PROLOGUE
"Hurry up" She hissed clutching her baby girl to her chest making sure that her precious baby's face was hidden.
Another violent explosion rocked the house. The ceiling crumbled a little more landing heavily around the panicking family in a miniature mushroom cloud. Dust floated around their heads getting caught in the back of their throats, sticking there, painfully and distastefully making it hard to breathe. The baby girl sneezed giggling to herself and clapping her chubby hands as she sneezed again. Her mother smiled sadly down at the youngster, stroking her chubby cheek with her thumb, brushing her tufty violet hair back underneath the black hood of the oversized jumper she was wrapped tightly in.
"I'm going as fast as I can" Grunted a man bent double over shiny silver machinery grunting back at them as the house shook ferociously again. The family had lost count of how many times they had almost toppled over or had to shield their faces from shards of glass raining down on them. He smashed a fist on top of the up turned bowl shaped contraption, squeaking, electric blue lights began to flash then receded quickly.
"What- what has happened? Is it working?" She whispered daring not to peer over his shoulder keeping eye contact with her daughter for as long as possible, amazed at how through all this madness and devastation the little girl still smiled and giggled as if this were all a game. If only.
"Remember this is, was, just meant to be a prototype" His voice cracked as he dropped onto one knee running his hands over his face. "I don't even know if it works right" He crumbled right there and then reducing him to a mess heaped on the floor in front of this pile of metal, screws, bolts, stupid flashing lights that he was entrusting his only daughters life with.
He took a deep breath as did his wife behind him both knowing, panicking wasn't going to help; he had to do anything he could to get his daughter out of this place before it burnt down around her. He was determined no harm was to come to her, not because of the worlds mistakes; she hadn't been here long enough to understand. He smashed his fist on top of the machine his whole body shaking with anger of the time he and his daughter that is already lost, the time his daughter and her mother will lose. His hand slipped from the top of the machine landing carelessly beside his knee.
Whirr. Clunk. Bang. Clink-clank. Buzz. The machine started to glow, a constant buzz erupting from it made his eyes light up like an Earth child on their seasonal holiday Christmas. Fiddling with the numerous switches, keys and buttons muttering to himself the sequence he had devised. Blue. Hexagon. Two. Zero. One. Three. Alpha. Gamma. Gamma. Two. Three. Beta. Turn the knob three times to the left, six to the right. Zero. Four. Now all that is left is the big red button after his daughter was in place that is.
He hesitated. Now the hardest part; saying goodbye. He turned to his wife; she was clutching their baby, their first in what they planned to be a pair. Another explosion sent shockwaves rocketing through their house sending a gust of harsh wind through the broken windows pulling her bright red hair out of the tight ponytail she had decided fit that morning when everything seemed happier. Her eyes tight shut, tears stained her pale skin that was dotted with freckles that even in the flickering light thrown out by fires and explosions hitting the broken glass in the window and on the floor at the wrong angle she still looked incredibly beautiful. A small smile flitted over his face as he remembered their wedding day, those few months ago when they were blessed with their baby daughter. Shuffling over to her, he stretched his arms out to envelop his wife and daughter for what may be the final time.
"I know she must go but I-I just can't let go" She cried pushing her face into his neck. He cradled the pair, shielding them from another wave of splintered glass from the one remaining window. The baby still laughed, her bright, honey golden eyes shone happily unaware of the danger that surrounded her looking up at her parents that began to sob above her.
"Bye, bye little 'un. See you in another life" He choked back the tears, leaning down to kiss her tiny head then to tweak her little nose gently, smiling at how she giggle and chuntered in delight clapping her chubby hands.
"Bye, bye my beautiful baby, be brave, be happy, be safe" She whispered clutching her baby close dotting kisses on her smooth chubby face before she finally placed her daughter on the machine.
"Ready?" He asked his voice hoarse as he held his wife tight to his side; his hand on top of hers on the red button.
"As I'll ever be" She whispered back, placing a small card in one of the overlaps of the jumper on her baby's front. Just some small instructions to whoevers hands she ends up in, and a small prayer that they would love her and accept her for all her differences.
Another shockwave, closer this time, harsher, more violent thundered through the house sending a spray of glass and splinters of wood flying through the air. The shock was so violent that the man and wife fell against the button sending their daughter, who instead of laughing again began to wail fearfully, somewhere across the billions of galaxies; somewhere safer than their home planet.
2: Chapter 1Chapter 1
Another boom of thunder and stroke of lightening cracked the clear midnight sky, rendering the mass of dulled stars invisible for a few seconds. It was odd for such a storm to grace the skies of England especially on such a clear night; it was so unexpected, so fierce and so enchanting that it had brought hoards of Britons to their windows to watch.
"Look more lightening" must've been breathed in awe by her whole street thought Tara as she did the same, looking out of the window, drying her hands on the tea towel absentmindedly while her husband, Matthew, put the dried pots away.
"It's only lightening, it's the same the lightening you saw the last time we had a thunder storm" Matthew reminded her as he rose from placing the last of the dishes in the cupboard beside the oven that was quietly cooling itself down.
"I don't think it is, there's-there's something different about it – look" Tara insisted pointed out of the window with a flick of the tea towel without even turning to look back at him, not wanting to miss any of the spectacular light show.
An almost inaudible sigh escaped Matthew's lips as he strode up to her, winding his arms around her placing his chin on her shoulder watching with her. I was then he admitted, silently to himself, that there was something different about this storm. It grabbed you by your pupils and didn't let you go. It was as if it wanted to be watched, the more people it could intoxicate, it almost grown in intensity as if trying to choose who or when to strike.
Another strike and a deeper more aggressive rumble of thunder reverberated through the still night. No wind blew but the hostile nature of the rumble seemed to make the trees shake violently and then instantly stop but a few seconds after the rumble stopped.
The next strike was thicker. The light was harsher. Spread across the sky, over their house, exploding the front door open. Tara screamed, jumping in Matthew's arms, balling up his shirt in a fist quickly. Both of them were breathing deeply, holding onto each other, shaking lightly as they looked from the open door banging against the wall that was beginning to close slowly to each other. Silently, slowly, Matthew placed a foot out about to make his way to the door when a sudden small laugh turned into wail. They snapped their gaze to each other, eyebrows pulled together in confusion. Treading carefully through the kitchen, through the living room toward the hallway where the wailing grew louder. Stunned into silence, the pair neared the source of the wails. As they had suspected a tiny child, a baby no less, was laid on the door step wrapped in black so only a pale face and two unbelievably, massive, golden eyes were visible.
The wailing stopped as they neared the tiny bundle, kneeling over it so the baby could see their faces. The baby began to smile, giggling and started wrestling with its wrap, trying to get its arms out, causing a piece of paper to fall to the floor. Tara hesitantly picked up the piece of paper handing it to Matthew who was sat beside her stunned. She then picked up the little abandoned baby cradling it in her arms.
"I can't read this" Matthew whispered flicking the card over in his hands. What was written on the small placard was what seemed to be curly Chinese scripture, completely unfathomable and so intricately drawn it seemed a shame really. The child did not look Chinese, so the scriptures with it didn't seem to match up.
"What do you mean?" Tara asked softly as the little child began to drift off to sleep, its strange honey golden eyes closing slowly. Matthew handed her the card as he took the tiny baby from her, standing and leading Tara into their deep teal living room.
"Have you lost the ability to read it's in plain English" Tara insisted shaking her head frowning at the card flashing towards him.
"Trust me, it was not in English when I looked at it" He argued softly, smiling at the sleeping child in his arms as if it where his own.
"Right, you're just going crazy" She smiled ruffling his hair as she sat on the arm of the chair Matthew had sat on.
"Read it then" He urged stroking the baby's cheek as it fell into a deeper sleep in his arms, hiding those unique eyes.
"Keep your hair on, I will, I will. Right it says:
To whoever finds our little girl.
Please know that it was by no mistake, she is very special as you will find out and we needed a family that was strong and would love her for who she is, and she found her way to you. Her name is Lexis and as you may guess from the colour and size of her eyes she is not human. She is Syntaxian, so heed this warning well; do not talk at the same time as her, don't make a sound the same time she does otherwise you will not be able to say those things again. Be careful, it is this ability that has destroyed our world and brought our baby to you.
Please take care of her, love her as if she were your own, love her for her differences and teach her that, being who she is, is not a bad thing.
Thank you, whoever you may be, and goodbye my baby I hope you understand why we did, what we did." Tara stared down at the card in disbelief, either this was an extremely sick joke or by some amazing chance they had actually been in contact with another species.
"You're joking" Matthew breathed looking up at is wife, then gazing down at the tiny girl sleeping soundly unaware of what had happened, where she was or where she had come from.
"No, that's what it says" Tara insisted just as quietly, leaning over touching the baby's face as if she was this magical object that could transfer powers to her.
"So she's an alien?" He asked shakily "And we can't talk when she does?"
"Yes" Tara answered uncovering the child's head as she turned blocking her nose and mouth with the black hood. As the hood slipped from her head, revealed to them were tufts of bright purple hair.
"Right so someone has dyed this kids hair purple and claimed it's an alien – probably on drugs or something" Matthew decided, watching his wife frown down at the tiny girl not replying to his accusation.
"You saw her eyes, they aren't normal, Matt what if she really is alien?" She asked finally looking up at him, at his steady brown gaze, giving her that same look he always does when he knew she was about to do something potentially stupid.
"You're not serious are you?" He asked his gaze not wavering at all, desperately trying to think of a way of handling this delicately knowing his wife all too well.
"Well, until it is proven about the whole don't talk when she does. Then… I don't know" She shrugged lifting the baby out of his arms and cradling her in her own. Gazing down at the baby she knew it was farfetched believing this tiny girl was an alien but what's to say she wasn't, she'd come to them there must be a reason behind it.
"We can't keep her, she's not ours" Matthew finally expressed what was on his mind, sucking in a deep breath not sure of what the reply would be. They may have been trying for a baby, of course they wanted to start a family but they couldn't just take this child, she wasn't theirs, what if these possible crack-heads wanted her back? What would they do then?
"Why not?" Tara asked gently, turning around to face Matthew. He couldn't possibly think they couldn't keep her? She thought sadly. He had heard the message that came with her, he couldn't possibly think they should send her back to where she had come from, did he? Even if it did turn out that she was an alien how could they send her back, they were just journalists, not rocket scientists.
"Because…" As he began to speak the little girl woke up and began to chunter in baby speak very sleepily then to fall back to sleep again.
"Now tell me that isn't sweet" Tara cooed breaking into a large smile that Matthew hadn't seen in a while.
"It is very sweet, I'm not saying she isn't." He smiled up at her, leaning forwards in the chair as she walked towards him "But we can't really keep her can we?"
"Go on then, why can't we keep… Lexis?" Tara huffed
"B-" Matthew frowned, his tongue stuck in his mouth, he couldn't form the word, come to think of it he wasn't sure he could spell it anymore. Tara stared down at him, in disbelief, she couldn't believe he was actually pretending not to be able to say 'because'.
"Very mature Matt, stop playing about" Tara sighed looking down at the baby flattening down her hair that was stuck up all over the place.
"I-I'm not" He replied almost panicky "I can't say b-, I can't say -" Now he couldn't even say the first letter! Eyes widened he stood and watched the sleeping child. She couldn't have? She couldn't have taken that word from him... could she?
CHAPTER 2
Tara couldn’t help herself laughing at her husband’s lost face, as he tried to fathom out what was wrong with himself. The harder he tried the less he seemed to be able to do it, acting or not, it was quite the spectacle.
“Don’t laugh” He grumbled almost tearing his hair out to say ‘because’. “How useless is this? A journalist who can’t even write –. Or say –. Great just great” He groaned to himself as he attempted to write ‘because’ on a piece of paper but failed miserably. “I mean I can see it, I can see it in my head as I’m about to write it or say it, but, when I go to do it, nothing comes” He explained quickly now wearing the cream carpet down as he paced up and down the full length of the living room as Tara sat holding Lexis in the chair he was sat in before.
“You know how mad that sounds?” She asked him smiling inwardly as he shot her a less-than-amused-sarcastic look with a small roll of his eyes.
“Yes, I’m aware of how mad this sounds, and that’s exactly why we can’t keep her. We’re journalists, we can’t be losing words when our lives depend on them” He argued kneeling in front of his wife looking straight into her pale blue eyes.
“But you can’t argue now that she is from this world, she’s proved that by stealing your ‘because’ and yes it is a risk keeping her while needing words for our lives but if we just find a way of making sure we don’t talk at the same time. We could make this work and give her a better home” Tara argued, almost pleading her husband to reconsider his thoughts, think of the positives, give this child a home, it wasn’t like they didn’t want children; in fact the exact opposite. They’d been trying for a couple of years but beginning to lose hope almost that they could have their own, this was a blessing in disguise – if only Tara could convince Matthew to see that.
“I’ll agree there’s something different about her-”
“Different? Since she made a noise when you did you haven’t been able to say ‘because’ nothing human could do that!” Tara argued “I don’t know exactly what we can do but maybe we could help her control this? We’ve got to be a better bet than some others out there.” She was stuck for ideas but what she did know was little Lexis was going to grow up here in their very house and her stubborn ways were going to help fight her corner.
Matthew wasn’t much of a pushover, at least he hoped to think so but he knew his wife a hell of a lot better than she thought, and he knew full well the extent of her stubbornness could go. It was this quality that made her a great journalist getting interviews from celebrities and business moguls who would have otherwise been silent if anyone else where there to interview them. But this time she wasn’t getting much of an answer out of him, so many conflicting arguments were flying through his head but out of the swarm all he could think was that he was so glad his mother didn’t decide to stay the night.
Tara sat silent as her husband watching him for an answer, watching him for any inkling of the sort of answer he was about to give, but he was a closed book, a blank page. Eventually a sigh, that famous sigh, that she, and many in the magazine company they worked for, knew meant something was wrong. He was further up in the company than she was, a chief editor, so most stories went to him to scrutinise before they were allowed to be printed. Tara had heard that sigh many times when handing him her work, half the office dreaded it knowing full well he wanted high standards from them.
“Well” He finally started sitting back on his heels, rubbing the back of his neck, looking to the floor. He placed his fists on the floor pushing himself up onto his feet checking his phone. “Shops would be closed now won’t they?”
“You aren’t seriously suggesting selling her are you?” Tara hissed, shocked and disgusted, she never thought in a million years Matthew would come up with an insane idea like that.
“No” he almost snorted at the idea, did she really think he would even think of doing that? “No I mean the shops will be closed so we can’t go out and get supplies” He answered fully watching his wife for her reaction. Tara’s eyes widened as her husband’s words sank in – they were going to keep her.
“Really?” Tara asked almost buzzing with excitement, she already knew the answer of course she just needed him to say it.
“Yes, we can keep her, I don’t know how we go about these things probably have to call the police or something” He answered with a half-smile as his wife jumped up and hugged him with one arm, the other was a bit preoccupied.
“Did you hear that Lexis you could be living with us” She cheered softly so as not to wake her.
“Right I think we might have to call the police, get her checked out in case these crack heads that left her there gave her something” Matthew decided quickly dialling 999 placing his pristine white smart phone to his ear as it began to ring.
“Fine” Tara nodded in agreement “Now you be quiet little one, don’t want to be stealing any more words” She chuckled down at Lexis who looked like she could sleep through anything the world could throw at her.
“Yeah I’d appreciate it kid” Matthew chuckled perching himself on the arm of the chair one arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Hello I’m Matthew Smith at Fourteen Colloquy Avenue; my wife and I have found a child on our doorstep”
“Right we’ll send an Officer over now” The operator replied mechanically, each word was harsh, blunt as it travelled through her phone and out of Matthew’s, making him glad it was a quick call, and nothing extremely urgent.
“Thank you” He replied simply cutting off the phone call, relaxing his shoulders against half of the back of the chair that was available to him.
“What are they doing?” Tara asked impatient for information as usual which made Matthew smirk inwardly.
“They’re sending an Officer over” He answered his impatient wife still with a little smirk stuck on his face. She nodded acknowledging the news, now growing impatient for the Officer to arrive. She had tried to control this impatient streak, but ever since she was a little girl, she had tried and failed accepting it as one of her flaws able to hone it to help her become a formidable journalist that just won’t let anything lie for too long. If it were a deadline or half a story; she needed to beat it, find every single little detail right down to the most minute, miniscule, seemingly trivial element of every story. She grew impatient of everything it seemed, anything and it was hers to be impatient over; everything from her seemingly uncontrollable mass of extremely tight curly hair to travelling anywhere. Nothing could escape her impatient streak.
“How long will that take?” Tara huffed looking up to Matthew as if he could make them go any faster.
“I don’t know” He half shrugged, he knew he could be impatient at times, like when he’d been waiting too long for a story someone was writing that had to be checked over, possibly re-written before the Friday night deadline. But he knew he was nowhere near as impatient as Tara, it was beyond compare really. “Can’t imagine they’ll be too long though” He tried to reassure her but he knew it wasn’t going to help her impatience at all.
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