An uneasy feeling… that's all it was. One of those feelings you got just before the first rumble of thunder that signalled a bad storm.
When Scott looked up at the sky, he couldn't help feeling the lack of clouds was a bad sign. An uneasy feeling on a clear summer day… he hoped it was just something that was going to happen at work today, some horrible customer, or a bad job.
The traffic light changed and the signal to walk started chirping, breaking him from his thoughts and driving his feet forward, moving him along with the rest of the people crossing the busy highway.
His apartment building was right up the street from the shop where he worked, so he was never late, and they paid him well enough to keep it that way. Cars were his passion, anyone who knew him knew this, which prompted a lot of questions from close friends as to why he didn't have a car of his own.
"It's bad enough I fix them for those who DO have them. I feel guilty enough without contributing to the destruction of the world personally." He would reply, to the sound of laughter or the rolling of eyes.
A smile touched his lips at the memory of it, and a few steps more brought to him the sounds of the tools inside the mechanic shop he worked at. He pushed open the familiar green door with the dingy window and entered the waiting room, tipping his cap at the girl behind the counter taking down appointments and accepting payments for what was usually a job well done on the part of the mechanics. She smirked at him and waved him into the back room, where his fellow hard workers were, well… working.
Removing his cap, Scott gathered his shoulder length, straight, pale hair and tied it back with a band, slipping his jacket off and replacing it with his coveralls. The boys who were already working shouted hellos, and the usual small talk they shared over their work started.
"Sunny today, nice huh?" Bill, their supervisor, said casually as Scott moved to check the board beside him to see what was first on the agenda. "Must have been a great walk to work."
"Yeah, same as usual, pretty much." Scott mumbled, taking his chart down and flipping the page.
"Really? I figured it would be nicer today than yesterday. Wasn't it raining?"
"Rain's not so bad. I dunno." He closed the page and faced Bill, frowning ever so slightly. "I got a funny feeling we're in for something… weird."
"Weird?" Bill blinked a few times, then raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, why the hell is Yuan's car on my list again? What did the punk do this time?" Scott demanded in irritation, Bill chuckling softly.
"Street racing's my bet. He's screwed up the front left wheel assembly really bad. His father was LIVID. But the car's gotta be fixed, and I promised him a discount."
"You promised a discount on a wheel assembly maintenance? You do realize it's my commission you're bargaining away, right?"
"Relax, Scott, I'll give you a bonus for a job well done!"
The other guys were laughing now, and Scott couldn't help grinning as he leaned over the first car of the day, pushing his uneasy feelings aside for the time being.
Lunch break rolled around, and Scott took advantage of the sunshine, heading up to the office balcony to sit for his half hour of freedom. As he was eating, he watched the people moving over the sidewalks down below.
People watching was one of his hobbies… people never ceased to fascinate him. A day spent wandering the mall, catching bits and pieces of conversations, watching all the people and all their quirks was never time wasted.
He chewed thoughtfully on half of his sandwich, letting out a content sigh. It was then that he spotted the woman that had stopped almost directly in front of the balcony, the angle of her head making it clear she was looking up at him even though her sunglasses made it hard to place exactly where her eyes were. She had mousy brown hair pulled back into a pony-tail, and was wearing a white tank top beneath a simple denim jacket, and a pair of black pants. From what he could see of her face, he figured she was old enough to be his mother. As he gazed down at her, she pulled her sunglasses off and offered him a somewhat knowing smile, making him frown ever so slightly.
"Of all the places…" He heard her murmur, the sound of the crash that occurred seconds later making him spin towards the intersection. Below, in the building, the boys were all shouting, and the green door opened as they hurried into the street, Bill with his cellphone out and already dialing 911.
Scott stared at the head on collision that had just happened in disbelief, then he looked down at the street again.
The woman was gone. He looked up and down the sidewalk for her, but with all the people rushing about, he couldn't pick her out of the crowd. He stepped towards the office door, his foot coming down on something and making him pause. As he moved his foot and looked down, Scott saw a simple silver cross on a silver chain, leaning down to pick it up with a curious noise. As his fingers touched it, he felt something like a current move through his body, his breath catching.
His uneasy feeling was starting to get worse…
When he headed home to his apartment that evening, Scott felt more drained than he had in a long while. There were a lot of questions milling about in his head, and the worst of it was, the uneasy feeling hadn't left him since the crash that afternoon.
"Hey kitty…" As he set his bag down on the couch, his cat, Shadow, leapt onto the couch beside him, purring and demanding to be pet. Scratching her behind the ears, Scott let out a sigh and closed his eyes, leaning back on the couch. Shadow hopped off the arm of the couch beside him into his lap, letting out a playful mew, and Scott peeked one eye open to see what she was doing.
To his shock, she was batting at the silver cross that he had stepped on earlier that day. He had tucked it into his pack, and it had half slipped out through a rip in the side. As it dangled, Shadow pawed at it, letting out another mew, her tail switching back and forth.
"Something tells me this day isn't over yet." Scott muttered to himself, pulling the cross out and holding it up to look at it. Shadow continued to play with it, and he was content to let her do so, smirking as she caught it on one of her claws and rolled over, gnawing on it. "Hey, this is dirty. You don't know where it's been! Other than under my shoe, Shadow… I'll go get you a toy." She was determined to hang onto it, but he finally wrestled it away from her and stood, moving with it into the kitchen.
He was halfway through washing it when the phone rang. Hastily drying his hands, Scott hurried to the phone, picking up the handset and cradling it between his head and shoulder before moving back to the sink.
"Hello?"
"Hello Scott." A little chill ran up his spine as the woman on the other end spoke, and he sucked in a breath slowly.
"Do you work for the FBI? CIA? Something like that?" He asked softly, the woman letting out a husky laugh. "Seriously… you were outside my work and now you're calling me? How did you get my number?"
"I asked nicely." She laughed again. "Honestly, calm yourself down. I don't work for the government or anything like it. In fact, I run a little apartment building at the edge of town, in the nicer parts. I was in the neighborhood today and decided to stop and take a look."
"Take a look at what, might I ask?" Scott raised the necklace from the sink, turning it in his hand, a sudden realization coming to him.
"At you." The woman said softly. "Don't tell me you can't feel it, Scott."
"The uneasy feeling?"
"Like tingling, all over. Like… waiting for the first strike of lightning, the first glimpse of rain. Right?"
He set the necklace down with one shaking hand, staring at it for a moment before finding his voice again.
"Still with me?" The woman asked.
"I'm here." Scott replied, swallowing a few times. "You put the necklace there, right? Threw it up there when I turned? Did you rig up the accident too?"
"I didn't throw the necklace there. It was put there by someone else. As for the accident, an unfortunate thing I had nothing to do with, I assure you." She paused. "My name is Katherine, by the way. I was wondering if you would meet me somewhere? I have something I want to tell you."
"I'm not so sure about that, lady. All of this has been a little… overwhelming."
"It's about to get worse, I assure you. Best we deal with things quickly, and best I explain them to you so you don't have to go about finding them out the hard way."
Scott paused for a long moment, looking down at the necklace still. He reached forward and picked it up carefully, folding it into his pocket and letting out a short sigh.
"There's a coffee shop down the street from my place. Little place, not a lot of traffic this time of night. Meet me there and we can talk." He finally said, the uneasy feeling once more growing a little worse.
"I'll be there shortly. And you're wise to choose a public place. It'll make things harder for them. Lets say twenty minutes?"
"Twenty minutes." Scott hung up after hearing the click from the other end of the line, a frown touching his face once more. "… well, shit."
It took him ten minutes to walk to the meeting place, which left him ten minutes to contemplate and attempt to calm his nerves. He ordered himself a drink and chose a booth near the window, gazing out at the dark sky, still frowning. More questions, too many more…
She had mentioned 'them' and how being in a public place would make it 'harder for them.' She claimed she didn't work for the government, and he wasn't one to believe too heavily in the supernatural. Hell, he had even put his own religion behind him years ago.
Something about what she had said, however, made Scott wonder if he was getting into something he wasn't going to fully understand or believe. The lady might just be crazy. Paranoid.
His drink came and he thanked the waitress who brought it to him, leaning back in his seat. He had taken his first sip when the motorcycle pulled up outside, the rider getting off and removing her helmet. A moment later, the door of the coffee place opened and Katherine entered, running her fingers through her mousy hair. She winked at him, moving to the counter to order herself a drink before moving to join him.
"So we meet again for the first time." She said softly with a smirk, Scott regarding her while trying to keep too many emotions from being displayed on his face. "Once my drink gets here, we can start talking."
"Are we pressed for time? Are they coming to get me?" He asked in a dry tone, and she laughed once more.
"Trust me, they wouldn't try anything here. Too public, and they have a reputation and appearances to keep. Trust me, you're not in any danger here, not with me." Her latte arrived, and she took a sip with a small noise of bliss, sighing. "Good stuff."
"Alright, you've got your drink. Let's talk." Scott was surprised his voice was so calm. Being this close to Katherine was making all the hair on the back of his neck stand up, his stomach flopping a little. He took another drink in an attempt to calm himself.
Katherine also took another drink and nodded, pushing her hair from her face. She had grey eyes and her face was pleasant despite her age.
"Have you ever had this feeling before? The uneasy feeling?" She asked, and Scott twitched an eyebrow at her.
"Lots of times. It happens."
"Sure it does. But to some people, it happens more often. Not to mention, these feelings usually come when there's apparently nothing wrong, right?" She continued, taking another drink.
Scott stared at her across the table, and a long moment stretched between them, the silence broken when her growing smile dissolved into another laugh.
"Tough customer. Are you a religious man?" She asked, and Scott shook his head. "Hmm…"
"Look… I don't know who you think I am-"
"Not who, Scott. What." She smiled gently. "You have that necklace because of WHAT you are."
"And what am I?"
"A key." Katherine said simply. Scott blinked at her.
"I'm a key."
"That's right."
"And the necklace?"
"The trigger."
"For what?"
"The awakening."
"Has anyone ever told you you're… creepy? Weird? CRAZY?" Scott's voice was a little louder than he intended, but Katherine didn't seem to care when people turned in their booths to look towards her and Scott.
"I get that a lot, unsurprisingly. I am a bit eccentric, some say, but everything I'm saying to you is going to make sense very soon." She said calmly, Scott shaking his head again.
"Sure… how soon? Cause right now, I'm seriously confused and I'm wondering if you think I'm some sort of… experiment or alien or something like that." He growled, leaning across the table slightly. Katherine looked out the window, making a thoughtful noise.
"How soon?" She murmured. "In about two minutes. Remember that crash this afternoon? Wasn't an accident, but it wasn't something I planned. It was an attempt to get your attention off of me. They didn't want me to find you, they didn't want me to give you the trigger. They didn't want the awakening to happen because they know it'll be harder to get to you."
"Two minutes? What's going to happen in two minutes?! I'm not going to-"
"If you continue shouting, you're the one who's going to look crazy, Scott. Now, sit down, and I'll explain. We've got two minutes, it should be enough." She drained the rest of her latte with a satisfied noise. "Right…"
"I… you…" With an exasperated sigh, Scott sat down again, looking around for any sign of this perhaps being a huge practical joke. "Fine…"
"You, Scott, are one of ten Keys. You are one of the Ten Keys to Unleashing Chaos. Well, I suppose I should say there are nine now, not ten, since one of the Keys has already been killed."
"Killed?!" Scott squeaked, Katherine holding her hand up for him to be silent.
"His brother killed him… his brother is one of 'them.' And yes, they are going to come after you because of what you are. Luckily for you… you're more than just a Key."
"M-more? What do you mean?"
"The trigger you have, that necklace. It's to trigger the Awakening. And once you have awakened, then you have nothing to fear."
"This is… just a bad dream. That sandwich I ate at lunch, it was drugged, wasn't it? Or… I've been plugged into some machine at some facility somewhere-"
"Oh please, what I'm telling you is MUCH more believable. One minute…" She took a breath, blowing her hair from her face and leaning across the table towards him. "Scott, you have powers. Probably passed down from a relative, or a family friend, something like that. And you need to be awakened so you can use these powers to protect the world from those who are attempting to gather the keys, to unleash Chaos upon the world."
"Oh, I don't believe that as far as I could throw you!" Scott shouted. "You think you can play me for a sucker like this?! I'm not being part of your crazy game, lady… if you come near me again, I'm going to take out a restraining order against you, you're NUTS!"
"Thirty seconds." Katherine said calmly, Scott's heart pounding faster now.
Part of him was screaming that she was telling the truth, but how could she be? It couldn't actually be happening, it had to be some sort of crazy dream, some sort of hallucination. There was no way it could be true…
"If you go out there, Scott, they'll find you. If you go out there now, without the power, then they'll take you. I know you don't believe me, and I don't want to have to force it… it's never pretty when we have to force it." She pushed her fingers through her hair again. "When we force it, you can't change back right away, and it's always tough making excuses to bosses and parents and friends and such for the duration of the change…"
Scott looked between her and the door, aware now that there were several people gathered outside. He stared through the window at them, then looked back at Katherine once more.
"Either I'm about to be made to look like the BIGGEST IDIOT alive, or you're somehow, someway, telling the truth about this." He growled, jabbing a finger in her direction. He pulled the necklace out and opened his mouth to ask her what to do next…
The current that moved through him was stronger this time… in his hand the trigger shattered, and the Awakening began.