Jelly Cooper: Alien

Life is like a tunnel. Most days, you race through it and strive forward, out into the brilliant sunshine. On other days, the shadows linger, reluctant to let go. Occasionally, the grip of the shadow is too strong and you remain in its clutches, deep in the belly of the beast.

As I walk to meet the others at Gregory Thorn’s house, I feel like I’m entering a new tunnel, full of unknowns, and I don’t know if I’ll make it out the other side.

The Hunter is closing in, I know it, and sooner or later, probably sooner knowing my luck, it’s going to be me and him; one-on-one. In situations like this, it always ends one-on-one.

As I slowly walk through the streets of Seabrook, I remember that mum is at home, waiting for me, and I stop.

I can’t go back. Not now I know what I am and what he is. He’s out there, waiting for me, looking for me, smelling the air for my scent. It’s happening tonight and I have to see it through. Mum will just have to understand. I hope Dad’s home and she’s not alone.

I try to squash the little voice inside my head that whispers that I will never see my family again.

I knock on Thorn’s door, once.

Made it.

Gregory Thorn opens the door and ushers me into the hallway.

“Humphrey and Agatha are upstairs. They got here five minutes ago. So did Rhiannon Miles.” He studies me with concern. “Are you OK?”

I nod, letting my eyes roam over the picture-strewn walls of his home. I don’t recognise any of the faces other than Thorn himself.

“Are they Kavalrion?”

He glances at the mixture of sepia, black and white and colour photographs that line the hallway. He nods, a faraway smile on his lips.

“Which one is Cal Sakiiri?”

Gregory plucks one of the framed pictures from the wall and hands it to me. He points to a white-haired man sat in the centre of a group of merry people. The man stares out of the photograph, his eyes burning with intensity.

“That’s Sakiiri,” says Thorn. “And there’s Maurice, Eustasia and Megan. The others you see around you are members of Kavalrion.” He gestures to the other photographs hanging on the wall.

Gregory Thorn is focused on the pictures, his eyes alive with emotion.

“You, ah, you care a lot for them, don’t you?”

His gaze doesn’t flicker.

“Oh yes. A great deal. I can’t wait to see them again.”

I stand, uncomfortable in the silence. When it stretches with no indication of ending, I clear my throat.

Still no closer to being a group hug girl, then.

“Right,” Thorn takes the photograph from my outstretched hand and hangs it back in its place, his fingers brushing Cal Sakiiri’s face. “Shall we go and join the others?”

“Sure.”

I follow him up the stairs, nervous at the thought of training. That’ll be one giant egg on my face if I fail, but hey, at least I’ll be too dead to feel the shame.

“I think that I know who the Hunter is and I think that he knows it’s me,” I blurt out.

So much for keeping a cool head.

Gregory stops, his foot resting on the step. He turns to me, his face pale.

What is it with the men in my life? Half of them have no confidence in me and the other half want me dead! I see the fear in his eyes. He’s frightened for me. He doesn’t think I’m ready. He doesn’t think I can win.

I can’t tell you how much that takes the wind out of a girl’s sails.

“Who?”

“I think that it’s Luke Jenson. He’s new to the area, and…”

Thorn frowns. “Luke? Luke Jenson? Are you sure?”

Just how is it that the sporty types get away with so much? Honestly, it’s one of the world’s great unexplained mysteries. I open my mouth to protest (and explain), but Thorn turns away before I can answer, muttering to himself.

“I didn’t realise that you knew Luke,” he throws over his shoulder.

“I, um, I don’t. Not really. It’s a hunch, I suppose.”

Now who feels like a prize idiot?

Embarrassed, I dawdle on the stairs, which are also lined with photographs. I study them as I climb. At the end of the landing, Thorn pushes open a heavy wooden door and turns to me.

I have a major case of the butterflies. My feet are planted and I am not moving.

Thorn seems to know me all too well. He comes back and takes my hand.

“Relax, you’ll walk it. No problem. You, me, your friends; we’ll all work together. We can do this.”

I’m surprised at how much I need to hear the words. I squeeze his hand and head for the training room, groaning when I see a skipping rope lying on the dusty floorboards just inside the door.

“Skipping! Oh man! I hate skipping. Can’t we do something else? Anything except skipping. This isn’t Rocky, you know.”

“I know.”

I walk into the room and frown. He could have left some furniture.

“Guys! The floor is minging! Get up.”

Agatha’s eyes bulge. She nods her head at something to the left of my shoulder. Her jaw works frantically against her gag.

This is one freaky way to train. What does he want me to do? Am I supposed to free them? Is this a test?

It could be a test, except that I’m pretty certain that Humphrey and Rhiannon are unconscious.

It’s a test.

It’s a test – that’s it.

It’s a test.

Agatha seems OK. Petrified, but OK.

This isn’t a test.

’No.” The light finally goes on in my very stupid brain. “No.”

Thorn cackles. If I need confirmation that my life is over, then that is it.

“What…what’s going on?”

My mind knows full well what’s going on, but it doesn’t seem to be linked to my mouth anymore and I can’t stop it. I turn to Gregory Thorn. His eyes are laughing at me.

“What’s going on? What’s going on?” He chants gleefully.

He stares at me with what can only be described as hunger and the only thought in my stupid head is: why is Luke Jenson stood behind him?

I close my eyes.

Blood rushes in my ears and I start to tingle from head to foot. Alarmed, I realise that I’m about to faint for the first time in my life.

I open my eyes.

Luke is gone.

Thorn is in the doorway. The landing stretches out behind him; empty. The image distorts before my eyes, twisting out of shape like a Salvador Dali painting.

Frozen, I just can’t get a handle on what’s happening.

Thorn takes one step towards me. His green eyes flash as I step back. It’s instinct that governs the movements of my feet. It’s in no way down to my brain, which has melted.

“Jelly, Jelly, Jelly,” he shakes his head, smiling his manic smile. “You still haven’t put it all together, have you?”

I take another faltering step backwards towards my friends and try to ignore the screaming in my head.

“But you can’t be. You can’t be him.”

Thorn can’t contain his glee. He laughs a wild, high-pitched, cackling laugh. A shiver runs down my spine. The sound is most definitely not human.

“But I am, Kamile. I am him and you’re going to pay dearly for your incredible stupidity.” His gaze travels past me. “But not before I have a little appetizer.”

Oh God, no.

“Good, aren’t I?” He gloats.

He sucker punched me and I didn’t see it coming.

“You see,” he preens, “I’ve been watching you, Jelly Cooper, since the day I arrived in this tawdry little hole. I knew who you were the moment I first laid eyes on you.”

“Then why…”

“Why go to the trouble of befriending you?” Thorn snorts. “That was a mistake. But in the end, it worked in my favour.”

He fidgets, as though the admission of making a bad judgment call causes him pain.

“At first, I was mystified,” he continues. “You weren’t using your power at all. I figured that being the great and powerful Kamile,” he laughs, “you couldn’t risk unleashing yourself here on Earth, so I hung back.” He shrugs. “There seemed little point in venturing into the unknown when I had all the time in the world.”

Thorn falters.

“That was a mistake. I should have taken you before you had the chance to realise what you are. Then you managed to stop me and I’d exposed myself. I had to think fast to get out of that one. In the end, I gave you the rope to hang yourself with and now here we are: one big happy family.”

He spreads his arms out wide, the grin firmly back on his face as he looks at my friends, tied up on the floor.

I’ve got to get them out. Maybe I can levitate them…or teleport…can I even do that?

As usual, I’m overcomplicating things. The answer is simple: if I can’t get them out, get him out.

“Think you know it all, don’t you?” I scream at Thorn. Got to wind him up, get him worked up. At last, something I have a black belt in. “Think you’ve got me in the palm of your hand? You couldn’t be more wrong, you pathetic, two faced –

His eyes flash with anger and I push home the advantage. I’m thinking that rash, hothead maniac alien is probably a lot less lethal than cold, clear-thinking maniac alien. I may be wrong but I’m working with what little I have.

“Guess who’s never going to see Javoria again? Go on, I’ll give you three goes.”

I stand in front of him, my face inches from his. Our eyes lock and I whisper,

“I’m going to kill you. Your race, your pathetic, greedy, murderous race is going to become extinct, one by one. You first.”

Spit gathers in the corners of his mouth and he snorts deep, heavy breaths through flared nostrils.

Here he comes.

I crouch in fight position and do the one human thing I’m seriously accomplished at: I wind him up.

“Oooooooooh, you’re purple face is so scary. Do they teach you that tactic in scare school? Look at me shaking in my boots. My little sister’s scarier than that and she’s six.”

Watching his reaction, I push it that little bit more.

“You are nothing but a failed, insane bashrak. You’re a joke.”

Bingo.

Spit flies from Thorn’s lips as he charges. He leaps for my throat, all of his powers forgotten. I jump out of the way and plant my foot in his back as he careers past. Losing his balance, he tumbles to the floor.

This is it.

My eyes lock with Agatha’s for a fleeting second and she screams at me in her head.

Get out of here!

She’s breaking my heart, but I have to go. I throw myself across the room and down the stairs, slamming the door shut behind me. I reach with my mind and turn the key in the lock, imprisoning my friends with a monster with nothing but black murder in his heart. My eyes stream with tears as I race out of the front door and through the dark streets of Seabrook, leaving them with a real live nightmare.

If I’m wrong…

I force all thoughts of them from my mind and focus on running. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

A horrible scream pierces the night. Neighborhood dogs howl as the shriek goes on and on. The Hunter is coming.

That’s it, Thorn. You come after me. Forget about them and come after me.

I dig deeper and run for my life.