Terrestrial Alien ✔

Chapter 54: Not A Monster

Joshua

Even as we round the corner, we don't stop. I can't be sure none of the other cops didn't spot us, and Townsend is suspiciously absent.

"We need to get out of here." I pant, sprinting just behind Sundo as he runs down the street between the library and the next building over.

"You don't have to tell me twice." He huffs.

Leading me, one step ahead, he searches for where to go, where to find cover. I follow, racing as fast as my feet can allow, my face already burning with the exertion of keeping up. I don't mean to complain, but couldn't alien beings be slower runners? Just a bit?

Ultimately, we're unable to avoid the main road, and pedestrians stop in surprise or leap out of our way as we tumble past. I catch glimpses of faces I recognise and ones don't, and glimpses of recognition on their faces. Sundo pulls me down an obscure street I've never thought to go down, because I've never had to.

I'm mentally tearing through a list of all the possible hiding places—and tossing many aside—when Sundo speaks up.

"I guess she's not so bad." He says in one big exhale, catching me utterly off guard.

It takes a moment for me to recognise who he's referring to. When I do, my surprise gives way to annoyance.

"Oh yeah? You mean Maggie?" I frown at him even though I know he can't see it. "Why didn't you say that back there, where she could hear you and think better of you?"

"There wasn't enough time for that," Sundo replies tightly, keeping his gaze ahead.

"But clearly there was enough time to threaten her and bare those teeth of yours." I snap back, frustration overtaking my words. I glare a hole between his shoulders, and I know he can feel it, his shoulders have raised like hackles on a cat.

For a moment, I think he's finally going to meet my gaze. But he doesn't, though a muscle in his jaw clenches.

"Let's not argue about this now." He growls lowly.

Biting remarks sting my tongue, but I hold them back, grudgingly shutting my mouth.

All I wanted for him was to make a good impression on her. Was that so hard?

I'm just... frustrated. Frustrated that he'd botch another meeting in a row with someone so important to me. Frustrated that I'm frustrated, that I'm mad at him even when I understand where he's coming from. And... I'm mad that I keep setting up the situations that keep alienating him in the first place. As much as it's so simple to blame him, I know he's not completely at fault, and that's what makes this all the more frustrating.

I scowl at my clenched fists as I follow behind him. As much as I'm burning to say something, I listen to him and don't. I know better than to be prodding him anyway... Now is not the time for it, and it does neither of us any good. There are far more pressing dilemmas to be paying attention to, for instance... the cops we're currently running from.

Sundo comes to a rough halt in front of me, turning abruptly. I barrel right into his chest, then stumble back a quick few steps, disoriented and blinking up at him. We've stopped just beneath the cover of a fire escape, secluded from the view of the street, but just barely.

"What?" I ask, glancing around him. Has he spotted something?

A crease is marring his brow as he glowers down at me. His cheeks burn with something I have the sneaking, sinking suspicion is from more than exertion. Shame, maybe... or... anger.

"I'm not a monster, Joshua." He says as though he can't hold it back any longer. His words are deadly serious, addressing a deeper, unspoken accusation somehow hidden in my barbed words.