Walking Among Humans

Chapter 1 - Part 2

Ben

"Did you see the way Mona rocked that dress yesterday?"

I look away from him and lie. "I hadn't noticed."

"Yeah right, if you say so."

Just as I'm about to respond, I hear the soft, silky voice of Abigail Hunter calling my name. I turn in her direction.

"Hi, Ben."

"Hello, Abigail."

She giggles. "I've told you to call me Abbie. All my friends call me that. Abigail is just so formal."

I hear Mona calling me. There's panic in her voice. "Sorry, Abigail. Mona needs me."

I leave her standing there, mouth agape in shock as I jump away in the direction of Mona's voice. I land beside her and put my arm around her shoulders. She flinches at my touch and I can feel her heart pounding.

"Mona, it's okay. I'm right here. What is it?"

She relaxes only a little when she realizes it's me. "Where's John? Something is terribly wrong. We have to find John and warn him."

Lucy arrives and wraps her arms around Mona, trying to comfort her. "It's okay, we're here."

She looks up at me. "What's going on?"

I shake my head. "I don't know. She was like this when I got here."

"I'm sorry, Lucy. I don't have time right now. Ben, we need to find John."

I give Mona a supportive squeeze. "He should be in his office. Have you checked there?"

"No, I just got the feeling. We need to get there now."

Before I have a chance to say another word she turns and runs out of the cafeteria, leaving me to run after her.

* * *

Mona

As we arrive at John's office, I see Lois coming out and I stop running. "Is John in there?"

She looks confused at the urgency in my voice. "Yes."

She opens the door but doesn't follow us inside. John's secretary looks up from her computer as the five of us hurry through the door.

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Lockhart had to take a call and has asked that he not be disturbed. It might take a while, but you are all welcome to wait."

I ignore her and head straight for John's door. "There's no time to wait."

His back is to the door when we enter the room. He starts yelling at his secretary about the disruption as he turns around. As soon as he sees my face he stops screaming and ends the call.

John hurries around his desk and puts his arm around my shoulders as he leads me to the couch. "Mona, what is it, sweetie? What's wrong?"

I think for a minute, trying to figure out how to express this feeling I am having. "I don't know. It's just so quiet. It's never been this quiet before. It's like everyone is just in range for me to hear them, like a whisper."

Nobody says anything, they just sit there waiting for me to continue. I take a deep breath trying to contain the panic I feel building inside me. "One minute their thoughts were all clear and everything was normal, the next minute nothing but whispers. And then I just got this overwhelming sense that something horrible is going to happen. Like when the police came looking for Marco. Only this time it's different. I feel like it's something much more dangerous than the local police coming. It doesn't make any sense to me. Why can't I tell what's happening?"