a low hum in the air, like a choir all singing the same melancholy note.

The note became a high pitched scream as the shock wave finally hit Emma. There was a flash of color and an explosion of pain, and then there was nothing.

———

A constant beeping noise awoke Emma. She knew that noise; she had watched enough Grey's Anatomy to know where she was.

She was in the hospital. She had made it.

Emma forced her weak eyelids to open. She was alone in a hospital room. There were wires hooked up to her in about a million different places. She could feel a heavy bandage wrapped around her leg, which was raised up in a weird sling that she had seen only on TV. There was a glass of water and a card that said "Get better soon!" on it. On further inspection, it was from her Aunt Mary who lived in Clivesdale. Funny; she had always hated that old witch, and now she was the only family Emma had left.

Emma was tempted to just close her eyes and sleep; she felt like she had just carried an elephant on her back while running a marathon in stilettos. But the small TV on the wall caught her eye. It was muted      -presumably to not wake her up- but the subtitles on the screen were plenty big enough for her to read.

"The entire population of the town has been found dead. An immense explosion that decimated the whole island seems to be the culprit; authorities have blocked all entry to and from the area to continue investigating. Citizens of neighboring towns claim to have received strange 'musical' messages from friends and family who lived in Hatchetfield before the disaster, but authorities refuse to comment on whether this is related."

So that was it. Emma was the lone survivor of the "apotheosis". The government would pretend that it was all a "tragic accident", and she would be placed into some sort of witness protection to keep the secret of what really happened safe. Her entire world had crumbled in just one day, and now she was expected to go on as if she had always been Kelly Malloy, a waitress at Olive Garden and totally not traumatized by aliens.

This was all explained by a series of government officials who filed through Emma's room over the next couple of weeks. They said that she had been out cold for five days after the explosion, and that they had to keep her at the hospital for a month before they could let her go to "observe any adverse symptoms of the explosion". Turns out nothing was wrong with Emma other than a busted up leg and a need for intense therapy, and she was brought to a base somewhere in Illinois so she could be briefed on her new life.

"You will now be known as Kelly Jean Malloy." The stern PEIP woman told her. She had a resemblance to Paul's coworker Charlotte, which made Emma significantly more depressed than she already was. "You are prohibited from saying anything about your time in Hatchetfield, and we will be sending an officer to your residence monthly to make sure you are sticking to those rules."

Emma was barely listening to Miss Officer Lady. She was more focused on how the hell her life had become this disaster.

"You will not be allowed to have contact with anyone from your past life, and this will also be something your assigned officer will check on every month."

This comment felt like a stab in the gut. Did this officer realize what had happened to Emma? She had no one. Her family was dead, her friends had all been murdered in front of her, and she sure as hell wasn't going to be calling up fucking Aunt Mary.

"Do you have any more questions?"

Emma shook her head, and the officer beckoned her towards to the door.

"You will be accompanied to your new residence by a certain Ben Bridges, Ms. Malloy."

"Umm, who?" Emma had never heard of anyone named Ben Bridges.

"He says that you are familiar." Miss Bossy Officer sighed, looking like she had no time for stupid questions like 'who the fuck are you sticking me in a car with?'.

The door opened and Emma stepped out into the sun for the first time in weeks. The base was located in the middle of nowhere, and all that Emma could see in front of her was a large parking lot and distant orange-y mountains.

Her eyes fell on a figure standing by a red truck. He was turned away from her, but there was something about him that seemed familiar.

"Ms. Malloy, please meet Mr. Bridges."

Mr. Bridges turned around, and Emma felt her heart stop.

It was Paul.

a/n so hey! First chapter! It's exciting, I know ;) I hope this turned out okay, I'm not the greatest at sci fi stuff so this chapter and the next are gonna be a bit messy, but once we get into the normal life kinda stuff I promise it'll clean up nicely (unless it doesn't, but I'll try lmao). Here's to fixing the disappointment that was the original ending! Long live Paul/Ben and Emma/Kelly!!!!!