Die for Her

"Melanie?" I heard his voice in my ear, soft and caressing. I reached out for his face, feeling his hand on my wrist slip away as I did and touched the soft lines of his cheek. I began to speak, still my eyes were closed, but he pressed a finger to my lips before I could. "You wont find her" he spoke sadly, but with a hint of wisdom, as if he knew it were for the best. "Who?" I asked, confused by why he had called me Melanie and who this person was that I wont find. I tightened my eyelids and demanded "tell me!" He held on to my hand now and whispered in my ear, "your sister, Wanda." I opened my eyes instantly without thinking it through, I now saw an alarmed and slightly angered Jared looking back at me. I sat up and searched the dusky floor of the desert for any sign of what was going on. I then saw Ian, standing a few yards from us and he too looked worried. "Wait, who are you?" Jared asked me, confused as he saw my unusually blue eyes that he knew only too well. I shivered as his tense and angered sense hit me like a brick wall. I couldn't handle his eyes burning into mine. It was almost as if I could feel the sting of it...

I tried to run away again, but he pushed me back down to the cold, sandy ground so hard it hurt my back, so instead I tried to crawl away using my feet but he grasped them and pinned me to the ground with anger in his alarmed eyes. "I said, who are you?" he growled, which only made me flinch and hate the situation even more. "You know who I am!" I shouted without hesitation, I wasn't exactly mad at him. I was angry because I was so confused. Why didn't he realise that I was her? Did he think we switched again? Or maybe, he now believed that I've been evil all along and that I really never meant anything I ever said or did before. I had to stand my ground. For both mine and my sister's sakes. So, I dug deep into my soul and tried to find her. Nothing. So, instead of my soul, I dug deep into my heart and tried to think of where she'd be. Hiding! Yes! Hiding. Like I did. Maybe this was too much for her too, but even though she was probably out in the desert too, only miles away from us, I still knew that she'd be okay. I tried to calm the angry Jared and confused Ian who, at the moment, were still completely unaware of the search I had just performed in my head. I opened my mouth to speak, but Ian beat me to it. "Don't hurt her Jared." Jared got up from where he'd been crouched above me and turned to where Ian stood. "What if this was her plan all along?" he paused and took in a deep breath, "I mean, why would they switch now instead of before unless it was for a reason" he turned to lock his suspicious gaze on me, "maybe, the reason for all this wait was to gain our trust, but we haven't been fooled by you! You, parasite!" The next movement was completely unexpected. Ian's face turned from innocent and confused to angry and fearless. With one fast and rash motion, his fist collided into Jared's jaw. Jared let out a cry of pain and gasped, hissing under his breath. The knock pulled him to the desert floor and I stood up when his body came crashing down only yards from me. I looked up to Ian, who was half-smiling with the pleasure of standing his guard and then he caught my gaze. His look suddenly turned from confident to worried when he saw me properly and I knew why. He knew that something was wrong here...

"If you'd let me speak" I spat in Jared's direction, feeling that I could now he had fallen down, "I think I know where she is." I looked over to Ian, who had a hint of curiosity lurking in his eyes and then looked over to Jared, who suddenly appeared less angry and more understanding. "Us sisters, we get each other" I smiled at Ian, "when I hide, she hides. We're connected." As I said this, I lifted up my arm which had the scar from all of those months back and showed it to them both. Ian cringed as he saw it and Jared's eyes widened with curiosity. I was happy with Jared's reaction, as it showed me that he no longer despised me so much, so I carried on. "The car!" I shouted, as I came to this amazing realisation. She was in the car! Obviously. No one else in the cave would know where the car was and I know it must have been risky for her, but I guess she likes her risks. With that, I turned in the direction of the sun, hoping that it was the right way and prepared myself. "Don't tell the others. Lie. Tell them something they'll believe or else neither of us will be able to come back" I paused and turned to see their acknowledgement, "understand?" Instead of nodding or acknowledging my question, Ian stepped closer to where I stood, ready to run into the light and Jared seemed ready to speak up too. "Not without me you don't." Jared spoke gently, yet with a bit of worry left in his voice and then I looked over to Ian, who looked curious. "And me" he spoke loud, making sure that we heard and then after hesitating, I nodded. I didn't want them to tag along but they did anyway. I knew that I couldn't stop them doing so. Jared wanted to because of Melanie of course and Ian, he never liked to leave me alone in unusual circumstances. So, I let them follow on as I ran through the desert to find my sister. I knew that I had to find her and I knew deep down that I would. I just needed to believe it...
...
Far away in the dusky blizzard of the desert, something shiny and beautifully silver caught my eye. I slowly paced over to where it lay and knelt down to examine it. I soon came to the realisation that it was in fact what the humans named i-pods, which suggested that someone had been here before. I went to pick it up, but Jared's hand on my shoulder stopped me in my tracks and when I turned to face him, his face looked worried. "Don't touch that" he whispered, looking around him anxiously and then returning to meet my confused gaze, "it could be a trap." I shivered at his last word and looked at the shiny i-pod lying only a few feet away. Could it really be a trap? Or maybe, a human could have dropped it here before any of this happened. After all, it did look like it'd been there for quite some time. "I don't think so" I swallowed hard, trying to free my gaze from the paranoid Jared in front of me, "they wouldn't go for something so... obvious." He laughed at this, remorse and sarcasm in his tone and looked back at me, eyes beginning to rage with anger, "and you'd know that wouldn't you?" I shook my head and pulled myself away from his reach and replied back with little confidence in my shaky voice. "No, I wouldn't actually. It was merely a guess, as they wouldn't be so foolish to set out here again, would they?" I asked them, knowing I wouldn't get an answer, I carried on. "After all, why would they risk it? They have no evidence to go off that we're here." Ian nodded with acknowledgement but Jared still didn't look convinced. "Look, all they want now is to protect their kind. They wont come looking for us because they think that we're dead." Jared shook his head with frustration. "How do you know all of this? What if they think or suspect that we're alive?" I looked back into his dark brown eyes and carefully whispered, "because I know what they want." Both Ian and Jared just looked plainly confused now, so I briefly explained. "Peace," I swallowed nervously again, feeling their slightly aggravated eyes on me, "I know you hate the word "peace" being resembled to our kind but it's true. Well, that's what we all believed anyway." I looked down to my sand filled feet and quickly looked back up, knowing I had to finish. "We wanted to prevent violence, not cause it and some souls out their still believe what they did was right. That all hell on Earth is over now and now everything will just be... perfect, I guess." I turned to face the opposite direction and closed my eyes. "We all were made to believe that killing the humans was best for the future of Earth and that it would prevent all things bad. We didn't know about the... consequences." I was surprised to hear Ian's voice, a little shaky due to the topic. "Consequences?" I nodded and turned to face their oblivious gazes and whispered, "yes, consequences being the pain suffered by so many living organisms. They seemed to miss out that part." I said the last part looking down again. I couldn't face their eyes any more, burning into mine. I felt like they thought of me as a murderer too now, whilst we were on the topic of my kind killing theirs, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmingly guilty and sorrow washed through my now cold heart. I felt empty and like I didn't deserve the humans' care and love...

But instead of their hatred, Ian gently wrapped his arms around me, holding me tight against him, but I pushed away, knowing that Jared wouldn't appreciate the gesture. Then, to my most utter surprise, Jared patted my shoulder with a warm smile on his flawless face. I shuddered at this sudden connection and wished to be close to Ian again. I wasn't used to Jared's pity, but I smiled at him anyway. I suddenly braced myself to speak again and stepped back to look at them both. "So, yeah," I murmured trying to not sound too awkward. It failed but it didn't matter too much. The situation was already awkward before I even spoke. "It wasn't your fault, you know," Jared said, his gaze catching mine. I was surprised that he seemed to have been consoling me here. "It was," I whispered back, trying to make myself small, as I no longer felt comfortable with the topic of conversation. I looked over to Ian, who wore the same sympathising and understanding look on his face as Jared and smiled to myself. Funny, how I'd waited months for one human to completely understand me and now I had too. Well, four if you count Mel and Jamie. Mel, who we still had to find. I tried to wrap up our awkward conversation as best as I could manage. "Yes, it is my fault because I was and still am one of them. But right at this minute, we have to find her. Mel and I've a feeling that she's not too far away." Without needing any of their acknowledgement, as I was now on a mission I had set myself, I set out to find her. They followed, as I heard their footsteps behind me all the way and to be honest, even though originally I didn't want them with me, I was glad to have them now. I didn't bother checking to see if they were still there, as I knew they would be. None of them wanted to let either of us down, which made sense for Jared but to be honest, I still don't know why Ian would choose me over all of those humans to defend and love. It didn't make any sense at all, but I was glad that he did love me enough to want to protect me. I'd never had that kind of love before. I mean, back when I was with the other souls, of course they wished to protect me, but wasn't that more for them than for me? I was one of them and they didn't want to dispose of one of their own. But now, I was being protected and cared for by another species that was supposed to hate my own, which made me believe that maybe, I was more human than I thought...

After walking for a few more hours, I heard something that took me surprise. I know that it shouldn't have, as I'd heard this kind of thing before, but it did. "Wanda?" I heard her ask. I quickly replied without hesitating, which made me stop in my tracks. I was too concerned with the seriousness in my sister's voice to carry on walking, I needed to help her. "Yes, Melanie. Where are you? How did you get back into my head?" She shrugged at this, not even knowing the answers herself but she soon answered as well as she could. "I'm here, Wanda and I don't know. I just am." I looked ahead of me, nothing but endless desert sands and blizzards. Where was she? "How did you do that?" she asked me worriedly, her voice full of deep concern. I was so confused, what did she mean? "Look behind you, Wanda!" I did as she said and when I turned around, expecting to see Ian and Jared, both most probably looking extremely confused, but instead I saw nothing. Nothing but the remains of a damaged car. The very same car that me and Melanie damaged ourselves all of those months back. "Where are they?" I asked her now, worry and confusion in my voice. "Right in front of me, sister." I walked over to the broken car window, still confused by all that had happened and saw my reflection in the window. It really was me. Wanda. I was Wanderer again, but now I knew what I had to do. I had to get some answers to all of the questions whizzing around in my very tired head. I needed to get to a healer and I could also get some supplies whilst I'm out of town, I remember thinking to myself. I knew what I had to now and how I'd go about it. "Melanie, go home. I'll be back in a few days. Tell them that the search is over and I will find my way back as soon as I can. I need some answers." Before she could argue with me, I began to plead with her. "Please, this situation could be extremely dangerous sis. I need to get answers and this is the best way. Please, do as I say." She nodded and went on to tell them. "Jared, Ian," she cleared her throat, "Wanderer is back in her own body now and she'll be back in a few days. We can trust her." She looked up into both of their eyes, expecting them to believe her as her eyes should be human. But as she did, they both gasped with shock. She didn't understand and she probably didn't want to either. "If you're not her, then why do you have their eyes?" Jared hissed at her. I didn't know what to do, I was just as shocked as she was and as I looked back into the car window to check my own eyes, I realised that mine were the same. Both of our eyes were bright blue and obviously alien eyes. Melanie had to prove that she was who she said she was. So she did what she knew would only work. Before Jared could refuse, she ran over to him and pressed her lips tight against his. She then pulled away and looked into his very human, brown eyes and whispered, "I am Melanie Stryder." He seemed to believe her now, which surprised me. He must have known deep down that it was truly her, or he wouldn't have taken the risk. As soon as this sweet yet unusual moment ended, Ian began. "Yes, but if you're her, then where is Wanda?"

My sister just smiled and replied as smoothly as she could, knowing that it wouldn't be good to alarm either of them. "Where I was. Near the car and she's there for the same reason I was. To get answers. Only she can actually do it and I was just hoping I'd find something along the way. Doesn't make sense, I know. I just figured that being on my own, with nothing but the air around me filling my lungs, I'd find an answer somehow. It was only when I found the car, that I realised that I'd wandered too far. Which made me think, maybe me and Wanderer are more alike than we believed. Maybe, we're more connected than we ever thought possible. Which has obviously been proven now, as I'm now literally a part of her. Which has gotten me recently thinking, maybe, this is always who I've been, only I've never noticed before. Maybe, we were both meant to be souls, living among humans. Ridiculous, I know. But maybe..." Ian and Jared just glared at her with pure astonishment and Ian was the one who broke the silence. "That's a whole lot of maybe's." Mel just laughed at the sarcasm in his voice, but she still seemed worried, which worried me just as much...