AI debut

[safeashouses]

I was no stranger to waking up disoriented and in new and unusual places but this was a stretch even for me. I had grown used to the island, the ins and outs of it, and while it would never be ideal (I was missing some very important members of my family, after all) it was something that I could live with. If nothing else, I felt guilty that I had a place that was safe from Souls and any other external threats where I could live openly as a human and not have to worry about getting hijacked again.

I had a little hut with a garden that I shared with Wanderer and I spent...an inordinate amount of time with Nick and for the first time since the Souls first showed up on earth, I was happy, relaxed and free to do anything I wanted. So of course that all had to come crashing down on me, didn't it?

It started with disappearances. People were being snatched up left and right and I lived in constant fear that Wanderer or Nick was going to be next. I didn't know how to ensure that they would stay on the island with me because it seemed like the disappearances didn't care about families at all; a mother might disappear and leave her children behind, a father next. I didn't want that for my little family, small as it was, and I didn't know how to stop it.

So I fought. The only thing I have ever known how to do in my short life was fight and I took my aggression out on Nick's heavy bag more often than not. I didn't put a dent in it, thank god, but between the two of us it got plenty of work. I had just finished working it over something good and had headed up to the Compound for a shower when it happened. One second, I was pulling open the door and expecting the fresh, cold air of the air conditioning to hit my sweat-soaked face and the next I was faced with air conditioning...but not the right room.

Instead of the haphazard quality the Compound always had with so many people living there and using it at any one time, this was a cool, quiet hotel lobby. There was a clerk at the desk and a few people milling around and I panicked, remembering the night I had originally been caught by the Souls when I was trying to hide my brother. Was I back home? Were these people or had they already been caught? I ducked around a corner into a hallway and backed up, running straight into a laundry bin full of dirty towels. Great. Even better was the fact that I had been spotted and I instantly cast my eyes down, hoping they hadn't noticed I was missing the tell-tale ring around them.

Maybe I could just hide under the towels until everyone left.

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[tenthlife]

At first, I was too stunned to move. I didn't believe my own eyes and actually rubbed at them for a few seconds. When I removed my fingers, the hallway was empty again but I couldn't forget what I'd seen. Or thought I'd seen, I still wasn't sure.

Pulled, as if by a magnet, I walked towards the cart and uttered a single word. "Mel?"

[safeashouses]

"Shh, Sis," I said, motioning her over. If we were back home, I needed to keep a low profile until I could get somewhere safe and I would need her help to do it. The good thing about having a Soul on our side was that we had someone who could wander freely in the world and give us aid.

"I don't know if it's safe here and if it's not, I don't want to get caught. Can you do some recon for me?"

[tenthlife]

Okay, this was new. Melanie clearly knew me - knew this me, in this body - but was acting like we were back in our world.

The absolute joy over seeing her again, and I was definitely feeling that, was on temporary hold while I kept her from attacking the first person she saw.

"Melanie. It's fine. I'm the only Soul here. You can come out."

[safeashouses]

"Are you absolutely sure? Because you know I trust you but I just need to...be sure." While in the end, I hadn't minded letting Wanderer share my headspace, I was reluctant to ever play host to another being again. I liked being me and I liked having my thoughts and actions to myself.

"How long have you been here? Did you go in the Compound and have this happen?"

[tenthlife]

"I'm absolutely sure," I affirmed, walking towards her slowly. "I've looked into every pair of eyes I've seen here, and none of them have reflected back at me. And no one here looks at me in anger or fear, so they're not used to seeing Souls. It's just like the island. Sort of."

I'd been relieved to hear her mention the Compound, confirming my initial thought that she'd come here from the island the same way I had. Even though it had clearly been from some other time since she'd left it before I had.

[safeashouses]

"Except this place is a lot nicer on the inside," I said, looking around. The Compound was a little haphazard and worn and while I had grown to love it, it wasn't anything like this place or the caves.

"So where are we?"

[tenthlife]

"A very good question and one I haven't found an answer to yet. Not one that makes any sense at least," I said at last, holding out a hand to help her out of the cart. "It's like the island but without the sand and much more comfortable beds. People from all over the place, different times and worlds but with one...well, really big difference. The ones that have, or had, extra abilities? They have them here."

[safeashouses]

"The idea of nicer beds had me sold. You didn't have to go adding magic powers to it," I said, grinning a little. I was finally starting to relax, the fight or flight reaction in my body ebbing away now that I realized I was safe.

"Smarter people than me will just have to figure out why I keep getting bounced from universe to universe."

[tenthlife]

"You and me both," I agreed. "At first, I thought I'd died back in the caves and this was another part of the after life you kept thinking about when Walt and Wes died. But that thought ended pretty quickly. It's just more of the same weirdness."

I looked at her closely. Smiled. "I missed you, Mel."

[safeashouses]

"Missed me? I've barely been gone," I said, confused as to how she could miss me if I had only seen her a few minutes ago and then came through the door to this place. It couldn't be more than a few minutes, could it?

[tenthlife]

That confirmed what I'd thought - that she'd come straight from the island just as I had. I didn't know how to account for the time difference, but at the same time, I didn't know how to account for being here in the first place, so I wasn't going to worry about it too much.

"I haven't seen you for a long time. You disappeared from the island. I had thought you'd stayed at Nick's but when I went to see you, he said he'd been alone. We searched, but we both knew. It felt like a very long time, months probably, and I stepped through a door and found myself here."

[safeashouses]

It was the one thing I never wanted to happen. I never wanted to abandon Wanderer or Nick, whom I had only just gotten to know in the context of a relationship. I couldn't figure out how to express myself without making incoherent noises of rage so instead I grabbed my sister and folded her into a fierce hug.

[tenthlife]

I managed a soft "oof" sound when Melanie's arms came around me, but then seconds later my arms were around her as well, returning the embrace. I decided then that I wouldn't tell her any part of my reaction after she left the island. It wasn't something she chose to happen, she didn't need to know all the details. It was still strange to me, being able to keep secrets from Mel at all without intricate walls built in my mind.

"I'm so glad you're here."

[malachai]

Nick felt something in the air and couldn't pinpoint it. Fear? Panic? Something close that had the demon in him sitting up and taking notice. He shut it up in short order and headed toward where he felt the tug and opened his mind, searching for the danger.

What he heard stopped his breath. It couldn't be.

"Melanie?" he called out. "It's Nick, cher."

[safeashouses]

I relaxed a little. If Nick was here, it wasn't home and it wasn't somewhere where the Souls could find me.

"Yeah, I'm over here pretending to be a laundress. What took you so long?"

[malachai]

"Looks to me like you're trying to be laundry," NIck commented and closed the distance between them, his eyes searching her, drinking her in. "Gods, but I've missed you."

[safeashouses]

"Missed me? You just saw me an hour ago," I said, laughing a little. I had always prided myself on my independence, even in relationships, and Nick and I had a fairly easy-going one that didn't involve a lot of clinginess.

"Are you getting soft on me?"

[malachai]

"Not quite," Nick smiled, a little. "Or maybe just for me. I've been here almost a year now, and you disappeared off the island a few months before I came here."

He wasn't about to comment on the getting soft thing. Not yet, anyway.

[safeashouses]

I sobered, my smile dying down a little bit. If it had been a year and change for Nick since he'd seen me, that was a lot of time to be by himself and to contemplate his newly found singlehood.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disappear. I don't think anyone can control it, though."

[malachai]

"I know you didn't." Nick closed the distance and cupped her face in his hands. Even though he knew she wouldn't have exactly been upset to go back home, to her soul mate, he also knew she wouldn't willingly leave them without at least a goodbye.

"There's nothing to apologize for, cher."

[safeashouses]

"I'm still cher, then?" Maybe I hadn't been replaced. It was bad of me to think of Nick that way but people cope with loss in different ways and I wouldn't be angry with him for finding happiness with someone else if I was gone. How could I, when I had done much the same on the island without Jared?

But Nick felt different than Jared. I felt like this relationship was something I wanted to hang on to.

[malachai]

Nick laughed and leaned in to kiss her softly while he thought about the changes in him here at the hotel. That sobered the smile off his face. "Unless you'd rather not be."

[safeashouses]

"I want to be," I promised him. "I just didn't know if you'd moved on since there's been a long time between when you last saw me and me turning up here."

I wouldn't hold it against him. I couldn't.

[malachai]

"I had dinner with a woman here a few times, but I haven't seen her in a while," Nick told her, then sighed. "That wasn't really what I meant, though. I wasn't sure if you would want to be. I'm different here, Mel. Back to who I used to be before the island."

His eyes found hers, wanting this out from the beginning. "I'm not entirely human."

[safeashouses]

"Not human how? Not human like Wanderer isn't human?" I had come to terms with my sister and her way of existence and it didn't bother me nearly as much as it used to. I imagined it had a lot to do with the fact we weren't sharing headspace anymore.