Sparks and a Girl (Rewritten to publish)

5. The Movies

But Jeisa would still have to sweeten the reveal. She'd been lying to her father, and she wanted the apology and her report on Gretel to go well. She'd have to cook something really good. A recipe that she didn't do often because it was nearly impossible to find the right ingredients. Something that would distract her dad just enough to get back on his good side after this blunder. It was both their dream to be a team that would keep Wraith Hamlet safe, and a team needed to work together. But she'd dropped that ball, and her father didn't deserve that.

It was almost sunset. Jeisa had just left the Warehouse district and she was now trawling for an ATM machine. The rare ingredients for her next culinary masterpiece could only be found in a hole-in-the-wall shop not that far from the warehouse district, but it only accepted cash.

Jeisa had fully intended to slip her black card into the machine – she really had.

She hadn't even noticed the technopath filaments moving out of her.

The jolt from sparking the ATM machine was potently heady. Jeisa immediately sank into the connection with other ATM machines spanning Wraith Hamlet. With her eyes closed, she savoured the energy coursing through her, enjoying the spinning ones and zeroes in her mind's eye that were transactions happening all over the city. Ones and zeroes that were just waiting to be transformed into zeroes and ones, misaligning orders and requests, causing undiluted, total anarchy. Panic. Terror. The power it presented was intoxicating.

Jeisa let herself slowly drown in it all. She was going to crash the ATM system. Just for the fun of it. For the deliciously thrilling, stimulating and rousing fun of it. She'd finally let that pulse, now pooling at her chest, pour right down her scorching body to that place where it would cause the best god damn orga...

The sharp trill of her phone buzzing in Jeisa's pocket smashed through her thoughts throwing her into a confused frenzy. Disoriented, she tried to sort through the jagged feelings of her mind as the technopath tendrils flowed back into her and she disconnected from the machine. No amount of air she drew in seemed to fill her lungs. She was frazzled. Disjointed. Broken. On the ground, on her knees, wishing for the feeling to pass. It oozed out of her pores slowly. Much too slow. Was she dying?

Her phone, which had gone silent for a few seconds, came alive again, buzzing in her pocket, the trilling ringtone drilling through her skull. She fumbled for the phone in her pocket and looked at the caller ID.

Cass.

Cassidy.

The name registered dimly through the fog that was clogging her thinking. Cassidy. Cass. Cass was trouble. Cass was always getting herself in strange situations. They'd hang out again these past few days. They'd met for ice cream at the mall before it got to cold outside to truly enjoy ice cream – though Cass assured Jeisa that this was an impossibility. That ice cream was a year-long enjoyment item. Cass had then shop lifted a broom during that mall date. No, she hadn't forgotten to pay for it at the self-checkout. She took it, saying that it was too big for them to think she would. Jeisa had secretly disabled the detectors as Cass walked by them.

Cassidy was trouble. Cassidy was fun. Cassidy was fun trouble. Jeisa liked Cassidy. Cassidy. Cass. Jeisa finally swiped right to answer the call.

"Hey Jeisa." said Cass enthusiastically.

"Cass." whispered Jeisa, her heart full and reverent as she breathed the name.

"Are you OK?"

"I am now." Jeisa was struggling to get commands to her different body parts. It seemed like only her voice box was responding.

"Well, aren't you the charmer." she said with a chuckle. "But, to be honest, you sound like crap."

"No, I'm good. I really am," Jeisa lied through her teeth, her body wracked with pain. "What's up?"