Silver Lining - The Host fanfiction

Chapter 117 The Replacement

Who was I? What was I?

Whence did I come?

What was my destination?

-Mary Shelley

Holden

There's a headache that is starting at the base of my skull and spreads out to the front. It's as if ten thousand of little creatures are using tiny hammers to try and break through my brain.

But there are no ten thousand creatures. There is only one. A silver worm that has been in control of my movements for the past... what year is it again?

I hate the creature with all my might. Sometimes I think it can feel it. Then it cringes as if in pain, but it always ignores me, and I can't fight back. Then I'm being pushed away as if drowned under water or pulled into a deep sleep, and when next I surface, days have passed.

I can tell by the change in weather that sometimes it is more than days, but I don't like to dwell on that.

How long before I won't surface at all?

Usually when I gain consciousness, everything is blurry. It's like walking through a fog or hearing a distant conversation. Today my brain is almost clear. It must be one of my better days. A day not clouded in silver.

The thought of that creature makes my skin crawl. It wasn't just any creature they put in my head. No, it was the most despicable of their kind. A hunter. One that hunts leftover humans and either kills or subdues them. Seeker they call it. I had to watch how my friends and family were brought to their Insertion Centers and come out as a host body for their alien friends. Worse than that, I have participated. Perhaps not actively, but I was there. And I couldn't stop it.

Ah, that's right. We were hunting down humans this time too. My creature was there with two of its friends. The male was on some warpath. Said two of its friends had been killed in a fire caused by humans and two of its other friends had been kidnapped by the same humans. The only lead they had was the sighting of a van and they traced it all the way to... the middle of nowhere.

They didn't find the van, but they found the humans. And then...

I frown. Things are confusing after that, but I remember one of their own being there... working with the humans.

I don't remember anything after that.

And now I have this incredible headache. Why isn't the creature doing anything about it to make it stop?

In a reflex I move my arm to rub my temple. I'm startled when something hard lands on my face and my eyes fly open.

Across my face is my arm. My arm, steered by me. Confusion spreads through me. Where is the creature? Why is it not in my head?

Another face swarms in my vision. A human face, judging from the lack of silver in his eyes. He is maybe a little younger than me, late twenties or early thirties. I recognize the face from before. He was one of the humans we came across.

"Welcome back," he says, "I'm Will. What is your name? Do you remember?"

"Did he wake up?" another voice sounds to my right. I can't find the strength to turn my head.

"Headache," I mutter.

"Yo, Blake," the Will person says, "got some of that 'No Pain' left?"

"Yeah," this Blake answers, "the bottle is at your knee."

"Thanks," Wil presses something against my lips. "Open up. It will dissolve on its own. Your headache will be gone in seconds. Great stuff. The only good thing the aliens brought."