Though she had shared much of the previous night's strangeness with the twilight patrons of the Cliffside Cafe, Audrey had still not shared the greatest mystery. Just at the moment that the Greenbriar Lights, the mysterious aurorea that had heralded her birth, returned, she had been at the beach to witness and old friend, Solomon Majumdar, burn white hot and launch into the air like some kind of rocket. A few others had seen this light show as it -he, rather- streaked across the sky, back and forth for hours. But nobody had been able to tell her where he might have gone to after he finally hit the horizon, not to return.
Audrey herself had gone home that night, for the first time in two years. She was immensely revealed not to have made her homecoming with her father or grandfather, however. It was her grandmother who had opened the door when she knocked. She had told her husband and son, both lazing in front of the TV in the living room, that it was a mistaken knock, while quietly ushering Audrey up to her old room. It had hardly been touched, and nobody had any reason to go in, so Audrey was safe from facing her estranged family until a later date. After they both left to open the shop, Aud crept out of her room, thanked her grandmother, and made her way to the alley down the street where she had parked her motorcycle.
The town was visibly changed, already. The most obvious change was the newcomers. There were reporters, photographers(too late for the lights, but hoping for something print worthy) and a whole slew of scientists. There were also some suits. Mysterious folks who, though they didn't seem to be doing anything in particular, were immediately pegged as outsiders by the locals. Though the lights had appeared only last night, the miracle of the internet ensured that everyone who might want to come take a look knew about the event within minutes. Some of these had surely driven in from as close as Seatle, but Audrey reckoned there must be a few who had caught a midnight flight from the other Washington.
Audrey walked her bike out of the alley, but didn't mount it yet. She was caught up watching some of the strangers pass her by on the street.
The night had arrived quickly, and with it came the lights that heralded his own birth. His own defiance of odds.
Buster had left his dojo some time after sunset, riding his bike home to catch some well needed sleep before his early morning began the next day. But as he rode in the dark, the coastal horizon leapt into color. Lights danced across the night sky and without a thought Buster's bicycle came to a sudden halt.
That's weird... I didn't press the brakes. I didn't hit anything, I'm still on the seat. What the hell?
As Buster sat and contemplated this strange cessation of motion when all of a sudden he detected a bright light from his right periphery. His eyes dashed toward them, two bright lights. Growing quickly.
Those are headlights! This is the road. Jump Buster, goddamnit jump and you might live.
And jump he did, signals fired through his brain and the command to jump raced through his muscles and as they tensed to move he found himself not frightened into immobility, but in a sea of molasses. His body moved sluggishly, like he was on a sunday stroll rather than diving for his life.
Damnit I'm dead. His final thoughts, simple as they might have been, rattled in his head as the truck turned him into a fine paste on the asphalt. Or tried to at least.
Wait. Shit. I'm not. Why is my arm suddenly cold?
Buster's sudden chill was in fact the cold windblown steel of the truck's front end set lightly along his right forearm. Halfway off of his bike, mid leap, buster paused and fell right onto his head.
Ow- wu...wu..wait that's supposed to hurt.
In fact buster landed like a feather on the ground. His fall imparting no harm upon him. As he sluggishly regained his footing the driver of the car, Alphonso, who delivered for the local specialty shop rushed to look at the corpse he had just made and instead found an undamaged bicycle and more surprisingly an undamaged eighteen year old man.
“Are you okay? I guess I owe it to myself for horanging Mr. Gutierrez to change those brake pads. I almost sent you flying didn't I?”
Buster honestly wasn't sure if he was okay.
“I... I think so. I mean I'm not dead. It's okay Al, you stopped in time. Keep an eye out though, now that it's summer lots of kids are out at night. I'm real tired, so I gotta get home. I won't rat on you.”
“Oh shit kid. I will. Fuck I don't think either of us are gonna be that lucky for a while. Used up a whole lotta karma on that one huh? Fuck g'night kid and thanks I don't need Manny riding me any more than he does.”
“It's no problem Al, I ain't mad. Drive safe. Maybe call out sick and get some shut eye, you musta been tired”
“Okay I will.” And as Alphonso reentered his truck, Buster, with perhaps a little too much effort, trudged his bike and body to the curb.
What the hell was that? Al was going 35 in that 25 zone easy, there's no way he had enough time to stop. The newest brakes in the world couldn't stop that thing that quick. And why did my bike stop all of a sudden? Why didn't my fall hurt. AND WHY THE HELL WON'T MY BODY MOVE RIGHT?
Buster was struck with a million questions. As Alphonso drove away into the night and he was left alone on the sidewalk with only his thoughts. Yet in all of that confusion, he was struck with a spell of complete madness. With some strain buster moved his arms behind his back, stood on his toes and fell. Fell forward right onto his six times broken nose just to see. Willing to risk a seventh just to know.
Buster watched the world swim past him, as the shrubs glistening with that afternoon's shower passed him by, as the sidewalk grew into a gray horizon that stretch out to meet him he found himself ever so comfortably balancing on the sidewalk by his nose.
What in the FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.
Buster slowly stood, terrified of his new reality. Terrified of what it could mean. In a panic Buster grasped for the large concrete stepping stone in Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun's flower garden, held it above his head and dropped it. Easily 40 pounds of stone, right on to his, comparatively fragile noggin.
And it just sat there, balancing perfectly before slowly succumbing to its imperfect center of balance and fell onto his toe. Balancing precariously once more before falling to the ground with a loud slam.
This woke Buster from his dazed confusion and astonishment at his newfound invulnerability. As quickly as he could he collected his bike and walked it home, not trusting it to carry him away from suspicion. He managed to skulk away before front doors began opening. Making his way home without further event, his only companion a myriad of questions to which he was not sure would ever find answers.
As he quietly entered his house, unmet by his parents who remained sleeping, Buster's intense thought carried him all the way to his bed, slumping into it without changing. When all of a sudden he was struck by the sudden realization. For all his apparent difficulty moving swiftly he wasn't actually all that tired. His muscles seemed to be perfectly fine considering that he had essentially been resistance training since the lights had appeared. It was not as if his power made him work any harder, or make his body any tougher. Something else was at play here and he was going to get to the bottom of it.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. Huh. Wuh. Why are you saying that Scarlet? Beep beep? And we were getting to know each other so well? BEEP BEEP BEEP. Ms. Johanssen that's not a very ladylike thing to sa-
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
“Beep beep, yeah I fucking get it.” he said to the ceiling.
Buster awoke fresh to his four a.m. alarm. Eager to begin his day of experimentation with his friends Cody and Terence.
“Well let's see what the hell this was all about.”
The night before had been weird. That's an understatement. Kassidy thought to herself as she dragged herself out of her bed early the next day. The events the night before ran through her head. Strange sky lights, the same lights that had appeared when she was born. She had no idea what it meant but half expected babies to start dying off again. Her overactive imagination brought to mind a town with wailing women, lamenting at their loss. Of course, that didn't happen.
And then that strange white light that shot out from the ground to the sky. She had thought it was some sort of falling star that decided to fall the opposite way. She shook her head. That's a stupid idea, she interrupted her own thoughts. Whatever it was, it eventually decided to streak back and forth across the sky. As is the lights weren't strange enough already. I wonder what it was. It looked like some sorta crazy pinball game going on up there... I suppose someone will eventually find it if it fell down to the ground.
And then the amount of customers that visited the cafe. At first it had been nice. A slow night picking up would have pleased her mother. Especially on a night that she left her daughter in charge. But it wasn't as nice as she had thought it would be.
Some sort of electrical surge fried the cash register. While the machine had been old, it had always been reliable. I suppose we'd have to replace it at some point anyway. Maybe get a touch screen one. That'd be cool.
And then termite ridden wooden tables. She remember how the wood had splintered underneath her hands. She sighed. We'll need to get someone to check all the woodworks. I hope it didn't affect everything. That would mean a complete overhaul and that would extremely suck.
And then bloodied footprints on their well polished linoleum floor. Okay, that wasn't so bad. Just messy. Nothing a mop can't clean, she thought as she pulled a toothbrush across her teeth. But the glasses she kept breaking were pretty bad. One after the other as if the glasses were made of extremely delicate porcelain. I was a complete klutz, I couldn't even push the door open properly. Maybe the hinges needs to be oiled too. she thought dismally as she mentally counted how many she broke. 5 or 6? Damn it. I'll have to replace them with my own money.
People had kept coming in after that. It would have cheered her that they had so many customers but the night just continued being odd. One of the customers, a familiar face from school, even knocked on the door as if there was no way of opening it himself. She thought about how the doorknob had looked. It had been completely rusted out. That one was really really weird. I'm sure all the doorknobs were relatively new. But that one was obviously not, she rinsed her mouth and continued playing the events in her mind.
And finally, the strangest happening... She placed her toothbrush in an empty cup by the sink and looked at her right palm. The first glass she had broken had cut through the delicate skin of her palm. It looked deep enough to require stitches. She reached up and ran her fingers on where the cut had been. She remembered the pain and how her blood soaked through the towel she had wrapped it in. But all she had to do was bump into Audrey and her wound magically healed. There wasn't even a scar left behind. She brought her hand closer to her face, as if bringing it close would make her see a skin break or a scar that would prove she had injured it the night before. But the skin was smooth and unbroken and she wondered for the hundredth time if she had just imagined it all. She thought of the wound that had appeared in Audrey's hand. It had been smaller but it was the same shape as the one she had. It was on the same hand too. Was she just trying to scare me? Was she already injured when I bumped into her? she thought as she dropped her hand to her side and trudged back into her room to get changed. But why would she do that? She looked pretty much surprised as I was. And that guy I collided with... James, was it? In all the commotion, I have no idea if he just slipped away or what.
"Kassidy, are you up?" came her mother's voice from downstairs.
Kassidy threw on a light yellow shirt and jeans before flinging the door open. "I'm up, mom. I'll be down there in a few seconds," she called back and was about to head out of her room when she stopped. Susan MacGrath had been in a meeting with the cafe's suppliers the night before. By the sound of her voice, it didn't seem like it went well. IT'll be difficult to explain what happened to the cafe. She sighed as she walked out of the room, down the stairs and into the kitchen.
Her mom was piling pancakes onto two plates when Kassidy walked in. "Good morning, honey," her mom looked tired but she greeted her daughter in a cheerful voice.
Kassidy sat down just as her mother laid a plate of pancakes in front of her. She took a deep breath. "Mom, the cash register was friend last night from some sort of electrical surge, the wooden furnitures... we need to have them checked for termites. One of the tables splintered when I leaned on it. And there was a rusted doorknob and...and... I broke 6 glasses," she said all in one breath. "I'm gonna be replacing the glasses though so no need to worry about that," she added in a hurry.
Susan stopped and looked at her daughter. She huffed. "Looks like you had a rough night just like I did," she said as she sat opposite her daughter. "Well, we'll head on over to the cafe after breakfast," her smile was tight as she turned to her own plate of pancakes and began eating.
Kassidy almost sighed in relief at how her mother reacted. But instead of doing so, she studied the older woman's face. "Are you okay mom?"
Susan nodded distractedly. "I'm fine. Just had an argument with our coffee supplier last night. It didn't help seeing those strange lights in the sky either."
The day goes by fast when you are hard at work at least that is what Leo always said. Leona completed her farm work with her dad in a timely fashion just like every day, today was nothing different. As her and her father washed up from the daily chores, she could smell what her mother was cooking for dinner, Chicken pot pie. It has the two best things combined chicken and pie! Leo and her parents stuffed themselves and it was well deserved in their minds. As the sun began to fall Leo grew tired, it was not that late but still she decided to go to her room.
As Leona tried to sleep it seemed that in reality, she was not as tired as she thought, she stood up and looked out her bedroom window over her family’s farm. That was the moment the lights arrived, it was beautiful, the color was magnificent and it gave a subtle feeling of warmth. Leos' head started to throb as she remembered all of the stories and dead children those lights caused. She winced in pain trying to remember more details of the lights. There was no point, she grew accustomed to this feeling of pain, there was no more she would be able to remember, Leo took her pills and gave into the night.
Leona had the dream she always has, the tragic event that has scarred her to this day. She is transported years back to when she was just a child playing in the field. It comes in cloudy flashes as her memory can only recall certain events. In her dream when she approaches the tree it is much larger than it actually was, but that does not stop Leo. She grabs the bark and crawls up barehanded to the top of the tree, Leo is terrified, it is overwhelming and she knows what is going to happen next. In Leo’s dream, she is now at the top of the tree, she looks down at the ground that seems miles below, and then she jumps. The falling off the tree is the worst part, she can handle the climb up but staring down and falling is the part she cannot handle.
As she jumps in her dream, the scare is enough to wake her up, but she wished she just stayed asleep. When she woke up she found herself floating six feet above her bed, she was frozen in fear staring directly down at her bed that she has slept in for as long as she could remember. She could feel her stomach knot up and her lips began to tremble, she was about to scream when out of nowhere she dropped out of the air and into her bed.
Leo rolled off her bed and onto the floor, gasping for air she held her throat and took deep breaths in and out. Just as she stood up on her feet she heard some banging at her door which once again made her jump out of her own skin for a second. “Honey are you ok?” she could hear her mom ask, “Yeah mom, just a bad dream again,” Leo replied still shaken from the odd occurrence. “Ok well get dressed, I have breakfast ready for you.” Then her mother left down the stairs. Breakfast was a good idea it would get her mind off her situation, so Leo quickly got dressed and went to the kitchen.
As Leo ate her meal something strange started to happen, she started to lift out of her seat. It started slowly that she did not even notice but soon her legs were hitting the table. She quickly pulled herself down to her seat with a loud thud as she landed in her chair and the table shifted. Her mother looked back a little startled but Leo acted like nothing happened. At that point Leo knew it was no longer just a weird dream, something was wrong and she intended to find out what.
Leo stood up and started to walk towards the door “Hey mom, I am going to walk the morning milk over to the store I’ll be back in an hour or so.” She said somewhat telling the truth. Leo walked towards the barn where the cows were finished being milked for the morning, her father was walking back inside to eat his meal, and he smiled at her and kept walking by. The whole time Leo walked the few meters to the barn she was terrified that she would have started to float up into the sky where nothing could stop her. Thankfully she made it into the barn without flying away.
She quickly grabbed two buckets of milk and tied a rope around each handle connecting the two, she then slid the rope over her head and let the buckets weight pull her down. The rest was just focusing on not flying away. As she started to walk towards the town she could feel her own steps become lighter, thankfully she had the milk to hold her down but it was still clear that she was tip-toeing her way down the street. She felt almost like a balloon, she could feel something in her chest that was causing her to float and when she concentrated on the feeling she could regain herself but as soon as her mind wandered off of staying on the ground then she would begin to lose her grip on gravity. All she needed to do was find someone else to help her or someone else with a similar problem.
It was strange. She had been puttering around her room- one of the few times she was really alone, when she was at home getting ready for bed- when she just felt a sudden weirdness around her. It wasn't quite nausea, but something similar. And she just, all of a sudden, felt so tired. It wasn't that she was drained, but just an absence of energy. It wasn't large or anything, but enough to be felt, and it was just so sudden and immediate.
But she shrugged it off- what could it be? She wanted to sleep anyways. If it persisted tomorrow, she'd tell someone about it.
Having eased her own mind, she finished getting ready for bed, snuggled under her covers [with her Simba plushy], and went to sleep.
~ Morning ~
She woke feeling terrible. Like, absolutely drained, as if she had run around the block a dozen times (which she did do, once). She didn’t have a headache, and she wasn’t nauseous- she just felt so low, and terrible.
Ten minutes later, though it felt more like thirty, Alex found her way downstairs, blearily trying to wake up and shake some energy into her bones. She managed to pour herself some cereal, and sit down at the table, but she just wasn’t into it today. The cereal looked as appetizing as… well, as appetizing as Cookie Crisps always were, which was actually pretty appetizing. She loved the cereal. But she really didn’t feel like eating it.
As she forced her way through a fourth bite of her favorite cereal, she slowly felt some life coming back to her. A moment later, as if by coincidence, her mother entered the kitchen/dining room, dragging her feet much like her daughter. However, she seemed alert enough, unlike her slightly jealous spawn.
Walking up behind Alexandra, she wrapped her arms around her shoulder, and hugged Alex.
Sleepily, she asked, “How’d you sleep, my Alex?”
Without really waiting for an answer, she disengaged and stumbled to go get herself some cereal. Her husband was the one that was up in the morning all ready to go- mother and daughter were often slower and sleepier.
But not this morn- while her mother didn’t really feel anything, Alex felt like she’d just been jolted with energy when she was hugged. She didn’t feel super excitable, of course, but she felt much more like herself. Not entirely sure what to think, she shoved another spoonful of Cookie Crisps into her mouth- she didn’t even have to think about it, now- as she tried mulling it over.
Absently, she replied, “…Unwell, but I’ll be okay. I think I’m gonna go for a stroll after breakfast.”
She needed to think. And find one of her friends- she didn’t feel like texting them, once again. She just wanted to run into someone.
She was mildly concerned at how her own mood was troubling her.
His tired, croaky voice came from underneath several blankets on a couch in a small room. He threw his hands up to his head and cradled his pained cranium, sore from last night's solitary alcohol. He groaned and stumbled out of bed and slouched to the washroom. The man he saw in the mirror didn't seem familiar to him. The cold lines and and dark stubble on his face didn't match up to the picture he had of himself in his head. He opened the compartment behind the mirror and grabbed the bottle of Advil, he hastily opened it and poured three pills into his hand before swallowing them dry. He washed his face and brushed his teeth, then returned to his room. What he saw confused and bewildered him.
He had been asleep for easily eleven hours, maybe more; getting to bed at around seven in the morning. However, the world beyond his window remained illuminated by morning sunlight. Furthermore, the clock atop his wall read ten AM. He furrowed his brow and doubted himself, but seeing no solution he put it aside. "I need a coffee, shit." He thought while closing his eyes and trying to master his headache. He slowly walked out of the room and threw on his white hoodie and backpack, grabbing his phone and keys off the table near the door. He opened his front door and squinted through the blinding light of the sun into the semi crowded street. Walking down his front steps he pulled the hood over his eyes and began the commute to the coffee shop.
"This is a really strange hangover." He thought with confusion. Last night he had been on the cliffs by the ocean, spending the night with a bottle of Jack. He told his mom that he was going to a grad party to avoid questioning, he came here more often than he'd like to admit. The sounds of the roaring ocean isolated him from the small town life he lived, and the drink calmed him down - numbing him. It wasn't any different from the other times he had done this, however everything around him seemed slightly off. Like when the picture on your TV isn't quite right, almost like interference. Sounds and light seemed to have an inconsistency contrary to what he normally experienced the morning after. He hoped the coffee would fix this.
He stood outside the shop staring at the quaint little sign that read "Cliffside Cafe" before pushing the door open. He approached the barista and ordered a double double before sitting down at a window seat and taking a book out of his bag. "The Catcher In the Rye" was plastered across the cover. He quite liked this book, he felt that it was an eye opener for people. He was engrossed in the pages and his eyes flickered from word to word, "...You'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused, frightened, and even sickened by human behavior. You are by no means.." His reading was cut short by a feminine voice cutting through the air. "Sir? Your coffee." She handed him the hot cup and walked off. He opened the lid and allowed the liquid to cool a little before taking that first revitalizing sip.
It was as if the whole world had taken it with him. Everything sped up a little, like the lowest fast forward setting on the DVD player. He nearly dropped his coffee all over the book in shock. "This is not okay. What the shit?" He looked around in panic, before closing his eyes and trying to calm down. Something wasn't right, maybe he was having a panic attack? He didn't know. However, when he opened his eyes, things had returned to normal. "I should see Doctor Green..." He thought with adrenaline coursing through him. He packed up his things and walked out of the shop with coffee in hand. His phone went off in his pocket, startling him and almost making him drop his drink once again. He paused to pull the device from his jeans and glance at the notification. "Tyler, I need the software by tomorrow. I'm sorry for the short notice, double pay for this though. You're a life saver.". "You've got to be kidding me, I don't have the drive for this today." His current employer breathing down his neck with a short notice deadline made his morning much worse than it already was. Although he couldn't complain about the five hundred dollars he'd be receiving the next day. "Looks like it's another day of work." He thought grudgingly. He settled down in a park just off Beach Street and found cover in shade to pull out his laptop.
After things got a little too strange, Zoey politely asked Kass for the rest of the night off, and the first place she went was her friend Lupe's house. It was a cheap house in the "ghetto" of Greenbriar. It was two floors, and it contained Lupe's other room mates, who were all attending the local college. It was the best like four people taking small jobs (And Lupe becoming a straight-up stripper) could afford! Zoey herself was playing her part... even though she could only sleep on the sofa. Where the blue-haired girl was resting since last night.
Peacefully, at that.
... Until the door slammed open so hard that it hit the wall, creating a hole in the wall. Zoey raised her head, and grabbed the side of it.
"The fuck?" Zoey asked, turning her head towards the door, and seeing Lupe. An average-heighted Mexican/Greek girl with a very pronounced nose. She was pretty thin from working out (No stripper can't get fat, after all)... and Zoey found her pretty hot. Except for that giant, weird-looking, nose of hers. Still hot. She had quite the Spanish-donk!
When she saw Lupe, Zoey smiled. "Yooo..."
"Jesus Christ!" Lupe shouted, slamming her foot on the ground. "Where did all these putas come from?! Some jack-off lights some fireworks and everyone and their fuckin' grandmother come and fill the town with idiots."
"... What?" Zoey asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Go outside and look!" Lupe said.
"... I sleep in the nude, remember?" Zoey said, laughing. "It feels soooooo liberating. Livin' out my nudist fantasies is amazing. You should try it sometimes."
"That's because you freaky as hell, girl, it's only a matter of time until you leave the blinds open and flash the whole damn neighborhood." Lupe teased, taking steps towards Lupe.
"Sounds fun." Zoey playfully said as she threw the covers off herself, and stood straight up. Lupe didn't even flinch seeing Zoey naked. "The first step to being a nudist, yeah? I mean, if you're willing to get naked in front of strangers, then you must be willing to get naked in front of your neighbors."
"Like I said, freaky. As. Hell." Lupe said, laughing. "And that's comin' from me, a stripper. I've seen some shit, trust me."
"Mind showing me...?" Zoey asked. "I've always wanted to be a stripper, in fact, I've been meaning to practice my lap dancing on someone... And you're probably the Simon Cowell of strippin' so I'm looking forward to your advice." She said with a sultry grin.
"Haha, maybe another time." Lupe said. "But, one minute you talk about how hot that dude is, then another you're practically tempting me with your body."
"What can I say? I like good looking people. Boy, or girl, it don't matter long as they don't have a giant pole up their ass." Zoey reached over to the end table, bending over (And she didn't notice Lupe looking at her) to grab her phone. She remained bent forward as she sent a text to Maren,
It was crazy af last nite. U ok, tho?
Just checking up on her, since she disappeared into the darkness. Maren practically dragged the crazy into the cafe! She was hoping that aliens didn't abduct her, or something. Zoey put her phone down, and looked at Lupe. "... Like the show?" Zoey said, winking.
"Nah, I'm wondering when you're gonna stop putting your stinky-ass on my sofa." Lupe said, putting her hand on her hips, laughing. "I see naked girls all night, your pale ass is nothing."
Before she threw a thumb behind her, "Get dressed, girl."
Laughing, Zoey scrolled over past Lupe, and said, "That's why I love you, Lupe! You're such a tease! You know you love my pale ass as much as ever-" She put a hand on her shoulder, and inadvertently sent an electric charge through herself to Lupe. The Spanish girl violently convulsed as electricity danced across her skin. Zoey's eyes went wide as she quickly released Lupe, and the girl dropped to her knees. Shaking.
"Holy shit!" Zoey shouted, staring at her hand for a moment as blue electricity danced off her fingers, and her eyes went wide. "What the fuck?"
"... Girl, did you just hit me with a fucking taser or something!?" Lupe screamed at the top of her lungs, giving Zoey a strange look. "A God damn Joy buzzer?!"
"Wait, no!" Zoey said, looking down, and reminding Lupe that she was completely nude. "... Where do you think I'll put a joy buzzer? My God damn vag?" She raised an blue eyebrow.
"Just... help me up." Lupe asked, recovering from electrocution.
It's like last night. The weird shit must have followed her from last night. It's almost like Maren put a hex on her! She'll have to find out where Maren went if she was going to end this curse!
After getting dressed, Zoey got Lupe some help, and then Zoey went to the store to get some cigarettes. A simple corner store, manned by an Arabic-man. She pointed at the marlboros, and said, "Yeah, a pack of marlboros, please." She had seven dollars out, and handed it to the man. Grabbing her cigarettes, she stepped outside. She slid the cigarettes in her mouth, as she leaned up against the side of the corner store. Producing a lighter, Zoey lit the cigarette as her other hand reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone. Okay, Maren wasn't answering. Maren always answers her texts (Whether it's playful flirting, or just Zoey's lame jokes).
Okay, she was starting to get concerned, but Zoey didn't know of how many people knew of Maren.
She had one idea... Zoey went through her contacts and called Little Baby MacGrath - Also known as Kass - because, hell, she had no other options. The second Kass answered the phone.
"Yooooooo, Kass!" Zoey loudly and cheerfully said as she blew a puff of cigarette smoke. "Sorry for callin' you this early, but I'm a little curious if you heard anything about Maren? Like, she disappeared last night, and I've been sending her all these texts, but she hasn't been answering. I'm a friend of hers, and I honestly don't know anyone else that could know of 'er other than yourself, and Susan - oh, yeah, can you ask Susan, too?"
Zoey got a little wordy, but that's something that everyone that knows Zoey Gray has to get used to.
To recap; Jasmine's eardrums were punctured when everything got super loud, and she started screaming at that Korean-chick for being so obnoxiously loud. After she was pretty much disabled by all the sounds, that Korean-chick's friend got some help... from someone who completely (and mysteriously) healed her wounds. Jasmine thought that was weird as shit, and she probably ingested some hallucinogenics, and just went home. Peacefully sleeping in her bed.
Until she woke up... and realized that everything was still loud.
Except, it wasn't as painful - barely even at all. She could hear her mother talking on the phone from the other room as if she was standing right next to her! While also hearing the TV being left on downstairs. For a moment Jasmine sat down on the ground, and focused. Channeling her hearing the best she could... it extended as far as outside. She could hear someone walking their dog out in the street, and it was amazing. Jasmine realized that something was very odd here... but, she wasn't stupid enough to cross off the possibilities. Such as - whatever that red light was, altered her in some way. It did something to Jasmine's hearing.
Maybe she's one of those lame-ass X-Men.
Yeah, that'd be rich.
For now, Jasmine was going to take a jog, and try to figure things out. She got out of her pajamas, and got into some navy-blue yoga-pants that were tight around her figure, and a blue sweat-shirt. She was going to take a shower after her jog, so she was quick to run from her upstairs room, all the way to the front door.
Ahhh... Greenbriar, what a great city-
And what the fuck?
The town was being infested with weirdos walking around. Like what in the hell? They were crowding the streets... rambling about the lights "returning." Okay, this was going to be a pain in the ass. Worst of all, it was straining her ears. Every step she took sounded like a gun going off. But, she focused on her jogging.
Actually, she should be looking for that girl that healed her. If Jasmine has this "amazing" superpower, then that girl should have the same one. But, where the hell is she? Greenbriar ain't New York, but it's still going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Jasmine bumped into some man, and gave him a sharp look as he said, "Watch where you're going!"
"Stop standing around like a dumbass." Jasmine hissed back as the two exchanged looks before she kept going. "Fuckin' weirdos, yo..." She hissed.
Okay, from what she knows about the girl, she likes motorcycles! So, she's probably with the dyke-y motorclub crowd. Actually, Jasmine wasn't going to touch that with a twelve-foot stick. She'll just head back to the cafe and sees if that girl....
While she was scrolling by, Jasmine saw the girl that she was looking for, and now that she got a good look at her; she's Audrey Springer. A problem child around school. Jasmine heard that she got kicked out for fighting a damn teacher. Personally, Jasmine has never paid Audrey any mind, and would be content with continuing to do so if she didn't have questions for Audrey.
The girl was mounted on her motorcycle, and Jasmine ran over to her, hoping that she could stop her before she speeds up, "Hey, hey, hey!" Jasmine shouted as she put her hand on the motorcycle, making herself clear. She smiled at Audrey to defuse the situation - and potential tensions... Just like there are people out there who don't care for Audrey, even more care less for Jasmine.
It's because she's better than them.
"You were that girl that helped me last night, right?" Jasmine asked, a thick urban accent becoming apparent. "First, I'd like to thank you..."
Then Jasmine's voice volume went down, and leaned in to her to say question.
"... Second, and most important, I'd like to ask you what the hell happened," Jasmine raised an eyebrow. "Wounds don't magically go away - and, on the other hand, you don't magically get super-hearing."
There were so many people out on the streets- not that it was a bad thing, not at all! The people would undoubtedly need to stay somewhere, so the local hotels are probably full up, and they'll all need to eat, so all the restaurants would be packed, and they'll all need general services, so everyone will be seeing more business. The wealth that new people, even temporary, introduced into the community would do nothing but benefit everyone.
But it was still sort of annoying, and sort of exhilarating. Annoying because she couldn't run. She wanted to run, and all these outsiders were in the way, buggering her and other town residents on the street, investigating... something, going touristing, whatever. She didn't really know, but she heard mention of that nightlight show that had happened soon before she was before- what might have caused so many of those who would've been her age to die. Would more babies be stillbirth, then? It'd be terribly sad, but the lights also caused something else, it seemed. Because, with all these people around, she felt like she was on top of the world- absolutely exhilarated, energetic, excited. As if she were feeding off of the presence of others.
But then! Two more of her former classmates, now that they were graduated, apparently talking by the roadside. Motorcycle-Audrey and Fancy-Jasmine- who she liked, but maybe that was just because she was pretty and ran a bunch too. Normally, she'd just keep walking, because she didn't really know the two of them, but she was just too bouncy not to talk to someone she recognized.
So she popped right up with the two of them, and rambled a little bit.
"Guys, gosh, hey, how are you two? I hope you're okay, because it's been really weird since last night and when I ate cereal this morning it wouldn't do anything, and normally cereal gets me started, you know? But then I walk outside and there are all these people everywhere and one person shook my hand and it was like I just got a shot of adrenaline, like the presence of people boosted me up or something, you know? And this has happened before, where just people give me energy and all, but that was more from being in a crowd of like-minded people, like in a concert or something, and this was like a literal shot of adrenaline, and-- oh I'm talking too much. Sorry. There's just so many people around and I think I, I dunno, feed off of them? Is there anything weird going on with you two? Oooooh, are we getting superpowers? I wanna be..."
She paused for a moment, her rambling momentarily stumped.
"I can't think of a hero-y name. What's going on with you two?"
She couldn't help but hop in place a little, having clasped her hands in front of her, feeling like she was as hyper as Hammy the Squirrel after drinking a coke. She hoped they had answers? Or similar phenomenon?
Audrey missed the first part of Jasmine's gratitude, but guessed at what she was saying. She turned the better of her ringing ears toward her and focused to catch the rest.
"... I can hear your heart-beat."
"Like the beat of a drum?" she asked with a bark of loud and somewhat bitter laughter. It had not been lost on her that she had taken on the injuries of those she had miraculously healed. And therefore it was, in a way, Jasmine's fault that her hearing was damaged. She just hoped it wasn't permanent.
Aud leaned over the handlebars of her bike and lowered her voice to mirror Jasmine, though she didn't have the girl's apparent super hearing. "Believe me, I don't know anything more than you. Well," she looked about, "Maybe one thing. Do you remember Solomon? Majumdar? I saw him last night, and it got weird."
Another girl, who, like most people her age, she recognized vaguely from school, came upon them and let out the most god awful series of rambling. Audrey caught the end, the bit about super powers, but had trouble following the rest.
"Girl, my ear drums are fucked, I only caught half of that. What super power do you think you have?"
It was weird to ask that question and actually half expect a serious answer.
Bae woke up in Cedar's home. Cedar had lead the way after she had taken care of Jasmine... Or... After Audrey had taken care of Jasmine...
There wasn't anything wrong with Bae. She was simply out of it.
"I can't think clearly..." she had said.
All night her dreams were strange. When she woke up she didn't feel rested at all.
Cedar was fast asleep beside her. They were in Cedar's room, which was more like a den of pillows and blankets piled and draped over one another until the actual shape of the room was indistinguishable.
She was tired, but thinking too much to go back asleep. She was thinking a lot about the lights. Intrigued by what had happened, worry that this was a herald for more dead babies, that something truly strange had happened here... Something strange had happened to me.
What was different today?
She decided to to back to the beach, or to the cafe. She left Cedar to sleep and went outside. She was wearing the same cloths as yesterday. She took her bag, her bracelets she had never taken off and they all jangled as she walked. She didn't have her sandals on, she left them on the beach last night. So she walked barefoot.
Her head was swimming with thoughts. She was curious about some of what she was thinking, frightened of others, most was garbled nonsense she had no business thinking of at all... Like... Why was she wondering about the strange energy of a hug she had shared with her mother? Bae hadn't seen her grandmother that morning... and hadn't hugged anyone either... She scanned the sidewalk for large rocks, heavy objects, something to keep her from floating away... She knew nothing about software but was thinking about it all the same... She tightened her grip on her bag and hobbled onward...
She stopped when she saw a trio. Jasmine, Audrey, and Alexandra...
What superpower does Alexandra have?
Bae gave Alexandra a look over, she didn't look much different than she had in school, but, the question was clear in Bae's mind.
She hesitated to approach. Jasmine might still be angry with Bae for last night, even if she didn't Jasmine was never very friendly to Bae. Cedar had talked about it on the way home, she had brought Jasmine up to the cafe and Audrey took care of it... But then Audrey seemed to be hurt, everyone was really confused and Cedar talked about all the odd things she had found out about the events in the Cafe that night...
Wait. Bae was remembering the walk home more clearly. Cedar had not told her any of that. She maybe actually spoke twice on their way home.
'I don't know, but I think I can read minds...' Bae did not know what she had just done, but Audrey, Alexandra, and Jasmine might also be thinking this thought. If they did they would hear it in their own mind's voice, as if thinking it themselves.
Dexter was at the cliff's face when the lights had shown once again for the first time in eighteen years.
It had started off as a relatively normal evening, all things considered. A cherry read Mazda drove lackadaisically along the dirt road and pulled up a few dozen feet from the cliff's edge at 8:28PM on the dot. By 8:30 Dexter had taken the foldable chair out of his trunk, set out said chair, and was drinking his IBC cream soda while reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch to the sunset. The sun began setting at around 8:50, and as night began taking hold his lingering thoughts were drawn away from the book and Alexandra, captured instead by a uniquely beautiful light show that split the sky like a brilliant shining fault line. He sat alone in the dark, leaning into his chair and enjoying the aurora of lights that he had never seen before in his life.
His watch beeped, and he looked down at the lightly illuminated numbers. 9:30PM. He cast his eyes up at the sky once more and noticed small clouds were beginning to roll in. Just more Oregon weather, he had mused. So he finished his soda, packed up his chair, put the convertible roof up, and drove home. He was home by 9:45, hugged his mother (who was tapping away on her computer) goodnight, and went to sleep just as he had since his 6th grade.
"And god please help me enjoy this, life is more than a sequence of waiting for things to be done." Dexter said, repeating the words on the posted her was positioning on the wall of his room. He stepped back a few paces, nearly tripping over his backpack as he did so (which he still hadn't unpacked). When he steadied himself, he turned his attention back to the poster and closed one eye. He stuck his hand out, making an 'L' with his thumb and index finger as if he was trying to judge how centered the frame was.
"It's off to the left some," His mother said, leaning against the doorway to his room. Dexter jumped, startled by her sudden voice, and whipped around. This time he actually did trip on his backpack. His mother laughed, and Dexter mumbled something about school and how it was still trying to kill him as he got up. He turned his eyes to his mother, his brown eyes clashing against her blue ones in a glare. He narrowed his eyes and waved her off, walking toward the poster and trying to center it again. It stayed for about half a second before sliding back into it's original uneven position.
"Looks like someone's gonna have to make a trip to the convenience store." His mother sing song-ed, walking away from the doorway and back into the living room. Dex furrowed his brow and followed after her.
"Uh, why?"
His mother, who was now on the couch and had pulled up an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians hummed in response, throwing her thumb behind her in general direction of the garage. "Yeah, preeetty sure we're out of nails."
If possible, Dexter's brows furrowed even more, and he walked into the garage and to the tool box. Sure enough, they were in fact out of nails. And super glue. He looked to his car, which was sitting pretty in the garage, freshly waxed and serviced by Springer Automotive. He popped into the laundry room and grabbed his keys off of the key hooks.
"Gonna go to the convenience store!" he called into the house. "Do we need anything?"
"Just some nails. Pick me up a coffee while you're there!" his mother called back. "Oh, and take an umbrella with you! Weather says it might rain today!"
And so, with that, Dexter was off to the convenience store. It was a short drive, as it was a small town after all.
With such a short shopping list, it wasn't exactly a time consuming venture. A little box of nails, two cheap convenience store coffees, some windshield wiper fluid for his car since he was running low, and a banana because he still hadn't eaten. He paid the Arabian man, who had given Dexter a friendly but incredulous look once he was presented with the items Dexter had wanted to purchase. Dexter had simply shrugged and smiled in response. As he walked outside, he noticed that light rain was beginning to fall on the parking lot pavement. He sighed, and rushed into his car, putting the coffee in the cup holders and his items of choice into the passenger seat. He pulled his keys out of his pocket was about to start the car when he noticed an old classmate of his smoking under the overhang of the convenience store roof. He hesitated in starting his car, and his eyes drifted down to his umbrella. His features softened into a small smile, and he grabbed umbrella. He opened the door of his car and opened the umbrella to shield him from the rain, which wasn't getting stronger but showed no signs of lulling any time soon.
"Hey, Zoey!" He said, recounting her name without seemingly any thought. They weren't close friends, and for most people remembering a name could be hard. However, Dexter wasn't most people. He showed her his yellow umbrella, as if signaling that he didn't want to leave her to getting wet. Just in case though, he tacked on, "Didn't want to leave you to the rain."
He sucked in a breath of the humid air and looked out at the rain, then back at her. "Uh.. how've you been?"
Jasmine rolling her eyes, and then nodded her head, as Audrey laughed. While the girl's attitude wasn't to Jasmine's liking - this girl was raised in a barn, after all - she had to put up with it. For now at least. Later on, she was going to put her damn foot down (or up this pissy little bitch's bony white ass). It was harder to put up with because either Audrey was playing the stupid act, or legitimately didn't know anything. That made the Ethiopian girl roll her eyes up into her head. But, Jasmine was more than willing to put up with Audrey when she started getting into the juicy stuff.
Specifically, Solomon Mujamdur.
Whom Audrey didn't know or care about. Audrey mentioned how things got "weird" when she saw him. That made Jasmine curious. "I know who he is... the half-black kid that likes to surf, right?" Jasmine raised an eyebrow up into the air. "But, what happened with him? It sure as hell can't be any weirder than last ni-"
That's when Jasmine was exposed to hell itself.
A tall, blonde-haired girl, for whatever God damn reason, decided to butt into their conversation in the worst way possible. By not fucking shutting up.
"Guys, gosh, hey, how are you two? I hope you're okay, because it's been really weird since last night and when I ate cereal this morning it wouldn't do anything, and normally cereal gets me started, you know? But then I walk outside and there are all these people everywhere and one person shook my hand and it was like I just got a shot of adrenaline, like the presence of people boosted me up or something, you know? And this has happened before, where just people give me energy and all, but that was more from being in a crowd of like-minded people, like in a concert or something, and this was like a literal shot of adrenaline, and-- oh I'm talking too much. Sorry. There's just so many people around and I think I, I dunno, feed off of them? Is there anything weird going on with you two? Oooooh, are we getting superpowers? I wanna be..."
During that whole lengthy ramble, Jasmine just looked at her. Doing nothing else. But staring at her. Trying to make sense about what the fuck this girl is even talking about. What didn't help was the fact that Jasmine's new hearing ability is a real pain in the ass. Even if she did, she wouldn't care because she has no idea who this girl was, and she was rudely interrupting their conversation. So, she was going to treat the girl with the same amount of courtesy she reserves for such annoying people.
"... Girl, did you hit up on heroine before leaving the house?"
Jasmine asked, raising an eyebrow as she stared at the girl in sheer astonishment.
"Can you see we're having a conversation here?" Jasmine said, incredibly passive aggressively, trying to get rid of this girl soon as possible so she can get to the conversation that's actually important than this girl rambling about... Then what she said registered.
"Wait. Did you just mention superpowers?" Jasmine asked, raising an eyebrow. "... Are you just telling the two of us, two complete strangers, you have superpowers?" She rolled her eyes up into her head. "Reeeeeal smart."
Not only was this girl mouthy, but she has the self preservation of a lemming. This girl is a literal miracle of life-
'I don't know, but I think I can read minds...'
Huh? A thought randomly appeared in Jasmine's head in the mist of her irritation at this girl. This made Jasmine switch from anger, to confusion. Maybe this intrusive thought was just the result of her being stressed... She brushed it off, and focused on Audrey.
Jasmine leaned in towards Audrey, and whispered in her ear.
"Hey, when you want to leave chatterbox behind, give me the word," Jasmine started off. "She's annoying as fuck - and tell me, do you really want to sit here and listen to her when we got more important shit to do...?"
"... Yo, Kass, hold on for a second. A friend just walked up."
Zoey said into the phone the very second Dexter walked up, and said something to her. She put the phone down to her side, and smiled at Dexter.
"Well, look who it is, it's the flying ace!" Zoey said, being familiar with Dexter. They weren't friends, but Zoey thinks that he's really cool because he's pilot. He can fly fucking planes! While Zoey's just sitting here, smoking cigarettes, and working in a cafe, hoping that she gets her big break and becomes that techno DJ she's always wanted to. "Thanks for the umbrella, my cig was about to go out... Oh." She chuckled for a moment as she flicked the cigarette into the rain, where it was extinguished.
"Uh.. how've you been?"
An awkward, cookie-cutter, conversation starter, but Zoey has so much to say about how she's been that she's going to make this work.
"How have I been? How have I been?!" Zoey said whimsically, before pointing upwards towards the sky. "Did you see the weird-ass lightshow that took place last night!?"
She chuckled for a moment.
"After that shit went down, all sorts of weeeeeird-ass shit happened at cliff-side. The fucking cash register was randomly fried, and the door melted. Can you believe that shit? Like the door melting. What causes that? I honestly think a friend of mine put a damn hex on the cafe-"
Then she was reminded of the person she was searching for.
"Oh, yeah, one of my friends went missing last night... she was there at the cafe at the height of the weirdness, and now she ain't even answerin' my texts anymore."
She shrugged.
"Maren West. Might just my paranoia, but look around you," Zoey gestured towards the influx of people that entered Greenbriar. "Weird shit's going on all around us, and can we really ignore it?"
Again, Zoey shrugged.
"Oh yeah, I randomly shocked my friend this morning, too."
Alexandra recoiled, abruptly. Her mood dropped, suddenly, massively, because of just how... she hated to think of it in the term, but she was just savage. She wasn't passive aggressive, she wasn't at all distracted by the fact that she had just mentioned a... power of some sort, she didn't at all seem to remember that they had at least two classes together for the past five years, and, at least on Alex's side, knew the other somewhat well. Not enough to expect this sort of aggressiveness.
She stood, stunned and hurt for several moments, before the stunned turned to angered. Alex's brows went from shock-high to a mask of nuetrality.
"... I've known you and Audrey my entire life. Smallest class in town history and all that. You also used to be nicer."
With that, she carefully, precisely, turned around, and walked off. She kept careful control of herself, and she refused to let the pain from such a harsh response affect her. She hurried down the sidewalk aimlessly, not really paying attention to the thinning herds of outsiders and the slow drizzle that slowly began, trying desperately to remove herself from such aggressiveness. The modeling must have gone to the girl's head, or some crap.
It took her a few minutes to look up, where she finally noticed that her hair was slowly getting soaked, as was her thinner hooded jacket and boots, and that the streets had cleared up, more or less. She was in the more commercial section of town, just half a block off from Main Street, the main thoroughfare for the town, where the majority of the stores were located. Ooookay, she had walked a great deal faster than she thought- but that wasn't really abnormal. There weren't so many people on the streets, either, so she didn't feel like bouncing off a wall.
And as she glanced to her left, she caught a familiar sight- a rather loud yellow umbrella.
And she knew of only one person that had such an umbrella, and that would be one of her better friends- Dexter!
Breaking out into a light jog, Alexandra crossed the street and headed towards the next intersection, before crossing that too. Now on the same block as her friend, and another person from school- blue-haired rebel-Chloe- she crossed into the nearly-empty parking lot. Crossing just as quickly as she crossed the streets, she finally slowed when meeting up with the two of them. She didn't know what Zoey was saying, and after the harshness of the last person she tried to talk to, she didn't feel like saying anything, anyways. What she did do, though, was jog up as silent as she could and threw her arms around Dexter's midsection, hugging his back in a surprise hug. She needed comfort, and she never heard Dexter complain from her hugging him.
"How have I been? How have I been?! Did you see the weird-ass lightshow that took place last night!? After that shit went down, all sorts of weeeeeird-ass shit happened at cliff-side. The fucking cash register was randomly fried, and the door melted. Can you believe that shit? Like the door melting. What causes that? I honestly think a friend of mine put a damn hex on the cafe... Oh, yeah, one of my friends went missing last night... she was there at the cafe at the height of the weirdness, and now she ain't even answerin' my texts anymore. Maren West. Might just my paranoia, but look around you, weird shit's going on all around us, and can we really ignore it?"
If this was a video game, somewhere near the top of Dexter's line of sight a quest would have activated. He could imgaine the quest directives already.
>Find Maren West >Ask around for any sightings (optional) >Investigate the cafe (optional)
Actually, he had no special abilities as far as he was aware of that would allow him to just hunt her down. Dexter mentally scolded himself. Waaaaay too much time spent playing Skyrim and Witcher. Bad Dex, very bad Dexter. Human life was not something to trifle with. Weren't people who saw life interactions as menial as those in games considered like, psychopaths or something? Oh god, did that make him a psychopath?
>Find the button to turn self in (optional)
Dexter mentally slapped himself again. He normally wasn't this unfocused. Must be the weather.
"Yeah, I was out reading when the lights came out. Reminded me of pictures of the auroras in Alaska that I've seen." he said. But the other things Zoey mentioned were like, really odd. Cash register frying? A door melting? Like, a wooden door or a metal door? How would a wooden door even melt?
"I definitely saw some storms predicted in neighboring METARs that weren't there before?" Dex said, lifting his hand to his face and cupping his chin in a thinking pose. A METAR was pilot speak for Meteorological Terminal Aviation Routine Weather Report. Basically, everything you see on the weather channel but current and waaaaay more detailed. He doubted she'd know what a METAR was, but Zoey would probably be able to use context clues to get an idea.
"I mean, a lightning strike could've fried the cash register, but... I have no explanation for a melted door. Did you snapchat that?" Dexter questioned, pulling out his phone to browse through the repertoire of people in the town that were his age. Granted, there weren't many of them, but he took pride in having just about everyone's snapchat. Unfortunately, Zoey's story was completely blank. What? What kind of teenager with social media doesn't document the fact that a door just melted. That's like, a supernatural once-in-a-lifetime type of event right?
"Yeah this is... not what I expected of a natural light show," Dexter commented, trying to ignore his own disappointment that he didn't get to see a photo or video of a melted door. He turned to look to his car and found himself dramatically and audibly wincing as some stranger pulled into a parking space dangerously close to his vehicle. He shook his head when the other person's car turned off and looked away, back to Zoey. Out of sight, out of might right?
"I'm sorry about Maren, uh, do you want any help finding her? Could-ougg" he began, only to be quite abruptly cut off by arms being thrown around his midsection. He spooked, turning and looked down quickly. As he made his sudden movement he noticed shiny blue fingernails and has his neck craned and turned he noticed straw blonde hair and those trademark uggs and and just... ugh!
The rain's pace quickened, not by a lot, but noticeably.
His male mind went into some form of hyperdrive and in an effort to sustain some form of cognizant ability it shut off his ability to speak or make any sounds besides make what had to sound something like the attractive and ever so romantic neanderthal mating call. He mentally scolded himself. Ougg? Really?
He looked to Zoey, a panicked and somewhat forced grin on his face and motioned down to her and at himself rapidly. He made a heart shape with both hands, which was rather awkward considering one was holding an umbrella being used to shield what was now three people from the rain, and then pointed down to Alex once again. This was his way of nonverbally saying 'I like this girl please help me not embarrass myself further please please please' as if it wasn't the most obvious thing ever. If it was anything that this town could count on with all of it's strange turning of events, it would be that: grass grows, birds fly, and that Dexter Quinto has had a hopeless crush on Alexandra Bell since sophomore year. Of course, as Murphy's law would dictate, Alex had yet to notice. Due to Dex's inability to man up, and his lack of a father figure to really talk to him about how to ask a girl out, he had professionally friend-zoned himself as far as he was aware.
Go figure.
At that moment, Dexter's lips decided that they knew how to work again.
"Heyyy Alex!" he said, reaching around and giving her and awkward backwards hug (because she's behind him and he's all twisted around) with one arm while simultaneously trying and failing to shield everyone from the rain. Unfortunately this kind of reaction wasn't all that uncommon for Dexter. It was oftentimes played out in different ways because of positioning but this one had gotten him especially hard because it had been so surprising.
He looked at her hair, and felt how firmly she was hugging him and almost instantly knew something was wrong. There were a few unique patterns that he had noticed about this girl and one of them was that she only hugged him with this tightness when she was upset. Then he realized that he had gotten to the point where he was categorizing her hugs based upon tightness and realized that he was such a loser. Isn't that like, creepy or something? He opened his mouth to ask what was bothering her, but decided against it. He didn't want to embarrass her. Not in front of Zoey. He would ask later. Instead he decided to redirect his moving jaw.
"Wa-was just going to ask Zoey if we could go to the cafe and look for her friend. Wanna join?"
Perfect transition. He mentally high-fived himself. Talking with purpose, great fluidity all things considered, and now he had a mysteriously interesting factor going for him.
Kass had just strapped on her seat belt when her phone rang. She glanced at the LCD monitor and saw Zoey's name flashing on it. It was strange that Zoey was calling her this early in the morning. She always felt that the blue haired girl didn't like her despite almost always seeing each other in the café . She shrugged. Must be about the cafe or something.
Zoey's voice was cheerful when Kass she picked up. "Yooooooo, Kass! Sorry for callin' you this early, but I'm a little curious if you heard anything about Maren? Like, she disappeared last night, and I've been sending her all these texts, but she hasn't been answering. I'm a friend of hers, and I honestly don't know anyone else that could know of 'er other than yourself, and Susan - oh, yeah, can you ask Susan, too?"
"Uh, no, I haven't heard anything from her since last night. Hold on. Lemme ask mom," Kass replied and turned to her mother who was just maneuvering their black SUV out of the driveway. "Mom, have you seen Maren around? Uh... brown hair, hazel eyes... pretty girl from my class?" she added as a description.
"The West girl?" Susan asked. "Not recently, no. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, Zoey's just asking about her," Kassidy replied before she turned her attention back to her phone. "Zoey, mom---"
"Yo, Kass, hold on for a second. A friend just walked up."
"Oh, yeah, okay," Kass replied and obediently waited on the line. As their car turned out from their street, her eyes widened at the amount of people mulling around. People holding cameras and people in black business suits, some of them were talking to the locals, others looking up at the sky. "What's going on?" Her eyes were still wide as saucers as she looked at several reporter vans parked on the side of the street they passed.
"Probably because of the strange lights last night," her mother speculated. "That might actually be good for business," a thin lipped smile appeared on the older woman's face and Kass figured her thoughts were on the meeting she had attended last night.
Kass didn't comment anymore as she turned her attention back to her phone. She could still hear Zoey's voice. She was obviously talking to someone. "...Oh yeah, I randomly shocked my friend this morning, too."
It was weird eavesdropping on a conversation she wasn't a part of so she decided to eventually end the call. If Zoey needed anything else from her she would call again, she figured. Her mind was drifting back to the night before when she caught sight of a trio of girls. Audrey, Jasmine and Alexandra, their names immediately popped into her head. While she was not particularly close to any of the students from school, she knew almost all the names of those in the same year as her. It was, after all, a small class. She had alwats thought that Alexandra was nice. She wondered for a few seconds why she was bouncing on her feet. She looked excited about something. Her eyes focused on Audrey just as they zoomed past and she made a mental note to try and contact her later. She was worried about the hand wound she had strangely passed onto her the night before. Did I really? her thoughts began a new cycle of trying to figure out what exactly happened the night before.
A few more minutes and they finally arrived at the Cliffside Café. Peggy, one of the part timers Susan had hired a month ago, was serving a handful of customers. "Thanks for opening the café for me today, Peggy. I know it was short notice and I appreciate it," Susan patted the small blonde girl's shoulder.
"I don't mind," Peggy assured as she handed the café keys back to Susan. "Hey Kass," she greeted the redhead as she walked to the counter.
"Hey Peggy," Kass greeted back with a smile. She watched as a tall brown haired boy walked past the counter, coffee cup in hand, and out the door. Her eyes fell on the table by the window where Sam had been sitting the night before. From where she was standing, she could see the splintered hand shaped mark on it. She felt a pang of guilt shoot through her. Eh... why am I feeling guilty for splintering a table that termites had sunk their teeth into? Wait... do termites have teeth? she almost laughed at the after thought.
"So, show me the damages," Susan's voice broke through Kass' thoughts.
Ugh. Right. Here we go. Kass' mood dropped as she turned her attention to the cash register.
Zoey could only sigh as Kass said they have absolutely no idea where Maren is. God damn it... Maren had to be out there somewhere. Maybe Zoey will visit her house. Hey, maybe it'll turn out Maren was fine, she just dropped her phone or something on the way back. Well, Zoey just hoped she was okay.
For now, she was going to need as much help as possible from Dexter.
He questioned everything that happened last night, and Zoey was honestly kicking herself in the ass for not documenting it. Well, she at least had the excuse of being so damn weirded out that she forgot. "Dex, Dex, Dex..." Zoey said, shaking her head. "... Imagine being in the middle of all that weird Twilight-Zone level shit, and remembering that you even have a phone. Seriously, Snapchat was the last damn thing on my mind." She tried to come up with an excuse, but it just went limp, if she had to be honest with herself. She just shrugged.
She really wished that she had kept that cigarette now...
Because she was lamenting over Maren's disappearance, Zoey found it hard to stay upbeat. Her eyes drifted away a bit, as Dexter went on about helping looking for her. That made Zoey's precious smile return. She spoke as she turned her head towards Dexter,
"... Yeah, Dex, you're a good ki-"
Zoey suddenly stopped when a tall, blonde-haired girl just fucking came from behind and hugged Dexter. That was random... But, God damn Zoey couldn't say it wasn't cute. She had to laugh a little bit.
"What, Dex? Got yourself a girlfriend while I wasn't looking?" Zoey teased him. "Not a bad choice, if-"
Then that's when Dex flashed her the grin.
Not just any grin. The kind of awkward grin that told so much more than words. A social butterfly like Zoey could tell that he wanted to take the wheel, and Zoey should step back. Cool, cool. Despite all the flirting and teasing she does, Zoey knew when to stay in her lane.
She just crossed her arms, as Dexter explained who she was. Alex... Alexandra Bell? Zoey vaguely remembered the girl. They haven't talked much, but they've definitely seen each other.
"Wa-was just going to ask Zoey if we could go to the cafe and look for her friend. Wanna join?"
"... Oh yeah, that!" Zoey said, realizing that she still had her phone on the whole time... the conversation with Kass just going on and on... and on. Oh, yeah. She should be more mindful about that. She quickly put the phone against her ear, and said,
"Yo, Kass, you still there...?" Zoey asked. "I'm gonna swing around the Cliffside with some friends... look for some clues about Maren, ya' know?"
When Jasmine tried to whisper in her ear, Audrey answered back, at normal volume, "I cannot hear you." She had, however, heard how Jasmine had reacted to Alexandra, and thought Alex was quite right to storm off like that. Aud almost told Jasmine the same, but with the roar of her bike to go with it (see how you like that, miss "I can hear heartbeats").
But Audrey felt too entrenched in the mystery of this town's lights and the sudden apparent supernatural powers to turn away someone who was claiming to be affected by it. And that line of thinking brought Audrey to Bae, with her claim that she could read minds. Strangely enough, Audrey didn't have any trouble hearing anything that Bae said, ringing ears or no, and that gave her a thought.
Can you? Audrey thought, staring intently at Bae, Tell me how lovely and pink the sky is today.
@Kyrisse Leo was exhausted, it was a normal day for Leo to run into the town, she actually does it for fun most days, but focusing on not flying into the sky made even walking into town an extraordinarily difficult task. Leo still had the two full buckets of milk on her shoulder and was continually having to remind herself to focus on not floating away. She knew that she needed to focus on finding help so she was going to head to the hospital and maybe they could figure out what was wrong with her. But she was overwhelmed by the walk so far and she still had a long way to go, it was clear she was not going to make it to the hospital by foot anytime soon.
Thankfully for Leo, she was close to the Cliffside café, and she really needed a rest. Leona slowly trudged her way across the street to the entrance of the café, as she entered the building a wave of relief swept over her, she no longer was in danger of flying into the sky.
The café had a few people in it already and a girl with two buckets of milk tied together over her shoulders was an odd sight to see, so she decided to take off her makeshift anchor and set it next to the entrance. Next step for Leo was to make it to the counter, she had an extremely determined face watching every single step she took, as she slowly walked towards the café front counter.
Once she was in arms lengths she gripped the side of the counter and pulled herself close she quickly looked around and spotted Kassidy not too far away talking to her mother about something.
Leo got excited and began to wave to her even though they were fairly close inside the same building “Hey Kassidy!” Leo said excitedly to see someone from school, “Do you think you could grab me a cup of water, I have had a very crazy morning, and I really just need to take a break for a second.” While Leo was talking she forgot to focus on staying put and began to lift off the ground she quickly realized it and pulled herself down. Her face changed dramatically from excited to see Kassidy to extremely determined to stay put and then back to being excited to see Kassidy once she got on the ground.
Leo was breathing heavy and it was clear she had panic behind her smile but for right now she was just excited to take a break from dragging herself through town, it's times like these Leo wished she could drive.
Susan looked down at the wooden table and at the hand shaped splintered area, her brows furrowed. She reached out and touched the splinters and then began inspecting the rest of the table. "Hmmm."
Kassidy's mood was plummeting by the second. Her mom didn't look mad but she was sure that the damages she had shown her just added to the problems she already had. She watched as Susan tried leaning against the table the way she had the night before, expecting the wood to splinter under her mom's weight. But nothing happened.
"Do what you did last night," Susan instructed as she patted the area just beside the damaged part.
Kass complied. She put her hands on the table and leaned forward to look out the window, the exact same thing she did the night before. Nothing happened. "Strange. I don't think it's termites. But I can be wrong. I'll have to call pest control later for inspection," Susan said.
"Hey Kassidy!" came a cheerful voice.
Kass turned around and saw a familiar face. Leo Reagan. She was a nice girl and one of the few that she actually often conversed with when they were still in school. She excused herself from her mom, who was still puzzling over the hand shaped damage, and headed to the freckled girl. "Hey Leo. What's up?" she smiled and greeted back. She blinked when she noticed the sudden change in her expression. She went behind the counter and got the girl the water she asked for. "Here you go," she laid the glass of water on the table and slid it towards Leo. "Are you okay?"
Alexandra allowed her several long moments, even with Dexter moving around a bit and awkwardly hugging her back, to hide her face from the world underneath her hair and pressed against Dexter's back and jacket. She just closed her eyes and let herself feel safe against the comforting brace of another soul who wasn't terrible. This one was nice, and kind, and apparently Zoey thought she as his girlfriend. Well, that's a thought. It hadn't really occurred to her to go out with anyone, and- hm. Dexter went suspiciously quiet when she hugged him, and that was the first thing that came to Zoey's mind, or the first thing that was good enough to be said.
Hm. She'll dwell on that later. She didn't want to deal with anything complicated right now. Dexter was pretty, though.
She perked up a little when she heard mention of the cafe, and then of a missing friend. It appeared that an extra pair of eyes would be useful.
She shifted a little bit so she peered out at Zoey from beneath Dexter's left arm, still holding him like he was a giant pillow of hers.
"Hi Zoey. I'll bite, sure."
She paused for a moment, taking note how they were all close together to try and stay beneath the umbrella- her somewhat protruding butt was still getting half-rained-on. She straightened a bit, so she was hugging Dexter from the side, now, and his arm was around her, and she immediately reached forward and pulled Zoey into the hug.
"Hush, don't even protest, and if you are mean to me, I'll sic Dex on you," she immediately stated somewhat playfully and matter-of-factly, to Zoey. Wrapping both arms around two people, she held them there for a moment before she said to Zoey, "I only help friends, so I guess you're my friend now. You seem to be Dex's friend, too, and Dex has good judgement. I'll allow you to be my friend, then. Nice hair, by the way. Lessgo."
With that, she let both of them go, and stepped out of the umbrella- and let the rain pour down on her. She rather liked it, and her face showed it as she ran her hands through her hair, pulling it all straight backwards and thoroughly wetting her hair.
