When the swirling finally seceded from my chest. I limped back to the campgrounds, my one foot dragging behind the other like an anchor. On my way back I paid no attention to the leaves as they fell around me or the chirping of the birds.

Evelyn had cracked open a book and was reading near the firepit clad in a zip down sweater. There was no sign of my parents. Which was a very good sign. “Where’s mom and dad?”

She didn’t look up from her book as she responded, “Went fishing down near the quarry. They’re competing to see who can catch the most fish. God, our parents are boring.”

Hesitance gripped me like an iron fist. I knew I needed to tell her, I needed her help. If she stayed on the campsite and made sure they stayed safe. I just needed them to stay as far away from it as possible. I didn’t need any of them seeing what I could do, what it could do.

Taking a deep breath I steadied myself, preparing to give at least a tiny explanation. I didn’t look Evelyn in the eyes. I just needed her to see me as anything other than the thing in the forest.

It felt like an open wound and if they stared at the hole and saw past the veil of human skin that people see, it felt like everything would spill onto the ground at my feet.

They’ll see me as I truly am; an alien, a stranger living in their home.

And then what else but them changing their minds. and once again ill have no home but the ones of the past.

As her eyes were held on the words, I spoke hesitantly with a croaking tone, “I need your help.”

Her face immediately contorted with suspicion, “What do you want? You never ask me for things.”

“Actually,” She corrected, tacking on, “I don’t think you’ve ever asked me for something.”

I looked around and past her, my gaze dragging along the line of the campground for anything nearby. When I found none, I found Evelyn’s mahogany eyes, “There’s something in the woods.”

“Something? What does that mean? An animal? A person?”

I bit at my lip, “An A-” Gulping, my voice stopped for a moment. The word tumbled around in my mouth, under her gaze I felt like I was back sitting near the fire. Heat felt like it surrounded my body.

Evelyn’s eyes widened like saucers as my half-word dawned on her, “Oh.”

She didn’t say anything else, which only served to confuse me. What was she thinking? I wished I could read between the lines of her facial expression, but I couldn’t. It was like her face was made of stone; unmoving.

I explained my plan, in the plainest of terms, “I just need you to cover for me while I go figure this out. I need you to keep mom and dad here, make sure they don’t leave the campsite once they come back.

“I’m coming with you.”

“What? No way.” I stepped away from her. “Just keep reading your book Evie.”

She gave me a curt laugh, “This isn’t a negotiation, Rory. I’m coming with you.”

The sinking feeling in my chest didn’t dissipate, once we entered onto the forest floor I felt like it might fall in on me at any second. Like the trees might collapse as the moss beneath my steps sinks into oblivion.

“Leave me be.” A gruff voice spoke like echoes from the trees. I couldn’t pinpoint where it came from. My face fell as the words spoke to me not in English, but another language that I knew.

One from my home.

“Leave.” I ordered Evelyn. But she only stood still, watching me, analyzing me as though I was something to behold. My voice cracked harder, “Please, Evie.”

Jumping down from the trees below I watched its morphology and physiology switch like nothing. From invisible to bear, to wolf and even to human. The blue skin and seven fingers I had seen it behold earlier today were far gone.

“I know what you are.” It’s voice was desperate and cracking like the leaves around us. The sounds of each word felt like a knife digging into my chest. The blades sinking deeper and deeper. But I couldn’t focus, everything around me was shifting on its axis.

“You attack me as though we are not brethren!” Its voice boomed around me, waiting hopelessly for a response because I stayed mum. Evelyn was near. She was pressed against me as we watched it circle us like a predator.

Blurry vision and nausea had my eyes flickering open and close. As I opened them once more slow as ever, it was gone.

It escaped. Again. A second time where it could get closer and closer to the people I care about. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t even know where to start.

When we finally returned to the campsite. My parents had returned. Both with a fish in hand. Scales were scattered on a small desk as my father descaled a pike with a thin blade.

Dinner and the rest of the night passed quickly. We ate hot dogs at the fire and bathed ourselves in its warmth.

Evelyn and I did not speak.

I could hear her shifting in the sleeping bag, it crinkled as she turned towards me.

She bit her lip, “You know I don’t like secrets, Rory. I knew that you weren’t as…susceptible to things like humans are, but you ran faster than anything I’ve seen before. You’re stronger than anything I thought you were capable of.”

I shifted around, my gaze holding anywhere but her. Evelyn continued, her voice unwavering but tender, “Sure I’ve seen you bend the metal on the tractor or help dad lift heavy equipment. But the ground shook earlier when your fist hit it. It shook like an earthquake. Why were you hiding that?”

Closing my eyes I stayed quiet for a few moments, when I spoke my voice was barely above a whisper, “I-it wasn’t a secret. I-I-I.” I didn’t finish my sentence though because I knew it was a lie. It had been a secret, an oath-like one that only escaped because of the cracks beginning to form in me.

“You understood what they were saying, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You speak another language?”

“No, it’s from…it’s from back home. One of the many languages spoken on a nearby planet that made it onto ours with time.” Despite the years, I could remember many of the languages spoken back home. The voices swirled within me over and over when I closed my eyes.

Evelyn was my sister, she was right about that. But that meant protecting her from every potential danger. Even myself.