Emmaline awoke to a radiating sun spilling across her dark green carpet. Motes of dust danced about in the air with reckless abandonment, and normally such a sight would make her smile, but today her heart just felt heavy and sad. She silently cursed the carefree motes. Would she ever feel excitement or joy again? She very much doubted it.

  Eventually, she dragged herself out of bed. It was a Thursday. Em gave a glance at the clock on her nightstand. She should be getting ready for school. It was way past the time she needed to leave for school, actually. In fact, it was the middle of first period. Emmaline didn’t even feel glad to be missing school again, which she totally should be right now. She even considered crawling back into bed, but if she did that, she’d miss the opportunity to go see Dad at the hospital.

  So Emmaline glumly entered the bathroom, took a quick shower because she was feeling icky and stepped out to her closet to find something to wear. But most of her clothes looked way too cheery for how she felt, so settled on a pair of jeans and a gray long-sleeved shirt. She even put her hair back into a ponytail, which she didn’t normally do. Em liked having her red curly hair free of the confinement of a hair tie.

  As she made her way to the door, Em’s eye caught sight of her hot pink purse and the phone that lay inside. She couldn’t believe she had gone most of yesterday without getting on it. That, more than anything, told her how badly she was feeling about everything.

  She walked over to her phone and pulled it out. It was still off. Part of her ached to turn it back on, to get caught up on her messages, to get in touch with her friends again––they must be worried sick about her––to read all the things she’d missed on her social media accounts, to see what was going on in the world. But then her eyes saw Michael’s phone. She’d slipped it into her purse last night on the way home. Her heart squeezed, and she put her phone back. What would she tell anyone anyway?

  Emmaline exited her room and was immediately smacked in the face with the smell of bacon. Her stomach growled, telling her she was hungry. Em felt a sigh of relief going through her. At least Mom was feeling well enough to make breakfast this morning. She went down the stairs and stopped to find Mom standing in front of the big screen TV, her arms crossed and the remote tightly clutched in the hand closest to Emmaline. It was then that she heard a man’s voice.

  “The unrest caused by the sudden appearance and then disappearance of the alien ship has caused widespread panic across the globe. Governments are urging citizens to remain calm while intelligence agencies work to determine if this was an isolated incident or the beginning of something larger,” the news anchor said, his face grave beneath professionally styled hair.

  “While the vessel that appeared over Lake Thurmond has not been seen since yesterday afternoon or the one briefly seen just outside New York City, the military cordons remains in place at each location. Residents within a thirty-mile radius have been evacuated, and officials refuse to comment on reports of individuals being taken by the alien visitors.

  “And in other news, CEO Arnold Layton of the billion-dollar tech company New Horizons was admitted to the hospital yesterday for what appears to be a possible stroke. New Horizons stock plummeted following the news of Layton’s hospitalization, though company representatives assure investors that operations will continue normally during his absence.”

  Mom muted the TV and turned to face Emmaline, her eyes rimmed with red. “Good morning, sweetie. Did you get any sleep at all?”

  “A little,” she said as she came to stand by her mother, and glanced at the television where a picture of Dad on his latest trip to Dubai was displayed in the corner of the screen, next to a graph showing New Horizons stock prices in free fall. The sight made her stomach clench.

  Mom switched off the TV and set the remote on the coffee table. “How about some breakfast?”

  Emmaline nodded, though suddenly she didn’t feel so hungry, but she followed her mother into the kitchen. Mom had clearly been in the middle of fixing food. There was one skillet full of eggs and another with bacon. Mom pulled out plates and dished up one for Emmaline and then one for herself. She then pulled two pieces of toast out of the toaster and set one on each plate.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Sorry, it might be a little cold. I was on the way up to wake you when I heard the news come on about the ship.”

  Emmaline nodded as she took a seat on her barstool at the kitchen island. Mom opted to stand on the other side as she dug into her own plate. Em’s mind was stuck on a thought that had been bothering her since she’d seen the YouTube video of Michael being abducted, besides the obvious of her brother being gone.

  “Do you think they will make the connection between our family and the ship that appeared near the farm?”

  “I don’t know. That’s sort of why I had the news on. To see what’s circulating,” Mom said as she buttered her toast. “But it’s not widely known our family owns that property. Your father was very careful about maintaining our privacy when we purchased it.”

  Well, that was something at least. Emmaline didn’t know what she’d do if they were outed as aliens. Would the world hate them? Would her friends? Though at this point, she’d be happy just to be able to have a conversation with her friends, any kind of conversation. But how was that possible when she would have to lie to them?

  “Mom, what do I tell my friends about everything? My phone has been off since I showed Doc Williams Michael’s text yesterday. Mostly because I don’t know what to tell them.”

  Mom set her butter knife carefully down on the island as she appeared to be in thought. Finally, she looked across at Emmaline with sadness in her eyes.

  “For now, just tell everyone your dad had a stroke. It’s the easiest explanation and something people can readily believe. As for Michael… well, maybe just don’t mention him. As for the rest, I still believe it’s important to keep our secret if we can. I’m not sure this world is ready to believe that aliens have been living among them for years. The visitation of that Ethian battlecruiser yesterday was proof enough of that. The people here aren’t ready yet to enter the greater community of the universe, but I don’t think it will always be that way.”

  “Yeah, but what about Mr. Delaney, Anna, and Eric? Do you think they will be okay with knowing the truth of us not being from here?” Emmaline swallowed the eggs she’d eaten, pushing them past a large lump that had settled in her throat.

  “I don’t know, sweetie. I guess that will be up to them,” Mom said flatly as she too took a bite of her eggs.

  Emmaline realized that she was suddenly terrified of what they would think of her now. She wasn’t a normal human, even though she looked like one. She was something else. From somewhere else. Maybe she’d been born on Earth, but this was not her true home. Would the people she’d thought of as close friends and family want nothing to do with her now? Would her other big brother Eric not love her anymore?

  Suddenly, that thought made Emmaline burst into tears. Mom rushed around the island, wrapping her arms around Emmaline’s shoulders. “Oh, honey, shhh, it’s okay.”

  “It’s not okay,” Emmaline sobbed, her shoulders shaking. “Eric’s going to hate me once he finds out the truth. He’s going to think I’m some alien freak!”

  “No, he’s not.”

  “You don’t know that! You don’t know how he’s going to react!”

  Mom pulled away and looked Emmaline in the eyes. “I know your brother, and he’s not going to hate you for being different. Eric might have questions about us and where we came from. He will most likely be angry at me and your dad for lying to him all these years, but I don’t think Eric could ever hate any of us. We’re his family, and nothing is ever going to change that.”

  Emmaline wiped the tears from her face. “You really think so?”

  Mom nodded. “Yes, I do.”

  She hoped Mom was right. It would really suck if Eric decided he didn’t want to be a part of their family anymore. “But what about Mr. Delaney and Anna?”

  Mom walked back over to her plate and started to clean it up. “Well, I suppose we will find out very shortly. John called a little while ago and asked if he and Anna could come by and talk. Anna has questions. They should be here any minute. After that, we will go to the hospital.”

  “But Dad––” Em asked. She had hoped that maybe he would have waken up sometime in the night or this morning. That maybe when they got there he would miraculously be conscious and back to his old self, or close to it anyway.

  “There’s been no change, and Doctor Williams needs to run more tests, including another MRI, which means your father won’t be in the room most of the morning, so we can take our time getting there.”

  Emmaline’s heart fell at the no-change part. “Okay,” she grumbled as she stuffed a large piece of bacon in her mouth.

  It tasted good, but she didn’t really feel like finishing the meal. She ate at least some eggs and the two pieces of bacon on her plate. She didn’t even touch her toast. Em jumped off her stool and took her plate over to where Mom was scrapping her leftovers in the garbage disposal.

  The doorbell rang.

  Both of them stopped and turned their heads toward the living room and the front door there.

  “I’m sure that’s them,” Mom said as she put the dishes in the washer. “Can you go get that?”

  Emmaline nodded and started for the door, half in trepidation of how things would go with Mr. Delaney and Anna, and half just wanting to get it over with. The Delaneys had been friends to her family since before she was born. Would they still be after all this was said and done? Or would the two families finally go their separate ways? Em bit the bottom of her lip as she passed through the living room.