I woke up in a bright white room. I sat up and saw the IV drip in my arm.
“Where am I?” - I thought.
I had a hospital gown on and the room was empty. Then it all became clear; I had been captured by the T.S.I! I frantically began pulling the IV’s out of my arm. I knew that the outcome was going to be bad if I didn’t escape at that moment.
But all my worries went away when Dad walked in the door.
“Dad…?” I said.
“Son, you're awake?” he said.
“Where are we?” I touched my throat, my voice sounded deeper for some reason.
“Doctor Clyde’s Clinic.”
“Oh,” I said. I could see my arms were BLUE and so were my legs. I blinked hard to make sure that I was really seeing what I thought that I was seeing. I was hoping that it was all just a bad dream.
“Where’s Mom?”
“She’s been at work. One of us had to still show up to work so that we wouldn’t look suspicious. How do you feel?”
“I feel okay. How long was I out?”
“Three days.”
“THREE DAYS?” I blurted out.
“I should go get Dr. Clyde.”
“Dad, before you go, can I get a mirror?”
He handed me a mirror from the bedside table. Then he left the room to go get Dr. Clyde.
I slowly brought up the mirror to my face. MY SKIN WAS ALL BLUE. MY EYES WERE GREEN. MY HAIR COLOR HAD CHANGED FROM BROWN TO DARK BLUE. THE TEXTURE OF MY HAIR WAS NOW MORE STRAIGHT AND NO LONGER AS CURLY. I NOTICED MY ARMS AND LEGS WERE LONGER, AND THINNER TOO.
As I kept staring at myself in the mirror, I could see the vertical birthmark that began at the top of my head, and ran all the way down my chest. The rest of my features resembled a human.
“I can’t believe this…” I looked at my hands. My fingers were slightly longer.
Soon after, Dr. Clyde came in and checked to make sure my organs and heart were stable. Dad had left to pick up Mom from work.
Dr. Clyde explained to me that I had passed out because my lungs had stopped working for a moment because they were shapeshifting back to their original state (Rasadian lungs were larger than humans.)
I decided to ask about Kayla again. I shared with him that I was helping Marley and Naomi find their father, that James and I had gone to the T.S.I facility to see if we could find any more clues.
“You know, that was awfully dangerous of you to be snooping around a place like that, was Alan with you?” Dr. Clyde asked me.
I told him that Alan wasn’t involved in anything that we had been doing.
“Do you know what happened to Joseph?” I asked him.
“No, I don’t. Why do you ask?” he said, as he squeezed the rubber bulb on the blood pressure monitor, to check my vitals.
“We were able to put some clues together and figured out that the T.S.I had found out that Joseph was protecting aliens. He was taken in and transported to Bueno Island. We realized that the only way that they could have found out what Joseph was doing, was if someone told the T.S.I what he was up to…”
Dr. Clyde took the cuff off of my arm. “Your blood pressure is at one-seventeen over seventy-seven. You're safe to go home,” he didn’t respond to my comment.
“He was only protecting innocent creatures,” I said.
“I know that he was. I was close to him as well. Just like you guys are my family, he and his family were also part of my family. So I tell you this: I wasn’t the one who turned him in. Joseph helped many Rasadians escape, but in turn, it put his life in danger. So much so that when they caught on to what he was doing, that was that,” he said.
“I’m sorry. I just figured that you were one of the last people to talk to Joseph before he disappeared,” I said.
“That’s why you’re in so much danger now,” Dr. Clyde said. “You can’t let anyone see what you truly are, Benjamin, or you’ll end up in that place like every other Rasadian.”
I didn’t realize it until Dr. Clyde said it: I was on the T.S.I.’s hit list. What they did to all Rasadians would also be done to me if they found me. After my checkup with Dr. Clyde, he told me that I was well enough to go home.
That night, my parents told me to try and get some rest, but I just couldn’t sleep. There was too much on my mind, so I made a call to James to see how Kay-ani was doing.
“How is she?” I asked.
“She’s good. She looks better than the last time you saw her.”
“Just keep her safe, James. She’s in so much danger. I’m sure they are out looking for her right now.”
“Yeah, I know. I will. Grandpa too,” he said. “So when are we going to Bueno Island?”
“I haven’t really spoken to Marley or Naomi about it much. I’ve kind of been busy with some stuff.”
“Okay. Did you ever find out what was going on with your neck?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Well, I have a feeling it has something to do with those jewels I found.”
“It does. Maybe we can talk about it more some other time,” I told him.
I knew James wanted to know what the heck was going on with me. I just didn’t have the energy to tell him and I knew it would be too dangerous to speak of it over the phone.
After we called, I tried to consider all that had happened to me. I was truly terrified. I did not know what I was. Now I knew that no one could help me, not even my parents. My last hope was to pray to God.
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