Day 10
I’m slipping. I’m losing myself to this monster. At first the scientists said we were harmless. Then they started hunting us. Those of us who could run left the city in hope of survival. Those who couldn’t were wiped out. I found refuge in a forest. It’s perfect for hiding, but it’s dull. Every day is the same. Today I wake up to sunlight pouring through the hot humid air, occasionally blocked by the leafy green tree canopy. I stumble out of my hut and splash my face with the icy water from a small rocky creek that runs by my hastily thrown together shack. ”Good morning, Skree,” I growl as I sense her waking up.
”Please, she begs me, “Don’t be mad, this is what I need to survive,”.

I snap, “My life was perfect! I was living in a beautiful city, about to graduate high school. My family, who by the way I can’t even remember was still ...!” I hear clumsy feet stumbling over the fallen trees and press my body to the rough bark of a towering oak. There’s another pair. Another parasite, taking it’s human for a walk. It looks like the human is gone, no longer in control. It’s after Skree, but if she dies, I die. I’m not sure why, but that’s just how it works. The scientists figured this out pretty quickly when they first tried to remove the parasites.
Day 11
I must look insane, talking to Skree, after all she’s living in my head. I look at my reflection in the creek and see that my once light skin has been caked with dirt, mud, and dried blood from last night’s dinner. ”Good morning,” Skree murmurs sleepily, “Good to see you’re still functional after encountering the other parasite yesterday, I thought we were vulture food for sure. ” We sit in silence, me eating breakfast and drinking the frigid creek water out of my hands while Skree, the parasite that she is, absorbs everything.
“Why,” I ask, finally breaking the silence, “Why are you and the other parasites doing this to me and other people, why do you taking over our bodies and minds? Why do you take our memories?” I can sense her discomfort. She’s afraid of what I might discover. “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me, I’ll figure it out eventually, you know,” I add.
Day 20
She’s getting stronger. Skree isn’t the type to give in after the effort she has made to keep that information away from me, so I’m still in the dark about why she is still here ruining my life. I’m getting tired. The scientists said this would happen. They say as the parasite grows it uses more and more of the host’s oxygen until there isn’t enough for both and the host goes into some sort of coma. Soon that will be me, so I take one last try and look into Skree. As her host I can see her mind, her past, her memories the same way she can see what’s left of mine. I catch her off guard this time normally I’m unable to get very far into her past before she stops me. Images flood my head, and at last I’m able to piece it together. I see her brown, scaly snake like body slithering onto a rickety old spacecraft and saying goodbye. Her planet was dying. She and some others were re-located to earth. They are forced to inhabit the body of their human hosts in order to survive in our climate. I pull myself out of her memories.  “ See,” Skree tells me as I drift off , my consciousness fading, “I’m just doing what I have to, we all are…”