Nightly Creatures (part 10)

Not a good sign to be discovered by Team V, I thought in the restroom. I wash my hands, thinking about this obstacle. If the team arrived at my house, what do I do? Will they know that I was the marked one?

While they took showers in the lake, their bodies were attracted to salts and chemicals. They lived longer than the average humans and nightly creatures. They were here to wipe all nightly creatures so they lived forever on earth, I preassumed.

I bit my lower lip. I would have to distract the scent and sounds. Plus, I must talk to Bryan about this situation. Will the siblings listen to me before morning? We do not have time before the team moved forward.

After drying my hands, I drank an energy drink. I looked at the wooden panel sitting on the window in the dining room. Hooker put his head on my shoulder and whispered, “Buttercup, what are you thinking?”

Must I let him know about my plan for the night? Can he speak through my mind? I shrugged.

Cobalt’s hand was on the table, slammed it hard. “Too quiet, just talk to anyone.”

I began to say, “You can stay here with Hooker. I had duties to care for in another town, which needed my help. They were in trouble.”

Cobalt’s eyes were on me. “Trouble? I can help.”

“Nightly creatures, stay here and stay put,” I demanded. I removed the wooden boards from the door and came out clean. I closed the door behind me. I cannot wait till morning. “Let’s move on,” I said to myself.

Hooker and Cobalt looked confused. Cobalt asked, “Is she like that all the time?”

“No,” Hooker answered. “She still has a duty as the marked one.”

“No wonder you were after so many women in your lifetime. I, on the other hand, worked for someone. I used to work with. I want to return there, but my scents say, ‘I cannot be in the daylight anymore. Just pure darkness or without the light.’”

“Let’s party?” Hooker suggested.

“Proteins?”

While they looked for food in the kitchen, I was going to Safe Haven. I stopped before the entrance; I felt the footsteps with salty flavor around the siblings’ house. I walked carefully. I noticed the nest of birds and a mother bird. They were dead a couple of hours ago. I gasped and smelled the air. I gagged and lifted my shirt to my nose to cover the smell. “Toxic gas lingered in the air,” I said sadly. “Bleh, women!”

I stopped by the window. The curtains moved instantly. It was Brittney looking at me. She said, “Hi!”

I waved. I mouthed, “May I come in?”

She opened the door for me. The door had a hole. She explained, “The ladies are weird.”

I found Bryan on the floor, crouching. His claws were visible. I pushed Brittney to reach him and said, “Bryan?”

He looked at me and said, “We met the aliens from another planet.”

“They are Team V!” I corrected him. “We should make a decoy in the house.”

“With what?” He was confused.

“Put expired food outside and salt in every room,” I said breathlessly.

“You know I hate salty foods,” Bryan said.

I went to grab the expired foods to throw around the house. Brittney said, “We should buy or steal salt from another house.”

Brittney left the house for a box of salt. She found the house empty without people. She carried the necessary item and put the salt in the house. Every room has a lot of salt. She did not like the smell. “Bleh!”

Bryan was in the yard smelling corpses and found the birds dead. “They killed them with their gun. Uh!” he said under his breath. “I do not want to see them again.”

After the mess, Brittney and I were in the yard with smiles. “Thank you, Brittney,” I said.

“So we lost the house,” Britney said. “So, where do we live in?”

Bryan approached us with his nose red with allergy. Brittney tore her shirt, so he breathed into the cloth. He said, “The smell is too strong. I do not like salty foods.”

I observed the first rays of the sun in the dark sky. I told them to follow me to my house. They followed me without objection. I was behind looking for traces of Team V. They were chilling in the lake. I wanted them to die.

I ran after the siblings to my house. They were waiting for me. I allowed them to enter first. I was the last to close the door and bolted the gap. I turned around to see the mess in the dining room. I sighed deeply. Brittney helped me clean the walls with wet towels. I broomed the floor to pick up the bones and spoons. I mopped the floor with soap and water.

Bryan went to the restroom to wash his hands and face. He thought there was an orange strand of hair in the sink. He said, “Get away from me!” It was only a plastic string that one of the nightly creatures left behind while I was gone. It would be Cobalt.

I went into the restroom to take the orange string from the sink. I put it in the trash bin. Bryan looked at me with seriousness. “I thought it was Vermillion’s hair.”

“Did she drug you?”

“No, she…” his face reddened. “She likes me.”

I was about to say something when Brittney showed up in the restroom. “I found you, Bryan!”

He yawned. They went to the room on the first floor. They slept on the bed. I went to close the door and thought about how Vermillion liked Bryan before he turned into a nightly creature. “In daylight, she… No, she… cannot possibly use him for…. ” I walked to the door and waited for Team V to arrive. If the team came, I slapped their faces.

“Waking!” Viridian’s high-pitched annoyed Vermillion in the lake. Vermillion was asleep for a while. She was dreaming of marrying Bryan on a platform--

“Wake up!”

Vermillion snapped her eyes open and said, “What?”

“Now, it is time to wear costumes.”

Vermillion has the worst one: the monochromatic orange dress with cat ears. “Does he even like this?” she thought with disgust.

Viridian wore the black tight from head to toe and a cat mask. She was meowing at Vermillion, who frowned. They made it to the house. Viridian sensed and jumped into the grass. Vermillion knocked on the door. She was so nervous that what if Bryan did not like her costume? There was no one in the house. She peeped through the hole. Her hand opened the door from inside. She explored the interior of the house. It smelled like salty food. “Is this a joke,” she said.

She went to every room to find Bryan. “More salt. Why salt? Why this? Why not human scent?” she said. “Oh, is he escaped from me? He is ahead of my time.”

Viridian found the expired can of corn. She used the gun to vaporize the container. She ate not-so-fresh corn. She eats it without tasting it.

Vermillion found Viridian eating corn. She said, “Bryan is not there.”

“Have you checked the room?”

“I checked the entire house for him. He was gone with his sister.”

“How? Why quick?”

The device beeped their location. Vermillion was puzzled by the look of dots in another town. She said, “I think they are in another town closed to here.”

“I want to eat food before we go there.”

Two ladies in cat costumes ate the expired foods. They do not look for taste. They earned energy by eating the food. Their bodies contain salts and other chemicals. They alienated from another planet, Bryan said. You can trust him that.

Team V sprinted to the town close to Safe Haven. They were not sweating or tired. They have so much energy to do for today. Viridian said, “You will have to find Bryan around here.”

“He is not even close. The device says we are far from the house.”

“Which house?”

“The one in the center of the town.”

“You go there. I will hide and find a way in.”

“Not fair.”

They fought on the ground with meows and hisses. So the device hit on the road. Vermillion paused and snatched it before the car came to her. She said, “Let’s get over with.”

They made it to the porch of my house. I sensed their salty and chemical smells. I cannot stand their presence. One stayed on the porch while the other leaped on the roof. I rushed to my room and woke Hooker and Cobalt in the bed. I said, “Team V has arrived.”

Both looked at me. Both were shirtless. Cobalt moved first and wore his shirt while Hooker stayed on the bed. I said, “Viridian is coming here. You should be with Bryan and Brittney downstairs.”

I heard the window crack in the hallway. I grabbed Cobalt’s hand and Hooker’s hand. They were in the first floor’s room. I said, “Do not come out just yet.”

The nightly creatures nodded at me. I closed the door and took care upstairs. Viridian was in the middle of breaking the window and the panel. I shouted, “What are you doing at the window?”

Her face looked at me. She looked hideous with makeup and dirt. She said, “Are you the homeowner?”

“Get out of my house!”

She returned to the ground. I went downstairs to deal with Vermillion after removing the boards. I said to her, “Get out of my house!”

“I am looking for Bryan.”

“I have never seen him.”

She showed me the device. Three green dots were in the first room of the house. I kept my cool and said, “You are in the wrong house.”

Viridian tapped her twin’s shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.”

Vermillion looked at her and showed her the information on the device. “See, three nightly creatures are here.”

“Oh?”

Team V stared at me with seriousness. I moved forward and closed the door. I kept my determined expression on my face. They do not scare me. They do not look like cats. They are Team V, Viridian with green hair, and Vermillion with orange hair. Viridian showed me her vapor gun at my face. “Who are you?” she asked.

“I will not tell my name to you. Does the lady in the past tell me who I am? If she did, you should be prepared and deal with me here on the porch. The lady has no idea who you are. She should not make the minis of the reptile.

“Her discovery is so menacing that the males turn into themselves, who must kill females. They should have killed you long ago. If they choose to, but you make them fear their lives.”

“Is she done talking to us?” Vermillion was nervous.

Viridian lowered her gun and grabbed my collar. “Who are you, by the way? Are you nice to the scientist that we praise her?”

“I did not live that long ago.”

“What is your name, cutie? Or I will shoot you so the nightly creature will save you from harm?”

“Not an inch,” I said. “The males would not come. Not even I was hurt. I have been slammed by the tail many times before you came here.”

“Did you kill the reptile?” Viridian raised her voice. “So… who are you?”

I smelled her salt and coughed, pretending to cough at her costume. She threw me to the ground, and my body passed the sharp tools. I landed on the grass safely. I got up quickly. Team V was looking at me from a distance. Vermillion said, “We should follow her around.”

“She looks useless to us,” Viridian said.

I shouted, “Go ahead! Get me. Get my body, blood, sweat. Anything that you can keep me. Although, my DNA sucks. I am not like you. I am human. And you have no idea who I was. That is great to hear!”

Viridian shot the gun at me. I dodged. Vermillion said, “She is very loud than us.”

“I want to kill her if she does not stop mocking our existence.”

I shouted, “Go ahead! You are scared of me. You are some minis of the reptile. If you were the reptile, you would have slammed me down, and you have won and disappeared!”

Viridian came to knock me down with her gun. I dodged it while Vermillion shook her head. “Unacceptable.”

“So stop mocking us! You are a little girl,” Viridian gritted through her teeth.

“‘Girl,’ the reptile reads,” I began telling a story. “Girl, I do not want you any longer. You are the girl I want, but you are nothing!”

Viridian’s temper got the better of her. “I am done with your mocking!”

I escaped as she did not move. Vermillion said, “We should get after her.”

“No, she is talking too much as a scientist.”