Alien or Alian
Chapter 9: E or E

Ozias was dreaming.

He was standing in the center of a box, a dark blue box, six even squares enclosing him in a broad space. He thought he was all alone, but when he turned around, he saw him.

Ethen stood there, a few feet away from Ozias, his expression indecipherable. He seemed to be staring up at something, intently and never blinking.

“Ethen!” Ozias called, but there was no reaction from him. He didn’t even move. Ozias tried again, “Ethen, Ethen!”

Still no reaction.

But now, Ethen was finally moving. Although he wasn’t moving his arms or legs or head — or any other body part — yet somehow, he seemed to be getting further and further away from Ozias, as if levitating.

Before Ozias could start chasing after him, a hand reached out from behind for his shoulder, stopping him. For a moment Ozias didn’t look back at the culprit, still focused on a receding Ethen. When he finally did glance back, he saw him.

Ezra stood there, an uplifting and radiant smile ablaze on his lips, his blueberry eyes illuminating. He moved a few steps so that he could stand next to Ozias, then his arm moved swiftly to wrap tightly around Ozias’ shoulders.

“Don’t worry about him,” Ezra said, quite reassuringly.

Ozias gazed up at him for a moment, practically feeling his sincerity — his closeness — flowing from him like the rays of the sun. Remembering Ethen, Ozias spun his head back around, but there was no longer anyone there.

Ethen was gone.

And then, everything went black. The box had vanished and so had Ezra, but Ozias could still hear something, someone.

“Oz….Oz….Hey Oz, it’s me.”

A warm palm gripped Ozias’ shoulder, gently shaking him awake. As his eyes fluttered open, he gazed at a slightly blurred, crouching Ezra, with a flustered look.

Ezra gave Ozias a brilliant smirk. “Good dream or bad?”

The hell if he knew for sure, Ozias thought. “It’s nothing. I already don’t remember it.”

“O-K smarty-pants,” Ezra skeptically grinned.

“Wait, aren’t you supposed to be inside that chamber thing?” Ozias asked while sitting up from the bench, fishing around his jacket pockets for his glasses.

“Oh, that’s all done with now. An hour stuck to a bunch of wires just flew by.”

“So, you’re really all better now?”

“Like a spring chicken!” As he said it, Ezra sprung to his feet and did a few jumps to emphasize the fact. “But, everyone that goes through hyper-inversion still has to take it easy for a few more hours and whatnot. I’d say I was bummed, but there’s no action to take part in anyway. There’s a team out looking for that blob and it’s still radio silent. So, I thought you and I could head out for a while, get something to eat since my breakfast repayment plan got interrupted.”

Ozias stifled a yawn as he got his glasses on. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to do this. Come on, Oz, I owe you one.” Ezra extended a hand, and with a surprising lack of hesitation, Ozias took it. He was beginning to feel a ghostly presence of an empty stomach anyways, and going to breakfast with Ezra might’ve been just what he needed to cleanse his unease of that dream. Feeling hopefully ecstatic, Ezra lightly tugged him up from the bench and quickly started leading him to the elevator. “Great, let’s go before-”

“Yo, Spacewalker!”

Ozias flinched to a halt, but Ezra very audibly groaned with exasperation as he stopped as well, just before the elevator. The two begrudgingly turned to the source.

“Remember, take it slow out there!” Sid called to Ezra from where he stood by the chambers. He started waving at the two while sporting an exaggerated coquettish expression.

Although, the look was quite vague to Ozias, and he stared at Sid for a moment trying to decipher it. With no luck, he craned his head back to Ezra hoping he knew what Sid was trying to convey. But Ezra had stopped paying attention to Sid, and pressed the button to summon the elevator. The doors instantly opened, and as fast as Ezra could, he pulled Ozias inside the platform with him.

“Alright, make good choices you guys!” Sid said right before the elevator doors shut.

“Jeez…” Ezra sighed. “Sorry,” he said to Ozias, “it’s always one annoying thing after the other with that guy.” He stuffed a hand into his sweater pocket and pulled out a small black keychain with a laminated card attached and used it to swipe across the small blackened screen to the side, activating the elevator.

Ozias looked back at Ezra, and noticed a considerable amount of vexation on his face. Though Ozias didn’t have enough experience — or any really — to prove this fact as true, he suspected there should have at least been some hint of tolerance mixed in with that vexation. Something that said ‘even though you’re annoying, you’re still my friend’.

“What’s with you two? Aren’t you friends?” Ozias asked aloud.

“No way.” Ezra could barely suppress the dislike in his tone. “I’ve known Sid just as long as Ethen has, but he’s always been closer with my brother, especially since they’ve been playing football together for years. He and I just aren’t on the same wavelength, if you catch my drift.”

“But, doesn’t he call you ‘Spacewalker’?” Ozias recalled hearing the peculiar nickname being uttered by Sid a few times, and to him it sounded like a friendly thing to call someone.

Ezra scoffed, though. “He doesn’t mean that in a friendly way, trust me.” He rolled his shoulders back, cracked his neck, and released a short burdened sigh. “The sooner me and my team are completely better, and the sooner we catch this blob, the sooner I can get back up there and away from that squidface.”

Ozias looked at him with supreme urgency. He’d forgotten that his hand was still intertwined with Ezra’s, but tightened his grip on Ezra’s palm regardless. “You..you’re going back there? Into space? After what you went through?”

Ezra was taken aback, surprised at both the concern exuding from Ozias’ tone, and the tight grasp of Ozias’ hand with his. “Y-yeah…”

“But why? You got hurt. Some kind of alien that inhabited your cousin’s body, attacked you. You crashed all the way from outer space, you and your team — nearly to your death! So why would you-”

The elevator doors suddenly glided open. A group of adults, all with various shades of brown hair, stood on the other side, muttering to each other while they each held a small bin filled with a variety of supplies. The muttering immediately ceased when the doors were completely open, revealing a confounded Ezra holding hands with a discomposed Ozias.

Ozias felt his cheeks warm as he caught their faces staring at the same time. He hadn’t even noticed when the elevator had started moving, let alone when it had reached the top. With terse speed he shook free of Ezra’s hand, bluntly parted through the adult group, and scurried off towards the front door.

A tall man with slicked back tree bark hair, turned to Ezra with a stunned look. “Ezra, boy, what did you-”

Ezra was out the elevator and dashing past the group before the man could finish his sentence. “I’ll explain later! Oz, wait!”

A tall woman with dark and long auburn curls gawked all the way at Ozias’ moving figure racing to the door. “Oh...Goodness, it must be him, that boy with the glasses!”

“What are you going on about, Mildreth?” hollered an elderly man with scant traces of hickory brown hair strands atop his head.

“Haven’t you heard? Ezra spent the night at a human boy’s house. Sid told me he wore glasses, so that must be him,” Mildreth said.

“Spent the night doing what?” asked the tall man, eyes now laden with blithe curiosity.

Mildreth struck his shin with the tip of her heel. “Taking care of him of course! Where’s your head at, Cedrick? Get in already!” She thrusted her left hip, making him stumble into the waiting elevator before the rest of the adult group followed suit.

Ezra darted across the living room and quickly intercepted Ozias before he reached the door. “Oz, hey-”

“I’m sorry,” Ozias blurted. He tried to make the words come out naturally, but he couldn’t help it.

His heart was fluctuating and there was a warmness flooding in the pit of stomach, gradually surging into his chest. The last time he was this worried was when his parents were dropping him off on his first day of kindergarten. The warmness pooling his chest had disguised some vomit making its way to the top, forcing Ozias to make an unforgettable impression.

“I shouldn’t have said any of that stuff. It’s not even my business,” Ozias continued, taking in careful breaths as he spoke. It was all he could do to try and soothe his warming insides. “You can do whatever you want.”

“No no,” Ezra stepped closer. “You made a good point, Oz. I guess I’ve been doing this so long that I don’t stop to think about all the things that could go wrong out there that much. My mom, my whole family, they’ve all seen so much of this business so all the warnings that go with it are usually just implied or watered down. I really haven’t heard someone sound as worried as you were in a long time.”

Ozias took a step back, his introversion suddenly washing over him like a tidal wave. “I’m n-not worried. I j-just wanted to know why someone w-would risk their life all over again.”

Ezra followed with another step forward. “I know it sounds crazy. My dad thought it was crazy, and he told me once that even my grandad knew it was crazy too. They went through all sorts of things out there that my dad didn’t get the chance to tell me about. But even after it all they still wanted to go back, they wanted to know all that’s out there, we all do. After my grandad passed away, my dad was determined to keep his mission alive, to keep the curiosity going. It’s their legacy.”

Ozias marveled for a moment at the glint of glory in Ezra’s eyes; his reticent rush generously becoming limp. He wasn’t sure yet if he was disappointed or relieved that his own parents didn’t have some sort of legacy that he could uphold. “What about Ethen? Doesn’t he want to continue your dad’s legacy?” Staggered by his sudden doubting words, Ozias threw a reluctant hand over his mouth.

But Ezra hadn’t noticed, and reached out for a cordial clasp of Ozias’ shoulder, topped with an assuring smile. “Of course he does, but…” He leaned in, letting his face hover mere inches away from Ozias’. “Don’t ever bring it up, but Ethen’s scared to travel out there.”

“W-what? He was...scared?”

“Yeah, all those stories our dad told us about when he went up there, it freaked Ethen out. He wanted the legacy to go on, but he couldn’t handle going out there himself. I was kind of freaked out too about traveling into the void, but I still wanted to see it with my own eyes. So one night we agreed: I’d volunteer for the new Commander, he’d go to school.”

Ozias tried picturing it, but even in his head it seemed more impossible than pigs growing wings and taking flight. Ethen Knillimhyr, valorous football captain of Belrynn University, scared. Although, the only things Ozias knew about Ethen were whatever the rumours at his former high school and current writing course dispensed, and for many of those he had never found confirmation of. But Ethen’s valiancy, his intimidating spirit — things he brought to every football game — those were facts that needed no rumour for Ozias to know about.

“I can’t believe it,” Ozias said quietly.

“Believe it,” Ezra remarked. With nimble speed he moved his hand and wrapped the same arm around Ozias’ shoulders, now letting his hand dangle by Ozias’ chest. A warm twinge briefly materialized somewhere next to Ozias’ heart; a flashback of his earlier dream suddenly knocking on the walls of his head. “And remember, no bringing it up, or they’ll find my body under a pile of snow.”

With a brisk exhale, Ozias nodded. “Yeah, I got it.” Ezra was looking at him, but Ozias avoided doing the same until the warm twinge went away. Weird, he thought.

An elated grin snuck its way onto Ezra’s lips as he started guiding Ozias the rest of the way to the front door. “Excellent. Now let’s go. If we start running now, we can probably still make the breakfast shift.”

“What, running?” Ozias nearly shouted. “Couldn’t we just take a bus or something? Don’t you have a car?”

“My existence has to stay a secret, so that means no public transportation. And all that time training and leading a team into space, meant there was no time for me to get a license.”

When he was close enough, Ezra reached for the doorknob and pulled it open, maneuvering himself and Ozias through the doorway. As soon as the winter breeze brushed Ozias’ cheek, he quickly tugged on his jacket hood then tightened the braided drawstrings. He glanced at Ezra’s torso and was surprised to see that he had on a flimsy hoodie as his primary protection from the cold, but then Nina’s words suddenly rang through — when it’s cold, we don’t feel cold.

“Don’t worry, Oz,” Ezra continued. “The place we’re going isn’t too far from here so we won’t be running long, promise. Cross my heart, hope to die, promise.”

Ozias managed a hard thwack to Ezra’s chest before he peeled away from Ozias’ shoulder and scuttled across the snow-carpeted lawn.

“That’s not funny!” Ozias shouted.

“Okay okay, too soon, I get it! Come on, let’s race!” Ezra shouted back. He didn’t wait and gave a peart wave as he continued his restless dash.

“How can we have a race when I don’t know where we’re going?” Ozias yelled. “And aren’t you supposed to be taking it easy?” But Ezra didn’t slow, so with no other option Ozias braced himself for the brumal sprint, and took off at a more sedate pace than Ezra.

Sid the Squid may have had a tumultuous voice, but Ezra Knillimhyr had something of a tumultuous personality, and Ozias wasn’t yet sure who was more irksome.

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