If not for the approximate location of the buildings that stood in chain lined down the street, I'd say that this was an entirely different town. Besides, the streets became longer and to two shabby blocks were added a few more, making it look like a cozy small town.
Instead of the bar and the town's inn, there were a pharmacy and a small deli café that was placed right in the corner. However the building that used to held the bar stayed the same, minus the old windows and doors.
My eyes scanned the street and fell on the three older men sitting on the bench right outside the pharmacy. They all looked like respectable gentlemen except I could notice their eyes gleaming with cold light. With oh so familiar cold light.
My memory stirred and flashes of images started blinking in my head. As much as I didn't remember the majority of my life, the most important events stayed untouched in the chambers of my brains. Something that Dr. Farmosa never managed to scoop out of me.
My shaded gaze traveled by two figures that were sitting outside on the porch curiously observing me. One of them licked his lips and smirked pointing his chin in my direction. Such thugs that sat by the bar wasting their lives in bottle lived scattered all around the country. Anywhere you go, you can find one of them staring at you in a hair-raising way. The thought brought unpleasant shiver run through me, and I swiftly looked away.
Before long, the one who acknowledged me first got up and lazily stepping by the dusted road made his way to the truck. His face was what I call unpleasant. It wasn't ugly; in fact, his face was shaped nicely and still held youthfulness. What made it uncomfortable was a sat of his yellowish raunchy eyes and know-it-all attitude. He was exactly the kind who liked to violate, to rape, to steal, to watch you suffer. He was what you call a lowlife. A real lowlife.
Carelessly, he leaned on the window of the truck from my side. The window was slightly rolled down that let him shove his covered in dirt and blood fingers inside. I didn't move or even flinched away. I was too shocked to move. And once I turned my head to look at him, he sent me a creepy grin. The worst part was that he didn't say anything, he just kept eyeing me like his prey making me sick to my stomach. Because he didn't need to say anything. The silent messages were written all over his face.
The guy pulled his tongue out making a weird move with it, and winked at me as if saying 'if you want a good time, you know where to find me.' Then he straightened up patting the body of the car and started unhurriedly moving to the bar porch. At the same time, Troy emerged from the door of the adjacent building and headed towards me. He and the guy exchanged some kind of look that didn't really mean anything, but still I sensed a warning that passed between them in a split second.
I flinched at the vivid vision from my past, and my eyes zeroed on the old man with the similar face that I dug out from the depth of my memory.
It was the same man.
Instead of cringing, I felt a cold smile growing on my lips. I didn't know if it was because I recognized him, or because now I had full authority over him. Interesting...
"Park the car, Spencer," I ordered in a neutral voice, not giving away my excitement. Spencer glanced at me warily but complied nonetheless.
"Do you want to ask around the people, if someone knows the people you're after?" he asked when stopped at the curb on the other side of the street and turned off the engine.
"Something like that," I nodded. "By the way," I took my handbag. "Do you need something from a pharmacy?"
He made a thoughtful face and pursed his lips. "No, not really."
"Okay," I retorted and pushing the door open jumped outside, feeling a fresh but humid air enveloping me into its suffocating embraces.
A shiver passed through my skin. If I wasn't mistaken, it was a shiver of hidden anticipation. The dark side that I preferred not to notice within me, stirred again and this time, I knew that I wouldn't be able to hold it at bay. To deal with fear was one thing, but to deal with humans was absolutely different. Something that I was yet to discover.
I crossed the street and pretending not to feel the gazes that followed me, strolled into the pharmacy. The person behind the counter lazily raised her head up to check the new customer. A flesh of curiosity sparkled in her eyes, but as soon as the spark lit her gaze it vanished, and she ducked her head carrying on with her business.
Inconspicuously, I went to the aisle in the middle and turned to the stand with the shampoos. I grabbed the first bottle that my hand happened upon, and positioned myself so I could see the street. Once I found my target, I notice that one of three men was missing. My eyes darted to our rental car, and I found him leaning on the window, standing with his back to the pharmacy.
"Oh for the love..." I muttered under my breath amused that they still worshiped the ways of criminals. Holding the bottle tight in my hands I made my way to the register and placed the shampoo on the counter. The girl mumbled a dry greeting and scanned the bottle.
"It would be twelve dollars and fifty-three cents," she announced and placed my purchase into a shopping bag.
I reached for money and put a twenty-dollar bill on the counter. "Do you know all the people in the area?" I asked pulling a sweet smile on my lips that actually felt alien entity.
She placed the money into the register and counted the change. "Um, yeah..." she replied.
"Do you know someone by the names Grace or Georgia?"
"They're common names," she returned without batting a lash.
"So, there are a few people who live around here by those names?" I asked again taking the change from the counter and stashing in into the pocket of my jeans.
"About a dozen," she replied with a shrug, and I nodded realizing that the girl was quite useless.
As I emerged outside the two pairs of eyes snapped in my direction. I gave the two old men a calculating stare and in casual pace continued walking towards the car.
"So, you're just passing by?" I heard the man saying in a ruff unpleasant voice. "Or you're here for business?"
I couldn't hear what Spencer muttered in return, and decided to intervene into the conversation. Lightly, I reached the old man and stopped only a few inches from him right behind his back. He stiffened feeling my presence around and slowly turned his head to glance over his shoulder.
My senses that still somewhat were unfamiliar to me perked up and began invading my awareness, separating human and inhuman in me. Inhaling the man's scent the predatory part that laid dormant until now with me smirked, recognizing a dark soul. And a dark human soul was the worst thing to be. It was lower than the lowest rank of the most disgusting demon out there. Demons didn't possess souls and humans did.
"Ah!" the man cried out in a fake excited voice. "Young lady! Haven't seen you there."
"It's quite alright," I replied holding his eyes.
"Must say haven't seen such a beauty since the nineteen sixties," he grinned exposing his crooked yellow teeth.
"And maybe you haven't," I replied feeling my lips curling up in a smile. "Nineteen sixty-three to be sure. April."
"Wha...What did you say?" he turned completely to look at me, but it was too late. My eyes captured his and I got a hold of his entire body, diving into the pits of his pupils with my consciousness.
My mind went blank, euthanizing my own thoughts and bringing all the attention to the old man's mind, sucking out of him all the information I wanted. I went as deep as to pull his memories of his childhood. The images of his father and mother... Father beating the living hell out of his mother, violating her right in front of his eyes. I scooped the pictures out of his head not feeling even a drop of pity for him, and continued further digging his memories.
When I stumbled upon his teenagehood, I paused and peered closer, watching him doing his first crime. That night he killed four black men that were walking home from work. I felt his heart racing when he shot each of them dead, and how much satisfaction it brought him afterward. The same night he shot his own father and robbed the bar, taking a few more lives with him. At that time he was only sixteen, and already a murderer.
The rest of his memories were coated with a thin film. Though they showed only crime after crime after crime, I still watched every single episode of his existence.
Patiently I absorb everything, not flinching even once until a flash of a familiar pair of dark brown eyes caught my attention. I stopped scrolling his memories and paused looking into my own face, the face of human me. A soft glow was radiating from the depth of my gaze, even though I could see a fright and distrust in them. I caught my breath swallowing my own image, but even after a few moments the feeling that I wanted to invade me, never came. I felt only a faint prickle of disappointment in my chest, and that was as far as my emotions went.
Realizing that I won't be able to rescue that young girl by glancing at her through the eyes of some tainted soul, I snapped out of it and left the man's mind swiftly.
It didn't come as a surprise that I could do the soul reading. I let my other side take over and rule my body, leading me on instinct. It also didn't fascinate me that it only took a mere second to do so.
The man was still looking at me funny, remaining still. I cocked my head to one side, studying his shocked face. His dry colorless lips parted and a gasp escaped his mouth. Not aware of my actions I brought my palm up to his mouth and an electrifying power in my hand began pulsating, summoning his strength out of him. Lurking the soul out of his body.
His eyes rolled back, and a black fog started swirling out of his mouth and slipping on the tips of my fingers. The substance wrapped around my skin and began adoringly moving around, rubbing against the entire length of my arm. It made several more circles and then started shrinking, collecting on my palm into a black ball.
"Go," I said to the man. He nodded and unemotionally turned his head towards the bench with his buddies, and started walking slowly to the other side of the street. I followed him with my gaze, watching him taking a seat. One of the men started moving his lips whispering something harshly into his ear, but when he noticed me staring, he cut the whispering short and smiled creepily at me.
I was about to go and claim his soul too when Spencer pulled me out of my moment by muttering things. "Thug," I caught him saying and instantly knew that Spencer was more aware of people than it appeared to me.
I squeezed the gooey black ball in my fist, but not too tight and with a free hand opened the car door.
"How did you figure it out?" I asked when made myself comfortable and placed my handbag on the back seat of the car.
Spencer huffed and started the car. "Why would a random person, even a resident be so interested in one's business? He was checking if we had things to offer and if we were important enough for police to go after our case."
"Well then," I glanced into the side mirror at the trio as we took off from the spot, and squeezed the black substance until I felt it disintegrate with an invisible hiss under the force of my fist. Then I shoved my hand out of the window and let the black ash on the wind, at the same time watching as the man fell down from the bench onto his side already dead. "We are definitely the wrong people to mess with."
Spencer gave me a sideway look and then slowly agreed with a nod.
In about twenty minutes I asked Spencer to stop the car and let me explore on my own the surroundings. Now we were in some residential area that still looked somewhat recognizable to me. Of course, instead of the woods and secluded houses, the place blossomed into a neighborhood that had the houses lined up by the course of the road.
I wandered up the road to find some similarities with the previous landscape, even though I knew it was impossible to restore it by memory and rely on my inner guidance. Maybe, I needed to use an old fashioned method by knocking each door and ask for Grace or Georgia myself. Silently agreeing with my thoughts, I took the driveway that led to one of the properties.
The house was white and hidden behind a thick line of trees. When the two-story house came into a view, I noted that there were no cars parked in front. The house itself seemed lifeless, and the only sound was the sound of Leafs' shuffle and chirping of the birds.
Taking a good survey, I walked around the property, and when made sure that the house was indeed empty, I headed back to the main road, determined to find either Grace or Georgia no matter what.
When I was only a hundred feet away from the car, a particular emotion twisted my stomach, and I gasped from its intensity. I couldn't describe how I felt, but I couldn't help relishing in the sensation.
I haven't felt anything so distinct in a long time.
My insides were buzzing with recognition and anticipation, barely giving me a chance to take a deep breath and calm down.
In the distance, I recognized the noise of the car engine revving. The roar echoed through the calm air and the closer the car got the more feelings poured out of me, spreading through my limbs like a wildfire.
The car reached the point of visibility and increased its speed dramatically, but as it neared closer, the screech of tires followed, and I rotated watching with a horrified expression as a man jumped out of the car and headed towards me.
The man wore black boots, dark blue jeans, and a leather jacket. His stance was of power and strength, and his steps were firm and certain. The determination was radiating off of him, secretly or maybe not so secretly warning the surroundings not to interfere in his ways. His eyes were hidden behind the dark shades, and his hair was pulled back into a short ponytail. But even with shades on, I could feel his drilling stare on me.
Oengus...
My heart constricted in my chest recognizing the outline of his face, but despite all the hatred I felt for him, I couldn't move, standing rooted to the spot, neither I could express my rage on my face. It was as if the moment froze and everything stopped functioning. Even the air condensed, forbidding me from running away.
Five...
Four...
Three...
Two...
One...
But before he could reach me, I heard gunshots ripping the air and even more horrified I saw three bullets piercing Oengus's flesh. Right in the chest.
I blinked, suddenly feeling excruciating pain in the same places where the bullets went into Oengus's chest, and then blinked again.
However I felt it all as if Spencer had shot me, nothing changed in Oengus's posture. He didn't even wince or did cry out of pain. Instead, he calmly pulled his hand to his chest, and I saw the bullets making their way out from his body, slipping from the holes in his jacket onto his palm.
My own hand jumped to my chest, and when I pulled it away, I saw blood staining my skin.
"Not invincible after all," I managed to say before my vision blurred and I started falling down.