“I left them with the blue haired guy…” Iris whispered to herself. The realization dawned on her unexpectedly and she struggled to piece together the missing facets of her memory. Iris pointed accusingly at Zayzann and demanded an explanation. “That’s him, isn’t it? Who is he, Khaz?”
Iris had spoken louder than she had intended to, which woke both Byxx and Zayzann from their respective rests. Byxx scrambled in the living room darkness to recover his shirt and investigate who the raised voice belonged to. Zayzann snapped awake with a start, recognized his distressed watch-mate, and backed up into the headboard with frantic pushes of his arms against the bedding. He tented his brows and ran his tongue over his lips before trying to defend himself.
“It’s me, Iris.” Zayzann pleaded earnestly. “It’s me. I’m Zayzann.”
“What? That’s impossible.” Iris refused to believe him as she drew her arms in front of herself in a protective gesture. “You sound like him, but you can’t be him. Is this some kind of trick, like Khazmine’s camouflage?”
Khazmine tried not to feel offended by the remark, but it did sting to be seen as “inauthentic,” regardless of if Iris had meant it that way or not. The metallic plates in her face graded against each other and her servos squealed lightly at Khazmine’s tensed expression. She flashed a brief scowl at the idea that her abilities made her any less “real” than the Paxoram in human skin. If anything, she had been the most genuine among the roommates, and had never proclaimed to be anything more or less than who she was.
“What? No, it’s no trick.” Zayzann countered. “It’s me, really. I—”
“You guys okay in here?” Byxx peeked through the open door and tugged his shirt down over his midsection. He caught Zayzann’s eye as Iris and Khazmine turned to see who was at the doorway. “Ah, sh*t.” Byxx winced as he realized what transpired. “Iris, it’s, uh, not what it looks like…”
Her frozen, shocked expression was priceless. Everyone but Iris appeared to know about the strange intruder who had snuck into her apartment. She stood between the foot of the bed and the doorway with her mouth agape and trying to process what was going on. Zayzann crept forward and brushed away the covers, as Iris fearfully brandished the sandalwood diffuser from the nearby display and poised herself to whip it at the intruder.
“No-no-no! Wait!” Zayzann braced himself with both hands stretched out in front of him while feathers, wings and his tail sprouted through his shifted form. “Stop!”
Iris’s eyes filled with tears and terror as Zayzann reverted to his natural state. Her trembling hands went numb, causing the sandalwood diffuser to slip from her grasp and tumble to the floor, spilling its scented oil onto the carpet. Iris tucked herself into Byxx’s open arms and began crying and shaking from head to toe as Byxx held her in his warm embrace. His arms encircled her tiny frame and Byxx tried desperately not to crush the fragile woman. Khazmine bent over to retrieve the spilled diffuser and overheard the frantic beating of Iris’s heart amid strained gasps for air.
It wasn’t supposed to go this way. Khazmine thought to herself while she examined the undamaged diffuser. D*mn, what a mess.
Khazmine replaced the diffuser back on its display base and slinked away from the others in an attempt to avoid aggravating the situation. Zayzann rose from the bed, padded carefully over to Byxx and Iris, and pleaded his case.
“I was going to tell you all about this after work today, honest.” Zayzann stressed. “Please, you have to believe me.”
Iris’s eyes traced over each roommate, from the bewildered Byxx, then to the fearful Zayzann, and finally on the tense, avoidant Khazmine. It was her; Iris was sure of it. Khazmine had the answers Iris needed, and she would have them right now.
“I need a minute. Byxx, Zayzann… out, both of you. Please.” Iris brushed locks of hair from her stinging eyes. “Khazmine stays.”
Zayzann slinked out of the bedroom with wings tamped tightly to his body and his tail tucked between his legs. Byxx released Iris from their hug and bowed solemnly in deference and shame towards Iris. Neither of them dared defend against the wishes of the woman they’d both lied to, and so departed with a long squeak of the bedroom door. Zayzann padded into the living room to cradle his throbbing head in his hands from the comfort of the couch, while Byxx lingered as quiet as the grave in the hallway right outside the bedroom.
“I just can’t believe it.” Iris plopped onto the bed and pressed her thumb and forefinger against the bridge of her nose. “I knew you guys were keeping things from me, but this? How could you?”
“I have no excuse, mistress.”
“What else are you hiding from me, huh?” Iris ran a hand through her dark purple locks and scratched at a tingling spot on the back of her head. “I mean, I know nothing about you. You’re an enigma.”
“I am sorry.” Khazmine mumbled. “That was not my intention.”
“Khazmine, I have questions…” Iris brushed errant tears from her face with the backs of her hands. “I-I didn’t want to ask before, but I need to know. Will you answer a few for me, please?”
“Go ahead, little one.” Khazmine met Iris’s gaze with her own mechanical stare. “Ask your questions.”
“Who are you, really?” Iris inquired while twiddling her fingers on the edge of the bed sheet. “I’ve had dreams of Zhalterra and Chromaldus my whole life. I remember Byxx from when I was just a little girl. I’ve tumbled from cliffs and seen the dawn of twin suns with the Paxoram. But not you…”
Khazmine stood from her stool in the bedroom and calculated how best to deliver her honest answers. She wanted to avoid confusing and upsetting Iris, which a full explanation might do both, and so ran a gloved hand over to a framed photo on the dresser and grasped it with a creak of black leather.
“That’s… As I said when we first met, I am a Traveler, seeking medical information from the many realms.” Khazmine looked down at the framed photo like a sacred artifact and replied in low, even tones. “There is a terrible disease where I’m from, one which destroyed… many lives. When I was an organic, I offered myself to the Progenitors in exchange for the ability to resist the disease and find a cure.”
Iris patted the smoothed bedding to invite Khazmine to sit with her comfortably. These memories were clearly painful to Khazmine, and Iris didn’t mean to dredge up old hurts and fears. Khazmine clicked and whirred into a half lotus pose and handed Iris the photograph.
“And in my travels between realms, I heard someone cry out for me.” Khazmine could feel the warmth of lubricating fluid rush behind her closed eyelids. “She was sick, and begged me for help. I followed her voice to this facet of the universe and found this planet, with its wondrous technology. This is her, the Summoner whose pleas I answered.”
Khazmine pointed to the photograph of her family, posing for one of their last portraits together. There was Iris, Lily, her father, Richard, and her mother, Amaranth. Khazmine’s fingertip grazed over Amaranth’s smiling face before she drew her hand away. Khazmine clenched her jaw tightly to fight back the creeping feelings that threatened to surface.
“You don’t remember me because I am Amaranth’s Summon, not yours.” Khazmine admitted through glassy eyes and trembling lips. “She called out to me several years ago, and I have been here ever since, watching over your family from afar. I lost track of you when you moved out of the house that chilly morning after the funeral and had been searching for you.”
Iris’s jaw muscles relaxed at the admission, and she sat with her back against the headboard with her lips parted and dry. This was so much to take in, and Iris knew there was more, but she was stunned into a silence that allowed Khazmine to continue uninterrupted.
“Do you remember the veiled lady at the funeral? The one who stood beside the casket when Richard failed to show up?” Khazmine asked Iris, garnering a single nod in response. Khazmine activated the familiar camouflage from so long ago. “That was me. I helped carry the casket when Amaranth died.”
“B-but, why didn’t you say anything back then?”
“You were grieving, and I was just another problem that needed solving.” Khazmine confessed through lidded eyes. “I didn’t want to add to your burdens. You had already given Lily the house and your vehicle. I wasn’t about to take anything more from you.”
“It wasn’t like that, Khaz.” Iris defended. “I moved to the city to find work, that’s all it was. Lily and I both wanted to keep Ama’s house, and I was the one with a degree, so I moved closer to save our home. Lily took the car after I almost got in an accident when I passed out after the funeral.”
“Why doesn’t Lily pay the mortgage?” Khazmine asked. “Surely, you cannot afford rent and a mortgage payment.”
“Lily doesn’t have a regular income.” Iris brushed dust from the picture frame in her trembling hands. “She says I stole her chance to go to school. When Ama got sick, our family couldn't afford tuition, and we had to choose which of the two of us would go to college. I was older, so I went and got a degree.”
“And what of Richard?” Khazmine prodded. “He was gone by the time I arrived on Earth. Is he—”
“He left when the medical bills started pouring in.” Iris wiped fresh tears from her eyes. “Spouses are on the hook to pay for medical expenses for their sick partners, so he cut bait. The sums would have ruined him financially, so they divorced so he could save himself.”
“Leaving you and your sister to pay for everything?”
“No, medical debt doesn’t pass to surviving children where we live.” Iris fidgeted with straightening the bedding around her as she explained. “We just had whatever was left of the estate after Ama passed. Which was really just the house and a few heirlooms. The debt collectors took the greenhouse and anything else worth having.”
A painfully dense silence hung in the air like miasma, choking both roommates in gloom. Khazmine lifted a quaking hand to place it on top of Iris’s. She gave the tiny hand a gentle squeeze before speaking.
“I am so terribly sorry, Iris.” Khazmine bowed her head. “I couldn’t save Amaranth back then, and I don’t know how to save you now either.”
Khazmine’s plates jingled like distant wind chimes, creating a morose, melodic tune only Iris could hear. It had a sorrowful lilt to the delicate clinking, sounding like a plaintiff call for pity and forgiveness. Iris tensed her limbs at her newfound understanding of the truth. Khazmine knew she was sick with the same ailment that claimed Amaranth two years ago. She knew and was hoping to help Iris survive.
“But I’ll do my best for you, I swear.” Khazmine vowed to Iris with every scrap of sincerity she could muster. “I will help you with whatever you need. You have my word.”
Iris had no air to respond to Khazmine’s earnest wish, having all of it exhaled out through a protracted, painful sigh. She gasped as Khazmine’s hands rushed to clasp hers in a firm, insistent grip.
“Please, Iris.” Khazmine teared up at Iris and rallied with her inner self for strength to beg Iris for forgiveness. “Please, don’t throw me away.”
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