She got ready for work leaving the apartment locking the door. She felt uncomfortable in the apartment suddenly. Mitch had encroached on her private space making her feel a slight bit territorial.
The restaurant was booming with every table full. Cookie had been amazed with how quickly she'd learned everything and fit in.
She watched him for a second seeing something she had never noticed before, stress. He wasn’t the jovial cook he'd always been. He seemed worried and constantly stressed about everything. If her uncle had owned the place and taken all of the responsibility on and just left Cookie to do the cooking he would have been happy with that. The fact he had to cook and run it seemed to be wearing on him.
She leaned through the window, "If you need any help with anything just ask okay. I used to do the ordering and inventory for my uncles restaurant back in Portland."
He nodded, "I would love it if you took that over. I'll go over it with you later when we slow down."
She smiled and rolled her eyes, "If we slow down."
She felt the door open blowing in some of the hot air. She turned to see Mitch coming in. He seemed down about something. She wondered if he felt guilty for taking her to her apartment without waking her, she still wondered how he'd done it.
"Hey Mitch." She spoke softly pouring a coffee for the mayor.
His eyes darted meeting hers for a second, "Hey Ari." He moved past her quickly.
She frowned pondering his change in temperature toward her.
When the shift was ending and the last of the patrons were paying and leaving Cookie got her to come to the back and go over the inventory and ordering. He was stunned at how fast she'd figured it out.
"You're a real lifesaver Ari."
She whacked him in the arm, "You should have asked someone sooner. You look tense and stressed all the time."
He frowned at her familiarity with him, "Yeah I guess I've been a bit stressed."
She walked out with the ordering sheets and went and sat down at a table to rest her tired feet.
Mitch avoided eye contact with her. She kept her gaze on his face until finally he looked up at her frustrated, "What?"
She smiled, "What?"
"Why are you staring at me?"
"Why are you avoiding me?"
He shifted uneasily, "I'm busy is all. I'm tired from someone passing out on the roof too. I tried to wake you up but you wouldn’t. I carried you all the way home. You could have been more grateful."
She frowned, "I wouldn’t wake up?"
He shrugged, "Nope. You were beat."
She smiled, "Well thanks for carrying me home."
He blushed, "Don’t mention it."
She squinted at the way he still avoided eye contact with her.
She stood up with the papers, "K well I'm outta here. See you tomorrow?"
He nodded and smirked, "Yeah."
She walked out feeling the bursting heat hitting her as she walked through the door to outside. She loved the feeling. The warm wind played with her long hair making the smell of the greasy diner fill the air around her. She smiled at it remembering the runs she used to take and how the smell of her uncles diner always filled the air when she released her hair.
"Do you have the time?" She looked up at a man in dressy clothes.
She looked at the watch on his right arm and turned to run but everything went black as she screamed, "LUCAS."
Her head pounded in the dark as she woke. Her sweaty body felt like it was overheating again. She looked around the room but the light was so faint she could barely make out where she was. It looked to be a warehouse of sorts perhaps. She didn’t know how long she'd been there. Her dry lips felt cracked and her mouth parched. Smacked her lips together feeling the pasty thickness in her mouth.
"Hello." She called out softly.
She looked around the room but no one was there. It was a cell with no windows. There was a small shower and a toilet. There was also a door.
She felt a hot tear slip down her cheek as her hands began to burn again like they had in the beginning of her change. She knew she'd been there a long time. They'd starved her. The burning meant she would attack anything she saw.
Noises off to the side of the room made her lift her body up. Her hands tingled like an acid ate them.
"Help me. Please someone help me." She called out. No one answered her.
The noise interrupted her silence again.
"PLEASE HELP ME. WHOEVER YOU ARE PLEASE HELP ME!"
Her voice cracked from the dry throat. She needed a drink. The hunger in her hands was burning her up.
The door was opened filling one corner of the room with light. The light made her shut her eyes suddenly.
"Please I just need some water. I wont tell anyone who you are. I don’t even know who you are. Please just some water."
The light was gone as quickly as it had come making her able to open her eyes again. In the dark she could see a figure. Her hands sensed the person before her eyes did. She was like a shark in water smelling out blood. Her hands wanted the person on the opposite side of the room.
"Stay on your own side, please trust me. Don’t come any closer or I'll hurt you. Not because I want to please just stay there." She begged feeling the hot tears burning their way down her cheeks.
The feet shuffled closer. The person made a muffled sniffle.
"Please, please don’t come any closer." Ari backed up the bed pressing herself against the wall.
She could make out the shape, it was a girl. She was maybe Ari's age. Her long hair was around her shaking shoulders. She cried.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Ari asked softly.
The girl took another step as if fighting herself. It seemed as if she didn’t want to walk toward Ari but she couldn’t stop herself. Ari pulled the blanket on the cot up over her own head.
"Please, please please please please." She chanted, "Please please please please."
The noise of the shuffling footsteps got louder.
Ari lifted back the blankets to the startled face of the girl directly in front of her. Tears stained her cheeks. Her glistening eyes caught the light. Her hands were behind her back and duct tape was across her mouth. She wore a t-shirt and shorts. As she shuffled closer Ari recognized her gasping, "Missy. Missy please stay away from me."
Missy sobbed harder as Ari spoke her name. In the dark her white t-shirt was nearly glowing in the dark. Ari's hands were burning she sat them underneath and rocked back and forth, "Lucas will find me." The girl was almost on top of her now. Her t-shirt was right in Ari's face. She climbed onto the cot sitting right in Ari's face.
Ari closed her eyes, which didn’t help, she could feel the heat emanating from the girls body.
"Lucas will find me, Lucas will find me, Lucas will find me."
Ari felt herself losing the control she fought to maintain.
"WHY? WHY? LEAVE ME ALONE. MISSY PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE." She shouted into the face of the sobbing girl.
Ari knew the girl was under some kind of spell, some kind of mind control. She remembered Aimee saying Dorian could do mind control.
"DORIAN YOURE MY DAD, PLEASE DON’T MAKE ME DO THIS." She shouted again praying he would listen to her.
She felt the dark taking her again. She slipped along the wall passing out into the darkness again as the heat overtook her.
She woke again feeling the pounding in her head. She opened her eyes jumping back as Missy leaned over her. The girl had passed out as well. She lay on top of Ari. Not thinking she put her hands to the girls arms to move her out of the way and instantly as her hands made contact with the sleeping girls arms her hands took control and pushed. Ari felt it pouring from her like it had with her uncle. The energy shot from her.
The air filled sparkling the way it always did. Suddenly the picture was there hanging in the air. Missy was prom queen and her boyfriend wanted her to go to the car with him to celebrate their victory. She made it out to the car but decided against celebrating. She got angry with her boyfriend David. Ari recognized him. Missy broke up with him for being so disrespectful and asking her to lose her virginity in a car. She stormed off. She decided to take the acceptance to Yale, which she was about to turn down because he was her soul mate and he was only going to community college.
Suddenly she was back at the car. She got in and the car started moving suddenly making Ari sick. She got out of the car and David broke up with her anyway. She was so heart broken she decided to wait on the college acceptances she'd gotten. She found out she was pregnant. She went to Albuquerque and went to Planned Parenthood. She got an abortion. She got depressed. She faded from Ari as a fat girl on a couch eating a tub of peanut butter and watching TV in a trailer. Her Grad ring hung in the air catching the light on the silver band. Ari put a trembling hand out into the air knocking the ring to the ground. She felt relief and pain simultaneously. She curled into a ball and cried into her pillow.
She whispered into the air softly, "Lucas will find me. Lucas will find me. Lucas will find me. Please Lucas come find me."
She wished someone could touch her arm and send her back to the cross roads where she boarded the plane home. She wished she'd just gone back to Lydia's.
She woke hot and sweaty again. She didn’t cry any more. She didn’t have any tears left and they never fed her. She didn’t get water any more. The only sustenance she got was people. She didn’t know how long she'd been there. She didn’t know who held her there. None of the people sent in ever spoke. She never saw light unless they sent someone in to be pushed. It was always an innocent.
Her hair was ragged, her skin was clammy and her body felt weak. Every time she ate she would get a sense of being full but it wasn’t the same. They had sent eight people to be pushed. She'd tried to fight in the beginning but it didn’t make any sense any more. The only thing she accomplished by protesting was scaring the humans beyond belief. Lorna had been her last. She swallowed her pain and anger and just walked up to the crying woman and pushed her in complete control.
