He Comes in Peace

Skye and Kartayon paid for their purchases and walked back home. On the way, they thankfully didn’t meet Karoline, Jesse or Hailey, though Skye was secretly very, very satisfied how Tay had handled them.

She couldn’t stop congratulating him on his first act of rudeness.

After several minutes of her claps on his back, and proud hand-shaking, he was beginning to get impatient.

“Skye, please. You have said it enough already.”

“No way! I still can’t get over their facial expressions. It was priceless!” she crowed happily, giving a hop, skip and a jump.

Kartayon resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “You have said ‘It was priceless’ exactly nine times. And—” He held up a finger as Skye moved her hand like she was going to pat his back again. “—if you touch me again, I will make sure you are electrocuted.”

Skye frowned and let her hand fall back against her side.

Kartayon sighed and smiled gently. “They were the ones being rude, and I handled them accordingly. I am happy that you are happy, but please Skye. Refrain yourself.” Having finished speaking he reached out and ruffled her hair.

Skye ducked her head and stuck her tongue out at him. “All right, Tay. I get it.” She smiled at him and he returned it with ease.

“Now, let us play a game.”

She looked at Kartayon in shock. “A game?”

He smiled serenely. “Yes, a game. Would you like to play?”

Skye blinked in surprise, grinning. “Wow, this is like, the first time you’ve ever asked me to play a game with you. Sure.”

“Okay then. It is called Silence.”

Skye frowned, beginning to catch on. “Uh-huh…”

“Let us see who can stay silent the longest. Ready—”

“But—”

“Set—”

“Tay, I—”

“Go!”

-x-

When the two friends neared the lake house, they had already finished up the Silence game; needless to say, Skye had lost.

“That was rude, Tay. It was basically telling me to shut up.”

Kartayon smiled slyly. “That was precisely what I was aiming for; but of course, it would have been extremely ungentlemanly to tell a woman to shut up.”

“Exactly!”

“Oh, Skye, you know I do not mean it like that. I was merely—” Kartayon froze on the spot, his body motionless.

Skye stopped a few steps ahead of him. “Tay, what’s wrong?”

He had his eyes fixed upon the lake house.

“Tay?”

Kartayon did not move from his position. His eyes were trained like flashlights onto the door of their lake house, the colour of his irises turning into a neon shade of green, and his fins shot straight out, gleaming. His hands clenched into fists, and Skye watched as a few dark green scales appeared on the back of his hands. His feet did the same.

Skye’s heart dropped.

“The ECI.”

His body was know convulsing, and he was shuddering, tears forming in his eyes, a first for him. He was speaking rapidly in a foreign language that Skye recognized as his own.

Skye’s eyes widened. This had nothing to do with the ECI. This was something new, something unexperienced…Something alien.

“Tay!”

Tentatively, she reached out a trembling hand and touched his shoulder, crying in pain when a spark of electricity shocked her fingers. They burned and tingled, an extremely scorching and unpleasant feeling.

She nursed her fingers and took a step back, watching him nervously. Tay was still speaking quickly, faster and faster until his lips were blurred from the speed they were moving. What he was saying didn’t even sound like a language anymore, no matter how foreign it was. His words had now quickened until they formed a long stream of buzzing and vibrating.

Skye continued to repeat his name, even calling him Kartayon Zakin at intervals of his buzzing. She felt helpless and useless. She feebly waved a hand in front of his face. His eyes didn’t follow her movement; it seemed like she wasn’t even there to him, like his mind had just been transported to somewhere else, or he just saw right through her.

Before she could do anything else, or dare touch his skin again, the buzzing stopped, and Kartayon loosened his position, kneeling down on the ground.

After the low, droning noise, the neighborhood seemed so quiet, like the houses, the trees, even the wind were all holding their breath.

“Tay?”

Skye approached him carefully again. She had barely gone a step before, in a green blur, Kartayon shot off in the direction of Brittley Avenue, delving into the woods, leaving Skye standing there, her heart pounding and her blood racing.