Mute (39 page)

Tears streamed down Moni’s face. She bottled them
up behind her hand, which screened out her view of the beautiful thing that
resembled a child sitting beside her.

Nina
told me something was wrong with her. I should have listened. Of course she’s
not human. No human child would ever love a mess like me.

Tiny fingers gently, yet firmly removed Moni’s hand
from her eyes. Mariella took Moni’s hands in both of hers as if she were
channeling a dual electrical current through them. Moni’s head warped like the
deck of the sinking Titanic. Through the thunder ringing inside her skull she
understood a message. Mariella loved her more than any human child could. And
she desperately needed her help.

Moni drew her hands away from the girl. The buzzing
in her head faded into the background as if she had gone outside the arena during
a hip hop show. The thoughts she just had weren’t hers, Moni realized. Mariella
had planted them inside her head, but they sounded so much like her own
thoughts that she couldn’t tell the difference. Even without talking, Mariella
spoke louder than anyone.

She still felt the love radiating into her brain
from Mariella. In her heart, she knew she loved the girl too. Whether human or
not, the Mariella that had emerged from the mangroves was the only Mariella she
knew. Still, she felt the sting of betrayal. The girl had impersonated Moni’s
thoughts. How many times had Mariella “suggested” that she do something out of
her character? She wondered whether it was her or the girl that had made the
decisions that left Nina in the hospital and both Tanya Roberts and
Clyde
Harrison missing their heads. Mariella had survived the attacks and so did she,
but why? Had she been protecting Mariella from the Lagoon Watcher and his
minors like she thought, or did the girl’s drawings really represent death
warrants written out in marker and crayon? She had sketched a boater tossed
overboard like Kane, a cruel gator like the one who bit Robbie Cooper, a
beheaded dog like what happened in the twins’ backyard and a burning man that
resembled the teenager in the marina fire. Moni had ignored it all.

When she looked at that sweet face, Moni saw the
same girl who had smiled with glee as she rode a horse for the first time. Her
adorable expression completely masked what lay beneath. It didn’t work anymore.
Moni knew it lurked inside the girl. She couldn’t drive on and pretend that
part of Mariella didn’t just tear apart her ex-boyfriend’s throat. Moni didn’t
feel threatened in the least by her, but she couldn’t say that she didn’t feel
worried for other people. By the way she had killed so casually, she had a
feeling that Darren hadn’t been her first victim.

“What are you, Mariella? Are you hurting people?”

The girl bowed her head for a few seconds. Instead
of contemplating how she would answer, it appeared that she was deciding whether
she should answer at all. Finally, Mariella clasped the top of Moni’s palm.

Moni’s head reverberated as if it were a giant
tuning fork. She could feel every wavelength of Mariella’s thoughts sloshing
against her brain and soaking in between its spongy crevices. Her speech didn’t
sound like another voice inside her head. Moni recognized it as her own voice.
It felt like a recollection of a story she had learned long ago being brought
back into focus.

There was a distant planet in a place that Moni’s people
call Orion when they gaze at the sky. Mariella’s people lived in the waters
there, but they didn’t resemble the waters of earth at all. These acidic waters
nourished life on their home world. Tragically, much of that life got destroyed
following a massive meteor strike. Aware that their planet faced a calamity
that would wipe them out, Mariella’s people created seeds that could sprout
into their species if they found a new home with suitable conditions. They were
carried by miniature “ambassadors” of their planet that were blasted in every
direction and scattered among the stars.

A cluster of them heard the communication signals
from earth and migrated here. They caught a ride down from orbit on a man-made
rocket craft and then started sampling their surroundings. The ambassadors
found that they could transform the lagoon into a habitable environment for
their species, but it would take painstaking work and some “unfortunate
concessions” on the part of the local life forms. The ambassadors didn’t have much
choice. None of them have received a signal from a successful colony. Earth
represented the only hope of bringing their species back from extinction.

“So you do really need my help,” Moni said. “But
why did you kill so many people? Why take possession of animals… and a little
girl?”

As Moni stared at Mariella, a heavy blink crossed
the child’s eyes as if the “ambassador” inside felt guilty for stealing the
girl’s body. Moni didn’t perceive that solely from her expression. When
Mariella dialed into Moni’s head, Moni caught a faint signal of Mariella’s
thoughts as well. They didn’t emerge in plain English but in feelings, concepts
and unintelligible static. She knew right away that no human thought like that.

Mariella’s answer emerged within Moni’s thoughts.
The ambassadors came to replicate their home planet in a small section of the
earth. Their species can’t tolerate the conditions in the lagoon until it’s
finished, so they employed native life for the construction by taking them as
hosts and utilizing their “resources.” They accessed the girl’s body as a
conduit for interacting with humans and for the superior capabilities of her
more advanced brain. The ambassadors had guessed correctly that a child could
get away with unusual behavior better than an adult. Of course, they would
rather complete their mission without harming anyone. They felt badly for
Mariella and her parents, but their “sacrifices” would bring about the rebirth
of a majestic species.

Moni felt their empathy wash through her mind. They
hadn’t been murders at all. This was about survival for the species that
created Mariella, who she loved like a daughter. She had been protecting
Mariella the whole time, not from mutants, but from real monsters like her
father, Sneed and the Lagoon Watcher. It turns out that she has done a great
job, she thought.

Yet, she couldn’t shake the nagging sourness in her
stomach. She remembered the faces of those who died: Matt Kane, Randy and
Robbie Cooper, the burning teenager and his friends, Tanya Roberts,
Clyde
Harrison,
the firefighter,
Pedro
and Rosa Gomez—Mariella’s parents.

They conquered the girl’s mind so
completely that she didn’t care that her parents died. The snake that busted
through my screen was after Aaron, not her. She called the pelican that nearly
killed Nina because she knew about the drawing. She faked her kidnapping with
the mutant gator to avoid being nabbed by the DCF. Then she had Agent Tanya and
Harrison beheaded. And Mrs. Mint… How many other people will die when they take
over the lagoon?

They
hate taking lives even more than they hate taking land. Although she understood
their sentiment, those words were not her own. Mariella had put them there.

The
extinct species wants only a sliver of Earth. When standing on the lagoon’s
edge, it may seem like a lot, but from the grand vantage point of space, the
Indian River Lagoon is hardly a scratch on the blue and white marble of this
planet. In much the same way, the tragic loss of life hurts deeply for those
who knew the sacrificed ones, but in the grand scheme of earth’s population,
the expected casualties from this operation will be “statistically
insignificant.” As long as people accept that the visiting species has a right
to exist and grants it the space it requires in the lagoon, further bloodshed
and “involuntary possessions” won’t be necessary.

“That’s
not how we think,” Moni said aloud so she wouldn’t confuse Mariella’s voice
with her own. “Every single life is precious and has a right to exist, even if
it’s one in 6 billion. Why can’t you reach out and talk to us? Maybe our
government will give you uninhabited land somewhere if you teach us a few of
your, um… tricks.”

That
would never work, Moni realized, possibly with a little assistance. The
ambassadors can’t communicate with people without taking hosts with similar
brain power. By the time they revealed that they had inhabited bodies, they
would have lost the government’s trust. Only constructing a “defensible
environment” would give their species room for growth and eventually peaceful
interaction with humanity.

Moni
wondered how forgiving humanity would act after the business in the lagoon that
Mariella and her friends had planned. No matter what other people believed, she
knew that Mariella meant well. If she loved Moni, then this ambassador from an
extinct species could love anyone. Her father had been wrong about the forces
in the lagoon. They didn’t hunger for Moni and the girl. They were inviting
them into the waters of rebirth.

Moni
wrapped her arm around her. She knew that those slender shoulders and baby-soft
skin didn’t belong to a little girl, but the familiar warmth ignited her heart
all the same.

“We
need to visit the lagoon, don’t we? For him.” Moni peaked in the rearview
mirror at Darren lying on his side on the back seat. The top of his head rested
on the seat thanks to the newfound flexibility of his mutilated neck. She took
in the sight as if she were admiring a painting. She should have felt horrible
about the death of the man she had shared so many passionate nights with—the
man who had taken her to prom. Moni only remembered the times when he insulted
her, screwed other women and smacked her around. Recalling how she looked in
the mirror with her shiny black eye, Moni didn’t feel all that bad about Darren
getting paid back in spades.

“If
you want him, you can have him. I ain’t got no use for his sorry ass no more.”
She pulled back on the road and headed due east.

* * * *

Even with much of his blood soaking her back seat,
Darren still weighed a ton. Moni couldn’t exactly put all of her effort into
moving him. When she touched his chiseled shoulders and they felt as cold as
chicken left out overnight, she nearly threw up in her mouth. His vibrant black
skin had started fading. His eyes rolled uselessly in their sockets. Yet, his
handsome jaw line remained.

Darren
did a lot of things wrong. I didn’t make a mistake by breaking up with him. But
he didn’t deserve this.

A slender hand patted Moni on the arm. Mariella
slipped around her and hoisted up Darren. The girl was barely as wide as one of
his thighs, but she dragged him across the pavement effortlessly. Moni hurried
over and scooped up his feet—not because Mariella needed help—but because she
wanted to pay a part in this closure.

They stopped at the edge of what had been a pier at
the burned out
Melbourne
Harbor Marina. Only a few charred wooden pillars protruded from the choppy
water. With nearly all of the light poles destroyed, she could barely see. That
gave her little comfort. Nearly a week ago, these waters had claimed the lives
of three teenagers and a firefighter. Moni hadn’t feared water before, but
since she rescued Mariella, her worst dreams had her running in the streets
from freakish creatures only to find herself trapped against the even more
terrifying murky waters of the lagoon. She had imagined that the source of all
darkness lurked within it. It snatched body parts and corrupted the innocent.
Now, her little girl called it home.

Moni
approached the lagoon with her ex lover’s body as an offering. She couldn’t
call it Darren’s resting place, for she knew that his remains wouldn’t be at
rest in their hands.

Darren
had betrayed her trust and caused her nothing but grief. He would have shot her
on two occasions if Mariella hadn’t been there. Both times, the girl had
implanted thoughts in his head that discouraged him, Moni realized. That last
time, ever her most forceful orders inside his head couldn’t derail him from
his bent on murder.

Moni
gazed into the lifeless slits of Darren’s eyes as they dangled his corpse on
the side of the cracked seawall. “Darren, you aren’t the man I fell in love
with. I won’t stand for your abuse. I deserve better than you. Everybody who
hurt me is gonna pay. And this time, you will help me, for real.”

Moni
and Mariella released him in perfect synchronization. She listened for a huge
splash when Darren’s body hit the water. She didn’t get the satisfaction of
hearing it. Instead, it made a thud like a giant softball lobbed into a
catcher’s mitt. A second later, she heard bubbling and then something sloshing
through the water. It left nothing behind besides a noxious stench.

Mariella’s
people have him now, Moni thought. They’re taking him where they took the
others.

Moni’s
legs trembled as she stood on the seawall that served as the ledge between
humanity and an emerging alien world. One land had bruised, and battered her so
much while the other held unfathomable opportunities and irreversible
metamorphosis. She didn’t know which world she dreaded more.

“Those
are your people out there,” Moni said as she clasped Mariella’s petite hand.
“Let me speak with them.”

Gazing
into her eyes, the little one sized her up. Mariella’s eyes flashed purple.
Moni’s body vanished from existence. Her mind floated without a sense of touch
or sight. She couldn’t feel the cool breeze on her face or smell the rotten
lagoon any longer. But Moni felt. She felt like a single cog on an expansive
electrical grid interconnecting thousands of minds. Moni could make out the
location of the lagoon in the same way a passenger on an overnight flight can
spot land by the lights from the houses below. She recognized Mariella’s
signature close by her. Many signals were small and simple—tiny creatures.
Others were more complex but not on the level of conveying emotions. They were
compulsive beings. The directions from their ambassadors became their new
instincts. Many scoured for fuel and iron. Some were busy assembling things
that they didn’t understand. Yet, the brain power of the hosts limited their
ambassadors’ capabilities and control. The visitors hungered for mentally
stronger creatures.