I stared in complete shock as Zylith Amone spoke to the blobs as if she knew them, directing them with an authoritative flair that indicated that she was in charge. I can't believe it! All this time and she was working with them? She knew all about Max's abduction... My anger began to flair, my eyes seeing red. This bitch just let Max suffer through everything and she already knew about it all? I bet she was part of the reason why he got abducted too! I wanted to march right in there and beat her face in, but I wasn't that stupid. She had seemed genuinely angry about what Dawaen and Kole did to Max.
"Akarate makicesi eztenai?"
"Gonaro akarate kialen ehoby bisaag aegen en. Hiahia kialen nakinek maetahi en eztenai. Akarate izfizes tetti raok nakinek Max raok hoki ahamit."
Max? What does Max have to do with anything? I needed to get back home... I'd deal with this later... I stepped back to leave but a tree branch stuck me right in the butt crack and I yelped in surprise. All the aliens stopped working and Zylith looked around.
"Tetti ronall koete ehogy?" she asked.
"Aegen, Kaprang."
"Purita muahikameg... Megaermeg megaer tirgalja esa nakinek en'am."
Zylith left the blob things and started walking towards where I was frozen in shock with a branch in my ass. I slowly dislodged my butt cheeks from the invasive tree and tried to keep myself from laughing about the fact that I just got a tree up my butt. Max would have a field day- oh... right... shit, I keep forgetting... I made sure to look behind me as I continued to walk backwards from the clearing and ran all the way home.
*****************************************
I ran into the house and slammed the door behind me, leaning against it and breathing hard. Dad looked at me from the recliner and made a face.
"Are you okay?"
"I um... I think I just saw something that I shouldn't have."
"Like... a murder?" he asked.
"No, nothing like that."
"We need to talk about what happened at the school."
"Could we talk about it later? I got a stick stuck in my butt and I feel kind of violated. Could I take a shower first?"
"Um... I guess?" he asked, with a weird look.
"Thanks."
I went up the stairs and into the bathroom, sitting on the toilet and putting my hands on my knees to breathe. I can't believe what I just found out... and I can't believe I got a stick right up my ass. I started laughing a little in slight hysteria and pulled out my phone. I scrolled on the text screen and tapped the one I wanted.
+++++++++
Dude, I just got my ass skewered by a stick! Does being treed count as sex? LOL!
++++++++
I hit the send button and waited for it to complete the text. As per usual, there was never a response. There were about twenty messages that were all part of a one sided conversation. I mean, Max couldn't exactly text me back from the grave, right?
The Taylors kept Max's number but just turned off his phone and hid it somewhere. They said that they just couldn't do it and I was kind of grateful because it allowed me to still 'talk' to him. I sighed and looked up at the ceiling, trying to wrap my brain around what I had just witnessed in the forest.
Zylith was an alien! I mean... wait, was she though? Max has been crushing on her for a while now and Max only had all that stuff happen to him last year. She couldn't have been an alien since middle school right? We met her in freshman year... It's not like she was just sitting around planning this great heist since she was little, right? So... maybe she was just working for the aliens... but she sounded like she knew what she was doing and she spoke their language fluently.
Ugh! This is so confusing! Either way, though, those aliens were somehow involved with Zylith and by the way things looked, they are hatching some sort of scheme. What, I don't really know, but anything that has to do with them is categorized as scheming in my book. I shook my head again, still confused, but decided to just take a shower and think about it later.
******************************
I opened my eyes and found myself surrounded by darkness. Suddenly, there was a beam of light and a little boy was standing there. He turned around in confusion and looked over at me. His face brightened.
"Uncle Mars!"
Uncle Mars? The boy ran to me and hugged my leg.
"You found me!"
"What? What do you mean? Who are you?"
The boy looked almost shattered as he looked up at me, his purple eyes tearing up.
"You mean... it's just a dream?"
"I have no idea what's going on here. Who are you?"
Another beam of light appeared and we both looked over. There was someone on their knees, arms out to the side and looked like they were chained to the pitch black floor. The boy shuddered, holding onto me tighter.
"Who is that?"
"Daddy..."
Daddy? I looked at the boy quickly, his identity dawning on me.
"Kasai?" The boy looked up. "Holy shit! What the- why do you look like this?"
"I just do. I always look like this."
"Hello? Is someone there?"
My eyes widened, knowing that voice anywhere.
"Max?!"
"Mars?" he answered, the chains rattling as he moved.
"MAX!" I screamed, so happy to hear his voice again.
I was about to start running when I felt Kasai pull at my jacket.
"No! Don't do it!"
"What do you mean? Kasai, that's Max; that's your dad."
"Nuh-uh, don't..."
"Ugh, let go!" I growled, pushing Kasai away so he would let go of my shirt. "I've been waiting for this for so long and you're not going to stop me." I started running. "Max?"
"Mars? Where are you?"
"Uncle Mars, don't!" Kasai yelled.
I kept running, not caring if it was dream or not. I was going to see Max again... I ran to Max's figure and went around to look at him but jumped back in surprise. Max's eyes were missing and black stuff was coming out of his mouth and eye holes.
"Mars? Mars, where are you?" he said, black liquid oozing from his mouth with every word.
He coughed and then gagged, what looked like black pain erupting from his mouth. I cried out, crab walking away, as Max lifted his head up and tried to reach out for me but couldn't.
"Mars? Mars, help me! Please!"
Suddenly his teeth all fell out and he tried to reach for me again. This time, he didn't let the chains stop him and his wrist suddenly made this horrific noise as it cracked and buckled against the shackle that was holding it in place. His wrist ripped from his forearm in a sickening cacophony, the fibers still attached to the muscles. I screamed again when the fibers snapped like too-tight violin strings, each straining snap adding to my fight against my stomach contents crawling up my throat. He did the same with the other hand but instead he just folded it and broke it through the shackle instead of pulling on it. When he was free, he suddenly started crawling after me like that girl from The Ring, making these horrible gurgling noises.
I was stuck in place and all I could do was scream.
**************************
"Mars! Wake up! Hey! Wake up!"
I gasped, sitting up quickly and then blatantly pushing my dad off the bed. I immediately put my hands over my head and scrunched up as small as I could. I was shaking so hard... What the fuck was that? What kind of dream was that? I mean...
"Mars, are you okay? What happened?" Dad asked.
"I don't know! I don't know... Why was he like that?"
"Who?"
"Max... in my dream... he... it..."
I felt my mouth begin to salivate and moved Dad out of the way as I felt my body prepare to eject the contents of my stomach. I thankfully made it to the toilet just in time and emptied out everything. What the heck was that dream? I could still hear the echoes of the breaking and crunching and I vomited again. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked over it to find my mom.
"Did I wake you up?" I asked.
"We were already awake from the screaming."
"I'm sorry..."
"Don't be. I know things have been touch and go since the incident. Can you tell me what you dreamed about? Maybe it will help?"
I looked at the wall, trying to figure that out exactly. What did I dream about? What is my mind trying to say? Is it trying to cope? Am I trying to make a way to get over this? It's been five months and I'm still texting a dead kid...
"Maybe I'm just crazy." I said out loud to no one really. "All those years of suppressing my true nature and all the craziness this past year... maybe it all manifested into some fucked up dream..."
Mom touched my forehead. "Well, you don't have a fever, so it's not delusional..."
"Fair point." I said, laughing a little.
"He okay?" Dad said from the doorway.
"We're not quite sure yet..."
For once I didn't feel angry about Mom using the all inclusive 'we'. When I was little and my anger was really bad, they took me to a psychologist to see if there was anything to be done. That dumb bitch proposed that my parents try to help me by using the word 'we' to make it all inclusive... make it seem like everyone was having the same problem. Yeah, well, no. I have the issue, not my parents. All it did was make me angrier because I felt like they were mocking me. So I told them and they stopped, but every once in a while, Mom would slip it in to try and either make me feel guilty to try to make me not feel guilty. It never worked, so they took me to a psychiatrist instead and he provided pills.
But this time... she was right. What the hell did either of us know?
"Let's not all cram into the bathroom." Dad said.
"I'll make us something warm to drink and we can talk about it downstairs. Brush your teeth and get your bearings, alright, honey?"
I nodded as my parents left and I tried to think of a reason for the dream.
********************************
Mom made some hot chocolate as we sat in the living room. I told them about my dream in as much detail as possible without throwing up again. They were kind of squeamish about the gritty details as well, but I felt that those were essential to the dream.
"I wish I knew what it all meant."
"Your subconscious is definitely trying to tell you something" Mom said.
"But what? What could be interpreted like that?"
"This is honestly just a guess but could it be your subconscious trying to let go of Max?"
"What do you mean?"
"In your dream, Kasai, the child, was there and suddenly Max showed up. The child, possibly a reflection of your own self, was warning you not to go near what you thought was Max. When you finally did get to him, he was technically rotting, dead. The fact that he broke his own wrists and arms just to get to you might be your broken attachment to him. He's gone but you can't move on. The boy was trying to get you to move on but Max's presence is still there, rotting and festering over everything." Dad cleared his throat. "It's a hunch."
"That kind of makes sense..."
"Your father said you saw something in the woods that you said you shouldn't have seen. Could you have mixed that in with your dream?" Mom asked.
I actually forgot all about that... I should tell them but I don't really know how they will react.
"Um... well... I saw some aliens in the woods?"
Mom and Dad looked at each other with the looks I had expected from each of them: Mom with fear and Dad with disbelief.
"Are you serious, Mars?" Mom asked.
"Yeah..."
"You seem skeptical." Dad said.
"Because you're skeptical. Between the two of you, one believes me too much and the other doesn't believe me at all."
"You need to stay away from them, Mars. What if you get taken by them too and end up like Max?"
"I don't know, Mom, could you handle it?" I spat at her.
She glared at me and I glared at her. Dad put his hands on our shoulders, slightly pushing us from leaning in on each other.
"Stop it, both of you. Your mother is right, Mars. If what you say is true and you did see those aliens, it would be best to stay away from them. I know I was gone the whole time the issue was Max was happening, but I've been hearing things around town about it and what your mom has told me. I don't want the same thing that happened to him to happen to you."
"Well then my question still stands but its directed at you this time: could you handle it? If I got taken by those aliens and came back impregnated just like Max, would you be there for me? Would you help me cope with such a crazy thing? Would you even believe me? I mean, you're supposedly the sane one in this house, so give me a good answer."
Dad sighed. "That's not something I could really answer right now."
"Why the hell not?!" I screamed, slamming my mug on the table. "It's a fairly simple question: would you be there or not?"
"Why do you need to know? Are you pregnant?" Dad asked, turning his head.
"No! I just... it's a fucking simple question! Why are you avoiding it? Is it because you couldn't? You couldn't stand it if that were the case?" I asked, standing up.
"Marsden," Mom said, touching my hand. "No matter what happened, we would still love you take care of you. You're comparing us to the Taylors and what happened from before but you're our son. I know I didn't display a good case by the way I reacted to Max's issue, but if something did happen, I would be there for you every step of the way and so would your father."
"Mars, despite what you believe about us, we do actually love you." Dad said, looking at me with an expressionless look that I wasn't quite sure how to interpret. "You've always compared us to the Taylors for some reason and lash out because of the decisions we make for you or about you. Adah's right and how we handle the issue regarding you personally is different from someone else. We always want to make sure that you're okay. My only concern is that you're going to do something stupid with these aliens. I know you..."
I sighed. "Forget it..."
"Mars, don't do something dumb." Dad said.
I nodded as we all went back to our rooms as I thought about the fact that he didn't answer my question. Mom did, but he didn't.