It was a warm and sunny day in Miami, Florida. People swarmed the beaches, the pools, the movie theaters, and anywhere in general just to keep themselves cool.
"One mango smoothie, please." said a voice. A young girl placed a few dollars and coins on a metal stand of a smoothie trailer in an open ground market. The smoothie clerk raised one eyebrow at the child standing in front of him. She had bronze hair, cut shoulder length, a pair of boy Dickie pants that were sagged way past waist length, and a dark baggy shirt with the words, 'OBEY' written across her chest. She also had a black and pink checkered wrist band placed tightly around her arm, a sliver chain that lead from her belt loop to her back pocket, and Velcro Vans on her feet. If the clerk hadn't heard the girl's voice, he'd easily mistaken she as a he.
"One mango smoothie, coming right up." The clerk said, taking the money and disappearing for a moment, but then returning with a clear cup filled with a frosty orange-yellow drink.
"Thanks dude." The girl smiled, taking the cup and picking up a straw from the counter.
"You're welcome, kid." The clerk replied, returning an amused smirk.
The tomboy walked off, heading down a conga line of stands of fresh fruits and other products. She looked back and forth at the colorful sites of homegrown veggies, fruits, homemade cookies, soaps, baskets, trinkets and everything else the market presented. If one of the stands offered samples of their goods, the tomboy gladly took it. Coming down the second aisle of the market, the tomboy caught a site of a small flower stand. In front of the stand stood a tall and skinny, towhead boy talking to a young Hispanic girl. The boy had a white shirt with a few creepy cartoon characters on it, and wore a pair of black skinny jeans, which was completed by a lime green, black studded belt.
The girl wore the exact opposite from the boy's attire. She had sleek raven hair that was pulled back into a loose ponytail which hung over her shoulder, full glossy lips, almond shaped eyes, and long black eyelashes. She wore a light tan blouse that cut off around her shoulders, dark blue flare jeans, five inch Stilettos and black rectangular glasses with fake diamonds imbedded into the side. This girl was easily the main desire of any man.
Stepping back behind a trinket stand, the tomboy watched the boy and girl talk. The two occasionally laughed and smiled at each other. After what seemed like an hour, the boy picked out a bouquet of stargazers, paid the girl, gave her a warm, enthusiastic grin and waved goodbye before walking away. Emerging from behind the trinket stand, the tomboy with the now half empty smoothie smirked; as if she had found out a juicy little secret between the boy and the pretty flower girl.
Merging with the traffic of shoppers, the tomboy strolled up next to the blonde boy.
"Hey Camille." She said, greeting the boy with a friendly taunt.
The boy gave a start to the sudden appearance to the girl next to him, but swiftly recovered. He looked to his side and gave the girl a warm smile.
" Oh, hey Talia!" He chirped. His eye glanced down at Talia's smoothie and asked, "Is that all you got? Don't tell me you spent all the money I gave you on smoothies."
"Hey chill, I still got your money." Talia reassured. She patted her pocket and a small clanging noise sang out. "See?"
"Kay good. We've still got some more stuff to buy before we leave." Camille said, looking forward again and turning down the next aisle.
Before the silence between the two set in, Talia spoke up.
"So who was that girl you were talking to?" She asked, hoping Camille would spill his guts out to her.
"Who's who?" Camille asked.
"That girl back there!" Talia exclaimed, slightly irritated by Camille's obliviousness.
Camille looked back to the flower stand, Talia following his gaze.
"Oh, uh, that's Abigail Blanco. She's in my, um, Philosophy class." Camille replied, sounding nervous.
"Is this the 'Abby' you've been calling the past month?" Talia teased Camille.
"Y-yeah…sort of…" Camille murmured, blushing a bit, and coming up to a vegetable stand.
"You should ask her out then. I can be your icebreaker if you don't have the spine to do it." Talia elbowed Camille in the side and winked at him.
"Well sh-she's kinda, uh, wrapped up in her work, and I'm busy with catching up with school work and-"
"Dude, you suck at lying." Talia cut him short. "Why are you so afraid of girls? They're not all evil you know."
"I'm not afraid of them!" Camille squawked defensively. "I just…" he trailed off, unable to finish his excuse.
Talia chuckled, sipping her smoothie.
"You were never good with girls before." She said.
Camille shook his head, admitting to himself that he wasn't much of a ladies' man. He picked up a few fresh vegetables and headed off to the next stand, Talia trailing after him. After a few minutes of shopping, the two joked with each other and talked about the goods in the market. Just as they were wrapping up their shopping, Talia stopped dead in her tracks. She clutched her stomach and leaned against a table to for support.
"Talia, what's a matter?" Camilla asked, turning back to her.
Talia's bronze hair covered most of her face, but Camille could see her grimace and beads of sweat running down her face.
"I-I don't feel good…" Talia uttered.
"We'll, ya goof, that's what you get for drinking your smoothie too fast." Camille laughed, tossing his feathery bangs back.
"No, Camille, I feel bad." Talia said. "I-I think I'm going to transform. There's a E.V.O here." She uttered the last part.
Camille's eyes widened in shock and his care free personality disappeared. He frantically looked around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
"But I don't-" He was about to say, but heard a bloodcurdling scream broke into the air.
Camille whirled around, seeing a commotion at the far end of the market. Other terrified screams and shrieks filled the air a second later. A mob of people scattered from the area, dropping their belongings and rushing away to a safe distance. A bulging figure arose above the colorful canopies of the stands, and then a mutated and rancid head lift up to the sky. The mutant human opened its rotting mouth and let out a fearsome wail. It was a EVO.
The E.V.O then lifted up a stubby and twisting arm and slammed it down on the nearest food stand, easily snapping the metal canopy in half and destroying everything in it. Talia was right. Camille was frozen to the spot. He dropped his stargazers and shoke in terror. Suddenly he spun around, ready to run away, but saw Talia crumpled on the ground. She shuddered and grunted in pain.
Her arms stretched out into an inhuman length, her skin turned a black lustrous color, and orange spikes burst through her skin and clothes. Talia's face expanded forward into a demonic horse shape and her eyes became displaced on the side of her head. Her bronze hair disappeared and her four fingers became three long and gnarled orange claws, two stood as fingers and one on the side as the thumb. A sickening crack resonated from her body, her spine stretching out into a deformed S shape, and her back legs took shape in the form of a dog's hind legs. Her feet balled up, and toes vanished, four claws breaking through her skin again, two in the front and back. Her chest cavity collapsed and pushed forward, and more spikes trailed along her body, growing as long as cooking knives. Camille gasped at Talia's transformation. He knew that she was an E.V.O but he had no idea that she looked like this.
"MOMMY!" Camille heard a terrified yelp come from across the market parking lot.
He turned again to see that the other E.V.O had its fill of destroying stands and went on to the line of cars. He saw a little boy was caught between a pickup truck and a hard ware stand. The boy coward against the truck with his arms crossed over his head as his only sheild. The large E.V.O reached to him, its hands opened to grab him around the waist. The child screamed and dropped to the ground and crawled underneath the truck. The E.V.O rumbled in aggravation at the boy's escape. It clumsily knocked its bulky arm into the truck, causing the truck to almost tip over and trigger the alarm system to blare. The E.V.O roared back at the truck in rage, finding a new opponent. The E.V.O raised both its arms above its head, ready to smash it into bits.
All of a sudden, Camille felt a rush of air surge pass him, and saw a black and orange blur raced towards the giant E.V.O. Camille nearly screeched in horror when he figured out who that blur was.
"Talia! No!" He cried, but it was too late. Talia leapt up, nearly six feet in the air, and landed on the E.V.O's flank. She dug her claws, fangs, and spikes into the E.V.O's hide, and growled like an infuriated ocelot. The E.V.O howled in pain and spun around, swatting Talia away. Talia let go of the E.V.O and fell to the ground, but rolled back onto her feet instantly. The large E.V.O turned to Talia, locking its cloudy eyes with her smoldering orange eyes. It rose up and slammed its fist against the pavement, causing the ground to shake voilently. It opened its gruesome mouth and bellowed at her, warning her to stay away.
"Talia! Get away from that thing!" Camille called out to her in vain.
She ignored him. All her claws were spread out and the spikes all over her body stood up on end, making her look twice as big. She opened her fanged mouth and let out her own high pitched roar. She charged the E.V.O on all fours. She had no intentions of backing down.