Alina sat on the stoop of her cottage, her hands folded in her lap.  It was almost noon already, and Brian and David still had yet to arrive with Meredith.  Alina Galenko did not own a phone – though still fairly young, the woman was stricter with herself than anyone else affiliated with the Salva Family, staying true to the beliefs and practices of the original Zeylishian tradition.  At that moment, she vaguely regretted this.  She closed her eyes and let her mind wander until the faint hum of a car approaching broke her shallow trance.  As soon as she heard it, she briskly stood up and looked out towards the street, folding her hands in front of her waist.  The car was not the one she expected, and yet it pulled into her driveway.  She furrowed her brow and stepped down from the stoop as the car came to a stop. 

                David stepped out from the driver’s seat and quickly opened one of the rear doors as well as the trunk, which he pulled three bags from; fancy, coordinated luggage made from leather and dyed a dark, opulent shade of purple.  Meredith slunk from the back seat and quietly stood beside the car, leaning her tall, wiry body against it.  Alina stared at both of them, approaching as if one misstep would cause everything around her to crumble into dust.  The gangly young creature standing in her driveway was supposedly Ren-Marithe; “the guide who dwells on the precipice of the unconscious”; the key to mankind’s ascension, and Alina felt certain she really was; she even looked almost exactly as she envisioned.  Her body flooded with a warm, rich exuberance, and yet, for reasons she could not explain, she wanted to disappear.

                David strutted up to Alina and nodded to her.  “Sorry we’re late.  Had to take care of something before we left.”

                Alina nodded nervously and took a deep breath.  “Where is Brian?” 

                “Wasn’t feeling up to a drive.”

                “I see.  I hope he is all right,” she commented, swallowing tightly and twisting a piece of her hair.

                “He’ll be fine.  Guy’s just iffy about small spaces sometimes, and I think he's a bit weaker when it comes to Miss Meredith,” he explained with a choked laugh.  "I'm a little closer to your level."

                The red-head forced a nod, crossing her arms in front of her and staring into the man's face.  Perhaps the exchange she had with David the last time she saw him left her with a bad taste, or perhaps it was the faintly, yet perpetually, jeering tone of his voice, but he and the sorts of comments he made put her ill at ease. 

                “Anyway.  Where should I take these bags?”  He asked, pointing at the luggage he left beside the vehicle. 

                “Ah, put it… take it all the way down the hallway, the bedroom is there.  All the way at the end.”

                “All right, then, all the way at the end,” David repeated in the sort of casual, breathy sort of sing-song one would typically use while suppressing bewilderment as he grabbed the bags and carried them inside.

                Alina sighed, unsure of whether or not to speak to Meredith.  The teenager scowled as she stared off into nothingness; into her own mind.  The red-head averted her gaze.

                David came back out of the house and stood in front of Alina once again, putting a hand on her shoulder.  “I’m heading out.  Good luck, Alina.  A new era is upon us, and your work will be critical in ushering it in as safely as possible for all of us.  Love and light.”  This was the first time the woman heard him speak with any earnestness in his voice. 

                “Thank you.  You, too,” she whispered.

                “One more thing.  Be on the lookout for a package in the next week or so,” David added, gently narrowing his dark brown eyes.

                “Why?  You are sending me something, what?”  A wide-eyed look of distress crossed Alina’s face before she had time to conceal it. 

  “You need to keep in touch with us somehow.  I heard from Brian you don’t like phones, electronic devices near your head and all.  Honestly, I don’t either, throws off the vibrations.  I’m gonna send you a computer.  I’ll get someone to come out and set you up with a wireless connection, too.  Hopefully, it'll work.”

Alina frowned and breathed a shallow sigh.  “Well, very well, if it is absolutely necessary…”

David smiled broadly and patted the red-head’s shoulder before striding up to Meredith.  “Good-bye, Miss Meredith,” he said softly, taking the girl’s pale hand and kissing her knuckles, not noticing how she cringed and turned her head.   

As soon as David drove off, Alina took a deep breath and stood in front of Meredith.  She extended her arms toward her. “Welcome, Miss-“

The teenager lifted her hand. “Save it,” she spat.

The red-head bit her lip, a chill running through her body.  “Okay.  Let’s go inside, okay?  I’ll show you to your room, if you want.”

“Fine.”

The red-head smiled and led Meredith into her new bedroom, barely noticing the sound of the girl’s feet shuffling against the floor as they walked down the hallway.  “Would you like me to help you unpack?”

“Maybe later,” she said, hanging her head and leaning against the wall.

Alina stared at Meredith, tilting her head in concern, unsure whether or not the girl was having trouble standing on her own or if leaning against things was just a habit of hers.  “Ah… Miss Meredith, are you all right?”  She crouched forward a bit, peering intently at the girl’s face, which was mostly obscured by her long, dark, somewhat tousled hair.  “Please lie down, if you are tired,” she suggested, gently placing a hand on the teen’s bony shoulder. 

Meredith’s face jerked upward and Alina felt a terrible chill rush through her skull as if somebody shot freezing water directly into her eyes.  A high-pitched, hollow noise loud enough to shatter bone and yet inaudible – nonexistent, even - to anyone but her filled her ears.  She clenched her fists and made a small, strained noise in her throat as she suppressed the urge to fall to the ground.  The girl was attacking her through a sort of telekinesis which targeted the nervous system, but Alina, through years of study, could neutralize it through focusing on an object outside of her body.  She breathed steadily, with defiance in her pale blue eyes as she stared at the light-switch just behind Meredith’s shoulder.  The teenager stopped her attack and stared blankly, her narrow face now breaking into a sweat.  “They were right.  You know what you’re doing.”

Alina gritted her teeth and shook her head dismissively.  “Of course I do.  If I did not know, they would bring you to somebody else,” she said firmly.  She quickly put a hand to her mouth, her eyelids drooping slightly and her brows slanting up.

Meredith glared and sat down on the bed.  “So, you can help me through this whole long, drawn-out process without one or both of us dying.  Or, hopefully, anybody. That’s good, I guess.  To be honest, I didn’t even think this would happen to me until about seven years ago.  That’s when the blood work and spinal taps and stuff started coming back abnormal.  They were so happy.”

Alina pulled her head back and gazed down at the teenager in confusion.  It dawned on her that she had completely neglected to peruse Meredith’s records the night before, and she made a mental note to look at them once the girl settled in.

“I thought my family and all their followers were full of shit.  Deluded.  I thought I just had garden variety mental problems, I thought they were even worse off, with all the experimentation they were doing on me,” she explained, staring at her hand as she rubbed her fingers against the sheets. 

“No,”  Alina stated.  “You are special, you do know that now, don’t you?”

Meredith cracked a wry grin, leaning forward.  “I don’t know yet.  It’s too soon to tell.  Just because I’m not a regular human doesn’t mean I’m special, not necessarily.  Since I started changing I’ve grown aware of other worlds, but here’s the thing.  Most of the things people call gods and monsters aren’t special.  Just foreign.  In their own element, they’re pretty ordinary.”

“I see,” the Ukrainian said dully. 

“Over time, my outward appearance, my entire body will metamorphose into what you call a Zeylishema.  Whether or not I’d be even remotely prodigious among the rest of them remains to be seen.  Either way, I’m stuck here for now and I’m a danger.  People get sick when they’re around me too long now, you know,” Meredith continued, her eyes darting back and forth.  “I know what the supposed plan is for me, and why I have to stay with you.  You’re supposed to help me focus my abilities so I can stop being a danger and become a savior.  Help mankind evolve, starting with the followers my family has amassed.  But I have no interest in helping them, whether or not it’s possible for me to do that at all.” 

Alina frowned, tightly knitting her brow.  “I believe you are special still!  I feel it, when I look at you, that you are Ren-Marithe, and you will be something so powerful, that you will change the world, the whole universe, you will make this change.  No matter how you decide to do it, what you decide to do, I am on your side.  Whether or not you help me or anybody else, it doesn’t matter, always only you matter.”

Meredith sighed, not having the heart to tell the red-head she was missing the point.  “I’m gonna take a nap.  We can unpack my bags when I wake up.”

Alina lowered her head.  “Okay,” she whispered, leaving the room. 

 

Next Chapter.