May 4th, 2086

 

"Mary, are you okay honey?" Marianna heard her mom's voice bringing her back to consciousness, and opened her eyes a crack. A few moments later, she found herself freaking out, grabbing herself all over to make sure there was nothing there.

 

"I think you missed something." Marianna mumbled, as she fiddled around to find her laptop. As she started it up, she made her best attempt at ignoring people as they tried talking to her. When the computer was finally fully functional, she opened her graphics program, and started creating herself as she felt she looked in her dream, as well as the slimy mass tissue place she had been previously. Ryan sat beside her and watched the entire time as she worked.

 

When she was finished, she turned the laptop for everyone else to see. Rachael turned white, and hinted for Marianna to walk in another room with her. In the meantime, Aiden sat down in a chair, and started asking questions. "I have pictures of some people. You think you can identify them?"

 

Ryan nodded. "It's a possibility."

 

Corey handed the folder over to Aiden, who held up a picture of a man standing in front of a screaming woman with parasitic worms crawling out of her. He was in a circle with other men and women, and the picture was taken from an awkward angle, which showed that it was a phone or a camera that was being hidden while the picture was taken. Ryan's mouth hung agape, as he stared at the picture.

 

"I take it you know him?" Aiden pointed at the man.

 

"Yeah...that's my father."

 

Aiden looked over at Cory, who walked in the room where Rachael was talking to Marianna about her dream. Marianna was holding a glass of water, hands shaking as the dream lingered on her body and made her feel like she still had parasites crawling all through her. Until Rachael forced her to take a sip from her water. Cory helped her up, and walked her back into the room with Ryan and Aiden, where she sat down beside Ryan. After about ten minutes of silence, Rachael walked in with a purple bottle in her hand, and handed it to Marianna, who looked at it, turning her head over at it.

 

"New concoction mom?" She asked, confused.

 

"No," Rachael responded with a sigh. "Just something I've had in case something like this were to happen."

Before Marianna could say anything, there was a knock at the door.

 

"I'll get it,"  Aiden announced, as he hopped down from the chair and went down the stairs to see who had knocked. He looked through the peephole in the door, and saw a young woman who looked around the age of 17. She held a typical welcome to the neighborhood basket in her hands, and he opened the door.

 

"Hi! I'm Kaylee! I figured I'd welcome you to the neighborhood with..." She lifted a small cover and revealed random baked goodies. "Some good food." She smiled.

 

Aiden looked back inside for a moment, and then back at her. "Thanks." He hesitantly took the basket from her, and noticed she was still standing in front of her. "Um...well thanks for the welcome, what's your name again?"

 

"Kaylee."

 

"Alright, well thanks for the welcome, but I have to get back to something."

 

"Oh...okay."

 

"Well have a nice day Kaylee."

 

"You too." She smiled, and he shut the door as nicely as he could. As soon as he turned back towards the stairs, Leah was standing in front of him, just a few feet away. Most of her clothes had tears in them, and she was covered in bruises and cuts. His instinct to want to kick her between the legs was extinguished  by concern, as he ran over to her and tried to get her attention. She wasn't mentally present at the moment, and seemed to be looking through him. He sighed, and looped her arm around his neck so he could try lifting her up, despite the difficulty that came with the fact that she was at least four inches taller than him. He helped her upstairs, where he pushed the already cracked open door open with his foot.

 

"I think we have a problem,"  he announced, as he plopped her down in a chair.

 

Corey looked up, and didn't say anything, but went back to his and Rachael's bedroom, returning with a shirt and pair of pants for Leah. Only when Marianna walked back into the room with her glass of water in hand, did Leah snap out of whatever trans she was in. "Mary, could you come here for a moment please?" She asked, looking up at Marianna, who hesitantly walked over. As soon as she was standing in front of her, Leah lifted her shirt up and placed her hands on her stomach. She pressed her head against her stomach, and waited a moment. "You have one of my babies, lovey."Marianna looked confused, but didn't say anything.

 

Aiden spoke up. "Wait a minute. We got rid of everything. There couldn't possibly be anything left in her body that isn't supposed to be there."

 

Leah looked up, in disbelief. "You really think that, dear?" She stood up, and lifted what was left her her skirt, revealing sloppy stitches on her abdomen, that were clearly infected and still bleeding a little. "They took my babies!" She said histerically. "I refused to tell them where you were, and they took all of my babies!"

Rachael rushed over, helping Leah lay down on the bed. She looked over at Aiden. "Go grab my blue bag, honey."

 

Aiden nodded, and headed down the hall to Rachael's room to grab the bag. Marianna sat next to Leah. "So does that mean..."

 

Leah nodded, looking over at Rachael. "Please don't kill my baby. They forced me to do something to my babies that made them parasitic, but I left one untouched." She placed a hand on Marianna's stomach. "That baby would be the only one that would survive Nemo." She looked over at Rachael, and smiled. "I knew you'd be smart enough to use it."

 

Corey spoke up. "Which all in all means we need to be more careful from now on. Now that Mary has somehow been impregnated?"

 

Leah thought for a moment. "Not necessarily impregnated. Well, sort of. The difference, is my baby is creating a womb around herself. Marianna will need to eat for two, and give birth as a typical pregnancy, however this child will be making sure she is safe, by all means. Instead of having morning sickness, she'll be putting you through tests in your dreams to make sure she can trust you, that you won't hurt her when she comes out."

Marianna nodded, and Ryan walked over to sit next to her, eventually speaking up. "If Marianna has a baby growing inside of her, what does that mean for me?"

 

Corey and Rachael exchanged looks for a moment. "That means you stick around until we figure out what we're doing."As soon as Aiden walked in, he walked over and handed Rachael a few things she needed; bandages, a small tub of goop, and a bottle of water. Rachael opened the bottle of water, and poured some on a cloth bandage, dabbing the stitches to make sure it wasn't bothering Leah too much. She looked over at Corey. "Honey, we're going to need to take these stitches out. They're doing more harm than good."

Corey nodded, and Marianna and Ryan moved so he could sit next to Leah. Aiden tossed a  small pair of scissors to Corey, and he started to ease the stitches away with small snips. He knew if he put the numbing goop over them, that her body would figure out what was going on, and try to heal over the stitches. Her body being in shock was, as bad as it was for Leah at the moment, his best bet for ensuring nothing went south while they took care of her. When Marianna and Ryan were in the kitchen downstairs, Aiden stayed in the room with Leah, Corey, and Rachael, keeping an eye on everything, but also keeping somewhat of a distance from them.

 

Almost an hour later, when they were finished, Rachael left the room for a minute to grab Leah some clothes to wear, that she hoped would fit, in case the other clothes didn't. Leah managed to stay asleep the entire time they were fixing her, and woke up as soon as Aiden decided to leave the room to let her change. Her sitting up in bed made him stop dead in his tracks.

 

"You okay Leah?" He asked, surprised that he didn't use one of his usual nicknames for her.

 

Leah looked up, blanket pulled up. "I should be fine." She attempted at turning over and getting up from the bed, only felt like there was a huge weight on her abdomen. "You wouldn't mind helping me up, would you? You have every reason to hate my guts, but you didn't need to put a 50 pound weight in my abdomen." She pushed hair out of her face, and looked over at Aiden, who eyed her for a moment, but then walked over to the bed.

 

"You have clothes that aren't totally ruined at the edge of the bed," He explained, as he helped her into a standing position.

 

Leah smiled, and grabbed a shirt, which she replaced her torn one with. As she replaced her torn skirt, she asked, "How is Marianna doing?"

 

"She's doing fine. Last I checked she went downstairs to get something to eat. I can help you down there if you want."

 

Leah smiled. "Thank you Aiden." She thought for a moment. "Why are you being so nice to me, though? I thought you hated me after me and your sister had our little moment."

 

Aiden froze for a moment. "The only thing stopping me from dropping you on your ass right now, is the fact that I feel like being nice."

 

Leah nodded. "Right." She started walking past him towards the door. "Clearly I don't need your help walking."

 

Aiden rushed over. "I'll still walk with you to make sure."

 

Leah rolled her eyes, but smiled at his sincerity. When she finally got downstairs, Marianna was making waffles and heating up sausage patties. They both looked up as soon as Leah stood foot in the kitchen. "Something smells really good. What're you cooking, lovey?" She asked Marianna with a smile.

 

Marianna smiled. "Waffles and sausage patties. And yes, Leah, you can have some."

 

Leah smiled, as she walked over and sat down at the table across from Ryan. He seemed nervous. Leah looked over at Marianna. "I'm sorry about what happened at the hotel. I wasn't all there. I can't remember half of what happened." She turned back to Ryan. "And I'm sorry about your mum." The remainder of the time before Marianna came over with a full plate of waffles and a full plate of sausage. She walked back over to the cupboards and returned with six smaller plates. By the time she had the necessities out for breakfast, Rachael and Corey were also downstairs. There was two pitchers with juice and water already on the table from when Marianna had decided to have both out.

 

Corey grabbed a glas out of the cupboard, and sat down to pour himself some water. He looked over at Leah. "So, what exactly did they do to you?"

 

Leah shrugged. "I can't honestly remember."

 

"Can you tell us what you do remember then?"

 

"Absolutely." She thought for a moment. "I was walking away from the hotel, and ran into the three or four huge burly men, who insisted on dragging me into their van. I thought it was a prank at first, but then..." She cringed. "They pulled out a box with their...toys. I'm assuming it was protocol questioning because you can't be too careful, but when they saw the books, they started asking questions. And when I wouldn't give them any answers, they  shoved your pictures in my face, and asked where you were headed. Which of course I'd never tell them." She paused. "All I can remember from there, is them tying me up, and a scalpel, and a searing pain...then I briefly saw Aiden, then I woke up in one of your beds. Which by the way, which one of you put a weight in my body?"

 

Corey glanced at Rachael, who shrugged. "Sorry honey. I know how stubborn you are, so I  used something that made it seem like there was a weight there, so you would take some time to rest-"

 

Aiden interrupted, "And so we knew for a fact you wouldn't go anywhere. But clearly that didn't work out so well."

 

"Well Rachael, I'm a lot stronger than you give me credit for," Leah protested.

 

Aiden quirked an eyebrow at her. "Riiight, which is why I had to help you out of bed."

 

Leah looked over at Aiden. "Well I made it downstairs just fine, didn't I?"

 

"Yeah, well you could've fallen down the stairs."

 

"Aiden, dear, I've had worse than this happen and have been fine."

 

A few moments later, there was a knock at the door. This time Rachael answered, and there was a professional looking woman in the doorway. She had a huge grin on her face, as she introduced herself.

 

"Welcome to the neighborhood, I'm Andrea Raymond, and this," She turned to the same young woman who Aiden had briefly spoken to earlier. "Is my daughter, Kaylee."

 

Aiden looked up from the table when he heard the name. "That's the one who was here earlier."

 

Rachael smiled. "You can come in if you'd like. In fact, we're still making breakfast."

 

Andrea shook her head, but kept a smile. "That's alright. We were just stopping by to welcome you to the neighborhood, and," She reached into her pocket, and pulled a business card out. "If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to give me a call. I'm the town psychiatrist, along with my apprentice here."

 

"Oh, thank you," Rachael hesitantly accepted the card, and looked over at Kaylee. "And thank you for the lovely basket you brought over earlier."

 

Kaylee blushed a little. "You're very welcome."

 

A moment later, Andrea's phone started going off. "Oh, well we'd better get going. I think that's our client."

 

She turned back to Rachael. "Well it was very nice to meet you." As she was turning to walk down the steps, she said, "Again, if you ever need anything, feel free to call."

 

"Alright, thanks." Feeling somewhat confused, she walked back into the kitchen, and looked over the business card, until Aiden spoke up.

 

"What's it say?"

 

Corey walked over to Rachael, and read the card over her shoulder, while wrapping both arms around her. "It says Andrea Raymond, Psychiatric Care."

 

"Greeat, we're under a shrink's microscope now," Aiden mumbled.

 

Marianna rolled her eyes. "Don't you think maybe she was just being friendly?"

 

Leah spoke up. "Well, regardless, we shoud keep a close eye on her in case she is working for our hulk-a-mania creeps."

 

Corey nodded in agreement. "We should start getting everything unpacked so we don't draw any unnecessary attention to ourselves."

 

Everyone nodded and made mumbles of agreement, and Marianna got up to head up the stairs to grab her laptop. When she was on the second step up the stairs, there was another knock on the door. Marianna very cautiously walked over to the door, and peered past the blinds, where she saw Kaylee. The peppy young woman waved, and Marianna opened the door.

 

"Oh hi. Can I help you?" She asked with a smile.

 

"No, I just forgot something." She pulled a small envelope out of her bag, and both Ryan and Aiden instinctively got up and walked over to see what it was. Only seeing the two men beside Marianna made Kaylee's smile grow even bigger. "My mom wanted me to give this to you. It has discounts on a few of our therapy sessions. We're pretty well known in this town for easing even a telemarketer's stress away. Not that I'm saying-" Kaylee was interrupted by Marianna's stomach grumbling.

 

Aiden laughed. "Jeeze, didn't you have like two plates full of food maybe a half hour ago?"

 

Marianna nodded. "Not according to my stomach, I didn't." She smiled at Kaylee. "Well thanks for the coupons and such." A moment later, she returned to the kitchen, where she put more food on her plate. Leah and Rachael exchanged looks, with a sort of unspoken agreement to keep an eye on Marianna. Throughout the next few hours, Marianna's stomach would growl if she didn't eat something every ten minutes or so, and whenever she tried to ignore it, it felt like her insides were being consumed by her stomach. Eventually, she went through the entire box of waffle mix and the full dozen eggs, and decided to grab a nalgene bottle of water and go back to her room. At that point, Leah followed, and knocked on the door.

 

"Are you alright, Mary?" She asked with a hint of concern.

 

Marianna nodded. "Yeah, I feel like my stomach is imploding in on itself, though."

 

Leah thought for a minute. "Let me try something."

 

Marianna waved across an empty spot on the bed. "Go for it."

 

Leah walked over, sat down beside Marianna, and placed her head on her stomach. She waited for a moment, and then placed her hand on her stomach. "I'll be right back, lovey." Before Marianna could say anything, Leah was already heading down the stairs. Ryan walked in, and sat on the bed beside her. Marianna instinctively moved over to him, and laid her head on his lap, looking up at him, and he automatically started stroking her hair back. About ten minutes went by, and her stomach grumbled. She went to get up, but he stopped her halfway.

 

"Your mum is getting something for you."

 

Marianna puffed her cheeks out, and plopped back down, letting out a loud sigh, until she felt something start to move in her stomach. At first, it was barely anything, but then it felt like she had barbs running all through her stomach, causing her to squirm and fall off the bed. While grabbing at her stomach, she reached with the other hand and grabbed the nalgene bottle, and started chugging it. Only the sensation of barbs got worse, causing her to drop the bottle, and drop the rest of the way to the floor. When Leah heard this, she ran up the stairs with a small blue bottle in hand. She knelt down by Marianna at the same time as Ryan was trying to help her up, and helped her sit up.

 

"You need to take this, lovey. I think my baby is trying to get out." She handed Marianna the bottle, which she took immediately. As soon as it was in her body, the feeling of barbs died down, and her stomach grumbled again. Leah lifted Marianna's shirt up, and pressed her ear and hands against her stomach, and started humming. After a few minutes, the grumbling eased down, and Marianna pushed Leah away so she could throw up. After getting a lung-full of air, she shakily stood up, made her way to a small trash can, and threw up some more.

 

Ryan immediately ran over and pulled her hair back for her, and stayed next to her until she was done, even when she started swatting at him. Though when her puke started becoming streaked with blood, Rachael stepped in. "Alright that's enough, hon. You need to get something in your system." She looked over at Ryan, her eyes hinting him to go grab her something to eat and more water, which he ran off to do. While Rachael rubbed Marianna's back to try calming her, Ryan filled her bottle, grabbed a small plate with a couple waffles and sausage links, and ran back up the stairs. By the time he got back to them, Marianna was on the floor, curled up. Ryan handed the bottle of water to Rachael, who opened it and handed it to Marianna.

"Thanks  mom," Marianna muttered, taking a few small sips from the bottle, and pushing away small plate of food Rachael tried handing to her.

 

"You need to get something in your system, hon. I need you to eat at least one of these waffles-"

Marianna, knowing she wasn't going to win an argument with Rachael, grabbed a waffle, rolled it up, and stuffed it into her mouth before she could finish her sentence. With a mouthful of food, she mumbled, "There. Anything else and it'll end up on the floor."

 

Rachael nodded. "Okay honey. Let's get you cleaned up."

 

Leah walked over and went on the other side of Marianna as Rachael was helping her to her feet. "There ya go, deary. You just need a nice hot shower and you'll be all set." She looked over at Rachael. "You can go ahead and see what Aiden and Corey are doing-" Interrupted by Aiden walking into the room, she stood quiet for a moment. "Good timing, boys. Rachael is going to need you to clean up," She looked on the floor. "well..you have eyes so you can see the mess. I'm however, going to escort Marianna over to the bathroom to get her cleaned up."

 

Everyone but Aiden nodded, and left the room to grab cleaning supplies. When Leah went to walk out of the room with Marianna, he stopped her in the doorway. Before she could say anything, he moved close enough to her where only she could hear him. He lowered his voice, and said, "I'm keeping an eye on you. If you try anything with my sister, I won't think twice about sending you away again."

 

"Aw, you're just as cute as I remember you. Now, rather than blabbing on, do you mind helping me with your sister?"

 

Aiden eyed her for a moment, but without answering her, went off ahead of them to the bathroom, where he started running a bath for her. As soon as Leah walked into the bathroom with Marianna, she shooed him out so she could sit her down on the toilet seat and step out herself. As soon as she shut the door behind her, she noticed Aiden was sitting on the floor next to the door. Leah rolled her eyes, and walked over to sit next to him.

 

"So...are you ever going to talk to me about what happened?"

 

Aiden made a little shrug. "Maybe. Are you gonna stop lying to everyone?"

 

Leah went to speak, but instead thought for a moment. "I'm not lying, deary. I'm just not telling anyone. And you've been very cooperative with not blabbing on me, but I don't think they could handle it. Especially Mary. They're on their toes as is, I'd rather they never have to know."

 

Aiden turned his attention to her for a moment, but then stared back at the wall. "You almost got Marianna killed, I really hope you didn't forget that."

 

Leah sighed. "Of course I didn't forget that, but that was years ago, lovey. I don't know what much else I can do about it."

 

A few silent minutes went by, as they just sat in their thoughts. Until Rachael walked up the stairs and spotted them. A smile came across her face, but she was clearly suspicious.

 

"Hm...I don't think I've seen you in one room without some sort hate vibes coming from one end or other in a while. Should I be worried?" She joked.

 

Leah shook her head. "Not at all, Rachael. I was actually just making my way out-"

 

"It's too late to head out now. You may as well stay for a while," Cory's voice was heard from the end of the hall. Rachael looked over with a smile, and nodded.

 

"He's right, hon. There's a bedroom right next to the bathroom you can stay in. I think it'd be best you stay with us a while until we know you're not going to be followed by anyone."

 

Cory nodded, and Ryan walked up from behind him. Cory looked down at Aiden. "Marianna should be okay to handle herself now." He glanced over at Ryan. "You should go in and at least let her know she has a towel to use now.”

 

Ryan nodded. “Of course.” He knocked on the bathroom door.

 

Marianna was standing in front of the mirror, staring at a reflection of her the embryo was showing her-it was revealing what she would look like later on. Large, round, and incandescent glow from the inside. When Ryan knocked on the door, the image faded, and she immediately went to grab for a towel that wasn’t there.

“Gimme a sec!”

 

Ryan smirked. “I have a towel for you-” Before he could finish his sentence, the door opened, and he was yanked in. Being in shock, he didn’t even notice when she grabbed the towel and wrapped herself up in it until she was standing before him, clothes in hand. “What time is it?”

 

He thought for a minute. “It’s gotta be nearing 11. Your dad said you should probably get some sleep. And he said to give you this,” he reached into his pocket, and found a small 2 oz yellow bottle. “if you don’t think you’re going to be able to sleep.”

 

Marianna nodded, recgonizing the bottle. “Oh I love that stuff. I used to have to take that every night when I was younger.”

 

Ryan handed the bottle to her, and she drank it all in one sip.

 

“It’s supposed to relax your entire body and make it easier to go into a meditative state so you can sleep.”

“And I’m assuming it works?”

 

Marianna was smiling. “Yep. And I should probably be making my way to a bed in the next 5 minutes, or I’ll start sleep-walking.” She laughed, and opened the bathroom door to head back to her room. Rachael, Aiden, and Cory all went over and gave her hugs for the night, and before Ryan could say anything to them, he was being lead into the bedroom by a sleepy, naked, woman with clothes in her other hand. As soon as they were in the bedroom, he shut the door behind them, and heard the towel drop to the floor, followed by a dresser drawer opening and her grabbing clothes from it. She put on a pair of boy shorts, and a black, loose-fit t-shirt with an orange cat on it. She walked over to the bed, and after pulling the blankets back, plopped down.

Ryan followed cue, stripped down to his boxers and put on pajama bottoms, before climbing into bed next to her. When he wrapped an arm around her, he immediately felt something different. Almost an inviting feeling. He knew there was something inside her, but he wasn’t entirely sure as to what they were do with regards to it. He didn’t know whether or not he was supposed to approach her as a pregnant woman, or simply a vessel this life form was growing in. All he knew, was it wasn’t causing her any pain when he touched her stomach, and that was all that mattered to him at the moment.

 

To make sure nothing happened, he stayed awake for a little while, and waited until she was completely asleep to close his eyes and relax. After a few hours, he woke to Marianna squirming and whimpering in her sleep, to the point where he could tell creature living in her body was giving her a hard time. Before he could say or do anything, Leah was in the room, shutting the door quietly behind her, and walking over. She sat in the bed beside Marianna, pressed her hands and head to her stomach, and started humming the same tune she had before. Eventually, Marianna’s squirming and whimpering ended, and she relaxed back into bed.

 

In a near whisper, Leah explained, “If this happens again tonight, let me know, and I’ll be glad to help.”

 

Ryan nodded. “Thank you.”

 

“Well of course, I’ll do anything to make sure Marianna is alright.” She paused. “Well you had best be getting back to sleep, but I’ll check in in the morning if nothing else comes up.”

 

Ryan nodded, and Leah left the room, again, quietly shutting the door behind her.​