Chapter Two 

November 3rd, 2006

It couldn't have been a dream. I climb out of the hole, and glance around. The darkness begins to make me anxious as I don't like being out in the dark, and because there isn't a fallen star to entice me, I'm left with a dirt-covered stuffed rabbit, and a chill up my spine.  

I look around for Icah, but he is nowhere to be seen. Did he run away? How did I enter his eyes like that?

Was he even real?

After a few minutes of searching around for him, I decide to give up and go back into the house before I freeze to death. I slowly trudge through the fields back home, praying that I didn't wake up my parents.

When I approached the front door, I felt a wave of heaviness, not physical heaviness, but I felt as though all of my insides were weighted down, and my brain felt full, like something was slithering inside of it and broke off like a bunch of little worms.

I leaned against the door for a moment, and to my relief, the feeling passed as quickly as it came.

Taking a deep breath of the sharp November air, I slid open the front door and went in. I pulled off my coat and hung it back on the old hook on the wall and ascended up the stairs back to my bedroom where I could rest in the warm blankets of my bed.

I glanced at the door of my parents' bedroom, and waited a moment, listening if either of them had noticed that I left. When I concluded that they didn't, I went into my own bedroom, and shut the door behind me.

I walked over to my bed where I climbed in, and began to move the blankets over so as to comfortably lay inside, when my eyes fell over to the window, and I nearly screamed when I saw Icah, staring out the window as though this was his bedroom, and his window to look out of.

His eyes are fixed on the window, "The glass panels allow you to look out without feeling the exposure of the earth's emotions. That is intelligent."

I gawk at him, half my body hiding underneath my blankets, "I thought you left."

That makes him look at me, "I cannot leave, we have united."

I swallow hard, and suddenly I don't feel as comfortable around this alien man when I'm alone with him in my bedroom.

"I don't know what that means." I want to cry, but I hold it in because if he saw I was crying, he would probably get mad at me like my father does when he sees me cry.

He frowns ever-so-slightly, "I now live within you, Rosie, you accepted me to share your human body."

I blink rapidly to stop the tears, as I repeat myself, "I don't know what that means."

"It means we have become one being. Don't you know this? You said you could hear the stars-"

"Please go away."

His whole body turns away from the window, and towards me, "I cannot go anywhere that you are not, I live inside of you, do you wish me to return to your body as you rest?"

"Go away!" I shout, and I throw Jeffery at him, but he vanishes, and I suddenly feel the same crawling feeling inside of me that I did when I was on the porch. Like my very being was being ransacked by a slithering trespasser.

I hear footsteps from the other room of the house, and moments later my father bursts into my room, a hammer in his hand. He looks around my room, and our eyes meet. My mother follows closely behind him, as they both stare at me, "Rosie!" My father exclaimed, "What the hell are you yelling about?"

I feel a sudden anxious feeling in my chest that was unexpected despite the fact that I felt relieved to see my parents. I began to sob. I was not sure where this anxious feeling came from, but it was almost as though I wasn't feeling at all, it was only there. My mother approaches me, and wraps her long, bony arms around me, and I huddle up against her chest when she sits beside me on my bed.

My father, still alert, steps forward, "Tell us what is wrong."

"There was an alien in my room, and he wouldn't leave." I cry, and at that, my father relaxes slightly. I knew it was stupid to say, because my parents don't believe in aliens, most grown-ups don't. But it was true, aliens were real, and there was one inside of my body.

The anxious feeling immediately evaporated from my chest, and I didn't think another thing of it. I was more concerned about the fact that I was uncontrollably crying in front of my father, who was not fond of emotion.

"Oh sweetheart." My mother calms me, as she runs her hand down my back, "It must have been a terrible nightmare." My mother was an understanding woman. She and my father were complete opposites in everything. Where my father was a tough, cruel type, who prefers a good yelling rather than gentle whispers, my mother was a soft-touched spirit, a delicate satin in the midst of my father's leather.

I loved them both the same, even though it was for entirely different reasons.

I wanted my father to find Icah, and scare him away, and I wanted my mother to hold me until I fell asleep in her arms.

And that, I did.

I cried until my eyes shut, and the excitement from the night cast me away to a faraway land and there, I dreamt lovely. I dreamed of stars, and planets, and glistening galaxies, and I soared in the universe, dodging meteors and listening to the songs the stars sang.

They were singing so beautiful. Hymns to the universe, and its inhabitants, and I could listen to it forever and ever.

But forever was impossible, because my eyes suddenly opened, and the songs drifted away to my imagination.

I was back in my bedroom, and the sun was shining through my window. My mother was gone, though I never heard of felt her leave the room last night. I slept very heavily, which was strange, as I was usually a light sleeper.

I sat up, but this time, I wasn't surprised to see Icah sitting on the edge of my bed. Oddly, I wasn't as nervous either. Perhaps it was because it was daylight, and he wasn't so menacing in the day.

"You aren't leaving me, are you?" I ask him, my eyes fixed on the cluster of space in his.

He was no longer covered in the black liquid that might have been his blood. His hair was a dark, cascading black, and it blended into the greyish hue of his skin.

Oh yes, his skin was definitely grey, it was not my imagination. I thought, last night, that it was white, but the darkness only tricked me into believing that. Today, though, as he sits under the sunlight, he is as grey as a hospital room, but the galaxy in his eyes made up for it, as they were glistening with vibrancy.

"It is an impossible request."

"Because you live inside me?"

"Your body is my vessel. We are one now."

"So, my body is also your body?"

He blinks, "Yes."

"And no matter what, you can never leave?"

"You invited me into your body, we are one now." He repeated that last part again, and I think I understood it now.

I thought about it for a long moment, the idea that I had a constant companion that could never leave me, never get lost, never runaway when I make them mad.

Maybe this could be a positive beginning to something extravagant.

"You said last night you would die if you didn't find a body to live in." I said it as a statement, but he still agreed. "So, if you did not choose me, would you have died?" Justifying his actions by claiming it was saving his life, made me feel better about everything. Despite how scary he was at times, I didn't want him to die.

"Earth and the planets like it are very different atmospheres than that in the stars. Humans are the earth's intelligent passengers; therefore, I must dwell inside the humankind for life, or my being will deteriorate. I apologize for not explaining it, I failed to realize you did not know."

I only understood half of that. "Why didn't you show yourself to my parents last night?"

He went silent, and I felt a sudden tick of anxiety in my chest again. I wasn't nervous around him, so why was I feeling this way?

I put my hand on my chest, and spoke out loud, "Is that you?"

"What do you mean?"

I patted my chest with my hand, "I feel scared, but I'm not scared. I felt it last night too. Is that you?" My eyes widened, "Can I feel what you feel?"

"You can only feel my emotions if I allow you too."

"Can you feel what I feel then?"

"I can feel everything you feel, emotionally, or physically."

So, this was all true then, he and I were connected in a way nobody has ever been.

There was a sudden knock on my door, and just like that, Icah vanished. The sensation of worms crawling in my veins, and limbs, and organs erupted through me, and I understood that that meant Icah was moving inside my body. That very thought made me uneasy.

My mom opened the door, and smiled when she saw me awake, "Oh," She says, "I didn't know you were already awake."

"Good morning mama." I cough, because I could feel Icah's breath in my lungs.

"Breakfast is ready," She continues, "you should hurry and eat before the bus arrives."

I gasp at the fact that I nearly forgot about school. I tore off the blankets and hopped out of bed. My mother helped me pick out a decent outfit to wear, and I quickly dressed into it, as I ran down the stairs to the kitchen where my father was sitting at the tiny table, drinking coffee.

I don't say good morning to him, because most the time, in his mind, mornings are never good. He always complains about how much work needs to be done on the farm, and how the day was 'going to be a long one', which is his go-to phrase when me and my mother sit at the table with him.

I take my usual seat beside the wall, and my mother enters the kitchen, and sets a plate of fruit and potatoes in front of me. I stare at the food, and hungrily take a bite, hoping I could choke it all down before the bus comes and I wouldn't be able to finish.

My mother sits at the table, and she and my father begin discussing their plans for the day, and all the chores they had to do as harvesting season was coming to a close, and they both were behind schedule on it.

I took bite of an apple slice, but something clenched in my stomach, and out of nowhere, I felt as though I was going to throw up everything I just ate. It was a painful feeling, like I had just been stabbed in my abdomen, and everything needed to come out right now.

Not thinking twice, I excused myself from the table, and darted up to the bathroom where I closed the door and barely made it in time to throw up in the toilet. I looked over, surprised to see Icah, on his knees on the floor vomiting the apple slice I just consumed.

Covered in sweat, and my eyes full of tears as throwing up always made me cry, I stared in horror as Icah gripped the rug that was underneath him, he was heaving until the contents of my -our- breakfast were out of his stomach.

When he was finished, he fell back against the wall, and we stared at each other. Shaking, and as scared I was after throwing up, I couldn't help but only be concerned about him.

"Icah?" I whispered, knowing that just down the stairs my parents could hear if I spoke.

The stars in his eyes seemed to dim a little, "I am not used to the vigor humans consume to properly function. I apologize for the destructing behavior, but I can not control what my self does not tolerate."

"Are you okay?" I ask, because at this point, I give up trying to understand his wording.

"I am okay. Are you okay, Rosie? You are not dying, because I would feel it if you were, but your mental stability is wavering."

"I'm not dying." I tell him, because I don't know what mental stability is.

"Very well."

"Rosie! The bus is down the road. Hurry up or you'll miss it." My mother yelled from down the stairs. Icah once more vanished within me, and I, panicked, quickly attempt to hide the apple he threw up by swiping it underneath the rug and praying that my mother wouldn't find it until I get back home to properly dispose of the mess.

With my whole-body tingling as Icah gets comfortable, I run out of the bathroom, and quickly grab my backpack from my bedroom. I dash down the stairs, two steps at a time as I pull my pink jacket off the hook, and struggle to put it on. I can see the bus approaching our house, so I turn to my mother and tell her goodbye, and I give my dad a short wave, because it was a waste of breath to say goodbye to him as he'd only grunt in response, and I ran out the door.