Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1: Remembered
Summary:
Wanderer awakes within her new host body. At the beginning, she has some difficulty as she becomes accustomed her new body, showcased by her use of possessives. "Not the body. My body." She braces herself for the onslaught of the last memory the body would have lived through and the stronger emotions of humans than her other host species.
The memory begins with running, fleeing from Seekers. At the memory of the Seekers, Wanderer screams, something she had not done before. Her body explains to her it is just a scream and Wanderer freezes, shocked that her body was still thinking, speaking to her. But the memory again pulls her into its grasp. Ahead is an empty elevator shaft and Melanie runs directly towards it and jumps, preferring death to capture. However, the fall is not high enough and she is simply hurt badly, not killed.
Wanderer again pulls free of the memory, but one last image appears, something that Melanie remembered before she passed out from the fall, the face of a man. Wanderer considers him beautiful and the moment she realizes she wants to keep looking at him, the memory disappears and her body says, "Mine". Wanderer again is stunned and rebukes the thought by stating that everything is hers and there is no one else with her. However, she can't help but feel some doubts that there is something in her body with her that shouldn't exist.
Characters Present:
"I knew it would begin with the end, and the end would look like death to these eyes. I had been warned." ~Wanderer
"There is a way. No way to survive, but perhaps a way to win." ~Melanie
"Mine, spoke the alien thought that should not exist. [...] Mine, I rebuked her, the power and authority that belonged to me alone flowing through the word. Everything is mine." ~Wanderer
Summary prepared by: Alcyone
Reprinted with permission from The Host Index
Wanderer awakes within her new host body. At the beginning, she has some difficulty as she becomes accustomed her new body, showcased by her use of possessives. "Not the body. My body." She braces herself for the onslaught of the last memory the body would have lived through and the stronger emotions of humans than her other host species.
The memory begins with running, fleeing from Seekers. At the memory of the Seekers, Wanderer screams, something she had not done before. Her body explains to her it is just a scream and Wanderer freezes, shocked that her body was still thinking, speaking to her. But the memory again pulls her into its grasp. Ahead is an empty elevator shaft and Melanie runs directly towards it and jumps, preferring death to capture. However, the fall is not high enough and she is simply hurt badly, not killed.
Wanderer again pulls free of the memory, but one last image appears, something that Melanie remembered before she passed out from the fall, the face of a man. Wanderer considers him beautiful and the moment she realizes she wants to keep looking at him, the memory disappears and her body says, "Mine". Wanderer again is stunned and rebukes the thought by stating that everything is hers and there is no one else with her. However, she can't help but feel some doubts that there is something in her body with her that shouldn't exist.
Characters Present:
- Wanderer
- Melanie
- Wanderer had not had a sense of smell in her past species
- Human emotions are much stronger than any of Wanderer's past species'
- Wanderer had never felt hatred before
- Fleeing from Seekers caused Melanie's near-death
- It isn't normal for the host's consciousness to linger after an insertion
- Melanie is still in her body with Wanderer
- There is a man important to Melanie whom she accidentally reveals to Wanderer
"I knew it would begin with the end, and the end would look like death to these eyes. I had been warned." ~Wanderer
"There is a way. No way to survive, but perhaps a way to win." ~Melanie
"Mine, spoke the alien thought that should not exist. [...] Mine, I rebuked her, the power and authority that belonged to me alone flowing through the word. Everything is mine." ~Wanderer
Summary prepared by: Alcyone
Reprinted with permission from The Host Index
