My knock echoed in the quiet hallway, though I was surprised I could hear it over my heart pounding in my ears. The last time I had been here, I’d had a vision that led me to find the data port, and we’d thought Dray had murdered Cylania the alien psychic.
The door popped ajar; the soft click made me jump.
Slowly, I pushed it open and stepped inside. Huh. The place was empty, just like last time. Jack had told me when he’d visited Cylania more recently that the flat had been fully furnished. My trainers squeaked on the polished hardwood floor as I ventured farther inside. “Hello?”
The light by the window shimmered. I blinked as a tunnel appeared before my eyes and a figure stepped out into the lounge.
I pressed my lips together in a conscious effort to not let my jaw hit the floor. Jack had warned me Cylania was a more ‘traditional’ alien than those I was used to. Amongst my nerves, I forgot he told me she had blue skin.
“Lost One.” Her voice was silky and melodic.
“I usually go by Eliza,” I said in a weak attempt to break the simmering tension that had filled the room like smoke. Her expression didn’t change. She stared at me with unblinking, lizard-like yellow eyes.
“You are the last person I expected to turn up here.”
“Aren’t you psychic? I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be rude,” I said quickly.
Cylania glided towards me, and I stiffened as she ran a long sky-blue fingernail along my cheek and under my chin.
“You are a long way from home, Eliza Anderson.”
“Outside of rush hour, it’s really not that bad…” I trailed off as she leaned in closer. I held my breath as she… sniffed me? I cleared my throat. “Sorry to arrive unannounced like this. I’m hoping you can help me.”
“Help you?” She frowned a little, as if no one had ever made such a request from her before.
“Help me understand what’s happening. I’m suddenly at uni, my mum’s alive, still married to my dad.”
“Eliza, you don’t need me to tell you. You know what happened.”
“But I… I don’t understand…” A cold, sickly feeling crept through me right down to the tips of my toes.
Cylania gave me a look that reminded me of my old English teacher, Mr. Denton. “You do. You already know the answer.”
“When I… died or whatever, it was what happened to me. The voices told me I was being rewarded. And now Earth is how it was before the Greys. Except my mum and dad are these freakishly perfect parents, but I have Mum and Tasha back… so I figured it was my perfect life.”
Cylania only nodded.
“If that’s true, then where’s Jack? If this were my perfect life, then he would be here, and so would Daisy.”
“Time doesn’t work like that, Eliza. If the fabric of time has been folded, the outcome places lives accordingly. There is no picking and choosing which parts go where.”
“Folded the fabric of time,” I repeated. “Is that what’s happened?”
“It appears so, doesn’t it?”
“What about Jack? Where is he?” Please don’t say Australia. Although I suppose that would be better than Aether. At least Australia was on the same planet.
“Your journey is set. As is his.”
“What does that mean? Do you know where he is or not?”
“Everything has been set. The ripples felt far and wide.” Her eyes clouded over with a pale-grey mist. It didn’t seem like she was even talking to me anymore.
“You know and you won’t tell me, or you don’t?” When Jack had said Elapientes were frustrating, clearly he’d played it down.
Cylania looked at me with a distant expression.
“What about Daisy?”
“There is no Daisy here.”
I stared at her with narrow eyes. She was holding things back on purpose, I could tell. I just didn’t know why. She was like a puzzle; you had to ask the right question to get anywhere. I sighed. I never had enough patience to be any good at those games.
I tried again using the name Thesulia Prime for Daisy. “Nyori. What about Nyori? Where is she?”
When Cylania’s lips curled upward, my spirits soared, pleased I had passed her test.
“Nyori is safe.”
My shoulders sagged. That was something at least.
“Here, you are of no use to her.”
Ouch.
“Can I see her?”
“You are not here for that.”
“Why am I here?”
“To be happy. Not many people get a second chance, Eliza.”
Is that what this was? A second chance? Did we all have a second chance to live our lives in peace? As much as the idea appealed to me, it still didn’t feel right.
“What about Jack?” I asked.
Cylania looked down with a shake of her head. “Your paths are no longer entwined.”
Her words cut me like a knife. No longer entwined?
“No more alien danger means we’re not together?”
“Your connection to life outside of the human race has been severed.”
“That’s it? I’ve been dismissed.”
“Isn’t that what you wanted? To be a normal girl?”
I swallowed. “Well… when I said that, I didn’t mean no aliens at all. Conscientia was a heavy burden. I had bounty hunters after me. I was putting everyone I cared about in danger.”
Cylania smiled. “There is more to you than meets the eye, Eliza Anderson.”
“What do you mean?” This conversation made my head hurt. Cylania’s every sentence felt loaded with hidden meaning.
“The ways of the universe are complex and yet easily manipulated.”
The light by the window began to shimmer again. The tunnel reappeared, and Cylania turned to leave.
“Wait, can I ask you one more question?” Cylania stopped. She tilted her head and nodded. “Did I do the right thing? Was jumping into the portal on Bayronite the right move?”
“Do you regret it?”
“No. If it was a choice between all of us dying or just me, then it was the right choice.” It had to be.
“Then it was the right choice.”
* * *
I drove back to Riverdell on autopilot.
So that was it. I was meant to be happy. With no aliens. Cylania had raised a good point, though. How many times had I wished for this? Not this exactly, but to be normal. And Tasha, my mum… they were alive, and the way my dad had acted at lunch, the proud look on his face when he smiled at me—it was like he had come back from the dead too. Again.
A life without aliens. I squeezed the steering wheel. The thought made my stomach churn. I felt as if I’d made a wish to a genie without being specific enough.
When I arrived back at our room, Roxy was out. Grateful I didn’t have to paste on a happy face, I dumped my bag on my desk and slumped onto my bed.
Daisy was one thing. I missed her like crazy, but as painful as it was, I could learn to accept not seeing her, knowing she was somewhere out there safe and protected. But Jack? How could I be happy without him?
Curled up beneath the covers, I let the tears flow.