Anneza stretched out in her bedroom, trying to figure out what would be a comfortable position in which to sleep. It was strange that her body as a whole could be unaffected by gravity, but she could feel its pull on her, and it made things a bit weird.
She settled into a suitable pose and sighed, a bit relieved. It had felt good to write her thoughts down; something about having her own words in a language she could read reassured her that she hadn't gone mad, that she wasn't stupid. All her faculties seemed to be working; it was just that the specific language she needed was gone.
Still...that was a very significant problem, one that wasn't just going to go away all by itself. Maybe she felt like this world wasn't truly hers anymore, but it was still the one she was stuck with for the moment - she didn't even know if there were any other habitable planets out there, or if she was capable of travel over those kinds of distances by herself...
No, she still had to face life on Earth and interaction with the people here, and she wasn't going to get very far with that if she couldn't talk to them. And unless she ever encountered another person like her, that meant she was going to have to re-learn their language.
She thought back to the sign-language flash cards she'd been given; luckily, they hadn't been part of her bonfire. She didn't want to be stuck working with them - as if she didn't feel childish enough trying to communicate via gestures and facial expressions! But they did have one key advantage: they were accompanied by little cartoony illustrations, which she still understood.
Well, mostly understood. Some of them were kind of ambiguous, clearly meant to complement the text rather than replace it - but still, it was the only real foothold she had right now. And maybe if she could get a handle on the signs, she could get an interpreter to teach her the words they corresponded to?
She knew it probably wasn't going to be easy, but...having reached and passed the point of giving up already, Anneza found that she no longer wanted to give up. She'd give it a try, at least...but tomorrow. She laid her head on her arms and went to sleep, hearing the pounding rain outside, memories of the solar system's music drifting through her mind.
Mrs. Maple frowned. "Where's your mother, girls?"
Sally looked at Alex, who toed the floor nervously. "She, uh...she didn't want to come..."
The rabbit-woman sighed. "That was why I asked you to make sure to bring her...I do need to talk with her..."
Sally didn't quite follow but Alex nodded; she knew what this was about. "Um...I'm sorry," she said. "I-"
Mrs. Maple held up her hand. "It's all right," she said. "I'm sure it's not as easy as all that. I'll give her a call - you two can help yourselves to whatever you like."
Alex smiled in spite of herself; Mrs. Maple had always seemed like a nice person, but she'd never really seen that much of her before. Now, though...she was happy to be here; it was so quiet and peaceful...
Susan was standing on the other end of the hall from her husband, staring and trying to sort out her feelings enough to form them into coherent sentences. "Andy, please..." she said. "This...it's not you! How can you say these things about your own son?"
He scowled. "I told you already, that thing is not-" He stopped as the phone rang, looking at his wife. Susan made to grab the handset from the base on her end of the hall, but he thrust a pointer finger in her direction. "Don't answer that!" he shouted. "We're still talking!"
She looked back and forth, first at him, then at the handset, trying to decide what to do, wishing she had the willpower to commit to one or the other. If only he hadn't started...if only this wasn't happening...what had happened to him? How could he speak so callously about their children?
The memory of the things he'd said about Alex came back to her, and she took a deep breath and grabbed the phone. "Hello?" she said. "Oh, hello, Maple - oh, well, I'm just...yes, I know, but...please, you don't...I...all right..."
She hung up the phone and turned to face her husband. His expression mingled betrayal, indignance, and disgust. "Where are you going?" he asked. "You can't leave me!"
She looked him in the eye, tears streaming down her face. "I-i'm not leaving you, Andy," she said. "I'm j-just going over to the neighbors' for a b-b-bit." She went to the top of the staircase and was about to head downstairs, but paused.
"Andy," she said, "if you...if you really feel that way about our children...it feels like you're the one who's leaving us." She turned and walked down to the entryway. Her husband heard the front door open and shut, and he was alone.
Adora looked around the graveyard. It was dark and a bit overgrown, but...not really sinister. Even with the wind whipping up like it was going to rain soon, it felt more just wild than horrifying. She thought of the sort of horror-movie associations that went with graveyards...and then she thought of the sort of horror-movie associations that went with devils.
She laughed to herself, but...it still confused her, a little bit. She was... (she smiled slyly) naughty, to be certain, but she didn't feel evil...so why was she this? Not that she was uncomfortable with it - in fact, it suited her just fine - but what was the logic there? Or was there any?
She looked across the graveyard - there was an old church to which it was attached, but the lights were off - and it didn't look like anyone had been taking care of it in a while - not since the sun changed, probably. She wondered, if she entered a church, would she burst into flames or something?
Eh...that was not a hypothesis she was eager to test, and anyway, the church obviously wasn't housing anybody she could ask for directions. Might as well just move on. Though...on an unrelated note, now that she thought of it, she wasn't in school anymore, and so the dress code didn't apply...and she still felt like she wasn't meant to be covered...
Moments later, she was naked again. Hey, it wasn't that big a deal, was it? It was hardly a change, anyway - she had been wearing the minimum allowable, and now she was wearing the absolute minimum, free and natural again. Now to get back h-
Adora did a double-take; she'd thought for a minute that she saw an older man on the border of the graveyard, where it met the woods, but there were only trees. Looking a little closer, she saw that one of the trees had patterns in its bark that resembled a face...? How weird.
She went up close...yes, it was an ordinary tree, but the bark patterns were uncannily suggestive of a face...she began to wonder if it really was just a tree, and whether she should leave...
