Chapter 1078: 1078 Chapter 63- Various – During the Reveal Part 1 (VOLUME 6)
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1078 Chapter 63- Various – During the Reveal Part 1 (VOLUME 6)
*** These next couple of chapters will be told from the point of view of various people. These people will be those that were watching the broadcast as it happened and their responses to what was revealed to the world. This is to give you an insight into how the people of the world are reacting. Not just the negative but the positive and indifferent as well. Personally, I feel that this information is important to the story, and I hope that you all agree with me as well. ***
*~~* Los Angeles, California *~~*
When this day started, I didn’t know what it was that I was going to see on the television while I was having a late breakfast with some of my friends from university. I was in my late thirties now, but that didn’t stop me from getting together with my friends from time to time. Especially when I was back in L.A. for work. My wife and I lived in Michigan, and therefore it wasn’t often that I got to see these friends of mine.
I was a little sad that I wasn’t going to get to see my closest friends while I was here. Even now, almost twenty years after we had met, I was still really close to Ocean and Makai. They had moved to Colorado though, a recent move that they had just made a few months ago. That was fine. We were planning on visiting them over the holiday, it was a tradition of ours. And I was no stranger to snow, unlike Ocean and Makai. They had lived in California most of their lives. And before that, Makai had lived in Florida.
“Hey Derek!” I heard Jason call out to me. “Over here man.”
“Hey!” I waved at the group of friends that I hadn’t seen in a while.
“Come on, let’s order soon. I am starving.” Owen joked.
“Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on.” I shook my head at him and rushed over. I shook their hands, high fived, or hugged them in greeting as I sat at the end of one of the benches. “So, what’s good?” I picked up the menu.
“Psshh.” Nick scoffed at me. “Come on man, we’ve only been eating here since college, you know what is good.” He was right about that. And I had already known what I was going to get even before I got here. Still, I always looked at the menu to check and see if it had changed.
.....
We placed out orders for our meal, sipped on our drinks, and started to catch up on our lives. There was a football game playing in the background. I wasn’t all that interested in it, but I knew that Jason was. He was watching it intently as he tried to keep up with the conversation. So, when it was interrupted we all knew about it immediately.
“What the hell?” He said shocked as he looked at the screen. “Come on, bring back the game, dammit!”
“What is going on?” Nick asked as he turned to face the screen.
“Some sort of special broadcast.” Jason shrugged. “I don’t care about that, I want to watch the game.”
“Well, maybe it’s important.” I told him as I focused on it.
I didn’t know what was going on at first, but I knew that there were a few people that I recognized on the TV. Standing among the group behind the man and woman that were the main focus of the broadcast were Analise and Reef Rivers. Makai’s parents. What were they doing there?
I listened raptly after that, as did everyone else that was watching. I mean, there was no other choice. This broadcast had started to come through on our phones as well. And no matter what channel the waitress tried to change the TV to, it was always the same. This broadcast was literally commanding every station and smart phone that there was.
I listened as the woman on the screen told the world about the existence of people that weren’t human. They mentioned werewolves, vampires, merfolk, and others. I felt a bubble of excitement starting to build inside of me. I was happy in that moment for reasons that most of the people in the world wouldn’t understand.
This broadcast wasn’t telling me anything that I didn’t know. I had known since my second year in college that there were nonhuman people in the world. In fact, those friends of mine, Ocean and Makai, were among them. And so were Analise and Reef.
“Wh..what?” I heard Jason exclaim in shock when he saw the people on the screen change their forms. “This has to be a joke, doesn’t it?”
“It has to be.” Nick was shaking his head. “I mean, creatures like that are not real.”
“Yeah, it has to be special effects.” Owen was obviously not convinced by his own words.
“YES!” I had leapt to my feet and started to cheer loudly. The entire restaurant was looking at me in that moment, their eyes no longer glued to the TV. “YES! YES! YES! YES!”
“What is the matter with you?” Owen asked me worriedly.
“I don’t have to hide it anymore. I don’t have to hide the fact that two of my best friends in the entire world are not human. The fact that they exist is now known to the world. OH, SHIT! This is so exciting! YES! YES! YES!”
“Wait, what?” Nick looked at me with eyes as wide as saucers. “You knew that there were nonhumans in the world?”
“Yup. For close to twenty years now. And now I don’t have to hide it. This is awesome.”
“Wait, two of your best friends? A..are you talking about Ocean and Makai?” Owen’s jaw dropped as he asked me that.
“Yes. Makai is a Merman, and Ocean is a Siren. I have known this for a long time. I mean, it’s been almost seventeen years since I found out about them, and I am so excited that the rest of the world can know that these amazing people actually exist now.”
“You have met people like them before?” A man across the restaurant asked me with his mouth hanging open in shock. His face was also pale, he was clearly scared.
“Yeah. And they are the nicest people in the world. There are more people like them that there are humans. They have lived here for as long as we have, and there is nothing to worry about.” I was trying to help these people understand what was happening at the moment.
“He’s right.” A petite woman walked toward me. She was a waitress and I saw that she was nervous. “I..I am one of them. I..I am a Mermaid.” She looked nervously around the room, her pink hair swaying as she turned her head quickly. “We are not here to hurt anyone. We just want to live our lives like the rest of you. Just like Queen Trinity said.” There was a moment of silence that followed the woman’s declaration before another person stood up.
“I am a Fae. I am a descendant of the gods and closely bonded to nature. My people help to preserve the world and keep the natural balance of nature. We don’t like violence and strive for peace.” This woman had long flowing brown hair and warm chocolate eyes. Her complexion, a spiced mocha color, fit her perfectly. She looked to me like she was closely related to trees, or something else earthy like that.
“S..s..so there are two of you here right now. A..and you know two more?”
“I know a lot more than two. I just mentioned the two.” I grinned at the cook that had stepped to the counter. He was looking at his waitress with large, wondering eyes. “A..and you, Nadia, you have been working here with me for five years. Y..you’re not human?” The woman shook her head.
“No Dev, I am not. I..is that OK?” She looked scared and nervous now.
“Well, I am shocked, that is for sure. B..but I have known you for a long time. I know your family, and I know how good of a person that you are. In my opinion, that is all that matters.”
“Thank you, Dev.” She blushed as she looked at him and applause rang up at her words.
“YES! See, we’re all still the same people, it’s just a new understanding of the world.” The restaurant was far from full, but seeing that they were all accepting of the nonhumans that were here was a nice feeling. I hoped that it would be like this for the rest of the people that learned the truth.
*~~* Denver, Colorado *~~*
I had been busy on this for months. Long before I took the information to my supervisors and got permission to officially pursue this as a case. Long before I got those strange lab test results. I had been hunting for the truth for so long, and then this happened.
Just the other day I had called Reece Gray and talked to him about the findings. I was hoping that he would slip up and tell me what he really was. I mean, I didn’t really think that he would do that, he was a smart man after all, but I had hoped that I might be able to catch him off guard and force something out of him. That hadn’t happened though, and I was left twiddling my thumbs.
Now, though, as we were busy trying to figure out the truth of what was happening in this world. Trying to find answers to why various FBI agents and other people involved with the Grays weren’t aging. Why the Grays were involved in police cases that went back twenty years. And just what it was that these people were, and where they all came from, the truth was revealed for us.
I was working at my desk, my computer screen showing me file after file with information that I had collected recently. Then, all of a sudden, there was an emergency broadcast that was coming from every computer, phone, and other device connected to the internet or a broadcast network. This was something that came as a shock to us all, and we needed to know why it was happening.
As some of us listened to what was being said in the broadcast, others were making call after call. I was on hold waiting for a call to the pentagon when I heard the substance of the broadcast.
Trinity and Reece Gray were on the screen to tell the world that they weren’t human. They mentioned in their little speech that there were people that wanted to expose them to the world, so they thought that they would do it on their own terms. The people that they were referring to was me and my team. We wanted the world to know that there were monsters living among us. I knew that the Grays had to have been something like vampires, they never aged over the last twenty years. Or at least they had barely aged.
As it turned out though, the Grays were werewolves, but there were a lot of people with them that weren’t human. Werewolves, Vampires, witches, Fae, shifters of all sorts, they were all real and they lived among us.
“D..did they say that more people were like them than not?” I heard Agent Austin ask in a shaking voice. “There are that many of them in the world?”
“No, there can’t be.” I shook my head and stared at the screen. “They are lying. And they are also breaking the law right now. This is an illegal broadcast.”
“Actually, it isn’t.” A voice spoke to me over the phone. “This broadcast has been given executive approval by the president and by several other nations. This isn’t just a national broadcast, but a worldwide broadcast. And they are not lying, there are more nonhumans in the world than there are humans. Now, if you are calling for the same thing that the others are, then this conversation is over. Our lines are obviously overwhelmed with all of you contacting us at once. What they are saying is true. Listen to them and accept them. They’ve lived among us since the dawn of time.” The line went dead in my ear.
“What the hell?” I looked at the phone.
“Orson?” Austin was looking at me warily. “What happened?”
“Th..the pentagon said that it’s all true. And that they have permission for this broadcast. It’s global. They aren’t human. And there are apparently more of them than there are of us.” I felt my heart nearly stop as I repeated the information. It was just so hard for me to process it all.
“Are you serious?” The entire office seemed to echo that to me at once.
“What is going to happen with our case?” Agent West asked in a tone of dread. And at that moment I heard the last voice that I wanted to hear at the moment.
“Your investigation is done. You are not to pursue this anymore at all.” I looked up into my superior’s eyes as he stood on the balcony over us all. His office was on the floor above that looked over the pen, that was what we called the area our desks were all gathered at.
“Sir, you can’t do this. Please, Director Glick, they aren’t human. They are monsters. We need to arrest them all.”
“Arrest half the country? Why? Have they committed crimes? Have they done anything wrong at all? Even the Grays, that you were so focused on, have they done anything wrong? Or did you just not like them stepping in to help with the investigation?”
“W..well, I assumed that there had to be corruption among that FBI office. I mean, why else let private citizens help them look for those murderers?”
“Well, now you know. They were looking for the monstrous humans that were hunting their people. They are innocent, and they are not to be investigated until they actually commit a crime. Do you understand me, Orson?”
“Yes sir, but I know that they have to be-.”
“DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, ORSON?” He snapped at me loudly then.
“Yes, sir.” I nodded and felt myself deflating. This was the shittiest way to end my investigation. Everything that I had been working for, it was all gone. All of it. The world had been told about these nonhumans, and there were no charges that I could bring against them. Dammit! What was I supposed to do now, huh? Did they expect me to just accept these people and move on?
What the hell was wrong with everyone? Why were they so ready to just accept that they weren’t human and move on? How could they be OK with these monsters living among us?
“Well, I guess that’s the end of it.” Austin sighed as he started to gather his materials. They were files that we had been building for months.
“No, that isn’t the end of it.” I glared at the balcony where Director Glick had so recently been. “I am not letting this go. Those monsters aren’t going to get away with this. Not on my watch.”
I would make these people pay. I would see to it that the world was ours once again. I didn’t care if I had to do this without the support of my boss, I would free our society from those beasts. And I knew that I wasn’t going to be the only one that felt this way.
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1078 Chapter 63- Various – During the Reveal Part 1 (VOLUME 6)
*** These next couple of chapters will be told from the point of view of various people. These people will be those that were watching the broadcast as it happened and their responses to what was revealed to the world. This is to give you an insight into how the people of the world are reacting. Not just the negative but the positive and indifferent as well. Personally, I feel that this information is important to the story, and I hope that you all agree with me as well. ***
*~~* Los Angeles, California *~~*
When this day started, I didn’t know what it was that I was going to see on the television while I was having a late breakfast with some of my friends from university. I was in my late thirties now, but that didn’t stop me from getting together with my friends from time to time. Especially when I was back in L.A. for work. My wife and I lived in Michigan, and therefore it wasn’t often that I got to see these friends of mine.
I was a little sad that I wasn’t going to get to see my closest friends while I was here. Even now, almost twenty years after we had met, I was still really close to Ocean and Makai. They had moved to Colorado though, a recent move that they had just made a few months ago. That was fine. We were planning on visiting them over the holiday, it was a tradition of ours. And I was no stranger to snow, unlike Ocean and Makai. They had lived in California most of their lives. And before that, Makai had lived in Florida.
“Hey Derek!” I heard Jason call out to me. “Over here man.”
“Hey!” I waved at the group of friends that I hadn’t seen in a while.
“Come on, let’s order soon. I am starving.” Owen joked.
“Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on.” I shook my head at him and rushed over. I shook their hands, high fived, or hugged them in greeting as I sat at the end of one of the benches. “So, what’s good?” I picked up the menu.
“Psshh.” Nick scoffed at me. “Come on man, we’ve only been eating here since college, you know what is good.” He was right about that. And I had already known what I was going to get even before I got here. Still, I always looked at the menu to check and see if it had changed.
.....
We placed out orders for our meal, sipped on our drinks, and started to catch up on our lives. There was a football game playing in the background. I wasn’t all that interested in it, but I knew that Jason was. He was watching it intently as he tried to keep up with the conversation. So, when it was interrupted we all knew about it immediately.
“What the hell?” He said shocked as he looked at the screen. “Come on, bring back the game, dammit!”
“What is going on?” Nick asked as he turned to face the screen.
“Some sort of special broadcast.” Jason shrugged. “I don’t care about that, I want to watch the game.”
“Well, maybe it’s important.” I told him as I focused on it.
I didn’t know what was going on at first, but I knew that there were a few people that I recognized on the TV. Standing among the group behind the man and woman that were the main focus of the broadcast were Analise and Reef Rivers. Makai’s parents. What were they doing there?
I listened raptly after that, as did everyone else that was watching. I mean, there was no other choice. This broadcast had started to come through on our phones as well. And no matter what channel the waitress tried to change the TV to, it was always the same. This broadcast was literally commanding every station and smart phone that there was.
I listened as the woman on the screen told the world about the existence of people that weren’t human. They mentioned werewolves, vampires, merfolk, and others. I felt a bubble of excitement starting to build inside of me. I was happy in that moment for reasons that most of the people in the world wouldn’t understand.
This broadcast wasn’t telling me anything that I didn’t know. I had known since my second year in college that there were nonhuman people in the world. In fact, those friends of mine, Ocean and Makai, were among them. And so were Analise and Reef.
“Wh..what?” I heard Jason exclaim in shock when he saw the people on the screen change their forms. “This has to be a joke, doesn’t it?”
“It has to be.” Nick was shaking his head. “I mean, creatures like that are not real.”
“Yeah, it has to be special effects.” Owen was obviously not convinced by his own words.
“YES!” I had leapt to my feet and started to cheer loudly. The entire restaurant was looking at me in that moment, their eyes no longer glued to the TV. “YES! YES! YES! YES!”
“What is the matter with you?” Owen asked me worriedly.
“I don’t have to hide it anymore. I don’t have to hide the fact that two of my best friends in the entire world are not human. The fact that they exist is now known to the world. OH, SHIT! This is so exciting! YES! YES! YES!”
“Wait, what?” Nick looked at me with eyes as wide as saucers. “You knew that there were nonhumans in the world?”
“Yup. For close to twenty years now. And now I don’t have to hide it. This is awesome.”
“Wait, two of your best friends? A..are you talking about Ocean and Makai?” Owen’s jaw dropped as he asked me that.
“Yes. Makai is a Merman, and Ocean is a Siren. I have known this for a long time. I mean, it’s been almost seventeen years since I found out about them, and I am so excited that the rest of the world can know that these amazing people actually exist now.”
“You have met people like them before?” A man across the restaurant asked me with his mouth hanging open in shock. His face was also pale, he was clearly scared.
“Yeah. And they are the nicest people in the world. There are more people like them that there are humans. They have lived here for as long as we have, and there is nothing to worry about.” I was trying to help these people understand what was happening at the moment.
“He’s right.” A petite woman walked toward me. She was a waitress and I saw that she was nervous. “I..I am one of them. I..I am a Mermaid.” She looked nervously around the room, her pink hair swaying as she turned her head quickly. “We are not here to hurt anyone. We just want to live our lives like the rest of you. Just like Queen Trinity said.” There was a moment of silence that followed the woman’s declaration before another person stood up.
“I am a Fae. I am a descendant of the gods and closely bonded to nature. My people help to preserve the world and keep the natural balance of nature. We don’t like violence and strive for peace.” This woman had long flowing brown hair and warm chocolate eyes. Her complexion, a spiced mocha color, fit her perfectly. She looked to me like she was closely related to trees, or something else earthy like that.
“S..s..so there are two of you here right now. A..and you know two more?”
“I know a lot more than two. I just mentioned the two.” I grinned at the cook that had stepped to the counter. He was looking at his waitress with large, wondering eyes. “A..and you, Nadia, you have been working here with me for five years. Y..you’re not human?” The woman shook her head.
“No Dev, I am not. I..is that OK?” She looked scared and nervous now.
“Well, I am shocked, that is for sure. B..but I have known you for a long time. I know your family, and I know how good of a person that you are. In my opinion, that is all that matters.”
“Thank you, Dev.” She blushed as she looked at him and applause rang up at her words.
“YES! See, we’re all still the same people, it’s just a new understanding of the world.” The restaurant was far from full, but seeing that they were all accepting of the nonhumans that were here was a nice feeling. I hoped that it would be like this for the rest of the people that learned the truth.
*~~* Denver, Colorado *~~*
I had been busy on this for months. Long before I took the information to my supervisors and got permission to officially pursue this as a case. Long before I got those strange lab test results. I had been hunting for the truth for so long, and then this happened.
Just the other day I had called Reece Gray and talked to him about the findings. I was hoping that he would slip up and tell me what he really was. I mean, I didn’t really think that he would do that, he was a smart man after all, but I had hoped that I might be able to catch him off guard and force something out of him. That hadn’t happened though, and I was left twiddling my thumbs.
Now, though, as we were busy trying to figure out the truth of what was happening in this world. Trying to find answers to why various FBI agents and other people involved with the Grays weren’t aging. Why the Grays were involved in police cases that went back twenty years. And just what it was that these people were, and where they all came from, the truth was revealed for us.
I was working at my desk, my computer screen showing me file after file with information that I had collected recently. Then, all of a sudden, there was an emergency broadcast that was coming from every computer, phone, and other device connected to the internet or a broadcast network. This was something that came as a shock to us all, and we needed to know why it was happening.
As some of us listened to what was being said in the broadcast, others were making call after call. I was on hold waiting for a call to the pentagon when I heard the substance of the broadcast.
Trinity and Reece Gray were on the screen to tell the world that they weren’t human. They mentioned in their little speech that there were people that wanted to expose them to the world, so they thought that they would do it on their own terms. The people that they were referring to was me and my team. We wanted the world to know that there were monsters living among us. I knew that the Grays had to have been something like vampires, they never aged over the last twenty years. Or at least they had barely aged.
As it turned out though, the Grays were werewolves, but there were a lot of people with them that weren’t human. Werewolves, Vampires, witches, Fae, shifters of all sorts, they were all real and they lived among us.
“D..did they say that more people were like them than not?” I heard Agent Austin ask in a shaking voice. “There are that many of them in the world?”
“No, there can’t be.” I shook my head and stared at the screen. “They are lying. And they are also breaking the law right now. This is an illegal broadcast.”
“Actually, it isn’t.” A voice spoke to me over the phone. “This broadcast has been given executive approval by the president and by several other nations. This isn’t just a national broadcast, but a worldwide broadcast. And they are not lying, there are more nonhumans in the world than there are humans. Now, if you are calling for the same thing that the others are, then this conversation is over. Our lines are obviously overwhelmed with all of you contacting us at once. What they are saying is true. Listen to them and accept them. They’ve lived among us since the dawn of time.” The line went dead in my ear.
“What the hell?” I looked at the phone.
“Orson?” Austin was looking at me warily. “What happened?”
“Th..the pentagon said that it’s all true. And that they have permission for this broadcast. It’s global. They aren’t human. And there are apparently more of them than there are of us.” I felt my heart nearly stop as I repeated the information. It was just so hard for me to process it all.
“Are you serious?” The entire office seemed to echo that to me at once.
“What is going to happen with our case?” Agent West asked in a tone of dread. And at that moment I heard the last voice that I wanted to hear at the moment.
“Your investigation is done. You are not to pursue this anymore at all.” I looked up into my superior’s eyes as he stood on the balcony over us all. His office was on the floor above that looked over the pen, that was what we called the area our desks were all gathered at.
“Sir, you can’t do this. Please, Director Glick, they aren’t human. They are monsters. We need to arrest them all.”
“Arrest half the country? Why? Have they committed crimes? Have they done anything wrong at all? Even the Grays, that you were so focused on, have they done anything wrong? Or did you just not like them stepping in to help with the investigation?”
“W..well, I assumed that there had to be corruption among that FBI office. I mean, why else let private citizens help them look for those murderers?”
“Well, now you know. They were looking for the monstrous humans that were hunting their people. They are innocent, and they are not to be investigated until they actually commit a crime. Do you understand me, Orson?”
“Yes sir, but I know that they have to be-.”
“DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, ORSON?” He snapped at me loudly then.
“Yes, sir.” I nodded and felt myself deflating. This was the shittiest way to end my investigation. Everything that I had been working for, it was all gone. All of it. The world had been told about these nonhumans, and there were no charges that I could bring against them. Dammit! What was I supposed to do now, huh? Did they expect me to just accept these people and move on?
What the hell was wrong with everyone? Why were they so ready to just accept that they weren’t human and move on? How could they be OK with these monsters living among us?
“Well, I guess that’s the end of it.” Austin sighed as he started to gather his materials. They were files that we had been building for months.
“No, that isn’t the end of it.” I glared at the balcony where Director Glick had so recently been. “I am not letting this go. Those monsters aren’t going to get away with this. Not on my watch.”
I would make these people pay. I would see to it that the world was ours once again. I didn’t care if I had to do this without the support of my boss, I would free our society from those beasts. And I knew that I wasn’t going to be the only one that felt this way.
1078 Chapter 63- Various During the Reveal Part 1 VOLUME 6*** These next couple of chapters will be told from the point of view of various people. These people will be those that were watching the broadcast as it happened and their responses to what was revealed to the world. This is to give you an insight into how the people of the world are reacting. Not just the negative but the positive and indifferent as well. Personally, I feel that this information is important to the story, and I hope that you all agree with me as well. ****~~* Los Angeles, California *~~*When this day started, I didn't know what it was that I was going to see on the television while I was having a late breakfast with some of my friends from university. I was in my late thirties now, but that didn't stop me from getting together with my friends from time to time. Especially when I was back in L.A. for work. My wife and I lived in Michigan, and therefore it wasn't often that I got to see these friends of mine.I was a little sad that I wasn't going to get to see my closest friends while I was here. Even now, almost twenty years after we had met, I was still really close to Ocean and Makai. They had moved to Colorado though, a recent move that they had just made a few months ago. That was fine. We were planning on visiting them over the holiday, it was a tradition of ours. And I was no stranger to snow, unlike Ocean and Makai. They had lived in California most of their lives. And before that, Makai had lived in Florida.Hey Derek! I heard Jason call out to me. Over here man.Hey! I waved at the group of friends that I hadn't seen in a while.Come on, let's order soon. I am starving. Owen joked.Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on. I shook my head at him and rushed over. I shook their hands, high fived, or hugged them in greeting as I sat at the end of one of the benches. So, what's good? I picked up the menu.Psshh. Nick scoffed at me. Come on man, we've only been eating here since college, you know what is good. He was right about that. And I had already known what I was going to get even before I got here. Still, I always looked at the menu to check and see if it had changed......We placed out orders for our meal, sipped on our drinks, and started to catch up on our lives. There was a football game playing in the background. I wasn't all that interested in it, but I knew that Jason was. He was watching it intently as he tried to keep up with the conversation. So, when it was interrupted we all knew about it immediately.What the hell? He said shocked as he looked at the screen. Come on, bring back the game, dammit!What is going on? Nick asked as he turned to face the screen.Some sort of special broadcast. Jason shrugged. I don't care about that, I want to watch the game.Well, maybe it's important. I told him as I focused on it.I didn't know what was going on at first, but I knew that there were a few people that I recognized on the TV. Standing among the group behind the man and woman that were the main focus of the broadcast were Analise and Reef Rivers. Makai's parents. What were they doing there?I listened raptly after that, as did everyone else that was watching. I mean, there was no other choice. This broadcast had started to come through on our phones as well. And no matter what channel the waitress tried to change the TV to, it was always the same. This broadcast was literally commanding every station and smart phone that there was.I listened as the woman on the screen told the world about the existence of people that weren't human. They mentioned werewolves, vampires, merfolk, and others. I felt a bubble of excitement starting to build inside of me. I was happy in that moment for reasons that most of the people in the world wouldn't understand.This broadcast wasn't telling me anything that I didn't know. I had known since my second year in college that there were nonhuman people in the world. In fact, those friends of mine, Ocean and Makai, were among them. And so were Analise and Reef.Wh..what? I heard Jason exclaim in shock when he saw the people on the screen change their forms. This has to be a joke, doesn't it?It has to be. Nick was shaking his head. I mean, creatures like that are not real.Yeah, it has to be special effects. Owen was obviously not convinced by his own words.YES! I had leapt to my feet and started to cheer loudly. The entire restaurant was looking at me in that moment, their eyes no longer glued to the TV. YES! YES! YES! YES!What is the matter with you? Owen asked me worriedly.I don't have to hide it anymore. I don't have to hide the fact that two of my best friends in the entire world are not human. The fact that they exist is now known to the world. OH, SHIT! This is so exciting! YES! YES! YES!Wait, what? Nick looked at me with eyes as wide as saucers. You knew that there were nonhumans in the world?Yup. For close to twenty years now. And now I don't have to hide it. This is awesome.Wait, two of your best friends? A..are you talking about Ocean and Makai? Owen's jaw dropped as he asked me that.Yes. Makai is a Merman, and Ocean is a Siren. I have known this for a long time. I mean, it's been almost seventeen years since I found out about them, and I am so excited that the rest of the world can know that these amazing people actually exist now.You have met people like them before? A man across the restaurant asked me with his mouth hanging open in shock. His face was also pale, he was clearly scared.Yeah. And they are the nicest people in the world. There are more people like them that there are humans. They have lived here for as long as we have, and there is nothing to worry about. I was trying to help these people understand what was happening at the moment.He's right. A petite woman walked toward me. She was a waitress and I saw that she was nervous. I..I am one of them. I..I am a Mermaid. She looked nervously around the room, her pink hair swaying as she turned her head quickly. We are not here to hurt anyone. We just want to live our lives like the rest of you. Just like Queen Trinity said. There was a moment of silence that followed the woman's declaration before another person stood up.I am a Fae. I am a descendant of the gods and closely bonded to nature. My people help to preserve the world and keep the natural balance of nature. We don't like violence and strive for peace. This woman had long flowing brown hair and warm chocolate eyes. Her complexion, a spiced mocha color, fit her perfectly. She looked to me like she was closely related to trees, or something else earthy like that.S..s..so there are two of you here right now. A..and you know two more?I know a lot more than two. I just mentioned the two. I grinned at the cook that had stepped to the counter. He was looking at his waitress with large, wondering eyes. A..and you, Nadia, you have been working here with me for five years. Y..you're not human? The woman shook her head.No Dev, I am not. I..is that OK? She looked scared and nervous now.Well, I am shocked, that is for sure. B..but I have known you for a long time. I know your family, and I know how good of a person that you are. In my opinion, that is all that matters.Thank you, Dev. She blushed as she looked at him and applause rang up at her words.YES! See, we're all still the same people, it's just a new understanding of the world. The restaurant was far from full, but seeing that they were all accepting of the nonhumans that were here was a nice feeling. I hoped that it would be like this for the rest of the people that learned the truth.*~~* Denver, Colorado *~~*I had been busy on this for months. Long before I took the information to my supervisors and got permission to officially pursue this as a case. Long before I got those strange lab test results. I had been hunting for the truth for so long, and then this happened.Just the other day I had called Reece Gray and talked to him about the findings. I was hoping that he would slip up and tell me what he really was. I mean, I didn't really think that he would do that, he was a smart man after all, but I had hoped that I might be able to catch him off guard and force something out of him. That hadn't happened though, and I was left twiddling my thumbs.Now, though, as we were busy trying to figure out the truth of what was happening in this world. Trying to find answers to why various FBI agents and other people involved with the Grays weren't aging. Why the Grays were involved in police cases that went back twenty years. And just what it was that these people were, and where they all came from, the truth was revealed for us.I was working at my desk, my computer screen showing me file after file with information that I had collected recently. Then, all of a sudden, there was an emergency broadcast that was coming from every computer, phone, and other device connected to the internet or a broadcast network. This was something that came as a shock to us all, and we needed to know why it was happening.As some of us listened to what was being said in the broadcast, others were making call after call. I was on hold waiting for a call to the pentagon when I heard the substance of the broadcast.Trinity and Reece Gray were on the screen to tell the world that they weren't human. They mentioned in their little speech that there were people that wanted to expose them to the world, so they thought that they would do it on their own terms. The people that they were referring to was me and my team. We wanted the world to know that there were monsters living among us. I knew that the Grays had to have been something like vampires, they never aged over the last twenty years. Or at least they had barely aged.As it turned out though, the Grays were werewolves, but there were a lot of people with them that weren't human. Werewolves, Vampires, witches, Fae, shifters of all sorts, they were all real and they lived among us.D..did they say that more people were like them than not? I heard Agent Austin ask in a shaking voice. There are that many of them in the world?No, there can't be. I shook my head and stared at the screen. They are lying. And they are also breaking the law right now. This is an illegal broadcast.Actually, it isn't. A voice spoke to me over the phone. This broadcast has been given executive approval by the president and by several other nations. This isn't just a national broadcast, but a worldwide broadcast. And they are not lying, there are more nonhumans in the world than there are humans. Now, if you are calling for the same thing that the others are, then this conversation is over. Our lines are obviously overwhelmed with all of you contacting us at once. What they are saying is true. Listen to them and accept them. They've lived among us since the dawn of time. The line went dead in my ear.What the hell? I looked at the phone.Orson? Austin was looking at me warily. What happened?Th..the pentagon said that it's all true. And that they have permission for this broadcast. It's global. They aren't human. And there are apparently more of them than there are of us. I felt my heart nearly stop as I repeated the information. It was just so hard for me to process it all.Are you serious? The entire office seemed to echo that to me at once.What is going to happen with our case? Agent West asked in a tone of dread. And at that moment I heard the last voice that I wanted to hear at the moment.Your investigation is done. You are not to pursue this anymore at all. I looked up into my superior's eyes as he stood on the balcony over us all. His office was on the floor above that looked over the pen, that was what we called the area our desks were all gathered at.Sir, you can't do this. Please, Director Glick, they aren't human. They are monsters. We need to arrest them all.Arrest half the country? Why? Have they committed crimes? Have they done anything wrong at all? Even the Grays, that you were so focused on, have they done anything wrong? Or did you just not like them stepping in to help with the investigation?W..well, I assumed that there had to be corruption among that FBI office. I mean, why else let private citizens help them look for those murderers?Well, now you know. They were looking for the monstrous humans that were hunting their people. They are innocent, and they are not to be investigated until they actually commit a crime. Do you understand me, Orson?Yes sir, but I know that they have to be-.DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, ORSON? He snapped at me loudly then.Yes, sir. I nodded and felt myself deflating. This was the shittiest way to end my investigation. Everything that I had been working for, it was all gone. All of it. The world had been told about these nonhumans, and there were no charges that I could bring against them. Dammit! What was I supposed to do now, huh? Did they expect me to just accept these people and move on?What the hell was wrong with everyone? Why were they so ready to just accept that they weren't human and move on? How could they be OK with these monsters living among us?Well, I guess that's the end of it. Austin sighed as he started to gather his materials. They were files that we had been building for months.No, that isn't the end of it. I glared at the balcony where Director Glick had so recently been. I am not letting this go. Those monsters aren't going to get away with this. Not on my watch. I would make these people pay. I would see to it that the world was ours once again. I didn't care if I had to do this without the support of my boss, I would free our society from those beasts. And I knew that I wasn't going to be the only one that felt this way.
