“That’s him,” I repeated, my voice quiet and wavering.

Walking towards us was the matured face of the boy that had tormented me for three fucking years. Ever since someone had decided to start the rumours that I was gay, he’d been there to inflict as much suffering as he could. As soon as the school started to forget, his voice was the one that would remind them.

Sarah’s girlfriend was this prick’s sister?

“Hey. Are you okay?” Casey asked, flicking her gaze to me and then back to him.

As if sensing my unease, she stepped between me and the man that had come to be a plague on both mine and Sarah’s life. Her fists were clenched tightly – I wasn’t sure if she could tell just how much this was affecting me.

His arrogant, domineering eyes assessed us as he approached, evaluating our bodies from head to toe. I felt like I was a steak being appraised by a butcher. A cold shiver of dread ran up my spine thinking of what would come next.

“Ladies,” he greeted, stopping a few metres away from us. He was eyeing up Casey with a predatory smile.

My breath caught in my throat.

When neither of us replied, he continued, “I ain’t seen you beautiful birds here before.”

His voice was awakening previously buried memories that I’d done my hardest to forget;  memories of posters being passed around school that falsely proclaimed my homosexuality to every reader. This was the voice that had incited every jagged stone and handful of mud that had been thrown at me during lunch breaks.

The fact that it had all been completely untrue hadn’t even mattered. The more those kinds of accusations were denied, the more everyone assumed that there was something to them.

I felt myself trembling as another memory rose up, unbidden and unwanted. I remembered the look on his face as I reached to push open the door to our classroom, only to have it kicked shut in my face. My fingers had been trapped against the door frame – it had taken weeks for the broken bones to heal. All the while, I faced more of his aggression and teasing.

When I had mentioned it at home, Dad had just insisted that I toughen up. As far as he was concerned, this was all my fault for letting them walk over me.

The biggest loss had been when my own friends abandoned me for fear of being subjected to the same treatment. Every chair beside me had been empty, and every lunch spent alone.

I’d only been able to escape him when he left school at sixteen. There was no way he was going to pass his A-Levels, let alone move on to university. All he did was take his inadequacy out on others.

Casey was in his face now. I wasn’t entirely sure what she was saying as I took a step back from the encounter, my mind reeling. It felt like some kind of haze had settled over me, stripping me of any ability to react to what was happening.

The heated aggression that the two were engaged in was already causing a commotion; and they were drawing a crowd. There were groups of both parents and children around us, although no one was trying to intervene. It had become a spectacle.

With my emotions so dangerously out of control, Muse had to step in, deadening all feeling as a precaution. My haze addled brain deduced that she was trying to avoid a repeat of the incident that had put the Police in hospital.

So, I just stood there, completely empty and standing in a pool of nothingness while Ryan sneered at Casey – though my warrior princess was giving just as good as she got.

“Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to, you little bitch?” the voice of my tormentor demanded, breaking back into my thoughts.

“Do you get off on bullying kids, you fucking psycho?” Casey’s voice screamed back. I was trying to feel something, anything, but Muse held on tightly.

Please let me feel something.

Seeds of fear and anger came at me in small waves – but I felt like I had finally come up for air.

“Watch your mouth, dyke slag,” I heard Ryan shout, and within a fraction of a second his fist was where Casey’s head had been.

My mind screamed out, but his punch hadn’t connected. She had already weaved aside by the time it arrived where she had been mere milliseconds before. Less than a heartbeat later, she was hauling his face down into her rising knee.

There was a sickening crunch, and a splatter of blood. Ryan’s body crumpled under its own weight and he slumped to the floor.

I stared at him, unable to move. People around us gasped in alarm, but my brain was still trying to process what it had seen.

“Wh-what did you do?” I managed to ask her weakly as my mind tried its best to pierce through remnants of the fog.

“Fuck!” she exclaimed, looking down at him, and then to the side – to me.

My expression must have shown pure shock, because I certainly wasn’t feeling anything else. Her cheeks reddened as the shame of what she’d just done settled in.

She was still wearing her sunglasses so I wasn’t sure if her eyes had been glowing, but I suspected that they might have been. She’d sidestepped his initial attack like he’d telegraphed it two weeks ago.

‘She had been drawing on Hunter, yes,’ Muse commented, although the information got lost in chaos.

“Erin?!” I heard Sarah call out, from somewhere behind me. I turned, seeing her running toward the gate from inside the school grounds. Her book bag was slung across her shoulders, jostling her with every step.

The crowd around us was growing much more quickly now.

She placed a hand over her mouth when she saw Ryan on the floor. His head was turned to one side and a small pool of blood was leaking from his nose. He wasn’t moving.

“Y-you were j-just s-supposed to…” she tried to say, staring at me with disbelief. Her words trailed off as she stared, her eyes wide with horror.

“We need to leave,” Casey said, reaching for the both of us to extract us from the throng.

We were getting a lot of stares now, and she was right. We really did need to get out of here. Thankfully, it didn’t look like anyone had pulled out a phone to start recording yet, but it was only a matter of time before they did.

“Someone call an ambulance!” I shouted out, hoping that there would be a reaction. It wasn’t going to be me – Casey still had my things.

 

We were moving half-way between a walk and a jog as we headed home. I reached out to take Sarah’s hand, trying to silently reassure her as we passed from street to side road. My head had almost cleared and I was beginning to register what had happened. Ryan had tried to attack Casey, but she’d stepped out of the way and countered – hard.

I wasn’t sure if she’d killed him, but I certainly hoped that she hadn’t.

Goddess damnit. If I hadn’t frozen, I could have stopped it all from happening. We could have found a different way.

The instant that the front door was opened Casey bounded up the stairs to my bedroom. I gave Sarah an apologetic smile, but ran up after her.

“Coming here was a mistake. I’m just putting you in all danger,” Casey was saying to me as I stepped into my bedroom. Her suitcase was already open and she was throwing her things inside haphazardly.

My chest turned to ice as I heard what she was saying.

“What? No, no way. Casey, you were just defending yourself and Sarah,” I tried to plead.

“Yeah, well, I damned near killed someone while ‘just defending’ us,” she replied, crouching and turning away from me as she forcefully shoved one of her sandals into one of the suitcase’s pockets.

I reached out to touch her, my fingers brushing against the bare skin of her arm. As I made contact, she stopped her packing and – deflated – she knelt in silence.

‘She is in dangerous territory now,’ Muse whispered to me. ‘If Hunter thinks she will leave you, then they will decide that they have no choice but to find a different host.’

I wondered how Muse knew that.

Oh right, they talk to each other every time Casey and I touch.

Moving in closer to Casey, I gathered her into my arms. She was hiccuping silent tears.

I planted kisses on her cheek, moving progressively along the curve of her jaw, towards her lips. The moisture on her skin was salty on my tongue, but I kept going. She reacted to my affection, and turned to catch me nibbling at the corner of her mouth.

Her tongue parted my lips, and teased inside me.

We stayed that way a while, kissing passionately. It was only once she’d stopped shuddering and my own tears had been held at bay that we parted.

“It’s okay. Everything will be okay,” I said, trying to soothe her by running my fingers through her messy hair.

She gave me a tired smile, but shook her head. Her voice was level as she countered, “You can’t know that.”

I mean, she was right. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me.

“Maybe not, but I’m going to believe it,” I answered. “You’re the best thing that’s happened to me, Casey. I can’t… I can’t…”

Tears were beginning to well up in my eyes now. The thought of her leaving me was already making me long for her so much. She searched my face, but I could see her heart breaking. She ran her fingernails gently along my jawline and the softness of my neck.

Then she sighed. 

“I need to go for a walk, Erin – to clear my head.”

---

- Casey -

Oh fucking shit, what have I done?

I’d only take a single step out of Erin’s front door so far, and I was already tense as I looked up and down the street. It didn’t look like anyone had followed us here, but since literally everyone had seen Sarah come with us it was only a matter of time.

It was only yesterday that I had promised the two girls that it wouldn’t devolve into violence, and look what happened. I go and knee the dickhead right in the face at first opportunity.

“Fuck,” I said aloud, turning to stalk along the sidewalk.

‘What are you doing, Casey?’ Hunter asked me.

I snorted, was that a trick question?

“I’m going for a walk,” I replied.

Erin could probably use the space from me right now, anyway. I’d already caused enough disruption in her life, she sure didn’t need some maniac like me around.

‘But why do you doubt your actions?’ they asked.

That was a tough question to answer, and I gritted my teeth.

“Because I’ve just got Erin and her family into a whole mess of shit, all because of my temper,” I put back to them. “She’d be better off if I just left.”

‘Yet you are still here,’ they said to me after a few more steps. ’You are aware that Muse and I have a strong emotional connection.’

I mean, that had been obvious since we first saw that news report in that bar in Cologne.

One of the gardens on this street actually had a nice display of flowers outside it, and I stopped. I would love to get something pretty for Erin.

“Oh yeah,” I laughed. “I got that.”

What were they trying to say, anyway? Was this some kind of alien intervention?

‘And you and Erin also have one,’ they continued.

I let out a sigh, thinking about her. She was cute, sweet and naturally empathic. I had struggled to keep my feelings for her in check ever since our first conversation. Even now, I felt the urge to run back to her house and just hold her in my arms.

‘It is the same,’ Hunter stated to me.

“You think Muse is sweet, cute and naturally empathic?” I asked, breaking into a laugh. Hunter had always struck me as someone with a greater appreciation for action than emotion.

‘Why is that humorous?’

Shrugging, I turned away from the flowers and continued walking. For some reason, speaking with Hunter was actually making me feel better.

“You didn’t seem like the type to think like that,” I answered instead.

There was a pause, and I wasn’t sure if they’d heard me or not. I sighed again, then took in a deep breath of the English summer air.

‘I chose you because we are alike, Cassandra,” Hunter told me, eventually.

They knew that I hated being called that name. It felt too much like one of those names that your grandma would have, not some young girl in her early twenties.

Also, despite how much they kept repeating it, I didn’t feel like Hunter and I were that alike. From the interactions we’d had, they were stoic and hard headed. They actually thought through the consequences of their actions, whereas I was a firebrand for any injustice I found.

That being said, Hunter had started to feel a little more human lately. Maybe they were still learning?

“And here I thought you were with me because I could get you close to Muse,” I retorted with a smirk. The sound of sirens could just be heard in the distance now, but I wasn’t sure which direction they were going. It sounded a ways off, at least.

‘What makes you think that the two aren’t related?’

What did they mean by that, exactly?

“What are you saying?”

Another pause. The sirens were definitely coming closer.

‘Erin and Muse are an excellent pairing. At first I refused to accept that she had chosen to fully bond with a host so quickly, but I see now that she made the right choice,’ they explained. ‘The closer the pairing, the stronger their link.’

I nodded my head as I heard that. They’d told me this before, but they’d also just been telling me how alike we were.

“Right? So what?” I asked, feigning nonchalance.

An ambulance passed me by, sirens blaring. I felt a stab of guilt at who the likely patient was.

‘I hadn’t entertained the idea of making a similar bond before. The limitations of being restricted to a single host were anathema to me. But finding Muse with Erin has had me questioning things,’ Hunter tried to clarify.

Right, Hunter was astute when it came to things about the real world, but when it came to emotional shit they were as slow as molasses. I could see them struggling to find anyone that would suit them all that well.

I figured that this was going to be the moment that we said goodbye, but I was still waiting for them to tell me that they wanted out of our crappy deal.

‘I want you to bond with me permanently, Casey,’ Hunter declared.

Uh, huh?

“Do what now?”

---

- Erin -

It had already been an hour since Casey had left and I was starting to worry.

After she’d gone off for her wander, I’d sat down in the living room with Sarah. We’d hugged, allowing the tension of what had happened to ease away in mutual support.

“Are you okay?” I asked Sarah once my own shock had dissipated.

She nodded, smiling at me and resting her head against my chest.

“What even happened?” she asked me, eventually. “All I saw was the arsehole lying in a pool of his own blood.”

The image of that came back to me, making me shiver again.

“Ryan tried to hit Casey, but she defended herself,” I replied.

Rah let out a snort of amazement, pulling back to stare into my eyes, “Seriously? He looked like someone had hit him with a cricket bat or something.”

The look I gave her was one of reluctant confirmation. I exhaled deeply, thinking back to that moment. One of the more horrific parts had actually been how I’d almost lost control of myself again. If Muse hadn’t thrown the emergency brakes on, I could have hurt a lot of people.

‘We can control it, Erin, if you allow me to help you,’ Muse suggested. ‘But you will need to train with it regularly. Until you do, you will always feel like a danger to those around you.’

She was right, of course. Just the fact that I knew that she could hear me admitting she was right made me cringe.

‘I love you too, Erin,’ she answered with a giggle.

I rolled my eyes.

“What is it?” Sarah asked me, confused.

“Oh, just Muse being Muse,” I replied, glancing at her.

 

Casey didn’t return for nearly two hours, and by that point our family had already sat down for dinner.

I rushed to the door when I heard the bell ring, then launched myself at her. She caught me in her arms as we collided, snaking them about my waist as mine encircled her neck.

“I missed you so much,” I breathed at her.

She gave me a confident half-smile, “I missed you too, babe.”

I pulled her into a lingering, passionate kiss – then dragged her indoors.

‘She and Hunter have come to an understanding and a decision,’ Muse told me as I led Casey to the dining table.

There were apologies exchanged with the rest of my family as she sat down, but they all just seemed genuinely happy to see her again.

I nipped to the kitchen to find the plate that we’d set aside for her once she returned.

---

- ??? -

He sat down at his desk, his eyes adjusting to the bright light of the computer screen. The reports were all there, and more had been coming in from across the world over the past few hours. The facts were still emerging and the story had yet to hit the media. What little was known was being tightly controlled, but it was only a matter of time before it got out.

The insanity had begun when some amateur astronomer had picked up what they thought might be a previously undetected asteroid on its journey into the inner solar system. Interest in trying to find all of these objects had turned frenzied after the meteorite shower that had failed to fall a few weeks ago.

It turns out that this object was a very fast asteroid on its way into the inner solar system. Or at least it was a very fast something. Whether it was an asteroid was being heavily discussed in scientific circles.

What had everyone alarmed was that all telescopes agreed that it had been adjusting course ever since it was detected.

He clicked through each of the reports, paying attention to the conflicting estimates of how fast the object was moving. Current figures for an E.T.A. were somewhere in the 3 to 5 week period, which was a huge window.

What happened once it had arrived? It was his job to recommend preparations, but how the hell do you prepare for this?

He stared at the reports again then removed his glasses to rub at his tired eyes.

Whatever it was, it was coming our way.