4:

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height




We all exited Lelita's and walked together through the suburban streets, basking in the golden afternoon glow as we silently headed down to the train station. I could tell my friend's eyes were stuck on me, observing with a hidden intent while I examined my hands. The shakiness had ceased quite dramatically since leaving the building and my otherwise out-of-focus vision cleared with my heart settling back to a normal pace. 

And though this 'malady' faded into obscurity, a small peak of adrenaline had kept my senses alert along our silent walk.

"That was weird," I muttered trying to break the tension between us. I let my hands drop to my sides. "Maybe I did need fresh air after all."

But my genuine comment didn't go down too well with Kina. She skipped ahead and flipped around, walking backward and eyeing me with the narrowed eyes of a disappointed mother. 

"I know... I know." I say with a guilty sigh, Kina was always one to make sure we were living healthy and always tried to check in on our states as much as possible. Although this sensation had the feeling of outside influence, maybe the debilitating state I found myself in was something I could fix. "I'll go to the doctor when I have the time to. It's probably nothing big."

"Even you just saying that worries me." She says spinning back around and walking by my left side. "I suspect you are either not eating enough, have an iron deficiency, or are getting some sort of chronic fatigue... Maybe I could use the brainwave mechanism to scan what's going on inside your head..." 

"Yeah maybe..." I huffed. 

As Kina goes on about her theories, I find myself thinking back to the two times this has already happened to me.

There was one distinct and definite link between the two...the dark stirring presence, one that called through the woods and froze me to my core. The one that must be a hybrid. As much as I tried to rationalize it, there was something bigger to this than chronic fatigue. And if I focus, push away thoughts floating around in my mind. I can still feel that hair-raising sensation that something is watching me from afar.

I glance around myself; down the rain-dampened concrete streets, in the old-fashioned antique stores we pass by and the small dirty dead-ended alleyways, and watching the umbrella-holding, rain-coated characters that walk on by. I looked everywhere with nothing there which brought me even closer to this overwhelming paranoid state.

As I scan the area once again I notice Asher with her eyes sunk to the sidewalk and lazily followed step after step. For my bubbly friend to be so quiet and have such a dispirited aura, there had to be something wrong... There had to be something heavy on her mind.

"Asher?" She glances up at me and stares for a long-draining moment. It's when she looked away from me that The ginger thinned her small lips in anxiety and slowed to a complete halt. I stop and Kina also turns back to see Asher tucking in tightly to her green coat, the heat of her breath floating away from under her hood and her gaze bravely coming up to meet me once more. 

"I need to tell you something." She says with an expressionless tone. Asher flicks the green hood back and reveals little emotion donned her freckled face. Although there was no true telling what had changed her to be like this, there was a clear sense of suspicion.

"We're about to miss the train... tell us when we are at her place," Kina says walking ahead of us I silently agree with a subtle head nod and follow down the subway. My heart pounding in cruel anticipation to hear just what was with Asher.

-

The rugged chugging of the train was calming in a way, kind of like the sensation a baby would feel being rocked to sleep. Each sway and bounce had its rhythm, It was easy to get lost inside it like a song. 

It was at least something keeping my mind at bay for an uncomfortable influence rose between the three of us sitting together. 

Asher had become distant, the worries on her mind leading her into a place far away and out of my reach. Her eyes darkened as I had never seen before, the energy was simply emptied from the ever-so-passionate friend of mine. 

Kina, on the other hand, seemed to be restless. Her eyes jumped all over the train carriage but always seemed to land back on me. It disturbed me how quiet and serious she had gotten, although Kina was normally this voiceless within our joined travels, she would always pitch in with ordinary comments and not-so-ordinary fun facts. But she had no comfort in this situation, she didn't let the time of commute pass us by, instead, she was experiencing every long and straining second. 

She had to know something about Asher's troubles and seemed to so eagerly want to voice her opinion but didn't feel in the right to do so. Asher released a long sigh, the first thing we've heard from her since getting in the carriage. Her almond hazel brown eyes retreated from that faraway place in her mind.

"Why does everything feel so much slower today?" She said huffing out of awkward stress. Her question gains no real answer and so she tightens with worry. "I'm sorry... I know I'm being weird, especially after what just happened with you at Lelita's. But this is just so... " She bites down on her lip before she can say anything else.

"Do you want me to explain?" Kina asked, Trying her best to show an empathetic side by rubbing Asher's shoulder. Asher simply nods her head, then puts her arms around her knees watching me with careful eyes.

"Asher... has discovered some documents from the National Scientific Association... it has things the public doesn't even know yet. It's about the hybrids." She folds her hands together and awaits my thoughts, blank-faced. I process what she is saying but more questions start to pop up and plague my mind. 

"What...kind of things?" I say approaching the conversation slowly, Asher glimpses at me but turns away with a wince. 

What they are both trying to say to me?

Kina leans forward from her seat across mine, propping her elbows on her thighs and clutching her fingering hands together. With a deep breath in, she takes me into her big black eyes she lets her lips fall. "Enough to know you may be in danger (Y/N)."

There were no thoughts immediately, nothing. A big black hole had sucked out every little piece of my previous understanding. That word of 'Danger' spun around and around, repeating the intensity of the vague threat held within. The two were steady, almost motionless. They looked at me as if I was in pain. 

How does Asher in learning something about the NSA...put me in danger?

"Asher was talking with her professor today, he said the NSA Have Indeed provided Asher with a job opportunity..." Within my heart had a little burst with joy that Asher got a job opportunity, but I knew there was a glaring problem with this. "When he was called to talk at a meeting his PC was left open with some classified information for the organization-"

"I-I just don't know what to do since I took the reports!" Asher wails, her hands rising to pull at her ginger ringlets. Before I was about to ask further, she reeled back and gave me a serious look. "I can't understand it! Are you involved?" her tone shifts with a spice of anger thrown into the mix. 

"Involved in what? The NSA?" I retort, the feeling of defending myself was starting to grow.

"Of course, she isn't Asher, keep your head clear. I know you are angry about the cruel reports, but there's no need to jump to illogical conclusions."

"Cruel reports?" I ask, glancing around the carriage for some self-comfort but something about this scene didn't sit right with me and I wondered if my friends could feel it too. 

"You think I'm involved with some reports at the NSA? I don't know what's got you upset but I wouldn't lie to you about something like that Ash." 

She leans forward, looking amongst the crowd of people around us, I lean forward too as I can see she wants to say something out of earshot of anyone else. her eyes were brimming with fear and sadness. "They... they have been doing terrible things to Hybrids in NSA" Asher's spotted cheeks started to flare up, and her eyes darted outside to the housing districts of the city's suburbs as we came out of the underground.

My eyes went wide, and even though she didn't say much, my mind ran wild with a million thoughts. Everyone knew the National Scientific Association was a secretive and lucrative operation with quite a few past menial scandals, but for them to do something to disturb Asher to this level, I knew this had to be serious. My heart pounded with hurt.

A stray tear rolled down Asher's face as she tried to control her emotions. "I didn't know what else to think after reading your name in these documents... " She mumbled. She blinks more than once and the shine in her eyes raised with tears. I reach out for her hand and give it a gentle squeeze. 

"Ash, please tell me why you think I'm in danger..."

Asher bit on her lip and tried to control her harsh breathing. "I'm sorry. It's just these reports. They infuriated and confused me." She retrieved her hand from my own and held it to her under her chin, rubbing softly. "I almost wanted to believe you were involved, because... it just seems so much worse for you not to be. And now I'm scared for you- I Just read about terrible things they did to the hybrids and... I don't know why your profile was there it just."  

The stirring of the train slowed to a halt, and the movements of others entering and exiting from the platforms and carriages quickly interrupted the tense atmosphere she had created with this serious admission.

"Wagani-May Parklands Station."

With the awkwardness seeping in between us, it was clear that this reveal from Asher had been enough for now and it was time to finish this conversation at a later time. "We should get going before the train starts moving again." Soon we were up on our feet and shuffled out of the carriage. 

The early evening breeze hit me with some warmth as the last rays of today's sun sunk under the horizon. The pink and gold swirls of color among the clouded skies took my breath away for a moment, and as I glanced to my right, I could see my friends were also distracted by the blazing sight.

The train rolled into the distance.

With this strange new turn of events, and the uncovering of my name in some... not so great NSA reports. Things were about to get hectic from here on now, but as long as I'm with my friends and we take a moment to look up at the same sky... together we will try to figure this out... and maybe understand more about the world's peculiar happenings.

The sunset has pulled me through my stress, if only briefly.

"Alright, guys let's g-"

"AHHH!" 

Asher screamed at an ear-shattering frequency as she was wrestled under the grasp of a black-masked man pressing a large bladed dagger across her throat. She struggles to make out words as a leak of her blood sinks her chest. 

"Ash!" I cry out, I drop my bag in fear and stumble back from the sight.

There were three men in black masks coming up from behind, another took Kina down with a blow to the back of her knees and a heavy-handed punch that knocked her to the concrete, the sound of her head ricocheting off of the platform had me recoiling in my terror as a third man had me in his line of sight.

"N-No. No." I mutter breathlessly. My throat tightened and clamored, withholding any strength in my desperate voice. On wobbling legs, I hurtle, unsteady with the sight of the man marching towards my weakening form. I extended my trembling arms from my chest."Ple-Please-se-se." I beg erratically. 

"(Y/N)! Run!" Asher yelled to me from afar as the man kept silently marching towards me. I sobbed and started gaining the pace of retreat with newfound energy. The strain in my voice was dispersing, clearing for my words as I ran. "H-Help!...HELP ME PLEASE! HELP ME!"

"Bad call, Missy." The attacker mocks with sadistic laughter that shatters me from the inside. He follows me slowly, tilting his head slightly while he tosses a sharp glinting blade between his hands. Before he could put his hands on me...

There was a roar

The masked man jumped back, his eyes out to the Parklands. He collapsed to his knees, caught in a struggle of the monstrous vibrating call in all its oncoming destruction. "...fuck fuck fuck! It's here!"

The attacking men tried to pull themselves up, fighting against the dark churning abyss growing from the trees, it pulled towards them specifically, and every slight move they made crushed them further under the weight.

It's here...  With frightful rumbling thunder echoing from the forest belly of the Parklands. A violent force ripped through from the wild parting the trees and pulling everything under the throbbing waves. I crumple upon the platform with parched breaths. swelling with the pressure of the waves of vibration. The dark force was taking complete control of my body, I could merely whimper as it was getting closer and closer, my body untangling before its very presence.

My eyes flicker to the trees, the color fading and shadows all distorting together, blackening to follow the strong movement of a beast coming into the clear. I tried to find to strength to fight but my fading vision delivered the oncoming spell of faintness.

In my last blinking moments, The large moving mass of a long slender body ripped with muscles came by my side, claws retracted, digging into the soil.  There... The wild luminescent yellow eyes of a colossal black leopard stared deep into my gaze, taking all of me under its effectual mercy...

Then...there was only darkness...

And nothing but guttural screams.




You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net