Chapter 36

“Over here!” Keanu waved his hand frantically as he signaled me to follow him up a set of stairs. Leaving the safety of the car, I jogged toward him, glancing around with paranoia.

“Quickly!” He hissed as I reached him. Shielding me and my bloodied face by opening his jacket and pushing me against his chest, he led me up a flight of stairs to a motel room he’d just purchased with cash and a fake ID.

Shoving the keys into the lock, he then led me inside and slammed the door shut. Going straight to the window, he peeked around the gaudy curtains to see if anyone was following us.

“I’m…gonna have a shower, okay?” I hugged myself as I watched him scan every angle of the street.

“Mm mm.” He mumbled leaving me to wonder if he’d actually heard me at all.

Though I felt like rolling my eyes at his suspicions, I knew all too well that I should be just as cautious and concerned with our welfare.

Closing the bathroom door behind me, I cringed at the questionable state of the bathroom. If there was one thing that I’d been pleasantly subjected to while locked up at the facility, it was sterility. I was sure that the cleaning lady who’d cleaned my cell never even left one hair of mine or any speck of dust.

This place, however, didn’t look like it even had a cleaning lady.

Turning and looking at myself in the mirror, I gasped. It was much worse than I thought. No wonder Keanu had insisted we stop so I could get cleaned up.

A two or three inch gash marred the entire left side of my forehead. In a normal situation, I’d have at least ten stitches sewn onto my head by now.

Blood had run down my face from the wound like a river that had burst free from a dam. Clotted blood coated my left eyelid and had meandered all the way down to my collarbone. Chunks of my hair were so matted and colored with my blood that they looked like thick dreadlocks.

If someone had seen me, they’d surely mistake me for the character in the movie ‘Carrie’. I shuddered as I stood before my reflection.

Creepy.

Undressing, I noticed my swollen belly in the mirror. Despite my horrific appearance, I saw the beauty of creation budding right before my eyes. Caressing my baby’s temporary home, I smiled as she wriggled within me.

Turning on the water and stepping into the shower, I let a moan of pleasure escape my lips as the hot water pelted my skin. Raising my face to the showerhead’s rain, I felt the pains of the day wash from my face. Looking down at the drain, the red-tinted waters swirled down into oblivion.

If only my problems could be resolved so easily.

I lingered in the warmth for as long I could but I knew I had to get out soon. We had to get back on the road as soon as possible.

Guilt twisted in my stomach as I again hated the fact that Keanu had to be brought into this nightmare. Sure, he was assigned to me in the beginning, sent to uncover all my secrets and knowledge about my strange background.

Too bad there was nothing to tell. Like I had any idea I was some oddity, a rare anomaly among men.

Examining my hand as the droplets of water trickled over my skin, I wriggled my fingers, watching the tendons and muscles bend and flex with the slightest movement. Turning my hand over, I followed the swirls, patterns and lines etched upon my fingertips and palms.

How was I so different? I had the same skin, the same muscles and bones, how could I have a completely foreign genetic blueprint compared to everyone else?

Assuming I was the only one.

It then dawned on me.

My mother knew!

She’d abandoned me in the cave for a reason and this was it! She knew I was ‘different’ because…she was.

I exhaled as I came to the realization. The anger that I carried for her all these years dissipated and was replaced with a mixture of guilt and relief. Pregnant with me, the situation was likely very similar to what I was experiencing. She was most likely an alien too, or whatever I was, carrying the child of a human.

Alien.

I didn’t even believe in that kind of stuff before all of this. It was Agent Evans who used the word first, leaving me to come to no other conclusion except that I was of some extraterrestrial descent.

Closing my eyes, I tried to imagine what my mother looked like. It was impossible. As much as I would’ve liked to picture her to be a raven-haired beauty with bronzed skin and a graceful body, I could envision nothing more than some weird alien creature, all gangly, scaly and green.

I was sure she was beautiful. How could she attract my father if she were some deformed beast?

My father…a human maybe?

I’d never gave much thought to him. Maybe he was the alien and my mother was the human. My head began to hurt as I contemplated all the ideas. Somehow, though, I knew that my mother was the one. The one like me.

He could’ve been just a guy she met once or maybe they’d been in love. All I knew is that my grandmother never mentioned anyone else but my mother. Grandmother had always been very secretive about finding me in the cave and come to think of it, how did she know it was my mother that left me there? How did she know that my father wasn’t there too?

As the puzzle pieces of my past began to fit together and more pieces came to light, I knew what I had to do.

I need to get to Sedona. I have to talk to grandmother and I have to make her take me to that cave!

The cave. The beginning of my life and the source of all the mysteries in my life.

Why? Why did my mother leave me?

Running my hand over my belly, I knew the answer.

A deep sorrow eclipsed my soul as I realized that my mother was only trying to protect me. It made sense that she would leave me behind; it was the only way to make me anonymous.

Frowning, I contemplated all the scenarios that my mother might have endured. The days leading up to my birth were likely wrought will peril and pain. Now knowing the fierce instinct of protection I had for my own unborn baby, I understood my mother’s decision wholeheartedly.

Warm tears rolled down my face as I faced the truth. I too, was going to have to make a decision. If I gave birth to my baby and kept her, her identity and bloodline would be evident.

How was I going to protect her?

The obvious answer stared me in the face.