3:30 PM...Lelita's cafe and resturant...

Hey (Y/N)....(Y/N)?...(YYYYY/NNNNN)...

"(Y/N)!" 

Miss Lelita's loud call had me jumping from my place at the counter. She looked at me disapprovingly as I came out of my dissociating trance, with one dark eyebrow raised to the ceiling above. I quickly bowed my head in apology.

"I'm sorry Miss Lelita, forgive me," I say rather formally, which had caught myself off guard as if the words weren't even my own. She waddled across to the bakery area of the cafe where I was situated, gave a deep chuckle, and shook her head.

"My my you silly child. I yell at you not for me to be treated like a queen, I yell because you've been hand-drying that one mug for over five minutes!" She chuckled again muttering to herself in some Swahili, taking the mug and towel from me with a kind smile. "It seems you have a lot on your mind, want to take your break now?" She asks.

The heat of embarrassment reaches my cheeks. "Oh, uh...no no-no. I'll be fine! spotlessness is just a habit of mine!" I sing with a crooked smile, but there was no fooling wise Miss Lelita, who's had to deal with all sorts of people in her lifetime.

The boisterous owner of the cafe/restaurant rolls her dark eyes and shuffles to the back corner of the counter, scratching at her brown and blond braided hair underneath a bright green headband. She spun around with a broom and sweeper in hand.

"That will make good use for the floors then! hah hah!" She giggles dropping the cleaning supplies into my hands. "The floors are already clean though, put this in the cupboard and wait for your friends. Restless feet may fall into a snake pit." She strolls past me to serve the next customer in line and leaves me to my own devices.

There was no point in going against what she was telling me to do, so I moved around the counter and walked through part of the seating area until I reached the staff-only area of the cafe. I place the supplies away in the cupboard as neatly as possible but the broomstick tips its balance and knocks everything out again. The noise gains a few stares from the customers, which gets me cursing at myself. 

Once I get everything sorted, I close the cupboard doors and let out a sigh of relief. Deep down I knew Miss Lelita was right, I did need rest. But whenever I found myself resting, the dark scenes of last night's suspected Hybrid encounter were on constant reply and I didn't want to re-visit that enigma just yet.

Because something tempted me to go back into those forests.

Previously I denied it was anything peculiar and thought of it as my want to apologise for scaring that park ranger and thank him for escorting me out of there. I also had a deep suspicion that the park ranger knew something about what was going on as well. Truthfully, there was a confusing creeping need within all of the fear to discover the creature that approached me under the cover of darkness.

It almost seemed like my soul was yearning... a longing for nostalgia. And that idea frightened me.

I blindly headed towards the library section of Lelita's with the ambition to find some peace amongst the abundance of books at my availability. Distracting myself once more.

Lelita's was quite a lovely experience with three sections of the restaurant, cafe and bar all on the same large premises that used to be a small shopping center. Throughout it all, there were little entertainment areas laced with urban and African-style decor which tied culture to a modern appeal in providing a welcoming colorful atmosphere.

Although I rarely spend time here during work, the library was easily my favorite part of Lelita's. With soothing afrobeat and jazz playing softly in the background, comfortable bright knit beanbags or traditional carved wood and fur seating, and the smell of cocoa beans flowing in through from the cafe... it was simply soothing.

I scan through the fiction section, avid on finding new reads I could get lost in. But no matter what I saw nothing seemed to catch my eye, all the covers looked similar in some fashion and had cringe-worthy titles that turned me off straight away. I always found myself having a niche taste in books, but never to the point where I actually couldn't find something to read.

Stepped back from the bookshelves and eyed them all from afar, the spines all blurred together into one big mesh of stories, all with their unique voice crying out for my attention. It almost made me feel guilty about my integral choices.

My line of sight was being dragged toward another section of the library, one I didn't think to consider but had now intrigued me. The non-fiction section. I paced over to the thick-covered and large-page books, their spines glistening in laminate. Then I found that the more I attended to these books, the more I wanted to know what facts about the world and what knowledge extended just beyond my reach.

Bypassing a shelf or two on the sciences, I glance to the 'Nature Section' that pulled me in with its stunningly photographed covers of the natural world. Scanning the titles, I see that there was one that struck my memory, although briefly, I kept reading over the title to myself until I realized how I had come to know this book.

"In class we were researching for our next thesis, and there was this incredible book that I think you two should check out...what the author says makes a lot of sense! I think it's called...OH! 'The Link Within Us'...Cool right?!"

It was a book about Hybrids, one of the first out there since Hybrids were revealed to the world. As I was tracing my fingers over the dented title, something within was rising...calling out to me. I try to look around with my peripheral vision, nervous with the strange sense of being watched. all too familiar too what I had just experienced. 

Before I could look behind, to find what unnerved me so, A freckled arm roughly slung over my shoulder and I was tackled into Asher's chest. "Awhhhh...(Y/N) does take my book recommendations!... I was starting to think you don't even listen to me talk about my life at all." I step back to see Asher poking out her tongue, I took a moment to brush off my shock and saw that Kina had arrived too having a conversation with Miss Lelita. And though they were right here with me... they never felt so far away. 

I didn't feel... okay. at all. For that otherworldly sense of an entirely different presence lingered through the atmosphere.

"Okay sorry for scaring you...(Y/N)?... Hey, are you okay?" 

"She's been like this all day." Miss Lelita shakes her head again.

"I...I think I need some fresh air!" I shouted. With that outburst, I once again enveloped myself in the scene and saw my two friends and my employer all stare at me in unbridled confusion. I didn't know what I needed, I felt like I was suffocating within my skin. 

Miss Lelita stalked forward "Let me have a look at you." Miss Lelita gently rubbed at my back and leaned in close to get an observation on me. She raised her plump brown hands to my cheeks and felt the rising heat come off of them. The woman glanced around the library with a stern eye, looking out to the cafe floor, watching for something amongst all the customers. 

Miss Lelita seemed to travel in deep thought as I did, but not a moment later she straightened herself upright and folded her arms across her chest. "Silly child, you work too hard." Miss Lelita glanced between my two friends, a seriousness in her eye as she whispered to them only just within my earshot. 

"Make sure she gets home safe... I have a feeling I know what's making her unwell."