Chapter 8: Ep. 2 — The New World, III

I grabbed his hand and before I knew it he lifted me up. I could tell that he was quite strong as he lifted me up so quickly… oh yeah, he also stopped the meteorite.

I quickly brushed the dust off my pants and grabbed my bag, luckily nothing was ruined. I looked up and could tell that he was staring into the bag, he didn’t know what these were for… right?

Before he could say anything about my items I quickly thanked him for saving me… “THANK YOU SO MUCH!!”

“I don’t really know what happened to me” I said as I was quickly wiping the tears off of my face.

He slowly pulled his hood back over his head before asking me for directions, which isn’t the best situation for me as I don’t know where anything is…

“Do you know where I can find the Lunar Laboratory of this…” He paused for a second while trying to find the word… “coun- try??”

“Country?” I responded with a very perplexed face… Why’d he say it like that? Maybe he doesn’t know English very well.

“Hmm, aga…” is all he said.

Since I didn’t know where he was talking about, I decided to try and change the topic.

“To thank you for saving me can I get you some coffee…?”

He looked a little confused at my comment, then I realized how late it was.

“Oh I’m so sorry, I forgot how late it was…” I said as I tilted my head with my hand on my neck.

This was awkward…

“Well I should be-” He interrupted me before I could finish my sentence.

“Sure… I might as well get a better idea of this place.”

Was he not from here?

As we walked to the coffee shop I kept glaring over at him whenever his face slipped a little bit out of his hood.

I couldn’t really tell exactly but if I were to take a guess then I’d say he was probably from somewhere near Europe…

As I was analyzing him he looked over at me. I jolted and shifted my gaze forward. Did he notice? Oh no he’s gonna think I’m weird isn’t he.

“Do people normally do that here?” He asked as he pointed beyond the street.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

FEW… He didn’t realize. I looked over at where he was pointing and noticed a man who was coughing violently. He seemed to be extremely sick… but that wasn’t the weirdest part.

He seemed to be transforming just like the alien earlier, but instead of transforming willingly, it looked like he was being engulfed as he planted himself into the ground. His feet starting the base as he slowly started bending over being completely encapsulated by whatever this was called, forming an almost egg like shape.

I looked around and noticed quite a few more egg shapes, not a noticeable amount but they were there. I looked down and around where we had been walking and noticed a ton of patches in the pavement… as if something big, maybe egg shaped had been there.

Before I could come to any conclusions about this, he started waving his hand in front of my face.

“Umm… hello?”

“Oh sorry… Yeah it’s normal, lets go.”

“Oh…” He was a little taken aback by my tone, as I sounded emotionless as I said it.

Why was I lying? How would I know if that’s normal or not…

We got to the coffee shop just in time, as it would be open for another 10 minutes.

Ding~

“Welcome! What can I get for you today?” The young woman moved her hand in a gesture as if to point at the menu above her.

It was already really late and I didn’t want the employees to need to stay overtime because of us so I just glanced at the menu and quickly blurted out the first one I saw…

“Can I get the uhh… French press coffee please?” I instantly regretted my choice as I hate bitter coffee.

Why did I do that? Uhg, I really want to change my order but I feel bad, we’re already taking up her time…

“Sure thing! You sir?”

“I’ll take the same thing as her.” He started searching his pockets for some cash when I stopped him. Obviously I was going to pay as he saved me.

I handed her my card, which luckily worked, and we went over to the table next to the window and sat down.

For a few minutes we just sat there… saying nothing as we waited for our coffee. He looked very interested in the buildings decorations as he looked around, and as it was becoming extremely awkward, I deiced to try and make conversation.

“The decorations look nice?”

He snapped his head back looking at me as if he was embarrassed that he wasn’t paying attention.

“Sorry what’d you say?” He asked as he put his hand on his neck.

“Oh I was just wondering if you liked the decorations they had set up…” As I finished my sentence the lady came up to us with our coffee.

“Here you go! Please take your time and enjoy!” She said as she handed us our coffees with a gentle smile. It was obvious that she was tired but trying her best to comfort us as customers.

“Thank you so much!” I quickly responded.

“We’ll try to be out of here as quick as possible.”

As she walked away I realized that I didn’t even know the name of the man who saved me. I reached out my hand and introduced myself.

“I’m sorry! I don’t even know your name! I’m–” I quickly stopped myself as I remembered I have a different name now.

“I’m Lydia!”

“Yuri…” He hesitated before shaking my hand.

“I feel like I’ve heard your name before…” He said as he slowly took a sip of his coffee.

“Same!” I awkwardly laughed in relief since I’m not Lydia, and if he did really know me that’d be bad... but, for some reason I do feel like I’ve heard his name before as well.

“Where do you-” Before he could finish his sentence I accidentally cut him off.

“Oh yeah! I don’t think you got a chance to respond to my question earlier.”

He looked at me sternly while putting his cup down. I’m not sure why but I had a bad feeling about him, but before I could think why I took a sip of my coffee expecting it to taste horrible but was rather surprised. It tasted good… not sweet but I liked the bitter taste. I was someone who always likes things extra sweet, so this was very surprising.

Now that I think about it, as this isn’t my body, I probably have different taste preferences now. Wait… PLEASE SAY I STILL LIKE SWEET PASTRIES!! I don’t know how I’d motivate myself without strawberry-

Before I could finish my though process, Yuri coughed as if to get my attention.

“Oh sorry!” Without realizing I had started drooling while thinking about food… how embarrassing. I quickly wiped my face with a napkin and asked him to continue.

“As I was saying, the painting here just reminded me of some of my sisters paintings that I helped her with a long time ago.” As he was talking his head slowly went down.

“Aww that’s sweet! Do you guys still paint together?” After I said this there was a long pause before he responded. After a breath he responded and his grip around his cup slowly tightened before he cracked it.

“She’s dead.”