The silver sedan rolled down the freeway maintaining the exact speed limit. Mrs. Davis clutched the wheel tightly. Everyone kept their eyes focused on the road. No one dared speak, not wanting to acknowledge the presence of a creature from another world unconscious in the trunk. It was as if talking about it would make it more real, and thus more scary.

Steph, despite not having been in the car with everyone else when the shapeshifter transformed back into an invertebrate, was looking more disturbed than anyone else. Seeing her doppelgänger’s face collapse had been uniquely unsettling to her, Josie figured. Steph rolled down the back window, leaned out, retched once, vomiting all over the side of the car, then rolled the window back up without a word.

No one acknowledged the incident.

Mrs. Davis glanced back at Lewis through her rearview mirror. She was too afraid to ask the obvious questions, or perhaps no longer really wanted to know the answers. She glanced away again as soon as Lewis returned eye contact with her reflection.

Lewis wasn’t inclined to offer up any details about their situation unprompted. The silence was palpable. After several more minutes the tension finally grew to the point where Mrs. Davis could bare it no longer.

“Did you kids summon a demon?” she asked with a straight face. “Is there a demon in the trunk?” She turned towards Channie with an incredulous look on her face. “How many times have I told you not to mess with that ouija tarot voodoo?!”

“No! We didn’t summon anything,” said Channie. “At least I didn’t….”

Mrs. Davis’s eyes shifted back towards Lewis in the rearview.

“It’s not a demon,” he said.

“An alien, then?”

“Not exactly,” Lewis sighed. “It doesn’t come from space. More like a different plane of existence. A different world in a different timeline.”

Lewis might as well have said it was from Hell from the horrified scowl that appeared on Mrs. Davis’s face.

Three thuds sounded from the trunk, immediately silencing their chatter.

A raspy voice barely escaped the back. “Where are you going?” It asked. “I… can… give you a ride.”

Mrs. Davis gripped the steering wheel tighter.

“A riiiiiiddddeeeeee!” it screeched.

Pounding shook the vehicle as another series of thuds banged like a chorus of thunder.

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“That’s pretty much all it ever says,” said Lewis.

The pounding continued until Channie turned on the stereo to drown it out. An operatic solo poured from the speakers. The creature’s squeals quieted down and it stopped banging around as the female vocalist sang loudly in Italian.

After a few minutes Channie tried turning the music down, but the monster in the trunk started banging again almost immediately. This repeated every time she turned it down until she finally gave up and left the opera blasting.

At one point she switched to the radio. Low by Flo Rida filled the car. The creature immediately began banging, but this time it was doing it in time with the music. Channie switched back to the opera cd after the shapeshifter screeched out with the repeat in the music: “With the furrrr!”

As they got closer to Edmonds, Lewis gave Mrs. Davis the address to Josie’s house as their destination. Josie was no longer surprised by things like Lewis knowing her address verbatim. When they arrived Josie hopped out and ran inside to retrieve her grandfather.

Mr. Mays came out straight away, taking in all the new faces. Everyone was stretching their legs in the driveway while opera played out muffled from the closed vehicle. He locked eyes with Lewis for a moment before dipping back inside to retrieve a baseball bat from beside the door.

“It’s in the trunk,” said Josie

Mr. Mays made a beeline for the car. Mrs. Davis joined him at the back. She dangled the keys out to him.

“Watch out, it’s wiggly,” she said.

Mr. Mays held the bat ready to swing as he popped the trunk.

The old man that was the shapeshifter’s original form sat up with a dazed expression on his face. All of the water bottles in the trunk had been emptied and were spread out beneath him. Despite this, his skin looked extremely cracked and dry, appearing halfway mummified in its dehydration.

“Where…give…ride…”

Mrs. Davis slammed the trunk down on the top of its head, knocking it back inside. “Nuh-uh. That’s a squid.”

Mr. Mays didn’t change his expression.

“Water…” the muffled voice begged.

“He’s a demon,” said Mrs. Davis. There was no doubt behind her eyes. “The boy threw a squid into that trunk.”

Mr. Mays nodded absently, contemplating the situation. “Let’s take him to the garage….”

A glint of green from the ongoing aurora borealis caught Josie’s eye. Things were still not right in the cosmos.

Lewis stepped up behind her and whispered into her ear. “Let’s go while they’re distracted. We have to get to Landon before it’s too late.”

Josie wasn’t eager to throw herself any deeper into the paranormal activity, but hanging around for a shapeshifter interrogation in her garage hardly seemed less traumatizing.

“I know you don’t know Landon yet, but we both need him, and right now, he needs us. He lives just down the road. We can run there.”

Josie gave in, following Lewis as he tugged her hand. They slipped away while Mrs. Davis backed the sedan up to the garage.

Oh boy, things are going to start to heat up fast from here. Hold onto your hats and your baseball bats, because the Agares are not going to give up without a fight! I’ve got to say, I am really impressed with these parents, though. Channie’s mom is handling things pretty well for having this all dropped on her in the middle of a hair appointment. One moment you’re getting highlights, and then the next you’re transporting an other-dimensional creature across county lines. There are no laws against that yet, I checked. A few thousand years in the future, though, things on Earth get a bit more complicated when it comes to the other worldly. Refugees from other dimensions spark new legislation, but it’s never very effective. When the Agares snip off a universe, the inhabitants with the means to escape have to go somewhere, ya know?

Keep vigilant,

-Mr. Gray