They’re all downstairs now, Sam and Lorain sitting side-by-side on the couch while his parents sit on the loveseat across from them. His dad’s arms are crossed and his face—normally a kind sort of stern—is twisted in a deep frown as he eyes Sam’s new ears. His mom, on the other hand, broke down into tears at the first sight of them, and now was holding her hand in a fist around a ball of tissue. It’s obscuring her mouth, but her eyes still shine with unshed tears, brows upturned as she, too, eyes Sam. Lorain, for once, is fairly quiet, sitting with her hands between her knees and her gaze forward on the ground—except for the occasional glance sideways she gives to Sam. Meanwhile, Sam sits once more curled up in a ball, hugging his knees tightly to his chest. The animal ears, this time, have drooped a bit and now press against the top of his head. Rather than hiding his face in his knees, he keeps his own gaze forward, fervently looking between both of his parents.

It’s been like this for a while, an awkward silence hanging thickly between them all—save for the sound of his mom sniffling.

Then, “When did this happen?” His mom asks.

“T-This morning. While I was sleeping. I-I guess…” Sam answers, his voice quiet but loud in the silence.

“And you didn’t feel anything?” His dad, arms still crossed and frown still deep, his voice carrying a tone of disbelief.

Sam shakes his head in response to that. His dad scoffs and looks to the side. Sam’s gaze lingers on him a moment before switching back to his mom. A few more tears escape her eyes to roll down her cheeks as she sobs again.

“Oh, sweetie, it’s going to be okay! We—We’ll figure something out! Perhaps there’s a doctor—”

“What can a doctor do for him, Abby? Look at him!” his dad’s voice raises as he talks, gesturing towards Sam in point, “He stood out enough already with his hair and now this! What can a doctor do for a freak?!”

Sam’s eyes widen at hearing that. Lorain’s gaze shifts worryingly to Sam.

“Michael!” His mom’s voice raises now, her tone horrified.

Sam winces at all the raised voices, hugging his knees tighter as his ears press almost flat against his head. “Please don’t fight…” He begs quietly, though it’s too soft to be heard by anyone else.

“What, Abby?! I told you there was something wrong about him! Remember? When we took him to the county registry the day after we found him.”

“Michael, stop!”

In that moment, Sam feels his world stop and grow cold. The idea that he was adopted became obvious from this morning’s debacle, but hearing it actually confirmed in such a disdainful way felt like someone had stabbed a knife into his heart. His eyes burn with his own unshed tears, so now he hides his eyes behind his knees. Lorain remains quiet where she sits on her end of the couch, unsure what to do in this situation either.

His dad makes a disapproving sound before uncrossing his arms and standing up, walking towards the door. His mom and Lorain follow him with their gazes and he only stops to put his shoes on.

“Mike, where are you going?!”

“Out for a while.”

And then it was just the three of them, the silence from before returning. This time Sam sniffles, his shoulders shaking a bit as the tears he was trying to hold back flow out instead.

“I-I’m…s-sorry…”

His parents almost never fought, and now they had. Because of him.

“Oh, Sam sweetie, no! You have nothing to apologize for!” His mom says, standing up to come around to Sam’s side of the couch and bending to hug him tightly. The hug is reassuring and Sam closes his eyes, smelling his mom’s familiar lavender perfume. It reminds him of how she’d comfort him when he was little, on days when he’d come home crying because Jake or another kid had bullied him, and on days when the same would happen while Lorain was suspended. She always pets his hair, like she’s doing now, except now her hand on his head feels weird and the awareness of that causes him to jerk away from her. She releases him from the hug and returns to her place on the loveseat.

“Was—Was that true? You’re really not…?” His voice trails off, leaving his question unfinished in the air between them. He lifts his head a bit from his knees to look at his mom now.

His mom’s eyes are downcast and unreadable, her lips drawn into a sad frown. Her shoulders rise and fall in a sigh before she finally speaks, “I suppose it’s time to tell you…yes.”

“How…?”

Lorain squirms a bit beside him, “Um, should I…?”

His mom’s face flushes with color, as if realizing that Lorain was still there.

“Oh, I’m sorry dear! You’re free to leave if you want, though it’s okay for you to stay. You’re family too.”

Sam’s gaze shifts to Lorain and meets hers. Lorain nods and settles down in her seat “I’ll stay.”

His mom smiles warmly at her before returning her attention to Sam.

“Mike and I…we’re not able to have our own kids. The night we found you was after we’d been told I was infertile. We were walking home after the doctor’s appointment.”

“Where did you find me?”

“In the park down by the river. There was a bright light, and then we heard you crying. We were the only ones in the park, so we weren’t sure where you had come from,” she pauses, wringing her hands in her lap, “We took you in and cared for you for the night, then took you everywhere we thought of to try and find out, but you had no records and the police couldn’t find any DNA matches either. Initially, they were just going to file you into the foster system, but I advocated for adopting you and they let us.”

Sam and Lorain listen quietly.

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Sam asks softly.

“We…Well, we didn’t think we needed to. You looked like a normal baby, so nothing seemed wrong with you. Plus, you wouldn’t have had anyone to find if you had decided to go look for your birth parents or relatives, so I…I didn’t think it’d be fair to put that on you.” She smiles sadly, apologetically as she looks at him, “I’m sorry, we should’ve told you.”

****

Later that night, as Sam lays unable to sleep in bed, he reflects on the day. His dad had eventually come home, mumbling only a word of apology to him before avoiding him for the rest of the day. His mom had let him and Lorain have some of the chocolate cake she’d made him for his birthday, but moments after taking a few bites his stomach had twisted painfully and he felt sick. Lorain left soon after that.

Now, his stomach has mostly settled down, but his mind keeps reeling from today’s discovery. The itch on top of his head has apparently settled down, so now the animal ears are just an odd weight on his head. 15 years, and he was adopted. And he wasn’t human. Something didn’t feel right about that. He knows the spot his mom says he was found, but that begs the question—where did he come from? This question and a deep, insatiable feeling of curiosity is what’s currently keeping him awake.

It’s a cool, Autumn night, but Sam remains warm in the blue hoodie he found to wear—a gift from Lorain on a previous birthday. Hoodies weren’t normally his style, but at the moment it was the only thing he owned with something that could cover his head. Though he doubts anyone else would be out this late, but, it is a Saturday night, so being cautious probably can’t hurt.

As he makes his way down the street, following wherever this feeling in his chest takes him, he pauses in front of Lorain’s house. The house sits dark and lonely on the street corner, but he’s sure Lorain is probably still up.

I shouldn’t bother her, she’s already sat through enough today, he thinks.

Despite thinking that he finds himself walking up to the front door and before he can stop himself, he’s already pressed the doorbell. He waits for a moment, shuffling nervously from foot to foot. He hears Lorain walking on the other side of the door before the lock clicks and the door opens. Lorain blinks curiously at him.

“Sam? What’s wrong?”

“I, um…” he hadn’t come prepared, so he doesn’t know what to exactly say to that question.

Fortunately, he doesn’t have to say much.

“Did you sneak out?” She asks incredulously, because the idea of Sam ever sneaking out was laughable.

“Mm,” is all he gives for an affirmative verbal response, nodding his head, “I—I thought maybe…maybe there’s something there. I don’t know.” He averts his gaze to the stone that makes up Lorain’s porch, “S-Sorry, I just—”

“Want some company?” She asks easily, her smile warm and reassuring like it always is.

Under the hood and dim light of the front porch light, Sam’s cheeks flush a bit with color.

“Y-Yeah, if that’s—”

“Wait here a sec.”

Lorain disappears back into the house, having closed the door. Sam does as he’s told, watching the door quietly until it opens again and Lorain emerges. She’s wearing a green hoodie to match his. Once the door is locked they continue down the sidewalk. There’s a comfortable silence between them as they walk, and Sam finds that much of his earlier nerves are calmer now thanks to Lorain’s presence.

Lorain is the first to break the silence, “Remember when we were little and we’d play pretend at being aliens?”

Sam remembers, and he smiles softly at the memories, “Yeah. We’d pretend we were aliens trying to find the star we came from.”

Back then, it had just been a childish game played by two kids who always stuck out.

“Can’t believe this whole time the actual alien was you,” she says, her voice light and clearly teasing.

Sam can’t help but laugh a bit. “I don’t know; you still might be one.”

“Hey!” She quips good-naturedly, bumping against his shoulder as they walk, making him laugh a little more.

Silence returns between them as they continue to walk. Sam looks up at the sky for a moment. The moon hangs full and there are no clouds, giving a nice clear view of the stars. Sam’s chest aches.

“If I’m an alien…what star did I come from?”

His question goes unanswered, save for Lorain’s small sound of acknowledgement.

They finally reach the park his mom had said he’d been found in. Predictably, at this time of night it’s empty—even for a Saturday. Sam looks around at the quiet park, but finds nothing out of place. He tries not to feel too disappointed about that. It has been 15 years. He played in this park a lot growing up. He met Lorain in this park. There was never anything odd about this park. Yet, the feeling in his chest wouldn’t go away, a sense that there must be something here—some kind of answer.

“Soooo,” Lorain says next to him, “what’re you looking for, exactly?”

Sam frowns, still staring out at the empty park.

“I wish I knew.”

He moves forward then unthinkingly, stepping into the park and following this feeling as if it were a string in his chest being tugged by some unknown force. Lorain follows close behind him, wordlessly.

Finally, they stop in the middle of a small clearing of trees. Leaves of varying warm colors litter the grass beneath them, but look as if they concentrate in the center of the clearing.

“Was it here?” He asks, mostly to himself.

“Couldn’t tell you.”

They walk closer to the center and just as they near it Sam stumbles, a pulse of pain ripping through his entire body, making him cry out.

“Sam?!” Lorain calls worryingly, her hands on his arms to try and help steady him.

Another pulse of pain and his gaze feels blurry, going in and out of blackness. He happens to glance at the moon overhead which looks like it’s pulsing.

Lorain follows him down, still holding his arms. He can see her saying something, but whatever she’s saying is drowned out by the piercing feeling in his head. The world spins and he blacks out, slumping against Lorain.

“Sam? Sam?!” She shakes him gently, holding his weight against her, but he doesn’t stir.

Lorain’s unsure what to do, her mind searching for options. She’d left her phone in the house, and she couldn’t get him to a doctor without revealing his ears. And it was nearly midnight by now. What to do, what to do…

Before she can try to start moving, though, a strange sound resonates from the sky and before she can look for the source a bright light engulfs them both. Lorain’s eyes close instinctually at it, but then she too slumps against Sam, unconscious.

When the light fades, they’re nowhere to be found.