I couldn't sleep that night, even though I felt exhausted. My thoughts were still in turmoil, mulling over the events of the past two days. I still thought that maybe I was in the middle of a really bad dream, and that one day I'd wake up, and Lou would be there in his shop, selling coffee and handing me the books I'd ordered, and we wouldn't have the possibility of a killer in our midst.
I felt my stomach rumbling. I'd eaten dinner, but sometimes I grew hungry during the night if I wasn't asleep. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep at all if I had a grumbling stomach.
I heaved myself out of bed, quietly opened my door, and started walking quietly down the hallway to the stairs. I noticed the door to my parents' room was slightly ajar – they usually closed it at night. Maybe someone got up to go to the bathroom, I thought.
I made my way downstairs, intending to go to the fridge and get a glass of milk to drink, but I heard low voices and stopped. I glanced around, and saw light peeking out from under the door to my mum's lab.
I frowned. What would Mum be doing at this time of night? Surely she wouldn't be working this late?
I heard another voice – a male voice – that I thought I recognised, but I couldn't be sure. Then I sighed, figuring it was none of my business, really, and continued on to the kitchen.



Once my stomach was satisfied, I went to head back upstairs, but stopped. My curiosity was really getting to me, especially when I heard a muffled thump coming from inside the lab. Mum definitely wasn't working on her plants.
I quietly turned the doorknob, opened the door, and looked inside.
The first thing I noticed was the shocked expressions on their faces: Mum was there, with Edward Guildenstern, and both of them looked stunned at the interruption.
The second thing I noticed was Lou's body on a mat on the floor.
And that's when something snapped, and I started to scream.



My eyes locked on the dead alien lying there on the floor, and I couldn't look away. I just kept screaming, and screaming, and screaming. I thought I'd never stop.
Mum flew over and started trying to calm me down, pushing me out of the door, but I just screamed more and fought her away.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" I screeched. "YOU KILLED HIM! YOU KILLED HIM!"
Lights went on upstairs. Mum kept trying to shush me and push me out of the lab, but I hit her away.
"Ellie!" she yelled in my face. "Stop screaming! Calm down!"
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO HIM? LEAVE HIM ALONE!" I screamed at her, still fighting. She looked over her shoulder at Edward, and she yelled something to him, and before I knew it, Mum had moved aside and Edward was swiftly moving towards me. He grabbed by arms and held them in his vampire grip, and gently but firmly dragged me away into the lounge room.
He tried to get me to sit on one of the chairs, but I refused, and I remained standing as I faced him. "WHAT'S GOING ON?" I screamed, on the verge of hysterical tears.



Edward held up his hands, trying to placate me. "Ellie, I need you to calm down before you wake the whole neighbourhood," he said quietly.
"WHY SHOULD I CALM DOWN?" I shrieked. "I COME DOWNSTAIRS AND THERE'S LOU'S BODY ON THE FLOOR—"
"Ellie, be quiet!" Edward barked, and I stopped screaming, the words abruptly cut off in my throat. I knew I was being irrational, but I just stared at him, eyes nearly popping out of my head, my heart racing, not knowing what to think…
"It's obviously a misunderstanding," Edward explained.
"SOME BLOODY MISUNDERSTANDING!" I yelled.
"Do you want me to give you a sedative?" Edward snapped, and I stopped again. He rubbed his forehead, brow furrowed. Then he sighed.
"If you'll just listen for a moment, I can explain," Edward said. "But if you're going to keep screaming at me, I won't be able to get a word in, and I might have to give you a sedative anyway, whether you like it or not. Now. Are you going to calm down?"
Furious, I nodded. Edward sat down on the couch, and suggested I do the same, but I refused again.
He sighed. "I assume you're thinking that your mother and I had something to do with killing Lou," he began.
I laughed humourlessly. "No, of course not," I said, my voice cracking weirdly. "What on Earth would make me think that? Just the sight of Lou's body lying on the floor of my mum's lab in my own bloody house, with you two bending over—"
"What did I tell you about staying quiet?" Edward growled. "Just listen, will you?"
I shut up, just as Dad wandered down the stairs in his pyjamas.
"Hello, Edward," he said sleepily. "Is everything OK?"



Edward smiled fleetingly. "It's all under control," he said. "Ellie just saw what we were doing and freaked out, but I'm explaining everything now. Make sure Adam doesn't—"
"He's still asleep," Dad said. "Amazing. He could sleep through an atomic bomb. Anyway, give us a call if you need anything, alright?"
"Thanks, Andrew," Edward replied, sounding tired. My Dad nodded, looked at me in concern, and went back upstairs to bed.
"He's in on this, too?" I exclaimed, my voice still wavering wildly.
"Technically, he is 'in on' what we're doing," Edward said, sounding vaguely annoyed. "But what we're doing isn't bad."
For once, I stayed quiet. Edward looked at me, surprised, then continued.
"It's simple, really. Basically, Lou has stated in his will that when he died, he wanted to donate his body to science, so humans can understand what aliens are really like. Since that's what he wanted, we're honouring that wish. Now, with this murder case, we're doing everything we can to stop the media finding out about it. Imagine what would happen to our community if trucks full of journalists and TV crew and newspaper reporters turned up one day. Not only would they get to report a murder in a small community, they would find out that the victim was an alien. Also, think of everyone else they'd find! All of us living here are in this isolated little place for a reason. The media could find out about Christopher. Imagine the sensation that would be caused if they found out he was a werewolf! He'd almost certainly lose his job. Then there's the chance they could expose the Desslers and compromise their witness protection status. They could find out that the famous Minks were living here, and then we'd be covered in hordes of paparazzi, which is exactly what they came here to avoid. Not to mention, of course, the family of vampires living in that big place on the hill, or the fourteen-year-old zombie shuffling around. Just one inquisitive journalist could completely destroy our lives here."
Edward paused to draw breath and rub his forehead again. I waited for him to continue, wondering what all this had to do with Lou's body lying on my mother's laboratory floor.
"All of the investigators on the case have signed a contract – Christopher's idea - stating that they won't discuss it outside of Solitaria. I'm performing the post-mortem on Lou's body rather than sending him into the city morgue, which would definitely cause a sensation. Then, it's up to your mother to arrange the secure delivery of his body from here to a CSIRO research building. Since she has the only fully equipped scientific laboratory in Solitaria, we're storing his body here for a few days while we wait for all the paperwork and transfer details to be finalised. When you came in and saw us there, that's what we were discussing. It's nothing underhanded, and we definitely didn't kill him, Ellie."
I wasn't sure how to respond to this. It was all too much to handle, I thought.
Edward seemed to realise this, and stood up. "I think you should go back to bed," he suggested. "Get some sleep. It's been a stressful time for all of us, and staying up won't do you any good in the end."
The door to the lab opened and closed, and my mum came out, looking at me in a mixture of concern and frustration. "What are you doing up at this time of night, anyway, Ellie?" she asked crossly.



"I was hungry," I said. "Couldn't sleep. I was getting some milk."
She sighed. "Well, in future, don't come barrelling into my lab for no good reason, OK?"
I felt annoyed. "I wasn't barrelling—"
"You entered without knocking, in any case," Mum said. "There's a reason the door was closed. You're not to tell anyone about this, OK? The less people who know, the better. Some of them might not understand…"
"No kidding," I murmured. I noticed Mum and Edward exchange a glance, and the corners of Mum's mouth twitched.
"It seems she's back to normal," Mum commented.
Edward nodded. "I told her what's going on. I think she understands…do you, Ellie?"
I nodded sleepily. "Yeah."
Mum sighed. "Go back to bed," she said tiredly.
"Yeah. See you in the morning," I said.
I trudged back upstairs, my mind still spinning. What kind of a crazy world did I live in? Aliens, werewolves, vampires, zombies…all I needed to find now was Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Maybe a unicorn and a dragon, too.
I walked down the hallway to my room – Adam was still asleep – and got into my bed again. I fell asleep almost immediately.