Brittney's Story (Chapter 5)

The Stranger

Brittney was only slightly aware of her surroundings. A dull pain coursed through her bones and she felt as if her skin was on fire allowing her to think of little else. Voices slipped in and out of her consciousness and she struggled to make out what they were saying.
“es ga ka luun?”
“…nun fa…Quaple…Prua…ha gens.”
“…Kat Quaple?” The voices were disjointed and didn’t make much sense to her. The voices began to fade as the pain became worse. The voices around her became more panicked and she could sense as much as hear someone yelling for help. Then all was quiet as she lost herself to her pain.
She felt someone put their hands on her head and felt a small surge of energy go through her and then all was quiet the pain was gone and the darkness left her.
She opened her eyes and blinked at the bright light of the room she was laying on some kind of a medical bed in a type of hospital. She blinked again trying to clear her head and remember what had happened. She looked around taking in the medical instruments and other lab tools as well as about a million jars of leaves and flowers, bugs and even water the whole room gave her a sort of eerie feeling.
A movement to her left caught her attention and she looked to see a monster of sorts resting in a corner watching her and…glowing. Panic filled Brittney once again as she recalled the moments before her passing out. A monster much like this one had appeared out of the bushes and had now captured her.
Realizing that it had been discovered the creature hovered to her side. Brittney’s heart began to pump faster as the creature came nearer. It stopped beside the table that Brittney still lay on and spoke for the first time. Its voice had a strange sound that Brittney imagined sounded the way water might if it could talk to it and she had a hard time deciding whether it was a girl or boy. “How do you feel?” It asked
Brittney was speechless and wasn’t sure what to say.
“Is there pain?”
Brittney barely managed to shake her head her mouth hanging open slightly now. The creatures’ skin seemed to move as if light was trapped just below the surface. As the creature spoke the glow of its skin began to fade and slowly changed from yellow to green and finally to blue so that it now looked as if water instead of light was trapped beneath the surface. “What are you?” She whispered never for a moment taking her eyes off the creature’s skin.
The creature smiled at least Brittney thought it was a smile she wasn’t even quite sure where the creatures mouth or eyes even were. “I am a Neptunee. An alien from the planet Neptune. You fell and hit your head. I healed you.”
It took Brittney a moment or two to comprehend what the creature was saying not only because of what it said but because of how it spoke. Its sentences were short and to the point but every other sentence its voice seemed to change one minute she thought it might be a male the next a female. “What’s your name?” She asked innocently.
The creature chuckled deeply sounding much like a male at the moment but when it spoke it sounded once again like a girl. “My name is too complicated. You can not comprehend it. You may call me Mist. If you wish.”
“Mist. Is that a male or female name?” Brittney asked trying her best to be polite.
Mist giggled this time sounding very much like a girl but once again when it spoke the voice was the opposite. “It’s neither.”
“Well what are you then?” Brittney was beginning to get very irritated by the fact that this creature was getting such a kick out of her naivety.
“We are both. We are neither.”
“That makes no sense. You have to be one or the other you can’t be both or neither. So which is it?”
“You don’t understand. Because you are human. If it doesn’t seem possible. It isn’t. Learn to believe. In the impossible.”
Brittney frowned but didn’t say anything.
“I see you don’t understand. It’s alright. We are hard to comprehend. Rest easy now. We will be at our destination soon.”
“Destination? Where are we going?”
“We are going. To see Kirita. Come. We will show you. To your room.”

Meanwhile Chris and Kira sat in the Courtyard of the palace discussing Brittney with their son and daughter-in-law.
“Chris we can’t keep it a secret forever she has to know eventually.” Chris had been very worried about Brittany’s discovering the truth. But Kirita had been very optimistic and had done her best to convince her son and Leena that this was for the best. “We truly can’t don’t anything without your approval Leena you are after all the Zotac.
“And you know Mist dear.” Matthew had quickly taken his mother’s side. “Their research comes before anything else if they don’t bring Brittney back with her I’ll be surprised.”
Linda nodded but turned to her husband a slightly worried look across her face “Matt you know the whole planet looks up to me. If I break my promise even for your sister then who knows what would happen. The people might turn it against me and make it bigger than it is.” She turned to Christilone now. “You of all people should know you work at the news station.
Matthew covered her hand with his. “I think you worry too much everything will be just fine.”
Leena nodded and turned back to her in-laws “We will be glad to have Brittney here with us.”

Brittney was awake but she wasn’t quit ready to open her eyes yet. She had gone to sleep thinking nearly hoping that maybe she had never really awakened. Now although she was awake she couldn’t bear to open her eyes and see that it wasn’t a dream that she really was with some alien creature on what she supposed was their space-ship going to who knew where.
There was a light tap on the door and her eyes flashed open confirming her fears were true. It hadn’t been a dream. “Come in” she said timidly fearing what other creatures might enter through that door.
The door opened and another creature much like Mist but somehow different entered the room. “I brought you something to eat.” The creature said in a clearly feminine voice that reminded her of a bubbling brook. “I’m not exactly sure what humans eat but I think you might find this to your liking.” She placed a tray of something on the bedside table. “I hope you like it…but if not we’ll be at Imaginess soon enough and I’m sure you’ll find something you like there.”
Brittney wasn’t quite sure what to say to all this.
“Is there something wrong?”
Brittney shook her head and answered. “It’s just that I’m kind of surprised that you’re an actual she not an it.”
The Neptunee laughed lightly. “Oh you mean The Mist. Those are my…what you call them…pay-ants I think.”
“Parents?”
“Yes that’s it…Parents. On Neptune we call them mists.”
Brittney nodded but she couldn’t really get her little 10 your-old mind around the idea. “So what do I call you?”
The creature glowed slightly brighter and Brittney could imagine the creature smiling as she said. “I’m Mernas.”

Brittney was so amazed as she walked off the ship and stepped foot onto the planet of Imaginess this was where Gramma Kira had been staying here she was riding in an alien ship going to finally see her. As soon as they landed another Neptunee ran up "there you are Mist we need that stuff so we can do those experiments.”
“Of course. Take Brittney. To the palace. To see her father.”
The creature seemed to nod although he had no neck or visible head. The alien turned to Brittney. “I’m San. I’ll take you to a place where you can wait.” Then San turned and led her to a hover car while The Mist hurried off in the opposite direction. Soon they arrived at the biggest house Brittney had ever seen. And it obviously belonged to a very important person.
“Who lives in this house?” she asked San
“Leena the Zotac of our planet.”
“Leena?” Brittney looked at the place in wonder thinking of what kind of person this Zotac was “I’ll be staying here?”
“Yes this is where Christilone is supposed to meet you
San directed her through a mess of halls until Brittney was soon very lost until they arrived at a small den with a blazing fire going on the fire place and that was where San left her.
The room was on the second floor and had a small balcony that looked out over a great courtyard with thousands of trees. She stood pacing back and forth, she wished her father would come soon and explain to her what was going on. Why was everyone being so secretive? She decided to write a letter to Amanda that she would send to her when she got home to distract her from her thoughts. She went over to the large desk and found some paper and ink and began to write.

Dear Amanda

You will never guess what happened to me today. It all startd when I got in my dads truk to go see my mom only he did not go to the doktor he went to the woods. I got lost and hit my head. When I woke up I was with a lot of strang pepol. They told me that my dad was kepin somthin from me. And then they brought me to another planet.

A bang from outside on the balcony broke into her thoughts.
She got up and went to the balcony window when she opened it a monkey sprang into the room and began jumping around like a maniac. Brittney began to scream. Just then the door opened and Chris entered the room came in.
“Bandit” he shouted and the monkey stopped and ran to him “what am I going to do with you, you little brat” then he turned to Brittney “So I hear you decided to follow me, it’s a good thing The Mist and her clan was looking for herbs for some experiments or you might be in the woods somewhere dead. I told you it was dangerous. Do you know the kinds of diseases you could get just from being on this planet?” Chris sighed when he noticed the silent tears streaming down Brittney’s face. “Come here Brittney.” Brittney wiped the tears from her eyes, walked over to where Chris was sitting and climbed onto his lap. “Listen Brittney, Grandma Kira and I are aliens. We’ve lived on earth for over 20 years now. We haven’t been here in years but when Kira began to get sick she came back here to see a doctor. The doctor told her she was dying from a disease called Quaple.”
“What’s Quaple?”
“Quaple is any sickness that you get from an alien planet. It’s usually deadly because our bodies don’t have the same mechanisms as other aliens. It seems as if Grandma Kira has extracted some kind of lung disease from the air on earth. The air on Imaginess is a lot clearer than on earth and Imaginese only have one lung so the change in climate didn’t go well and it seems she’s been slowly wasting away just about 10 years now.”
“Isn’t there anything they can do?” Brittney asked
“I’m afraid not Brittney dear they’ve done everything they could but there’s nothing left to do. She’s going to die.”
“Can I see her?”
Chris nodded. “I’ll take you to her.”

Brittney followed Chris down a hall to another bedroom where he knocked on the door and entered after a thin voice told him to come in. The room was well lit and Brittney saw that the far wall was completely windows and the sun was shining in brightly. As Brittney walked farther into the room she saw Kira sitting in a chair near the window looking outside a light blanket draped over her legs. As soon as she saw her Brittney ran to her side. “Gramma Kira.”
“Brittney.” Kira hugged the girl tightly
“Oh it’s been so long how do you feel?”
Kira smiled “I’m fine Brittney dear much better now that I get to see you again.” Kira motioned for a chair near the bed “Sit down and tell me what you’ve been up to. How’s school, and what’s Joseph been up too.” Brittney pulled the chair Kira had indicated over to her grandmothers side and began to tell her everything that had happened in the last 9 months she told about how boring school was and what a horrible babysitter Tara was and how she basically took care of Joseph while Chris was gone and she talked about how big Joseph was getting and how he could say certain words now and could almost feed himself and all too soon Kira was getting tired and Chris was leading her to her room.
“You’ll have to stay here. I can’t have you running the place by yourself and getting in people’s way. I made sure that you have plenty of books, paper and ink since I know you like to read and write. I’ll be back to get you in time for dinner all right?”
“Ok.”
“Will you be alright till then?”
“Yeah I’ll be fine.”
About an hour later there was a knock on the door and a young girl about her age entered “So you’re Leena’s sister-in-law? She asked “I can’t believe it. It seems like only yesterday that she realized that she was an alien that was the best birthday ever and now she’s married and has a sister-in-law”
“Um” Brittney said “who are you?”
“Oh how silly of me I’m Shanti. And I’ve known you’re Leena since I was 3.”
“Who’s Leena?”
Shanti laughed at this. “Who’s Leena? Only the leader of this entire planet.”
“Oh but I’m not her sister-in-law.”
“Sure you are she’s married to your – well kind of sort of – brother.”
“My brother’s only one and definitely not married.”
“No I’m talking about Mattim. Christilone and Kirita’s older son.”
“Christilone and Kirita?”
“Ya! You know the people who adopted you?”
“Chris and Kira?”
“Ya, them.”
“They have an older son.”
“Ya! Mattim, he’s married to Leena the Zotac.”
Well the two of them talked for a long time and eventually they went out into the den to make paper dolls by the fire Shanti was simply fascinated she had never heard of paper dolls before and thought it was really cool. Of course Brittney found it a lot harder to make the dolls out of the thick Wiper leaves that the Voy used for paper. Soon they ran out of paper and Shanti ran to get more. But when she came back she had a large frown on her face and was staring at something in her hand. “What is it Shanti?”
“Who’s Amanda?”
“A friend of mine from Earth.”
“You can’t expect to send this. We can’t let the people of earth know about us. You and your family are the only ones who know about us. Your parents will never let you send this.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Your right I don’t know for sure but I do know that there will be a lot of people who will get mad if you do send it.” Brittney frowned at this. “But don’t worry I’ll help you figure it all out.” And before they knew it the conversation turned to Voy culture and what had to change and the letter was forgotten. Soon Shanti’s sister Sari came and told her it was time to go home. “Ok I’ll be there in a minute” then she turned to Brittney “I’ll see you tomorrow and then we can go to the courtyard and play.”
“OK see you later then”
“Bye
That night after dinner, Chris came to say good night and Brittney asked him if she could tell Amanda about Imaginess. He thought about it for a minute then said.
“You know I think it wouldn’t hurt for you to have someone to talk about it with. I think you’ll make the right choice. If you want to tell her go right ahead. But you should be aware that Kira and I have told none of our friends at all the only person who knows about it is us and Leena’s family.”
Brittney nodded then she kissed him goodnight once he closed the door she pulled out the letter and decided to finish it.

I made a new frend today her name is Shanti. She’s really nice and we talked for 3 hours and I taught her how to make paper dolls. Can you believe she didn’t even know how to make them? I finally got to see Gramma Kira today. She’s very sick and won’t live much longer but at least now I no I can say good bye.

Love your friend
Brittney

Brittney finished the letter then put it under her pillow and went to bed.

Brittney's Story (Chapter 4)

Follow the Leader

The week passed with little interaction between Brittney and Chris. She had holed up in her room and refused to talk to him on the rare occasion that she actually came out. When the day finally came Brittney barely slept. She kept waking up every few minutes to be sure it wasn’t too late about 6:00 Chris stuck his head in to check on her as was his habit. Her heart began to pump in her chest but she didn’t move.
She listened as he showered and dressed and got a crying Joseph and brought him downstairs, then he went to the kitchen to get breakfast. She tip-toed to the top of the stairs and could hear water running in the kitchen The door-bell rang and she dashed around the corner as Chris let Tara in. “Brittney’s still asleep and Joseph’s eating breakfast” he said as he let her in. They disappeared in the direction of the kitchen and she could hear Chris giving Tara instructions.
As soon as she was sure they were far enough away she dashed down the stairs and ran out the door. She jumped into the back of Chris’s blue pickup and pulled the tarp over her. Only after she was completely covered did she allow herself to breathe.
A few moments later she heard the door open and footsteps heading toward the car. She held her breath expecting any second for Chris to pull the tarp off and reveal her hiding place but he didn’t. She heard the door slam and the engine start and the next thing she knew the car was moving and she was home-free.
After what seemed like a life time Chris stopped the car and got out, she waited for a little bit until she was sure he was inside the hospital then sat up. But she wasn’t at a hospital she was in a forest and Chris was nowhere to be found she stood up and jumped out the back of the pickup looking around a little nervously as she did but there wasn’t a sign of him. She began to walk and called his name over and over but there was no answer.
Suddenly she heard a noise a rustling and a crunch like leaves. She began to run toward the noise “Grampa Chris” she called as she looked behind a tree, another rustle. She ran on faster and faster rustle after rustle she ran smack dab into an old man who was shaking slightly and holding onto a little old cane. “What are you doing out here little girl?”
“I’m looking for my Grampa Chris.”
The man was shaking so badly that she wondered what he was even doing way out here in the middle of the woods when he could hardly walk or talk. “Well I doubt your Grandpa’s gone too far.”
There was another rustle to Brittney’s left and she would’ve sworn she heard whispering. The old man had placed a shaking hand on Brittney’s shoulder and shout out in a wavering voice. “Now who ever you are come on out this is no time to play games.” There was another rustle and the most hideous creature Brittney had ever seen stepped out from the bush. Fear gripped her and she felt the old man’s hand tighten on her shoulder. The creatures head was down but when it looked at Brittney she began to shake horribly then when she thought she couldn’t take any more her world went black.

It was nearly noon and Tara was watching MTV and talking to Lizzy. Joseph was playing on the floor with a small pile of blocks. “Na Na” he repeated for like the hundredth time since she’d gotten here. She didn’t understand this baby’s language usually Brittney was the one who got him what he wanted. Where is that girl anyway? She wondered glancing at her watch and realizing how late it was it had been nearly 5 hours since Mr. Baker had left and she hadn’t heard a sound from Brittney.
She got up to go and cheek on her knocking gently on the door as she neared “Brittney” she called softly “Brittney” the girl didn’t stir. There was something odd about the way the girl was laying and she went over to the bed and pulled back the covers. A large stuffed dog lay in the bed but Brittney was no where to be seen She couldn’t help it she screamed
Tara ran down stairs ignoring Joseph’s cries coming from the living room, she grabbed the phone off the counter and dialed the number as fast as her shaking fingers would allow her too all the while scolding herself for not paying more attention. The phone rang 5 times before going to voice mail she hung up and tried again with the same result.
She turned too the fridge and scanned through the emergency numbers and found the name she was looking for. She pounded in the numbers, the phone rang. If this didn’t work her next call would be the police.

Ring… Ring Mary jumped and nearly fell off the couch where she had been standing while she dusted the cobwebs off the ceiling. The phone rang again and she climbed down and grabbed it up off the coffee table “hello” she answered.
“Hello,” A panicked voice filled the ear piece. “This is Tara, Brittney’s babysitter.” The girl began talking so fast Mary could barely keep up with what she was saying but she had been able to pick up two words: Brittney’s missing.
“Now Tara just calm down please I can’t help you if you don’t listen.” Tara stopped talking and she could hear her taking deep breaths over the phone. “Now just listen to me, I know how to handle this ok. Now I’m going to call Chris and tell him what happened and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. OK?”
“But I already tried calling Chris, twice, he didn’t answer his phone.”
“I’ll figure something out ok. Now I don’t want to hear from you again for at least an hour unless she comes home ok?
“Ok!” with that the line went dead.
Mary hung up the phone her hands shaking slightly and ran up stairs to her room she went to the closet and pulled out the small wooden box lock-box she kept her universal-cell-phone in. She brought the box to her bed and unlocked it. She held down the number 5 and Chris’s name popped up.
“Hello”
“Chris its Mary. I just got a call from Tara.”
“What happened?” he asked fear suddenly overtaking his voice.
“Brittney’s missing.”
Silence filled the line
“Chris?”
“I heard you. She probably climbed into the truck before I left. She’s probably freaking out thinking I was going to the hospital.”
“Oh no! Do you want me to see if I can go find her?”
“No Mary that’s ok. Why don’t you call Tara and tell her Brittney just called and your on your way to pick her up.”
“What about you?”
“I have a call to make. There’s a small group of scientists that are studying at the woods that might be able to find her for me.”
“OK. Call me if there are any changes.”
“I will, thanks Mary.”

Tara sat down on the couch she had filled a sippy cup with juice and for now it was keeping Joseph quiet enough to think. She couldn’t believe what was happening. How did could this have happened to her? Sure she probably watched TV a lot and talked and hung with her friends but she had always kept an ear out for what Brittney was doing. How did the little girl manage to get past her? And what would happen to Brittney now? She was probably so alone and frightened. Oh why oh why had she not paid more attention to her? Why did she always watch TV when she came over?
The phone rang and Tara dived for it picking it up before the second ring. Joseph stopped drinking his juice and stared at her curiously for a moment before continuing “Hello?” She nearly yelled into the phone
“Hi Tara this is Mary. Brittney just called and I’m on my way to pick her up - .”
“You found her?” relief flooded Tara and she slumped into the couch. “Where is she?”
Mary hesitated for just a moment. “the hospital.”
“Oh why doesn’t her dad keep her?”
Mary hated lying but she knew that it was the only way as she said. “her dad’s with her now but Kara is in such bad shape they won’t let Brittney into see her.”
“Oh! What do you want me to do now?”
“I’m going to pick Brittney up then take her back to my place for a couple days I think she really needs to be with family for awhile and I live closer to the hospital.”
“Ok, Bye.” Tara waited for the other click before hanging up. She was really confused something about the conversation didn’t sit well with her and she couldn’t help but feel that maybe Brittney hadn’t really been found at all but they were just trying to make her feel better.
Joseph was digging through a toy box in the corner and Tara decided to go see if there was anything in the fridge that she could eat preferably something sweet. As she reached the fridge her eyes caught sight of the emergency numbers and her hand stopped on the door as she read Mary’s number again. The number was a Chicago number. So they hadn’t found Brittney after all Chicago was at least 2 hours away. Tara had had enough of this she was calling the police.

“What did she say?” Kirita sat up in her bed although her body was getting weaker and weaker everyday her mind was still as sharp as ever and her husband had to fight with her tooth and nail to get her to rest.
Her husband set the phone down on the bedside table and sat on the bed beside his wife. Worry lined his forehead but he smiled at his wife. “She found her.”
“What is it Christilone?” She knew her husband well enough to know that there was something more that he wasn’t telling her.
Christilone sighed “She’s coming to Imaginess!”

“What do you mean you can’t help me?” Tara nearly shouted into the phone.”
“Its standard procedure Ma’am we can’t go chasing after every kid who disappears.”
“Please sir isn’t there anything you can do?”
“Look I’ll put out a missing persons alert to the team and if anyone sees a little 11 year old blonde running around we’ll let you know ok?”
“Ok thank you very much.”
“I do my best have a nice day.”
Tara hung up the phone still not content with how things were looking. It was getting dark and a nervous shudder ran down her spine suddenly she didn’t much like the idea of staying in the house alone. She picked up the phone again maybe her mom wouldn’t mind keeping Joseph at the house for a few days.