The timer by one of the large ovens began to scream its message to the kitchen. Loch slipped on some oven mitts and quickly replaced the finished pastries with a new batch. He passed the finished batch to the older woman beside him and rushed back to one of the many stoves to scoop the mashed potatoes from their pot into a large bowl. One of the younger volunteers, not much younger than he looked, picked up the filled bowl and headed to the front room with it. The oven timer screamed again, but this time someone else got it. Loch glanced at the clock. This was his fourteenth time volunteering for the lunch shift at the soup kitchen now, and every time he ended up dashing around the kitchen for four hours. The traffic flow of volunteers was even more dangerous to navigate than the city streets, but he was getting fairly good at it. The volunteer coordinators were especially grateful for another chef to help prepare food for their massive daily turnout.
"Hey Pholos, want to help dish up the food today?" One of the old woman volunteers – their breed made up the majority of those who worked in the soup kitchen – smiled at him from the doorway to the main room.
He quickly shook his head. The poor members of the city always tried to start conversations with the volunteers. He was lucky that, as one of the only capable chefs, he was always too busy in the kitchen during the preparation hours to talk with the other volunteers or the poor. "It's fine. I'll help clean up. Thanks anyway, Darcy." Loch pasted a smile on his face, once again thanking himself for his short acting career.
The old woman smiled and shook her head. He heard her speaking to one of her friends as she walked away. "That boy is so selfless and kind. I heard he volunteers at the hospital on the corner, too. I wish my grandson was like that." Loch tried not to laugh aloud at their description of him. Putting on a nice face had gained him a lot of information in just the past two weeks, but the face was far from genuine. He had garnered his fair share of fear back before he gave up on life.
As he began to wash dishes from a stack the size of Mt. Everest, Loch focused his hearing on the main room. A former bum spoke to a gathering of current bums in a hushed voice. He had joined some organization called Hancock to hunt the creatures that they suspected were the perpetrators of the mysterious killings. The man had been preaching to his small group of followers about the supposedly secret organization for days. The "Hancocks" believed that vampires and werewolves were real, but what tipped Loch off that they were not just another superstitious group was their mention of the 'lizard people', or the little-known draconem. Draconem were not necessarily rare; they simply did not pop up in many human fairytales. That meant when a human described one, they usually knew about the reality of the Others.
From the former bum's latest rant, Loch found that the Hancock organization was growing in number, and they were now capable of creating machines that allowed the human eye to see past the illusions guarding the Others. He even demonstrating by putting on a pair of sunglasses, or what appeared to be sunglasses, and pointing at various people around the room, describing their real appearances to his followers. Loch mentally scanned the room himself, and found that the Others with higher level shadows guarding them had not been noticed. He was safe from the Hancocks, for now. His actual appearance still appeared almost human, however, so he could even be safe from scrutiny if they created a device that could see past the most powerful shadows.
If he were actually part of the Other world, Loch would have reported this information straight to them. Fortunately, he was not, so he simply listened. Deciding that the ranting human had given him enough information for the day, Loch focused on a conversation between two Others that had volunteered at the soup kitchen. Others were never homeless, for they always banded together in groups, often living in the same place. Extended families saved a lot of money on rent.
"Isn't Trinity investigating the pale chef?"
"The pale chef? Oh, the quiet kid. I believe I heard one of the cop-wanna-be's talking about being sent to investigate him. He found the kid eerie and frightening. I don't see it." Loch nearly bent a spatula in frustration. Fear was preferable to people calling him 'kid'. Once he gained some more weight, he would look more his age. His age when he had last stopped aging, at least. He was in his early twenties, from what he could remember.
"Those werewolves never live up to the tough stereotype. The chef seems perfectly normal to me. If he is a warlock, he can't be a powerful one. The powerful ones always stir up trouble before they're found. I think Trinity's just desperate for more warlocks. She said she's trying to build up our defenses so that we don't lose too many people in this ridiculous war." He had heard that name before. Trinity was campaigning for election, if he recalled correctly.
Loch's eyes flicked to the clock on the kitchen wall. His four hours were up. He tossed the hairnet and gloves into the trash, hanging the apron back in its spot. Most of the volunteers had disposable plastic aprons, but he had volunteered enough times to earn one of his own. The day he had switched to a real apron, he had almost felt accomplished. Almost. Loch glanced around the kitchen and confirmed that he was alone before finishing the cleaning of both the dishes and the kitchen itself with a sweep of his hand. The kitchen did not have cameras.
A sound from his own stomach alerted him of his hunger. The café was only a few buildings over, and it was much cheaper than most of the places he had been to since he had stopped going there. He had been giving the naiad siblings the cold shoulder for long enough. Loch managed to slide out the door of the soup kitchen without someone pulling him aside for dialogue and made his way along the icy sidewalks. With the temperatures reaching below zero, the streets were much emptier than usual. This would have excited him if it were not for the cold. Packed streets were almost preferable to the overwhelming advance of snow soldiers.
The café was nearly empty, but a few tables were occupied by Others. They never had to worry about a day without customers with their dedicated clientele. Loch sat away from the window for once in order to sit closer to one of the heat vents. It was a strange experience sitting in a booth for once. He was almost tempted to take off his gloves and ball his hands up for warmth, but it was not worth it.
"The usual?" The tall naiad grinned at him. He was completely ecstatic. Loch could not help but smile a little at the sight of such a large creature practically shaking with joy.
He shook his head. "Clam chowder and hot chocolate."
A group of vampires seated nearby watched him curiously. Several of them were hiding smiles. They clearly knew about Skye's little crush. Loch shot a glare in their direction and focused his attention on going over what he had found out so far.
The humans had responded to the killings by forming a group focused on killing Others. The Others, on the other hand, were only somewhat bothered by the newspaper killings since humans were the only targets. From what he had heard, the Others were more focused on the upcoming war, the subject of which he still did not know, and the election than such human affairs. Those who did speculate about the killings assumed they were done by demons, since Others killed in a much 'cleaner' fashion. They had no knowledge of the Hancocks, so he could safely assume that the invention that allowed these hunters to see the Others was a new one. Unfortunately, none of what he had heard suggested that any species knew who or what was actually committing the killings.
"You aren't mad at me, are you?" A steaming bowl of chowder appeared before him. Loch blinked several times to rise himself from his thoughts. "I'm sorry about Lola. She's a bit domineering over... well, everyone." Lola must be his sister's name. Loch sipped from his hot chocolate in thought. He was in dangerous waters now. With all of his volunteering he had gotten plenty of information, so he did not necessarily need a friend on the inside anymore; especially one he would possibly have to date. On the other hand, the café served the best hot chocolate he had ever had.
"Not mad." He tried the clam chowder and wasn't surprised to find that it was just as high quality as the drink. They probably had a dryad as a chef. Since dryads had power over plants, they tended to have both the freshest ingredients and the best knowledge of how much of these ingredients to add.
Skelly put a palm against his chest and let out a breath. "That's a relief. So where've you been? How are you? One of my customers mentioned that you'd been volunteering at the hospital."
"Yes, the hospital and the soup kitchen." He avoided the naiad's gaze. Something about his pupil-less blue eyes was making him uncomfortable.
"Oh yes, I heard about the soup kitchen too!" Had the lovesick creature been asking around about him? Loch did not know what to think about that. "My neighbor's a lovely old lady. She volunteers there a lot and says you're always very polite and hardworking. Apparently nobody has done a better job of cleaning the kitchen than you, and your mashed potatoes are wonderful." Skye gasped. "You could work here if you'd like. We can always use more chefs. We only have one right now. Oh, but you're rich, right? I suppose sticking to volunteering would help the community more. Which do you like more, the hospital or the soup kitchen?"
Loch had managed to finish his soup in time that it took for Skye to finish his thought. "Kitchen. No sick people. Is your neighbor Darcy?" She was the only lady he knew the name of, and it was only because she was one of the main coordinators of the soup kitchen. The other two coordinators were human as well.
The vampires were watching them again. They were not unnaturally pale, but vampires were never pale unless they were not drinking enough. Their defining features were red irises and sharp incisors, so they were not as strange to look at as the dryads and naiads. That did not make their unwanted gazes any less annoying. Loch glared at them again, but when he finally glanced up at Skye he saw him trying not to laugh. "Sorry, it's funny watching you try to scare people off." If they knew what he was capable of they would not dare disrespect him. Unfortunately, revealing himself to the Other world introduced very few advantages and too many disadvantages. "She is Darcy, to answer your question. So... um..." Skye took a deep breath.
Loch raised an eyebrow and waited for the boy to work up the courage to continue speaking. When he at last did speak, all of the words came out in a rush. "Would you like to hang out later today? Like, when I'm not working? Maybe the um... park or... ice rink or... a club or something...?" His words trialed off and the blue eyes searched Loch's face for an answer.
He had been doing various kinds of work for two weeks straight. Some calm time would not hurt him. "Park sounds fine." He could not believe he was doing this. "What time?" Several gasps came from the vampire table and a few of them exchanged money. Loch held in his groan, but it took a considerable amount of effort. Why was he doing this? He hadn't even bothered making friends in four hundred years, let alone hanging out with people who wanted him to be more than a friend.
An ecstatic grin lit up Skelly's face once again. "How about five? I'll get off work a bit early." At least it was not a movie. Loch had heard bad things about what happened when people took someone they liked to the movies. Bad from his perspective, at least.
"I'll meet you out front at five, then." Loch's inner logic was warring with his boredom. He could not take this. He glanced at the prices on the menu and set down a fifty to pay for it. It was overpaying, but he did not have anything smaller. Without another word, he fled the café.