Banished To Earth Book Two (7)

“Well, that was nice,” Tucker said, helping Pry to her feet.

 

   “Ya’ coulda’ helped me too.”

 

   “You? What are you doing here?”

 

    “I’m Santa Claus. Ask Chase. I came bearing gifts. And I’m all you care about?  Ah. The tree thing! Bigger deal than me.” She chided, looking up as she spoke.

 

    Pry’s hair lifted, twisting and rising until it nestled around an egg-sized alabaster cocoon, dangling a few feet from her head. It was one of hundreds hanging from the trees’ sagging branches.

  

   Jerking as if she had touched an electric fence, Pry declared. “They live! Life is pulsing inside them.”

 

   “Ah oh, getting bad, bad ‘Alien’ vibes.” Silhouette said.

 

   “You watch too many movies.” Chase chided, returning to Pry’s side. He staggered for a moment, then shook his head clear.

 

  “A girls’ gotta hide somewhere,” Silhouette murmured, her eyes looking down.

 

   “You do know you said that out loud?” Chase teased, even though his eyes were saddened when he looked at her.

 

   A moment of awkward silence crawled by, then…

 

   Tucker scanned every branch. “Trees heavy with ‘em. No monster tingle. Not Hunters either.”

 

   Chase slumped and took Pry’s hand. “I did this too.” He whispered.

 

   “What’s with you, Guilty Mac Guilt.” Silhouette turned on him. “I heard your whispers. Hunter, remember.”

 

   Pry pulled away from him and carefully made her way across the root-cluttered ground toward the Huntress and confessed. “A very long time ago, I did something deeply selfish. And Chase, Chase did the worst thing for the best reason.”  

 

“And that would be?” This time, it was Tucker waiting for an answer.

 

    

25

 

   His body still slumped as if gravity was ten times greater beneath his feet, finally lifting his head just high enough to look Tucker in the face. “I killed a baby, my Mother’s first and only child. That is why she wasted her life hating my guts. And I don’t blame her.”

 

    Silhouette shook her head, “What, you did what? You’re not making a lick of sense.”

 

    “Yeah,” Tucker injected, “about as much sense as this, ‘alien’ tree.”

  

  “Well, pretty sure what I did twenty-two years ago, eventually caused this too.”

 

   “We do not know that Chase.”

 

   “Pretty clear to me. Tucker, you said this whole area back here had a weird vibe…”

 

   “Now wait a minute, Chase,” Silhouette interrupted, “twenty-two years ago, you must have been a baby.”

 

     His eyes rolled toward her.

 

  “Oh, wow. Okay, but babies don’t know anything, I mean, how can they? What exactly are you saying?”

 

    Pry could see Chase struggling. “We are from a planet called Alisar. It is, I am certain, gone now. Chase, that is, Davin, his original persona, was a seer. I was his new bride. In a dream, a seer dream, he saw Earth, and everything else, destroyed by a child who was to be born there. He was sent to stop this birth.” Chase put his arm around Pry.

 

“I invaded Mable Gillette’s womb, pushed her unborn child out, and took its place.” His confession spewed out like vomit.

 

    “You. You. You what now?” Silhouette and Tucker traded wary glances. “How is that even possible?”

 

   “Shift portals,” Pry added. “At least the one Chase and I jumped into, could apparently traverse time and bypass vast regions of space.” She paused, “, and human flesh.”

 

   “I don’t think anyone had ever done such a thing…” Chase added.

 

   “And I jumped into his arms just as the portal took him. I could not, would not say goodbye. It was selfish. Foolish. Chase chose not to be selfish. But I could not bear to lose him.” She turned away from them, hiding her face.

 

  Chase continued, “We splintered, that is our souls. Don’t know how many worlds and lives we lived through, but…”

 

    “But a love that binds is a love that finds.” Pry finished his sentence.

26

 

  “Can’t help but think, my unnatural entry into Mabel, Earth, cracked the walls of the world, and who knows how many others.”

 

 

   “Well. That’s a lot.” A softness settled over Silhouette plain enough for everyone to see. The gentle pressure of a strong masculine hand pressed against her back. Her head jerked around. It was Tucker. It had been well over a decade since she blushed. The heat roiling off her face made her angry. Her shields were melting. However, sharp words could not find their way into her mouth.

 

    Tucker smiled at her silence. “That is a lot.”

 

      A few awkward moments crept by then Silhouette spoke, “Sounds like you slipped by The Authority. Good deal. This, unborn. I take it was supposed to be a Hunter. A really bad one.”

 

  “Yeah,” Chase continued, “but I, I turned away. Awoke, couldn’t bear the images, the screams. It was too much. Had I been stronger, I would have seen more, learned more, but I wasn’t.”

 

    “We know enough, Chase.” Pry’s words were soft as baby breath.

 

  Tucker swung around spotted Trudy’s house, “Whew, for a second I thought we might have shifted instead of the tree.”

 

   Silhouette’s eyes rolled up at him. “You looking out for us?” She put particular emphasis on the word us, smiled when he nodded yes.

 

   “They are safe?” Pry asked.

 

  “Oh yeah, but worried by now.”

 

    No one said another word. The tree sang a sweet song in the gentle breeze, giving them no reason to fear it. The tree lied.