Terrestrial Alien ✔

Chapter 35: No Room for Regret

Joshua

As Seth talks, the room seems to steadily seep into deeper darkness, as thick grey clouds roll over the moon. At first I think it's my imagination, but I feel a deep rumbling in the air. Seth pauses, hearing it as well, and he cocks his head to the side as he listens. It's a moment, but then the rumbling comes again, this time louder, closer, and I realise what it is: Thunder.

"It sounds like a storm is coming in!" Seth comments, in lieu of returning to his story. It was about his yard sale escapades, and he'd pretty much concluded it anyway. (He'd managed to walk away with a full set of dishes and half a bookshelf full of books, the family running the sale none the wiser!)

"It does." I agree, before slipping another piece of bread into my mouth. I've been steadily tearing at the same slice now for the past couple minutes, and I'm making a mess, if I'm being honest.

It's strange. This is the second storm in one week. Here, in Grand Junction. We don't get too many storms here, regularly. Is it climate change..?

Seth is looking out the window into the dark lawn, and we can hear the patter patter of the rain beginning to hit. This storm is different than the one that stopped my game: it's quieter, softer. It settles like a strange sort of silence between Seth and I, and the shower of rain becomes like a curtain between us and the rest of the world.

"Her name was Rebecca." Seth says into the hush of the rain.

"Huh?"

"The person who this house used to belong to. Her name was Rebecca." He says this softly, like he's admitting a secret. It almost feels like he is.

I feel rooted in place as I listen; as though, if I dare even breathe, I'd break the spell, and Seth would stop talking. He'd stop sharing as much as he is, the wall between us would stop being eroded away by the rain, and we'd go back to how we were before. Practically strangers.

I don't want him to stop. I want him to keep sharing this so badly. There's so much more about him that I want to learn.

"I think she's in college now," Seth continues, rubbing at the back of his neck awkwardly. Averting his gaze, he watches as water droplets run down the window pane in fast dripping streaks. "She was as old as we are now, I think, when she found me. Maybe... two years ago? I'm very bad with time..." This Seth adds sheepishly, glancing at me from under dark lashes.

"She was really nice, and if I've ever had a friend aside from you, she'd probably be the one. She helped me, you see. Rebecca..." Seth sighs, and he gaze drops to the tiled kitchen floor. "She found me one day, collapsed on her porch. It was raining a little bit like this actually." He smiles, softly, to himself. "She took me inside, and she told me to be quite, to hide from her parents. I was scared and tired and hungry at the time, so I did what she said. She fed me, and gave me a place to stay, and I'd keep coming back. She was so nice...

"She lived in this house with her parents, and her dad was kind of... not nice. She and her mom struggled, because he'd get mad a lot. I'd have to hide in the closet sometimes, when her friends came over, but mostly when her parents would barge in. They were loud. And... It was kind of scary, but I never... shifted, because Rebecca always knew how to keep me calm, somehow. Even when we were both scared. She knew what I could turn into, because eventually I told her. Holding a secret like that to myself got so terribly lonesome... And she was able to help me, once she knew. I never really shifted while living with her."

I feel like his admission is a eating away at my heart, because clearly this girl was much better with Seth than I was. I can't even keep him calm! If anything, I make everything worse for him.