Once upon a time...
Olivia looked at her hands as he drove, her fingers intertwining. It was time, she knew that. The night was quiet, the stars bright. She looked through the window at this world that she had come to know and call home. In the beginning she had hated everything, from the single moon to the shortness of the trees. Now, it was all familiar. The other world was the foreign one. She chewed her lip, wondering whether she would feel relief or panic when she left, when she returned to what she once knew. She looked at his face out of the corner of her eye, trying to capture it. She'd miss him most of all. Her first true friend. How could she say goodbye? How could she explain?
"Jonah," She said quietly, not knowing how to start but knowing that time was short. She could feel the pull. It was slowly getting stronger. She might have weeks left. But no, no she knew that wasn't true. Days at most. It had to be tonight, she had to find a way to tell him.
He glanced at her, something in the sound of her voice was urgent. "Yea, Liv?"
"There's... things that I have to tell you."
He smiled. Sometimes she could be a real idiot. She got like this sometimes, thinking she needed to apologize for something she'd said in a moment of frustration, or something she'd forgotten to do. He'd known her since they were 15. He knew everything about her. There was nothing she could say that he didn't already know. But he'd let her anyway, it made her feel better. "I'm listening."
She took a deep breath, but nothing came out. She frowned in concentration, turning toward him, pulling one knee up onto the bench seat so she could face him. Another breath. Again nothing.
He chuckled, "Well spit it out already. The suspense is killing me."
One more big breath. "My entire life I've kept a secret. From you. From everyone. The only one who knows is Anne and she's gone to great lengths to cover it up. You remember the day that we met?" She didn't wait for him to answer, "It was my fifteenth birthday. I didn't want to talk to you. I didn't want to talk to anyone. Everyone thought it was because I was shy. It wasn't. It was because you all still looked so strange. I was frightened of you. Every time I closed my eyes I wanted to be home, I wanted to see Saturn. Anne thought it would help, if I made friends, if I socialized. It's why she moved, because then no one would question how I just showed up. Haven't you ever wondered why you've never seen any baby pictures, any pictures of me from childhood? Anything before I turned 15? I was always waiting for someone to question it but they never did. She was right. People just make assumptions. We were ready for it, in case anyone asked. We would have said that the pictures were lost in a fire. But they weren't. There wasn't any pictures, Jonah, because until I was 15 I didn't live here. I'm not... I'm not from this planet."
He burst out laughing as genuine concern flooded into relief. "I have no idea what that was but you genuinely had me going. I thought you were going to tell me you were dying or something."
"Not dying, no." She said, and the knot began to grow in the pit of his stomach again. She wasn't laughing. Her face hadn't changed. "But leaving, yes. I'm not sure when. Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. Soon."
His brow furrowed, the knot grew tighter. "What are you talking about? Leaving for where?"
"Home."
"You live five minutes from me!"
"Caton Amoeh." She said, feeling the strangeness of the words after not saying them for seven years. "My home. I'm not from this planet, Jonah, I'm not from Earth." She saw he was about to object again so she talked over him, needing him to listen. "The world I was born into is very different than this one. In my world there are five unique races. Tze'el, Aedofin, Hauke, Barun, Dael. The rough translation is Shadow, Fire, Mind, Sea, and Knowledge. I was born into a world at war. My world has not seen peace in a thousand years. I was born as a treaty. The Tze'el, Shadow, and the Hauke, Mind, signed a truce. The two races would combine, their royalty would intermarry. It was the only way. Saturn and I were born to fulfill the final part of the truce. Each being half Tze'el, half Hauke, we would marry and rule the two kingdoms together. We would bring peace to our people. It was hoped that the Aedofin and the Barun would follow our example, that they would find peace. But not everyone wanted peace. It was dangerous for Saturn and I. We were kept hidden, guarded at all times. But it wasn't enough. They found us. But the Dael had provided us a way out, a last resort. If there was no other choice, we were to enter the portal. But only, ever, as a last resort. What they didn't tell us is where it would take us. I have no idea what happened to Saturn. The next thing I knew I was here, floating in a lake. That's when Anne found me."
He slowed the truck down, pulling over to the side of the gravel road. He turned the ignition key, killing it. Slowly, he turned to her. "This isn't funny anymore."
"I'm not joking, Jonah. I'm not from here. I'm not even human." He put his hand on her forehead, but she took it between her own. "It's not a fever. I'm not sick. I'm not dying. I'm trying to find a way to tell you goodbye. After all you've done for me, I couldn't just disappear."
"We'll get you help for this. Maybe it's a tumor. It's okay, we'll get you help."
She sighed, still holding his hand between her own, "I can prove it."
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