Chapter one:

I am the rebel everyone wants to be, but doesn't have the guts to be. If you were to meet me, you would fall on your knees, speechless, tears rolling off your face like a little kid that just scraped his knee and got a boo-boo. I can make that impression on anyone.
Until I met Luke. When I met Luke, he didn't fall to his knees speechless or had tears streaming down his face. He looked right past me and totally ignored me like I wasn't even there at all. And let me tell you, I didn't like that one bit. I mean, all my life I have been a rebel and all my life everyone that I see worships me. But not Luke.
The day that we met it was cloudy outside, a thunder and lightening storm ready to lash out at anyone near it. This storm was stranger than any that I have seen and it seemed more wild and unnatural to me. The wind was just picking up and my hair was in my face. I was looking to where the storm was, seeing how much longer me and my crew had till the storm did reach us, which at the time, the storm was about three minutes away from me.
Yeah, I can tell when things happen.
People don't just call me The Rebel for nothing. I can do things that no one else would even think about doing. It goes along with my image of being a rebel. On the inside, I am a heart broken young girl who had watched her family die in front of her, betrayed by their best and closest friend. On the outside, I am a cool, collected young woman who wants her revenge for her family. She keeps up her image until she is alone when no one sees her cry.
But anyways. Back to the night that I met Luke. I was still watching the storm when I notice that the storm was picking up, coming even closer to my crew and I. I knew it would be best to move out and hide where the storm wouldn't effect us, but I was rooted to my spot and I knew I would regret not moving. But something was stopping me from moving. Even my crew was rooted to their spots, gaping at the strange storm. The storm was right on top of us now and still we stayed, staring up at the storm.
Then suddenly, someone or something came out of the middle of the storm. When I looked closer, I saw that it was a teenage boy, about the same age as me. He didn't even look shaken. He had his head down, as if he was sad and had let his head slump to the ground. I called out to him without even realizing it (until much later, anyways), and he lifted his head up at me and walked right past me.


Chapter two:

I remember the day I brought my first made storm to Earth. It was magnificent. It was the best day that I ever had in my life. (Later I would learn that I am more powerful than anyone ever thought I could be, even more than my Leader.) That was the day I met Mia. She saw me before I had and she even called out to me as if she knew something that she wasn't supposed to know. I knew she could help me, but I needed her to gain my trust first. The moment that I laid eyes on her, I knew everything about her. That was my gift. All I had to do was look at them in the eyes and I would know their secrets.
That didn't go so well, gaining her trust, I mean.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
When I had made my first storm, I was to meet someone. That person that I was supposed to meet is Mia. She was the type that didn't take anyone's shit. And she never did. Not even mine. I should have listened to her when I had the chance. She was trying to help me, and I didn't listen to her at all.
Again with the skipping ahead! What is wrong with me?! I seriously need to stop telling you this from in the middle of it. Sorry. Where were we? Ah, yes. I was telling you about when I met Mia.
When I first laid eyes on Mia, I felt as if the world was rushing over me. I only saw her. Even from a very far distance, I could see that she had bright, bright green eyes, that when caught the sun shone so bright, you would want to cover your eyes up to protect them from blindness. She had shining bright carrot top hair so long, it went past her knees. She was wearing her hair in a tight braid.
I remember when I walked out of my storm that she was standing right there with her crew that she brings everywhere with her. I had my head down, but I could still make out every little detail on each of their horses and hairs on the back of their necks. She had called out to me, and slowly, slowly, I lifted my head up at her as I approached her and walked right past her, grabbing a water bottle stuck in a knapsack on her second-in-command's horse and took a long swig of water, finishing it in two gulps.
The second-in-command looked at me in awe, his mouth open wide.
"How did you know I had that in their?" he had asked, grabbing the empty water bottle from my grip and shoved it back in the sack it had previously been. He frowned and looked me up and down three times. On the second time he was looking at me, I turned in a full three-sixty angle and asked with a smirk on my face, "Find what you looking for?"
He had scoffed and slapped his horse on the butt, which told the horse to ride. He rode to the other side of Mia, who was trying to hide a smile that was shown plainly on her face. That was one of the rare smiles I like best about her, and she didn't like to show it to much.
I walked over to Mia's horse and rubbed the horse's chin.
Mia looked at me as I pulled a carrot out of her sack next to her and fed it to the horse.
"Who are you?" Mia had asked, her bright green eyes searching me for something. "Did you just come out of that storm there?" She nodded towards the storm that was now passing as I had commanded it to. I needed to get my strength up before I could make myself another one and go back to my home planet.
I looked at her and smiled. "I am Luke. And yes, I did just come out of that storm there. Why do you ask? Do you like to butt into people's business's?"
Mia this time did smile. "Says the person that is feeding my horse without my permission. How did you know where his bottle of water would be? Not even I know where it is. He doesn't like people touching his water." She leaned over to me and put her mouth close to my ear. "He has a thing about water."
I nod, staring at her eyes. For some reason, I could see everything there is to know about Mia in her eyes as I looked deep into them. She noticed I was looking at them and I saw her cheeks flush, and for some reason, I could feel her cheeks flush. It was like I could feel everything she was feeling, (but we didn't figure this out until later).
I could see that she wasn't one to let other people see her feelings. She was those types of people that kept a pretend image on the outside so no one would think that they are a coward. Not that I think Mia is a coward because she isn't.


Chapter three:

Luke had walked right past me and took water from a hidden pack on my second-in-command and drank all of it like it wasn't enough. He had swallowed a gallon of water in two gulps. I could see that he was a different person.
Brett, my second-in-command, grabbed the empty water jug out of Luke's hands and thrust it back into his pack and gave his a look of disgust.
"How did you know that was in there?" Brett asked, frowning as he looked Luke over.
Luke smiled and said, "Find what you were looking for?"
Brett gave him a look and rode his horse away from him over to me, where he scoffed.
Luke was still smiling and walked right over to me like he had no idea who I am and grabbed a carrot from my sack without even looking and started feeding it to my horse, Bell.
I don't really remember much after that, probably because I blocked the memories out of my head, but I do remember Luke asking for a ride to the nearest town.
I thought Luke was a strange, interesting young man, so I obliged and made him ride with my least favorite crew member, Margot.
I turned my horse around and began riding to the farthest town that I could think of. I wasn't about to go to Cloddirt.
Cloddirt is where I grew up as a little girl. I loved the town so much, I used to pretend that I became the mayor of the dusty town and fed all the poor people that the current mayor never bothered to do. I pretended to ride a horse along my families property until I got to nowhere and found the man that I was looking for.
But those were just dreams that never came true. One day, my father had asked me to go to the next town over to get some milk and bread, because everyone in Cloddirt went to get food and water because ours was too poor and dried up to have anything planted, and I went, happy to be doing something other than chores. At the time, I was only thirteen years old and I was so innocent.
But then I came back with the bread and milk and walked into the doorway of my rusty, rotten wooded house and dropped the gallon milk and bread, which spilled all over the bloody ground where my father and three brothers were laying, dead, their bodies all sliced in the same way. I sank to my knees, tear rolling fast down my face and all over the floor as I cradled my father in my arms. My mother had died giving birth to me thirteen years before my father and three brothers died, and now I had no one to take care of me, even though I usually took care of myself and father and my brothers. I was all alone, and I later realized that my father had purposefully sent me to the town, making up an excuse to buy milk and bread when he knew he would die.
I remember father had been distracted all that day and so were my brothers, but they were only that way because of my father. They never liked it when father acted like that. I didn't either, but I thought it was only because we were getting low on our funds left over from when we got money from our bank after mother died.
The day father asked me to go get milk and bread he knelt by me in the morning when I had just woken up and hugged me until I couldn't breath anymore.
He had looked at me and smiled a sad smile and kissed me on the forehead. I had thought it was strange even for him, but didn't think anything of it. He had said, "I hope you live a long healthy life, Mia. Your strong just like your mother, and don't you forget that. You hear, young lady?"
I, for some reason swallowed tears back in my throat and nodded, giving him another hug. It was my last hug I got from him.
I regretted being mean to my brothers. You know that saying, 'you don't know what you have until its gone'? Well, its true. I didn't realize it until they were gone. I always treated them with little respect.
When I came back home to see them like there were, all bloody on the floor, their eyes wide with fear that was frozen on their faces, I vomited next to their bodies and cried.
I shivered, remembering that. I didn't know who had done what had happened to them until I went to the mayor and told him about the murders of my family. He has said something that made me freeze in my spot in the chair he made me sit in and it stopped my blood flow for a split second. Everything is going to be fine now, Mia. Your father wasn't of use to anyone anymore. And you know that its true. He was a mess and he is in a better place where he is wanted now. He had said that to my face, not even caring if he told me that he was the one who had killed them. He might not have killed them himself, but he could have hired someone to do it. Many people in this town would kill anyone for money that he would offer.
After the mayor, (who is now dead) said that to me, I got up and screamed at him, "What about my brothers?"
The mayor just smiled and said the same thing to me. I cried and ran out of his office and I could hear his laughter playing over and over in my head as I ran.
I had ran until I fell to the ground in the next town over. The town I shouldn't have been in buying milk and bread. The town I now hated. I slept on the ground until someone picked me up and carried me into their house.
But that story is for another time.
I looked up from my horse and turned around to see Luke staring at me. I looked at him. For some reason, I felt as if I knew him, even though I just met him. I shouldn't have even gave him a ride into the town.
I needed to stay away from him, but I couldn't.
Luke leaned over to Margot, whispering something in his ear. Margot looked over at me and signaled me that Luke wanted to talk to you alone.
I nod, and then stop my horse, who whinnies as we do. I jump off my horse and walk over to Luke, who had already gotten off of Margot's horse.
"You wanted to talk to me?" I ask, looking at my dirty nails, as if I was bored. Luke didn't talk, but he looked past me until I caught on and signaled to my crew to leave. They knew where we were heading, so they rode off into town and left us alone in the desert.
Luke waited until I was just about bored with myself. "So? What did you want to talk to me about?"
Luke sighed and looked at the ground. "I need to talk to you about something. Something important. And you cannot tell anyone. If you do, then I might have to do something that I really don't want to do to you."
I scoffed, clearly telling him that I wasn't frightened of his remark. "Is that supposed to scare me?"
Luke shook his head. "No, but if I wanted to scare you, then I would have already done that. So, do you promise not to tell anyone?" He asks, searching me for something that he probably couldn't see. For some reason, I felt as if I knew him and I felt...safe next to him. I looked at him until I finally said yes.
"Alright. I promise. Now tell me before I get bored," I say, shifting my weight over to the left side.
Luke didn't say anything for a while, but when he finally did, then it was like something I would never have thought to hear coming from him.
"I am not from this planet. If you don't believe me, then I can prove it by making another storm just as I had with that storm you saw earlier. I could tell when I first laid my eyes on you that you knew that that storm wasn't natural. I had made that and I ended up here. I need to get back to my planet and save my planet."
I was speechless. On the outside, I kept a cool, collected image, but on the inside, my heart was pounding so fast, I was sure that he could see it. "What are you talking about? This is the only planet in this solar system!" I say, trying to come up with some other reason.
Luke shakes his head. "No. There is. I was actually supposed to go to a different planet in the next galaxy over, but I accidently came here in the past."
"The past?" I ask, shaking my head. I back up. This is the stupidest thing that I have ever heard of. "You have to be joking. I do not like people who joke. Leave me now. I will not take you anywhere you ask. I do not want anything to have to do with someone like you."
Luke shook his head. "I am so sorry, Mia. I didn't want to have to do this, but I will have to."
I backed up a few more steps and gasped. I never even told him my name. How could he possibly know it?
"How did you kow my name?" I ask, breathing heavily.
Luke took three steps towards me with every two steps I took. "Because I know you. That is my gift. To know everything about whoever I look into their eyes. Ask me anything and I will tell you."
I shook my head.
"No?" He asks, stepping towards me. I didn't even try to move because there was nowhere to go. I was out in the middle of nowhere in the hot desert with someone who claims to be from another planet and knows everything about me. "I know that you only keep this image up in front of other people because you’re crying inside. You lost your mother when you were born and your father and three brothers at the hands of a hit man hired by the dead mayor in that town you will probably never go in ever again because you cannot face your families killer face to face even though that's what you keep telling yourself anyways that you would kill him on the spot."
I gasp. No one knows anything about that, so how could he possibly know anything about that? He was so close to me, that I could smell him and touch his beautiful face. I wanted to, but I forced myself not to. He is an alien. "How did you know all that? No one knows about that, so no one could tell you about that."
Luke smiles, his smile staring me down. I fall to my knees, letting all my tears I am always hiding until I am alone fall down on my face. Luke holds me, and it is comforting. I cannot let him get to me. I wipe the tears off my face and I stand, walking away from Luke. I didn't get very far because Luke grabbed me with such strength that I gasped from the pain. He let me go as I gasp.
"Leave me alone! I don't even know you! You lie! You know nothing about me!" I yell, not caring if the whole world heard me. He was trying to turn me into someone that I didn't want to be.
Luke held his hands in the air. "Your right. I did lie."
I pointed my finger at him. "I knew it! Your a joker and I don't like it. You only have heard of what happened to my family and now you are here to rub it in my face, right?" I ask, jumping up onto my horse.
Luke grabs my reins. He is serious, I can tell. "No. I never joke. I only lied about one thing. I told you that I am from a different planet and that I needed to get there. Which I do, but not until I complete what I came here to do. When I said that I came here by accident, that was the lie."
I can see he is telling the truth. I don't want it to be the truth, but I can see it in his gray eyes. "What do you want from me?"
Luke doesn't say anything for a while, then sighs. "I have a mission here. You are my mission."
I gape at him. He cannot be serious. Does he really think that I am going to believe something so absurd? No. I will not.


Chapter four:

I wish that Mia would understand. But she doesn't. She is so caught up in the fact that her life is screwed up and she doesn't need my help. But she does. This is my mission. To help her get to where she is needed and to where she finds herself. Once that is done, then I must return to where I belong with her help.
"Mia, please. I cannot leave you now. When you saw me for the first time just hours ago, coming out of that storm I made, you knew that something wasn't right about me or that storm. You know who I am, even if you don't. We barely know each other, I know, but we know each other one way or another. I've known you since the day you were born. I was born to help you, and if you don't want my help, then I am not going to give it that easily. You will have to earn it. But if you take my help now, then you won't have to earn it and it will be so much easier for both of us. So please, take it while I offer it," I say to her, still holding her horses reins. I wasn't letting go of them until she gave me an answer.
Mia looked at me for what seemed like hours, standing in this hot desert. She finally nodded her head and I handed the reins back to her. She smiled at me and I smiled back .This is a start.
Suddenly, Mia yelled, "Yehaw!" and she and the horse took off to the town. I shook my head, not wanting to do what I was about to do.
I closed my eyes and held my hands out in front of me, willing time to turn back for a few seconds.
Seconds later, I still had a tight grip on the reins that I let go a minute ago. I opened my eyes.
Mia was staring at me with fear. "How in the hell did you do that?" She demanded.
I look at her. "Mia, you lied to me. Don't ever do it again. I am trying to help you. Don't you want some justice for those lost years, acting as if nothing was wrong and your this rebel that everyone wants to be? You don't want that. I know what you want, and what you want is your family back. I can bring them back, but you have to trust me and let me help you. That is all I want to do. But if my mission fails, then I cannot bring your family back."
Mia stares at me. "You lie," She whispers so low I almost didn't hear it.
"Why would I lie to you? Mia. I am tired of telling you this! If you don't want my help, then just say it and I will leave, probably die by the hands of my Leader back on my home planet for not doing what I was told to do!" I let go of the reins and turned around. I have got her now.
Mia didn't say anything. She didn't try to leave or anything. Not after what I am able to do.
I heard her slip off of her horse. "Luke. How do you know me?"
I then turn to her. "Mia. When I told you that I am from a different planet, its the truth. I am actually supposed to be more in the future, but my storm took me here to this time for some reason that it wanted me to be at. That's how my people's storms work. They create them, then tell the storm where to go, and it takes them there. But we do not control what time we will end up at. That is why we do not travel in storms that often because our storms bring us to certain times to change something that was supposed to be changed. I am supposed to change something in this time, but I don't know what yet."
"That doesn't answer my question. And your right about one thing, Luke," Mia says.
I look at her. "And what would that be?"
She looks away from me. I can see that she doesn't want to tell me. She isn't the type to tell the admit something, even if she is wrong. "Ah, well...umm...I think I do know you, even though we just met. I can feel it, burning down deep in my heart. Maybe your right about all of this. Maybe you came here for some reason that we don't know about."
I smile. Finally, this is turning out the way that I want it to. So far.
"You mean that?" I ask, grabbing her hand. She takes her hand out of mine.
"I am not sure about all of this. What are you supposed to do to help me? I lost everything that I held dear to me. And even if we get through this mission of yours, I don't think that you can bring back my family. I pictured the scene in my head over and over the day my father and three brothers died. I should have been there to stop whoever killed them, but I wasn't. I kept thinking if I was a rebel to my father, then I would have refused to go to the next town to buy milk and bread, then I would have been there to save them somehow. But I wasn't, and that's why I am what I am today. I don't think with my heart anymore. I think with my head because they last time I used my heart to guide me, it ended with four deaths. I can't do this, Luke. I'm sorry," she said, turning away from me. I can tell that it was hard for her to say that, but it was a start to the finale of my mission.
"Mia. You just took the first step towards my mission," I calmly say with a smile. She looks at me with tears in her eyes.


Chapter five:

So, I had finally decided to give it a shot. I was going to go with Luke to where ever I could find myself or something like that. The only reason that I agreed was because he said that he could bring my family back to life. I was skeptical, but if he was willing...then that was fine with me.
I was sure what made me say what I did say to him about knowing him even though we just met, but for some reason, it felt like the right thing to do.
No! I must not think that way. I am to think with my head, not my heart. I don't want to think with my heart anymore, and since I started thinking more with my head, things have been easier for me.
"Luke, what are we going to do? I don't even know what I am doing, agreeing to this. I should be in the next town with my crew, trying to track down who had killed my family," I say, holding onto my horse's reins.
Luke is staring at me, and I think that he really doesn't know what to do either. But then he says something to me that makes me want to hunch over and cry. Or vomit.
"I think we should go back to where it happened," Luke said, a matter of fact.
"What are you crazy?" I ask, slapping him across the face. He doesn't even blink or move his face as if he wasn't even slapped. "How dare you even suggest that!"
Luke sighs. "Mia. We have to. You need to find yourself. Look, I know that you are a messed up girl inside because you've spent your whole life without your mother and six years without your father and brothers. Its hard, I know. But your going to have to face the facts one of these days. I know that you only hired that lame crew of yours because you wanted them to help you catch whoever killed your family. I would do the same thing because I know how you feel. When I told you that when I look into someone's eyes, I see everything there is to know about that certain person. I can also feel their emotions. Yours are mostly confusion and sadness. Sometimes madness. I know how you feel. I am not going to change the way you think about things, but I hope in time while I am with you, you will learn to see things my way. I want you to help yourself, and I am only here to help you guide yourself to do that. That is my real mission. I am only here to guide you along the way to your right path."
I am not saying anything because there is nothing really to say. He is right, and I know it, but I cannot let him get to me. I will let him guide me, but I will not change the way I think about all of this. My families killer needs to pay for what he had done and I am not going to stop until he is in his grave. Then once he is in his grave, I will spit on it.
"Mia?" Luke asks, putting a hand on my shoulder. I look at him. I don't want to show my emotions, but when I am around him, they just pour out of me, like water pours out of a faucet.
"Hmm?" I ask.
"We need to go there. Are you going with me? Because I am going to go now," he says, his soft hand slipping away from my shoulder as he began to walk.
I wanted him to touch me again. But I didn't need to think this way! I will not! I force myself to get onto Bell and I rode over to Luke, who was still walking away from me.
I stop in front of him and hold my hand out. He takes it and he climbs up onto Bell, who wines at me.
"Glad you saw my way, Mia," Luke says in a whisper.
I nod, not trusting myself to speak. I love the way he feels, holding my waist as Bell runs to the town my crew is at.
"Why are we going this way when your home town is that way?" Luke asks, pointing his thumb behind him.
"I need to tell my crew something. Its nothing bad, but I don't want them to worry about me. I really don't want them to come with us, if that's okay with you, Luke," I say.
I feel Luke nodding behind me.
"Do you feel what I feel?" Luke asks after a while of silence. I don't answer him because I don't want to feel the connection between each other. I need to not want him. Its like he was supposed to come here and tear at my heart every time that he looks at me and talks to me. I don't need that. I don't need him, but he isn't going to give up until I had agreed with him. He isn’t going to change the way I see things.
“Mia?” Luke asks again, his voice making me turn to look at him. I can see right through his eyes, and I don’t like that one bit.
“Yes?” I ask, forcing myself to look away from him.
“I know you can feel the connection between us. Why do you ignore it?”
I don’t answer him. I don’t need to. I don’t want to answer him.
“Can we just not talk right now? I have a lot on my mind right now, Luke. I should be in town, tracking down my families killer right now, but instead, I am going to have to tell them that I don’t need them anymore just so that I can go on this mission to find myself or whatever your making me do. I don’t want to and I still have to anyways. Just stop talking to me until I tell you that you can talk. Okay?” I say, sighing heavily. I really don’t want to talk to him right now, and thankfully he stopped trying to get to me. Until we came to the town of Dustbucket.
Dustbucket is the town I sent my crew to when Luke wanted to talk to me. It was just getting dark and I know that my crew would be getting really worried because I have never stayed away from them this long. I should have told them not to worry before they headed off.
My crew and I have came to this town and in every town that we come to we find a place that we can meet at if we split, so I knew where they would be. We rode over to an alleyway and I slipped off my horse, Luke following me. I tied Bell to a pole and started to walk; whistling a tune that my crew and I came up with so they knew it was me coming through. I stop in front of a rusty old door that was barely on the hinges and knocked three times, stopped, then knocked again four times. It opened almost immediately after my seventh knock and I entered, Luke following behind me, his heart racing fast.
How would I know if his heart is beating fast? Oh, wait. I forgot that we have a connection. Oh, yuck.
I breathed in heavily and stepped forward slowly. Something didn’t feel right about this, and I could tell that Luke had the same feeling the way he was so tense next to me.
“Hello?” I ask, feeling around for the light switch on the wall, but couldn’t find it. I knew where the light switch is, but I couldn’t find it.
“Now!” I heard one of my crew members yell.
Suddenly, all of my crew members came at us in the dark and grabbed me from behind.
I gasped at how tightly they had a hold of me.
I screamed, yelling cruse words at them. They betrayed me. “Let me go!”
The light came on and I blinked, seeing that they had knifes and a couple guns in our faces.
Brett was standing right in front of me, smiling. “Why would I let you go when you are now my hostage, Mia?”
“Brett. Why?” I ask, gasping when Margot, who was holding me so tight, tugged at my wrists. “You were the only one I ever trusted! What are you doing?”
Brett scoffed and spit onto the ground in front of my feet. “You never trusted me! You don’t trust anyone! I’ve been planning this since I met you, Mia. I didn’t want to do this to you, but you never listened to me. You were so set on finding your killer when he was right in front of your face! You would never have guessed one of your on crew members would do something like this.”
I shake my head. So he was the one hired to kill my family. It almost doesn’t seem real now that I think about it. I never thought I would find him, even though I kept telling myself that I would eventually find him. I didn’t want to find him like this. And Brett is wrong. I did trust him. Well, until now.
“I did trust you, Brett. You were the only one that I did trust. Why do you think I made you second-in-command? I would have never done that unless I trusted you. Why did you kill my family?” I am whispering because I feel so weak, and I am sure that Luke can feel it too. I look around to find Luke, and see that he is knocked out on the floor, his nose bloodied.
Brett had a gun pointed at me, and when I looked back at him, I could see in his eyes that he didn’t even want to point the gun at me. He was shaking plainly.
“I had to. He told me that if I didn’t, then he would kill mine. I was supposed to kill all of you, even you, but I made sure that you had left before I killed your father and brothers. I didn’t want to kill you,” he said.
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t you want to kill me?” I ask, my knees buckling underneath me. I fell to the ground, scraping them, but I didn’t care.
“Because I am in love with you. I was only your age when I killed your family and I just couldn’t let you die.”
I look up at him. “What? If you loved me so much, then why didn’t you just tell me that you had to do it instead of doing all of this? I mean, I have been through so much pain and you never said a thing. You could have killed me in the middle of the desert when I slept, but you didn’t. Why?”
“I told you! Because I am in love with you! Don’t you see that I have done all of this so that we can be together?” Brett says, kneeling down in front of me.
“You killed my family because someone made you, but you couldn’t kill me? What happened when you came back to the mayor and told him?” I ask.
Brett looks away from me. “It wasn’t the mayor. He knew about it though. It was your father who asked me to do it.”
I gasp. “What? You lie!”
Brett shakes his head. “No. Your father and my father talked about how your father was losing too much money and how he couldn’t stay here anymore because he needed your mother, who I think died because she gave birth to you. Anyways, your father told the mayor that he needed someone to come and kill him and that he would pay the mayor all the rest of the money. He agreed and sent my father to do the dirty work, but then my father chickened out and made me do it. The mayor wasn’t happy when I came to him and told him that I was the one who did it. So the mayor hired someone else to kill my family. I should never have done it, but our families would have ended up dead anyways.”
I couldn’t speak. Nothing would come out. I was in shock. I didn’t know if it was the truth that Brett was speaking to me, but I could see in his eyes a pain that he had hidden from me for so long.
“I don’t understand. You could have told me about this a long time ago, Brett. I would have understood.”
Brett looks at me, skeptical. “Really? You would have understood?”
I nod. “Yes. You had to, and I would have done the same thing too.”
Brett stood and sat his gun down on a barrel and moved towards me. Then he looks at my crew members, (now going to be ex-members), and said, “Leave, I must speak with Mia alone.”
They left, leaving Brett and I all alone.
I am breathing heavily and I hoped that Luke would wake up soon enough.
“You swear? You swear that you would have understood?” Brett asks again, stepping towards me. I back up into the barrel next to Margot’s gun and I slowly grab it.
Brett doesn’t even see me grab it because he leans into me and kisses me with such desperation that it scared me.
“Hey! Get the hell off of her!” Luke is standing behind Brett, who stops kissing me and turns slowly around to see a gun pointed at him. I back up and point my gun at him too.
“I thought Margot knocked you out,” Brett says, raising his hands in the air.
“Like hell. I heal much faster than you stupid humans do. As you can see, Margot broke my nose, but it’s healed now.”
Brett gasps and I can see that he is now scared. Luke just basically told Brett he isn’t human.
“Whoa, man. I didn’t mean anything!” Brett begs, falling to his knees.
I look at Luke and I can see he didn’t like Brett touching me whatsoever and I hadn’t either.
“Luke. He was the one who killed my family. He didn’t mean it though. Let him go. He isn’t going to hurt us!’ I urge, trying to show him something that even I didn’t know about in my eyes. Luke understands and lowers his gun and I hold my hand out to Brett, who sighs and grabs it.
“Let’s go. Just us three. No one has to know about this moment,” I say, not sure where this is going.
Luke looks at me, not understanding and I give him a look, saying, not now. He nods, and opens the door to the alleyway and we all walk out.
We get onto our horses, Luke on mine and Brett on his. Luke leans over to me and whispers, “What are we doing? I thought that you wanted to kill him. He was your family’s killer. Have I changed you that quickly?” he smirks.
I smile a true smile and I think. “I know what we can do with him. Let’s just go. Follow my lead.”
I look at Brett. He looks sad and guilty. I was going to make him suffer, but he just didn’t know it.


Chapter six:

Mia was planning something, and even I didn’t know it. She wouldn’t tell me. Somehow, she seemed changed and I liked it even better than I had before.
We had rode out into the middle of the desert in the hot sun and shoved Brett off of his horse and we took off, leaving Brett without a horse or anything. She was making him suffer in the middle of the desert without killing him like she had said she would. I didn’t even know that she had changed so soon. I am glad for it.
I think back to when she dumped Brett in the middle of the desert. She had taken one look at him and said, “Have a nice and slow death, Brett. I hope that as you die, you will think about all the pain you caused me and my family. You don’t deserve anyone.”
We were riding to Cloddirt where her family died and she looked sadder with each mile we came closer to it.
“Mia? Are you okay?” I ask, holding her waist as we rode.
She nods. “I think so. I am glad that you came here from where ever you came from to help me out. I never thought I would find out who really killed my father and brothers. I cannot believe that it is Brett who did it. I never even suspected it was him. I regret so much now that I am thinking with my heart.”
“When did you start thinking with your heart?” I ask, looking into her eyes.
“I don’t know. Maybe I always have, but always thought it was my head talking to me. Maybe when Brett admitted he was the one who killed my family. I don’t know. What do you think?” Mia stops the horse and looks at me.
I think about it, and immediately know the answer. “I think that you’ve always listened to your heart.”
Mia slides off her horse and feeds Bell a carrot the color of her hair. I love her hair.
I also slide off. “Mia, when I did wake up on the floor back there, I couldn’t stand to see him kissing you like that. It was so disgusting.”
Mia is watching me. I think she knows what I want to say to her. She wants to say something to me to, but doesn’t know how. She isn’t one to show her emotions to people that much.
“Yeah, I know. I didn’t like it at all. But…for some reason, I have this weird feeling inside. Like I’m empty inside,” she says, unsure.
I nod, knowing what she is talking about. “I know. I feel the same way. Do you remember the connection I was talking about? I think I was sent here to help you with something more than this. Don’t you?”
She nods, distracted by something else. “I feel it too. I don’t really know what to do with my life anymore now that I know who killed my father and brothers all those years ago. It’s like I spent all my life pretending to be someone that everyone else wanted to be and now that I think about it, I never wanted to be that person. I was too caught up in the fact that I was all alone and I had no one to take care of me. So I took care of myself.” I don’t say anything. “Anyways, I wanted to thank you for helping me. I think I can go on now without you.”
I don’t know what to say. “Huh?”
“I said that you can leave whenever you want. Your mission is over, Luke. I don’t need you anymore,” she said, avoiding my eyes.
I gape at her. “What about our connection?” I ask.
She turns more away from me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Luke.”
I grab her arm and she finally looks at me. She is crying. “I don’t understand, Mia. Make me understand.”
“I need to go to Cloddirt alone. I want to. I need to. It’s a part of me, and I feel even though we have something strange between us, I need to go there alone and it will fill my heart.”
I can feel she has to. I nod and let her arm go. She looks at me again and kisses me lightly on the cheek.
“I don’t care, Mia. I want to come with you. I can wait outside the town, but I am staying here with you now and I don’t care if I ever go back to where I came from. I belong to you. I want you. I love the feeling I get when I am around you. I love our connection that binds us somehow. That storm took me here for some reason, and I think that reason is so that you could find yourself before you lose yourself completely.”
“What are you saying?” She asks, her lip quivering. She is fighting tears again.
“I love you, Mia. I don’t care if I am an alien to you, but actually, I am not. I may have abilities that you don’t, but I feel like I belong here with you and this planet. I want to stay with you. I know that it is really, really hard to show your emotions because its been so long since you have, but I want to take care of you.”
This time, she cries and I hold her.


Chapter seven:

I fully trust Luke now, but for some reason, going to Cloddirt alone seems like the right thing to do. So I do.
Once I am there, I cannot stop thinking of Luke and my family and everything in between.
I breathe in the air around me, a familiar air. I don’t need to have Luke bring my family back, even though I do miss them so. I want to see them one more time, but I don’t ask him as he waits on the outskirts of town for me.
He had told me that he loves me, and I think I do, and I don’t care if he came from another planet. He is human to me, and I love him too.
I walk to my old house, which looks worse that I remember it. The roof looked as if something was pushing it in from too much weight. I open the door, finding it unlocked, the way it had been when I left.
I could see that everything was still in the same spots on the floor. All but my father and three brother’s bodies were gone. Everything was the same way, and it brought tears to my eyes. I fell to my knees in front of where the now empty dry milk carton was and I picked it up and held it.
I stayed there for a few hours, and then I finally got up and moved to the next room, my fathers.
Everything was scattered across the room like it had been on the day they died and I picked up his favorite T-shirt and I smelled it, tears soaking it. It still smelled like him, so I decided to take it with me, to remember him by.
I moved to the next room, my brothers. They were only fourteen when they died. They had been triplets and they all acted the same. I should have treated them better than I had. I should have been closer to them, but I wasn’t. I took each of their diaries, which I could never figure out why they had one, but they did, and I think they would want me to have them.
I left the house, not even bothering to go into my room. There was nothing in that room that I wanted. But there were two other things that I wanted. I wanted a picture of them to remember them by and my necklace my father and three brothers had given me on my thirteenth birthday. I had taken it off on the day they died and set it on a picture of my mother to remember her by. I walked over to the picture and took a hold of it, clipping it around my neck. It was cold on my skin, but I didn’t care.
I then took the picture of mother and another one of the rest of us and I left.


I made it to the outskirts of town by the time the sun had set and Luke was waiting for me when I got there.
Luke held me while I cried. I didn’t know why I was crying, but it felt good. Hopefully I wouldn’t cry anymore after this.
“You okay?” Luke asks after I am done crying. I nod.
“Yeah. I just needed to cry. It felt good to do that. I got a few things I thought my family wouldn’t care if I took. I also took a few pictures of all of them.”
I hand him the pictures and he looks at them. “Wow. You look just like your mother, Mia. Just as beautiful.”
He hands them back and we get onto Bell and we ride off into the sunset.


Chapter eight:

We had ridden off into the sunset, kissing, which told me: everything was okay between us and she had finally found herself.
She told me she loved me and I never left her, not even when she grew old, while I only grew at a tenth of a rate then she does. I watched her die when she grew too old and I knew I must return back to my home planet, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. I didn’t want to. I didn’t belong to them anymore.
I am now human.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 25.09.2011

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