Chapter Four - Cadence
I parked my car in front of the small grocery store in downtown and slammed the door shut behind me. Something told me today wouldn't go as I planned. My skin had been itching since yesterday during the night and every time it felt as if I'd be shortly before shifting, even though every time I glanced into the mirror, I was still myself. Which actually came to be a surprise, since whenever my skin suddenly started itching, the next thing I'd know I'd look like Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian. Sometimes some other random people, some I didn't even know or haven't seen in my life. My 'gifts' were weird and everything but gifts.
Then came the nausea and then blackness- I had fallen asleep again. But it was probably all just a dream and the itching I felt now was just imagination- what else would it be? Being a shapeshifter meant being immune to things like allergies or sickness. I never got sick, my body had to be perfectly healthy in order to survive a shift.
„Hey! You must be that woman who moved in the house at the lake!" A woman with strawberry blonde hair and brown eyes said, in general very pretty, and came up to me with a kind smile on her petite face. „If you want, I could show you around here. We don't get many new in movers", she said and I smiled at her self invented word 'in movers'.
„Sure", I grinned back and was already looking forward to getting to know her. She seemed very nice and I could use a few nice people around here. „So, as you can see, here we have our little grocery store. I do suggest you visit Saint Downs Street though, the market there is much bigger. I suspect you do not have very much food in your refrigerator, do you?"
I shook my head.
„No, unfortunately not. Is there a market in that street every day or just today?" „It's every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday", she answered and we started walking further away from the grocery store and headed into a street, on the left side of the building which led us through a neighbourhood of houses that all looked identical.
„How did you even come across this place?" She asked after a while of walking past more identical houses. Shortly she glanced to my direction and I didn't really know myself. I had packed my stuff and had just been driving. Driving somewhere, anywhere. Not my smartest decision.
„I was visiting my grandparents and while I was driving I saw this beautiful house on the other side of the lake and wanted to see, who lived in it. The chances that it was for sale I thought were one to a hundred, but I guess I was just lucky it was actually for sale."
The first part was a little lie, but I didn't want the people here to think differently of me just because I had wanted to get away from home. Here I actually just wanted to be left alone, try to start coping with my issues and not get into any trouble. It was time I gave my life a little twist and start to at least try not to get in any kind of trouble.
„Wow, you must have a ton of luck! Thats great. That house is really beautiful, I'm amazed it took so long though to finally be sold." I wrinkled my forehead and looked at blondie with a puzzled facial expression. Yeah, I have a tun of luck, thankyouverymuch for reminding me.
„How come?"
She sighed and shrugged.
„I really don't know. I guess its because this place is just in the middle of nowhere and people just pass by. Lots of people want to live in big cities with allot of money or they want to live in a village where there's a school and all these important things. We don't even have a school around here, you know." No I didn't, but I didn't really care either. I just nodded and fiddled around with my sleeves, while still walking besides blondie.
I already saw quite a few people standing in front of different stands, this must be the grand market. I was used to much bigger markets, but this would be just fine. „So, here we are." Blondie walked over to a stand that sold vegetables and greeted the vendor, who had jet black hair and a beard. „Hey Dan, meet-" Blondie opened her mouth and put a hand in front of it in realisation.
„I totally forgot to introduce myself!" she exclaimed and threw her hands dramatically in the air. „I'm Jenna, what is your name? I'm a such terrible person", she huffed and extended a hand. I just laughed. This could've been Nat. She could be just as forgetful as a goldfish, which couldn't remember things after precisely five seconds. Or five minutes? „I'm Cadence, nice to meet you too", I smiled and shook hers and after Dan's hand.
„Likewise", Dan replied and flashed me a smile. He looked quite handsome, actually, but I wasn't interested in any men at the moment. He was probably not even single, so I was simply wasting my time even thinking about this. The moment you don't feel like meeting any one, you meet tons. And when you want to meet someone, you don't meet a single soul. How logical. „I'll go look around", I told Jenna and headed towards a stand which sold some general food. The vendor had a hoodie pulled into the half of his face and didn't look up as I stood in front of all the food. The atmosphere here was very comfortable, everyone seemed to know everyone, it smelled of fresh products and very different then from where I came from. Here the food was probably made in the vendors backyard.
„Could I please have some tomatoes, bread, eggs, flour, sugar-" The vendor rudely interrupted me before I even finished. „Why don't you just give me your shopping list and I'll see what I can do?" He looked up and I instantly started laughing, more out of frustration than anything else. „Aw, what a surprise. The guy who breaks into houses, actually works at a market. I should've known." He smiled genuinely and pulled back his hood so I could see his face. His mesmerising blue eyes burned themselves into my skull- no one who ever saw these eyes would ever forget them. They were really quite extraordinary.
„Yeah, with such an exiting job one does need some action at night", he grinned and I almost chocked on my own spit. My insides suddenly became hot and my heart pounded. Of course he had to say something like that. He was a guy after all.
„I'm sure you could do something more productive than breaking into a house at night", I said with the same cheeky smile. Am I flirting? Since when the hell do I flirt?
„Who says I don't?" Again, that stupid grin, and it made me go insane. But I masked my fuzziness, if you can even call it that, with yet another cheeky smile.
„Why don't you just give me what I want and I'll be out of here." I folded my arms in front of my chest and raised an eyebrow. He just laughed.
„Tomatoes, bread, eggs, flour and sugar you said?" At that I raised both eyebrows and looked at him, stunned.
„Good memory, huh? Do you also have some salt?"
He nodded and started gathering all the things I had said at the beginning of our conversation and handed them to me just two minutes later.
„Ten", he smiled and again, I looked at him with my puzzled face. „Only ten?" Things here were really different. He nodded.
„I'd give it to you for free, but if I'd give every pretty woman who stops by here something for free I'd not earn anything."
„Aw, sure you would." I gave him my fake smile and grabbed, annoyed, the bag with my things in it. I pulled out a ten from my wallet and handed it to him. A compliment and an insult at the same time. What a great strategy.
„Here you go, ladiesman." Again, he laughed and I wish I wouldn't feel this pounding in my chest every time he laughed. He had an inhumanly smile, but his laugh was just... Angelic. Seriously.
„My name is actually Killian, but ladiesman works too", he winked and instantly I turned around. He. Did. Not. Just. Wink.
After the shopping I did at the market and the meeting of dozens of new people, I went home and put everything in its original place. Today was mainly food shopping, but I had also found a store at the end of this Saint Downs Street and bought a few things for the office.
I was sitting on the porch in front of the lake when I heard something scream in the woods- it sounded like something, possibly an animal, was dying or strongly injured.
I stood up and first didn't know what do to- I ended up doing whatever my instincts told me to do. Sprinting, I made my way into the woods and tried to figure out where the screams were coming from. It took me a while until I finally came closer instead of further away.
It was starting to get dark but my eyesight adjusted to the light and soon I could see every little thing. As I already said, being a shape shifter did have its perks, but still came with a cost. I could see the heat coming from the inside of the trees and the heat from the earth, but the heat of a human or of an animal body held a different colour than natures heat, which was why I found what I was looking for rather fast. Before I went up to the thing that was still screaming, but sounding more and more like a human, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the shift.
I felt my bones readjusting, my hair changing length and my body slightly changing. This was my favourite shape, when I couldn't be myself. Instead of my blonde hair, I wore black curls, brown eyes, a more straight nose and a slimmer body. With a fast beating heart I moved towards the screaming thing and as I already thought- it wasn't an animal after all, it was a human laying on the ground, covered in dirt.
„Hey, shh, I'm here. I'm here to help you. Can you stop screaming and tell me whats going on?" The person, who's face I could not see, stopped screaming instantly, instead breathing heavily and shaking his whole body.
„My foot", he said with a deep voice and he sounded like a teenage boy going through puberty. I scanned the rest of his body for injuries- nothing. But his foot was trapped in a bear-trap and there was blood everywhere. „Are bear-traps even allowed here?" I asked more myself than him, but he answered anyway.
„No, they aren't. Just get it off! Please!" he screamed in pain and my hands were shaking. I couldn't crack it open or else he would ask why I had some extra strength, not as much as Natalie did but still more than the average woman. What the hell should I do? I was starting to panic, not having a clue on how to disarm a bear trap. In fact, I didn't have a clue how to do anything at the moment. And I couldn't have cracked it open anyway, because I would've slashed open both my hands in the process.
„Just, just try to disarm it. There's a manual on the back", he said and I laid down on the forest floor, thus soaking my clothes in blood. I slapped my forehead. Of course. I couldn't read in a different shape. I couldn't read or write, because the only thing I take on from someone is his ability to speak, to see, to hear and his looks.
„I'm- I'm so sorry-" tears were streaming down my cheeks. I didn't know what to do. Instead of doing nothing, I decided to not care if he would ask himself if I had extra strength or if I was just a freak- I pulled the bear trap from his foot, causing my hands to slash open and begin bleeding, and snapped it into half.
But now the blood was practically spraying out of the boys foot- bleeding even more. With it, my panic increased. I tried everything- ripped off half of my shirt and wrapped it around the upper part of his leg, tried stopping it but nothing would work. He would just keep screaming.
„Call the ambulance, for gods sake!" he yelled, but the tears were already running down my cheeks. „I don't have my phone here", I said and tried to keep from screaming. Why did this day just have to get so bad? If I would go back home and call the ambulance from there, the boy will have already bled out.
„Hold on, okay? Just don't give up. I'll go get help. Don't give up", I pleaded and already started running back, even though I hardly had a clue how to get home in this gigantic forest. It took me so long until I finally saw lights, I had obviously forgotten to put them off, which now I was thankful for. As soon as I reached the front porch, I ran inside and snatched my cellphone, already running into the forest again. I tipped in the number of 911 and told them my house address but that we were in the forest.
The phone call was brief, but my panic just grew stronger. I didn't hear anything anymore. The forest was absolutely quiet. No sound, no nothing. Alarmed I turned around and tried to find my way back to the boy, but I didn't know where I was.
It was like I just woke up from a bizarre dream, in the middle of the forest. Nothing around me seemed familiar, as if I really had just been dreaming. With a shaking body I tried to find my way to the hurt boy, even if I didn't hear anything anymore.
By the time I felt things become more and more familiar, I could make out the sound of siren's coming closer, dogs barking and people yelling. but I hadn't found the boy. I still haven't found him. My head started pounding and my pulse became ragged- my head was gonna burst any second. I cut myself whilst running through the forest, scratching myself on numerous branches.
And when I finally found the boy, I had almost let out a sigh of relief.
But I couldn't.
I couldn't because the boy was dead.