Chapter 2

I wake up in my bed. The memories of yesterday seem so distant like it was some weird fucking dream or something. It had to be a dream. The thought is what makes me get up and go to the mirror. As I look in the mirror I notice a few things are different. It’s physically. My body feels tighter. Maybe I’d naturally started getting ripped or something but then I look down and I notice something even stranger.

My dick. My dick was huge.

It barely fits in my underwear!

<I made some adjustments. I hope you like them.>

“WHAT THE----” I jerk away from the sink.

I definitely heard a voice. A jolt of anxiety courses through my body. It was a female’s voice. I turn at that moment looking around. I peep behind the shower curtain in the bathroom. There is no one there. I make my way to the door and open it.

“Zaire?”

“What?” he asks, peaking out of his door.

“You got a girl over?”

“As if Dad would let me have a girl over,” Zaire states.

He had a point. My dad was strict, really strict. His girlfriend Shay wasn’t even allowed anywhere near the house. Besides even if she was allowed over I don’t think she would want to come. It wasn’t like my dad was some warm and fuzzy man-next-door sort of guy. He had the whole military thing going that drove girls like Shay far away from here.

<He’s handsome. Is that being related to you?>

“What the fuck!” I scream out.

“What’s going on with you?” Zaire asks.

He takes a few steps towards me from his bedroom. It wasn’t like Zaire really cared. Sometimes I felt like Zaire looked at me like his brother and other times I think he just looked at me as his keeper. I wondered what he was thinking about me now as I’m standing there clearly having a conversation with God knows what.

<He can’t hear me. Only you can hear me…>

“Nairobi...what’s up with you? You look like you just saw a ghost.”

“No, I didn’t ‘see’ a ghost…”

I hear one.

<Go back into your bathroom and close the door.>

My heart is racing at that moment but I follow the orders of this thing. I don’t know what’s happening. I walk back to the bathroom and close the door behind me. My heart is racing. I begin to pace back and forth, over and over and over.

The worse things start coming into my mind. All of a sudden I remember my mother. I remember the day that they came to get her. I remember how she was foaming at the mouth. I remember how my father kept trying to calm her down but nothing would do it. She was completely losing her mind and now I wondered if I was following right in her footsteps.

<You’re not losing your mind. I really exist.>

I stare in the mirror. I slap my forehead a few times harder than I probably should have, “Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head.”

<Your brother is listening underneath the door. You should let me take control.>

“What?>

<I’m taking control.>

I don’t know what happens at that moment but it’s almost as though I am pushed back into my consciousness. If my body was a car, then it seemed like someone else had taken over the wheel. I’m not even in the passenger seat! I’m removed completely. I’m in the backseat desperately kicking the chair wondering what the fuck was happening.

I open the door. Or maybe I should say my body opens the door. As soon as I open the door I see my brother standing there.

“Can I help you?” the words come out of my mouth without me even saying them.

My lips twist up in a weird shape. I’m trying to take control of them but I feel the presence continues to linger inside of me.

<Stop resisting. He’ll think you’re crazy and you’ll end up exactly where your mother is.>

Hearing her say the words to me scares me into submission. She was right. I knew my brother would snitch on me. His loyalty and fear belonged to my father, and not me. Both of us were slaves to my father’s will.

“You talking to yourself bro…”

I have no choice. I relax. I let my mind go somewhere else and just watch what’s happening at the moment as though I’m watching a movie or something about my life.

“You hearing things man.”

“I’m not----wait don’t turn this on me.”

“Are you OK?” I hear myself asking, “If you are starting to hear things that could be a sign of something else. Something bad…”

His eyes get wide. The look on his face says it all when he turns around to make sure that Dad is nowhere to be found.

“I’m not hearing things. Chill. We’re cool. Right? You want to take a ride to school with my friends?”

Please no. Please no. Please no.

My mouth fixes into a smile reluctantly and the voice says, “Sure. I’ll be ready in five.”

~

I’m sitting in my room. This thing has picked out my clothes. I smell sweeter. I think it’s because the spirit is in me. There is a real feminine smell coming off of me. I have to admit she has a sense of style. I don’t know what to do now. She still has control of my body but she’s just sitting here. I’m nervous the more it goes on. Maybe I was losing it completely.

<You aren’t losing your mind. I’m going to give you back control but I don’t want you compromising us…>

A few seconds pass and then I feel ease when I realize I force myself to blink a few times. After I blink I get up and take a few steps around the room.

“Who are you?”

<I’m a friend. You’re a friend. You saved me…>

Friend. Is this what was considered. I am getting pissed off the more I think of it. Out of clear rage, I open my mouth and yell out, “Get the fuck out of my bitch!”

All of a sudden I’m forced back to the bed.

<I have access to your thoughts. I have access to your memories. Justin was right about you, Nairobi. You aren’t as bad as you want people to think you are. You helped me. You could have chosen to walk away when you had the chance but you didn’t. You took me in. You saved me….>

Saved her. I think back to the pink floating globe.

“I want you out.”

<I’m sorry but that’s not possible.>

“What the fuck do you mean that’s not possible?” I ask, “Float your ass out of your body the same way you floated in.”

<My ship was attacked. Where I’m from your spirit can be detached from your body. My body was stolen. All that remains is my Spirit. I can’t exist until we get your body back.>

This was happening. I was having a conversation with an alien. It’s so sick that I just smile for a moment. My mind see-saws from thinking I’m crazy to wondering what the hell is happening. All I know is that the voice was powerful. It felt powerful enough to feel real. But that was impossible? Right.

“Prove to me that I’m not crazy…”

There is a pause. For a moment I think that I’m done with this alien spirit in my body. I think that this hold on me probably broke somehow. I’d fooled it.

But slowly I feel her stirring back inside of me.

<Go to the computer. Enter Kepler 186f.>

I do what she says entering Kepler 186f. It’s an exoplanet. One from far away. There was information on the computer that says it could be inhabitable.

“This is where you’re from?”

<Yes. How would you know that unless I was real? I understand the human concept of fear but hopefully, this eases your mind to know that you are completely sane.>

Fear. I guess a part of me felt relieved that I wasn’t losing my mind but now that I knew that wasn’t the case the next fear started building up. I REALLY had an alien spirit inside of me.

<I know you want me to explain more, but your brother is waiting for you outside.>

“There’s no way I’m fucking going to school. Not every day is your entire being invaded by some alien spirit from a planet that you didn’t even know existed. Trigonometry can wait.”

<We need to go to school. We need to get with the others…>

“The others?”

<Your friends from school.>

I realize she’s talking about Justin, Cordae, and Jean. It had to be. They were there with me when all of this happened.

“Those aren’t my friends…”

<We’ll need them…>

“Why?”

There is another pause. I was starting to get antsy when the alien stopped talking. Every time she spent time thinking it was clear that something big was going to drop. By how long it takes her to explain what happens next I know that she is going to tell me something that she doesn’t think will sit well with me.

The voice is low and almost faint at first.

Slowly it says, <Don’t freak out. By analyzing your pulse it seems like you have the propensity to freak out about now.>

“Listen, girl, it’s a little bit too late to avoid me freaking out.”

<Nairobi. You are in danger now that you chose to help me. We need to find the others. We’re stronger together than apart.>

~

Danger. I’m in the car and I feel like I’m in danger by a bunch of high school boys. Danny, Troy and I forget the last boy's name. My brother had invited me to drive to school before but truthfully I think he was only doing it as a gesture of goodwill for all the things I helped him do. I never intended to ever accept one of these invitations and by the look of things, I don’t think they expected me to as well.

“Your brother tells us you punched Cordae Harris in the face…” Troy says.

Danny nods, “I saw it myself.”

“My brother is on the winning team,” Zaire says at that moment.

“Well anyone that hates Cordae is cool with us,” Troy explains.

It was clear there was a bit of a rivalry between my brother and Cordae. It’s also clear what side of that rivalry I was on by how they were treating me.

I’m stuffed in the middle seat in the back next to my brother and this guy who looks like he could be Mike Tysons’ son. They are all a bunch bigger than me and hard looking guys. They might as well all be named Jean for all I know. The thing is they’d been my brother's friends for some time.

“We should hang out a little bit more,” Troy states, “You into sports?”

“Yeah from time to time I enjoy running from the police,” I offer with a shrug.

I laugh at myself. I’m surprised when the alien voice in my head laughs with me. It makes it seem a lot funnier than it was. That is until of course, I realize that the other four boys aren’t laughing with me.

One of the boys stares over at my brother for an explanation.

“I think he’s joking,” my brother explains.

“Oh, ha…” Troy says.

The rest of the car ride is beyond awkward. They spend half the time bashing Cordae, Logan and all the other boys on the Harris side of the football team. It’s clear there is real hate there. Every part of me knows it would be natural just to join in so I laugh when they say the worst things about Cordae as though it were just second nature but for the most part my mind wanders. I had other concerns than my brother's stupid rivalry with Cordae Harris. It isn’t until we are pulling up to the school that the alien voice kicked in.

<The one in the passenger seat keeps looking at you. Ask him what his name is again…>

“Hey, what’s your name again?” I ask.

“Deon…”

<He’s one of them…>

I keep wondering at that moment one of who. I look at Deon and sure enough, he keeps looking back at me with this weird expression. He keeps sniffing the air.

<He can smell me. I’m freshly on you. It’s faint but I think he might be suspicious. Tell someone to open the window, Nairobi. Hurry up. We don’t have a lot of time. He’s onto us. Nairobi----stop resisting! Just do what I say!>

“OPEN THE WINDOW!” I blurt out louder than I should have.

<Really? Was that necessary?>

“Please,” I add.

It’s my brother who opens the window. He turns to me at that moment, “Everything OK?”

That’s when Deon turns around. He makes eye contact with me, “Your brother should drive with us more often. He’s cool.”

Zaire raises an eyebrow, “What?”

I’m just as surprised as Zaire when Deon says that. We pull up to the school. Deon’s eyes are set on me. He licks his lips a little bit. His eyes are set on me.

<He knows I’m inside of you. When you get out of this car----RUN!>

I swallow my spit at that moment What the hell was happening. What the hell was she thinking of saying this?

“I think he’s cool,” Deon says again, “He smells so good…”

“Whoa, Deon,” one of the other boys says, “That sounded homo as fuck.”

“He’s just joking,” Zaire rationalizes, “Right Deon?”

Deon’s eyes were set on me. At this point, he was ignoring Zaire completely. He keeps smelling the air taking in these long deep inhales. I feel how awkward it is every time he does it, not just for me but everyone else in the car.

“He smells so good,” Deon repeats.

We’ve just parked and Deon reaches behind the seat for my hand. He grasps my hand in this aggressive way trying to touch me. I slap his hand away.

“Yo don’t grab at my brother like that Deon what the fuck is wrong with you?”

I notice Deon’s face. As he’s talking I swear I see something on his forehead. At first, I think it’s just a vein but then I see the thing...underneath his skin...moving! My heart races as he reaches out for me again and once again I slap him away. This time I’m not the only one slapping him away. Zaire slaps his friend’s hand away too. Deon now gets all the way up from his seat and starts trying to make his way into the back seat! At this point, everyone else in the car just seems to be shocked at his random behavior.

<Get out of the car and run.>

“Zaire let me out…”

“Hold on.”

“LET ME OUT!”

Zaire finally opens the door. I push past him and get out of the car.

<Let me take over…>

The voice from the alien takes over. I’m so confused about what is happening as we are running faster than I’ve ever run before. The sprint is something inhumane. It’s almost as though the alien was able to increase my speed somehow. My head turns----because of the alien----and sees one last time Deon’s eyes. He hasn’t stopped looking at me. Not yet.

He smelled me. And now he was after me.

~

The hallways are packed but the alien definitely is panicked. She pushes her way through the crowded school, bumping people as she goes.

“Calm down,” I whisper to her.

<I’m trying to save your life and mine. We need to find the others. We’re stronger together. I should have known that one of them might be at your school. We need water. We need to wash my smell off of you before Deon finds us.>

“What happens when he finds us?”

<You don’t want to know. Where do people go on your planet for privacy?>

I stare towards the bathroom. My body takes off running towards it. I have to give it to the alien, she is coordinated. Soon she manages to get used to the crowd and is slipping in and out of the crowd without much resistance at all. I’m watching with this sense of admiration to know that she can handle my body so well. It’s almost as though overnight I became the most athletic, yet graceful person in the world. The way she moves with my body is almost like she is taking place in some sort of intergalactic dance and only my mind heard the music.

She makes it the bathroom but there was a lock on it.

“It’s out of order,” I realize.

<Allow me.>

Just at that moment, I see her grab the lock. With her mere force, she pulls as hard as she can and then SNAP! Just like that the lock flies off its hinges and hits the floor. I look at the lock and realize this lock was made of die-cast zinc.

“You’re superman…”

<I’m nothing compared to what Deon is…>

When she says that I feel the thick tension almost stifling me. She was still concerned about Deon. I get into the bathroom and immediately we start grabbing towels and washing as fast as we can. She’s cleaning all around me from head to toe with towels.

My heart is racing but a part of me realizes that I’m not the scared one. I don’t have any reason to be scared. I didn’t know what Deon was or what he was capable of. It was the alien who was scared. She was so nervous that her hands are shaking.

And then suddenly I hear the door open.

<He found us…>

Just at that moment, the door opens and sure enough, Deon is standing right there. His eyes look at me and then I realize something else. His eyes go completely black. When he stares at me it was almost as though there was no Deon there.

“He’s not human,” I realize out loud.

<They are called Upsetters> she states, <They are world destroyers. We came here hoping to stop them from destroying yours but they found us and attacked our ship.”

Deon takes a step towards me. He has this angry look on his face. He keeps sniffing and moving towards me.

“What’s about to happen?”

<Let me take control.>

Just as I accept and try to relax this thing that she calls an Upsetter runs towards me. I pull a sink straight off the wall with superhuman strength! I’m shocked when the water hose drenches my body. I throw the sink at Deon, but he’s so fast that he ducks out of the way just in time! This only pisses him off.

“He’s mad…”

<I see…>

Just at that moment, he lunges at me. My alien is face though leaping out of the way just in time into one of the open stalls. He manages to get into the open stall with me hitting me a few times in my neck and arms. I feel them get weak at that moment, but my alien punches back.

<You’re resisting…>

“Because we’re losing.”

Deon grabs me by my neck lifting me high up into the air. Then he licks the side of my face. He does it hard licking all around me. I feel the wet tongue press up against me.

“It really is you…” Deon says, “Out of all the universes you come here? You expose yourself to these people…”

“I won’t let you destroy this planet,” the words come out of my mouth.

That’s when he grabs at my body. He rips my clothing clean off my body. He grabs at my body. It isn’t until he begins to lick me again that I realize that he doesn’t intend in any way to destroy me. He’s aroused. He touches my dick. He pushes me up against the wall and begins to lick all over my body.

I look down and realize Deon is aroused.

My body kicks trying to smash my knee into his stomach over and over but it has no avail. That’s when he slams me up against the toilet. My bare ass is exposed and I feel one of his fingers enter it deeply.

“Nice and wet for me. I’m going to fuck you princess and leave your carcass as a testament.”

My heart is racing realizing that whatever was in Deon’s body wasn’t only murderous but it was a pervert as well. Just at that moment when the word leaves his lips, I hear another sound. It’s a deep guttural sound.

Deon’s body collapses on top of mine and it is clear that he is dead. I’m not sure until I turn and see Cordae with a bloody long alien-looking weapon in his hand.

“Are you OK?” Cordae asks.

He reaches out to help me.

I pull him away, “Don’t touch me.”

As I get out of the stall I see Cordae isn’t alone. Justin and Jean are with him as well. The three of them gather around me.

“The...alien in me wants to say that the mission has been completed,” Jean states, “He keeps saying we managed to time jump before the birth of the person who will destroy the Earth.”

“Destroy the Earth?” I ask.

<I told you we traveled here. What I didn’t tell you is that we didn’t just travel through space. We traveled through time.>

Time travelers. The idea that the Earth was going to be destroyed would have probably seemed like some distant unimportant thing. That is until I remember that my body was being shared by some alien. There had to be a reason they were here. There had to be a reason that I didn’t know about that would bring her this far.

The world was ending. Time-traveling aliens had come back to save us from these things called Upsetters.

Could my world get any stranger?

I realize Justin and Jean getting on their knees. Then there was Cordae.

“I’m not doing that…” Cordae says.

But almost as though he’s being forced his entire body falls underneath him. He is kneeling as well.

I’m beyond confused.

“Why are they kneeling?”

<I think things might just get a little weirder. Remember when Deon called me Princess. Well, it wasn’t a nickname. It is my title...>

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