I wanted to go down and follow Grace, but the others were finally making their way up, now that the cloud of birds had subsided: Melody and Joy and Miriam, all in their full Imagos, ready to fight. They all paused upon seeing the emaciated body of Mia lying on the ground. While Melody and Joy remained stunned, Miriam recovered quickly, walking up to the Demon and kneeling beside her. She picked up a prism. Mia’s paradoxes. Miriam held the prism up to the light, squinting as she gazed into the clouded interior before pocketing it.

“What are you doing with it?” I asked. They used it for something, right? That’s what Angelina had said back in Vancouver.

Miriam turned to me, but refused to look me properly in the eye. “I’m taking it to Viviana. That’s where it belongs.” She headed down the stairs, leaving me with Joy and Melody.

The two of them transformed back into their human bodies and knelt to investigate Mia’s corpse. Joy seemed completely unfazed by it, but Melody looked sick.

“You alright?” I asked.

“I... who did this?” Melody asked. “Did you do this?”

I bit my tongue. Would it be right to say that Grace was the one that had killed Mia? I mean, it was true. But Grace seemed so worried about her image. About not being a ‘monster’, as she called it. I couldn’t bring myself to say her name, so I said nothing instead. Melody gave me an odd look, but Joy was quick to dismiss her.

“Does it matter who did this? Our enemy is dead.”

“Yes, but...”

“But what?” I asked.

“Did it have to be so... so... this?” she gestured wildly at the corpse, shivering for emphasis. “I’m just... it’s a little freaky, is all.”

I couldn’t exactly disagree. I certainly couldn’t bear to stare at Mia’s body, not at the little cuts and bites in her skin that oozed ichor still, an empty, pale husk of what had once been a Demon. But in death, she retained such a human form that it made the whole thing unnerving. And doubly so, given what had happened afterward. I still felt the ghost of Grace’s hands on my shoulders and sides, and a little part of me wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t snapped out of it.

“Quinn.”

Joy’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. Her warm hand was on my shoulder, where Grace’s insectoid fingers had been just moments before—no. I needed to stop fixating on that.

“Quinn,” she repeated. “And Melody. Don’t worry about the Demon. Don’t give it the least bit of your attention. She deserved to die. She is our enemy. And though the means may appear brutal or even unjustified by any human measure... we aren’t fully human anymore.” Her voice had such a cold detachment to it. She looked at me, and I was overwhelmed by a sense of dysphoria. Joy’s bright turquoise eyes, her sickly green lipstick, the bright streaks through her hair... and for a second her skin seemed to flash with a hint of the glittery, shiny Imago that lay beneath.

I stumbled back and leaned on Melody. It took a few moments for Joy’s words to register in my brain. They... they made sense. But I still felt.... uneasy.

“There, there,” Melody said, letting me rest against her. She smelled faintly of honey. Naturally. But more than that, she felt... normal. More human than Joy or Grace or... did that make me a bad person? I mean, we were all these... things, on the inside. We chose to do this when we became Angels. Even if I hadn’t known when I’d agreed to become... I just wanted to deal with normal... normal... what even was normal?

Joy narrowed her eyes at me. I’d hurt her, hadn’t I? By backing away like that. And yet I couldn’t shake my unease. “Sorry,” I said.

“It’s—”

And then I heard a buzzing sound, coming from the other side of the door. The classroom. The three of us were all immediately on-guard. Tentatively, I opened the door a sliver. The corner bumped against Mia’s head with a soft thud and I winced again. But the buzzing didn’t stop. Where was it coming from? I peered into the classroom. Though the glass and sand and desks were strewn all about, the dust had since settled, and the air was clear. And the buzzing was... my phone, which I’d left on the desk prior to this whole altercation. My phone, which, by some miracle, was lying intact on the ground.

A flood of new notifications. Rocky was streaming now.

***

Joy and Melody huddled around the tiny screen to watch the livestream unfold. The chat was going wild. Of course it was. Rocky was finally breaking her silence. And knowing what had happened here, I dreaded what was to follow. After a few moments, the intro faded, and a blurry video feed came into focus: the same girl with frizzy orange hair, though looking a little worse for wear. Heavy bags were under her eyes, and her hair was, if possible, even more unkempt than usual. She glanced quickly from side to side before addressing the camera.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Hey everyone. It’s your girl Rocky, coming in live from... an undisclosed safe house in Timbuktu. Um... you might notice I’ve got a more... serious outfit on today. And no makeup. That’s because, well, today’s stream is a little more serious than usual.” She glanced from side to side again, steadying her shaky breaths before continuing. “As those of you in the inner circle have already heard, we found the bugs. They were hiding out out in the desert. They’re real. There’s a ton of them. So many. So many more than we even anticipated. And... they killed some of our own.” She held up several blue Blood Thunder bandanas, each stained red. “Hey. Chat. No memes please, okay? This is serious. People are dead because these are a real, real threat. Just a moment... a moment of silent for our fallen comrades.” Her voice was cracking.

“What an act,” Joy murmured.

“It’s not an act,” I said. Or was it? It seemed genuine to me.

“I mean... you’d have to be pretty cold to do all that, wouldn’t you?” said Melody. “To pretend to care like that, tears and all? I can’t imagine what that’d be like.”

“She’s with the enemy,” said Joy.

“She’s human,” I said. “We can’t just... oh wait. She’s starting again.”

“But it’s okay, chat,” said Rocky, wiping the tears from her eyes. “We got one of them.” Her expression changed, eyebrows furrowed in anger. “Let’s show the goods, shall we?” She reached her hand out to adjust the camera and pan it over, giving a good sweep of the room she was in. From the lack of windows, it was probably a basement. Sparsely furnished, naturally, though there was one chair besides her own.

And in the chair was a woman.

She was tied up in what must have seemed like overkill for such a small person. Her arms and legs were cuffed, but on top of that she was chained to the chair. A sack was placed over her head. Heavy weights were tied to the chair proper, I supposed to keep it from shifting too much if she struggled. She wasn’t struggling, though. She was barely moving.

“It’s Russula, isn’t it?” asked Melody.

“Who else could it be?” said Joy.

It was Melody’s turn to break down in tears, leaning on her friend’s shoulder. “She’s going to be alright, right?”

“I...”

“She will be fine, if that’s her destiny,” said Joy. Not exactly a hope-filled sentiment.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Rocky continued. “It’s just a human. That’s what they want you to think. You know, they’re hiding. Hiding among us. They could be anywhere, because they look so... so... human.” She walked over to the side of the chair and roughly tore off the sack.

“Russula!” cried Melody. It was indeed her, golden-blonde hair and matching eyes still in remarkably good shape, though her mouth was still gagged. Russula didn’t seem tired or injured, but only... defeated. Her eyes barely moved, drifting for a moment to acknowledge the camera trained on her. What were they going to do to her? Surely that was what was going through her mind as well. But the question would be answered quickly.

“But despite its appearance, this creature isn’t human,” said Rocky. “Isn’t that right?” She glared at Russula, but the Angel didn’t pay any attention to her.

“Transform,” said another voice. And one that I recognized deeply. No. No... I knew who it was, of course, but I desperately wished that it wasn’t her. But of course, it was. It was my mom. “Transform, or we’ll repeat the treatment.”

At the mention of that, Russula scrunched her eyes tight. Slowly, but surely, the chrysalis began to form around her, a thin, off-white layer covering her whole body. Then, bit by bit, the chrysalis flaked off, revealing the shiny bronze exoskeleton of her Imago. Her dark, translucent wings thrummed gently, but of course couldn’t lift her off the ground, not with the chair weighed down like it was. Instead, she simply strained against the chains and cuffs, though to no avail, of course.

“That’s enough,” my mother said. My mother....

Russula transformed back, her Imago flaking away and revealing the frail human underneath once again.

“You’re probably very impressed by the special effects,” said Rocky. “But these aren’t special effects. Skeptics, prepare to have your minds blown.” Rocky smiled. “Allow me to introduce our dear Doctor Vanessa Lee, a fellow fighter for the human race who so graciously ha lent us scientific aid with our pursuits.”

My mother stepped on camera. She’d ditched the visor, and without it I was struck by how... it was her. And I couldn’t rationalize it away, or pretend that it wasn’t, as much as I wanted to. It was one thing to know that she was with Blood Thunder. It was another thing entirely to actually see her... and hear her... and know... what had they done to Russula? “To prove that this is real, that this is no hoax, no fabrication, we’re going to hold a press conference. Anyone will be able to see this creature up close. So please join us as we vivisect the creature live. The time and place will be posted, shortly.”

Vivisect? I was dumbfounded. Was she like... evil now? Like what had happened? She was not... not that kind of doctor. She was an agricultural scientist. Or she had been. I still couldn’t even wrap my head around the idea that she was... that she was... with...”

“So please join us,” said Rocky. “In fact, we ask any and all national or local governmental representatives to please come and watch, and verify for yourselves. We may be branded as extremists, but all we want is the survival of the human race in the face of an alien threat. And the sooner you can root out these creatures from among you, the safer we’ll all be as humans. Okay? Signing out.”

She leaned forward and shut off the stream.