- Thursday -

A furry pest woke me up in the morning. I was curled up next to Casey, cradled protectively in her arms as we slept, with one cheek pressed against me.

The squirrel had decided that she enjoyed her vicious awakening ceremony, and so bare skin became fair game. As soon as I opened my eyes in agony, she stared into them, transfixed.

“Ow!” I yelped, sitting up like a flash. That made her dart backwards, just out of reach. I rubbed at the prickles of pain in my arm, pouting at her.

Casey stirred from her rest at my exclamation, groaning. Her arms were flailing as they tried to find me. She flickered awake, staring at me with bleary eyes.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, reaching out to place a hand on my shoulder.

I turned to her, but my gaze was caught by the curving line of her jaw and the delicate angles of her smooth skin. Unable to resist, I leaned down and placed a reassuring kiss on her cheek, “It’s just Sabina. Go back to sleep.”

She mumbled something about ‘pain-in-the-ass squirrels’ and curled back up, an arm wrapping around my backside. That elicited a giggle from me, but my intimate moment was interrupted – I had to shoo Sabina away again. She was watching me once more, and she  looked like she was going to try another attempt at Operation Make Erin Scream.

I decided I’d had enough right now, so gently extricated myself from Casey’s embrace and ventured to my bags of clothing.

We’d bought some pyjamas when we went shopping, but I didn’t want Sabina to ruin them. They were a cutesy pink set with little pictures of cartoon birds. Casey had loved them immediately, and it had only taken a small amount of convincing for me to agree to take them.

The only alternative I could think of right now was one of those old, giant t-shirts of mine. It felt kind of strange to be wearing them still, but they were also reasonably comfy. At the very least, I didn’t mind the little fluffy demon getting her claws into them.

I put one on, feeling the courser fabric rubbing against my skin as it draped down to my upper thigh.

Sabina took the opportunity I presented and bounded up my arm, onto my shoulder. I sighed, twisting to look at her as best I could.

“Have you been looking after yourself, hmm?” I asked, reaching up to give her head scritches. She didn’t draw away from me this time, instead closing her eyes and enjoying the experience.

‘She has been fine, Erin,’ Muse said, catching me a little off-guard. I hadn’t been expecting her to speak, but I did smile. It made me glad that we hadn’t harmed her too much by bringing her here, away from the oak tree and the surrounding area.

Thirty seconds or so into squirrel petting, a pulsing light drew my eye – my phone was flashing on my desk. I’d completely forgotten about that. 

Grabbing the slick box of plastic and technology, I took a peek to see what had come through. It looked like Rish had tried to get in contact.

Rish: So that guy from the last video wants to talk to you

Rish: Want me to give him that secure account info?

I texted him back immediately in the affirmative, then paused to consider the situation. Would Rish be interested in coming with us if we did decide to work with the TDE? I had a feeling like he’d never forgive me if I passed him over for something like that.

Me: By the way Casey is with me

Me: The girl that was with Artemis

Had I told him yet? I know I’d meant to. What kind of a friend was I that I couldn’t remember?

Sabina got bored of me eventually, finding some corner of my room to curl up and sleep in. I think she preferred being indoors when she was tired – it was a lot safer for her than outside with all the cats and foxes.

I glanced over at the bed, seeing that Casey had fallen asleep again already. Seeing her so serene made my heart warm, and I quickly dove back under the sheets for more happy snuggles.

 

Casey was awake when I opened my eyes next. She was rustling around in her suitcase for clean clothing, muttering to herself the whole time.

“Hey,” I called out to her, drawing myself into a seat position. I wasn’t sure what she was doing, or why she looked to be in such a hurry.

“Hey, sleepy head,” was her reply, accompanied by an adoring grin. It always made my insides melt to see her smile. My cheeks were beginning to turn crimson at the thought of something else that made my insides melt.

I flopped back down into the covers, pretending to hide from her – only one of my eyes was peering out at her from the folds.

“Don’t make me come over there,” she warned. “I will make you squeal.”

I giggled, resisting for maybe five seconds before tugging the covers away.

“I’m still tired,” I whined at her, closing my eyes.

I heard her quiet footsteps move towards me, and the bed gave ever-so-slightly as she leaned in. A tender kiss was placed on my forehead, and we rubbed noses. 

“I’ll be back soon. I’m gonna get some stuff to make breakfast. Then we’re gonna go train some more.”

I’d waited for the kiss that hadn’t come. When the door slammed from her leaving the house, I immediately felt the overbearing weight of solitude push down me. Muse was still with me, at least, so I wasn’t entirely solo.

‘And you never will be again,’ she added.

I pulled myself out of bed to get dressed and had a look through the different clothes that were left from our shopping spree. Smiling, I pulled out the darkly coloured, asymmetric midi-dress that Casey had been dying to see me wear. I had to admit that I thought that it looked so pretty, but had been scared of how I’d look in it. She’d rolled her eyes at me and put it into the shopping basket.

But hadn’t she mentioned that we’d be going training later? Then it’d probably not be a good idea to wear a dress for that.

With a resigned sigh, I put it back and looked through the bags for my pair of combats that we’d bought. I paired them with a tank-top and cardigan, then went to have a shower.

It was pure euphoria!

I actually heard a message ping on my phone while I was leaving the shower, but decided that whomever it was could wait at least until I was dressed. Hopefully Casey should be back soon.

Dried and dressed fifteen minutes later, I checked my phone and saw Rish had replied to my messages from earlier. 

Rish: That’s awesome!

Rish: What’s she like?

Oh my goddess, where do I even begin to begin?

Me: She’s nice :)

Boom. Nailed it. First try.

I could hear someone struggling with a key at the front door, and I laughed. Phone-in-hand, I bounced down the steps to open the front door for Casey. She was clearly frustrated as I opened the door, while her arms were full of carrier bags.

“Uh. I thought you were only getting stuff for breakfast,” I said, trying hard not to burst out laughing. I reached out to help her, tip-toeing for the kiss I’d wanted earlier. She had no qualms about returning it, and together we carried them all to the kitchen.

“Ye, well, I couldn’t decide,” she replied to my earlier critique, pulling flour, milk, eggs and who knows what else from the bags.

“Jesus. Are we expecting company?” I asked, gawking at the sheer amount of food she’d bought.

She glanced at me with a playful glare, but kept emptying the bags, one item at a time. I wasn’t sure exactly what she had been planning to make, but I think we had just about every ingredient imaginable.

“Plus, maple syrup,” she concluded, putting the last of the contents on the kitchen counter.

I rolled my eyes, but turned to look at my phone as it started to buzz at me.

There were new encrypted messages from someone using the username Asowande. My super keen, ultra-sharp intellect told me that this was the person that Muse referred to as Prometheus.

‘I want to talk with him directly but he is too far to take your hand,’ Muse said. ’We shall have to do this the slow way.’

“Uh. I just got a message from that Prometheus person. I’m going to see if we can speak with him,” I told Casey, turning to move out of the kitchen. She was still organising all of the ingredients and deciding what it was that she wanted to cook.

“Sure. I’ll come catch up with you once you’re done.”

I decided that the conversation would be better to happen through a video meeting. It might even be beneficial for Muse to be able to see the man’s eyes – I had no idea. What I did know is that I was going to die of frustration if I had to type out every message using my smartphone keyboard.

 

Once in my room, I turned on my computer. The poor thing was barely getting any use at all these days. Just a few short months ago I’d have been spending most of my free time playing video games and hiding from the world.

My contact details were sent to Asowande through our secure messaging app, and then I waited for him to call me. The camera was looking too high, I realised. The angle of my webcam and the height of my chair both needed adjusting. I guess I was even shorter than I had been when I’d spoken to Rish that time – was it last week?

It didn’t take long at all for the incoming call ringing sound to begin playing. As I was clicking on the accept button, Muse chimed in on my thoughts.

‘This is going to be a delicate meeting. Please could you relay everything that I say, word-for-word? No matter what?’ she requested, her voice containing an edge of tension.

I could do that. It might feel a bit weird, especially trying to convey the tone that she wanted, but I could say the words. It was kind of like being an interpreter, I guessed. A mouth-piece?

‘Thank you, Erin.’

The image of the same dark skinned, affable gentleman with the fatherly demeanour appeared – the one from the video where Muse had identified them as Prometheus.

“Hello?” he asked. The choppy connection wasn’t the best, but it was starting to settle.

“Hi,” I replied. Muse hadn’t told me to say anything yet, so I figured it was smalltalk o’clock.

He broke into a smile as he heard my voice, the uncertainty that had been pulling on his face settling down into calm confidence.

“Hello, I am Ademola Sowande. May I ask your name, young lady?”

His voice was deep and richly accented with what I believed to be some kind of African language, but not too much that I was finding it difficult to understand. The unfamiliar pronunciation of certain vowels took my brain a little time to parse, but I figured that it was just from lack of practice. If we spoke together more it would come to be natural.

“Erin,” I answered. “I’m Erin Reid. It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr Ademola Sowande.”

“Please, we are all friends here. Call me Ademola.”

We flashed each other friendly smiles. He really did have a knack for setting me at ease. He’d likely make a great politician – or maybe he already was one? I actually had no idea who he was.

‘We would like to speak to expels-chaos-and-brings-order,’ Muse said in my mind. As promised, I relayed that word-for-word to the man on my monitor.

He smiled, dipping his head in confirmation. “Of course. He uses the name Paladin now, but he tells me that this is because it helps him to make sense of the ideas in my head.”

I nodded, though I squinted at the screen. No one seemed to have the same ability to create awesome names like Muse did. Which, I guess was a product of my old interest in Greek mythology.

“My friend uses the name Muse,” I answered.

“Muse? That is interesting. I wonder why she chose that name when there are more appropriate ones, even within the same mythos,” Ademola replied with something of a twinkle in his eye.

I wasn’t sure what he was referring to. Muse ignored it and carried on with her own conversation.

‘What happened? Why is the threat almost here already?’

Honestly, I expect that this was as awkward a conversation for Muse as it was for me. She was translating her thoughts into my mind, which was being broadcast across the planet in computer code, but within it was a message in the English language. The man in front of me then had to translate English back into his own mind, for another alien symbiote to understand-

‘Erin – focus please,’ Muse chided, softly. 

Sorry.

There was a nervous twitch around Ademola’s jaw, like he could see where this conversation was going and wasn’t sure that he liked it.

“You are certain that this is the case? It is almost here?” he asked, swallowing uncertainty. Ademola was clearly getting worried by what he was hearing. Paladin could be feeling just about anything behind that human mask.

‘We have been in contact with the entities responsible for defending this world. They have detected the imminent arrival.”

“I see. Well…” Ademola trailed off, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. 

Uh oh. What was going on? Was there some kind of disagreement happening inside his head? I wasn’t sure.

In the silence that we now found ourselves in, I could hear Casey making breakfast downstairs. I couldn’t smell anything yet, but it sounded like she was pulling out plates.

‘Well?’ Muse asked. She was becoming impatient.

He was still uncomfortable in the little video window, but he continued, “The calculations were incomplete. We launched with only the preliminary estimates, but the window between detection and execution was too small. I did not have time for the correct procedures to be followed.”

Ademola’s agitation was beginning to rub off on me, and I could feel my pulse start to race.

‘We never perform interventions without the correct procedures – it is too risky. Who sanctioned it?’

He swallowed again, his next words obviously chosen quite deliberately, “Well, this task was not completely sanctioned before our departure.”

‘What?!’ Muse screamed in my head, making me wince from the stabbing sensation I felt in my temples. There was no way I was going to be able to relay that, so I told Ademola that Muse was not happy with that answer.

Honestly, I was still happy for Muse and friends to be here despite us not having much time. Earth would need all the help it could get if things were going to be as bad as she seemed to think.

‘Erin - if this intervention was not sanctioned then we have no legal authority to be here. We are effectively criminals, and will receive no support.’

Okay, that did kind of feel like it could be bad.

‘You assured us that everything was legitimate before we began preparations to leave. Were you deceived, or did you lie to us?’ Muse asked now, although I could feel her anger in her words.

“It may not have been officially sanctioned, but we were given all of the equipment we would need,” Ademola answered back, though he looked far less confident than the words he was saying. “All of it. Access to that comes only from the highest level.”

There was silence, both on the screen and in my head for several long seconds. I was feeling the awkwardness so I gave Ademola a friendly smile. He returned it, gratefully.

Downstairs, it sounded like some kind of frying was happening. The smell of American pancakes and British bacon was beginning to waft into my room – my stomach growled in anticipation.

‘The humans will not trust us if we tell them,’ Muse finally replied.

“I am aware. That is why we cannot tell them. Its use must be the last option, should we all fall,” Ademola commented back to me.

Wait, what? The use of what?

‘This is no intervention, it is a containment. These people deserve better from us.’

“The alternative was to provide no help at all.”

Muse paused here, giving me a small amount of time to think and process what was being said. None of it sounded good for humanity, that was for certain. Were we completely screwed?

‘Do the others accept that you have sent them on a suicide mission?’

Oh Goddess.

There was a pained expression on Ademola’s face. Despite being the host for the one actually speaking, he would have been present for every conversation. He knew the answer just as well as his symbiote did.

“You have taken it the best so far, little Muse.”

The way he said that had me wondering. He’d been insinuating that Muse wasn’t the best name.

‘Has she been contacted?’ Muse added. ‘I need her and there isn’t much time.’

Who was she talking about?

“She has not been seen yet. I will let you know once we find her.”

 

I must have looked stunned when I stumbled downstairs. Casey was just setting our fully laden plates on the dining table when I walked in. She broke into a wide smile as she saw me, which soon fell into concern as she noticed my expression.

“Are you okay?” she asked. 

She stepped towards me and reached out for my hands, searching my eyes.

It took a moment to focus on her face, but once I did I managed a smile. Honestly, if it had been anyone but Casey I think I might have struggled to snap back to the present.

“I’ll let Hunter tell you,” I replied. I felt so emotionally drained right now and was in no position to explain anything I’d just heard. My arms encircled her neck and I rested my head against her shoulder. “Thank you for breakfast. It smells amazing.”

“You’re welcome, babe,” she replied, holding me in her loving arms.