“We are all parasites, we humans the greatest.”

 -Martin H. Fisher

 Emma

When I wake up, I’m alone.

I sit up and pause. What have they done to Burns?

Quickly I crawl to my feet, but the moment I exit the room, I’m almost knocked over by someone.

“Sorry,” A girl’s voice gasps and I steady myself.

A girl some years younger than me, with blonde hair, looks at me with an unreadable look

“Sorry,” I say hurriedly, “I have to go look for my friend. Please tell me where he is.”

Her expression becomes hard. “That alien? You worry about him?”

“Please,” I say, “you haven’t hurt him, have you?”

“He’s with my father,” she says and when she sees my questioning look she sighs. “Nate.”

I guess that’s supposed to reassure me, but it doesn’t. What do I really know about Nate?

“I’m Sophie,” she introduces herself.

“Emma,” I say.

“My father asked me to show you around. I guess you want to clean up before breakfast.”

I follow her down the tunnel. “Were are we exactly?” I ask her.

She hesitates before answering. “Grandview Mine,” she says, “it’s kinda ironic. They call it Last Chance Mine.” She lets out a bitter laugh.
I wonder who she has lost to the Souls. Her mother? A boyfriend?

We turn a corner and I hear some water trickling.

“Here we are,” Sophie says.

There’s a steady trickling of water coming from somewhere in the back. It disappears through a small hole in the ground.

“This is our bathing room,” Sophie says, “We have a schedule, but modesty is not a priority anymore.”

I nod in understanding.

“The toilet is here,” she points and I follow her towards a darker part of the tunnel. There’s a small ledge over a hole, a foothold on either side and a metal bar latched to the wall to hold on to.

Primitive.

I shudder.

We return to the bathing room just to see Blake walk in from the other side. “Oh sorry,” he says and then he notices me. “Morning squirky.”

“Quit calling me that already,” I hiss, but he only laughs.

“I’ll come back later,” he says, “see you Soph.”

She beams at him, but he has already turned away. She focuses on me instead. “You and Blake seem to hit it off pretty well.”

There’s an edge to her voice that I’m not ready to deal with. “I knew him from before,” I say, “we were in school together.”

Amusement flashes over her face now and it confuses me, but she says nothing else on the matter.

“When you’re cleaned up we can go get some breakfast.”

***

There’s a handful of people in the common room, having breakfast. My eyes search frantically for Burns and I find him in the corner, talking to Nate. I want to go over, but Sophie is still latched to me, talking about things I don’t pay attention to.

I take one step towards Nate and Burns, but am intercepted by Blake who tows me towards the other side of the room. “Come,” he says, “I want to talk to you.”

I glance over my shoulder at Burns and struggle against Blake’s hold.

“He’ll be fine, squirky,” Blake assures me, “Nate’s there with him. You can sit with me.” He smiles. “No escaping now. We’re going to live together, so you’re gonna have to practice some social skills.” He pulls me with him onto a makeshift bench and pushes a plate of food in my hands. “Eat.”

I stare at the food and my stomach growls. The smells are delicious. There’s flatbread and scrambled eggs and coco puffs without milk.

“It’s good to see you, squirky,” Blake says, “you look good.”

I give him a suspicious glance and he laughs. “I mean it. You always had that lonely look, but you seem more confident now.”

“Shut up,” I hiss embarrassed. After all this time, he can still get to me.

He smiles and waits for me to finish breakfast. “So, did Sophie show you around?”

‘”Just the bathroom,” I answer.

“Good. Then I’ll show you the rest.” He pulls me to my feet and drags me out of the room. I glance at Burns again, who catches my look.

“Stop babying him,” Blake says, “Nate won’t let anything happen to him. I’ll only borrow you for a moment.”

I sigh and let him tow me away.

***

Every tunnel looks alike. Without Blake I’d get lost in not time. We walk in silence for a while, encountering several people I saw last night. They all give me wary glances, but Blake ignores it.

“You’ve changed,” I finally say.

“No, I haven’t,” he says, “you just decided you didn’t like me before ever talking to me.”

“That’s not true,” I say softly.

Blake eyes me for a  moment and sighs. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I did chance. Maybe I’m finally able to be myself instead of who my parents wanted me to be.”

I look down. I remember now he didn’t get along with his parents that well. “Don’t you miss them?”

Blake tilts his head. “I don’t know,” he says, “they were never really around either way, but I guess so... sometimes. How about you?”

I bite my lip. “I did. In the beginning. Now... I’m not sure.” I look at him. “How did you know? I mean…”

Blake nods. “I got suspicious when my mother called to tell me they’d be returning from their business trip sooner than planned because they missed me so much.” He lets out a bitter laugh. “Like they’d ever do that.” He smiles at me. “I read your father’s work you know. I didn’t really believe it, but better safe than sorry.” He smiles wryly. “All the useless gadgets they bought me came in handy.”

“You… read my father’s work?”

He nods. “My dad had taken some of it home, because of the new investment they had been discussing. I found it in his study. I thought it was interesting.”

My father knew?

Blake sees the confusion on my face. “There was nothing about these body snatchers. Just about signals they had recorded, some other things I didn’t understand, but there was a note about behavior change in one of his co-workers.”

I bite my lip and think about Reads the Stars. Could it be?

“How about you?” Blake asks.

I sigh. “I was there when the Seekers raided the school.” I study the rocky floor. “I… skipped class. I knew where Mr. Landon kept the key to the attic. I used to go there a lot.”

Blake raises an eyebrow, amusement on his face. “You skipped class?”

I glare at him. “I was tired of seeing my grandfather’s name above our Science Lab.”

His expression changes to understanding. “What happened?” he asked.

I close my eyes. Even after all this time, the memory is still painful. “I went home” I say, “I think I already knew the world had gone wrong. Walking home, people were acting so strange. It creeped me out. When I got there, I packed a bag and just… left. I never even spoke to my parents again.”

“Is that when you met What’s-His-Name?”

“No,” I mutter, “I only met him a few months ago. I was running from Seekers and I ran into him. He thought I was one of them. I pretended I was.”

“When did he find out you were human?” Blake asks.

I give a wry smile. “About an hour after.”

“And he didn’t turn you in?” There’s disbelieve in his voice.

“No he didn’t,” I answer, and truly, I still don’t know why. What was it that made him decide to use me for scientific research? But I don’t share that with Blake. He’ll just find a way to make fun of it again.

“He must really like you then,” Blake whistles.

I don’t respond. My hand fumbles with the necklace Burns gave me, gave Sky.
I bite my lip. I can’t help but wonder.

Perhaps he didn’t give it to Sky at all. Sky didn’t care for music. And he did call me Silver Song once.

It’s Blake’s smirk that pulls me back to reality. It’s that know-it-all smirk that I used to hate so much.

“What?” I say annoyed.

But instead of poking fun at me, he shakes his head amused. “Don’t make us regret it, squirky,” he says.

Before I can ask what he means, he’s disappeared into another tunnel, leaving me baffled.