Fresh out of college, she was ready to take on the world. Her world. This was not in the plan.
Going to see a movie with friends was supposed to be fun, just entertaining. It wasn't supposed to gyrate into an adventure.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes; her friends had been begging her to go see it for a while. She wasn't a fan of those kinds of movies. She liked ghosts and treasure hunting, not mad crazy apes wreaking havoc on human beings. But she went. Friends were friends, and she hadn't seen them in some time. So if she had to go to see some movie she didn't want to see, so be it. They were her friends.
She stared up at the screen and found that she was losing herself in the story. It was hard not to. The whole thing was so touching.
That Dodge Landon was a piece of work though; him and that stupid stun stick. She felt bad for a person like that. He must have been so insecure about his own intelligence that the idea of an ape being smarter than him gave him the need to put on this bullying act. But those apes were smarter than Dodge, and deep down he probably knew it, too. But Tom Felton had nice eyes, and, being a materialistic girl for a short few minutes, as well as an extreme humanitarian at the same time, she didn't really want him to die. He could have come through… if someone had been there to help him understand, to make him see differently. But… no one was there, so Dodge's life was ended by the apes he tormented for so much time. So young, as well. She didn't know exactly how old Dodge was, even if Tom, himself, was twenty-three, so Dodge could have been younger than the actor who portrayed him, which was even sadder.
Certain violent parts would come on, loud and suspenseful, and during those parts, she would put her headphones in and block it all out. Sure, she would peek up every few seconds to see what was happening, to make sure she didn't miss anything too important, but she didn't really want to hear certain parts.
Finally, the movie ended, and she and her friends stood up from their seats and made their way out of the theater. She listened intently as her friends discussed their favorite and least favorite parts of the film, before making her way to a bus stop by Walgreens alone in the dark night, while her friends headed off to their respective cars. She didn't have a car. She couldn't afford one if she wanted to keep her apartment, so she ended up on the bus every time she wanted to go somewhere. Yes, she could have asked one of her girlfriends to give her a ride, but San Fransisco was nice at night, at least to her. She didn't know about what other people thought. She just liked the streetlights, and it especially didn't bother her when it began to rain. She began to wonder if the rain was dangerous for the streetlights. Would they short or burst into flames? No. They wouldn't be in the streets unless they were water resistant. It would only make them flicker.
No, wait. No, it wouldn't. What part of 'water resistant' didn't these lights get? A gust of wind blew across her back. She looked back. There was nothing there, so she took a seat on the bench. The wind brought with it, though, an eerie feeling that wouldn't pass. She gazed off into the distance and waited for another car to pass by. None came. Down the sidewalk, no pedestrians walked past the stop. She was alone, on a dark, creepy road, with flickering lights in the rain. She couldn't shake the feeling of eyes on her back. She heard a rustling in the bushes behind her. It was the wind. But something else strange struck her. Where the Walgreens used to be, there stood a very different building. It was large and white, with windows up its many stories. It looked familiar, but it wasn't Walgreens.
But maybe she had just thought up the Walgreens. Yes, that must have been it. She brought her eyes straight ahead again. Something else strange; she was sure—absolutely positive—that there had been a bustling restaurant across the street, but now, there was a completely different building. There was another breeze that sent shivers down her spine, and at once, a single car zoomed past her, followed by many others, but no buses. One by one, the lights ceased flickering, some stopping when they were on and some when they were off. The rain didn't stop, though, and no buses came. Not one. Seeing as she didn't recognize where she was, she didn't know how to get to her house.
A person took a seat next to her, a man. He had blond hair and the slightest bit of stubble. He wore a plaid shirt and jeans. It was Tom Felton, but she was in San Fransisco, and he wouldn't have been there. She realized she was staring and looked down quickly. This could not be happening to her. The man's cell phone rang, and he pulled it from his pocket, clearly annoyed while putting it up to his ear.
"Yes, Rodney," he snapped into the phone. She watched the man out of the corner of her eye, suspiciously. She heard muttering on the other end of his line. "Well, cover for me, will you? I'm busy. Tell my dad I was at the library and lost track of time, or something like that. Oh, and feed those stupid apes." Her hand tightened around her purse strap and she looked the other direction. After a while, upon realizing that a bus was not coming, the man stood up and walked away down the sidewalk.
"Caroline." The voice was unfamiliar, but its owner knew her name. She stood up and faced the voice. A man stood there, maybe thirty years her senior, looking down at her with a worried expression. "There you are. I was so worried."
"Do I know you?" Caroline asked quietly. The man let a smirk grace his features.
"Of course you do. You don't recognize your own father?"
"My… father?" she asked. She thought back; the changing buildings, Tom Felton not being Tom Felton, this man claiming he was her father. Something wasn't right, but she had a feeling that she wasn't going to be going to her apartment anytime soon. She doubted it even existed here. "Oh, yes, Father. I'm so sorry. It's dark. I couldn't see that it was you," she lied.
"Oh, I see." The man paused. "What have you been doing? You left the house to go to the market, but you never came home."
"Yes, well, I…" She what? "…I was going to the market, but I got lost."
"Lost? Honey, you have been to this part of town many times."
"Have I?"
"Yes. Whatever is the matter with you?"
"Oh, um…" She brushed a strand of her straight black hair behind her ear, but it pulled itself free and dropped back to its original position. "I think I may be having a spell of some sort… I had trouble sleeping last night."
"Oh. Yes, Darling. Well, let's go back to the house and I'll go out for groceries tomorrow."
"Okay. I'm sorry. And call me Cook," she said instinctively. She bit her lip. How did I let that slip?
"I'm sorry. You tell me that all the time, I know, but it's just instinct for me to call you Caroline."
"Right, well. That's okay."
Caroline Cook then followed her 'Father' into the night, totally confused as to what was going on.
