Chapter Text
Melissa opened the front door of the house and heard her parents in the living room, talking to someone. She slowly walked in, trying to be as silent as possible. When she passed the room, she had to press a hand on her mouth to prevent herself from screaming, which would definitely not be a good thing. The man who had just looked like a normal human had become a kind of blue centaur with no mouth, two extra eyes and a deadly looking blade on the tail. Still trying to be quiet, she sneaked out again and then ran towards the woods as fast as she could. She slowed down as she reached the first trees and continued walking to the place where she had spent so much time with Rachel while they had still been kids. But now Rachel, who had been her best friend once, rarely even talked to her. Instead she spent the entire time with Jake, Marco, Cassie and that strange boy, who was supposedly Jake´s long lost cousin Philip. He had the habit of spelling out the syllables of every word he said and she had seen the others pulling him away from the food court at the mall, where he tried to eat everything he could, more than once. She sat down on a tree trunk and looked into the sky until she heard a bird screeching and a red-tailed hawk landed on the tree next to her.
Tobias looked down at Melissa. She seemed really upset and sad, as if something had happened which she could not really understand. He had a suspicion of what that could be, but as he was not able to talk to her directly he would need help from the others. He called out in thought-speech: "Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, can any of you hear me? Please answer. Melissa is here and she looks like she immediately needs someone to talk. I think she has found out that her parents are Controllers." The answer came promptly: "Tobias, this is Rachel. Can you watch her for a few minutes, make sure she does not do anything stupid? I am on my way."
Rachel arrived at the meadow five minutes later and sat down on the ground next to the crying Melissa. She put her arm around the other girl until she had calmed down a bit, then she asked: "Melissa, what is wrong?" Melissa looked at her with fear in the eyes and said: "I came home from school today and saw this man in our living room. He turned into an alien in front of my eyes and my parents acted like nothing had happened. I came out here before any of them could see me." Rachel´s blood turned cold immediately and she looked up to Tobias, who immediately called out to the others: "Melissa has seen Visser Three demorph. Rachel will bring her to Cassie´s barn. Can you meet us there? I think we will have to tell her and give her the chance to become one of us."