Over the Moon (30 page)

The three Hellite animals stood in silent awe for a few moments
before speaking.

"She's a beauty! We'll be Hellite heroes!" the rat man exclaimed.

"How do we get in?" the pig-face man asked.

"Show us the door!" Rex, the ugly Neanderthal, bellowed at
Andrew.

"Over here." He calmly touched the button, and the window
became an entrance with flowing steps.

"Get inside!" Rex pushed Andrew, and the other evil creatures
dragged me up the stairs. The door shut automatically behind us.
We stood there waiting in the dark.

"Where's the light?" Rex demanded.

"It's over there on that wall. See it glowing?" Andrew replied.

Rex walked over and pushed the fluorescent button on the wall.
Nothing happened. No lights came on. It was then, as my eyes
began adjusting to the dark space, that I saw them, six pairs of glowing lights. They were eyes. Six pairs of beaming, luminous eyes were
shining silently in the darkness.

Andrew opened the door, lifting me and pulling me away and down
the stairs. He closed and locked it and carried me back through the
maze of entries, but not before I heard the ugly shrieks and screams
behind us. He held me so close; I could hardly catch my breath.

"I am so, so sorry, Tiana. I will never forgive myself for letting
you endure their torture. This should never have happened. What
were you doing prowling around outside that warehouse in the middle of the night? Do you realize you almost got yourself killed? I
wasn't going to let them get anywhere near you. They were supposed
to capture me so I could take them to the ship. It was a trap. Unfortunately, they caught me sooner than we had expected. I had to buy
some time so the others could get into position aboard the ship. I never meant for you to ever be in any danger. I never wanted you to
go through all that intense suffering."

"Whose eyes were on the ship?" I asked, interrupting his
unfounded feelings of guilt.

"That was Adam, Mr. Allen, Matthew, Luke, James, and Mr.
Parker. They went to the ship when I sent them the signal. We knew
the savages would go after me or Adam so one of us would let them
into our spaceship garage and fly them back to Helam."

"James and Mr. Parker?" I was surprised by their presence. I
thought they went back to Roswell when they found Sonya.

"They insisted on staying and helping get rid of the Hellite villains. After all, the whole world was in jeopardy. Even James understood that. He also wanted revenge for their abduction of him and
Sonya."

"What did they do to the Hellites?"

"You don't want to know. It was quick and much too painless for
my liking. I wish I could have killed each one personally for what
they did to you. That vile, putrid, depraved Hellite scum deserved
to suffer slow, ignominious, and torturous deaths!" His fists were
clenched in rage, and his face wore the mask of a destroying angelthe most beautiful destroying angel I'd ever seen.

"I'm okay." I smiled up at him and put my arms around his
neck, pulling his face down to mine. "Will you stay with me tonight,
please? I don't want to be alone."

"Yes, of course. Anything you want, love." He kissed me gently
and carried me to his car. My car was still parked where I had left
it outside the abandoned torture chamber with the keys still in the
ignition. He made a phone call and told me someone would retrieve
it. Then he gently massaged my wrists and ankles where the ropes
had left cuts and bruises and rubbed the base of my neck where the
needles had been thrust up into my unsuspecting brain cells. His
own injuries were almost healed.

"You were incredibly brave tonight, although I wish you would
have stayed out of this. Can you ever forgive me for letting you
endure that emotional torment? I didn't know how to stop them and still give the others the time they needed. I was prepared to let
them torture me. It nearly killed me to watch them hurt you!" He
shut his eyes and cradled his head in his hands. It pained me to see
him so distraught.

"There is nothing to forgive. It wasn't so terrible. I saw your face
when I shut my eyes. You told me it was an illusion. I believed you,
and it stopped. I don't want to do it again anytime soon, but please
don't blame yourself. You saved me again!" I hoped I had convinced
him. I didn't want him to feel guilty about any of it. As usual, I knew
it was all my own fault.

"You read my mind. I was trying to send that exact message to
you!" He opened his eyes wide in obvious surprise. When we got
to my house, my car had already been delivered to its usual place in
front. He drove down the block before stopping several homes away
from mine. He helped me out and lead me around to my backyard.

"Uh, where are we going now?" I asked.

"We have to go in through your bedroom window. We can't risk
your parents hearing the front door open and close. It would be hard
to explain."

He was right. I definitely couldn't tell them that I had been captured and tortured by cannibalistic, alien scum. They might find that
hard to believe, and I couldn't think of any rational excuse for me
being out with my boyfriend at 4:oo a.m., wearing my pink monkey
pajamas.

"How do we get up there?" We were standing below my window. There was no tree to climb and no way up that I could see. He
grinned at me, scooped me up into his muscled arms, and jumped
gracefully onto the window ledge. He sat me inside the open window, climbed in, and quietly shut it securely.

"You never stop amazing me." I giggled. He turned down the
covers and lifted me carefully into my bed and tucked me in. He
turned back toward the window.

"You said you would stay," I reminded him.

"Are you sure you want me to? I nearly cost you your life tonight."

"Stop it! You saved my life. I love you, and I don't want you
to blame yourself. It's not your fault. When I thought you were
dead... "

He shushed me and lay down beside me, enveloping me in his
arms. I fell asleep almost immediately, exhausted from my much too
recent torture at the hands of alien monsters.

I slept late. He was gone when I finally opened my eyes, as I
suspected he would be. I showered, dressed, and crept downstairs.
There was a note on the refrigerator door: "Gone fishing in Pine
Valley. Andrew wants you to call him." I retrieved my phone and was
just about to push number one when it rang.

I answered, thinking it was Andrew. It wasn't.

"Tiana, this is Sonya Parker." Her monotone voice sounded
eerie, inhuman, and almost hypnotic. "We need to talk. I'm going
to give you a heads-up. You need to listen carefully. Andrew's on his
way to break up with you. He's finally realized that he and I belong
together. After you nearly got yourself killed, he understands that
you are better off without him, and we both know he's better off
without you. Deep down, you know this is right! Of course, you
know how noble he is. He's going to try to get you to do the dumping so you can save face. If you love him, you need to let go. You
know I'm right! He is the future leader of the Helamites, and he
needs a Helamite woman who can fight by his side. Do the right
thing and make him think it's your idea. Do the right thing for him!
That way he won't carry around the guilt of breaking your heart
forever. You know you have to do this. We both want what's best
for him, and this is it. Do the right thing, Tiana. Do the only right
thing." The line went dead before I could utter a word. My phone
rang again. This time it was Andrew.

"Tiana?" he said.

"Yes." My voice was weak. My head was spinning. I had the
strangest impression that I was living in a bad dream, but I was too
sick to be asleep.

"How are you feeling today?" he asked. I could hear anxiety in
his voice. He must still be blaming himself.

"I'm fine," I lied. I was dizzy and nauseous, and my head hurt
like someone had shoved red, hot needles into it. I didn't want him
to feel more guilt, so I kept this to myself. I didn't tell him about
Sonya's awful words. I had to think about what she had said.

"I'm coming over. I need to talk to you in person." He choked
out the words. Something was very wrong. There was a certain
apprehension in the way he spoke. Could Sonya's words be true?

"What's wrong?" I panicked. "Did someone get hurt?" I didn't
know what had happened after we left the warehouse. I didn't want
to believe Sonya's words. I wanted it to be something else that was
upsetting him.

"No, everyone is okay. I'll be there in fifteen minutes." He hung
up without explaining.

I waited, sick with worry, frightful of what he wanted to talk to
me about now. I was once again consumed by my own dark fears.
Despair had crept back with a vengeance, clutching at my consciousness. It spiraled around my spine and sent its thorny tendrils
to surround and squeeze my heart. Did he have to leave me and
embark on another deadly and dangerous mission to save the world?
Had something incredibly horrible happened that put Earth at risk
again? Were there crazier alien terrorists out there waiting to torment and destroy us? Then I thought of an even worse possibility, and the most painful questions instantly and icily flooded my
brain with a freezing unease. Was he really going to do what Sonya
wanted him to do? Did he love her? Had he changed his mind about
me? Had I done something unforgivable? Had he realized I wasn't
worthy of his love? I was nearly frantic when I opened the door. I ran
to him and hugged him tightly. He freed himself from my arms and
stepped back. I gazed up at his angelic face, and the perceived agony
I saw there made me gulp.

Sonya must have been telling the truth. "Do the right thing, Tiana."
Her words were echoing inside my head. I heard her voice chanting
them over and over. I instantly knew what I had to do. I didn't want
to do it. I didn't want to make the sacrifice, but I had no choice. I had
to be the noble one this time and take the fall. I needed to convince
him that he would be better off without me, that I understood he
belonged with a Helamite woman. He belonged with Sonya. I had
to make the only right choice. "You know I'm right!" Her words kept
tormenting and screaming at me. I was just an inferior, unevolved
earthling. I could never be his equal. I knew I didn't belong in his
world. "You know you have to do this!" Hearing those words, it had
become so clear to me. It was my turn and my duty to be the honor able, responsible, unselfish one. I just kept hearing Sonya's hypnotic
voice as it got louder and louder in my head. "Do the right thing
for him!" Her words wouldn't stop shouting. I didn't know if I was
strong enough to let go, but I had to try for his sake and for his
future. This pain and suffering was so much worse than the agony I
had suffered at the hands of the Hellites, and I thought that experience was going to annihilate me. I wished at that moment that they
had killed me. It would have been easier than doing the right thing
and saying good-bye to Andrew. "Make him think it's your idea!"
This was going to suck the life right out of me. I didn't think I could
ever recover from this incredibly devastating despair. I had lost all
my hopes and dreams for the future. I saw them drifting away from
me as Sonya's words stomped around in my head, shoving them out.
"If you love him, you need to let go!" My happiness no longer mattered. I had to be strong. I had to do this.

"It's okay, Andrew," I struggled to get the words out, "I understand. I know you belong with Sonya. I have to let go. You are better off without me. You've always been out of my league. Don't feel
guilty about leaving me. I always knew it was inevitable. I have to
do the right thing for you. I won't stand in your way. I want you to
be happy."

"What are you talking about?" He actually looked puzzled, as if
I was spouting nonsense.

Suddenly, I felt woozy, the room began to rotate, and then
everything went dark.

I must have fainted. I don't know how long I was out. When I
opened my eyes, I was lying on the sofa. He was kneeling over me,
calling my name.