Claire and Toby had tried going to Jim's house, only to find there was no clear sign of him or his mom. This only caused them to both grow more worried. They headed to Arcadia Oaks Municipal Library where the two of them attempted to study for the upcoming maths exam, only to find themselves both caught up in thought about Jim. Claire excused herself, leaving Toby alone. He figured she'd probably gone to use the bathroom. However, to his surprise, she came back over to their table carrying an armful of books.
"I grabbed all the books I could find on clones and shapeshifters-" She struggled.
Toby was flabbergasted, "Claire, most of these are just sci-fi novels like Animorphs."
She rolled her hazelnut eyes, "C'mon Mulder, use your thinking cap! Think about it, just as reality influences reality, it isn't too far a stretch to assume that fantasy could also somewhat influence reality. Yeah, it's a leap, but also we wanna cover all bases! Plus, K.A. Applegate is a legend!"
"Never thought you'd be into Animorphs...you know, it's only now I've realised that you're actually kinda strange Claire Nuñez. Or should I say, Scully?" Toby joked with her teasingly.
"You think I didn't already know that?" Nuñez clapped back with an excitable grin, "ALSO YES! I'm so happy the nicknames have caught on! I loved Animorphs as a kid and I'm very much an X-Files geek. Blame my dad for that one."
They laughed at each other and started leafing through piles of books. Topics varied from conspiracy theories, science and fiction. Toby was slowly growing bored. He began to tap his pencil on the table to the tune of a random song that was whirling around in his head. Zoning out led his attention to be drawn to a mysterious voice calling out from somewhere.
Tobias Domzalski.
Startled by this, Toby looked around the library for any sign of someone who could've said his name, but besides Claire and the librarian, there was nobody. The voice came again, gruff and ancient, dripping with the promise of a higher calling.
Tobias Domzalski.
"Hey, Toby?" Claire waved a hand in front of his face to catch his attention, "You okay?"
"Yeah? Claire...can you hear an old guy whispering my name?" He asked.
Her expression twisted from one of concern to one of amusement, tinted with frustration. She raised her eyebrow and stifled a chuckle.
"C'mon Mulder, now's not the time to mess around!"
"I'm not, I'm being serious Claire. There's a voice calling me, like it wants me to find it. I have a weird feeling of déja vu...and also a feeling this is connected to Jim somehow but I can pinpoint exactly how?" His face fell.
"Huh...is the voice external or internal? Maybe if we follow it, we can find what's causing it."
Toby got the sense from her voice that Claire was just trying to humour him, she sounded a little condescending. That being said, he still appreciated her listening to him. He indicated he wasn't sure. The voice seemed to be inside his head yet also all around him at the same time. It sounded utterly crazy to him, but honestly after the day he'd had, it wasn't overly surprised anymore. His main question was: why did this all feel so familiar?
Toby was certain he'd never heard the man's voice before, but the sound of this grizzled old man was also familiar to him. He couldn't exactly pinpoint it, but he felt a strong connection between the voice and what was happening with Jim. Again, he couldn't really explain it, but something about it felt like he'd been through this before, like this was all linked.
"We should go...I know this voice from somewhere and it feels nearby. Maybe if we find the source it could give us some answers?" Domzalski pondered, focusing his green eyes on Claire.
Claire beamed, shovelling the mountain of books onto a nearby returns stack and practically dragging Toby along the floor. She was definitely curious, even if he got the sense she wasn't believing him.
They exited the library and stood in crisp evening air. A slight breeze filtered through the nearby streets, blowing leaves around their feet. It was early summer so whilst it was still light around 6:45pm, the sun was setting far off in the distance, leaving streaks of brilliant colour across the sky. The duo seemed unsure how to proceed from here. Silence drifted between them until Toby was alerted to the voice once more.
Tobias Domzalski.
"I heard it again! I can't pinpoint the location but something is drawing me this way." Toby pointed over the town square towards the row of shops running parallel to the green.
The atmosphere was growing darker by the second as the last rays of daylight vanished behind the buildings. The streetlamps were illuminating the way forward, the two teens taking a wary but casual stroll down the pavement, looking for any sign of the mysterious voice. There was nothing. That was until a sudden huge power surge exploded from one of the nearby shops, shutting off the power to everything in a several mile radius. Casting Arcadia into total darkness.
Claire nervously flicked on her phone torch and the two began approaching the shops, shining the torch into the window to see what caused the power outage. Stuart Electronics, Zimoc Records were empty. Then they reached the quirky bookstore next to the record shop. GDT Arcane Books was a mess. Books were strewn any which way all over the floor, but it was hard to see inside due to the window display obstructing the view a tad. Toby could feel a strong pull towards the place though. Something in there was calling to him, but he was too scared to enter.
"Whatever I can feel, it's in there!" He whispered to Claire.
"Ack, shh! Someone's coming!" Claire seized his wrist again and dragged Toby away, hiding them both in a bush.
"Hey-"
"Look!" Claire hissed quietly.
Toby followed her gaze and noted that the store clerk had opened the door. Two people walked out. He recognised one as the hot emo guy from Arcadia Oaks Academy that all the girls at school fawned over (though Toby had no idea the man worked at the book store as well as the café). The other guy was a tall(ish) guy with a strong frame, dark chestnut hair and piercing blue eyes...in a jean jacket. It was none other than James Lake Jr. Why was Jim lingering around the book store,was this where he'd been instead of at school?
The pair kept their eyes fixed on Jim as he waved the store employee off and seemed to effortlessly scale the side of the shop. Both blushed, Jim was truly something to marvel at, no matter what was going on with him. They watched with eager stares as he perched on the roof, regarding the starry skies above, taking note of the shooting star that glowed brighter than any they'd seen before. It was distracting.
"Whoa...I've never seen a meteorite that close...looks like it crashed over near my place! We should check it out!" Claire seemed to completely forget their mission to spy on Jim.
Toby usually would've been in favour of checking out a cool rock, after all it was his area of expertise, but the sound of a growl and a bang from the alleyway behind the bookshop caught his attention more.
"Maybe later...Jim's gone off the roof, but I heard something down that alley over there, we should check that out first." Toby was steadfast.
"Oookayyyy, as long as we can check the meteor out too!"
Claire and Toby stood up and wandered over the road, cautiously approaching the alleyway. Claire shone her phone torch down there and both froze in shock. Standing half hidden behind the dumpster, was a hulking monster with blue toned skin. It had long horns and two sharp fangs jutting out from the bottom jaw. It made direct eye contact with them and Toby didn't know how to react. He'd know those gauzy ocean blue eyes anywhere. This thing was Jim. He was sure of it.
"J-Jim?" He stammered, edging closer.
The beastly form of his best friend growled deeply and backed away as he drew nearer, leaping miles high and escaping over the rooftops faster than he or Claire could keep up with.
"That was Jim right? I'm not crazy?" Claire uttered in disbelief.
"I think so...he looked so scared..." Tobias said with a worry in his voice.
"Yeah...we should find him, right? Probably? Yeah? Yeah. Yeah! Okay, Jim, meteorite, weird voice you keep hearing...sound like a good order of investigation there Mulder?" Nuñez seemed a little panicked but was trying to seem like her enthusiastic self throughout.
"Yeah. That sounds like a plan." Toby spoke slowly, unsure how to feel.
He knew that thing was Jim. But was this about to skew his perspective of Jim forever? Or were him and Claire merely dreaming? Who knew honestly.
Both walked in silence, following beast Jim's path across the rooftops from the street below. Meanwhile, both missed the curious six eyes watching them from a nearby shrub.