I should add something. I realize Claire is a bit young to go to college in season 3. But let's pretend she's older in this story than in the actual volume 3.


Chapter 4

With Infinite Certainty

Peter let out a short shriek and sat straight up. It took him a few moments to bring himself fully back from the strange state he had just been in.

He was sitting on his beloved couch. Strange… he didn't usually take naps in the evening, but he was sure he had just been asleep. Or had he? At least he had dreamed. And what a horrible dream. He sighed and got up to fetch a glass of water, as he tried to remember what the dream had been about. His shift would start pretty soon, but he normally never was in any hurry, since he could teleport or fly anywhere in the blink of an eye. Literally.

As he poured water into the glass, the images slowly came floating back to him. A big building… a girl, and a man. A hooded man. A scream, and…

He dropped the glass into the sink.

"Claire!" he gasped.

All the windows in the house were lit up and the noise from the crowd inside reached long ways outside the students' apartment building. As Claire entered the designated corridor on the third floor, the people in the vicinity immediately turned to look at her. She was wearing a shimmering, rather short, emerald green skirt for the evening, accompanied with a black tube top. The outfit would have made her look rather bland if it wasn't for the big, cute bowknot, which was sewn onto her right breast.

Claire didn't like the students looking. But their looks weren't menacing, as soon as they recognized her. They politely welcomed her to the party and invited her to chit-chat with them. The indestructible girl planted a smile of relief on her face and did her best to keep up with their conversations.

Eventually though, she found herself drifting off on her own down the corridor, watching and saying hello to many more or less drunk people on the way. She accompanied a few girls down to a corridor on the second floor, which was less crowded but seemed to host more people who were absurdly drunk or possibly high on something else.

Claire knew very well the reason for nearly all the people being nice and welcoming toward her here. She was Cassie's friend, and they all were friends with Cassie, one way or another. It was incredible how many people that girl had charmed. Though, she had managed to charm Claire as well, so she understood them very well.

Cassie had agreed to go with Nick on his surprise trip this weekend. At first she had not exactly been happy about it, though. Claire had overheard them arguing in their room earlier this day, without daring to enter. For a moment, Cassie had really been sounding furious. But then Nick seemed to start talking in a manner Claire hadn't heard before. Seductive and demanding at the same time. It worked, because the next second, Cassie had been laughing. Claire dared to enter the room, and she found them hugging each other, smiles on their faces. They really seemed to understand each other like no one else did.

She found a room someone had left unlocked, and went inside to open a window and get some fresh air. It was close to necessary with the weird fog that was hanging around this floor, probably due to whatever the students in the neighboring rooms were smoking. Claire stuck out her head and closed her eyes in the soft night breeze.

She didn't drink. Sometimes she took a beer just for participating in the social game, but she never got the least drunk or even tipsy feeling. Her body regenerated from the pollution of the alcohol too quickly. She suspected it would be the same if she tried smoking anything, even if it was just a common fag.

Her hands went up to support her head as she leaned harder on the windowsill. God, she was such a sociopath these days. She used to be a cheerleader! One of the popular girls. And now, she was a boring ghost, not really fitting in anywhere. Of course, college was a bit different from high school; people actually weren't exactly as immature and focused on popularity as when she was younger, but still.

It was all because of this stupid "gift" of hers. It had turned her into a freak, into someone who weren't normal and could no longer look at the world with the eyes of a naïve teenager.

Just as Claire was starting to feel miserable for not even trying to be part of the party, she could hear another person entering the room, stepping slowly closer to her from behind.

Claire froze. Like with so many other things, she hated when people sneaked up behind her without announcing themselves. Only this time, the announcement came before she had time to react.

"Feeling light-headed?" a male voice came from behind. The accent was somewhat hard to place, but it sounded kind of British.

The girl spun around to vaguely see a guy stand in the dim light from the window. He was wearing a dark blue suit and he looked a bit older than her. Of course, she was pretty young to be a college student. There were students who could even be over the age of thirty. He could have been one of them, though Claire wouldn't bet on it, as his playful smile made him look rather young and alert.

He didn't look very menacing at all, so she decided to simply be friendly.

"Yeah," she said and smiled while trying to look tired. "Lots of fresh air in the corridors to help me with that."

"Poor bastards," the man said and walked up to stand beside her, sticking out his head through the window as well. "Doing anything to fit in."

A muscle in Claire's face twitched in the moonlight. "And you don't?"

The man turned his face to her and chuckled quietly. "I'm not the guy who fits in."

Claire's boy-sense immediately tingled. It read this guy as the kind who thought of himself as popular and tried to hit on girls by pretending to be deep and special. What a loser.

"I know the feeling," she said, preparing a nice little speech to scare him off. "I actually used to be like everybody else. An ordinary schoolgirl, a cheerleader like any other cheerleader. But then something happened. And it was as if my whole life suddenly fell apart, and I wasn't like… like anyone else anymore. Nothing I did turned out right, and no one I got to know stayed with me. I wasn't normal any longer. I had become a freak. And to this day, I'm not sure I will ever be able to fit in anywhere again…"

Somewhere in the middle of her speech, it struck her; maybe it was true, all that she was saying now. She would never be normal again.

"I will be a freak… for all of eternity," she said in a slightly different tone, almost directed at herself. It felt strange saying the truth out loud. But as far as she knew, she might never die.

It took a few seconds before she noticed that the man was still leaning on the windowsill, watching her. She met his gaze, and wondered what freak he himself could be when he seemed to think she was interesting rather than creepy now.

His regard was difficult to interpret. He looked casually interested, but Claire could have sworn she saw a distant glimmer in his bright eyes. She unconsciously took another look at him.

His short cut hair was just as bright blonde as hers, if not even brighter. The eyes were a bright blue color, very alike her own, only with a tone of ice never seen in her more sky blue irises. His complexion looked smooth; he was well shaved. Of course he was, these kind of guys probably spent more time dealing with their appearance than she did.

"What," she said to break the silence, as if the music booming from the floor above didn't already make sure it wasn't quiet anywhere tonight.

"Maybe you will," the man said and turned his eyes away from her, looking out. "Or maybe you'll eventually wake up to realize that it's the world who's freaky. Not you."

Claire was a bit taken aback by his words. He just kept coming back with an answer.

"Oh, I already know the world is freaky," she said. "I'm just one of those things that heighten the freakishness quite a bit."

"How come? You seem like any other girl to me."

Claire involuntarily snorted. That wasn't really the thing to say if you wanted to impress someone. Sure, she would appreciate it if he knew what she was really capable of, and still said it.

"Thanks," she said rather sarcastically.

"Don't get me wrong, you're quite weird to be standing here alone instead of lying in a tangled mess with someone in a room upstairs, on a night like this," he said, seemingly to make up for his last line. "You don't even look drunk."

"Heh, well I'm not the girl who gets drunk," Claire chuckled bitterly, thinking of how her liver kept regenerating the damage any trace of alcohol dealt to it. "Besides, you're pretty weird too, since you're here too."

"Already told you so, didn't I?" the blond man said and winked at her.

"Who are you?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"With infinite certainty, the oldest living person on the campus tonight," he answered cryptically, looking down on the lawn outside. "And I, um, have to go," he added before Claire could spell out a reply to his words.

He gave her one last smile, lips closed, and left the room quickly like a wind. Claire shook her head, feeling puzzled, and looked outside. Across the lawn, she could see someone marching quickly towards the building. The determined walk assured her it wasn't a drunken student. Was it a cop?

As his face became visible in the light of a street lamp, her heart jumped. It was Peter!


Yay, some kind of action coming up.