Close Encounters of the Bus Kind

[37]

“Luna! Erin!”

She knew the route she took, despite all of those twists and turns to the abandoned Sears. Déjà vu in the worst way.

What was this? A memory? A hallucination? Beyond messing with her again? This couldn’t be totally real and yet the sensations of her footfalls and the pulse and push of her entire body as she bolted around the crowds to where she knew Erin and Luna had gone felt as vividly convincing as anything else in her life. Her lungs burned, her head pulsed, and her stomach churned. Compared to how the alien fixes removed so many pains for her, this felt more real than the bathroom.

Same empty space as the first time. Same weathered entrance. Only this time, the door wouldn’t give. It was like pulling on a wall. Not even the handle would twist or buckle. Catching her breath, Nadia tried to peer through the patches of glass not covered up. Erin was inside, but she didn’t see Luna.

Eva, Odessa, and Gina soon caught up with a tangle of questions. All Nadia could pass along was that Erin was in there. Gina looked around quickly and jogged over to a slab of cement resting by the worn grass.

With her hands flailing wildly, Eva tried to stop her, yelling, “What are you doing?! We can’t break in! We need to get security to open it up!” But Gina wasn’t listening as she slammed the side of the lock. It rattled loose and, with Odessa and Gina pulling, they were able to get it open. Eva groaned but held it for them.

The interior was exactly as Nadia remembered. Same mess, same lights. But she still couldn’t see Luna.

Erin answered the same way about why she ran.

*WHAM*

“Something shoved it. Frick, that stings!” The door was sealed again despite the lock being broken. Nadia looked everywhere.

“Where’s Luna?”

She didn’t say that last time. She also didn’t see ghost Liz.

“Luna? Who’s Luna?” Gina had her phone out for light. Nadia‘s heart raced. How come they didn’t know Luna?

Erin took a breather and commented, “Isn’t that your little sister? You thought about bringing her, but she wanted to play in the backyard.“ It seemed like Erin was going to say something else, but then she turned in surprise and took a step back.

“What? Where did you come from? Can you let us out?” Erin spoke to the air in front of her. It had to be Liz, but why couldn’t she see her? Things were different and she wasn’t sure why.

It was a little more difficult for Erin to be believed without the others seeing Liz, but Gina still recorded the patch in front of her.

“What the absolute flip is going on?” Eva asked, with a hand pressed to her forehead. Nadia found herself torn between balancing what she knew and following what happened the first time.

Gina dipped open her mouth after Erin did her best to explain. “A ghost from the 1960s, stuck in a Sears? That’s so sad. If I’m going to die, I at least want to go in a Macy’s. But preferably in a store full of Star Trek stuff.” Eva narrowed her eyes at Gina, as though perturbed that the girl would even entertain the idea of dying.

The thing with Liz progressed just as Nadia feared. She couldn’t hear what the monster said but caught Erin puzzling about “doggo”. Soon, the screaming started. She didn’t know if it was worse that none of them could see what Erin was so horrified by.

The ceiling shifted, and everyone started to group together. At least the tile lifting up from the floor put the rest doubts. She knew exactly what was coming yet, when it finally dashed across the room, she still wasn’t in time to block it. And neither was Erin.

Her eyes wide in panic, Nadia trembled over the woman she loved as a large shard of tile was wedged in her throat. She knew this couldn’t be real. They made it through this. They were safe.

She knew not to take the piece out but there was so much blood and Erin gurgled harder when she tried to secure it. The others were around her, but she barely noticed them. Why was this happening? The monster loomed behind her, she could tell. It was that same darkness without a name. Only it was even more ravenous.

Why why why why…

“Nadia? Did you hear me? Can you accept that?”

The bathroom. She was back in the bathroom. The truth. She was going to tell her the truth. No more hiding the sharpened parts. Why did she still feel like Erin’s blood was on her hands, even though she couldn’t see it? Nervously, she set her half-finished flower aside and ran the water in the sink. Erin kept close and asked, “What happened? Please, please tell me. There are so many crazy things going on in this world. Are we in this together?”

Nadia‘s hands shook like her father‘s did towards the end. Not even the warmest stream could get rid of the shivers. She struggled to breathe, as if she were stranded on a mountaintop. She splashed her face and coughed.

There weren’t really any good spots to sit but boxes of paper towels sufficed. Erin fidgeted and stretched her mouth like there was something uncomfortable stuck in her teeth. Nadia leaned back and let her fingers relax. The shaking stopped.

“Yes.” Nadia swallowed and nodded.

Erin waited with her hands set together in her lap.

“I’m dangerous. I worried about it yesterday when two of my family members vanished and returned. Then I tried to make a change to one of my sisters and I don’t know if it worked. I don’t know what I am and it’s worse because I got pulled into a place where someone warned me that I am dangerous. On the ride back home, after Gina‘s mom dropped you off, I fell asleep and found myself in a strange room with a sign marked ‘Beyond’. An old woman held me there and warned me about my power. She said I have a skill that increases the powers of others. Like synergy or accelerant, I don’t know. She told me that being around all of you is bad. She told me if I stay around you in particular… We die and so does the world. Last night, when I got your necklace gift back from mom, there was a second one. It was older, like it had been copied. I thought that meant nothing around here is real and whoever’s in control of everything is just screwing with us. But, after you killed that monster, that old woman stepped in again and told me all of this is real, there’s gonna be terrible consequences, and I’m making a mess that people need to clean up. I am responsible for the monsters being lured here. And, just a minute ago, I had a flash of yesterday when we got trapped inside the Sears but Luna wasn’t there… And you were bleeding to death from the flying tile.”

When she was done talking, Nadia felt like a marionette puppet after her performance. Nothing to hold her up, no hands to guide her, just the weight of gravity. The box beneath her creaked but didn’t buckle. Looking over at Erin, Nadia lamented that it looked like the attentive focus and energy she had been showing moments ago was buried under an absolute load of information. She asked for it and Nadia hoped it was for the best.

Erin quickly confirmed that she hadn’t met anyone like this old woman, as Nadia further described her. She thanked Nadia for being open and sharing but also admitted, “I was worried that maybe you decided you weren’t interested anymore or teenage girl hormones kicked you in another direction or…I dunno. I’m weirdly flattered that you would risk the destruction of the world to spend time with me. I’d probably tell this old lady to go fuck herself. If the world is so fragile that a little bit of love breaks it, then the world can go fuck itself too.”

Erin wrapped her arms around Nadia as she managed deep, difficult breaths. It helped so much. Wherever that old woman was, Nadia had the sneaking suspicion that she wasn’t pleased with any of this. She didn’t project the same sentiment as Erin, but she was desperately relieved not to be alone.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Working through everything that her girlfriend had relayed, Erin really didn’t even have a foundation or a cornerstone to rely on for understanding. The alternate version of yesterday was basically ignored by both of them for the time being. Erin had answers for the whole shark idea and build-up.

“We destroy any of them who try to hurt us and I’ll learn more about my powers. Maybe what Luna did with Leslie, all that meditation, can also benefit me? But what I know for certain is that… No one. Especially no supposed authority is going to tell me how to live my life with my girlfriend, who I love.” She embraced Nadia tightly for emphasis.

While working on finishing the flower, she did her best to fill in the gaps. Beyond seemed to be a place. Erin derived special amusement from the thought that Nadia was the creation of all of the girls. She casually wondered if that included herself. The implications were bewildering. Neither of them was sure of what to do with the oddities surrounding Luna. Nadia avoided mentioning that the second necklace appeared in the spot where Luna had been sitting on her bed.

It didn’t take too long before the flower was completely finished with the accouterments of little curls and softening. Nadia felt a pervasive tiredness slipping over her. It wasn’t that deep into the day but getting up early for church and the rigid routine took a lot out of her. She tried to shake her head and clear the feeling. Beyond seemed to show up when she was unconscious, and she didn’t want to invite them back. After jerking up a few more times, she acknowledged that meditating with Luna seemed like a good idea.

The flower looked beautiful upon completion, and it did similar things to the other one by fanning out and shifting under the influence of water. It definitely seemed worth the amount that Thessaly gave her upfront. But it was lacking something in particular. It was alive and gorgeous, however, it didn’t have the magical cohesion and energy that the other one had. She had no clue what this meant, but she cautiously hoped that Thessaly would still enjoy it.

Nadia cradled her flower creation and asked Erin, “Do we tell the others?” Erin dried her hands and took a deep breath. She hesitated with her answer, gently rapping her fingers on the counter.

“It’s a lot,” Erin easily admitted. “And I thought it would be a lot easier. I appreciate that we talked about it. But I’m sorry I pressured you. I was just worried. It feels hypocritical to want answers from you and not pass them along to the others. Shit. What are we even going to say to them? ‘So, it seems like Nadia has a scary power and a dream grandma told her that if we stick around her, that could destroy the world’. Problem is, I don’t even believe that.”

She took a deep breath and brushed off her clothes. “We have to tell them. But not today. Not right here. I always try my best to save bad news for a Monday. They’ve seen gigantic monsters that shed even more monsters. They’re just kids really, no matter how remarkably resilient they are and I’ve encouraged them to be. Let’s give them a break. Are you okay with that? I won’t stop you if you decide differently, but I’d rather at least wait till tomorrow. In the team room. Let them freak out about some normal stuff instead… like how much homework they forgot to do."

Nadia accepted that. She had more things she could’ve said, but she tucked them away. She also acknowledged that she really needed to pay attention to homework, especially if this high school situation was going to continue for the foreseeable future.

Back at the table, Thessaly buoyantly pranced over and glowingly accepted the flower. She sheltered it from the prying eyes of the servers and cooks and followed Nadia‘s instructions about putting it in water. It had icy blue at the fringes and the heavy tan paper focused around the stem. A little dash of pink accented the center and the whole thing had a fluffy, tissue quality but also unparalleled resilience. Nadia was proud of it even though it wasn’t as elegant or automatic a creation as the one she did for love.

Gina looked quite preoccupied with her fingers squeezing her lips. It wasn’t long before she bent over the table and inquired, “Was there a recording camera in the bus? Like CCTV or driver monitoring or anything like that?”

It took Nadia a moment to parse what Gina meant. ”Yes. It doesn’t have audio and it’s incredibly grainy, but there is a video recorder in the front area to make sure the driver fulfills their hours and schedule and for insurance purposes in case of an accident.”

Gina flashed her teeth. “Can we get a copy of the footage? If it was recording when everything happened, then we should have total proof that we were abducted. Although, alien technology does tend to shut down recording devices and a variety of electronics. It would be a long shot but… Can we get the footage?"

With a long breath, Nadia folded her arms and considered the prospect. The bus was put into lockup. It was easy to get out the other night but getting back in now required getting over a large fence, around a security system, and through an entire complex for storing and servicing tons of buses. Unfortunately, the problem was Nadia knew that the buses would have their video footage dumped to a central server on Monday, which was even harder to get into and they would go back into circulation after evaluation.

Gina’s eyes widened, and she grinned. “Sounds like a caper. We have to sneak in there tonight and get a copy of that footage before it’s lost. Absolute proof of aliens! Who’s with me?”

Exuberantly, Gina raised her arm. Eva did her best to shove it down, but she was undeterred. Even when it was clear no other arms were going up, Gina scooted over and crouched in front of Odessa, putting on her biggest eyes and deepest pout while begging her to help out. Odessa cited concerns about her guest, Louise, as well as unfinished assignments which were due in the morning.

Going around the table, Gina was met with similar responses. Marisol was busy. Sasha had several boys to educate. Tatiana would likely cry if she had to do anything even remotely close to illegal. Thessaly was in dreamland with her flower. Audrey promised to take care of some pets and wanted to hear what was on their minds. And Elsa just had terror in her eyes leftover from events and a lingering confusion about why Nadia passed out. Nadia assured her she was fine and privately had to concur that it was probably for the best they weren’t dropping more on the group quite yet.

Dejected and annoyed, Gina dragged herself over to Coach and Nadia. She dropped to her knees and pleaded. She recited her greatest ambitions about finding true proof of intelligent life in the universe.

“For smoked steak! Quit groveling to everyone! I was going to go with you anyway. It’s better than blowing things up.” Eva folded her arms and rolled her eyes in Gina’s direction. Gina assaulted her with an exuberant hug, and Eva lightly blushed. Erin and Nadia both agreed to go, so long as Gina could come up with a credible excuse for Duman to not be worried about his daughter.

It briefly appeared like Gina was going to put some real depth of thought into her response. Then, she just offered up doing homework as a reason.

Eva noted quietly, “You mean me doing your homework…again. I have a better idea.”