The Everborn - Nicholas Grabowsky [154]
Melony exerted a response with muttered success. “Y...you.. .y...you...you...And...d...drew....”
“Deep breath, poor Melony. Come on....” He relinquished his hold on the bag of treats and went forward, one small black boot meeting the doorway to gain entrance, one hand reaching for the front door’s outside knob. His human/alien expression was a display of concern; it would've been far easier to have remained shrouded in the mask for Mel’s sake, but this approach would certainly promise the risk of Melony yanking it off boldly herself like Christine to a hideous Erik in Phantom of the Opera and Andrew didn’t want that. He’d argued the point with Bari shortly before.
“Andrew, s..stay back....” Melony uttered in weakened breaths, backing away yet allowing him in.
“I’m so sorry, Mel. Its better it be this way, I mean, the timing and all. How else can I get around this way, out in the open, looking the way I do, except on Halloween? Besides, it’s become imperative I see you. Your life is in great danger. You must leave this place immediately and only Bari and I can help you.”
Surrendering to Andrew’s intrusion, Mel felt herself aware that the further she was drawn into his words alone, the further her feelings slipped from atop that mountain of alarm built by the unavoidable sight of him.
The front door closed after them, and the porch light died just in time to discourage the noisy sidewalk shuffle of another half dozen or so oddities demanding something out of Melony tonight.
***
Andrew Erlandson felt a common bond with Melony as he faced her for the first time since Bari and Ralston Cooper both had taken part in completely eradicating his chances of developing a relationship with a decent woman.
He somehow knew of his unlikely chances all along, with any decent woman, the same way he knew ultimately that Bari was in control of his destiny moreso than he. Even still, there was a master plan in the works, as if the book had already been written....
The common bond he felt was by no means related to his current deteriorating condition, nor was it the increasingly accumulated insight to the overall situation. It took little effort on Bari to impart to Andrew who he truly was; all his life, any given insight had been up to Bari herself. Not this time. Since his regression into his new life had begun, it was all starting to come back to him on its own.
It wasn’t anything obvious, this common bond. At least not to Melony, Andrew was certain. But as he moved into the living room and depressed the TV cable box’s power button, the room fell silent and they faced each other alone. The silence spoke well on its own. This experience was frightening and awkward to the two of them equally, for opposing reasons, and for mutual reasons it equally damaged their realities.
Andrew made his way to the sofa and stood upon it, so as to inspect his image in the wall mirror-art. He scratched his head, withdrew from between his fingers strands of loosened hair which he habitually discarded into a pants pocket beneath his costume. “We haven’t much time, Mel. The forces responsible for the deaths of many including your husband’s are on the prowl as we speak, searching to destroy us both in order to destroy so much more.”
“My husband’s dead?” Melony was strangled by anguish.
“And I will be, too,” Andrew responded, “and many will die after me, I assure you, if we don’t move together to defeat this thing....”
“What thing?”
“We haven’t time now. I must get you out of here. You know enough. Simon BoLeve...you know of him...surely you noticed him at The Crow Job when you sought